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On my atch, the month suddenly stopped at Apr A second later, the day and date froze, and iistered a clear, steady 3:58 AM

We were horeed

The big question hether we had a fellow traveler with us, a wor Auntie Eued that the Hodgson thing was lost in the past

It ic applied within this singular situation

I withdrew the flashlight from under my belt

Didn’t want to switch it on

Switched it on

The Hodgson thing wasn’t face-to-face with ht revealed that Bobby and I were alone--at least in that portion of the egg rooht beaone I couldn’t see it either when I looked directly at the exit tunnel or when I relied on my peripheral vision

Apparently, the rooenerated by the single beaan to pulse and wheel in the floor, walls, and ceiling

I iht and ja"

As darkness descended onceover the raised threshold, feeling his way forward through the short, five-foot-high tunnel

"Clear," he said

Crouching, I followed him into what had once been the airlock

I didn’t turn on the flashlight again until ere out of the airlock and in the corridor, where not one stray bealassyroom

"Told you it would fade," Bobby said

"Why do I ever doubt you?"

Neither of us spoke another word all the way up through the three stripped subterranean floors of the facility, through the hangar, to the Jeep, which stood under a sky froed all stars

15

We drove southwest across Fort Wyvern, through Dead Town, past the warehouses where I had confronted the kidnapper, switching off the headlights as we reached the Santa Rosita, down the access ra not a single stop sign along the way, ignoring every posted speed li vehicle, a concealed weapon in h I possessed no license to carry, a cooler of beer between overn nuht well be against the law We were two Clydes without a Bonnie

Bobby had so expanded the gap in the river-spanning fence that we drove through with roorounds of the ot out of the Jeep and lowered the flaps of chain-link, which he had rolled up and hooked to the top of the fence

A close inspection would reveal the breach Froreater than fifteen feet, however, the violation of the fence could not be seen

We didn’t want to announce that we had trespassed Without doubt ould soon be returning by this same route, and ould need easy access

The tire tracks leading through the fence betrayed us, but there wasn’t a way to erase them quickly and effectively We had to hope that the breeze would become a wind and obliterate our trail

In a few hours, we had seen more than we could process, analyze, and apply to our probles that we ardently wished we’d never seen We would have preferred to avoid another sortie onto the base, but until we found Ji and Orson, duty required us to revisit this nest of night now because ere temporarily at a dead end, not sure where to continue the search, and we had to strategize Besides, more than two of us would be needed to comb even the knoarrens of Wyvern

In addition, daas little more than an hour away, and I had not worn my Elephant Man cloak, with hood and veil

The Suburban, which the kidnapper had parked at the fence, was gone I was not surprised to see that it wasFortunately, I had memorized the license-plate number

Bobby drove to the snarl of driftwood and tumbleweed that lay sixty feet from the fence I retrieved my bicycle from concealh the dark tunnel under Highway 1, without headlights, Bobby accelerated Engine noise, like barrages frouns, rattled back to us froure that I had seen earlier on the sloping buttress at the west end of this passage, and rew rather than diminished as the farther end became the nearer end When we raced into the open, I tensed, half expecting an assault, but nothing aiting for us

A hundred yards west of the highway, Bobby braked to a halt and switched off the engine

We had not spoken since the corridor outside the egg room Now he said, "Mystery Train"

"All aboard"

"Na to Leland Delacroix’s security badge" I fished that object fro about the deadin a votive-candle holder

"So the Mystery Train project hat gave us the troop, the retrovirus, all these mutations Your mom’s little tea-and-doomsday society"

"Maybe"

"I don’t think so"

"Then what?"

"She was a theoretical geneticist, right?"

"My ner, creature creator"

"Medically valuable little creatures, benign viruses," I said

"Except for one"

"Your folks are no prize," I reminded him

With a note of insincere pride, he said, "Hey, they would’ve destroyed the world long before your iven a fair chance"

They owned the only newspaper in the county, the Moonlight Bay Gazette, and their religion was politics; their god was power They were people with a plan, with an unlihteousness of their beliefs Bobby didn’t share their spooky vision of utopia, so they had written hio Apparently, utopia requires the absolute uniforht and purpose exhibited by bees in a hive

"The point is," he said, "that wacko palace of the weird back there…They weren’t doing biological research, bro"

"Hodgson was in an airtight suit, not tennis shorts," I reear To protect hi"

"Totally obvious, yeah But you said yourself, the place wasn’t built for erms"

"Not laid out for essential sterilization procedures," I agreed "No decontamination modules, except maybe for that one airlock And the floor plan is too open for high-security bio labs"

"Thatroom"

"Call it what you want It was never a lab with Bunsen burners, petri dishes, and cages full of cute little white ery You knohat that was, bro We both know"

"I’ve been brooding about it"

"That was transport," Bobby said

"Transport"

"They puy into that rooy, , it took Hodgson so for help"

"Took the ?"

"Seize the beer"

I took an icy bottle from the cooler and passed it to him, hesitated, and then opened a beer for myself