r off.

"She swabs out some joints on Chicago Avenue for a living and that was
how she happened to be sitting in that tavern. It's payday, and Minna
was waiting for her dough!" He exploded into laughter and slapped the
table with a huge hand. "Can you beat that? Waiting for her pay at a
time like this."

Frank Brooks set down his beer bottle. The beer was cold and it tasted
good. "Have you met anybody else? There must be some other people
around."

"Uh-uh. Haven't met anybody but Minna." He turned his eyes on the woman
again, then got to his feet. "Come on, Minna. You and I got to have a
little conference. We got things to talk about." Grinning, he walked
toward the rear of the restaurant. Minna got up more slowly. She
followed him behind the counter and into the rear of the place.

Alone with Nora, Frank said, "You aren't eating. Want me to look for
something else?"

"No--I'm not very hungry. I was just wondering--"

"Wondering about what?"

"When it will happen. When whatever is going to happen--you know what I
mean."

"I'd rather know _what's_ going to happen. I hate puzzles. It's hell to
have to get killed and not know what killed you."

"We aren't being very sensible, are we?"

"How do you mean?"

"We should at least act normal."

"I don't get it."

Nora frowned in slight annoyance. "Normal people would be trying to
reach safety. They wouldn't be sitting in a restaurant drinking beer. We
should be trying to get away. Even if it does mean walking. Normal
people would be trying to get away."

Frank stared at his bottle for a moment. "We should be scared stiff,
shouldn't we?"

It was Nora's turn to ponder. "I'm not sure. Maybe not. I know I'm not
fighting anything inside--fear, I mean. I just don't seem to care one
way or another."

"I care," Frank replied. "I care. I don't want to die. But we're faced
with a situation, and either way it's a gamble. We might be dead before
I finish this bottle of beer. If that's true, why not sit here and be
comfortable? Or we might have time to walk far enough to get out of
range of whatever it is that chased everybody."

"Which way do you think it is?"

"I don't think we have time to get out of town. They cleaned it out too
fast. We'd need at least four or five hours to get away. If we had that
much time the army, or whoever did it, would still be around."

"Maybe they didn't know themselves when it's going to happen."

He made an impatient gesture. "What