She hit the brakes and hauled the wheel to the left, turning the car sharply toward the median. The instant the wind hit the side of the car, its rear seemed to take on a life of its own, and she went into a circular skid, spinning twice before she hit the shoulder. Smashing her foot down on the accelerator, she plunged into the flooded median and went splashing through it onto the opposite roadway.

Headlights came at her as something big loomed out of the rain. Swerving, she just managed to avoid the detached cab of an eighteen-wheeler, its driver clutching his steering wheel as if it were a life preserver. Then there were more lights, and she drove straight toward them, in wind so hard it turned the rain into a horizontal blur.

*   *   *

With full night had come flaring light to the south from the fires set by Gina’s mistake. Or was it a mistake? She was right that he was a hybrid. But how would she have found out? Who had told her?

A deep strategy was at work here, Mark could see that, but it was large and subtle, its outlines difficult to bring into focus.

He listened as Pete spoke to an emergency medical team that had arrived from Travis AFB. Due to the security requirements of the mission, Pete was not allowing them into the Glade itself, and they were arguing. Their original task had been to pick Linda up, but they were calling in reinforcements now, so that the wounded could be got to a hospital. The pitiful few. Pete had told the medical orderlies that the town had been attacked by a mob of bikers.

Linda had a child curled in her lap, a little, lost creature, his eyes gazing into the reveries of shock. As Mark came closer, Linda looked up at him, then away. She twisted her hands together.

“Linda?”

“Mark, I’ve got work to do.”

He grabbed her wrist. “Do you see anything in me that would suggest a problem?”

“Hell no.” She pulled away. “But if you don’t stop worrying and start working, sir, I am gonna see a problem. I’m gonna be disappointed.”

It was true. Much had to be done here, not the least of which was to locate any hybrids still in the area and eliminate the threat that they represented. It was dark, no moon, only the irregular glow of distant firelight.

He decided that he would patrol just the immediate medical staging area, not the whole community. To do this right, he had to keep every human being here in sight at all times. When this medical team attempted to return to Travis, he needed Gina to supply air support for them, but he couldn’t exactly ask for that, could he?