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Feely seemed far too amped up. And in the fur coat, he did look a little like a pimp.

“Doc, what’s your point?”

Tim tilted his head toward Margaret, did a bad job of trying not to make the motion obvious.

“Argaret-May is inected-fay with eydra-hays,” he said. “She’s oughing-kay. You get me?”

Paulius sighed. “I have no f.u.c.king idea what you’re talking about.”

“She’s infected. If Cooper’s story is accurate, she’ll be dead in … wait, how long have we been here?”

“About five hours.”

“Then she’ll be dead in nineteen hours,” Tim said. “But that’s not what matters. What matters is the hydras are replicating inside of her right now.”

He looked off. His lips moved like he was counting something, or speaking to himself in a language only he knew.

“I think I have a way to save Ramierez,” he said. “A way that not only gets us north in a hurry, but lets us infect hundreds of those motherf.u.c.kers along the way. If any of them radiate out to other areas, it’s very possible that the hydras will spread all over the Midwest. Klimas, if you can pull this off, we might even start a chain reaction that could kill them all.”

Paulius stared down at the man. “If I can pull what off?”

Tim’s eyes shone with a combination of intensity, hope and the dread of a nasty job that had to be done.

“The firehouse,” he said. “And what’s inside … the fire truck.” He nodded toward Margaret. “We’re going to put her in it, so to speak. Margaret Montoya gets to save the world one more time.”

THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

A hand on his shoulder, shaking him lightly.

“Mister Mitch.e.l.l, wake up.”

Cooper opened his eyes. Tim Feely, standing over him.

Tim smiled. “How are you doing?”

Was he wearing a fur coat?

“Leg hurts,” Cooper said. The understatement of the year. His right thigh throbbed, stung. “I cut it on something climbing over that p.o.o.pwall.”

“p.o.o.p-wall? You mean that street barricade?”

Cooper nodded. “Yeah. That.”

“Well, whatever caused it, the cut required fifteen st.i.tches. You might have ligament damage as well, so walk carefully. Unfortunately, it was Klimas who did the sewing, as my deft digits are a bit dinged up.”

Tim held up his hands. They were bandaged in a dozen places. Some of the white strips had spots of red.

Cooper remembered the half-face man with the axe. Tim could have kept running, but he’d come back.