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A wave of sorrow broke inside her How she longed to comfort him, to take him in her arms Yet she knew that if she attempted this, were she to move even one step closer, the dreaain

-I do Of course I do There’s nothing to forgive

There’s sointently at his hands About Lila, and Eva Our own little girl You were so much like her

-You didn’t have to, Daddy I knew, I knew I always knew

You filled my heart, Amy That’s what you did for me You filled the place where Eva had been But I couldn’t save you any more than I could save her

As if these words had willed it, the iun to recede, the space between the two of the like a hallway A sudden desperation took her in its grip

It’s good to reht, I think I’ll stay here for a while

He was leaving her, he was telescoping away

-Daddy, please Don’t go

My brave girl My brave A all this tio to him when the time comes

-What ship? I don’t know any ship

But her pleas were no use; the dreaone He was poised at the very edge of the enveloping darkness

-Please, Daddy, she cried Don’t leave me I don’t knohat to do

At last he turned his face toward her and found her with his eyes Bright, shining, piercing her heart

Oh, I don’t think I will ever leave you, Amy

Chapter 25

CAMP VORHEES, WEST TEXAS

Western Headquarters of the Expeditionary

Though Lieutenant Peter Jaxon was a decorated ns and a man about whom stories were told, he sometimes felt as if his life had stopped

He waited for orders; he waited for chow; he waited for the latrine He waited for the weather to break, and when it didn’t, he waited sos he waited for For days and weeks and sometimes even months he waited, as if his ti, as if he were ai in the coar and the others had been sealed away Peter had begun to fear the worst For months they’d all heard the rumors: if the task force didn’t kill one soon, the hunt would be abandoned

Five years since his ride up thethe Twelve Five years with nothing to show for it

Houston, home of Anthony Carter, subject Nuical place to start, if the place hadn’t been an impenetrable swamp So, too, New Orleans, home of Number Five, Thaddeus Turrell Tulsa, Oklaho but disaster; the city was a vast ruin, dracs everywhere, and they’d lost sixteentheir escape

There were others Jefferson City, Missouri Oglala, South Dakota Everett, Washington Blooton, Minnesota Orlando, Florida Black Creek, Kentucky Niagara Falls, New York All distant and unreachable, many miles and years away Tacked to the inside of the lid of his locker Peter kept a map, each of these cities circled in ink The seats of the Twelve To kill one of the Twelve was to kill his descendants, to free their minds for the journey into death Or so Peter believed That hat Lacey had taught him when she’d exploded the bomb that killed Babcock, subject Nu from Lacey’s cabin into the snowy field, where the Many had lain in the sun to die

You are Smith, you are Tate, you are Dupree, you are Erie Rauyen Elberson Lazaro Torres

They had been a group of ten then Now they were six Peter’s brother was gone, and Maus, and Sara, too Of the five that had made the trip to Roswell Garrison, only Hollis and Caleb had escaped-"Baby Caleb," though he was hardly a baby any raised by the sisters When the virals had broken through the Roswell Garrison’s perimeter, Hollis had run with Caleb to one of the hardboxes Theo and Maus were already dead No one knehat became of Sara; she had vanished into the melee Hollis had looked for her body in the after The only explanation was that she’d been taken up

The years had scattered the others like the wind Michael was at the refinery in Freeport, an oiler first class Greer, who had joined them in Colorado, was in the stockade, sentenced to six years for deserting his command And who knehere Hollis was The man they’d known and loved like a brother had broken under the weight of Sara’s death, his grief casting him into the dark underbelly of the city, the world of the trade Peter had heard he’d risen through the ranks to becoroup, only Peter and Alicia had joined the hunt

And Aht of her often She looked very irl of fourteen, not the 103 she actually was-butThe Girl from Nowhere, who spoke only in riddles when she spoke at all, was no more In her place was a person much more present, more human She spoke often of her past, not just her lonely years of wandering but her earliest memories of the Time Before: of her mother, and Lacey, and a caast Not her real father, Amy said, she had never knoho that was, but a father nonetheless Whenever she spoke of hirief entered her eyes Peter kneithout asking that he had died to protect her, and that this was a debt she could never repay, though sheto do just that

She ith Caleb now, aray frock of the Order Peter didn’t think Amy shared their beliefs-the sisters were a dour lot, professing a philosophical and physical chastity to reflect their conviction that these were the last days of huuise, one Amy could easily pass off Based on what had happened at the Colony, they’d all agreed that A anybody outside the leadership should know

Peter walked to the mess, where he passed an empty hour His platoon, twenty-four men, had just returned froeables; luck had been on their side, and they’d coest prize had been a junkyard of old tires In a day or two they’d return with a truck to take asplant in Kerrville

The senior officers had been in the tent for hours What could they be talking about?