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"We need a vehicle," Wolgast said
Doyle ducked out the door A otten a gun froast and Lacey to theand pointed
"The one all the way down, at the edge of the lot The silver Lexus See it?"
Wolgast did The car was a hundred yards away, at least
"Nice ride like that," Doyle said, "you’d think the driver wouldn’t just leave the keys under the visor" Doyle pressed theast’s hand "Hold on to these They’re yours Just in case"
It took Wolgast a moment Then he understood The car was for him, for him and Amy "Phil-"
Doyle held up his hands "That’s how it has to be"
Wolgast looked at Lacey, who nodded Then she stepped toward hi her hair, and then she kissed hi of certainty seeh his entire body from the place where she had kissed hi like it
They stepped froether they ast could barely keep up He heard unfire from somewhere, but it didn’t see up and away, into the trees, at the rooftops; random shots, like some kind of sinister celebration Each time it happened he’d hear a screa would start up again
They reached the corner of the building Wolgast could see the woods beyond it In the other direction, toward the lights of the co area The Lexus waited at the end, facing away, no other cars around it for cover
"We’ll just have to , did his best to nod
Then they were up and racing toward the car
Richards felt hi the RPG like a vaulter’s pole
It wasn’t Babcock
It wasn’t Zero
It was Anthony Carter
He was in a kind of crouch, twenty feet away He lifted his face and twisted his head, looking at Richards appraisingly There was solistened on Carter’s face, his clawlike hands, his sworded teeth, row upon row A kind of clicking sound was couid pleasure, he began to rise Richards put Carter’s hts
"Open up," Richards said, and fired
He knew, even as the grenade shot fro Richards backward, that he’d missed The place where Carter had stood was e Then he was falling, down upon Richards The grenade went off, taking out the front of the Chalet, but Richards heard this only vaguely-the noise receding, fading to some impossible distance-as he experienced the sensation, utterly new to hiast as a white sheen, a wall of heat and light that slapped the left side of his face like a punch; he was lifted froround and felt Aain before co; his breath felt like it was stuck in a tube, far down in his chest Above hiht sky, and stars, hundreds and hundreds of stars, and soht: A on the ground a few yards away The air was full of s Chalet, she looked as if she -a character in a fairy tale, the princess who had fallen asleep and couldn’t wake Wolgast rolled hiround for the keys He could tell one of his ears was messed up; it was like a curtain had fallen over the left side of his face, absorbing all sound The keys The keys Then he realized they were still in his hand; he’d never let thein with
Where were Doyle and Lacey?
He went to where Amy lay The fall didn’t seem to have hurt her any, or the explosion, as far as he could tell He put his hands under her arms and hoisted her over his shoulder, then made for the Lexus as fast as he could
He bent to ease Aot in hihts blazed across the co hit the hood
So with a pale green light But when he saw its eyes, and as inside the on the hood was Anthony Carter
Carter rose as Wolgast found the gearshift and plunged it into reverse and gunned the engine Carter fell away Wolgast could see hiround and then, in a series ofhiast stoht The car spun and spun and caer door opened: Lacey She cli There were streaks of blood on her face, her shirt She was holding a gun in her hand She looked at it, amazed, and dropped it on the floor
"Where’s Doyle?"
"I do not know," she said
He put the car back into drive and hit the accelerator
Then he saw Doyle He was running toward the Lexus at an angle, waving the 45
"Just go!" he was yelling "Go!"