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They had just reached the entrance to the tack rooan Instinctively Sa, do you think?” she asked, then followed Sam into the closet They knelt beside the trapdoor

He said, “Thirty seconds before they start shooting, another thirty for the to slip into the jamb and pop up the latch Two minutes, no more”

“That plan you mentioned—”

“Sketch”

“Whatever Let’s hear it”

He took ten seconds to explain Remi said, “We could just make a run for it”

“One big probleht on the cliff They’ll pick us off like pigeons My e’ll at least have some cover and maybe even turn them back”

“Good point Okay”

“I’ll handle the heavy stuff; you gather the supplies If we do it right it should be enough to slow them down—maybe even turn them back”

“Ever the optimist”

Sarabbed the desk chair, and carried it back into the closet He closed the door and jammed the chair beneath the knob Re down Sam followed and shut it behind him

Guided by their flashlights, they set to work, Sa ore carts away fro the wall and onto the tracks, while Remi ran down the tunnel toward the cliff entrance

Distantly there came the chatter of automatic weapons fire

“Good guess!” Remi called from the darkness

“I was kind of hoping to be wrong—by three or four hours,” he replied, shoving a second cart into place A minute later he had the third one seated on the tracks Re a handful of oil lanterns She hurled two or three into each cart,oil into the bottoms of the carts