Chapter 7: Silo City

"Nobody's carrying them anywhere," I said.

Ray just smiled and went back to his list.

Lou drove me back to Peckham Street with both hands tight on the wheel.

"Monday at noon," he said. "That's tomorrow, Danny."

"I know what day it is."

"You always know what day it is lately. It's spooky."

Marta was waiting in the rectory yard.

I told her what the Director said, word for word.

She didn't cry this time.

She went white around the mouth and looked over at the five kids playing tag between the pew cushions.

"Then I need a mark," she said. "If Ironworks walks in here tomorrow, I'm not standing at the door with a clipboard."

"You need a kill for a mark."

"I know how marks work. Everybody heard your name in their head."

I'd told her I'd tell her before it mattered.

"There's a nest," I said. "In the grain elevators at Silo City, on the river. It hatches tomorrow at dawn."

She looked at me for a long moment.

"How do you know when it hatches?"

"You said you wouldn't ask how."

"I said I'd ask you to tell me first." She crossed her arms. "So you're telling me there's a crawler nest, and you're telling me when."

"Right now they're asleep in sacks on the floor," I said. "They don't move fast until morning. It's the safest kill in Buffalo."

Last time Ironworks found that nest at dawn, when it was already open.

They lost four men, and the four who lived came out with Bronze marks, and after that Ray could tell the Director anything.

I went to the hall closet in my flat on the way and took out my father's deer rifle.