petrochemical haze of the horizon. The sun swelled like a huge red festering boil as it fell into the pooled gray-brown crud. It made World War III look like not such a bad idea.
K. C. Strange lay on her back on a dirty old blanket next to the station wagon they'd stashed a few blocks from Reeves and collected when they ditched the cop car and a grumpy, groggy Lieutenant Norwalk. Her breath was coming quick and shallow now, and pink froth bubbled her lips at each exhalation.
Sprout Meadows bent over her, trailing tears and long blond hair in the jumper's upturned face. "Don't die, pretty lady. Please." Her father stroked her hair with the hand that wasn't cradling K. C.'s head in his lap.
Durg stood a discreet distance down the road, keeping watch. A rose-gray Toyota Corolla had been parked there since yesterday, all full of blankets and nonperishable food and stuffed toys for Sprout, to ensure they began the crosscountry leg of their escape as clean as possible.
"Blaise did this?" he repeated wonderingly. "Blaise." K. C. repeated.
He shook his head. "He tried to do something to mejump me, I guess. Why, man? You were his-his lady. I was his friend!" He bit his lip. "It wasn't because we="
She laughed, winced. "He was through with me. He ... hated you. Thought you were ... threat. Tell you his dirty secret, babe ... mine too. He has his grand--"
He pressed a finger to her lips. "Cool it. No time for that now" It was cold as hell out here on this long-forgotten county road, and his breath came in puffs of fog. He didn't notice. "We're away from the city. You gotta let us take you to a hospital. Nobody'll recognize you."
Her fingernails dug into his arm through the thin cotton of his Brooks Brothers shirt with a strength he didn't think she still had. "No! Ahh!"
She clung, eyes shut, until the pain spasm passed. "No," she said again, a whisper now. "Don't give me up to the Combine."
"Nobody's looking for you, babe. We'll tell 'em you got shot when somebody tried to rape you-"
She was shaking her head, slowly, as if each movement tore her further open. "No. I'm wanted. Hospitals, pigs ... all part of the Combine. Too late, anyway-I'm ... about out of air time." Her eyes came all the way open and looked way back in his. "I'd rather die free than live in a cage."
"You don't have to die."
"No," she said, and her voice was clear. " I don't."
She reached up and grabbed his head with both hands. Mark cried out in alarm as blood welled up around the edges of the tape Durg had wound around her chest, almost black in the orange dusklight. She pulled his face close to hers. Her eyes held his like pins through a butterfly's wings.
"I don't have to die." The blood-froth static was back now, and her voice was sinking under it. "I'm a... jumper, remember? I don't have to-go down with this ship. But I can't touch the alien. I won't touch the baby. And you-"
She forced her shoulders up off the mottled blanket, forced her mouth to his. " I love you, Mark," she said, falling back. Her eyes met his again. "Remember... me ..."
Something passed behind his eyes as the light went out of hers. And then her blood was on his mouth, and she was dead.
The three shots were startlingly loud. They seemed to race clear to the horizon, where a thin scum of day's last light lay like self-luminous chemical waste, and rebound in a heartbeat.
The smell of gasoline from the station wagon's ruptured tank crowded Mark's nostrils as Durg slowly lowered the 10-mm. Mark held the highway flare before his skinny chest desperate-hard for just one moment, so the tendons stood out on the back of his hand. Then he pulled the tab. "Good-bye, K.C.," he said. "Rest easy, babe." He tossed the hissing magenta spark into the dark pool spreading below the vehicle.
It went up in a rush and a shout of yellow flame.
Mark stood there staring until the heat got so intense that even Sprout backed up, tugging her daddy's hand with gentle insistence. He stayed put. Durg took hold of the back of his shirt and drew him irresistibly back until his eyebrows were in no danger of crisping.
"It is done," the alien said. "We must leave before someone comes to investigate the fire."
They walked to the Toy, soles