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"With what?"

"With what Rob Burkett sentaway from the , Ken 2 said, "Why didn’t you say Rob Burkett in the first place?"

Getting up froht hand, Ken 1 said, "Shit, Lucius, you kno Rob is He’s an office guy, not a field guy He wouldn’t have knohat to do if he’d been there in Vegas last night So it got ot those four kids"

I remembered what Chet, the custoasconcerned as he joined us, Ken 2 said, "Who would’ve thought aconcealed weapons?"

Ken 1 sought ] preacher and that bitch wife of his had perovern] preachers to walk around with [fornicating] pistols under their suit coats?"

"Good thing," said Ken 2, "the preacher didn’t realize there were two of us"

"Good thing," Ken 1 agreed "A preacher ought to know the Bible says ‘Thou shalt not kill’ "

"Actually," I corrected, "if you go back to the root language of the original commandments, it said ‘Thou shalt not h a lot of translations, it ended up saying ‘kill’ "

Puzzled, Ken 2 said, "Murder or kill, kill or murder, what the hell’s the difference?"

"Anyway," I said, "Rob is cool with Vegas It turned out all right, and we have four juicy preacher kids raised pure, the e need the with the little darlings"

"What thing?" both Kens asked

Winking at the to like this"

Inside of s fluttered out of a thousand split cocoons all at once

These kids would have to live with this trauma all the days of their lives, and I didn’t want to do anything that would leave the to the captives, I remeoing to happen to the sixteen when the first of them was slashed or chopped, or ha to take another day or two for the ransoo until then"

One of the two that had an openly defiant attitude, a girl of nine or ten, with a blond ponytail and celadon eyes, said, "That’s a crock of horseshit"

"Well, personally, I don’t use that kind of language," I told her, "though I can understand why you ht feel the way you do But the truth is, we know you’re bored, and since there are a few people here who’reto put on a show for you kids in a little while"

"That’sa step in front of the Kens, I was able to wink at her without the what I did She frowned, not sure what to e to assist one of thetricks It’ll be really cool"

One sweet-faced boy of about six raised his hand and said, "I’ll do it"

"I’ to play a fun gaician First I need all of you to close your eyes Coht, that’s good You have to keep theame, until I tell you to open them"

I drew one of the Glocks, turned, and shot Ken 1 in the head His eyes weren’t closed, of course, but they didn’t even have ti

Ken 2about superdelicious mammaries, because he was slower on the draw than I expected, and I shot hiet his piece out of his shoulder rig Just to be sure about Ken 1, I leaned down to where he’d fallen and popped hiain

Every shot was a whifff, but the bodies made some hard sounds when they hit the carpet, so I said, "Keep your eyes closed, kids Keep theht"

The butterflies in my sto over one another

I knelt beside the first Ken, looked into his eyes, and then pulled his Ker sweater over his face like a shroud, to conceal his wounds I looked in the second Ken’s eyes and drew his Rudolph sweater over his face, as well

I thought that I heard a noise in the hallway I froze, stared at the door, waiting for a knock or for the knob to turn Nothing happened

In the farther half of the rooht be chunks of skull and worse I turned to the kids to be sure that they had their eyes shut, and they all did, except for the girl with the ponytail Her stare ide and gray-green and bright

"Keep your eyes closed," I told the others "We’re alaht into that part of the roo fro to the kids, I said, "When you open your eyes, try not to look too close at things There’s no reason to look close Okay, you can open them"

They stared at the dead men Some of theently shushed theain," I told them "But you have to be quiet, very quiet, and do exactly what I say"

The girl with the ponytail stared intensely at raph She nodded To the others, she said, "Do what he tells you If he has to, he’ll die for us"

The crying children wiped at their eyes, choked back their sobs

I sirl "No horseshit, huh?"

"Zero," she said

Thirty-two