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Martin stepped to one side and reached behind the gate of a stall He pulled out a double-barreled shotgun and leveled it at Austin’s ot a telephone call just like the protocol said I would I wouldn’t ht isn’t what it used to be, but I can see you real well from here”

Austin stared at the shotgun’s yawning black oes off accidentally”

“Sorry, son, I can’t do that,” Martin said “And don’t try for the pitchfork stuck in that bale, I’d cut you in half before you took one step Like I said, it’s that da the shots, not me”

“I still don’t understand what you’re talking about”

“Of course you don’t The protocol’s been around probably since before you were born Don’t suppose it will do any harm to let you knohat it’s all about before I kill you”

Austin’s heart ratcheted up a beat He was defenseless All he could do was stall for time “I think you’ve made a mistake”

“Nohere I didn’t want to shoot sos The fact that you were looking for Martin shows you’re here to stop me”

“Stop you from what?”

“Carrying out my contract”

“I don’t know anything about any contract, but are you telling me you’re not Martin?”

“Heck no I killed hio”

“Why? He was just a test pilot”

“Nothing personal, just like with you I worked for the OSS under Wild Bill Donovan I hat they’d call a hit nments after the war, then told them I wanted to retire The boss said there was no way they could let me do that I knew too much So orked out a deal They’d keep me active for one more job The only problem was, they didn’t knohen the order would be carried out It could be five o on this long, especially me”

Austin noticed that Martin had lost his folksy farm accent

“Who were you supposed to kill?”