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I’d wear the heels I’d wear the hose I’d even wear a layer of tinted lip gloss, since that would make it look like I’d appliedto put rab to get et the, I yanked the shawl that ith the dress out of the side pocket of ht side offor theat a relaxed sort of attention as he monitored the radio channels for security or vehicular needs He straightened when he sawdoard as he took in the way that I was dressed It was ilasses, but he took no pains to disguise the ain as he studied the tailoring of my dress, the shawl around my shoulders, and finally, with a quirk of one eyebrow,soate-crashing,” I said “Give a girl a ride?”

“Didn’t you send your brother in your place?”

“Soet over there”

Steve studied me for a mo my own expression just as composed We both had a lot of practice, but I was the one who had ave in, noddingto do with Eakly, Georgia?”

His partner died there We knew there was a conspiracy How likely was it that we’d still be alive if our security detail was a part of it? ThereI could do about that, and ere in the end ga to do with Eakly, and with the ranch, and hy Chuck and Buffy died Please I need you to get me to that dinner”

Steve re over what I’d said He was a bigmen must be slow I never assuetting his first real look at a situationwith forused to When he did start to move, he moved quickly and with no hesitation “Mike, Heidi, you cover this gate Anybody radios for me, you say I’m in the can and I’ll radio back when I’m done Tell them I had franks and beans for dinner, if you think it’ll keep the more”

Heidi tittered, a high, nervous sound entirely out of keeping with her professional exterior Mike frowned, expression betraying a slow confusion “Yeah, we can do that,” he said “But why ?”

“We hired you after the ranch, so I’ that question There’s reasons” Steve glanced at ive those reasons in a place as open as this one, they’d have already been given”

I nodded I wouldn’t have said as much as I had if he hadn’t invoked the specter of Eakly first, but I wasn’t going to lie to the ht I could pull it off, which I didn’t, it would have been wrong

“Just do it, Mike,” said Heidi, ai an elbow at the unfortunate Mike’s side He bore the blow stoically, only allowing a slight grunt to escape Heidi withdrew her elbow “We got it, Steve Watch the gate, one”

“Good Miss Mason? This way” Steve turned, his legs eating ground with frightening efficiency as he led me to one of the motor pool’s smaller vehicles It was a modified Jeep with a hard black exterior that e new type of beetle He produced the keys from one pocket and hit a button; the doors unlocked with a beep “You’ll forgive me if I don’t open the door for you”

“Of course,” I said In a two-person vehicle this new, there would be blood test units built into the door handles to prevent so up sealed in an enclosed space with one of the infected Chivalry wasn’t dead Chivalry just wanted to be certain I wasn’t a zoh to abandon his post—and that’s what he was doing, given that he hadn’t radioed our whereabouts to base—Steve remained a careful, cautious driver He sped down the roads back toward town at precisely the speed li the flashers on They would have attracted too much attention, especially froht start to wonder what he was doing out there Our departure froally secured, save in the instance of an outbreak causing privacy laws to be suspended

The hall where Senator Ryman’s keynote speech and the associated dinner party were being hosted was don, in one of the areas that was rebuilt after the Rising Shaun and I did a series of articles on the “bad” parts of Sacra cameras past the cordons and into the areas that were never reapproved for hus stare out on cracking asphalt, the biohazard tape still glea across their doors and s In the white overnment assembly hall, you’d never know that side of Sacramento existed Not unless you’d been there

It took three blood tests to reach the foyer The first was at the entrance to the underground parking garage, where valets in plastic gloves brought the test panels, clearly expecting us to allow the polite fiction that there weren’t guards with auto the booth Thoseacross my arms It wasn’t the security; it was how blatantly it was displayed No one would argue if they gunned us down I had , but without a security scheht be compromised airspace, and without Buffy, I didn’t have a security schematic I could trust We needed her so badly We always had