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She gave a little laugh "Oh, your father and s About the stars"
It was all so confusing More than confusing: it was as if, in the space of just a few days-since the night the viral had been killed in the nets by Arlo Wilson-soed, only nobody had told Peter what this change ht be
"Did he ever tell youabout a Walker, Auntie?"
The old woman sucked in her cheeks "A Walker, you say? Now, I don’t recall anything about that Theo see a Walker?"
He heard hiiven up listening; her eyes, pointed at the wall behind hiain "Now, Terrence, I believe he did tellabout a Walker Terrence and Lucy She alas the littlest thing It was Terrence who , you know He always could do that"
It was hopeless Once Auntie went off like this, it could be hours, even days, before she came back to the present He almost envied her, this power
"Noas it you wanted to ask me?"
"That’s okay, Auntie It can keep"
She lifted her bony shoulders in a shrug "You say so" A silentYou believe in God alh she’d spoken of God often, never had she asked hi at the stars fro-a presence behind the hiave him, had slipped away It would have been nice to believe in so like that, but in the end, he just couldn’t
"Not really," he adloom his voice "I think it’s just a word people use"
"Now, that’s a shaive us no chance" Auntie took a final sip, s her lips "Now you think on that soone to"
The conversation seeo He bent to kiss the top of her head
"Thanks for the tea, Auntie"
"Anytime You come back and tell me your anshen it coood talk And Peter?"
He turned in the kitchen doorway
"Just so you know She co, Auntie?"
A teacherly frown "You knoho, boy You known it since the day God drea in the door
"That’s all I’ave a diso on and coht, Auntie," Peter et soot eternity for that"
He showed hiht air that brushed his face, chilling the sweat that had gathered beneath his jersey in the overheated kitchen His sto under the spell of the tea He stood a e, what Auntie had said But there was no way she could have known about the girl The way the old woman’s mind worked, stories all piled on top of stories, the past and present all ether, she could haveabout soo
Which was just when Peter heard the shouts coan to break loose
Chapter TWENTY-SIX
It had begun with the Colonel That much everyone was able to ascertain in the first few hours
No one could recall seeing the Colonel for days, not in the apiary or stables or on the catwalks, where he soht Peter certainly hadn’t seen hihts he’d stood, but he hadn’t thought this absence strange; the Colonel cans and sometimes didn’t show his face for days
What people did know, and this was reported first by Hollis but confirmed by others, was that the Colonel had appeared on the catwalk shortly after half-night, near Firing Platforn; the round beyond the walls bathed in the glow of the spots Only a few people noticed hi about it Hey, there’s the Colonel, people uy never could quitetonight
He lingered a few aze to the empty field below Hollis supposed he’d come to speak with Alicia, but he didn’t knohere she was, and in any event, the Colonel made no move to look for her He wasn’t armed, and he didn’t speak with anyone When Hollis looked again, he was gone One of the runners, Kip Darrell, clai down the trace, toward the pens
The next tin!" one of the runners yelled "We have sign!"
Hollis saw it, saw the into the light
The Colonel was running straight toward the hih above a dozen bows released their arcing arrows, though the distance was too great; only the luckiest of shots would have acco
They watched the Colonel die