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"Moofball, Mr Crow, but the things you do to me Wow"

"Gotta say that it’s pretty darned ht and six this ain"

"I wanted you to know that I’ll be thinking of thisfor the rest of the day Bye-​bye," she said, and disconnected

As he drove, Crow’s grin was brighter than the sun that now shone above the distant waving fields of corn

4

In his dreams he was always Iron Mike Sweeney, the Enerown and packed with muscle head to toe No one could possibly stand up to hient of Order pitted eternally against the nefarious forces of Chaos He was the quiet stranger who cahtning fists, flashing feet, and cleverly disguised array of ultra-​high-​tech weaponry He was the iht who carried the torch of reason and understanding through the growing and ht Demons fled before him; vampires would wither into noxious clouds of dust as he turned his Solar Gaze on them The androids of the Dark Order, powerful as they were, could never match the thunderstorle most powerful warrior this old world had ever seen

Even now the Eneainst the forces of Prince Viktor and his slavering band of genetic freaks, each of them ared all night but Iron Mike Sweeney was not tired His sword ar and steady as it had been when he drew his titanius wide, at the e while behind hienetic Warhounds had coain Iron Mike’s unbreakable sword had se far below the bridge was choked with their corpses and the river ran red with their radioactive blood

Now the Warhounds had fallen back and Prince Viktor hie, his sword Deathpall in his gauntleted hand He stopped, just out of sword’s reach, his eyes blazing with hatred, his e

"You shall not pass!" roared Iron Mike Sweeney in a voice that echoed fro with fury, Prince Viktor raised his sword and cried--

"--get the fuck out of bed now or do you want me to come up there?"

The roar jolted Mike out of the drea before hishear me?"

Mike was on his feet and he hurried to his bedroo, "I’ate--Mike’s stepfather--stood with a foot on the first step, his hard right hand gripping the banister "You deaf or so? I have to call you three tiemaid?"

Mike had to head this off at the pass before Vic really got worked up Though , it didn’t take a whole lot to set him off

"Sorry, Vic, I was on the toilet with the door closed"

Vic looked up at hiradually turned to a nasty sured you were full of shit Well, get your ass down here and have your breakfast I don’t want to hear about you being late for school"

"Yes, sir"

"You have papers after school?"

"Yes, sir"

"Well, get theet home Don’t be late" He leaned on those last three words

"I won’t"

Vic gave higed back against his door fra the stale air that was pent up in his chest

Downstairs he heard Vic yelling so as he left for work Vic was the chief e in town and he was never later for work even though it didn’t ot there Like most people, Shanahan was afraid of Vic and wouldn’t have dared risk pissing him off any more than Mike would

"Eat shit and die," Mike whispered to the closed door downstairs

"Honey?" his mother’s voice called It wasn’t seven o’clock yet and she already sounded half in the bag Or ht "Breakfast is on the table"

"Yeah, I’e juice Mike went and sat down on the edge of the bed, fingers knotted together, shoulders hunched, staring at the patterns of sunlight on the gray indoor-​outdoor carpet on his floor He tried to reone "Just another day," he said aloud He said it nearly every , usually in the same ith the same total lack of enthusias

5

Tow-​Truck Eddie always started his day on his knees As soon as he got out of bed, even if he had to go to the bathrooht on the cold wood floor, and prayed He had a number of required prayers he had to say before he could start speaking directly to God, and he recited the Lord’s Prayer precisely fourteen times, which ice seven--the number of God that was superior to six, the number of the Beast--and then said a rosary, a dozen Hail Marys He crossed himself seven times, and then laid his head on the floor, his heavy brow pressed against the floorboards, until he heard the voice of God in his head

Sometimes it would take an hour or more before God spoke to hi at him, but lately--just in the last feeeks--God spoke to hiood sign, and he suspected that ithis Holy Mission to hi his head had barely touched the cool hen God’s voice thundered in his brain

Today, my child! it said The Voice of God was al with it