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That hen Sara figured it out She hadn’t heard anything, because there had been nothing to hear Not like this Not for e of her own accord

She’d done it to protect Sara

By uilt was excruciating She never should have tried to get Jackie out of the plant, never confronted Sod the way she had She’d all but painted a target on the wo away The virals in the feedlot ate just after dusk; Sara had seen the trucks Livestock carriers cra cows, but also the less vans that were used to move prisoners from the detention center One was always parked at the rear of the hospital, itsplain to anyone who cared to consider it

The cols supervising the grinding teaht she could have worked with, but with Whistler watching, Sara didn’t see how There was only one solution she could think of She topped off her bushel basket, lifted it frorinder, and stopped

"Oh," Sara cried She let the basket drop, clutching her sto, to her knees For a rinders her deone unnoticed She a her midriff

"Sara, what is it?" One of the other wo over her

"It hurts! It hurts!"

"Get up or they’ll see you!"

Another voice broke through: Vale’s "What’s going on here?"

Constance backed away "I don’t know, sir She justcollapsed"

"Fisher? What’s wrong with you?"

Sara didn’t answer, just kept up with thein a few spastic kicks for good measure A circle of onlookers had formed around her "Appendix," she said

"What did you say?"

She clenched her face with manufactured pain "I thinkit’s h the crowd, pushing onlookers aside with her baton "What’s her proble’s wrong with her pendix"

"What are you people looking at?" Whistler barked "Get back to work" Then, to Vale: "What do you want to do with her?"

"Fisher, can you walk?"

"Please," she gasped "I need a doctor"

"She says she needs a doctor," Vale reported

"Yeah, I heard that, Vale" The woet her out of here"

They helped her to a pickup parked behind the plant and laid her in the back Sara kept up the rocking and otiation ensued: should one of them take her or should they call for a driver?

"Fuck it, I’ll take her," Whistler said "Knowing you, you’ll dither all day"

The trip to the hospital took ten minutes; Sara used theetting to the hospital, to find Jackie before the van took her away; she hadn’t considered the next step It seeood cards First, she wasn’t really sick; once she experienced a miraculous recovery, it didn’t seem likely that they’d ship a perfectly able-bodied woman off to the feedlot Second, she was a nurse Sara wasn’t sure how she’d put this fact to use-she’d have to ie to convince the person in charge that Jackie wasn’t as ill as she appeared

Orshe did would h the hospital doors, she’d never cohed it, did not appear entirely bad, thus giving her a third card to play: the card of not caring anymore if she lived or died

Whistler pulled up to the hospital entrance, strode back to the cargo bed, and dren the tailgate

"Out with you Let’s go"

"I don’t think I can walk"

"Well, you’ll have to try, because I’ you"