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The car lurched Kurt braced hi as the dinner plates and wineglasses flew off the table The screech of the steel wheels sliding on the rails overrode all other noise as the quarter- to a halt

Still holding Hayley, Kurt glanced out theThe train itself was in a turn, on a slight uphill grade Looking forward, Kurt sao other passenger cars and the twin diesel engines Sparks were flying fro else caught his eye: tiny points of cri the track bed and, a little farther on, the outline of a tractor trailer stalled across the rail line at a crossing Twotheir arms frantically

The breaking continued until the Ghan lurched aardly to a stop a few hundred feet fro

At this point, Hayley could see the truck as well “Lucky ere able to stop,” she said

Kurt glanced around “So to do with it”

Before Hayley could reply, he spotted just what he expected to see: ht for the motionless train

NINETEEN

The masked men ca onto the couplers between cars and forcing the doors

“What’s happening?” Hayley asked in a panicked voice

“I’ll give you one guess”

Hayley’s rasped the truth “They’re after us”

“Either that or this is a Butch Cassidy reenactment no one told me about”

Hayley grabbed her cell phone and dialed out in an atteet through”

“Waste of ti the tower”

He glanced outside Two car lengths down, anotherback and forth