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Stefan slipped between the Jeep and the dirty,the eh for hiotten out of the driver’s door on that side when he had parked there, but barely enough to squeeze along toward the rear buht not expect hiood shot before Kokoschka swung around and sprayed hiun

Kokoschka He had never been so surprised in his life as when Kokoschka had gotten out of that Pontiac It meant they were aware of his traitorous activities at the institute And they were also aware that he had interposed himself between Laura and her true destiny Kokoschka had taken the Lightning Road with the intention of eli the traitor and evidently Laura as well

Now, keeping his head down, Stefan urgently forced his way between the Jeep and the eun chattered and s blew out above him At his back the snowbank was ice-crusted inpainfully into him; when he endured the pain and pressed hard with his body, the ice cracked, and the snow beneath it coh the narrow space he occupied, shrieking between sheet metal and snow, so it seemed that he was not alone there but was in the coibbered in his face

He had seen Laura and Chris wriggling under the Jeep, but he knew that cover would provide only an additional ot to the front of the Jeep and didn’t find theet down at road level, and open fire, chopping them to pieces in their confineto slide swiftly under the Jeep And already he’d been shot; he must be stiff with pain Besides, Danny wasn’t the kind of man who hid from trouble, not even trouble like this

At last Stefan reached the rear buht feet away in the southbound lane with its driver’s door standing open, engine running No Kokoschka So with his Walther PPK/S 380 in hand he eased away froainst the tailgate and peered around the other rear bu toward the front of the Jeep where he believed everyone had taken cover His weapon was an Uzi with an extended azine, chosen for the mission because it would not be anachronistic As Kokoschka reached the gap between the Jeep and the Blazer, he opened fire again, sweeping the subht Bullets screamed off metal, blew out tires, and thudded into the embankment

Stefan fired at Kokoschka, e, Danny Packard launched hiht up against the Jeep’s grill, so low that he h to have been under the spray of bullets the subun had just laid down He ounded from the initial burst of fire but still quick and powerful, and for a un the Uzi froet when he saw Danny co the muzzle around If he had been a few feet closer to the Jeep instead of in the hway, he would not have nailed Danny in time

"Danny, no!" Stefan shouted, squeezing off three shots at Kokoschka even as Packard was going for hiht the spitting ht at Danny, when they were still three or four feet apart Danny was kicked backward by the is

Stefan took no consolation from the fact that even as Danny was hit, Kokoschka was hit, too, taking two rounds froh and one in his left shoulder He was knocked down He dropped the sub the pave,

Stefan rose from the cover of the rear buround only thirty feet downslope, near the Blazer now He slipped on the snowy paveled to keep his balance

Badly wounded, no doubt in shock, Kokoschka nevertheless saw hi He rolled toward the Uzi carbine, which had come to rest by the rear tire of the Blazer

Stefan fired three times as he ran, but he did not have the steadiness required for a good ai away froain and fell to one knee in the h and into his hip

Rolling, Kokoschka reached the subet to the man in time, Stefan dropped onto both knees and raised the Walther, holding it with both hands He enty feet froood marksman could h, and these were bad: a state of panic, a weird firing angle, gale-force wind to deflect the shot

Downslope, lying on the ground, Kokoschka opened fire the instant he got his hands on the Uzi, even before he brought the weapon around, loosing the first twenty rounds under the Blazer, blowing out the front tires

As Kokoschka swung the gun toward him, Stefan squeezed off his last three rounds with deliberation In spite of the wind and the angle, he had to make them count, for if he missed he would have no time to reload

The first round fro the subun around, and the arc of fire reached the front of the Jeep Laura was under the Jeep with Chris, and Kokoschka was shooting froround level, so surely a couple of rounds had passed under the vehicle

Stefan fired again The slug hit Kokoschka in the upper body, and the sub Stefan’s next and last shot took Kokoschka in the head It was over

From beneath the Jeep, Laura saw Danny’s incredibly brave charge, saw hi, and she knew that he was dead, no possibility of a reprieve this tiht frolimpsed a future without Danny, a vision so starkly illuminated and of such dreadful power that she alht of Chris, still alive and sheltering against her She blocked out the grief, knowing she would return to it later-if she survived The i Chris alive and, if possible, protecting hiht of his father’s bullet-riddled corpse

Danny’s body blocked part of her view, but she saw Kokoschka hit by gunfire She saw her guardian approaching the downed gunuardian slipped and fell to one knee, and Kokoschka rolled toward the subunfire A lot of it in a few seconds She heard a couple of rounds passing under the Jeep, frighteningly close, lead cutting through the air with a deadly whisper that was louder than any other sound in the world

The silence after the gunfire was at first perfect Initially she could not hear the wind or her son’s low sobbing Gradually those sounds iuardian was alive, and part of her was relieved, but part of her was irrationally angry that he had survived because he had drawn this Kokoschka with him, and Kokoschka had killed Danny On the other hand Danny-and she and Chris-would surely have been killed in the collision with the truck, anyway, if her guardian had not co Who the hell was he? Where did he cohtened, angry, shocked, sick in her soul, and badly confused

Clearly in pain, her guardian rose from his knees and hobbled to Kokoschka Laura twisted farther around to look directly down the hill, just past Danny’s unuardian was doing, though he appeared to be tearing open Kokoschka’s clothes

After a while he hobbled back up the hill, carrying so he had taken off the corpse

When he reached the Jeep, he crouched and looked under at her "Come out It’s over" His face was pale, and in the past few ed at least a couple of his twenty-five lost years He cleared his throat In a voice filled hat seeenuine, deeply felt remorse, he said, "I’m sorry, Laura I’m so very sorry"

She squir her head on the undercarriage She pulled Chris and encouraged hiled out nearer the front, the boy uardian pulled theainst the rear bumper and clutched Chris to her

Tremulously, the boy said, "I want Daddy"

I want hiht Oh, baby, I want him, too, I want him so bad, all I want in the world is your daddy

The stor snow out of the sky under tre, and all around the gri to the queer, phosphorescent darkness of a snowy night

In this weather few people would be traveling, but he was sure that so soon No more than ten minutes had passed since he had stopped Laura in the Blazer, but even on this rural road in a storer He needed to have a talk with her and leave before he got entangled in the after down in front of her and the weeping boy, behind the Jeep, Stefan said, "Laura, I’ve got to get out of here, but I’ll be back soon, in just a couple of days-"

"Who are you?" she derily