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still feel his fear and his despair as he fought to free himself. Fherghass
had been cruel in his method of rebuilding Baanraak; he d never actually
killed him. He had just left Baanraak encased in the ungiving earth until
Baanraak died of suffocation, only to be reborn into the same horror.
You won t suffer much, Baanraak told the mound. Not like I did. Fherghass
said that the way he made me was the best way to purify a dark god, but I
found out later it wasn t the way he was made. He had it easy strapped to a
bed in a charnel house, his resurrection ring fed bodies of plague victims as
it needed them. He could breath, he could see, he could move a bit, and his
purifier killed him as soon as he woke up every time.
Baanraak sighed and settled himself a bit more comfortably on the ground.
Over the years I ve come to the conclusion that Fherghass was either lazy or
a sadistic bastard, or maybe both. He patted the mound with one taloned
foreleg and managed a smile. But I m not. I won t let you suffer.
Cat Creek
She and Jake had already checked out when I got there, Pete said. I
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interviewed hotel staff, called around a few places, phoned the airport about
plane tickets things like that. I didn t find anything. So I was hoping she d
be back here.
Eric looked like he might stroke out. She isn t.
She s a responsible person. What she s doing matters to her she s trying to
save the world for her little guy as much as for everyone else combined. She
isn t going to flake out on you and just disappear.
I hate to point this out, Eric said, leaning back in his desk chair and
closing his eyes, but she did flake out on us and disappear. Otherwise& He
tapped a pen on the desk surface. Otherwise, we would have a gateweaver here
right now, when we so desperately need one.
Pete nodded. She ll get here.
Eric studied him. You re sure she was in Charlotte?
Pete raised an eyebrow.
I m just checking, Eric said. It isn t like we haven t had problems lately
with Sentinels being places other than where they said they were, doing things
other than what they said they were doing. And Lauren s parents were
traitors.
No they weren t.
Let me rephrase. Her parents were& working outside the accepted role for
Sentinels. They went rogue. Eric stretched and stood up and walked over to
the window that looked out onto Main Street before he said anything else.
When our lives and the lives of everyone else on the planet depend on all of
us working together, with one vision and one direction, going rogue is about
the same as being a traitor.
The phone rang.
Eric picked it up. After a moment, he said, Lauren? This is the worst
connection I have ever heard. Where the fuck are you? We need you here now.
He was quiet for a long moment, then he turned a little pale. Oh. He stared
at the phone, and listened another moment. Oh. No, I guess you can t. I ll
tell you later that taking off without telling anyone was a shitty thing to
do. For now, take care of yourself, and good luck. We ll figure out
something.
He put the phone back into the cradle, and looked positively sick.
Pete said, What?
That was Lauren.
I gathered that much.
Jake s grandparents snatched him. Lauren is in pursuit.
Pete closed his eyes. Which sort of explains her leaving in such a hurry.
Yes.
What the hell happened?
She didn t have time to say. Just that she had alerted authorities, that she
was on her way to California following the grandparents, and that she would
get back here as quickly as she could.
What about our emergency?
People who apparently hate her kidnapped her child. We cannot expect her to
drop that to get back here there are just some things we have to learn to work
around.
Pete nodded. I hadn t actually meant I expected her to come back here with
Jake missing. What I meant was, who are we going to get to fill in?
I don t know. It isn t like you can just run into Sears and pick up a new
gateweaver. We ll start doing extra maintenance checks on all our gates to
keep them in good condition. Every six hours, I think. That should keep them
healthy enough not to crash. I ll start calling around to other groups see if
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