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on patrol. Even so, the alarm should signal a call to his
cell. If the substation didn't acknowledge the alert, the signal
would be transferred to Barcester Central. Downtown meant
an extra eight minutes in response time.
    Stone tossed the cigarette to the floor, ground it with his heel
into the carpet. "I don't have all day, lady. I'm taking my kid."
    The phone rang. In the empty waiting room, it sounded like
a fire alarm. After ten rings it stopped, going to voice mail.
Probably Central trying to ascertain if the signal for help was
genuine. They didn't expect anyone to be here, would likely
assign it a low-priority-the work of kids who broke in and
were messing around.
    "Let me splint her shoulder, OK? Otherwise Angelina will be
unmanageable."
    "She don't look unmanageable."
    "That's because I'm holding her carefully. So her shoulder
won't slip."
    "OK, OK. After you show me your driver's license."
    "What? Why?"
    Stone shot into the ceiling, raining down plaster. "I said, give
me the license."

    "Sarah, could you get my license out of my wallet? Is it all
right if she does, Stone? I don't want to move Angelina. It
might jar that shoulder."
    "Whatever. Just give it to me."
    The baby grasped at Kaya's shirt, and for the thousandth
time her heart ached. Perhaps it was good she had been forced
to close the clinic. How many more Sarahs and Angelinas could
she bear to heal with medicine, only to see them lost to the likes
of Stone?
    Sarah's hand shook as she passed the license to Stone. He
studied it, then tossed it to the floor. "Good."
    "Good what?" Kaya asked.
    "Now I know where you live. If you mess with me, I'll return
the favor ten times over. So let's go fix that little girl's shoulder,
and then her mama and I are taking her home."
    "And then what?"
    Stone jammed the gun into Kaya's face. "Then what ain't
your business."

     

chapter nine
    ASMINE TUGGED AT BEN. "Let's go," she said. "We gotta
get out of here."
    "We can't. We have to keep everyone away from the
Circle until the cops come. Kids. Oh, no, little kids on their
bikes. Jazz, they gotta be told to keep away."
    There was no buyer, and there were no drugs. Only a stupid
girl who for two hundred bucks had carried the pack to a spot
where an explosion would devastate the whole neighborhood.
If you can't be safe on a bike path with your little kid and her
little training-wheels bike, where can you be safe?
    They stood about three hundred feet east of the Circle on
the edge of the University Avenue path. Ben had tried to get
Jasmine to go to the opposite side to warn people, but she
refused to leave him.
    His watch read 9:59.
    A cyclist raced toward them, a stern-faced man in fiery
spandex and one of those sleek helmets with the point at the
back. Head down, legs pumping, the guy paid no attention to
Ben as he waved for him to stop.
    "No, don't go in there! Stop!"
    The guy had to have heard him. No-he had wires coming
out of his helmet, listening to an iPod. Ben flung a rock and
screamed, "There's a bomb, fool!"
    The man kept riding, head down.

    Go fast, Ben hoped, and then he prayed, God, make him fast.
If the Big Guy wasn't around for times like these, what was His
job description anyway?
    Ben's watch turned over to ten o'clock. Traffic on the
Avenue had picked up, people out on errands. Two men ran
across the bridge from Spire Boulevard. Sergeant Logan and
some other guy-which meant Ben and jasmine could finally
get out of here.
    "Come on. Let's go." Ben scrambled down the bank and
headed onto University Ave. "Jasmine?"
    "Luther. Omigosh, there's Luther!" Jasmine jerked around
and ran back toward the Circle.
    The wrong way.
    Ben wanted to follow her, to catch her and yank her back,
but before he could find the courage to turn his body around,
the world exploded-

    Kaya splinted Angelina's shoulder, still praying about what to
do about Stone when the world made the decision for her.
    There was a distant boom, followed