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"Literally," Leah said, clearly bemused by the man who had once changed her entire look and given her a new identity.
Zeke stared at her, and Buck got the impression he didn't know what she meant but was afraid to admit it. As if to cover his embarrassment and change the subject, Zeke dug in both back pockets and one vest pocket for huge rolls of twenty-Nick bills, which he slapped noisily on the table. "I intend to earn my keep," he said. "Put this here in the pot."
"You might want to wait until it's official," Buck said. "Rayford will be here tomorrow night and-"
"Oh, it's all right. Consider it a donation, even if I get voted out or blackballed or whatever."
"I don't see that happening," Chloe said, burping the sleeping Ke
"Oh, man!" Zeke said quietly, noticing the baby. He approached slowly and reached carefully toward Ke
"You may," Chloe said. "Your hands clean?"
Zeke stopped and turned his hands before his eyes. "They have to be for my kinda work. Can't smudge the new IDs, you know. They look dirty, 'cause I work on engines and stuff, but they're just stained."
He bent at the knees before Chloe and gently put his meaty hand on Ke
"Sit and you can hold him," Chloe said, as the others watched. Buck was especially amused by Chaim, whose eyes filled.
"Want a turn?" Buck whispered.
"It's been so long," Chaim whispered, trying to make himself understood. "It would be a privilege."
Somehow Ke
"We need to identify a body," Ha
"Sign in," a bored older woman said.
"Forget it," Ha
The woman made a face. "Less work for me," she said. "I'm just filling in."
David's heart raced as Ha
"Next room, around the corner."
Ha
He nodded, though now not so sure.
She showed him the tag thin-wired to the big toe. It bore A
It was the other foot whose shoe had showed lightning damage. David began pulling the sheet from it, ignoring Ha
He recoiled at the damage. The heel was split wide and the big toe mangled. He covered her feet and dropped his head. "You're sure she never felt that?"
"Positive."
"Fortunato was given the power to call down fire from heaven on those who didn't worship the image."
"I know."
"I could have easily been struck."
"Me too." "Why her?"
Ha
"And David? For some reason no one closed her eyes. I tried, but with time and rigor mortis… well, a mortician will have to do that."
He nodded, panting. His head throbbed, and when he was able to control his breathing again, David lifted the sheet and brought it down to her neck, careful not to look. With another deep breath, his eyes traveled to hers. For an instant it didn't look like A
David shook his head. "I want to stand."
"You shouldn't."
"Help me."
She pushed the IV stand around the chair so it was next to him. "Use that to brace yourself. If the room starts to spin, sit again."
"Starts?"
She locked the wheels and put a hand on his back, guiding as he rose. He pushed with his left hand on the arm of the chair and pulled with his right on the stand. Finally, up and wobbly, Ha
David shook his head and carefully sat again. He didn't want to think what a lightning bolt through her body would have done to vital organs. He now believed Ha
Ha
As she wheeled him out, he whispered his thanks.
"I wish I had known her," Ha
Rayford had briefed Buck and Chloe and Tsion the night before, so when a phone woke him at dawn in Montana, he assumed it was one of them. As he reached to answer, however, it was not his cell but the room phone. He had not given out that number, so who would be calling? The desk? Was someone onto them? Should he identify himself as Rayford Steele or Marvin Berry? Neither, he decided. "Hello?" "Ray," Hattie said, "it's me. I'm awake, I'm up, I'm starved, and I want to get going. You?"
He groaned and glanced at the other bed. Albie was sound asleep. "You're a little too chipper for me," he said. "I'm asleep, I'm in bed, I'm not hungry, and there's no sense leaving so early that we get to Kankakee before dark. "We can't go to the safe house until after that anyway."
"Oh, Rayford! C'mon! I'm bored. And I'm dead, remember? I need a new identity, but I'm as free as I've been in years, thanks to you! How 'bout some breakfast?" "We can't be too obvious or public." "Are you going to go back to sleep, really?" "Back? I never woke up."
"Seriously."
"No, I probably won't. Someone in the next room is up banging around anyway."
She knocked on the wall. "And I'll keep banging until I get company for breakfast."
"All right, dead girl. Give me twenty minutes."
"I'll be outside your door in fifteen."
"Then you'll be waiting five."
Rayford was glad his showering and dressing hadn't wakened Albie. He peeked out the window and saw nothing and no one. Out the peephole in the door he saw Hattie stretching in the sun, just beyond the shadow caused by the second-floor walkway. He peeked through the curtain. The place was otherwise deserted.
Rayford stepped out, and Hattie nearly lunged at him. "Let me see, let me see!" she said, staring at him. "I can see yours!" she said. "That means you can see mine! Can you?"
His eyes were still adjusting to the sun, but as she pulled him out of the shadow by the door, it hit him. His knees buckled and he almost fell. "Oh, Hattie!" he said, reaching for her. She leaped into his arms and squeezed him around the neck so hard he finally had to push her away so he could breathe.