Chapter 21: Credentials

Nolan's POV

I had her on the ground before the first rifle fired.

I do not remember crossing the space.

I remember the round striking the gate bar where her head had been.

I remember the weight of her under me, warm through her coat.

"Stay down," I said.

"You stay down."

"Robin."

"I'm busy being angry," she said, and her hand lit against the dirt.

The fire went in a line across the lane.

It was not aimed. It was a warning, and it showed.

At the far end, the two men with rifles flattened themselves against the outer gate post.

The Director had already turned and was walking back toward the white car without hurrying.

He did not look back. He had said ten minutes, and he had meant exactly ten.

"Everybody to the buildings!" the mechanic shouted. "Move, move, go!"

Fifty-two people broke across the yard.

I pulled Robin up and ran with her to the scale house.

"Where are we going?" she said.

"Give me one second."

I kicked the door open and went straight to the wood stove in the corner.

Behind me she stopped in the doorway.

I took the badge out of my coat.

It was a grey card on a lanyard, with my face on it.

The Foundation had issued it to me four years ago.

It opened every door in the Calder complex, and it told them where I was.

I had carried it through every room on this farm.

I opened the stove door and dropped the badge on the coals.

The plastic curled. The lanyard caught.

"That was your way home," Robin said.