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I shivered
My cheeseburger was greasy but filling I wasn&039;t overly concerned about cholesterol; with the Deh to care I felt it , and I flattened my palm over my breast I wanted to squash it flatter than the tattoo it resembled, but it existedI could do I felt its pulse against ers on my blue jeans convulsively and tried a sip of Coke, aspirated down the wrong pipe, choked and coughed Maybe it wasslip the leash a little too hty , when I heard the wail of a siren start up and I looked inblue and red behindthe evening news by trying to outrun theulped deep breaths and fumbled the Coke back into the cupholder Downshifted Pulled over to the side Delilah&039;s engine growled, frustrated at the delay, and I sy as I waited The cops didn&039;t get out of their cruiser for a good three istration andwarrantswhich, unless they were Wardens, I didn&039;t have I wiped ot out, one on either side, and did a slow,walk up toward me
I had already rolled down the , and the s wafted in, sild-flowers I knew I looked a mess, and I verified it in the mirror-yep, circles under dark blue eyes, no makeup, lank, needed-to-be-washed black hair I smelled, too I needed a shower and sleep
The cop appeared at ht that, like Rahel, he&039;d planned it for effect
His lasses reflected my pallid face and istration, and insurance"
I handed them over He took them without comment, but didn&039;t look at them yet
"You fro were from the Sunshine State It wasn&039;t a psychic leap
"Yes, sir Saint Petersburg"
"Uh-huh" Hethis beauty pretty hard"
"I&039;ot away frootten away from me in my entire life
"You really have to watch it, a car like this It&039;s a lot of power for-" He had been, I thought, about to say such a little lady, but sensitivity training had paid off "-for everyday driving"
"Thank you, sir, I will" Was that a dark cloud lasses to go by, but I could have sworn there was a cloud
"Just a minute, miss" He went aith oing on above ht, and sawlike a nest of worh the crystalline roof of the Mustang, and I was staring straight down the throat of Hell
What was happening up there wasn&039;t obeying any natural laws It was being forced to happen I tried to reach for the clouds, the winds, the pressures, but I got shoved aside like a child So from the exosphere on down, all the way to the friction layer Red flickered in the clouds, and as I watched, it shifted spectruative
Whatever was about to fall onto fall very hard
The cop popped back in ht, he was a burly, twisted-looking bastard, probably neither good nor bad, but nothing I wanted to tangle with He handed ned He probably said so I probably responded He handed back et back in his car, but it wouldn&039;t have been a good idea; I clutched the ticket in one sweaty palear Carefully The cops got in their cruiser and sat there, writing up records I felt a lurch of reliefAt least they weren&039;t going to be fried like eggs on the pavement Now all I had to worry about was me
"Easy," I chanted to Delilah "Easy, easy, easy" We drove, holding it to the speed lirew and swirled and ain, I tried to defuse it, but whatever force controlled it had effectively shut o I wondered if Hell planned to wait that long
The stor like a balloon tethered to the antenna of ists, not being in the know or having Oversight, were unable to predict the consequences, but their outlook was griht-the outlook was gri, I eaty and tre practically drove itself, but I&039;d worn rip on the factors that were driving the weather syste to work on the stor weather
It was a special kind of torment The person who&039;d created the stor to stop it, and the stress ofwhen and where it would strike was half the fun for the sick bastard I thought longingly of Paul Maybe if I called himor RashidNo, they were in this up to their necks already, and if they hadn&039;t already solved this proble forand brute-forced this thing together, and if it hadn&039;t been broken up yet by the combined power of the Wardens, it had one hell of a power supply behind it When I looked at it in Oversight, there was no clear identification, nobody lurking nearby to blah to do it at a great distance without traveling in Oversight to touch it That was-incredible And really, really scary Who the hell could ht Senior Wardens, World Councilsuddenly
The world slid by, shadowed by hovering clouds Spring still tried to be cheerful but lost color as the sun disappeared Birds fled withwest Other cars moved in for to make it despite the odds; I didn&039;t have a choice Stopping would be suicide Driving on was just as bad
I&039;d be out of gas by Columbus
Think I was a Weather Warden, da on to the best possible reputation these days, but I was daain I wiped them, one at a time, and took another s of soft drink My throat was so dry, it clicked On the seat beside me lay the crumpled wad of ticket that I hadn&039;t even bothered to read If I survived this drive, I&039;d survive a fine from the Pennsylvania State Troopers
Back at school, old Yorenson had always said there was no such thing as an unstoppable weather system Weather was as delicate as a house of cards Remove one card, and the structure would start to collapse; the trick was to plan the collapse A perfect execution, he&039;d said, would negate the threat and create a beneficial environ about it wrong I&039;d been prodding at the storether; e its location I reached for my cell phone and dialed it one-handed froot to be kidding Are you crazy, calling ree-"
"Yeah, I know it&039;s centered right over you" He sounded depressed; I wondered if there was soht you, Joanne You fuck around with the weather, it will fuck around with you"
"This ain&039;t a stor"
"The brain trust thinks it&039;s you That you&039;ve gone over the edge"
"Brilliant," I sighed "Just brilliant You know better"
"I&039;h to taste blood Blood and ozone The stor like a pinwheel Other cars had run for cover I was driving all alone now, and up ahead I saw another s out of ti, daether, I don&039;t knoho the hell did It&039;s stronger than anything I&039;ve ever seen-"
"We need to do this together I need you to create a cold downdraft over the top of this thing You&039;re going to do it fast and hard"
He grunted "We tried that Didn&039;t work"
"You do it at the saht to be able to pop this sucker straight up about twentythe crap out of it with an adiabatic process I need it in the mesosphere, Paul We have to rob it of the fuel or we can&039;t pull it to pieces"
Paul was quiet for a few seconds, then said, "Give ot to be precise"
"It&039;ll be precise"
I sensed he was about to hang up and talked fast "You got a line to Rashid?"
"Yeah"
"Apologize for me in advance, and tell hi up