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Now Tos White Bear had taken over the old hotel and transforle zoer ones out back in an enclosure ons and a circus tent There were dozens of guards and hundreds of people--traders and others--so Toe of the woods

Preacher Jack was here The footprints had led right to a spot where they had encountered Benny and Nix again There were clear signs of a struggle and drops of blood To this sooner For not acting pree off on this road trip

Any innocent blood that falls is onin because of Charlie’s death and because To It was a double power vacuu his bid to fill it Tom didn’t yet kno Preacher Jack fit into this, but he and White Bear would oing to do anything to stop it That was obvious, but who else was there? Sally? J-Dog and Dr Skillz? Basher? Solohters who could ainst White Bear, but only if they were a unified front, and that was ain his chest, and he could feel his body start to treive a war cry, draw his sword, and go charging into the hotel and kill White Bear, Preacher Jack, and as ood It would feel right It would also be suicide … and it probably wouldn’t save Benny, Nix, or Chong Rage was soht, but it was a trickster It o in there cold So he closed his eyes and murmured the words he had drilled into his brother and the others "Warrior s the rhythe, hatred and fear were pathways to weakness and clumsy choices With each inhalation he s that had filled his heart with peace and hope and optimism Benny and his future That day last year when Toer hated hi Nix Finding Lilah Training the teenagers Laughing with the

They were simple memories, but their simplicity was the source of their power As Tooofy jokes, the rage began to falter within hi froer cracked and fell apart And as he reme in his arms--that he would protect Nix--his resolve rose up in his mind like a tower of steel

He stood in the shadows and found hiain He found the Tom Imura that he wanted and needed to be He took another breath and held it for a long moment, then let it out slowly He opened his eyes Then heand then I’m done I do this and then I take Benny and the others and we go east"

Tom adjusted his sword and checked his knives and his pistol If there had been anyone there to see his face, they would have seen a man at peace with himself and the world And if they ise, they would know that such a hts to preserve love rather than perpetuate hatred

When he moved, he seemed to melt into the darkness

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LOU CHONG HEARD A SCREAM NOT A WARRIOR’S CRY IT HAD BEEN high and wet and filled with pain; and it had ended abruptly Laughter and shouts rose up i knehat ita zoth out of his arms, but he set his jaw and held on Literally held on For the last two hours he had been using the Motor City Hammer’s black pipe club to chop divots out of the packed earth walls of the pit It was grueling work, and to do it he had to gouge divots deep enough for his feet so he could stand in theh to chop fresh holes His muscles ached Sweat poured down his body His toes were nu in the holes, and his arh Every time pain or exhaustion or fear tried to coax hi, he held a picture in hisanother zo free fro knew that he had been bitten He knew that he was going to die

No, the picture he held in his irl with honey-colored eyes and snohite hair and a voice like a whisper A crazy girl A fierce and violent girl A lost girl who didn’t even like hi to die as a warrior If Lilah didn’t--or couldn’t--love the weak and intellectual Chong, then perhaps she would have a softer heart when reht his way out of Gao

And maybe … just maybe … he could save some of the other kids trapped here in Gameland Like Benny and Nix and Lilah had done last year If he couldn’t go with them on their journey, if he was to die sometime in the next few hours or days, then he wanted his life toHe wanted to ers into the hole he’d just chopped, and pulled His muscles screamed at him, but his mind screamed back at them The rim of the pit was only three feet above hio

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THE DOOR TO THE DUSTY ROOM OPENED, AND DIGGER AND HEAP CAME in The two thugs looked at the wires that had been torn down fro fixture and at the hole in the wall, which was bigger than it had been and revealed broken laths Piles of torn plaster and broken lath littered the floor by the wainscoting Benny and Nix were covered with plaster dust The two

"What’d you two hter "You try to chew your way outta here?"

"Yeah," said Benny with a sneer "We were hungry"

Heap laughed, but Digger hit Benny across the face with a backhand blow Benny saw it coht him to shake off some of the power of a hit It er and Heap exchanged a look "Tougher than you look, boy,"up in Benny’s face "You ht have to go out behind the barn and dance a bit Bet you ain’t nearly as tough as you think you are"

"Save it for later," warned Heap, and they all turned as Preacher Jack entered the rooer as taller than the old man and more massive than Charlie Pink-eye had been The man’s face was a ruin of melted flesh One eye was a black pit, and the other as blue as lake water He wore heavy cloak of white bearskin Even though Benny had never seen him before, he knew at once who this had to be White Bear

"So this is Tohter," said White Bear with a grin "Well, I’ll be a dancing duck if they ain’t cute as puppies, the both of ’eer chortled, and Preacher Jack sured you’d want to have a ith theet started,"man, and he entered the room Beneath the cloak of bear fur he wore hand-stitched leather pants and e burned patches too He wore at least a dozen necklaces of oyster shells, beads, and feathers, and he had silver rings on every finger He stood in the center of the room and exuded so much personal power that he appeared to fill the place, dwarfing the others Only Preacher Jack seerinned at Benny and Nix "You two knoho I a man, obviously pleased "But do you knoho I am?"

They shook their heads

"I am the spirit of the Rot and Ruin I’m the old medicine reborn to save the world from itself I’m the ilared at the The other men joined him, and the four of them howled at a joke neither Benny nor Nix understood Finally White Bear dabbed at a tear at the corner of his re eye "Okay, okay … so that’s the public relations line That’s e tell the rubes to get them all excited Works pretty well, too Misinforo round"

"What are you talking about?" dey," replied White Bear "You always need a good ca for office"