o the pump house

unning from the test tap. Then

id. "Isn't th

ient?"

s up out of nowhere and fixes it in ten minutes." He turned to Rhys with a sad little smile. "Mr. Ca

"Grant, you

d a grudge and

oked at me. I fe

. Meridian is four hours away. You think I

t move. "You could

w much the Water Authority paid

neers coughed t

ay he had watched the scavengers. Calm. Patient. Lik

nally, "is badge access only. M

et me save you some trouble, Mr. Cald

ead,"

ld it well. H

ervoir data and called it a conspiracy. She screamed at her supervisors in

is," Tessa added softly. "

One of them looked at

to scream. Which was ex

did

of the ugly maid's apron

since the desert. I'd slept with

leasant. You published forty-six pe

smile fl

ed thirty-eight. Actual reading was eleven. Ma

, twen

the rows. Dates. Times. Gauge serial numbers

or eight months. You told two million people th

died four

dy m

"you fired me in front of forty

It came out a l

cribbles in

could have checked." I held his eyes. "Except now nobod

ump house. Even the

held out

e the n

was all I had left. Three years of my

it on m

t back," he

hy I believed

ledger i

a strange gray color.

he said brightly. "She

ay across the stone floor. She didn't look

Then it was just Rhys and

the page

months

drove to every l

hy

somebod

his face wasn't a locked door. It

it wa

or by the governor's emergency offi

can wat

ale." He tucked my ledger insi

t was a long bunk room under the kitchens,

a small, furious w

up

d hugged me so ha

der. "I peel potatoes. For people with grass." She pu

sist

floor. "That's no

s. My body ached in a hundred pl

, a hand sh

over my cot

ed. "Mr. Ashcroft wan

my heart

hy

ced at t

re thing." Her voice dropped even