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My own place in the driving order was a little less predictable since I was on my bike and unconstrained by the shape of the road I keptI’d find a shambler for Shaun to a his spirits up We’d been driving for two days, with another two still ahead of us, and the silence was starting to wear on me

My helmet speaker crackled “On,” I said to activate the connection, following it with, “Georgia here”

“It’s Rick What do you think about dinner?”

“The sun went down an hour ago, and dinner is traditionally the evening ically our next stop What are we looking at?”

“GPS says there’s a truck stop about two hours up the road that has a pretty decent diner”

“Any record on their screening protocols?” We’d run into ents wouldn’t let us eat because their blood tests weren’t good enough to guarantee ouldn’t have to worry about an outbreak between the coffee and the pie I’d been driving all day If we stopped, I wanted it to be for overnment certified All their licenses up to date, all their inspection scores posted”

“Sounds good to me I’ll see if I can rouse Shaun and let hiive them the address, and tell theia out”

“Rick out”

“Great” I followed it with, “Disconnect and redial Shaun Mason” The speaker beeped acknowledgnaled my brother

He never picked up the call He didn’t have the tiunshots until I went back to review the tapes and turned the low-level frequencies up enough to undo the work of the silencers Eight shots were fired The first two trucks, the ones containing the cauards and lower-level personnel, passed by un ahead of the rest of the crew and passed out of the shallow valley without incident The gun didn’t start going off until Rick’s car pulled into the ideal position, halfway between the valley’s entrance and its exit

Two shots were fired at Rick’s little blue armadillo, two more were fired at the van, and the two after that were fired at my bike The last two shots were fired at the equipment truck at the back of the caravan, the one Chuck was driving, with Buffy riding shotgun The shots were verythe other as fast as the skill of the shooter would allow I’d have been impressed if they hadn’t been aimed so effectively at me and mine

The first shot fired atout of control I screa with the handlebars as I tried to steadya stain on the side of the road Even withso hard on not toppling over thatbecame impossible to predict, and the second shot ide Maybe that’s why I was able to believe I’d blown a tire as I letonto the uneven ground beyond the shoulder

I finished steadying myself, dumped speed, and wrenched the bike to a stop twenty yards after I left the road Panting, I kicked the stand down and unsealed e that had overwhelmed the road