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I had gone only a few steps when she softly called my name She hurried to me and said, "The vest won’t puncture, so let me pin this to the sleeve of your sweater"

"Pin what?"

"My little diaood luck It doesn’t mean what I told the waitress it meant"

"It doesn’t really mean ‘Sister, what a hoot it is to be me’?"

"No, and it doesn’t mean ‘Seize the day’ or ‘Live life to the fullest,’ either"

"What does it mean, then?"

"Never you ht as well eat’ "

"So you through alive Now scoot before I start crying"

I scooted out to the state route, crossed the pave the farther shoulder of the road, toward the private lane that I believed would lead me to the cowboy and the children, ready to take cover in the brush and trees at the first sound of an approaching engine

As ato be desired This had been a long and eventful day, but I hadn’t yet blown up anything or busted anyone in the chops If I had been James Bond, I would have killed at least two by now and blown up at least one thing, and if I had been Jack Reacher, I would have left a trail of blood andAt least I was alive, so there re to blow up before the night was done

Twenty-four

BECAUSE THE RANCH-STYLE GATE DIDN’T CONNECT TO a fence, its only purpose was to prevent unauthorized vehicles fro the lane A call box atop a steel post provided communication with the house, but it was strictly an audio link, with no camera attached

The siht mean that whoever lived here didn’t feel the need for ue that this wasn’t a place where seventeen kidnapped children were being held to be killed for sport or art, or whatever

On the other hand, the lack of security ht be only apparent, not real At this entry point, these people could have chosen not to draw attention to theht necessary, but could have prepared some unpleasant surprises for any intruder who dared to venture deeper into the property on foot

As I stepped around the gate and entered the lane, I plucked a small canister from one of the Mace holders on my utility belt Mrs Fischer had specified not chemical Mace but instead a pressure-streahly classified military item supposedly not available to civilians--but which in fact was evidently as available as a can of Coca-Cola In the lie of fifteen to twenty feet If the streaet, he would drop before reaching me Generally, he would re on the a absorbed, which was even a ressional debate on C-SPAN Each of my two canisters contained ten shots of a two-second duration, but Mrs Fischer suggested that I not trust it to provide h, you see a story on the TV news about sohty-year-old lady only to discover that she was trained in martial arts and armed with a concealed pistol, whereupon she whupped his butt and taught hi about Jesus, in the tradition of Tyler Perry in drag as Madea I figured that it would be a ers to dran on Mrs Fischer, and I felt co her alone in the li both sides of the lane Their boughs, which began about twelve feet up their trunks, overhung the paveht but black now, could have harbored a score of assassins crouched and watchful, but animal instinct told me Not here, not yet

As the sole alternative to a direct approach, I could have h the woods, parallel to the lane Under that canopy of branches, during the day, too little sunlight penetrated to grow much brush, and at this altitude the air was at thesnakes to be licking their fangs in anticipation of a bite But a little brush could h it, and in the dark a low-hanging branch ht knock me flat or put out an eye

After about fifty yards, the driveway arced gradually to the left, and as I fully rounded the bend, I saw light ahead, eway reh a near-death experience, the long dark tunnel with the welcoht at the end, except that the radiance ahead of low of a cre house out there, a football field aith lights in a number of its s But there were also points of flaavethat what lay ahead of e

Nearing the end of the driveway, I finally eased into the woods on the right I cautiously proceeded the final twenty feet to the point at which the trees gave way tounder an immense pine, I surveyed all that lay beforeelement of the scene was the lake On this nized it for what it was if the dancing flames of the torches had not been reflected in the water near the shore Otherwise the placid surface lay ink-black, not even vaguely as neon that colored the low cloud cover The painted sky provided barely enough contrast to silhouette the rising land and trees that eh to estimate that the lake must have been between seven and twelve acres, not vast but larger than a pond Not a single point of light gli the farther reaches of its shoreline, which I took toit were part of this property