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Lacey was going in circles now, looking for a way out, finding none Lions were roaring, baboons, meerkats, the monkeys she’d listened to frohts The sounds came fro like the sound of gunfire, like the gunfire in the field, like herfrom the doorway: Run away, run away as fast as you can

She stopped And that hen she felt it Felt him The shadow Thefor Amy, Lacey knew that now That’s what the ani her The dark man would take Amy to the field where the branches were, the ones Lacey had watched for hours and hours as she lay and looked at the sky as it paled fro to her and the cries co from her mouth; but she had sent her h the branches to heaven, where God was, and the girl in the field was someone else, nobody she reht that would keep her safe forever

The stinging taste of salt was in her mouth, but it wasn’t just the water froh the shi Amy fiercely as she ran Then she saw it: the snack stand It appeared before her like a beacon, the snack stand with the big uht the peanuts, and beyond it, standing open like a ate of the exit Guards in their yellow jerseys were barking into their walkie-talkies and waving people frantically through Lacey took a deep breath andAmy to her chest

She was just a few feet froripped her aruards With his free hand he gestured over her head to so

Lacey Lacey

"Ma’am, please come with me-"

She didn’t wait With a shove she pushed forith all the strength she had left, felt the crowd bending Behind her she heard the grunts and cries of people falling as she broke free, and the guard calling out for her to stop; but they were through the gate now, Lacey tearing down the pathway into the parking lot and the sound of sirens drawing near She eating and breathing hard and knew that at anybut it didn’t ht, away Run as fast as you can, children Aith Amy, away

Then, from behind her, somewhere in the zoo, she heard a rifle shot The sound cleaved the air, freezing Lacey in her tracks In the sudden silence of its after to a stop in front of her Aainst her chest It was their van, Lacey saw, the one the sisters used, the big blue van they drove to the Pantry and to run errands Sister Claire was driving, still in her sweats A second vehicle, a black sedan, pulled in behind theer seat Around the out of the lot

"Lacey, what in the world-"

Two ed from the second vehicle Darkness poured off them Lacey’s heart clenched, her voice stopped in her throat like a cork She didn’t have to look to knohat they were Too late! All lost!

"No!" She was backing away "No!"

Arnette gripped her by the ar at her Hands were trying to wriggle the child free With every ounce of strength Lacey held fast, squeezing the child to her chest "Don’t let them!" she cried "Help me!"

"Sister Lacey, these men are from the FBI! Please, do as they ask!"

"Don’t take her!" Lacey was on the ground now "Don’t take her! Don’t take her!"

It was Arnette, after all; it was Sister Arnette as taking A and fighting and screae sob then, the last of her strength leaving her body in a rush; a space opened around her as she felt A out to her, Lacey, Lacey, Lacey, and then theclap of the car’s doors as Aine, wheels turning, a car pulling away at high speed Her face was in her hands

"Don’t take"Don’t take me, don’t take me, don’t take me"

Claire was beside her now She put an ar shoulders "Sister, it’s all right," she said, and Lacey could tell she was crying, too "It’s all right You’re safe now"

But it wasn’t; she wasn’t No one was safe, not Lacey or Claire or Arnette or the wouard in his yellow shirt Lacey knew that no could Claire tell her everything was all right? Because it wasn’t all right That hat the voices had been saying to her all these years, since that night in the field when she was just a girl

Lacey Antoinette Kudoto Listen Look

In herar cries of a hundredstretching over the earth; the last, bitter hours of cruelty and sorrow, and terrible, final flights; death’s great dominion over all, and, at the last, the empty cities, becals were co on the curb in Memphis, Tennessee, she saw Amy too; her Amy, whom Lacey could not save, as she could not save herself Ahtless world forever, alone and voiceless, but for this:

What I am, what I am, what I am

Chapter SEVEN

Carter was so he could tell They took him off the plane first-Carter had never been on a plane in his life and would have liked to have had aseat, but they’d stuffed him in the back with all the rucksacks, his left wrist chained to a pipe and two soldiers to watch hi down to the tars like a slap Carter had been cold before, you couldn’t sleep under a Houston freeway in January and not knohat cold was, but the cold here was different, so dry he could feel his lips puckering His ears had clogged up, too It was late, who kne late exactly, but the airfield was lit like a jailyard; fro fat ones with huge doors dropped open at the back like a kid’s paja pallets draped with ca to make some kind of soldier out of hiast: he remembered the na thetiast that made him think the man knew the place he was in

Carter’s wrists and feet were shackled, and hehis balance, one soldier ahead of him, one behind Neither had spoken a word to hi a parka over his jumpsuit, but it was unzipped for the chains, and the wind cut through hihtly lit hangar where a van was idling The door slid open as they approached

The first soldier poked hio"

Carter did as he said, then heard a small motor whir and the door closed behind him At least the seats were coht was fro He heard two thumps on the door and the van pulled away