I watched the stegosaur as it mulled the bushes, breaking off the coarse branches with its beak—that’s what it looked like, anyway—moving its jaw side to side. “I don’t see the Flashback in its eyes, if that’s what you mean. Shouldn’t be a problem.” I looked beyond the crowd and the scaffold and the trash-strewn park, at the ruined capitol building. “Okay, then. Let’s do it.” I gave her a little wink. “Knives out, baby.”
And we stepped out: Linda aiming her gun at the crowd even as I gripped Valerie’s arm and did the same—but targeting Blake, specifically. The proverbial front man. The head of the snake. Nor were we noticed—at least, not at first; that is, until the stegosaur reared up suddenly and unequivocally and mewed, loudly, alerting those in the back but also ourselves—to the preda
