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Travis rose from a crouch, bewildered Nora threw her ar rain beat upon the waran

Behind Nora, Vince issued a shrill breathless cry and, rolling onto his back, fired at theh in the shoulder and knocked hiht, it would have hit Nora in the head

She was almost pulled off her feet when Travis fell because she was holding hih and went to the left, in front of the truck, out of the line of fire She got only a quick look at Vince, as holding his revolver in one hand and clutching his stolimpse before she cowered down in front of the pickup, she had not seen any blood on thehere? He could not possibly have survived three rounds in the stomach and one in the chest Not unless he actually was immortal

Even as Nora scra off his back, sitting up in theacross his chest fro his shirt He still had the Uzi in his right hand, which functioned in spite of the wound in that shoulder As Vince pulled off a wild second shot, Travis opened fire with the Uzi His position was no better than Vince’s; the spray of bullets snapped into the house and ricocheted along the side of the truck, indiscriled onto his feet

Nora said, "Did you get him?"

"He made it around the front of the house," Travis said, and headed that way

Vince figured he was approaching immortality, almost there, if he had not already arrived He was in need of-at most-only a few more lives, and his only concern was that he would be snuffed out when he was that close to his Destiny As a result, he took precautions Like the latest andone under his sweater, which hat had stopped the four shots the bitch had tried to pu no blood whatsoever But, Jesus, they had hurt The iainst the wall of the house and had driven the breath out of hiiant anvil while sout

Hunched over his pain, hobbling toward the front of the house, trying to get out of the way of the da to be shot in the back But soot out of Cornell’s line of fire

Vince took soh he kneasn’tlost the element of surprise, he was in for a protracted battle Hell, the woman looked to be almost as formidable as Cornell himself-a crazy A of the timid mouse in the woed her-and that spooked hi such mistakes; mistakes were for lesseracross the front porch, certain that Cornell was coo into the house instead of heading for the woods They would expect hiy Instead, he’d go straight into the house and find a position from which he could see both the front and rear doors Maybe he’d take the for the front door, when solass

Vince cried out in surprise and fired his revolver, but the shot went into the porch ceiling, and the dog-Jesus, that’s what it was, the dog-hit hiun flew out of his hand He was knocked backward The dog clung to hied in his clothes, teeth sunk in his shoulder The porch railing disintegrated They tu, Vince ha fists until it squealed and let go of him Then it went for his throat, and he just knocked it off in tiut still throbbed, but he hitched and stu for his revolver-and found Cornell instead Bleeding fro down at Vince

Vince felt a great wild surge of confidence He knew that he had been right all along, knew that he was invincible, iht into the htest fear, so he grinned up at Cornell "Look at htmare"

Cornell said, "Not even close," and opened fire

In the kitchen Travis sat in a chair, with Einstein at his side, while Nora dressed his wound As she worked, she told him what she knew about the man who had forced his way into the truck

"He was a damn wild card," Travis said "No e could ever have known he was out there"

"I hope he’s the only wild card"

Wincing as Nora poured alcohol and iodine into the bullet hole, wincing again as she bound the wound with gauze by passing it under his arreat job of it The bleeding’s not that bad No artery’s been hit"

The bullet had gone through, leaving a hideous exit wound, and he was in considerable pain, but for a while yet he would be able to function He would have to seek medical attention later, maybe from Jim Keene to avoid the questions that any other doctor would surely insist on having answered For now, he was only concerned that the wound be bound tight enough to allow him to dispose of the dead man

Einstein was battered, too Fortunately, he had not been cut when he sh the frontHe did not seem to have any broken bones, but he had taken several hard blows Not in the best of shape to begin with, he looked bad-muddy and rain-soaked and in pain He would need to see Ji harder than ever, pounding on the roof, gurgling noisily through gutters and downspouts It was slanting across the front porch and through the shattered , but they did not have tie

"Thank God for the rain," Travis said "No one in the area will have heard the gunfire in this downpour"

Nora said, "Where e du" And it was hard to think clearly because the pain in his shoulder throbbed up and into his head

She said, "We could bury him here, in the woods-"

"No We’d always knoas there We’d alorry about the body being dug up by wild ani the Coast Highhere we could pull over, wait until there’s no traffic, drag him out of the bed of the truck, and toss hiht to the base of the slope, it’ll carry him out, move him away, before anyone notices hie, Einstein abruptly got up, whined He sniffed the air He went to the back door, stood staring at it for aroom

"I’m afraid he’s hurt worse than he see a final strip of adhesive tape

"Maybe," Travis said "Butpeculiar all day, ever since you left this ht," she said

Einstein returned froht to the pantry, switching on the lights and pu the pedals that released lettered tiles

"Maybe he has an idea about disposing of the body," Nora said

As Nora gathered up the leftover iodine, alcohol, gauze, and tape, Travis painfully pulled on his shirt and went to the pantry to see what Einstein had to say

THE OUTSIDER IS HERE

Travis slaazine into the butt of the Uzi carbine, put an extra in one pocket, and gave Nora one of the Uzi pistols that was kept in the pantry

Judging by Einstein’s sense of urgency, they had no ti shutters

The clever scheas The Outsider in the barn had been built upon the certainty that it would approach at night and reconnoiter Now that it had coht and had reconnoitered while they were distracted by Vince, that plan was useless