You’re going to have to get used to the quiet.”

“The gate’s mine to keep dull,” I said.

She almost smiled.

“Then keep it dull.”

At three I walked the fence line the way I did most afternoons, out along the wire and back to the paint mark where the barrier arm comes down.

The heat had gone out of the day.

The gravel threw up dust with every step, and the sky over the motor pool was a flat, bright blue with nothing moving in it.

Halfway back, the scanner in the shack gave a short buzz, and Dewitt leaned out the window.