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After that, there wasn’t much of a story He’dsteady, ht ways to Sunday he hadn’t set foot within a hundred yards of a playground or school His court-ordered regiens was standard, as was a fresh psychiatric evaluation every six months By all accounts, Lawrence Grey was a model citizen, at least as far as a chemically neutered childto tell Guilder how the man had survived Soed to avoid getting himself killed since then It simply made no sense

Nelson’s new plan was to retraffic all the cell towers in Kansas and Nebraska, shutting down both states for a period of two hours and trying to isolate the signal from Grey’s chip Under usual circumstances, this would have required a federal court order, a pile of paperwork ten h, and a month’s lead time, but Nelson had used a back channel at Horeed to issue a special executive order under Article 67 of the Doence community as the "Do Whatever the Fuck You Want" Act The chip in Grey’s neck was a loattage trans else was cleared out, and assu Grey passed within a few ulate his position and retarget a satellite to get a picture

The shutdoas scheduled for eight AM Guilder had co away at his ter from the earbuds stuffed in the sides of his head

"Let Mozart work," he said, shooing Guilder away

Guilder was running on coffee and adrenaline; he went down to the break roo machines; he’d already paid his three dollars for a Snickers when he realized it would take too ot a Reese’s, but even that, with the sticky peanut butter, was difficult He snapped on the TV, tuned it to CNN New cases were suddenly popping up all over: A its New York headquarters, relocating to The Hague; once martial laas declared, the military would be recalled from overseas What a fiasco that would be It would make Pandora’s box look like a picnic basket

Nelson appeared in the door "Bon," he declared with a grin "Houston, we have a sex offender"

Nelson had already targeted the satellite By the ti in

"Where the hell is this?"

Nelson worked the keyboard, bringing the picture into focus "Western Kansas"

A grid of cornfields ca building with a grid of parking spaces in front A single vehicle, soure stepped frouy?" Nelson asked

"I’e faded, then resolved again, assuhty feet Now Guilder felt certain he was looking at Lawrence Grey He’d changed out of his ju; a ed with a second suitcase, which he deposited in the car’s cargo coht Then a second figure e, a wo slacks and a light-colored blouse

What the hell?

They had less than thirty seconds left Already the picture had begun to lose its crispness Grey opened the passenger door; the wolanced around the parking lot onewatched He got into the vehicle and drove away, just as the ie dissolved into sparkles of static

Nelson looked up froet made a friend From the psych workup, I have to say I’m a little surprised"

"Call back the last shot with the woman in it See if we can enhance it"

Nelson tried, but the results were only ais?"

Nelson had slid his chair to an adjacent terht-twelve Main Street, Ledeau, Kansas A place called Angie’s Resort"

Who was she? What was Lawrence Grey doing with a wo?"

"Looks like straight east He’s headed right into the thick of it If you want to grab him, we’d betteroutside the quarantine line"

More taps of the keys; then Nelson said, "The closest for so like this would be the old NBC lab in Fort Powell The Ar to White Sands, but it should be an easy hts turned on"

"What else is around there?"

"Not a lot except for Midwest State, which is about three miles east It’s your basic football factory with a few classrooot a National Guard arhtThere’s a small IAC hydroelectric facility, but it was er one downstreae"

Guilder took a moment to think They were the only ones who knew about Grey, at least so far Probably it was ti in the CDC and USAMRIID

Yet he hesitated Partly because of the bad taste in his o dohen Central Command learned that they’d put Lear’s monstrosities under the surveillance of a bunch of paroled sex offenders? He’d never hear the end of it

But that wasn’t the real reason

A cure for everything Weren’t those Lear’s exact words? Wasn’t that where the whole un? And if Grey was infected but for some reason hadn’t flipped, was it possible that the virus in his blood had changed so the very result Lear had hoped for? That he was in every way a prize as valuable as the girl? And wasn’t it also true that, although death was everyone’s proble and personal-evento chance? Didn’t he have soht to muster whatever resources he could on behalf of his own survival? Wouldn’t anybody do the sah But some of us more than others

Maybe Grey was his answer, and maybe he wasn’t Maybe he was just soed to claw his way out of a burning building and avoid the glowsticks long enough to make his way to Kansas But the more Guilder ruminated over it, theAnd once he turned thefro to happen Horace Guilder, deputy director of the Division of Special Weapons, would keep Lawrence Grey for hi at him Guilder calculated the mechanics Who else did he need? Nelson wasn’t somebody Guilder would have described as loyal, but for the ti he could appeal to the man’s nad self-interest, and he was the best person for the job, a one-man band of biochemical kno Sooner or later he’d catch wind of what Guilder was up to, and decisions would have to be e Guilder would cross when he ca the pickup: there was always somebody off the books for tasks like that One phone call and everything would be set into Iowa"

Chapter 13

Sunrise of the second day: they were deep into Nebraska now Danny, hunched over the wheel, his eyes stinging with sleeplessness, had driven through the night Everyone except for Kittridge had fallen asleep, even the obnoxious one, Jaain To be useful, a useful engine

They’d found more diesel at a sh were e from a movie about the Old West Okay, so e and the otheras they kept heading east That’s all you got to do, Danny, Kittridge said Just keep us headed east

He thought of what he’d seen on the highway That was really so He’d seen a lot of bodies in the last couple of days, but nothing as bad as that He liked Kittridge, who sort of reminded him of Mr Purvis Not that he looked like Mr Purvis, because he didn’t at all It was the way the man spoke to Danny-as if he ht about Momma, and Mr Purvis, and Tho How proud of hi over the horizon, , everyone would be awake Kittridge leaned over his shoulder

"Hoe doing on gas?"

Danny checked They were down to a quarter tank

"Let’s pull over and refill fros a bit"