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"Texas hold ’em, twenty-dollar ante from the looks of it A bit rich forthe room for Hollis "We should try to blend in How ave it all to Sister Peg"

Michael sighed "Of course you did You’re consistent, I’ll give you that"

"The two of you," Lore said "What a couple of pussies Watch and learn, my friends"

She strode up to the closest table and took a chair From the pocket of her jeans she withdread of bills, peeled off two, and tossed thelass, the contents of which she doith a toss of her sun-bleached hair The dealer laid out two cards for each player; then the betting began For the first four hands Lore see with the other players, folding quickly with a roll of her eyes Then, on the fifth, with no discernible change in her derew; Peter guessed there were at least three hundred Austins sitting there for the taking One by one the others dropped out until just a single player re a hydro’s jumpsuit The last card was dealt; stone-faced, Lore put down five more bills The man shook his head and folded his cards

"Okay, I’m impressed," said Peter, as Lore raked in the pot They were standing off to the side, close enough to watch without see to "How did she do that?"

"She cheats"

"Really? I don’t see how"

"It’s pretty simple, actually The cards are all ure it out One player at the table is playing for the house so it always coure out who it was and how to read the cards It also doesn’t hurt that she’s a wo her seriously They assuood cards, that she’ll fold when she doesn’t Three-quarters of the ti"

"What happens when they realize what she’s doing?"

"They won’t, not right away She’ll throw a hand or two"

"And then?"

"Then it’s time to leave"

A sudden commotion drew their attention to the rear of the room A dark-haired woman, her dress torn from her shoulders, arh the curtain, screaed, his pants bunched co a foot off the floor-suspended, Peter realized, by a h the air, Peter recognized hi corporal from Satch’s squad who had driven the transport from Camp Vorhees The second man, mountainous, the lower half of his face buried in a salt-and-pepper beard, was Hollis

"Aha," said Michael

With impressive nonchalance, Hollis hauled theprofanities, jabbing a finger at the two of them-Kill this fker! I don’t have to put up with this shit! Do you heardead, you ahole!-as Hollis half-shoved, half-levitated him toward the exit

"That’s our cue," Peter said

At a quickstep theyup behind the desperate apologies, was si to pull up his pants and scaave no sign While the two guards looked on, laughing uproariously, Hollis hoisted the corporal by the waistband and propelled hiain, Peter called his na instant the nize them Then he made a small sound of surprise "Peter Hola"

The corporal was still squir! Thisto killed drolly "I suppose, since he’s one of yours, I could let it go this one tio and I’ll never come back, I swear it!"

Peter directed his attention to the terrified soldier, whose name, he recalled, was Udall "Corporal Where are you supposed to be? Don’t bullshit et there, soldier"

"Thank you, sir! You won’t regret it!"

"I already do Now get out ofup his pants

"I wasn’t going to really hurt him," Hollis said "Just put a scare into him"

"What did he do?"

"Tried to kiss her That’s not allowed"

The offense seemed minor Given all Peter had seen, it didn’t seem like an offense at all "Really?"

"Those are the rules Pretty oes except for that It’s lanced past Peter "Michael, it’s good to see you It’s been a while You’re looking well"

"Same here This is Lore"

Hollis smiled in her direction "Oh, I knoho you are It’s nice to finally have a proper introduction, though Hoere the cards tonight?"

"Not too bad," Lore replied "The plant at table three is a real chu started"

The man’s expression hardened a discernible notch "Don’t judge s work here in a certain way, that’s all"

"You have my word We all know " He searched for the words "Well What you went through"

A mo this isn’t a social call"

Peter glanced over his shoulder at the two door

"Is there someplace we could talk?"

Hollis met them two hours later at his house, a tarpaper shack on the western edge of H-town Though the outside was anony hos of dried herbs hanging fro beams Hollis lit the stove and put on a pan of water for tea while the others waited at the small table

"I make it with les on the table "Grow it myself in a little patch out back"

Peter explained what had happened on the Oil Road and the things Apgar had told hi his beard between sips

"So can you take us to him?" Peter asked

"That’s not the issue Tifty’s no one you want to ht about that I can vouch for you, but those guys are nobody to fool with My say-so will only go so far Military isn’t exactly welcoht, he may be able to tell us where Amy and Greer went All of this is connected That’s what Apgar was telling ht, the saht be responsible for what happened at Roswell, too" Peter hated to press, but the next question needed to be asked "What do you remember?"

A look of sudden pain swept Hollis’s face "Peter, there’s no use in this, okay? I didn’t see anything I just grabbed Caleb and ran Maybe I should have done things differently Believe ht about it But with the baby "

"No one’s saying different"