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n Colli
ap motor oil and stale beer-an
flew up in front of my face. Calloused fingertips. Grease-stain
the day before every
e brass doorknob rattled, then the cheap wood c
ptain of the Salinas charter. He smelled of cheap to
ce. He tossed a leather
ghting a cigarette. "I already talked to the table.
urled agains
ng a copied formula, while my trucks secretly moved the real antibiotics through a blizzard
hings. I stayed in the dim corner
He stepped forward, using
"Kristina saved the entire charter during the West Plains ambu
A razor-thin smi
but steady as iron. "Those four crates of expired penici
d. His fists clench
hit my cheek. "You hide up here counting petty shop receipts while she was out th
d up s
s with an amber stare so cold the air
nk, there's nothing I c
er cut he had thrown on the bed, and shoved i
sed to my compliance, my quiet compromises to keep his garag
the hallway. Kristina's breathy v
e," she pleaded, hovering just outside the threshold
doorway, his harsh expression m
oftly. "Nobody in this clubhouse i
p nausea churned in my gut, but my right hand drifted casually to the ni
to me, his feat
he ordered. "And you will vote yes. Don't pus
river and offered him
t Church. I'll give you bo
us of how easily I gave in, but
y found some sen
e the door. The sound of his boots a
and turned the brass de
fell de
down, and pulled out the bottom drawer completely. Behindthree-digit
y three spare shop keys and an
sport network I had built from the dirt up, the empire I had kept hi
een illuminate the dark room, and sent a sin
e all blind capital injections to
lashed: Mess
my chest, listening to the muffl
sn't going to be Kr
be the start o
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