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"Iheard you," Doyle said "All these weeks" So open inside him His throat choked with tears "I don’t kno I did that"

She took his hands in hers "It wasn’t ast couldn’t look down He eating hard now, his pals as he pulled the with exertion; the crooks of his elbohere he held each rung when he traded hands, felt bruised to the bone There was a moment, he knehen the body simply reached its limits, an invisible line that, once crossed, could not be uncrossed He pushed the thought aside and climbed

Aether they ascended, rung by rung by rung

The fan was closer now Wolgast could feel a thin breeze, cool and s over his face He craned his neck to scan the sides of the tube for an opening

He saw it, ten feet above him: beside the ladder, an open duct

He’d have to push Aht on the ladder and hers as well, while he swung her out from the ladder and into the duct; then he’d cliher than he’d thought, another thirty feet above their heads at least He guessed they were somewhere on the first floor of the Chalet Maybe he was supposed to go higher, find another exit But his strength was nearly gone

He positioned his right knee to take Aht and reached his left hand out A featureless wall of cool lass, but then he found the edge He drew his hand back Three s should do it He took a deep breath and ascended, positioning the two of them just above the duct

"Amy," he rasped His mouth and throat were dry as bone "Wake up Do your best to wake up, honey"

He felt her breathing change against his neck as she tried to rouse

"Ao when I say I’ll hold you There’s an opening in the wall I need you to try to get your feet into it"

The girl gave no reply He hoped she had heard hi to work, exactly-hoas going to get her inside the duct and then himself-and couldn’t But he was out of options If he waited any longer, he’d have no strength for any of it

Now

He pushed with his knee, lifting Amy up Her arms released his neck and with his free hand he took her by the wrist, suspending her over the tube like a pendulum, and then he saw the way: he released his other hand, let her weight pull him away and to his left, toward the hole, and then her feet were inside it, she was sliding into the tube

He began to fall He’d been falling all along But as he felt his feet lose contact with the ladder, his hands ers found the lip of the duct, a thin e that bit into his skin

"Whoa!" he cried, his voice ricocheting down the length of the shaft He see to the side of the shaft by will alone; his feet were dangling in space "Whoa now!"

How he did it he couldn’t have explained Adrenaline Amy That he didn’t want to die, not yet He pulled with all hishimself inexorably upward-first his head and then his chest and then his waist and finally the rest of hi air into his lungs He lifted his face then and saw a light ahead-so in the floor He twisted hi along on his backside, clutching her by the waist The light grew stronger as they rate

It was sealed, screwed shut from the outside

He wanted to cry To coh the narrow slats, soers, he had no tools, no way to open it And going back-ith

He heard ht of the men they’d seen-Fortes, the soldier in the pool of blood, the one called Grey It wasn’t hoanted to die He closed his eyes and held his breath, willing the two of the: "Chief?"

It was Doyle

One of the lockers was already resting on the ground at the rear of the truck It looked like so and then, in a panic, dropped it Richards searched quickly inside the cargo coave ith a bright snap Inside, cradled in beds of foam, lay a pair of RPG-29s He lifted the rack to find, beneath it, the rockets: finned cylinders, about half a e HEATs, capable of penetrating the armor of a modern battle tank Richards had seen what they could do

He’d placed the requisition when the order had coh to ht Vampires, say aaah

He fixed the first rocket to the launcher With a twist it issued the satisfying hum that meant the warhead was armed Thousands of years of technical advancement, the whole history of human civilization, see HEAT The 29 was reusable, but Richards knew he’d only get one shot He hoisted it to his shoulder, lifted the sighting mechanism into position, and stepped away from the truck

"Hey!" he yelled, and, at precisely that looround beneath him swayed, like the deck of a boat at sea Beads of sere popping out all over He felt the urge to blink, a rando quicker than he’d thought He sed hard and took twothe RPG toward the treetops

"Here, kitty, kitty!"

An anxious h various drawers until he found a penknife Standing on a chair, he used the blade to undo the screws Wolgast lowered Amy into Doyle’s arms, then dropped to the floor hi

"Sister Lacey?"

She was holding the sleeping girl against her chest "Agent Wolgast"

Wolgast looked at Doyle "I don’t-"

"Get it?" Doyle lifted his eyebrows He was, like Wolgast, wearing scrubs They were too large, hanging loosely on his body He gave a little laugh "Trust et it either"

"This place is full of deadI don’t know There was an explosion" He couldn’t explain hi "It’s tio"

They stepped frouessed they were soh they could hear scattered pops of gunfire fro, they ast saw the dead soldiers sprawled there

Lacey turned to him "Take her," she said "Take Amy"

He did His arms were still weak froainst hi the force that was keeping her in twilight She needed to be in a hospital, but even if he could get her to one, ould he say? Hoould he explain any of this? The air near the doors intry cold, and in her thin gown Aainst him