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can go,” he said.
    Kurt didn’t hesitate. Taking Kimberly’s shoulders in his hands, he gripped her tightly, their noses nearly touching. “Go,” he said.
    Kimberly started to cry. “Daddy, what’s going on? What are they doing here?”
    “Don’t worry about that, sweetie. You just move away from here as fast as you can and get to a telephone.”
    “What am I going to say?”
    “You say exactly what happened. You tell Mom that the army came and arrested me. She can take care of everything.”
    “But she’s not—” Kimberly cut herself off before stating that her mother was out of the country. That was probably a detail that the PDF didn’t need to know. Kurt sensed it and smiled. She had a good head on her shoulders. She’d find a way to get through this.
    Please God, let that be true.
    Kimberly stood there for a long moment, staring, searching for something to say that would somehow make this better. But if those words existed, she didn’t possess them. In the end, all she had left was, “I love you, Daddy.”
    Kurt pulled her close to him for one last embrace. “I know you do, sweetheart. And I love you, too. Tell your brother and your mom that my heart is with you all, always.”
    Kimberly wouldn’t let go. If she hugged him long enough, then maybe she’d never have to go away. If she kept her eyes closed, maybe she’d wake up and all of this would never have happened. In the end, Kurt pushed her away.
    “Go,” he whispered, and he looked away. This was not the time to show the kind of emotion that welled within him. The Muses had never been criers, and Kurt wasn’t about to start a new tradition with all these people watching him.
    Kimberly understood and stepped back. “Bye, Daddy,” she said, and she headed for the front door.
    She didn’t think it was possible, but somehow the crowd of army and police vehicles had grown even larger outside. Even as everyone watched the front of the house, no one seemed to notice her, a white girl in a pink T-shirt and denim shorts, leaving barefoot through the front door. At first, she tried to keep herself from running, from attractingtoo much attention. By the time she got to the end of the driveway,though, she didn’t care anymore.
    She started to run, and as she did, she heard one of the soldiers yell, “ Alto! Stop!”
    The harshness of the order made her run even faster, and as she did, she heard the staccato beat of heavy boots following her.
    “ Alto! ” he yelled again, only this time from much closer.
    Kimberly didn’t know where she was going or what she was going to do when she got there, but she was absolutely certain that above all other things in the world, she wanted to outrun this thug on her heels. She didn’t dare look. She didn’t dare slow down or change course, becauseas it was, she was charging headlong down the steep incline, and any sudden move—
    She felt herself airborne even before she realized that she’d tangled her feet. When she hit the ground, it was on the concrete, and she hit hard on her knees. A bolt of pain launched all the way up to her thighs as the rough cement tore the meat from her kneecaps.
    The soldier was on her in an instant, grabbing her by her arms and yanking her to her feet.
    “Get your hands off of me!” Kimberly shrieked. As she yelled the words, she could see the effect they had on the soldier. He was not one of the DENI thugs; he was rank-and-file PDF, just a guy doing his job, and he clearly was not comfortable roughing up a young girl. That she would shout it so loud and draw so much attention made him very uncomfortable.
    “You are coming with me,” he said to her in Spanish, tightening his grip on her arm. “I have orders to keep you at the house.”
    “You do not!” Kimberly shouted back at him, in unaccented Spanishwith better diction than he. “Your captain said I could go. He said I could leave! Ow, you’re hurting me!”
    The soldier blushed a deeper red, but his grip did not