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Once ere all in position, the girl with the gun half walked, half skipped over to the van, stopping next to the driver’s-side door She beaht as a kid’s on Christ Her hair destroyed any illusion of childishness, despite her size Most kids have bleach-blond hair these days, a sign that their parents are properly respecting security protocols Her hair was so red it was ale, and only the last six inches had been bleached, ending in about an inch of inky black, like the tipping on a fox’s tail

She tapped the barrel of her gun against the , gesturing forslowly in case she decided to take offense at the fact that I wasat all

"Hi!" she said, once the door was open She reh to reach over and tap the skin behind her ear, presu to speak through Mahir’s tablet "I’m the Fox Welcome to the Brainpan"

"Uh," I said slowly "Nice to meet you?"

"Oh, that’s probably not true," she said, still with the saood cheer "Why don’t you co, and I don’t think it’s poisoned or anything! Also, leave your guns in the car, or I’ll not only kill you, I’ll fk up your corpses so bad that even DNA testing won’t be able to figure out who you were" She flashed us one last, bright-toothed s backward down the path to the porch She kept her gun leveled on us all the way Only when she reached the porch did she turn, bounding up the stairs and vanishing through the open door

"Oh, great," said Becks, in a faint voice "I ondering hoere going to fill our daily quota of bat-shit crazy"

"Maybe we can make quota for the rest of the month" I unbuckled my belt and slid out of the van Once I was clear, I re them on the seat "Everybody drop your weapons and come on We came to them Wethe crazy people to set the rules is absolutely always the way to ensure one’s survival in a hostile situation" Mahir h he scowled as he removed his own pistol from the holster beneath his arm

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I said arace to look abashed I leaned back in through my open door and punched hi the asyluht in"

Becks had to shed six guns before she got out of the van, and even then, I was reasonably sure she was holding back at least a couple of knives Maggie didn’t need to rerimace a little

She really isn’t field ready at all, is she?

"No, she’s really not," I murether down the broken concrete pathway leading to the Brainpan porch As we got closer to the house, I started spotting the security enhanceeneral disorder and decay All of them were subtle, and froned to be effective That meant they were recent If they’d been done i, whenhborhood, they would have been flashy These had no flash at all They weren’t here to show off how secure the house was They were here to secure it