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"Hope you're not looking for trouble in Memphis. Hard to get into. Harder to get out of. Valentine, since you're going to be posing as a reel looking to add a few new faces to his line, you'll want something with a little flash. I took this off a wandering guitar man in a swap meet card game."
He picked up a sizeable clear plastic food-storage container and broke the seal. A long, silver-barreled automatic pistol rested inside with a shoulder holster and spare magazines. The gun was nickel-plated and would reflect light from miles away-no wonder Everready stuck it in a hole. "You don't mind .22, do you?"
"For this kind of job I'd prefer it. It's quiet."
"Only took you four years and some to add that word to your vocabulary," Duvalier observed.
"And what else?" Everready said in his old talking-with-milk-chinned-young-Wolves tone.
"It's light so you can carry a lot, and it's a nice varmint round for when you get hungry."
"Exacto! Now let's get you a longarm. Where did I put that sumbitch?" He rooted through the guns and found a zipped-up case. "Here we are."
He extracted a gleaming bullpup battle rifle. "This here is real US Army Issue," he said, as another man might speak of a Rothschild vintage or a Cuban cigar. "Took this off some half-assed commandos outta Jackson eight years back. Called a Tacsys U-gun, 'u' for universal. There's four interchangeable barrels and actions so she can shoot 9mm, 5.56, 7.62 with a sniper barrel, or you can open her up and feed her shotgun shells. Used to have a silencer, but I rigged it to a rifle I lost. Sorry. Nice little four-power scope up top. Wish I could give you the grenade launcher for it."
Valentine checked the customizable sling. "This is great. But you keep Trudy?"
"A man doesn't give up on the girl he loves for a hotter model. Even if she's sporting polycarbon rifling.
"Good gear means flash in the KZ. Don't have the full manual but there's a card in the case that you should be able to figure out."
"Speaking of flashing, he could use a change of clothing," Duvalier said, already cleaning her Mossberg.
"Clothes will be a little harder, but I think I've got an old officer's trench coat in here. Very nice waterproofing and only one small, stain-free hole."
* * * *
"You ready for this, Valentine?" Everready asked. "All your shots up to date ?"
They rested atop a stripped Kenworth parked outside Tunica, within heavy-duty fencing and mounds of rubble blocking the roads south of the city, out of the line of sight of the nearest sentry tower, spaced miles apart on this, the less-critical south side of Tunica.
"So we just have to move slowly?" Valentine asked, loading the U-gun.
"Not so much slow as smooth," Everready said. "No sudden moves. I'm not saying a cough will set them off. Just that it could."
"Ahn-Kha, you'll be okay here for a few days?" Valentine asked.
"There is food and water. I will stay in the cab of this fine vehicle at night, and under those trees in the day. Are they less active at night?"
"Depends," Everready said. "If a few start prowling around, sometimes others join them. Then you get a mob mentality. They go off easier in groups."
Duvalier climbed up and hung off one of the rearview mirror posts and looked north into town. The mirrors themselves were gone. "I see one," Duvalier said. "By the traffic light that's touching the road."
Valentine saw it too. A distant figure staggered back and forth across the street, leaning forward as though trying to tie his shoes as he walked.
"Poor souls," Valentine said.
Everready slowly slid off the top of the truck. "Lots more, closer to the old casinos. That's where the missions organize themselves. That one's probably lost and hungry.
"Okay, kiddies, got your iodine?"
Valentine and Duvalier touched their breast pockets and nodded. Valentine had a big bottle, half full, courtesy of Everready's stockpile, and Duvalier had a stoppered hip flask holding the other half.
"You get bit, first thing you do is get clear and iodine it good. Even if you've had your shots the damn thing mutates sometimes, and who knows what strain is in there. Plus it'll save you an infection. Lots of these have hepatitis along with their other problems."
They started down the old road. "And don't shoot unless it's life or death. It'll just get 'em screaming, and between the shots and the screams you'll have a hurtin' of psychos on you before you know it."
Everready set an even pace, the old Cat rocking a little back and forth, like a ship rolling on the ocean. Valentine walked behind, U-gun across his chest in its hands-free sling. Behind him he heard the steady footsteps of Duvalier, pacing her feet to Everready's rhythm.
