Page 3 (1/2)

Finally, Mr Lyss said, "Peaches, you actually know anyone who has a snowmobile?"

"I know a couple"

"Like who?"

"Like the Boze"

"Boze?"

"Officer Barry Bozeman People call him the Boze He races off-road all year ’round in one or another thing"

"Officer?"

"He’s a policeood as anyone"

"He’s dead," Mr Lyss said bluntly "If he’s a cop, they killed him and replaced him with one of their lookalikes"

Nummy should have known the Boze was dead, because even the police chief, Rafael Jarmillo, was one of the aliens, so every cop was for sure one of them, too All the real police were dead and eaten like happened thatto all the people in the jail cells next to the one from which Nummy and Mr Lyss escaped

Grand was, still you needed to keep in ain so on was iht thing, because if you went on long enough and were happy enough and did the right thing often enough, you would get to go live with God But God really didn’t like quitters

"Is he married?" Mr Lyss asked

"Is who?"

"Tarnation, boy, there’s so much vacant space in your head, you should rent it out, there’s a whole damn warehouse full of empty racks between your ears The Boze! Who else would I be asking about? Is the Boze married?"

"Kiku her head blowed up, she went to quiet, and it just buzzed away, so you never know"

Mr Lyss ht Mr Lyss was going to hit him But then the old man took a deep breath, opened the fist, patted Nuain but in English this tilish"

"Tell it to lish"

Mr Lyss’s knobby hand fisted again, but he still didn’t hit Nuht the fist to his mouth, and he chewed on a knuckle for a while, and then he said, "What is Kiku?"

"That’s Mrs Bozeman, like I said She was a nice Japanese lady"

"What did youon her neck She had the allergies but never knew till the sting Her face they say it blowed up like a balloon"

"What do you mean--‘she went to quiet’?"

"Quiet Meadows The ce and just buzzed away, but Kiku she died, so you never know"

"They have any kids?"

"The Boze and Kiku? No That’s good because now Boze is dead, too, the kids would be orphans, all sad and everything"

"No, they’d be monster food, just like the Boze was And since he’s a cop, now a et at his snowmobile, because he won’t be ho people and building those cocoons likeand doing whatever other filthy stuff their stinking alien kind does"

"I didn’t notice they stink," Nu-ti with my nose"

Chapter 4

Behind the wheel of the Jeep Grand Cherokee, squinting through the snow, Carson O’Connor-Maddison--with Michael Maddison--cruised Rainbow Falls on a monster hunt

Earlier, Deucalion had told theht-blue cabs and white cargo sections, which were essentially on an Auschwitzcitizens who had been forcibly subdued and delivering them to an extermination facility in a warehouse They had found one of the trucks and had tried to take the two- also to be Victor’s creations But the driver quickly recognized the deception, said "You’re not Communitarians," and then it was just kill or be killed