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room to the wounded boy.
"Save your strength," the woman's voice said. "You'll get your chance to speak
with him if you work with me. And you'll have to speak with him if you're
going to save his life or that of your mate."
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"Who are you?" Krysty demanded. She tried to find the source of the voice,
using her gift.
Abruptly Dean started to fade away.
"Concentrate!"
Krysty returned her attention to Dean.
The boy looked at Louis, then pulled at the straps holding the body armor.
Blood smeared Dean's fingers as he worked.
Reluctantly the body armor separated with a sucking sound. Dean peered under
the
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looked like a little boy, not yet twelve, but Krysty felt the need to comfort
him, too.
"Those shitters!" Dean yelled. "They shot you bad, Louis! They shot you real
bad!"
Without saying a word, the taller boy suddenly slumped forward. His face went
slack as crimson-stained spittle threaded from his mouth.
Dean went down under Louis's weight. "Louis, you can't die! You can't leave me
here alone! Louis!"
The querulous snuffling of a large beast sounded outside the room. Then it
came closer.
Split hooves rang on the concrete floor.
Dean heaved himself from under the dead boy. Blood, old and new, stained his
green armored vest. He leveled his Browning Hi-Power before him, back against
the wall.
"Talk to him!" the woman's voice urged.
"He can't hear me," Krysty said.
"Now," she stated, "now he can. Your mind will know the words."
Krysty stepped forward and reached out to touch Dean, who still gave no
indication that he saw her. Her hand passed right through his shoulder, but
for an instant there was the sensation of an electrical discharge.
The shuffling of the beast in the hallway sounded loud, letting her know it
had to have been huge.
"Dean," she said, trying to talk normally.
His head swiveled in her direction, and he made an effort to focus. "Krysty?"
She wanted to tell him to run, that there was nothing he could do for his dead
friend.
Instead, she said, "Your father is coming for you. Look for him."
Before she could try again, the woman snapped, "Come, there is still much to
do."
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And Krysty's mind was overwhelmed by the darkness.
DEAN CAWDOR WAS on an adventure. It wasn't a grand adventure like the ones
they talked about or read from books in his literature class. There was no
Roland here, no
Beowulf, no Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn. But it was an adventure anyway. "Dean!"
Calgary Ventnor whispered. "Come on!" The boy moved carefully, picking his way
through the brush till he reached Calgary.
"Did you see anybody?" Calgary demanded, cutting his eyes in all directions.
"No," Dean replied.
The Nicholas Brody School hunkered on the gentle swell of land coming up from
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acres of vegetable gardens. Beyond the cultivated lands, the forest began
again.
The school had its beginnings in an old stone farmhouse. Rooms and additions
had been constructed with concrete blocks, then matted over with adobe bricks.
Rifle slits were cut in along the walls, with thick steel shutters that could
be pulled closed and bolted down inside.
"It's two-fifteen," Calgary said. "If we don't hurry, we're going to miss
seeing it."
Dean laid a hand on the other boy's shoulder and held him back. "If we hurry
too much, we're going to get caught. And then where will we be?"
Calgary made a face. He had fair hair, a squat, heavy build, some of the
whitest skin
Dean had ever seen aside from Jak Lauren's, and big ears that stuck out at
right angles to his round head. He sucked at his teeth, a habit Dean had
noticed in the other boy whenever he got nervous.
"Kicked out, that's for sure," Calgary said.
Dean figured that was about the size of it. But he couldn't resist the
adventure that lay before them. He said her name just to build his courage:
Phaedra Lemon.
"You keep talking like that, and the headmaster's night sec crew are going to
catch us for
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"Is," Dean said automatically.
"What?"
"Is," Dean repeated. "The night sec crew going to catch us."
is
Calgary's eyes widened. "You really think so?" He started to stand up. The
brush was no more than waist high, and he would have been revealed at once.
At that moment the guard they'd been timing came around that side on the
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