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"This whole thing has had it, hasn’t it?" he said glu to do I’m not a mind reader"

"Do you think he believes us?"

Alicia said nothing Her eyes had gone away again Then, with a quizzical expression:

"Peter, do you remember that movie Dracula?"

Theit with Vorhees’s ht Alicia had returned from the mission that had found the nest of virals in an old copper mine

"I didn’t know you saw it"

"Saw it? Hell, I studied it The thing is like a viral owner’s manual Never mind the cape and castle and all that nonsense It’s the rest that fits A hued’ Using the stake in the heart to kill him The way he has to sleep in his native soil The whole business with the as," Peter cut in "I thought the sa"

"It’s as if their reflection, I don’t know, screws them up sooing with this?"

She hesitated "Soed at me, a piece I couldn’t place Dracula has a sort of adjutant Somebody who still looks human"

Peter remembered "The crazy one who eats the spiders"

"That’s the guy Renfield Dracula infects him, but he doesn’t flip, at least not coes of infection It got , what if they all have so at him keenly now "Do you remember what Olson said about Jude?"

Olson was the leader of the community they’d found in Nevada, the Haven-a whole town of people ould sacrifice their own to Babcock, First of Twelve Olson had been noed that it was Jude who really ran the place He had soh its nature had gone unexplained

" ’He wasfamiliar,’ " Peter quoted "I never understood what Olsona gun at his head"

"So I was And believe one ahead and pulled the trigger But I don’t think it was gibberish I looked up the word at the library back in Kerrville The dictionary said the definition was archaic, so I had to look that up too, which basically just means old It said that a familiar is a kind of helper demon, like a witch’s cat A sort of assistant Maybe that’s what Olson was talking about"

Peter allowed himself several seconds to process this "So what you’re saying is that Ignacio was Martinez’sfaed "Okay, it’s a stretch I’ to consider is the signal Ignacio had a chip in him, just like Amy and the Twelve That ar any of this?"

"Are you serious? I’h trouble as it is"

Peter didn’t doubt that Nor did he doubt that whatever blame she had incurred for the botched raid on the cave was his as well

Alicia rose to go "Either e should know et back fro for now I know you think you’re indispensible, but we can get along without you for a few days"

"You’re notme feel any better"

She sain, Lieutenant You only get that once"

As she moved toward the door, Peter said, "Lish, hold up a second"

She spun to look at hinacio said ’He left us’ What do you think it means?"

"I don’t have an answer for that All I know is he should have been there"

"Where do you think he went?"

She didn’t answer right away A shadowfro Peter had seen before Even in the most perilous circumstances, her coiving her attention to the task at hand This was siy wasn’t the same It seemed to come from a deeper place

"I wish I knew," she said, and slipped her glasses on "Believewith her departure Peter felt her absence immediately, as he always did It was true: they were always leaving each other

Peter did not see her again Six days later, he was released His ribs would need longer to heal, and he would have to take it easy for a couple of weeks, but at least he was out of bed Making his way across the garrison to report for duty, a surge lifted his steps The sensation reo when, just a boy, he’d been sick with a high fever, and after the fever had broken how just being up and about ed with a fresh vitality

Yet so appeared norenerators, the ordered movements of military activity all around-yet he sensed a shift, a discernible lessening of intensity

He entered the co behind his desk of batteredat a stack of papers

"Jaxon I didn’t expect to see you for a couple ?"

The question struck Peter as uncharacteristically personal "Fine, sir Thank you for asking"

"Take a seat, won’t you?"

For a while Apgar continued to shift his papers Though not a large man-Peter stood at least two hands taller-the colonel exuded a strong, physical presence, hiswasted After a period of tiht have been two fullto the documents and lowered himself into his chair to face Peter across the desk

"I have new orders for you They ca in the pouch fro, I want you to know this has nothing to do hat happened in Carlsbad I’ve been expecting this for some time, actually"

The last of Peter’s hopes sank beneath the waves Going, going, gone "We’re abandoning the hunt, aren’t we?"

" ’Abandoning’ would be too strong a word Putting under review There’s a feeling at Command that so, you’re being transferred to the Oil Road"

It orse than Peter had expected "That’s a job for Domestic Security"

"Generally, yes But this isn’t without precedent, and it comes from the president’s office Apparently she’s of the opinion that security for oil shipments has been too lax, and she wants the Army to take a role A transport leaves at the end of the week for Kerrville, and I want you on it From there you’ll report to the DS in Freeport"

Despite what Apgar said, Peter knew the decision had everything to do with Carlsbad He was being demoted-if not in rank, then in responsibility

"You can’t do that, sir"

A lift of his eyebrows, no more "Perhaps I misheard you, Lieutenant I could swear you just told me what I could and could not do"