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"Always it’s tomorrow" Fred Wilkes was a triht blue eyes; in the heat he’d re a fan of dohite chest hair He and his wife, as generously proportioned as he was undersized-Jack Sprat and theacross fro a cardboard box as a table "If it doesn’t happen soon, people are going to lose patience And what then?"

Kittridge stepped back outside They were surrounded by soldiers, safe for the ti for so the fence line at one hundred ical ate Abutting the ca without visible e, its entrance flanked by concrete barricades While Kittridge watched, a pair of sleek black heliocpters approached from the east, turned in a wide circle, and touched down on the rooftop Four figures elasses and baseball caps and Kevlar vests, carrying autoht Blackbird, maybe, or Riverstone One of those outfits The four men proceeded to take up positions at the corners of the roof

The doors of the second helicopter opened Kittridge placed a hand to his brow to get a better look For aan orange biosuit Five more followed The rotors of the helicopters were still turning A brief negotiation ensued, then the biosuited figures re steel boxes froo section, each the approximate dimensions of a coffin, heeled frauided the two boxes to a small, hutlike structure on the roof-a service elevator, Kittridge guessed A few minutes passed; the six reappeared and boarded the second helicopter First one and then the other lifted off, thudding away

April came up behind him "I noticed that, too," she said "Any idea what it is?"

"Maybe nothing" Kittridge dropped his hand "Where’s Ti soccer with soht Whatever it was, Kittridge thought, it wasn’t nothing

"You think we’ll be okay here?" April asked

"Why wouldn’t we be?"

"I don’t know" Though her face said she did; she was thinking the saht, in the labWhat I mean is, I can be like that sometimes I didn’t mean to pry"

"I wouldn’t have told you if I didn’t want to"

She was so both toward hi older than she was Not seehteen?"

She seeed to hide his embarrassment; the question had just popped out "No I mean yes, you do I was justI don’t know"

April was plainly enjoying herself "A girl’s not supposed to tell But to put your hteen years, two months, and seventeen days Not that I’"

Their eyes met and held in the way they seee wondered, this April?

"I still owe you for the gun," she said, "even if they took it I think it ave me, actually"

"I liked the poeain?"

"T S Eliot"

"He got any other stuff?"

"Not much that makes sense You ask me, he was kind of a one-hit wonder"

They had no weapons, no way to get a e wondered if they shouldn’t have just kept driving

"Well, e get out of here, I’ll have to check him out"

Chapter 17

Grey

Whiteness, and the sensation of floating Grey becae, because the car was also a motel room, with beds and dressers and a television; when had they startedon the foot of one of the beds, driving the roole from the floor; the television was the windshield-and seated on the adjacent bed was Lila, clutching a pink bundle to her chest "Are we there yet, Lawrence?" Lila asked hiht Grey When had that happened? Wasn’t she months away? "She’s so beautiful," said Lila, softly cooing "We have such a beautiful baby It’s too bad we have to shoot her" "Why do we have to shoot her?" Grey asked "Don’t be silly," said Lila "We shoot all the babies now That way they won’t be eaten"

Lawrence Grey

The drea, while another part did not-and Grey was in the tank now Soet him, but he couldn’tthe blood His job was to drink it, drink it all, which was ih the hatch, filling the co above his chin, his -

Lawrence Grey Wake up

He opened his eyes to a harsh light Soh So apart, its i only a residue of fear

Where was he?

Soown, but that was all; he felt the chill of nadness beneath it Thick straps bound his wrists and ankles to the rails of the bed, holding hius Wires snaked froown to a cart of ht arm

Somebody was in the roo at the foot of the bed in their bulky biosuits, their faces shielded by plastic h on the wall in the corner, watching the scene with its unblinking gaze, a security camera

"Mr Grey, I’m Horace Guilder," the one on the left said His tone of voice struck Grey as oddly cheerful "This is ?"

Grey did his best to focus on their faces The one who’d spoken looked anonyed, with a heavy, square-jawed head and pasty skin; the second gly little Vandyke He didn’t look like any doctor Grey had ever met

He licked his lips and sed "What is this place? Why a tone "That’s for your own protection, Mr Grey Until we figure out what’s wrong with you As for where you are," he said, "I’m afraid I can’t tell you that just yet Suffice it to say that you’re a friends here"

Grey realized they must have sedated him; he could barely move a muscle, and it wasn’t just the straps His lih his brain with a lazy ai a cup of water to his lips

"Go on, drink"

Grey’s sto, like sohts cahts: the blood in the tank, and Grey’s face buried greedily in it Had that actually happened? Had he dreamed it? But no sooner had these questions for see to life inside hiainst the straps

"Whoa now," Guilder said, backing away suddenly "Steady there"

More i The tank in the road, the dead soldiers, and explosions all around; the feel of his hand crashing through the Volvo’s , and the fields detonating with fire, and the car sailing through the corn, and the bright lights of the helicopter, and the space-suitedLila away

"Where is she? What have you done with her?"