Chapter 49Dammen stood alone in the middle of the street, hands on hips, staring with indecision at the Tompkins" home. A white, two-story brick-and-wood house that seemed typical to the area. He could hear the sound of children"s laughter from the back yard and knew a lot of people were there, if one considered the many cars lined up in front of the house and all the way down both sides of the street. It was a warm, sunny day, slightly breezy, with a blue sky dotted with a few puffy white clouds and some geoengineered chemical trails.
He glanced around. Apparently no one else in the neighborhood had noticed him yet, so he slunk along the right side of the house to investigate what was going on. He made his way along a tall hedgerow catercorner to the house, then slipped behind a towering
