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"The lights are on," he said, the hope in his voice the first real energy he’d shown since the creature’s veno up to the little parking lot The rental agency had a brightly lit orange-and-blue sign, but it was set up in what appeared to be an abandoned gas station Kitsune did not spend a great deal of tih not to like it very reat beauty, and there was real ic in the human race--some of them, at least--but there was also despair and filth, and this town reeked of both

Inside the squat little rental car building, a thick-necked, red-faced arettes whose herb-redolent stench choked the air Kitsune hung back away fro her fur, and wrinkled her nose in distaste The arette and watched her with a gleam of cruel lust in his eyes Only when Oliver had made several attempts to speak with him did he at last pay attention and then a horrible distaste curled his lip, as though they had come into his place of business covered in offal

The lish"

Oliver shifted the duffel bag to his other shoulder and glanced at Kitsune "And I don’t speak Gerain he focused on the man behind the counter as he reached into his back pocket and withdrew his wallet He slid his American Express card out and snapped it down onto the counter

"You don’t need to speak English to understand er, "nacht"

He tapped the American Express card

The h he were some sort of leper, for at least a count of ten before finally reaching out and picking up the credit card and studying it Then he looked up

"ID"

"See," Oliver said "What language barrier?"

He handed the man a pair of cards, one of which was the international driver’s license he’d gotten in London Kitsune felt sure theat the license he picked up the credit card again, placed it beside his co, eyes on the monitor The tak-tak-tak of the keyboardher were little more than blemishes now, but they ached fiercely

Theinformation into his co for so Approval, perhaps

Then the man blinked and all trace of the hostility he had shown vanished When he glanced at Oliver, it had been replaced by a kind of wary deference He held up a finger to indicate that they should wait, and picked up the phone

"What is it?" Kitsune asked

Oliver shrugged "Probably has to get phone verification on the charge or so to worry about"

The fox-woman pulled her cloak closely around herself, not at all convinced The h in the arette stench it was difficult to be sure, she thought his scent was also different

In the short, hard-edged language of his countryent spoke to so up, he showed theuable

"Oliver," Kitsune cautioned

He nodded, as if to reassure her Thethat they should wait, and then he went back to typing information into the coh what he read on-screen was not to his liking

"What’s the probleain "No proble hilass of his little building and studied the cars in his parking lot, then ran his fingers across rows of keys hanging on hooks on the wall The arette and the ss

"I cannot breathe in here," she said "I’ed above the door as she left Odd that she hadn’t noticed it when they entered On the concrete curb in front of the rental office she stood and glanced out across the small fleet of rental cars at the town beyond There was nothing left here of nature or ht to the world Pave dark exhaust Whatever ic there was in the season of this holiday of Oliver’s, it did not show itself here

Several tilanced back inside Oliver stood tensely by the counter, glaring ient The thick-neckedout through the dirty glass at her, at the cars

No That rong He was looking to the street

Kitsune’s heart clenched She spun, peered into the darkness of the town, and saw blue lights flashing in the distance Her travels through h they had been infrequent of late, she had been here often enough to knohat those lights h the door with such force that the glass shattered Theat her as though she’d gone mad

"He’s called the police"

Oliver blinked "What? Why?"

Kitsune shook her head "I don’t know, but there will be tiet to Vienna tonight"

She left unspoken the fact that if they did not reach Vienna soon, the plan would have to wait until the following night, and that would be another entire day’s delay before they could reach Collette

Anger flared upon Oliver’s face The rental agent was a big man, broad across the shoulders, with enormous hands, but when Oliver slammed his hand on the counter the man backed away instantly

"Why?" Oliver shouted

Theup his hands Spittle flew from his mouth and his red face turned purple Oliver swore, swept up his ID and credit card, then reached over to snatch a ring of keys fro the front of the counter as it swung forward

The rab him but Oliver was too quick

"Hurry!" Kitsune called

They ran out of the little building In the low thrurown brighter Down the darkened street, slicked with freezing rain, the police car was coan

Oliver held up the keys, touched a button, and one of the cars chirped, its taillights flashing They ran to it The blue lights swept closer

"Just get in and get down," Oliver said