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Lodsam hanti, we are the chosen ones.
Cahanna risone hanti, we are the fortunate ones.
Sabbatha hanti, sabbatha hanti, sabbatha hanti.
We are the True Knot, and we endure.
5
Later, Crow joined her in her EarthCruiser. “You really won’t be going east, will you?”
“No. You’ll be in charge.”
“What do we do now?”
“Mourn him, of course. Unfortunately, we can only give him two days.”
The traditional period was seven: no fucking, no idle talk, no steam. Just meditation. Then a circle
of farewell where everyone would step forward and say one memory of Grampa Jonas Flick and give up
one object they had from him, or that they associated with him (Rose had already picked hers, a ring
with a Celtic design Grampa had given her when this part of America had still been Indian country
and she had been known as the Irish Rose). There was never a body when a member of the True died,
so the objects of remembrance had to serve the purpose. Those things were wrapped in white linen and
buried.
“So my group leaves when? Wednesday night or Thursday morning?”
“Wednesday night.” Rose wanted the girl as soon as possible. “Drive straight through. And you’re
positive they’ll hold the knockout stuff at the mail drop in Sturbridge?”
“Yes. Set your mind at ease on that.”
My mind won’t be at ease until I can look at that little bitch lying in the room right across from mine,
drugged to the gills, handcuffed, and full of tasty, suckable steam.
“Who are you taking? Name them off.”
“Me, Nut, Jimmy Numbers, if you can spare him—”
“I can spare him. Who else?”
“Snakebite Andi. If we need to put someone to sleep, she can get it done. And the Chink. Him for
sure. He’s the best locator we’ve got now that Grampa’s gone. Other than you, that is.”
“By all means take him, but you won’t need a locator to find this one,” Rose said. “That’s not going
to be the problem. And just one vehicle will be enough. Take Steamhead Steve’s Winnebago.”
“Already spoke to him about it.”
She nodded, pleased. “One other thing. There’s a little hole-in-the-wall store in Sidewinder called
District X.”
Crow raised his eyebrows. “The porno palace with the inflatable nurse doll in the window?”
“You know it, I see.” Rose’s tone was dry. “Now listen to me, Daddy.”
Crow listened.
6
Dan and John Dalton flew out of Logan on Tuesday morning just as the sun was rising. They changed
planes in Memphis and touched down in Des Moines at 11:15 CDT on a day that felt more like mid-
July than late September.
Dan spent the first part of the Boston-to-Memphis leg pretending to sleep so he wouldn’t have to
deal with the doubts and second thoughts he felt sprouting like weeds in John’s mind. Somewhere
over upstate New York, pretending ceased and he fell asleep for real. It was John who slept between