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No more dreams, she’d said No more fat lady with her smoke and smell and awful, scratchy voice How did Billie know about his dreams?
They’d stopped once, just a few moments after they’d left the infirh the rear Some kind of checkpoint Michael heard a voice he didn’t recognize, asking Billie where she was going From under the tarp Michael had listened anxiously to their exchange
"There’s a broken line out in the eastern field," she explained "Olson asked me to move these pipes around for the crew tomorrow"
"It’s new moon You shouldn’t be out here"
New ht What was so important about the new moon?
"Look, that’s what he said Take it up with hi to oing to let h or not?"
A tense silence Then: "Just be back by dark"
Now, soain He drew the tarp aside A purpling evening sky and behind the cloud of dust The ainst the horizon
"You can coate Michael clirateful to move at last They had parked outside a , with a bulging convex roof He saw the rusted shape of fuel tanks behind it The land was lined with railroad tracks, heading off in all directions
A sed and walked toward therease and oil, so much that his face was practically black with it; he was holding so He stopped where they were standing and looked Michael up and down A short-barreled shotgun was holstered to his leg Michael reht theas
"This him?"
Billie nodded
The man moved forward so their faces were just inches apart and peered into Michael’s eyes First one eye, then the other, shifting his head back and forth His breath was sour, like spoiled milk His teeth were lined in black Michael had to force hiive hiave him one more skeptical look, then stepped back and shot a jet of brown spit onto the hardpan "I’m Gus"
"Michael"
"I knoho you are" He held up the object for Michael to see "You knohat this is?"
Michael took it in his hand "It’s a solenoid, twenty-four volts I’d say it co with it?"
Michael passed it back, shrugging "Nothing I can see"
Gus looked at Billie, frowning "He’s right"
"I told you"
"She says you know about electrical systeenerators, controller units"
Michael shrugged again He was still reluctant to say toohiht hiot"
They crossed the railyard to the shed Michael could hear, fro of tools They entered through the saed from The interior of the shed was vast, the space illureasy ju about
What Michael saw stopped him where he stood
It was a train A diesel loco looked like it could actually run It was covered in protective e plow jutted froine;only a thin slit of exposed glass for the driver to see by Three boxy compartments sat behind it
"The ," Gus said "We charged the eight-volts using the portables It’s the electrical harness that’s the problem We can’t pull a current froh Michael’s veins He took a breath to calm himself "Do you have schematics?"
Gus led his, broad sheets of brittle paper covered in blue ink Michael looked them over
"This is a rat’s nest," he said after a moment "It could take me weeks to find the problem"
"We don’t have weeks," Billie said
Michael lifted his face to look at the?"
"Four years," Gus said "Give or take"
"So how lance
"About three hours," said Billie
Chapter FIFTY-THREE
"Theo"
He was in the kitchen again The draas open; the knife lay glea there Tucked in the drawer like a baby in its crib
"Theo, coot to do is pick it up and do her You do her and this will all be over"
The voice The voice that knew his na and sleeping Part of his mind was in the kitchen, while another part was in the cell, the cell where he had been for days and days, fighting sleep, fighting the drea absolutely clear here?"
He opened his eyes; the kitchen vanished He was sitting on the edge of the cot The cell with its door and its stinking hole that ate his piss and shit Who knehat time it hat day, what month, what year He had been in this place forever