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"Yes, I saw Edilio there," Sanjit said

"Shouldn’t you" Howard uely

"Yeah, I should call for a stretcher and get hiht to the intensive care unit," Sanjit said with contained fury "I’ll get hien machine and pump him full of antibiotics Or maybe I’ll just see if he lives or dies because that’s really all I can do All right?"

Howard took a step back in the face of the slender boy’s anger

"Didn’t mean to," he said, and followed at a safe distance as Sanjit dragged the body off the curb and onto the blacktop

Sanjit stopped halfway across and stared at the sky

"What’s that? Is that a cloud?"

"Oh, that? Yeah, it’s raining More weirdness," Howard said

"What? It’s raining? Like, water?"

"Yeah, water It was a shock tothe FAYZ you’d expect it to be raining fire or dog turds or sos "Chooooo!"

A few seconds later, his chubby African brother ca alarmed

"Water!" Sanjit said

"Where?" Virtue demanded

Sanjit pointed with his chin "Get a bucket Get every bucket you can find!"

Virtue gaped, then ran

Sanjit resu the corpse

"Listen, dude," Howard said "I need Lana You knoho I mean? The Healer"

"You have a boo-boo?" Sanjit snarked "She’s kind of busy trying to save a couple of creeps Edilio shot"

"Where?"

"Astrid’s house I don’t knohere it is How about you either help et lost?"

"I’ll choose B"

Astrid’s house Okay That would bepretty ht directly under the cloud

Well, well, Howard thought as the truth dawned on him

"Little Pete," he said "So that’s out there, then Well, buckle up, Howard, buckle up"

Quinn and his creere pulling toward shore, far later than usual They’d had a tough day of it After aone of the boats floating again They had unknowingly run it ashore and scraped a hidden rock A gash had been gouged in the botto a way to patch it

Fortunately it was one of the wooden hulls, not one of the lass ones; those would have been i back to town for equipment