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In the car on the way back to the motel, Chris said, "When this is all overwhat’re you going to do about Fat Jack?"

"Turn his butt into the cops," Laura said "Anonymously"

"Good He’s a nut"

"He’s worse than a nut, honey He’s a fanatic"

"What’s a fanatic exactly?"

She thought for ato believe in"

Lieutenant Erich Kliet-board clock, and when it neared the twelve, he turned and looked at the gate Inside that twelve-foot-long, glooray-black patch that resolved into the silhouette of a man-then three more ate, into the room, and were ra board

They had returned fro, which made Kliet if they had not located Stefan Krieger, the woman, and the boy The first two assassination squads that had been sent into the future-the one that had attacked the house near Big Bear and the one in San Bernardino-had been composed of Gestapo officers Their failures had led der Furhrer to insist the third teaed the researchers’ s to have a chance to prove the SS was filled with better men than the Gestapo

The failures of the two previous squads were not the only black marks on the Gestapo’s record in this affair Heinrich Kokoschka, the head of the institute’s security, had been a Gestapo officer, as well, and he had apparently turned traitor Available evidence seeo, on March 16, he had defected to the future with five other members of the institute’s staff

On the evening of March 16, Kokoschka had jaunted alone to the San Bernardino Mountains with the claier there in the future before Krieger returned to 1944 and killed Penlovski, thereby undoing the deaths of the project’s best ued that Kokoschka had been killed up there in 1988, that Krieger had won the confrontation-but that did not explain what had happened to the five other ents waiting for Kokoschka’s return and the three scientistsboard All vanished, and five horoup of traitors within the institute who had become convinced that Hitler would lose the war even with the advantage of exotic weapons brought back froe rather than stay in a doomed Berlin

But Berlin was not doomed Klietmann would not entertain that possibility Berlin was the new Rome; the Third Reich would last a thousand years Now that the SS was being given the chance to find and kill Krieger, der Furhrer’s dream would be protected and fulfilled Once they had eliate and whose execution was theKokoschka and the other traitors Wherever those swine had gone, in whatever distant year and place they had taken refuge, Klietmann and his SS brethren would exterreat pleasure

Now Dr Theodore Juttner-director of the institute since the murders of Penlovski, Januskaya, and Volkaw, and the disappearances on March 16-turned to Erich and said, "We’ve perhaps found Krieger, Obersturo"

"We’re ready, Doctor," Erich said Ready for the future, he thought, ready for Krieger, ready for glory

At three-forty on Saturday afternoon, January 14, little more than one day after her first visit, Thelardener’s battered white pickup She had two changes of clothes for each of them, suitcases in which to pack all the stuff, and a couple of thousand rounds of ammunition for the revolvers and the Uzis She also had the IBM PC in the truck, plus a printer, a variety of software, a box of diskettes, and everything else they would need to make the system work for them

With the wound in his shoulder only four days old, Stefan was recuperating surprisingly fast, although he was not ready to do any lifting, heavy or otherwise He stayed in the motel room with Chris and packed the suitcases while Laura and Thelma moved the computer boxes to the trunk and back seat of the Buick

The stor beardlike frorees, and the air s the Buick’s trunk on the last of the boxes, Laura said, "You went shopping in that wig and those glasses, those teeth?"

"Nah," Thel them in a jacket pocket because they made her lisp when she talked’ ’Up close a salesclerk uised would arouse more attention than if I shopped as , I drove the truck to the deserted end of another shopping center’s parking lot and made myself look like a cross between Harpo Marx and Bucky Beaver before heading here, just in case someone in another car looked over at me in traffic You know, Shane, I sorta like this kind of intrigue Maybe I’m the reincarnation of Mata Hari, ’cause when I think about seducingthe secrets to a foreign governet delicious chills"

"It’s the part about seducing ives you chills," Laura said, "not the secret-selling part You’re no spy, just a lech"

Thels "There’s no full-ti service to spruce the place up a couple of days before we go I didn’t call them this time, of course, so you’re liable to find some dust, but no real filth, and none of the severed heads you tend to leave behind"

"You’re a love"

"There’s a gardener Not full-tiuy just comes around once a week, Tuesday, to es, and trae us to replace the a low profile on Tuesday, until he cooes"

"We’ll hide under the beds"

"You’ll notice a lot of whips and chains under the bed, but don’t get the idea Jason and I are kinky The whips and chains belonged to his mother, and we keep theht the packed suitcases out of the motel rooes that would not fit in the Buick’s trunk After a round of hugs, Thelhtclub appearances for the next three weeks, so if you need et hold of ht or day I’ll stay by the phone" Reluctantly she left