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The City Center of New Orleans: No matter what his or her status in the Kurian order, a hu abroad after dark, even at the busy city nexus of road and rail lines At night, the vital aura of any sentient being shines bright and clear to the senses of a Reaper, drawing it and the Appetite that sees through the avatar&039;s eyes The Reaper, tall, thin, and cloaked, grabs its victiue in the food&039;s neck Sharp teeth keep its hold while the tongue searches out the wildly beating heart

The "last dance," as the locals call it, leaves the victim emptied of blood The rich fluid is absorbed into the Reaper&039;s rudiestive syste the Reaper The Kurian is a puppet-s of the Reaper&039;s nervous system Rumor has it that the pain and fear of a victim enhances the Kurian&039;s appreciation of aura Reapers have been known to stalk and play with their food, even dragging it away to the Master&039;s refuge for a cleaner "connection" for the draining transfer What tor on a meal, do not make for pleasant speculation

Valentine&039;s night began with a call on the Station Rooimented to be called a hotel, the Station Rooms housed wives and families of the men at sea In I the Coastal Patrol remained under watchful house arrest until the sailors&039; return The freedom from the Reapers provided by naval service required souarantee that the men would fulfill their duties, and with their usual efficiency, Kur settled on hostage-taking While it ell-fed, curtained hostage-taking, the ieois the surroundings

With the grisly scene in the alley playing over and over in his head, Valentine wanted nothing more than a few hours&039; sleep, perhaps with a stiff drink to help him calm down He could obliterate it all in the arh, but whores weren&039;t to his taste even if he&039;d had the ti his way by boat and foot to the rendezvous at the outskirts of the city Once again, the dozen Wolves had not shown,as he dared aed ruins under the old water tower, its rust-scoured letters leaving only the vaguely ible on its sides Once back in the city, he&039;d bought an okra-and-rice dish fro around it in winter It began to rain, and on his wet and weary journey back to the ship he&039;d decided to stop for a drink at a strategically placed waterfront bar his marines spoke well of: the Easy Street

Now, chances were that the hunt was on and he was the game afoot He would have to put into effect the plan he had been considering since the Wolves had turned forty-eight hours overdue Phony repairs to the ship could only be stretched out so long, notactics The captain had shown sy told the Thunderbolt would be laid up another few days, waiting for parts Further postponee of personnel in the forineer, which would be more fatal to the mission than the nonarrival of the Wolves

Valentine&039;s thoughts kept returning to details of his encounter with Alistar The glea on the dead man&039;s hand-how much of the story about his as real? Valentine wished he could ined the two of the a conversation in private, where he could confess his regrets about her husband&039;s death and the bitter choices, tonight and six years ago, that had necessitated it

The rain slackened as Valentine approached the Station Roo to the train station, an odd location for mostly naval dependents As he neared the entrance, he walked loosely, er of a man full of drink

A sentry stood just inside the barred doors, rather than at his usual post on the first step The rain had driven him into a minor dereliction of duty, but the Station Roo of value, and what security there was concentrated on keeping the Coastal Patrol faht

Valentine rapped on the glass between the added-on bars, a relaxed smile on his face "Hey Ed, open up, eh?"

The sentry, whose naed and spread his hands helplessly "It isn&039;t Ed, Mr Rowan, sir, it&039;s Perry"

Valentine raised his eyebrows "Ed sick? He always has the duty Friday nights"

"He does, but this is Thursday, sir"

"Look, Perry, let me in, will you? I want to see my wife"

"Mr Rowan, sir, you know the rules Overnight visits have to be okayed beforehand"

"Coursh I know that," Valentine said, "but I don&039;t want to shtay overnight Jusht an hour or two You know Ship&039;s ready for shea, parts ca Have a heart-it&039;s a three-month out"

"Mr Rowan sir, you&039;re listed as active duty You should be at your ship tonight, not ashore"

"Have a heart," Valentine repeated "Jush don&039;t logso"

"Be a little difficult for me to explain when you leave"

Valentine suht? I&039;ll be out by three Not logged in, not logged out"

"Sorry, sir, what if you get delayed?"

"Look, call Mrs Rowan She&039;ll promise you I&039;ll be out by three You know her-if she ot out in time It&039;s a three-month out, for chrissakes"

"What about the desk?"

"I&039;ll bullshitwith Turnip Thesh captain&039;s bars are good for more than just a spot at the front of a ration line, eh?"

"Sir, s up in the Great Lakes, but not here"

Valentine held his breath, forcing his face to color and his tone to harden "Do they stand their watches indoors here?"

Hinks blanched "A, Mr Rowan sir, have a-"

"Heart?" Valentine finished

The guard looked inside the Station Rooms "Okay, Mr Rowan, three a up Okay? Mr Turner isn&039;t at the desk anyway Reading in the John again You wanna report soet about it, Ed, errr-Perry You&039;re a good egg I&039;ll bring you back a bottle of ru, how&039;sh that?"

"Just be out by the time my shift ends, or I&039;m perishable"

"Hey," Valentine slurred, "I pro it talking"

The guard opened the door "Mrs Rowan&039;s soet a chance to take my pick"

"That&039;s the shpirit, Perry," Valentine said, co his hair back "One way to et you into the Coastal Marines Quick advancement Dishipline isn&039;t too hard, if you do your job"

The sentry shook his head "Likeashore and attacking a blockhouse full of outlaws ain&039;t my idea of a career"

David Valentine waited for the sentry to unlock the inner door, and er&039;s desk was ehts were off, and the reht when the hotel closed up to conserve electricity Valentine s fro laundry in one of the slop tubs there

He cli the intolerable heat of their arrival that summer, the last in a series ofOfficer His real home lay in the hill country of Arkansas, Missouri, and Eastern Oklaho recruited as a Cat, he&039;d hardly spent six consecutiveDuvalier all around the Gulf Coast, wor a comround provided for hiot in a corpse

Though the Station Rooms predated climate control and therefore had fair-size s, the bars prevented residents fro to the fire escape to nap out the heat The bars and ere the only part of the Station Rooms inspected and kept in pri, the walls were di fixtures were maintained in a condition that shifted back and forth between inoperative and barely functioning

Valentine reached the chipped wooden door to "Mrs Rowan&039;s" apart a three-and-two rap to identify hihtbulb in the hallway faded for a htened; New Orleans&039;s patchwork power systeularities

The door opened, revealing an attractively angular face under short red hair sticking out in all directions

"You&039;re out late," Alessa Duvalier said, still half-asleep She wore an oversize yellow T-shirt of tentlike proportions, which was co apart at the shoulder seams "What is it?"

He ducked inside and flicked off the light To his Cat-eyes, the room remained lit and as detailed as ever There was just the usual color-shift that canized" He used old Ae to convey this information as he said for the benefit of the microphones: "Baby, we&039;re out tohts" They&039;d found a bug when they&039;d first o, and asked for a different rooe top floor, and a Coastal Marine , Mrs Kineen, took an empty room next to them the same day

Duvalier woke up fast "Soned

He flopped down on the bed as soon as he got his coat off He let out an occasionalout so in sign language before setting out froh they practiced, Valentine&039;s usually quick-acting brain faltered after the long day and the encounter with Alistar

The woht him to be a Cat sat in her chair, folded herself up so her chin rested on her left knee, and rocked the bed with her right leg so the headboard banged the wall they shared with Mrs Kineen

The room smelled of cloves and walnuts Duvalier had picked up intestinal parasites in her travels, perhaps as long ago as their trek into the Great Plains Gulag when she first recruited hiain in an effort to flush the but bad news," she signed, interrupting the tale when he began to describe his disposal of the corpse "Laundry-rooence says there&039;s been a lot of new faces in town Troopsin Some say a push into the Tex-Mex borders; others say it&039;s Southern Coain I know the train station&039;s been busy Lots of cars taking on supplies co west This didn&039;t turn into such a dull assignment after all I&039;ve been able to watch the station and pick up a little" She peeked out the"Hope you can get going soon Southern Command needs to know details"

"I don&039;t think the Wolves are going to show," he decided "I&039;ure out a way to oust Captain Saunders and get control of the Thunderbolt-"

She let out a yelp, faintly orgiastic, and winked at her partner

"You&039;ll ined Valentine never tired of ad he&039;d noticed on her when she bandaged his former captain on Little Timber Hill "Who will help you?"

"The crew"

"Quislings?" She added the question mark with her sharp eyebrows

"They wouldn&039;t be in the Coastal Patrol if they didn&039;t like being away from the influence of Kur"

"All the more reason for Kurians to pick the et your commission down here, and then the promotion to captain"

"Don&039;t re his service record in the Great Lakes took him only so far For the past year, Valentine had put his ood record in a rear area before being offered a proe for "iven over to the Reapers without batting an eye And more

He&039;d learned the reason for the elaborate groundwork only a few o, once he had received his commission on the Thunderbolt Ahn-Kha appeared afterwards, bearing his detailed orders In twenty-four hours, he memorized the instructions, based plans on the objective, and destroyed the letters,friends in the crew and learning all he could about the Caribbean, and particularly Haiti

"So are you ever going to tell me?" Duvalier asked "Once you&039;re at sea, it couldn&039;t hurt for , waited a or

"You know better If you were really in on it, I&039;d have your opinion every step of the way But I can&039;t risk the Kuri-ans finding out if it goes amiss"

Amiss The as a kind of shorthand between them A euphemism for "capture, torture, and death"

She climbed on to the bed next to hiood together, Valentine Hope they haven&039;t tasked you with a one-way trip So that crew We should blow and get out of here The mission is down the drain, and Mountain Ho the ship&039;s not the half of it," he whispered back, feeling his skin tingle at her scent "Or I should say that&039;s not your half of it"

She rubbed her hand through his damp hair "David, I know I had the easy part this tiot to look around, safe behind my ID, then disappear after you ship out But now , and you have that never-say-die look like in the Dunes You didn&039;t coood-bye"

Valentine smiled in the darkness "No I have to ask you a favor It would et some of the other wives and fa with his cowlick

The room waited in silent darkness His sensitive ears could not even pick up the sound of her breathing "How many families?" she finally whispered

"As many as you can Make contact with the pipeline, and have theuide you all out"

She sat up, pulled her knees up to her chest, and thought before she started signing again "Val, that involves getting about a hundred people out of New Orleans Onknife Lots of kids, so I need transport for everyone and food to last us out of the KZ It can&039;t be done"

Valentine signed back: "Of course it can&039;t be done Since it can&039;t be done, I don&039;t think the Kur will be expecting it"

"No one expectseither But if I do it and give everyone a big, effing surprise, that doesn&039;t mean much when I hit"

"The only way I have a chance with the men is if they think there&039;s hope for their families"

"Valentine, full abort Set all this back up soot to be plenty of transport-"

"And blow a year&039;s worth of work It&039;s the ideal ship Who&039;d &039;ave ever thought I&039;d get assigned to a gunboat? I figured we&039;d have to settle for a troop trawler full of et her, there&039;s hardly a ship in the Carib that can say boo to us, plus she&039;s seaworthy in case of bad weather She&039;s not souments in favor of a bad idea"

"Didn&039;t you say you hadthe women? That a lot of them were discontented?"

"Who wouldn&039;t be?" she signed back "We get out of this building only twice a hen you&039;re away, and even then it&039;s to a fenced-in market I&039;er to some of the people I&039;ve met here, I&039;d torch it as soon as you&039;re out of the harbor and vanish They&039;d think I maybeWhoa there "

Valentine could alot everyone out and rigged soested

"Don&039;t have the tools to collapse the building," she signed, "but this is an old structure Set a fire soerous, the authorities evacuate everyone, and I have someone from the pipeline who knows just where to be, and when Maybe they would have a few people around to make sure we don&039;t wander off, but they wouldn&039;t expect an organized breakout I can handle them"

"Be careful who you tell," Valentine advised "I&039;d just let a couple of trustworthy people know Wait until the absolute last ht who this gawith the Wolves, if you recall"

"Keep yourself alive The Cause needs you So can I count on you? Think about it while I sleep"

"I&039;ll do it-if I can get the pipeline to open You can tell yourout if things get hairy I think you&039;re headed for a noose, or h the ocean back to the nearest port Getting a mutiny started won&039;t be easy I&039;ve never heard of that being done before"

"All the -"

She cut him off with a forceful thrust of her hand "Oh God, don&039;t start on that again!" she said, this time aloud Then they smiled at each other What would Mrs Kineen make of that?

Valentine drea a , the sounds of fish splashing as they ju hih, but it would have to do "Last chance, Valentine," she signed after handing him his coat "Full abort, plenty of reason to justify it I don&039;t like the feel of this, not at all"

His doubts had also rested, and returned refreshed No! Ignore them! "I&039;m not happy about it either But if you knew more, you could see that I don&039;t have a choice This could turn the tide"

"You and your coulds" She hugged hiainst his chest Duvalier was seldoh ribbing than rubbing Though he was attracted to her, she had a wall around her he couldn&039;t break Soht was one of those rew up in Kansas," she whispered in his ear "I don&039;t know tides, except that they&039;re caused by theabout them once but couldn&039;t In the end, the tide alins It&039;s too strong"

He turned the risks over in his mind, then unholstered and tossed his heavy 44 service pistol on the bed along with the spare ammunition he carried He&039;d hide the loss so his coat "It&039;s not too strong The tide wins because it doesn&039;t give up"

The look of relief on Perry&039;s face ht For a moment

"See, Perry, I told you so," Valentine said, pointing to the clock Its plain face indicated 2:40

"You&039;re a man of your word, sir Thank you"

"No, Perry, thank you," Valentine said, s for the outer door to open "I&039;ll see you in three months"

"I hope so, Mr Rowan Word has itWest Texas, which is fine by otfor so out at the rain

"Like I&039;d know &039;You&039;ll find out when you get there,&039; is e get told" The guard drained a cup of cold coffee

"Enjoy the sun I&039;ve got to get back to the ship before the captain gets up"

"Me savvy"