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LaGrange, Wisconsin: The town of LaGrange is nothing much to speak of A crossroads with a feed store and an auxiliary dry goods shop marks the T-intersection of an old state road with a county highway The irregular coreen ration coupons, worthless outside the boundaries of the Madison Triu stable of the blacksmith The blacksmith and his wife are old work-hard, play-hard bons vivants, and the breezeway between their house and garage is the nearest thing to the local watering hole One or both seelass of beer, or shot of backyard hooch The blackstime residents can tell how ular results
The real LaGrange is in the surrounding farms, primarily corn or bean, hay, and dairy The sh western downs that dominate the county Their produce is transported to Monroe, and the thrice-a-week train to Chicago
Survival here depends on having a productive far the day, the patrols drive their cars and ride their horses, looking for unfarants and trouble in Monroe and are seldoht the residents stay indoors, never able to tell if a Reaper or two is passing through the area
The residents live as a zebra herd surrounded by lions There is safety in numbers and the daily routine, and sometimes years pass before when anyone other than the old, the sick, or the troubleets taken Their homes are modest, furnished and decorated hatever they can e The Kurian Order provides little but the ration coupons in exchange for their labor, although a truly outstanding year in production or co issued that protects the winner&039;s family for a period of years The Kurians provide only the barest of necessities in food, clothing, andwhat it is, adaptable to almost any conditions, the residents find a kind of fellowship in theirparties, quilting bees, and clothing swaps provide social interaction, and if they are punctuated with "remembrances" for those lost to the Kurians, the homesteaders at least have the opportunity to support each other in their grief
Valentine remembered little of his first few days with the Carlsons Gonzalez&039;s condition worsened, and as his Wolf sank into a fever brought on by the shock of his injury, Valentine found hi to notice much outside the tiny base, dark days Valentine remained at Gonzalez&039;s bedside, able to do little but fret The wound had seeh just before the fever set in, Gonzalez had complained that he either could not feel his hand at all or that it itchedafter their arrival, Gonzalez had coht-headedness, and later woke Valentine by thrashing and
Kurt, the little boy from Beloit, had been sent on his ard, and the Wolves had the basement room to the the wound "Or I should have just amputated," she said reproachfully "His blood&039;s poisoned now for sure He needs antibiotics, but they&039;re just not to be had anye his friend off and wait It seemed he had been in the darkness for years, but he could tell by the growth on his chin that the true count was only days Then on the third night, Gonzalez sank into a deep sleep His pulse beca eased At first Valentine feared that his scout was slipping toward death, but bythe Wolf ake and coherent, if weak as a baby
He summoned Mrs Carlson, who took one look at her patient and pronounced hietable broth Rubber limbed, Valentine returned to his own cot and lost consciousness to the deep sleep of nervous and physical exhaustion That evening, with the rest of the house quiet and Gonzalez in aroo to Mr Carlson
"We owe our lives to you, sir Can&039;t say it any plainer than that," Valentine said from the comfort of feather-stuffed cushions in an old wood-framed chair
"Lieutenant," the shadow that was Mr Carlson replied, "we&039;re glad to help If things are ever going to change, for the better anyway, it&039;ll be you boys that do the changing We&039;re rabbits in a warren run by foxes Of course we&039;re going to help anyone with a foxtail or two hanging fro everything to hide us"
"That&039;s what I wanted to talk to you about, Lieutenant A way to reduce the risk"
"Please call me David, sir"
"Okay, David Then it&039;ll be Alan to you, okay? What I wanted to say ith your buddy sick-"
"He&039;s getting better"
"Glad to hear it But I spoke to my wife, and she says he should stay for at least a couple of weeks Between the wound and the fever, it&039;ll be a , ht anyway"
Valentine gaped in the darkness "A month? Mr Carlson, we couldn&039;t possibly stay-"
"David, I don&039;t know you very well, but I like you But please let a guy finish his train of thought once in a while"
Valentine heard the ancient springs in the sofa creak as Carlson shifted his weight forward
"What I&039;ht seem risky, David, but it&039;ll make your stay here a lot safer if we can pull it off It&039;ll even get you papers to get out of here again I ht have some visitors in the near future, within the next week I told hi su we get to do now and then, keeping up the roads and clearing brush and such While I was there I met some Menominee, and as a matter of fact you look a bit like the et hiuy would marry my Molly and told him that I invited him down to meet her Of course, he&039;s just made up to fit your description"
Valentine&039;s et us so out of here again a lot easier if we had some identification"
"Well, it wouldn&039;t cut no ice outside this end of Wisconsin But it would get you to Illinois or Iowa at least You&039;d have to lose the guns, or hide &039;ein; if questioned, you could say you&039;re out scouting for a place with good water and lots of land, and that&039;s only to be found around the borders Also, I&039;d like to bring your horses down fro the stolen Or us getting the ax for withholding livestock from the Boss Man"
"If you think you can pull it off, I&039;m for it," Valentine decided
"Give you a little chance for soet a taste of life here Maybe someday a bunch of you Wolves will couns and bullets We&039;ll figure out how to use them"
Two days later, Valentine found hian, Monroe Patrol Commissioner of the Madison Triumvirate Valentine wore some oversize overalls and was barefoot Carlson had driven hi at daybreak in the fay
"I don&039;t know about the rest, but the ht of the little signboard on the driveway proclai within "Major asshole, anyway"
Valentine did not have to feign being impressed with the major&039;s home It was opulent Half French villa, half cattle-baron&039;s ranch, it stretched across a well-tended lawn froe on the left Its slate-roofed, brick-covered expanse breathed self-importance A few other similar homes looked out over Monroe fro developrass-covered foundations like a cemetery of dead drea a button by the door Valentine heard bells chi a raucous canine chorus
The door opened, revealing two bristling black-and-tan dogs Wide-bodied and big- and shutting theirto remove rottweiler-size chunks of flesh The door opened wider to expose a mustachioed, uniforlasses He wore a pistol in a low-slung, gunfighter-style holster tied to his leg with leather thongs displaying beadwork Valentine wondered why the man needed sun protection in the interior of the house, as well as a gun
"Hey, Virgil," Carlson said, nodding to the neatly uniforht a friend to see thebetween a suess he&039;s in for you, Carlson Normally he doesn&039;t do business on a Saturday, you know"
"Well, this is more of a social call Just want to introduce hiht be a nephew soil A
A his automatic to its holster "He&039;s in the office"
"I know the way C&039;il, be a pal and water the horses, would you?"
Carlson and Valentine passed a dining roo soundlessly on elaborate oriental rugs Valentine hoped he could remember the details of the story Carlson had told his brother-in-law
The er from a sheet on a clipboard The desk had an air of a tycoon about it; carved wooden lions held up the top and gazed serenely outward at the visitors The dogs padded after the visitors and collapsed into a heap by the desk
Mike Flanagan wore a black uniform decorated with silver buttons and buckles on the epaulets He exhibited a taste for things western, like a string tie with a turquoise clasp and snakeskin cowboy boots He looked up fro cheroot fro a polished metal cylinder set in a stand on his desk An electric cord ran down the front of the desk and plugged into a wall socket, which also powered a mock-antique desk lamp Bushy eyebrows for features
"Afternoon, Alan You look well How&039;s Gwen?"
Carlson s with a pair of blueberry pies They&039;re outside in the basket"
"Ahh, Gwen&039;s pies How I miss them Siddown, Alan, you and your Indian friend"
The electric lighter on the desk popped up with an audible ping Flanagan lit his cheroot and sent a ss in Monroe, Mike?"
Flanagan waved at the neat little piles of paper on his desk "The usual Chicago&039;s pissed because the Triu so much food to that new fort up in the Blue Mounds I&039; to squeeze a littlethe reckoning on meat out of the farms Think you can spare a few more head before winter, Alan?"
"Some of us can," Carlson asserted "Some can&039;t"
"Look at it this way: Your winter feed will go farther"
"Well, it&039;s for you to say, Mike But I don&039;t knoill go down There&039;s been soan asked, piercing Carlson with his eyes
"You know nobody tellsclose Just rus I want you tofriend ofand helping me with the harvest"
"Pleased to an did not look pleased In fact, he looked perturbed "Hell, Alan, first you take in Little Black Sambo, and now a mostways Indian?"
"He&039;s a helluva hard worker, Mike After I teach his, he could run a fine faran said
Valentine&039;s ear for a second, but only a second "Sorry, Major Flanagan I traded it last winter I was hungry, you know It didn&039;t haveto do, kid You&039;re lucky Alan here has connections," Flanagan said, putting down his thin cigar He ruh his desk and came up with a simple form "Fill this out for hi him a temporary work card, six ive hiht a friend There&039;s a lot of guys in the north woods looking for so a little more permanent"
"Don&039;t press uys are worse than Mexicans; another one is always popping up outta so his hands placatingly "With twome this fall, I can clear off an upper pen across the road and raising so such an issue These "
"Fine, Alan, tork per to be a bit crowded"
"It&039;s only temporary Thanks a lot, Mike Gwen and I really appreciate it So does Molly, of course Stop by anytian mused, "you&039;re a fortunate man, David She&039;s a real beauty Some of my patrollers say she&039;s kinda standoffish, so I wish you luck" The major pulled out a seal punch, filled out the expiration dates, signed both cards, and punched the click "You&039;re lucky I take this with me I don&039;t trust my secretary with it; she&039;d probably sell docuood"
"I&039; over the work cards
"You&039;ve been in my debt since I let that little Fart or whatever his name is stay with you"
"Frat"
"Whatever That big place and nothing to work it but women; I pity you I&039;d offer you lunch, but I&039;irl is out at her parents&039; place this weekend"
"Thanks anyway, Michael, but it&039;s going to be a long way back The horses are tired, so they&039;ll have to walk an," Valentine said, offering his hand Flanagan ignored it
"Thank my brother-in-law and his wife, not randchildren Up toand let you wait for the next thirsty blacktooth, seeing as you don&039;t have a work card and you&039;re in Triumvirate lands"
Carlson made a flick of a s and out the door, followed by his benefactor Flanagan tossed away his cheroot and returned to the papers strewn across his desk
Outside, the horses were very thirsty Ail, please take that in, will you? We&039;ll water the horses ourselves The pies are for Michael, and Gwen put in a jar of preserves for you She remembers your sweet tooth"
The sain "That was kind of her You knohere the trough is I&039;ll bring the basket back out to you"
As Carlson and Valentine brought the horses over to the trough, Alan spoke softly to Valentine "See what I mean by Major Asshole?"
Valentine clucked his tongue against the roof of hishard for a pro ride back, the Carlsons celebrated the "legitis attended, filling the dinner table past its capacity As they made small talk, Valentine drew on his memories as a forester in the Boundary Waters to flesh out his David Saint Croix persona
Valentine ate at Mrs Carlson&039;s end of the table, across froave his left elbow Frat sat on his right, eating with the single-s were next to Mr Carlson at the other end of the table, with the younger Carlson girl, Mary Gonzalez stayed in his bunk in the basement, still too weak to socialize Mrs Carlson explained his absence to the Breitlings as being due to illness and a fall fro the dinner, Carlson told stories about his summer labor,Saint Croix here" Valentine played along as far as he dared but worried that the younger girlabout the Wolves or their horses that would blow the story Mary kept her eleven-year-olddinner was a request to ride Valentine&039;s Morgan someday
"Of course, once he&039;s rested Any ti to do so"
"Maybe Molly can show you around the county," Mr Carlson suggested
Molly focused her eyes on the plate in front of her "Sure, Dad Since you went to all this trouble to find iven nant now, or after the wedding?"
"Molly," Mrs Carlson warned
The Breitlings exchanged looks Valentine figured that discord was rare in the Carlson house
Molly stood and took up her plate "I&039;m finished May I be excused?" She went to the kitchen without waiting for an answer
Valentine could not tell how
Two days later, he and Molly Carlson rode out on a fine, coolwith a hint of fall in the air Valentine&039;s indoan walked next to Molly&039;s quarterhorse She wore curious hybrid riding pants, leather on the inside and heavy denim elsewhere, tucked into tall rubber boots, and a sleeveless red flannel shirt They chatted about their horses as they headed west toward the high, bare hills
"Lucy here is great with the cows," Molly said, patting the horse on the neck affectionately "They&039;ll follow her anywhere It&039;s like she can talk to them"
"I&039;ve alondered if animals talk to each other," Valentine ventured
"I think they can, sort of In a real simple way Like if you and I had to co at stuff We couldn&039;t write the Declaration of Independence, but we&039;d be able to find food and water and stuff Warn each other about eneot to pee"
Molly stood up in her stirrups while the rass behind her
"You know horses," Valentine observed "Those are fine riding pants Do you ride much?"
"No, too much to do at the farm My sister&039;s the horse nut But I didwith leather especially I used to have so boots, but some creep in the patrols took &039;em off ood for working around the cows I sewed a leather vest for Dad, and when Mo leather apron that Ithe up-and-downleft him desperate to switch the conversation back on
"I get the feeling you don&039;t like us staying," he finally said when they slowed to cut through a copse of , but Valentine was flushed from more than the heat of the day
"Oh,here-"
"Just passing through I tried to find out as going on up at Blue Mounds," Valentine explained
"You probably wouldn&039;t tell us the truth anyway I don&039;t know ents, but I know you wouldn&039;t tell what you were doing so they couldn&039;t get it out of us, just in case Or is it because I&039;irl?"
"It&039;s not that We have plenty of women in the Wolves And I hear over half of the Cats are women, too"
"We&039;ve heard about you Werewolves, always coo into Kansas and Oklaho to feed on?"
"No," Valentine said, so quite the opposite Just this spring ht over a hundred people out of the Lost Lands That&039;s e call places like this"
"Lost Lands," she said, rolling her eyes skyward "I&039;ll buy that We&039;re lost, all right Hoould you like to spend your life knowing it&039;s going to end with you being eaten? I&039;ve developed a lot of sympathy for our cows"
"Your uncle see to reassure her
"My uncle I should tell you about hiry vaood record or no Uncle Mike has done everything in his life exactly as the Kurians want, and he still doesn&039;t have one of those brass rings And even if you get it, any Kurian can still take it away if you screw up And if I&039;, it&039;s just because itI&039;d rather not think about Let&039;s go up this hill The view&039;s pretty nice frorassy slope They crossed a field with a herd of the ubiquitous Wisconsin Hoi-steins in it, and Molly waved to aa fence
"That&039;s the Woolrich place The poor woot taken, one while doing the h just grabbing whoever they could get their hands on because a bunch of Reapers dropped in for a visit"
They rode to the top of the hill and disirths on their wet anirass at the top of the rolling series of hills Farmland stretched below in all directions, crisscrossed with e the top of the hills had degenerated into a track cleared through the insistent plant life
"Is that why you don&039;t want toa ?"
"Scared? I&039;s, but not that in particular If you want to talk about what really scares me But no, to answer your question, I don&039;t want the life ht two children into the world, and is taking care of another, and for what? We&039;re all going to end up feeding one of those creatures I don&039;t want any children, or a man It justyour life, trying to get along with the systeht when every little noisein your house to stick its tongue into your heart The way I see it, the only way for us in the Madison Triumvirate to beat these va life is norrandan, she was a teacher or soed When I was about eleven, we had a long talk She was getting old, and I think she felt her ti As soon as the old people slon, the patrols show up, sometimes with some bullshit story about a retirement home She told me about in ancient times there were these Jewish slaves of the Roht them from a fortress on top of aso their aret up to the fortress, and all the Jews killed theain Gramma said if everyone were to do that, it would cut off their power, or whatever they get from us"
Valentine nodded "I heard that story, too It was a place called Masada By the Dead Sea, I think I always used to tell Father Max-he was my teacher-that I wouldn&039;t have killed myself if I were up there I would have taken a Roman or tith me"
"If it had just been another battle, would anyone have reood question Maybe not I think Gandhi, you knoho he is, right? I think he suggested that the Jews should have done so the the enemy&039;s job for them Maybe some of you should try to sell your lives a little more expensively"
"That&039;s easy for you to say You have guns, friends, other soldiers to rely on About all we have is a broken-down old phone system and a set of code words "John really needs a haircut&039; for &039;We have a fao north" Not "
Strange how her thoughts ot here, Valentine mused
"Maybe we can&039;t all commit suicide," she continued "But for God&039;s sake, we should quit helping them We feed the patrols, work the railroads, keep the roads repaired Then e get old and sick, they gather us up like our cattle They got it pretty good just because it&039;s human nature to ask for another fifteen minutes when you&039;re told you have an hour to live"
"Brave words," Valentine said
"Brave? Me?" She sat down in the grass and plucked at the burrs clinging to her jeans "I&039; to sleep It&039;s the dreahthtmare It&039;s only one, but it&039;s a doozy Wait, I should tell this properly We have to go back to Graain She told anized in Madison I think it was in 2024, in the roup of men-well, some of them were Reapers, too-called the Committee for Public Safety About two hundred people orking for this co from where you slept to where you went to the bathroom The three vampires on the committee were kind of the eyes and ears of these Kurians ere dug into the State Capitol building I don&039;t kno much you know about the Kurian Lords, but they sure love to live in big es I bet a bunch of theton But back to the story my Gra-or-other, who got caught with a big supply of guns: rifles, pistols, bullets, equip, all kinds of stuff I think even explosives One of the vampires said her punishment was up to the people orked for the Co, they&039;d kill every last one of theet a new bunch
"So with that incentive, the whole co held And they tore her to bits With their bare hands They took the pieces and stuck them onto sticks Grampoles from school classrooms, stuff like that They put her head on one, her heart on another, her liver, her breasts, even her you know sex parts They made streamers out of her intestines, and painted their faces with her blood Then they paraded back to the basketball court at the university where the Committee met and shohat they did to her to the vauess The Reapers looked at it all and told them to eat the bits, or they&039;d be killed Grahts over her liver"
She sat silent for a ave ht, and pretty often ever since I&039;, and the crowd is corabme apart That&039;s when I wake up, cold and sweaty Mary says I sometimes say &039;no, no&039; in my sleep She calls it the &039;no-no&039; drea up froht"
"I have a drea back," Valentine began "Never told anyone about it, not even Father Max My ot killed by a patrol when I was just a kid I come into the house-I remember it smelled like tomatoes in the kitchen that day, but that&039;s not in the drea roouess they had raped her, or started to anyway They shot my dad in the head But in my dream, it&039;s like they&039;re still alive, and I can save theainst the blood that&039;s co and pulsing out, whileBut I can&039;t save the off He looked up at the clouds to try to get the tears to go away High white cirrus clouds painted the blue sky with icy white brushstrokes
"I guess everyone has their own set of night plenty of help Whatever happened to your grandmother?"
Molly Carlson wiped tears from her own eyes with the back of her hand "Oh, she injured her back and got taken away The vaot driven away byson"
The following Saturday, Molly taught Valentine how to drive the four-wheeled topless buggy The thicker reins felt funny in his left hand, the buggy whip held up in his right Valentine was used to riding English-style with split reins, although heDriving was a coreat, David, really great," Molly said, bea well ahead of the family cart, which held the rest of the Carlson clan as well as the Breitlings "Of course, nore, but they need the two horses for the big cart And remember, if you ever have a load to carry in back, to place it evenly in the bed and secure it if you can An unbalanced load will exhaust a horse faster than anything"
The combined families of the Carlson farm were on their way to Monroe Mr Carlson explained that there was a speaker in town, a visitor up froive a lecture for the New Universal Church A Kurian organization, the New Universal Church did not deed people in the Kurian Order to co to catch up on nes and policies But now and then a true "revival" took place, and attending theraces
The clouds piled up and darkened, threatening rain Carlson opined that some would use it as an excuse not to attend, but thisup in spite of precipitation would justround trip to and froa tarps in the two horse-drawn vehicles and re rain slickers and hats
Only Gonzalez- trip in the wet-and Frat stayed behind The young man wanted to keep an eye on the stock and said he felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb in a sea of white faces
So it turned out that Molly and Valentine ended up together in the buggy, bearing four baskets full of lunch, dinner, and gifts of food for Mrs Carlson&039;s brother, with the rest following in the larger wagon Valentine&039;s Morgan trotted along behind the buggy, brought along as the equine equivalent of a spare tire
At lunch, a few miles outside of Monroe, the first sprinkles of rain cay, Valentine draped the tarp over hi a tattoo on the y whip as an i, their faces ith rain Valentine felt the warht side, her left ar him hold up the tarp The rich, seductive s his hard senses She also had a faint, flowery sood today," Valentine said, then felt hio red "Not that you smell bad normally I just mean the flowery stuff What is that, toilet water?"
"No, just a soap Mrs Partridge, the blacks it Puts herbs and stuff in so it in self-defense; her husband picks up animals that have died of disease or whatever, turns theuess he s with the offal, she went into scented soaps as a last resort"
"It&039;s nice Hope I&039;m not too bad This tarp kind of reeks"
"No For a guy who traipses around in the hills, you&039;re really clean Some of the countyCho&039;s near-identical joke "A lot of the to use this rainstorm as an excuse to skip their Saturday bath" She turned her face and pressed her nose to his chest "You just smell kind of tanned and musky Like the saddle from a lathered horse I like it"
Valentine suddenly felt aard "So who exactly is this we&039;re going to hear?"
"My dad says he&039;s a speaker from Illinois, so This church the Kurians run, it&039;s not like you worship anything The Triue the old churches, but they do listen to what gets said As long as the ministers stick to the joys of the afterlife, and God&039;s love in troubled tiainst the Order is gone real fast Most of thened to get you to like the Kurian Order They are always trying to recruit people into the patrols, or to come away and work their machinery, railroads, factories, and stuff The real slick ones try to convince you that the Kurians came as the answer to man&039;s problems Soo home?"
"That&039;s about it They try to recruit people right then and there Take thee, and everyone is supposed to applaud Just clap when everyone else claps, and don&039;t fall asleep You&039;ll be fine I&039;ve got a feeling today&039;s topic is going to be the importance of motherhood They want more babies in Wisconsin"
The tent they eventually reached dwarfed the old public tent in the Boundary Waters Frorew closer, the mountain of canvas turned into an earthbound white cloud, cos atop the support poles that jutted through the material to either side of the center arch
Horses, wagons, and vehicles of all description including cars and trucks were parked in the fields of the fairgrounds Most of the people were already sheltering froon pulled up, and the faot out and released the horses from their harnesses Tied to nurain fro left in the weather Carlson nodded to the unifor a poncho that also covered an is inside He&039;s got some seats lined up for you, Carlson," the patroller called
"Thanks, Lewis Are you gonna get a chance to co thisAll about how duty isn&039;t theYour brother-in-law gave a pretty good speech Be sure to tell hiet real desperate out here, we got a thery Help yourself"
"Thanks, Alan Enjoy"
True to the patroller&039;s word, Major Flanagan had soe, with a little elevated ay going out into the crowd connecting it to a e The Carlsons, with the addition of Valentine and the subtraction of the three Breitlings, sat in a row of folding chairs lined up parallel to the ay A few hundred chairs fore, and the rest of the spectators stood
As part of the day&039;s festivities, a comic hypnotist warress when Valentine sat at one end of the row Molly sat to his right, then her sister, with Mr Carlson next to her Mrs Carlson took the seat in between him and her brother, and they chatted as the hypnotist perforroo hi, peck like a chicken, and hed out their appreciation for the act
"I saw this guy in Rockford," Major Flanagan explained to his guests "I recoot hi wo her husband lie doith his head and shoulders in one chair and his feet in another, four feet away froht on his sto an inch "Comfortable, yes?" the hypnotist asked
"Very," she agreed, blushing
The audience cheered for an encore, so she had her husband flap his are, the hypnotist finished off with a final joke, "Most woet their hus-bands to do this How about that, ladies, after only teeks of hed and applauded "Let&039;s hear it for Arthur and Taentle came out of hypnosis, and his wife told hiood ie and returned to their seats
A heavyset man in a brown suit that was sie He applauded the hypnotist as the latter backed off, bowing Valentine marveled at the man&039;s hair, brushed out at the temples and hairline until it looked like a lion&039;sDr Tick-Toe," he said in a high, airy voice
"That&039;s the bishop of the New Universal Church, David Frohters
The bishop stepped to the podiue at the end of the runway and picked up theout in the rain, everyone," he said, looking at the speakers h on the tent poles which broadcast his voice "The Harvest Meeting is always a serious occasion We have a lotBut I know everyone has all the co work on their minds Well, today we have an expert on hard work on loan to us from the flatlands in the south Won&039;t you please welcome Rural Production Senior Supervisor Ji us all the way froed, hollow-cheeked e, dressed in a red ju hair co it a reddish tint White canvas sneakers covered his feet He took the microphone out of the bishop&039;s hand with a flourish and a bow to the audience He exuded the energy of a er than his years
"Can you all see rees "I know it&039;s hard to miss me with this on You see, we&039;re all color-coded in downstate Illinois Red is for agricultural workers, yellow for labor, blue for adoland, you can hatever you want I uys been to the Zoo? You knohat I mean, then"
A few hoots came from the audience, mostly from the patrollers, Valentine noticed
"Oops," Touchet continued "I forgot we have children present"
Valentine shot a questioning glance to Molly, who shrugged He suddenly noticed how char she looked with her wet blond hair combed back fro skin of a vital young woman
"Never , "Who is this guy? What does he have to showthat? C&039;mon, let&039;s see your hands"
A few hands went up
"I bet you&039;re thinking, "How long is he going to speak?" Let&039;s see &039;ean, s, raised his, and the Carlsons followed suit
"Finally, some honesty Okay, since you&039;ve been honest with me, I&039;ll be honest with you I&039; nobody I am, I&039;ll tell you about myself
"I&039;m from Nowhere, Illinois Actually, more like South Nowhere Just off the road froht next to Jerkwater Typical srew up quick and brawny You wouldn&039;t know it to look at me now, but I used to have a nice set of shoulders So I ended up in the patrols And the patrols in downstate Illinois, letI didn&039;t have a car I didn&039;t even have a horse I had a bicycle It didn&039;t even have rubber tires; I rode around on the ri off my bike It&039;s a little better non there, but back in the thirties, ere lean when it came to equipet paid back then, just got rations, so there was no way I could even get a horse atthat bike Fars I carried hbors "Since you&039;re going that way, anyway," they always used to say when they askeda lot I was curious about the Old World, the good old days, people called them Do they call them that up here, too?"
A couple of "yeps," quietly voiced, came from the audience
"It was lonely in the patrols, and when you&039;re lonely, you need friends So when I found a little hidden pigpen or chicken coop on soet you saw this, and we&039;ll let you have a couple extra eggs when you co Hey, everybody wants to be a friend So I went along, got a friend and a few eggs in the bargain On another farm, I had another friend and a ham now and then On another farful of corn I had tons of friends, and I was eating real good to boot I had it ure paced back and forth,one part of the audience and then another
"Eventually, I got caught Like I told you, I&039;ht One daydown the road with a has in the basket in back I think I had a turkey drumstick in my holster, I don&039;t re down in a hurry I think I died the death of a thousand cuts ashi I was collecting from the farms He didn&039;t have any of that
"So within six hours of ton train station, waiting for o I was bound for the Loop I was very, very alone All those friends on all those faret me, or turn themselves in and take their share of the blame They weren&039;t ood thing forof forty-six I&039;m sure you remember the bad flu that went around that winter It killed thousands in Illinois, and thousands ht pneumonia and died just the saot put to work shoveling shit I&039;m sure many of you knohat that&039;s like But that&039;s all I did, every single day I-worked at the Bloos and cows bound for Chicago&039;s slaughterhouses Of course, I was just on parole Any time they felt like it, they could throw o, and no , I was happy as a dog locked up overnight in a butcher shop The second day, I was glad to be at work The third day, I was happy to at least have a job The fourth day, I began to look for ways to cut corners By the fifth day, I was trying to find a nice spot to maybe take a nap where my boss couldn&039;t findHe was a wise old man His name was Vern Lundquist Vern had worked at the railroad station in the olden days, and he still worked there He didn&039;t threaten me, not really He just called ood graces, I&039;d better coive an extra five percent effort
"Even though he didn&039;t threaten ht I couldn&039;t sleep I orried that I&039;d show up at work the next day, and the boys in blue would throw o I could be in the Loop in less than twenty-four hours"
He stood still, next to the lecte brow His eyes passed over the Carlson family, and he smiled at Valentine His face took on a scaly, cobralike cast when he sedanother five percent How hard could that be? Vern wasn&039;t asking me to work seven days a week, which is what most of you out there do on your farave the extra five percent It was easy I just did a little extra here and there Did a job without being asked, fixed a loose gate If old Vern noticed, he didn&039;t say anything I got worried; what if he wasn&039;t noticing the extra five percent?
"So the next day, I did just a little bitI didn&039;t have to do Cleaned soan was president I found it was easy to give that extra five percent
"It turned into a gaave another five percent I was co my interest, to use an old phrase In tiny little baby steps I was turning into a real dynaainst a tree for a two-hour lunch, who always rode ho, was trying extra hard even when no one was looking
"Vern was real happy with me After a month, I took the job of his assistant Within a year, I was old Vern&039;s supervisor I always gave that extra five percent no one else was giving I always did more than my boss, and usually within two years I had his job
"I said the same words to people under me I asked for an extra five percent That&039;s all An extra five percent, when you have a whole bunch of people doing it, can turn things around
"Before I knew it, they were callingI turned uy who never learned his ht on his bike, went from shit-shoveler to production senior supervisor I&039;m responsible for farms from Rockford to Mount Vernon, Illinois I answer to the Illinois Eleven You think you have tough quotas? What are they called up here, reckonings? I&039;ve seen the figures; the Illinois Eleven are a lotthan your Triumvirate up in Madison And last year, ere over production I knohat you&039;re thinking; we broke quota by five percent, right? Wrong We doubled the quota That&039;s right, doubled The New Universal Church is handing out brass rings to my best people like le up his hand The coppery-gold ring glinted on his thick pinkie He passed it through his oiled hair, removed it, and flicked it into the crowd before the platforht it, screamed, and almost fainted into her husband&039;s arms
"Ohit onto her thu deal, that ring I&039;ll get another one this fall Not that I need it If I could have your attention back, I&039;ll let you in on a secret I&039;ve already given you one secret, the secret of the extra five percent I&039;ive you a twofer
"The secret is that you don&039;t need a brass ring That&039;s the beauty of the New Universal Order," he said, lowering his voice
Valentine looked around, trying to shake the feeling of being al
"All the Order des that reat before the social scientists and lawyers took over I see some old-timers out in the audience Hoas it when the lawyers ran the show? Did they s ? Anytiot cocked-up," one old man shouted
Touchet nodded happily "In the old Order, how far you went depended on going to the right school Getting the right job Having the right degree Living on the right side of the tracks Being the right color Ten percent of the people owned ninety percent of the wealth Anyone want to disagree?"
No one did
"And not just the society was sick The planet was sick too Pollution, toxic waste, nuclear contamination We were like fruit flies in a sealed jar with an apple core Ever done that little experiment? Put a couple flies in with some food, knock some tiny holes in the lid, and watch what happens They eat and breed, eat and breed Pretty soon you&039;ll have ajar filled with dead fruit flies Mankind removed every form of natural selection The weak, stupid, and useless were breeding just as fast as the successful That isn&039;t in nature&039;s plan And there&039;s only one penalty for a species that breaks the laws of Mother Nature
"Now you can drink out of any river, and you fisherain The air is clean It sounds crazy to say, but I&039;odsend The scale is back in balance We&039;re a better people for it The Kurians have ed out the useless mouths They don&039;t play favorites; they don&039;tand productive and take the slackers"
A few, perhaps surprisingly few,you to agree with o ho Think about how you can give that extra five percent I know you all work hard But I bet each of you can do what I did: figure out some way to do another five percent You&039;ll feel better about yourself, and your life will be ot a brass ring in your pocket and not even need it because you&039;re going the extra hter your best ht? The Kurians are the sa, and we&039;ve got to make the best of it
"You&039;ve heard reat brain, not ot a beautiful house-I&039;ve got pictures if any of you want to see it afterwards-a real gasoline car, and a nice house picked out down south for when I retire So I guess that brass ring is worth so after all Napoleon used to say that every private of his carried a marshal&039;s baton in his knapsack Each of you should carry a brass ring in your pocket
You can do it Any of you out there spend ten hours a day shoveling shit? No? Then you&039;ve all got the jump on me You&039;re already way ahead of where I hen I decided to give that extra five percent Whether you&039;re sixteen or sixty, you can do what I did, believe me Give the extra five, and it&039;ll happen to you, too
"Now, before I leave for the flatlands, as you call otta do the usual recruit men and women, seventeen to thirty, ant to take soive the usual gung-ho speech or list all the perks: You know theuarantee that you won&039;t be mounted on a bicycle with no rubber on the tires And don&039;t forget, even if you go to boot caet your one-year bond, noto be the first to coet the bond? Okay, moms and dads, aunts and uncles, now&039;s your chance to tell those kids to coet the bond"
Valentine listened to the forced applause as a few youths took to the e, then joined in It see He wondered how many in the audience believed the story, and how
Touchet shook hands with the bishop who&039;d introduced hi in his ear Touchet returned to the microphone
"Before you leave, I have a couple of announce, I mean They&039;ll be discussed individually with you by your local commissary officials"
The audience knew better than to groan at the news, but they did quiet down and stop filing out of the aisles
"On the good news side, there&039;s an exciting announcement from the New Universal Church and the Madison Triumvirate Any couple that produces ten or more children in their lifeti"
Valentine and Molly Carlson exchanged a significant look, and she tweaked up the corner of her nizes the importance of motherhood and faet the northern part of the state repopulated Any children already born to the fa families with five or six children are already well on your way to the brass ring"
Soer families
"And finally, we&039;ve had soents and spies recently The standard reward of a two-year bond has been upped to a ten-year bond in exchange for infor to the capture of any undocumented trespassers in the Triumvirate&039;s lands Thank you for your cooperation"
"Thank you for your cooperation," Molly whispered "Now go ho to feed the"
"Now, Molly," Mr Carlson said quietly The tent was e fast, save for a few people with questions for either the bishop or Touchet Valentine escorted Molly to the exit, following her parents, and paused to look back at the podiu to the bishop The Wolf smelled trouble at that look He hurried out of the tent, racking his brain as he tried to remember if he&039;d ever seen the lllinoisan&039;s face before
What was there about hiolden touch?
Back at the wagon and buggy, the Carlsons ate a quick dinner out of their baskets Flanagan joined the his out, you knoen," Flanagan said, treating them all to a view of half-chewed food "In his lecture to the patrols, he elaborated a bit about how he got out of the ja those folks hide ani in the depot, they offered him his life back if he would turn in each and every far or a stick of butter froood an chuckled
"It was all part of the talk he gave on duty thishe threw out into the audience is a phony But don&039;t tell anyone I told you Don&039;t hurt nothing to have those folks believing they got it races"
"Duty, Mike?" Mrs Carlson said "I bet you could tell Mr Midas there a thing or two about devotion to duty Like putting it before family You&039;re an expert at that"
"Don&039;t start, Gwen That&039;s in the past I&039;ve done plenty for you since, even a few things that would getto rain again," Major Flanagan gru at the sky "Bye, kids Stay out of trouble Glad to see you showed up for the , Saint Croix Maybe you&039;re smarter than you look"
On the ride back, Molly drove the buggy Valentine was unsure of himself on the rain-wet surface, and they decided a pair of experienced hands on the reins would be best Valentine and Molly sat together under the tarp again, but he couldn&039;t recapture the half-excited, half-scared mood of the trip dohen he first felt her close to him
"You didn&039;t fall for any of that baloney, did you?" Molly asked
"No, but he did kno to tell a good story He had me spellbound for a while"
"Yes, he&039;s one of the best I can reht before they increase the reckoning" She paused for a moment "You seem a million miles away"
"I didn&039;t like the way he looked atto the bishop Al about meFunny, because I&039;ve never seen hi to Uncle Mike, he really is from Illinois You ever been there?"
"I passed through it on the way here, but we stayed in the uninhabited part Or mostly uninhabited, that is Sorry if I see How did you know?"
She shteen and hardly been norant There&039;s a fresh batch of vampires up in New Glarus Nobody knohen they came in with their Master exactly, but it seery , anyway?"
"That is one of theto the theories out of this group that studies them down in Arkansas, how much they need "to eat depends on how active they and their Master are We think a lot of times the Kurians have about half their Hoods shut down This is just guesswork, but the fewer Reapers a Kurian has to control, the better he can control the to work all thirteen at once, they just turn into eating et in out of the daylight But the Kurian can&039;t control too few, either He takes a risk when he does that If the link for feeding vital auras to the Kurian Lord gets shut down, like say if he&039;s got only one Reaper left and it gets killed, we think the Kurian dies with it"
Molly rewrapped the thick reins in her hand "That&039;s interesting It&039;s funny to just be able to talk about the the Kurians is a taboo subject here Too easy to say the wrong thing So a Reaper can be killed?"
"Yes," Valentine said, "but you need to put that at the top of your &039;easier said than done&039; list I&039;ve seen six trained e of about ten feet, and all it did was slow it down Of course, those robes they wear protect them a lot If they&039;re hurt, you can behead them A lot of times we&039;re satisfied just to blow them up or cripple them so they can&039;t ain, even catching one where you can gang up on it is hard They&039;re usually active only at night, and they see better than us, hear better than us, and so on"
"So how do you do it?"
"It&039;s a long story Kind of hard to believe, too, unless it&039;s happened to you Now I know I&039;ve told you there are also people like the Kurians, but they&039;re on our side"
"Yes, the Lifeweavers"
"Good, yes, you have it Long tiods But they have the ability to awaken latent I don&039;t know, I guess you&039;d call theo, they made it very toteods or wizards or whatever were doing "The spirit of a wolf is in you""
"Can they do it with anyone?"
"I don&039;t know The Lifeweavers select you for it, I know that much Down in the Ozark Free Territory, they have three kinds of warriors they create, each named for an animal
Maybe they use different animals elsewhere, like lions in Africa maybe We&039;re called the Hunters We all carry a blade of some kind to finish off the Reapers In the Wolves we just use a short, broad-bladed knife It&039;s a very handy tool in the woods, too The Wolves are like the cavalry We move fast frouerrilla actions, mostly There&039;s lots of Wolves Those Cats are spies, assassins, and saboteurs I don&039;t know about the Cat training, seeood Wolves who prefer to work alone I&039;ve known only one Cat They go into the Kurian areas and mess with the Reapers Maybe there&039;s one around here somewhere But if there is, he or she probably doesn&039;t know I&039; the an Then there are the Bears They&039;re the meanest bunch of bad-asses in the Southern Command, I can say for certain I don&039;t knohat the Life weavers do to the Bears to le Bear taking on three Reapers and killing them all They&039;re like human tanks We Wolves always make room for them at the bar when they come in"
They listened to the clip-clop of hoofbeats Luckily it was an asphalt road, with only a few gravel stretches The Morgan trotted steadily behind at the end of his lead, enjoying his exercise Molly slowed the buggy to a walk and let the horse breathe, to give the rest of the faon
"Do you win often?" Molly asked "I o out and beat the Reapers?"
"Sometimes The Ozarks are still free, aren&039;t they? But it costs people Good people," Valentine said, re
"Don&039;t think about that too ested It makes you look all old and tired You&039;re what, twenty?"
"I feel older Maybe it&039;s all the miles"
Noas Molly&039;s turn to be lost in thought "You beat them," she ruminated "We&039;ve always been told you just hide out up in theto death in winter, stuff like that Even the lodges, our organization for getting people out of the Triu down there"
"It&039;s a long trip," Valentine agreed "Long and dangerous"
"You et a brass ring for sure A Wolf, an officer even, they&039;d love that Uncle Mike would shit hiave you a work card" She giggled
"At first I didn&039;t have oing to get caught anyway Gonzalez wanted lad I gambled"
She cocked her head and smiled "Why?"
Valentine shook his head and averted his eyes That smile was irresistible "Father Max used to say, "Women and six-year-olds never run out of questions""
"Only because ht answers," she countered
"Listen to you," Valentine laughed
"C&039;lad? Do you like this little charade we&039;re playing, the courtship thing?"
At the word charade, Valentine felt a glass splinter pierce his heart He forcibly brightened his voice "It&039;s been fun, sure I&039;ve enjoyed talking to you, being around your family I haven&039;t had a family since I was little"
Molly started the horse again at a sloalk "I&039;ve had fun, too, David Sometimes I can&039;t tell if it&039;s a role that I&039; or not I&039; a baseball tea, of course"
"Of course," Valentine agreed I&039;m sorry it has to end, too, he added mentally
Back at the Carlsons&039; hoht, Valentine and Gonzalez talked in the basement Valentine told him about the pep talk that took place at the tent and the funny look he received from the speaker
"I don&039;t know, Val All the et out of town soon You don&039;t think it&039;s going to look suspicious if we just disappear?"
"No, I already talked about that with Mr Carlson He&039;s going to say Molly and I didn&039;t get along, and we took off for parts unknown after a big argument How&039;s that arm-can you ride yet?"
Gonzalez reers were curved, and the skin looked dry and unhealthy, like an octogenarian&039;s arthritic hand "It&039;s bad, Lieutenant I think the nerve is gone It kind of burns and itches sometimes I can still ride, but it&039;ll be one-handed"
"You can&039;t shoot one-handed Looks like you&039;re heading for a well-deserved retirement"
"I&039;ll use a pistol"
"That&039;s for Captain LeHavre to say Speaking of which, I haven&039;t had a good dressing-down in weeks I&039;ain How about you?"
"Say the word"
"I want to wait another day or two You still look kind of pale, Senor Gonzalez I want to cook us some biscuits and see to the horses&039; shoes Anyway, hoas your day holding the fort with Frat?"
"He&039;s a tough kid We could use hiued He could not reh "What do youwhile you were away I told hio When he was little, he got put in the worst part of toith his mom and dad In the center of the city, inside the river, there&039;s this place called the Loop It&039;s got a river to the north and west, and the lake to the east A bunch of those frog-Grogs live in the shallows In the lake, you know? Then to the south, there&039;s a big wallto Frat, trains still run people in, but no one can co at the bottohts The people there live on rats, birds, garbage that gets dumped in the river He said they eat each other, too"
"You sure he wasn&039;t justit up?" Valentine said
"Tf he is, he&039;s good at it," Gonzalez argued "The only people that go in are the Reapers All the bridges are down, but they use a tunnel systeet in and out That whole Loop area is like the happy hunting ground for the Chicago Reapers They just leave the bodies for the rats or those frog-Grogs"
"That&039;s how the kid got out Through the tunnels Can you believe it, crawling in the dark through a tunnel the Hoods use? I couldn&039;t do it, that&039;s for sure"
Valentine shuddered at the thought A pitch-black tunnel, Reapers maybe at either end Of course, norance of how easily the Reapers could spot hiine sounds froe Valentine&039;s heightened hearing detected a vehicle slowing as it approached
"Hey, sir" Gonzalez said, startled
"Shh, I hear it, too" Valentine identified a car engine with a bad muffler It pulled into the Carlsons&039; yard, and he heard two car doors open and shut Muffled voices caestured toward the hidden room Gonzalez kept watch at the stairs, and Valentine worked the pine knot that allowed him to pull open the door The secret room was a little more spacious with their cots out in Frat&039;s part of the basement Their packs and weapons were still concealed within
The ventilation duct let hi rooan and his assistant Virgil in the main rooh the air vent
"What brings you out tonight, Major?" Carlson asked
"It can&039;t be a second helping of meat pie," Mrs Carlson added "I&039;m all out, and with the rain, there&039;s no rabbits in the traps today I can roast you a potato, if you want"
"It&039;s a social call, Alan," Flanagan said "Well, fifty-fifty It&039;s about theat the tent today"
"What, did we miss an encore?" Mrs Carlson asked "Pull himself up by his bootstraps so hard he flew out of the tent?"
"Gwen, your sense of hurowled "But it does have to do with Jiued hiht say"
Valentine reached for his rifle It felt co in his hand
"Who, Saint Croix? I&039; to be in the faan said with a sardonic laugh "It was Molly He wants your daughter"
There was a silent pause in the room above After a full ten seconds, Mr Carlson&039;s voice echoed forcefully down the vent "Fuck you, Mike"
Valentine smiled with approval He had never heard Mr Carlson say anything stronger than heck before, but the occasion deserved it
"Are you going to take-7" Virgil&039;s voice deil"
"Now just wait-"
Flanagan interrupted his lieutenant "Okay, before we get into a pissing contest, which you&039;d lose and you know it, Alan, just think this deal through Listen to what I have to say Not only would you be doingfavor, and I think you oweyour fa the whole family a two-year bond Actually it&039;s a five-year bond; they said I could go up to five if I had to Don&039;t look at et everything they can out of it
"Alan, I&039;ll be honest with you The next five years are going to be tough You know there are new Reapers in Glarus I&039;ve already got orders toto ood now, but what if you have a bad year? What if the cows catch solad you had that bond if so like that happens And even if you&039;re not on the list, ry by your place You know it happens as well as I do The lists don&039;t , but bonds do"
After a moment to let the threats, spoken and unspoken, sink in, the one per talks in Platteville, Richland Center, and Reedsburg, then going back through Madison Three weeks, she&039;d be gone He said he wanted some companionship on the trip And the bond starts as soon as she shows up at the Church Center in Monroe, so she&039;ll be safe in Madison, even What can I say, Alan You&039;ve got a real honey of a daughter She caught his eye"
"Quite a time for this to happen," Carlson said "I wonder how Saint Croix would like her disappearing with that old lech Sodown"
"Don&039;t worry about hiht understand, after all I&039;ll have a ith the bishop Since Saint Croix is practically fa ht close the deal If he&039;s a smart kid, he&039;ll know five years is just what he needs when he&039;s trying to get a far"
"He&039;s a sh to blow your ass off through the floor"
"Let&039;s talk to Molly toested, obviously to her husband "And maybe David, too"
Valentine counted twenty heartbeats
"Okay, Gwen Listen, Mike I&039;il I was just a little surprised is all When you&039;re a father, your little girl is always six years old She&039;s a grooirls at the o wait outside Alan, if you don&039;t mind, I&039;d like a private ith Gwen"
"Okay, Major I&039;ll sleep on it Call you toht, Alan"
Valentine listened to the footsteps il was escorted to the door and Mr Carlson retired to the kitchen Valentine thought he heard hie a feords with Frat
"Now listen, Gwen," Valentine heard Flanagan say to his sister, keeping his voice low enough for it not to travel out of the rooht
"You know I&039;m not the law The lahatever the Triu wheel in Illinois, one of the biggest outside of Chicago The New Church wants hi to see that he&039;s happy I&039; it look like Alan has a choice in this, but he doesn&039;t Neither does Molly You follow me?"
"I follow you," Mrs Carlson said in a low tone Valentine picked up the anger in her brittle voice He wondered if her brother did
"Touchet&039;s going to have her one way or another I knohat you have to say cuts a lot of ice with Alan So you et that bond"
"Is there a bond in it for you, too, Michael?" she asked
"Can&039;t fool you, can I, Sis? Maybe there is This is pretty i here permanently That is, if we can pry hi the Wisconsin farms like he does in Illinois"
"We, Michael? Are you a ith the Kurians?"
"Always have been I knohich side of the bread ot Moot was Dad&039;s stubbornness"
Mrs Carlson sighed "Okay, Michael, you&039;re right I&039;ll see what I can do"
"There, that wasn&039;t so hard noas it?"
"Harder than you&039;ll ever know"
"Wow,the s into fireith his usual vigor He stood outside one of thefro the woodshed with fuel During his stay with the Carlsons, he had chopped a little every day to keep himself exercised Valentine did not use an ax He preferred a saw to reduce the trunks into ths, which he could then split with a wedge He followed his routine with robotic precision He grabbed a length of trunk and placed it on his chopping block: an old stump that had no doubt served in this capacity for years Then he picked up the wedge in his left hand and the twenty-pound sledgehaht up under the rounded steel head A vigorous tap seated the triangular rip on the sledge by letting gravity pull the handle though his callused fingers, and whirl it in a sweeping circle behind hie He would then stack the halves and quarters in a nice, tight pile
The day&039;s woodcutting began after a halfhearted appreciation of one of Mrs Carlson&039;s epic breakfasts Everyone ate with a preoccupied detachone rabid and no one wanted to talk about ould have to shoot it Molly looked drawn, her ht-mouthed, and Mr Carlson sported a dark crescent under each eye Frat gobbled his breakfast like a starving wolf and fled to the backyard and his chores, taking the dog with ni Mary seeaze froain
Valentine decided Frat had the right idea, cleared his plate, and went outside He had played the role of a forester the past few days and brought down several likely looking trees from the wooded hills to turn into split-rail fences and fireplace fodder
He lost hi about how to ian and so, and there was enough worn-out leather and canvas in the old tack trunk to strap it to his horse By having the Morgan carry feed for itself and Gonzalez&039;s horse, and with Valentine loaded, as well, they should be able to get within striking distance of the Ozarks before the oats and corn ran out He planned to cross the Mississippi farther north andto the Free Territory somewhere southwest of St Louis
But despite the hard work and plans to get his crippled Wolf hoht to eht hi meditation
"What was that?" Valentine asked
"You&039;ve been chopping wood alular Paul Bunyan We&039;ve got enough to get us through tinters It&039;s going to rot before we can use it"
"Well, maybe your dad can sell some of it"
Valentine realized his back and arms ached He looked at the sun; the warun Even better, his mind was relaxed, tranquil
"Hey, David, why are they watching the house?"
Valentine put down the sledge, leaning the handle against his leg Sothe house?"
"The patrols There&039;s a car down the road toward La-Grange One guy in it, so his partner is probably in the hills so scope" Frat shaded his eyes and looked up into the hills and shrugged
"How do you know there are two?"
"They always go in pairs Uncle Mike talks about it They switch around the partners a lot so no one gets used to working with anyone Keeps theuess"
"You&039;re pretty sharp, Frat"
"Naw, it ain&039;t that It&039;s just when it&039;s the sa day after day, you notice the patterns Like you-anyti, you cut wood"
"I do it for the exercise"
Frat shook his head, a triurin on his face "You sure needed a lot of exercise beforeUncle Mike And when you and e to Gonzo&039;s ar with Molly, too And that saot back and cleaned up your horse, you chopped until dinner"