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I did "Paul?"

He understood the question before I had to ask it "I&039; you in, babe I don&039;t exactly co out"

That said, he hung up I clutched the phone for a few seconds, trying to decide, but really, I didn&039;t have a choice Paul&039;s suggestions were just polite orders

I urged the Mustang up another notch on the speeding-fine scale and hauled ass for Albany

Ifor the Wardens

It was scheduled at a Holiday Inn outside of Sarasota I had directions and an appointed time to appear, all on official Warden stationery, and I spentI could keep on driving and disappear But the Wardens had made it crystal clear that my presence was required, not requested They&039;d also mentioned that they could not only make my life miserable, but if they wanted to, they could put a real unhappy ending on it, as well

So I walked into the ns on the board, CULLIGAN COMPANY BOARD MEETING Nope LADIES ASSOCIATION OF ROSE GROWERS Probably not METEOROLOGICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE That looked like the right one I tugged downbusinesslike and conservative, and walked dohat felt like the Last Mile The door was closed I knocked

That was the first time I met Paul He made an impression He opened the door, and for a frozen second, all I could think of was Oh, eous, and he iving ood at delivering He was six feet tall, olive skinned, with dark hair and designer stubble Body by soenetics

"Joanne Baldwin?" he asked, still standing in the doorway I nodded "You&039;re late"

His voice didn&039;t ain, enerally don&039;t react to voices I sed hard and hopedtoo badly, and I followed him into the room

Of the seven people there, Paul was definitely the standout for looks, but that didn&039;t ; I felt potential power zip up and down ly or beautiful, any one of these people could lay waste to entire countries

Thetable stood up He was older and blank faced, with gray eyes that looked as warm as polishedthe e of the weather for the entire continental United States, athe fitness of soirl from down in Florida

"Joanne Baldwin," he said It was by way of a forht an impulse to curtsy, which would have been disastrous in the miniskirt anyway "My name is Martin Oliver You&039;ve just met Paul Giancarlo-" A nod from the stud muffin "Let me introduce the rest of the panel"

It was a who&039;s who of People Who Mattered State Wardens from Texas, Arkansas, Montana Marion Bearheart, an Ah to shatter glassand the State Warden for Florida, Bob Biringanine Bob was a short Irish-looking felloith a perpetual blush, feathery white hair, and steel-blue eyes He didn&039;t like lance

"Sit," Martin Oliver invited me, and demonstrated the process I carefully lowered myself into a squeaky black chair Everybody stared at ed "Look, I&039;m not really sure why-"

"You&039;re here because either you need to be accepted into the Program, or you need to have your powers blunted," Bob said "So around wild"

Martin&039;s cold gray eyes flicked at him, but Bob didn&039;t see to say Nothing volunteered Bob-Bad Bob, I later learned he was called-shuffled papers and found so that apparently interested him I couldn&039;t see what it was

"There was a storo You vectored it around your house"

Oh That I hadn&039;t thought anybody noticed My lips were dry again, and so was my mouth "I had to," I said My voice sounded childish and soft Bad Bob&039;s gaze pinned me like I was an insect

"Had to?" he repeated, and traded looks with a couple of the others "Weeping Christ, girl, do you understand what you did? Your interference added force to the store to your house ended up destroying six others Because of you You lack judght I&039;d done the right thing Carefully Precisely The idea that I&039;d s worse elsewhere was a completely new one

"That&039;s a little harsh," said Marion Bearheart She leaned back in her chair and studied me "We&039;ve all screwed the pooch from time to time, Bob You know that Just last year, Paul dumped seventeen inches of rain on a floodplain when he was supposed to produce a summer shower How runted "Thanks for bringing that up as often as possible"

Bad Bob ignored hiet anybody killed"

My heart froze up There was silence around the table Bob shuffled papers and cae of the house were Liza Gutierrez, twenty-nine, and Luis Gutierrez, thirty-one Three children between the ages of nine and two years escaped with the help of neighbors before the ho my own obituary I tried to s Couldn&039;t Looked down at faux woodgrain and blinked back tears I didn&039;t know I didn&039;t know I didn&039;t know The ravelly voice "Bullshit" I looked up to see Paul staring at Bob "Come on, Bob, she deflected the storm, sure, and she didn&039;t take the force vectors and wind speed into account, but it still wasn&039;t a bad job But then, you didn&039;t recheck for changing conditions before you started lowering the ceiling up in the ht to get a little on you, too And for God&039;s sake, people die Without us, the whole Atlantic seaboard would be a pile of corpses- you know that as well as anybody Sometimes you can&039;t save everybody Sometimes you can&039;t even save yourself You know that You of all people"

"Paul," Martin Oliver said quietly "Enough"

Paul shut up So did Bad Bob, who closed the folder Martin Oliver opened his own

"Joanne, reat deal more basic Do you want to be a Warden? It&039;s not an easy life, and it&039;s not especially rewarding You&039;ll never have fah you&039;ll save a lot of lives, you&039;ll never receive gratitude or recognition You&039;ll need to go through another six years of training, ray eyes studied me with absolute impartiality "Some people don&039;t have the temperament for it I understand that you&039;re prone to act first and think later"

I licked my lips "Sometimes"

"Under what circumstances would you believe it was periven? To, for instance, get rid of a violent stor to be a test Daed a look with Bad Bob "What about saving property?"

"U his gray eyes wider "Is there no ti lives?"

My heart was beating too fast; it was hurting my chest I could hardly s for the lump in my throat "No I don&039;t think so"

"What if the property were, say, a nuclear reactor whose destruction ht result in the deaths of thousands ht of that one

"What if the property were the central distribution center for food in a country full of starving people? Would you save the property, or the lives, if by saving lives you starved even more?"

"I don&039;t know," I whispered My hands were shaking I h sawed the air

"She doesn&039;t know Well, that&039;s typical This is e end up with these days, a bunch of kids raised on free lunches who never had to make a decision in their lives more important than what TV shoatch You want to trust her with the power of life and death?" He snorted and shoved h"

"Wait!" I blurted "I&039;m sorry I didn&039;t understand"

Marion Bearheart looked at me from the other side of the table, her warm brown eyes full of compassion "And do you understand now, Joanne?"

"Sure," I lied "I&039;d save the power plant And- and the food"

Silence around the table Bad Bob stood up Nobody argued with him; nobody moved so much as a muscle as he raised his hands at shoulder level

A cloud started for to the ceiling like fog, and then getting denser, taking on for, fueling power

"Hey-," I said "U from each one of the Wardens in the rooy It wasIt was

alive