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She knehere to find the keys And where to find the truck And she reas—tank Jim used to fire the smelter

Her plan was sias tank into Jim’s truck Drive the truck and the tank to the as and let it seep into the mine shaft

Then light a fuse and run

She didn’t know if the explosion would kill the thing in the mine But she hoped to bury it under many tons of rock

The Darkness had called to her in her drea drea her in

Come to me I have need of you

It wanted her

“Hello darkness,to talk with you again”

TWENTY-TWO

18 HOURS, 18 MINUTES

JACK WOKE TO pain

He’d been moved Someone had turned him over He sat up too suddenly His head swaain

One leg of his trousers had been crudely ripped to expose the wound There was a blue, blood-soaked bandage tied around his lower thigh It hurt It burned like so a red-hot poker into his flesh

Diana was beside him It took him a moment to make sense of her shaved head “I found these in one of the offices Take them” She transferred four Advil froular dose, but I doubt it will kill you”

“What happened?” he rasped