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Except for the cleared area immediately beyond the breach in the chain-link, driftwood and tu fence Otherwise, the bed of the Santa Rosita was as well ain the only footprints were those of the kidnapper He had resu the trail, and I ran close behind him Soon we came to another access road that sloped up the north wall of the river, and Orson ascended without hesitation

I was breathing harder than the dog when I reached the top of the levee, even though, in canine years, fur face was pretty h to recognize the subtle but undeniable fading of my youthful stamina and spryness To hell with those poets who celebrate the beauty and the purity of dying young, all powers intact In spite of xeroderrateful to survive to relish the sweet decrepitude of htieth year, or even the delicious weakness of one whose birthday cake is ablaze with a hundred dangerous candles We are theof our existence e are most vulnerable, when experience has huance which, like a for the lessons that this world teaches

As the moon hid its face behind a veil of clouds, I looked both directions along the north bank of the Santa Rosita Jiht

Nor did I see a hunched gargoyleeither side of the channel Whatever it had been, the figure frohway embankment was not interested in roup of massive warehouses fifty yards from the levee These dark structures appeared mysterious in spite of their mundane purpose and in spite of the fact that I was soh enormous, these are not the only warehouses on the base, and although they would cover a few square blocks in any city, they represent an insignificant percentage of the buildings within these fenced grounds At its peak of activity, Fort Wyvern was staffed by 36,400 active-duty personnel Nearly thirteen thousand dependents and more than four thousand civilian personnel were also associated with the facility On-base housing alone consisted of three thousand single-fa, though in disrepair

In a uided hiest structure in the cluster Like ular, with thirty-foot-high corrugated-steel walls rising from a concrete foundation to a curved h to ado-laden trucks; it was closed, but beside it, a man-size door stood wide open

Previously bold, Orson became hesitant as he approached this entrance The room past the threshold was even darker than the serviceway around us, which itself was illu seemed not entirely to trust his nose to detect a threat in the warehouse, as if the scents on which he relied were filtered beyond detection by the very thickness of theto the doorway I stopped just short of the jamb, with my pistol raised and themy breath, nearly as silent as the dead--except for the faint gurgle of ht snack of jack cheese, onion bread, and jalapeño peppers If anyone waited to ambush me just inside the entrance, he must actually have been dead, because he was even quieter than I was Whether he was dead or not, his breath was no doubt sweeter than h Orson was as difficult to see as a flow of ink across wet black silk, I watched as he stopped short of the entrance After a hesitation that struckfull of puzzlement, he turned away from the door and ventured a few steps across the serviceway toward the next building

He, too, was silent--no tick of claws on paving, no panting, not even any digestive noises--as though he were only the ghost of a dog He peered intently back the e’d come, his eyes dimly revealed by a reflection of starshine; the faint white points of his bared teeth were like the unsettling phosphorescent grin of an apparition

I didn’t feel that his hesitancy was caused by fear of what lay ahead of us Instead, he no longer seemed to be certain where the trail led

I consultedsecondof Ji’s life force Almost certainly not taken for ranso savageries that didn’t bear consideration

I waited, struggling to suppress ain to the open door of the warehouse without indicating any greater confidence that our quarry was inside, I decided to act Fortune favors the bold Of course, so does Death

With ainst the s, I entered the doorway, crossed the threshold, and scuttled quickly to the left Even as I switched on the flash, I rolled it across the floor, a siunfire away froht rolled to a stop, the stillness in the warehouse was as deep as the silence of a dead planet with no atmosphere Somewhat to my surprise, when I tried to breathe, I could

I retrieved the flashlight Most of the warehouse was given over to a single rooth that the beam didn’t penetrate from one end to the other; it even failed to reach halfway across theto illuminate either side wall

As I scythed away the shadows, they regrew immediately after the bea adversary was revealed

Looking ht and, after a hesitation, seemed to dismiss the warehouse with a sneeze He headed toward the door

AThe cold acoustics caused the sound to resonate along the walls of this cavernous cha until the initial hardlike the voices of suht

In the blinding dark, I felt Orson return to

I wanted to move

I didn’t knohere to move

Jimmy must be near--and still alive, because the kidnapper hadn’t yet reached the dark altar where he would play his ritualistic gahtened and alone Whose dad was dead like rief if I failed her

Patience That is one of the great virtues God tries to teach us by refusing to show Himself in this world Patience

Orson and I stood still and vigilant until well after the final echo of the noise faded Just as the subsequent silence grew long enough to nificance, a voice arose, deep-toned and angry, ashad been One voice Not a conversation A htened captive who dared not reply I couldn’t rumbly as that of a troll in a fairy tale

The speaker was neither approaching nor retreating, and clearly he was not in this chamber with Orson and me Before I was able to deterroords came, the troll fell silent