Page 2317

Hector had offered an iron mask to Roman as well, but the man refused--"on principle," he'd said. Apparently, he took his disguises even more seriously than Hector thought. Either way, it wouldn't be quite as big of a deal if someone recognized Roman, since he was at least Atreyan, so Hector didn't press the issue.

"I did not expect you to bring such a large group," said Secretary Karr, "but this is encouraging to see. If there is any way in which we can help, you need only to ask. You are doing this country a great service. Come, let us walk."

The two parties became one as they moved toward the airport terminal together. Normally, it might not have been so easy to chat on the open tarmac like this, but there were no other airplanes either coming or going. It didn't escape Hector's notice how empty the place looked.

"Have you already evacuated this area?" said Hector.

"For the most part, yes," she said. "There have been a number of anomalous events in this area that suggest the Beast may be closer than we first thought."

Hector kind of wanted someone else to take the lead in this conversation, but that obviously wasn't going to fly, since he was the only person in their group who wasn't trying to keep a low profile in one way or another. "Events like what?" he asked.

"Frequent changes in weather, for one thing. This place was covered in snow three days ago, but you wouldn't know it now. Then it was blisteringly hot, and just yesterday, there was an electrical storm that knocked out most of our electronics."

"Oh," said Hector. "That would explain your lantern, then."

"Hmm? Oh, yes. We found a few of these in storage. Thankfully, we at least managed to get some of the radios back up and running."

Hector found that concerning. "Sounds like this area is pretty dangerous, then. Should you even be here, right now?"