seemed as distressed by the revelation as she was.
“How do you reckon they do that?” Ryan asked. “I doubt they fly. Or use magic.”
“Oh, no,” Abe said, grinning. “They go to ground, like foxes.”
“What do you mean?” Mildred asked.
“I mean when they vanish, I usually find some kind of hole in the ground nearby. No more than a coyote burrow would have for an entrance, commonly. But they’re built on the slim side, and don’t seem like they’d need much room to wiggle through.”
Jak frowned at the revelation. Krysty guessed it was because he himself had not yet spotted the fact.
“They have dens?” Ryan asked.
“Mebbe. But remember this district is peppered with sinkholes like a plank shot with buckshot, and honeycombed by caves beneath. They could have a whole underground empire with roads and villes, for all we know.”
That struck Krysty as fanciful. It surprised her in someone as practical and…earthy as Abe seemed to be. All the same, he seemed pretty sharp, and his kind of life would offer plenty of time for flights of fancy.
“Ever checked?” J.B. asked.
“Do I look like I got a death wish, friend? Also, you’ll notice I’m built more for endurance than agility. If I could fit myself down one of them rabbit holes, I shudder to think what might be waitin’ for me on the other side.”
Krysty’s mind filled with a vision of Blinda’s face—or the raw red concavity where it had been—and she shuddered too.
“Anyhoo,” Abe said, reaching for a spit, “looks as if our dinner’s ready to serve. Now—”
His black eyes got wide, seemingly fixed right on Ryan. He slapped leather with his right hand.
At the same time, Ryan, staring right back, went for his own blaster.
As quick as a pair of diamondback rattlers, the two men drew their weapons, pointed them straight at each other and fired.
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