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The ultimate bunker busters That’s what Cole had called them, way back when, when it was all just a theory-before Bolivia and Fanning and all the rest Just is could do, say, in the mountain caves of northern Pakistan, or the eastern deserts of Iran, or the shot-up buildings of the Chechen Free Zone Think high colonic, Richards: a good cleaning out from the inside

Maybe Cole would have wised up eventually But in his absence, the idea had acquired a life of its own Never mind that it violated about half a dozen international treaties that Richards could think of Never mind that it was just about the stupidest idea he’d ever heard of in his life A bluff, probably; but bluffs had a way of being called And did anyone seriously think, for one goddas to the caves of northern Pakistan?

He felt bad for Sykes, and not a little worried The guy was a wreck, had barely come out of his office since word had come down from Special Weapons When Richards had asked hih Poor guy, he’d said He still thinks he’s trying to save the world Which, the way things are playing out,after all I can’t believe this is even on the table

Armored trucks would transport the sticks to Grand Junction; from there, they’d be moved by train to White Sands As for Richards: once everything had been brought to its proper conclusion, he was giving serious consideration to buying property in, say, northern Canada

The sweeps would be the first to go The techs andwith the ones ere thedock, Richards had checked his file Paulson, Derrick G Age twenty-two Enlisted straight out of high school in Glastonbury, Connecticut; a year in the sands, then back stateside No record, and the guy was sone to college, or OCS He’d been on-site now for twenty-threeon watch and once for unauthorized use of email, but that was all

What bothered him was that Paulson knew, or believed he did; Richards had sensed it right off Not in anything Paulson had done or said, but in the look on Carter’s face when Richards had opened the van’s door-like the poor guy had seen a ghost, or worse Nobody except the scientific staff and the sweeps set foot on Level 4 With nothing else to do but stand around in the snow, a certain a the enlisted was inevitable, loose talk around the ut that whatever Paulson had said wasMaybe they all were

If Richards was drea these days, it was about the nuns He hadn’t cared for that part very o it seeone to Catholic school A bunch of withered old bitches who liked to slap and hit, but he’d respected the nuns went against the grain Most of theh it But there was one who’d woken up The way she opened her eyeshim He’d done two of them already; she was the third She opened her eyes in bed and he saw, in the pale light coh the , that she wasn’t so, and not bad-looking Then she closed her eyes and , a prayer probably, and Richards shot her through a pillow

He’d come up one nun short Lacey Antoinette Kudoto, the crazy one He’d read her psych workup from the diocese Nobody would believe her story, and even if they did, the chain was broken in western Oklahoents and a ten-year-old Chevy Tahoe you’d need tweezers and about a thousand years to reasse that nun

Richards was sitting in his office, watching the security monitors The time stamp read 22:26 The sweeps were in and out of Contain any of it The fast had started with Zero but had spread to the others since Carter had shown up, maybe a couple of days after This was a puzzler, but in any event, if Special Weapons had its way, the sticks would all be eating soon enough By which tiging out snow for an igloo

He looked at theat her bedside They’d brought in a little portable toilet with a nylon curtain, and a cot where he could sleep But he hadn’t slept at all, just sat in the chair by her bed day after day, touching her hand, talking to her What he was saying, Richards didn’t care to know And yet he’d find hi them for hours, almost as much as he watched Babcock

He turned his attention to Babcock’s cha upside down froht at the ca the air I am yours and you are mine, Richards We are all meant for soht Fuck you, too

Richards’s coate," the voice on the other end said "We’ve got a woman out here"

Richards exauardhouse Two sentries, one holding the co The woht around the hut

"So?" he said "Get rid of her"

"That’s the thing, sir," the sentry said "She won’t go She doesn’t look like she has a car, either I think she actually walked"

Richards was looking hard at the round and unsling his weapon

"Hey!" Richards heard him say "Get back here! Stop or I’ll fire!"

Richards heard the pop of his weapon The second soldier took off running into the dark Two h the com where it lay in the mud Ten seconds passed, twenty Then they stepped back into the light Richards could tell froe that they’d lost her

The first sentry retrieved his coot away soo look for her?"

Jesus This was all Richards needed "Who was she?"

"Black woman, some kind of accent," the sentry explained "Said she was looking for soht away and not as the days went by And on the third day, he told her the story

-There once was a little girl, Wolgast told her More little even than you Her name was Eva, and her ht after she was born, her father took her from her bassinet in the roo and held her, her bare skin against his own, and froirl was inside hi The camera was over his shoulder He didn’t care Fortes caast talked, through the hours of the third day, telling it all to A happened It was her heart Her heart, you see-he showed her the place on his chest where this was-began to shrink While around her, her body grew, her heart did not, and then the rest of her stopped growing too He would have given her his heart if he could, because it was hers to begin with It had always been, and alould be, hers But he couldn’t do this for her, he couldn’t do anything, no one could, and when she died, he died with her The one And the man and the woman couldn’t love each other any but sadness now, and irl