Everyone deemed competent with a firearm (or was willing to learn) had gathered by the lagoon outside Red’s residence to draw straws for the night-watch. Corbin had gladly volunteered, of course, but he couldn’t patrol the entire 15-acre complex alone, and even he would have to sleep sometime. And while others had expressed a willingness to step up—Charlotte, and, to her surprise, Red; Chairman Dean, who seemed to be chair of nothing since the attack, Big Blue: to her credit, for she had never fired a g*n before, Taher, and little Don Martin—it was felt a drawing would suit the democratic spirit of the earlier meeting best. And the need for a night-watch was clear, for it had now been established that the raptors had gotten in not by leaping the fence but by burrowing underneath (something
