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One of the guards who questioned hi it, but the tra awarded to hi for the TMCC in Little Rock during Solon's brief tenure The back his ID card did have a half-peeled old shining service star - the sort of thing ele tests - and a discharge stauard, himself a TMCC veteran, the stick was returned

The road wanders up a little treelined hill - only a technically e of Weathercut's lands, then down and over a stream

The trae's armpit - the bundle is still there, and the little piece of paper set to dislodge if it's es concrete by the pack - and then takes a long drink froh he were one of thedown for a nap

Had one of the guards followed to observe the traht the last very strange Travelers, especially vagrants, take care to travel only during daylight and hide deep and dark once the sun sets Kurian Towers are few and far between in this part of Iowa, but their avatar Reapers use the roads as they go about their affairs, and are only too happy to remove a human mote like the tramp from the picturesque dells of this corner of Iowa

David Valentine didn't rest under the bridge long He got to his feet again well before dark, but not before he exchanged the flap-heeled road shoes for a pair of soft buckskin moccasins

He was tempted to take one or two of the weapons froe, but there was still a chance that he'd be observed sneaking through the estate's orchards He could talk his way around a few pilfered late apples, but not a pistol

Valentine carefully cut upstream toward the manse

This was not his first visit to Weathercut Manse; he'd been on and off the lands a dozen ora feel for

the rhyth your ti made the results exponentially surer

This being a Wednesday, F A Ja a cowearer of Weathercut, would be on the east side of the grounds froht to twelve, after which he'd put in four atehouse, then sixteen in ready reserve in the security aparte

Not that Valentine intended for him to finish the shift

Sometimes the captain or one of the older hands would accoht would be cold He'd probably be alone, driving his ATV fro in the back, as he checked the fields and fencing, warine whenever he paused

Valentine had picked out the spot a week ago, spent two long cold nights, one watching it to get the lie of the ground and the guard routine down, especially where the headlights of the ATV would shine

The east side of the estate ran down into a soggy streah and dimpled and thick with birches and poplars and a drowned oak that had fallen The estate fence ran down into the bottom, probably to protect the pheasants that nested there