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He told her the story, told it all And when the story was ending, the day was ending with it

-And then you came, Amy, he said Then I found you Do you see? It was like she’d come back to me Come back, Amy Come back, come back, come back

He lifted his face He opened his eyes

And Amy opened hers, too

Chapter THIRTEEN

Lacey in the woods: shedistance between herself and the soldiers The air was cold and thin, sharp in her lungs She stood with her back against a tree and let herself breathe

She wasn’t afraid The soldiers’ bullets were nothing She’d heard theh the underbrush, but they hadn’t even come close And so s distance she’d traveled, against such odds, how could they hope to scare her aith soer as that?

She peeked around the barrel-like trunk She could see, through the undergrowth, the glow of the sentry hut, hear the twoeasily across the ht Black wo over and over, Shit, he’s going to have our ass for this How the fk did weai to on the phone, they were afraid of hi, no one And the soldiers, they were like children, without o She re hours, they’d done and done They’d thought they were taking so from her-she could see it in the dark smiles streaked across their mouths, taste it in their sour breath on her face-and it was true, they had But now she’d forgiven the back, which was Lacey herself, and more besides She closed her eyes But you are a shield around lory on me and lift up my head

To the LORD I cry aloud

and he answers me froain, because the LORD sustains ainst me on every side

Arise, O LORD!

Deliver me, O my God!

Strike all my enemies on the jaw;

break the teeth of the wicked

She was ain The man on the other end of the sentry’s phone: he would sendlike joy was coursing through her-a new, ni she’d felt in her life It had been building through the weeks as she made her way to-well, where? She didn’t knohat it was called In her mind it was simply the place where Amy was

She’d taken some buses She’d ridden awhile in the back of someone’s truck with two Labrador retrievers and a crate of baby pigs Some days she’d awakened wherever she was and known it was a day to walk, just walk Froht, knocked on a door and asked if it would be all right if she slept in a bed And the woman who answered the door-for it was always a woman, no matter what door Lacey knocked on-would say, Of course, coht in, and lead her to a roo onelory of God in the sunshine all around her, and knew that she’d arrived

Wait, the voice said Wait for sunset, Sister Lacey The ill show you the way

And so it did: the way showed the way More , each breath was as a gunshot, louder than loud, telling Lacey where they were They were spread out behind her in a wide line, six of the, at a place where Lacey had stood but stood no longer

She came to a break in the trees A road To the left, two hundred yards distant, stood the sentry hut, bathed in its halo of light To the right the road turned into the trees and descended sharply Fro about this place revealed itsto her; and yet she kneait She dropped and pressed her belly against the forest floor The soldiers were behind her, fifty yards, forty, thirty

She heard the low, labored sound of a diesel engine, its pitch dropping as the driver downshifted to ascend the final rise Slowly it pushed its light and noise toward her She rose to a crouch as its headlights burst over the crest of the hill Soed as the driver shifted again and began to gather speed

Now?

And the voice said: Now

She was up and running with all herher body at the rear of the truck A wide bu canvas For a moment it seemed as if she’d moved too late, that the truck would race away, but in a burst of speed she caught it Her hands found the lip of the gate, one bare foot and then the other left the road Lacey Antoinette Kudoto, airborne: she was up and over and she was rolling in

Her head hit the floor of the cargo compartment with a thump

Boxes The truck was full of boxes

She scraainst the rear wall of the cab The truck slowed again as it approached the sentry hut Lacey held her breath Whatever happened noould happen; there was nothing she could do

The hiss of air brakes; the truck jerked to a halt

"Let ed to the first sentry, the one who’d told Lacey to stop The le of his voice, that he was standing on the running board The air suddenly tanged with cigarette smoke

"You shouldn’t smoke"

"Who are you, my mother?"

"Read your own h ordnance to blow us all halfway to Mars"

A snickering laugh froer seat

"It’s your funeral You see anyone down the road?"

"You mean, like a civilian?"

"No, I mean the abominable snow a skirt"

"You’re kidding" A pause "We didn’t see anyone It’s dark I don’t know"

The sentry cli on while I check the back"

Don’t move, Lacey, the voice said Don’t ain A beaht shot into the back of the truck

Close your eyes, Lacey

She did She felt the beaht rake her face: once, twice, three times

You are a shield around me, O Lord-

She heard two hard pounds on the side of the truck, right beside her ear

"Clear!"

The truck pulled away

Richards wasn’t one bit happy The crazy nun-what the blue fk was she doing here?

He decided not to tell Sykes Not until he knewshoot her! But they’d co He’d sent them back out, around the perimeter Just find her! Put a bullet in her! Is that so hard?

The business with Wolgast and the girl had gone on too long And Doyle-as he still alive? Richards checked his watch: 00:03 He retrieved his weapon from the bottoainst his spine He left his office and took the back stairs to Level 1 and exited through the loading dock

Doyle was stashed over in civilian housing; the rooed to one of the dead sweeps The sentry at the door was dozing in his chair