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His light-thirsty eyes watched the strangers' nighted calass between Earth and the stars, and the low like a searchlight

They'd been lucky, oh, so lucky Both parties had approached and ca each other's trails, and only his train had bothered with a proper reconnaissance

His wounded and their caregivers were settling down just on the other side of a low hill and a stretch of soggy woodland between

A ement, then Whoever found out the n of scouts discovering his wounded, or he suspected he'd see more action in the camp

"Who do you think they are?" he asked the woman next to him Alessa Duvalier had trained hi in the Kurian Zone

"Poachers Nomansland trash"

All the layers of clothing made them look like bloated ticks A ratty undershirt covered by variegated flannel with a windbreaker over that, and then an old urations pinned back but ready to rearrange if the strangely warain

Headhunters returning from a successful raid, probably bound for Memphis or Nashville The Kurians had few scruples about stealing population fro could make a person rich

In this case what the raiders were doing was a little less dangerous They'd probably rounded up people displaced by all the fighting in Kentucky in the suht escapees fro a run for the Free Territory across the Mississippi

Twelve poachers Plus two kids and the women That he and Duvalier could see Maybeor on errands They were old-school with their transportation: a gas ATV, a fewmules and lla horse trailers for their captives, riding like livestock on the way to the slaughterhouse

Daain

But twelve A job for a company of soldiers

Or a small, very careful tea next to him She'd volunteered for the operation in Kentucky last summer He still wondered why

Duvalier lowered the binoculars The wide, light-hungry pupils turned on hilitter in the darkness, like polished copper reflecting fla about those scruffs"

Slang for future aura-fodder Anything to keep frohter