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Past the da theolden light of a JulyThe woossiping and laughing a themselves; the children, after a fruitless attempt by one of the anize the everyone knew (Texas, our Texas! All hail the reat!), had sorted theirls whispering and giggling and elaborately ignoring the boys, the boys elaborately pretending not to care, the little ones bouncing on the benches and darting through the aisle to launch their various assaults; the uarded silence, coe of a wry look or a single raised eyebrow: What have we gotten ourselves into? They were men of the fields, their hands thickened from work; hair shorn close, crescents of dirt under their nails, no beards Vorhees withdrew his timepiece from his pocket and checked the hour: 7:05 Eleven hours until the siren, twelve for the last transport, thirteen until dark Watch the clock Know the location of the nearest hardbox When in doubt, run Words imprinted on his consciousness as indelibly as a childhood rhyme, or one of the sisters’ prayers Vorhees twisted in his seat to catch Dee’s eye She was balancing Siri on her lap, the little girl’s nose pressed to the atch the passing world Dee gave hiun to bounce, puirl pointed a chubby finger out the , squealing with delight Thank you for this

And then, before they knew it, they’d arrived Through the windshield of the transport, the fields of North Ag Complex leapt into view, its vast patchwork laid out below them like the squares of a motley quilt: corn and wheat, cotton and beans, rice and barley and oats Fifteen thousand acres stitched together by a fretwork of dusty roads, and, at their edges, windbreaks of cottonwood and oak; the watchtowers and pump houses with their catch basins and nests of pipe and, dispersed at regular intervals, the hardboxes,limply in the breathless air Vorhees knew their locations cold, but when the corn was tall, you couldn’t always find thes

He rose and moved to the front, where Dee’s brother, Nathan-everybody called hi behind the driver Vorhees was foreman, but it was Cruk, as the senior Doe

"Looks like we’ve got a good day for this," Vorhees said

Cruk shrugged but said nothing Like the field hands, he was dressed in whatever he had: patched jeans and a khaki shirt frayed at the collar and wrists Atop this he wore a plastic vest, bright orange, with the words TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORATION printed on the back He was holding his rifle, a long-barreled 30-06 with a sniper scope, across his chest; a reconditioned 45 was holstered to his thigh The rifle was standard issue, but the 45 was so special, old military or rip He even had a naet a weapon like that, and Vorhees didn’t have to think too hard to figure out who this person e that Tifty was on the trade Vorhees’s 38, with its paltry three rounds, felt er in comparison, but there was no way he could have afforded a weapon like that

"You can always say it was Dee’s idea," Cruk said

"So you don’t think this is sh It was at such moments that Cruk’s reseh it was also true that this wasonly Vorhees would have noticed Most people, in fact, remarked on how different the two of them looked

"Doesn’t matter what I think You know that as well as I do Dee sets herup your balls and call it a day"

The bus gave a bone-jarring bang; Vorhees fought to stay upright Behind them, the children shrieked with happiness

"Hey, Dar," Cruk said, "you think maybe you can miss some of those?"

The old wo Dar what to do with her bus was tantamount to an act of war All the transport drivers were older women, usually s; there was no rule about this-it was just how things were done With a face ossified into a perendary cantankerousness, as no-nonsense a woman as ever walked the earth She kept ti around her neck and would leave you standing in a cloud of dust if you were so much as one minute late for the last transport More than one field hand had spent a night in a hardbox scared out of his wits, counting the minutes till dawn

"A busload of kids, for Christ’s sake I can barely think with all this noise" Dar shot her eyes to the pitted mirror above the windshield "For the love of it, pipe down back there! Duncan Withers, you get down off that bench this instant! And don’t think I can’t see you, Jules Francis! That’s right," she warned with an icy glare, "I’ lady You can wipe that sht now"

Everyone fell abruptly silent, even the wives But when Dar returned her eyes to the road, Vorhees realized her anger was false; it was all the wo hand on his shoulder "Relax, Vor Just let everyone enjoy the day"

"Did I say I orried?"

Cruk’s expression sobered "Look, I know you’d rather Tifty wasn’t coet it But he’s the best shot I’ve got Say what you like, the guy can punch out a hanger at three hundred yards"

Vorhees wasn’t aware that he’d been thinking about Tifty at all But now that Cruk had brought the subject up, he wondered if maybe he was

"So you think we’ll need hied "Summer day like this, we’ll have no probleirls too, you know" He broke theas Dee doesn’t make a habit of this I had to call in about fifty favors to put this little party together, and you can tell her I said so"

The bus drew into the staging area The last of the sweepers were eloves and hel their faces An assortuns, rifles, pistols, even a few machetes Cruk instructed the children to reiven would they be per out the supplies, Tifty descended fro with Cruk at the rear to confer with the DS officer in charge of the sweeping squad, a ht h by the pu with the rest of the ’s humidity had burned away