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The

"You fking people," the driver said His eyes narrowed in the mirror "You kno many of my friends you killed?"

"Is that what you call theh, "you should see these things They are going to rip you apart"

The van was bouncing through deep potholes, jostling the chains "What’s your name?" Amy asked

The driver frowned; it wasn’t the kind of question he expected from a woman on the way to her execution

"Go on, tell her," the other le his face to the opening: "He’s Ween"

"Ween?" Amy repeated

"Yeah, everyone calls hiot a short one"

"Ha, ha," the driver said "Ha, ha, ha, ha"

The conversation seeain

"That thing you told Guilder," he said Aoing to happen I ht?"

Ahts deep into his eyes At once the driver sto the secondbackward again as the vehicle behind thelass and crunchingwith you?" The second h his fingers "You broke my nose, you ahole!"

The convoy had co on the driver’s

"What’s going on? Why did you stop?"

The driver replied sluggishly: "I don’t know My foot fell asleep or souard said He was holding out his bloodied hands for the man at theto see "Look what this idiot did"

"Do you need another driver?"

Aave his head a dislodging shake "I’m okay I justI don’t know It eird I’m fine"

The ht? We’re alan to creep forward again

"You are an unbelievable dick, you know that?"

The driver didn’t answer He darted his eyes to A in the mirror A split second, but she saw the fear in them Then he looked away

2140 hours Hollis and Michael were crouched in the alley behind the apothecary Using binoculars, they’d watched A loaded into the van, followed by the departure of the convoy for the stadium The assault team that would take the Dome, a dozen men and women armed with firearms and pipe bombs, was still concealed in the stor do ait?" Michael said

The question was rhetorical; Hollis h the city had an empty feel, the entrance to the Doent of at least twentythey weren’t saying was that they had no way of knowing if Sara and Kate were even in the building or how to find theuards-a chain of contingencies that in the abstract had seemed surmountable but that now rose before them with stark definition

"Don’t worry about Lore," Hollis said "That girl can take care of herself, believe me"

"Did I say I orried?" But of course Michael was He orried about all of the the scene with the binoculars "She’d be good for you Better than Lish"

Michael was taken aback "What are you talking about?"

Hollis pulled the lenses away and looked hiood liar You remember ere kids, the way you tent at it? It couldn’t have been more obvious even then"

"It was?"

"To ed his broad shoulders and looked through the binoculars again "Mostly you Lish I could never read"

Michael tried to asse as he could remember, there had been a place in his mind where Lish stood He’d done his best to suppress his feelings, since nothing good could coed to taed it at all "Do you think Peter knows?"

"Lore’s the one to worry about The girl doesn’t miss much But you’d have to ask hi without knowing it" Hollis tensed "Hold up"

A vehicle was approaching They pressed thehts blazed down the alley Michael held his breath Five seconds, then ten; the truck moved away

"You ever shot anybody?" Hollis asked quietly

"Just virals"

"Trust , it’s not as hard as you think"

Despite the cold, Michael had begun to perspire His heart was haet her, all right?" he said "Get them both"

Hollis nodded

"I h that door"

"We’ll both go"

"Not fros You need to be the one, Hollis Understand? Don’t stop"

Hollis looked at him

"Just so that’s clear," said Michael

Like the others, Lore and Greer had successfully faded into the crowd Where the lines of flatlanders separated, they nudged their way into the strea directed to the second tier, then the third, and finally the top of the stands They met beneath the stairs that led to the control rooms