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When he heard the the rear doors, Deucalion instantly transitioned froo box to the roof, where he arrived supine Above were rafters, catwalks, and a twenty-foot-deep open loft that ran around three sides of the large building

If anyone had been on the catwalks or in the loft, they could have seen hih that someone at a distance on the main floor would fail to spot him At the moment, however, the two evident workers in the warehouse re of the prisoners

He raised his head to reconnoiter In the southwest quarter of the warehouse, sixteen-foot-high steel racks held hundreds of crates

Deucalion sat up on the roof of the truck--and cae rows The racks paralleled the truck froaps between the shelved crates, he could see the truck and the line of prisoners As the driver and his o, the tarehouse workers led the obedient eleven toward the north end of the enor to the open loft, fro At this hour, the fluorescent panels in the loft were off, and notlaainst the north wall, a series of offices were set side by side He stared down on their flat roofs Two offices had s from which their occupants could monitor activity in the warehouse, but four did not The offices s were dark

A shadow in shadows, Deucalion watched from above as the eleven were led to an area outside of the less offices, where they were left standing with another twenty people in the same condition as they were

When each of the tarehouse workers went into a different less room and closed the door behind him, Deucalion seized the opportunity to transition froroup of prisoners For the first ti silver nailheads in their tean to understand, at least in conceptual terms, what had been done to them

Chapter 70

After leaving the hospital, where the Builders would finish killing and processing the patients no later than dawn, Chief Rafael Jarmillo patrolled Rainbow Falls He followed no planned route, and he was not looking for anything in particular With the Coun, the chief reest so to the realization that they were under attack

As he cruised, he listened to the radio transmissions of his officers Instead of the usual ten code, which had not been designed for security but for saving air time, they employed a code devised specifically for this operation Any hobbyist or retired cop passing ti transmissions would be unable to follow the action or understand the department’s intentions

When the report of a murder on Purcell Street came in, the chief asked the dispatcher to repeat The code nu of one of the Community, and Jar the nu beacons but not the siren, and sped to the scene of the crime

Two black-and-whites were at the Benedetto house when Jarot out of his car, he saw an officer, Martin Dunn, hurrying around the side of the house from the backyard

He said, "Who’s down?"

"Replicant," Dunn said "Denise Benedetto"

"How?"

"Shot Multiple wounds"

"You’re sure she’s dead?"

"Soht rounds Maybe azine The shooter was ain, Chief Jarmillo asked the dispatcher to check the war directory to determine how many people were in the Benedetto family

The answer came within a hter Christine Lawrence Benedetto, now a replicant, currently manned a war-duty post at the power company The child should have been with the replicant of her mother

Christine was not a replicant With the exception of Ariel Potter--as not a mere replicant but a Builder of a unique kind--no citizen of the town under the age of sixteen would be replaced For reasons of efficiency and in respect of the Creator’s philosophy, they would all be processed by Builders, some of them this day and the next, but most of them on Thursday, children’s day

Jarmillo went into the Benedetto house just as Officers Dunn and Caponica descended the stairs froirl"

"Not here," Caponica said

Jarht about Bryce Walker and Travis Ahern, about Nurant Lyss Now this

He ran to his patrol car and by radio arranged for roadblocks to be established just beyond city limits, at each end of town

He ordered Community operatives at the telephone co-distance For now, cell-phone service within Rainbow Fallsbeyond the town should be disabled Cable-television service, which also provided Internet access, would be discontinued as well, at once

And they had to find the shooter who had killed the replicant of Denise Benedetto Quickly

Chapter 71

In the roadhouse, Dolly Sa about breast-reduction surgery, when the handsoh the blue-velvet curtains and onto the stage

The bar was closed Just as parishioners brought their food for the family social, those anted drink were expected to provide it for themselves

Because of her ample endowment, Loreen had suffered backaches and neckaches for the past three or four years She also didn’t like the way so more than her superstructure, they seemed to think she had round heels, when she was in fact a faithful hose gravest transgression was once in a while watching one of those daytime-TV talk shows that always featured woed as

Her husband, Nelson, supported her regarding the surgery; he said he hadn’t married her because of her bra size "Honeylaood heart that got h up top so you float if you fall in the river"