Part 21 (1/2)

looking at her.

”Those are just bats,” she said. ”They're nocturnal, and the sun's coming up.

They're flying home.” She shrugged her shoulders. ”Bats.”

Captain Suzie frowned and put her weapon up but she didn't move from her

defensive crouch. ”So there's no danger?”

”No,” Caxton said. ”There's no connection. That's just a myth.” She realized

with a start that the ART didn't resent her presence. As they climbed back

inside the vehicle to resume their journey she understood that they were glad to

have her along. She was their trained vampire killer.

She just hoped the mission's success didn't depend on her expertise. They pulled into Kennett Square just as dawn made the white lines on the road glow and seem to float above the dark asphalt. Maybe it was just Caxton's lack of sleep. With the sun creeping up over the trees they moved through the quaint little town which the map showed as being quite literally square. ”What's that smell?” Reynolds asked. Caxton had noticed it too, a thick, earthy smell that occasionally sharpened into something pretty nasty.

”This is the mushroom capital of the world,” Captain Suzie told him. ”Didn't you know that? That smell is the stuff they grow mushrooms in.” DeForrest sniffed the air. ”s.h.i.+t?” he asked.

Captain Suzie shrugged. ”Manure, anyway. They have to cook it in these long sheds, night and day, to sterilize it. This whole part of the state smells like that, pretty much all the time. I used to live around here. You get used to it.” ”You get used to the smell of cooking s.h.i.+t,” Reynolds said as if he were trying on the idea for size.

”So you hardly even notice it anymore,” Captain Suzie a.s.sured him. ”After a couple of days you can get used to anything.”

What about torture, Caxton wondered? Could you get used to torturing your enemies for information? She was afraid she knew the answer.

They pa.s.sed over a set of train tracks that made the Granola Roller rumble ominously and then they were there-the substation. The hideout of Efrain Reyes, if they were lucky. Or maybe if they weren't.

Caxton checked her weapons, working the actions, chambering and unchambering rounds. The ART followed her example. Arkeley pulled up outside the substation's fence and got out of his car. ”What is he doing?” Captain Suzie asked.

The Fed answered for himself, slipping a hands-free phone attachment over his ear. He touched the tiny mouthpiece bud and the armored vehicle's radio squawked. DeForrest punched some b.u.t.tons. ”Say again, over,” he announced. ”I was saying that I'm going from here on foot,” Arkeley told them. ”You can follow however you choose but this place was never meant for a military parade.”