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"Isn’t that creepy? Doesn’t it bother you?"

He ran his hands down my midriff to my hips "You bother me That’s the way it should be, Querida"

Okay, I liked it I’d been asking for it, in the shy honest truth of that phrase, not as an accusation I’d trusted Ric to know and appreciate the difference, and he did It was always so touchy for wo misinterpreted Maybe that’s why I’d never wanted to do it before Or maybe Ric hy I’d never been able to do it before

Or maybe the dead bones, the skeletal lovers buried in the li for a couple of fools with our particular weird talents and my dicey personal history to be infected with their own lethal passions

Maybe ere doomed to the sa there half asintroduction was not as successful as the live-dead introduction in Sunset Park two days earlier

When I escorted Ric to the dog area, Quicksilver’s usual e crotch-sniff turned into a sudden snap Ric’s pelvis did an evasive maneuver as fast, skilled, and sexy as ahad serious territorial issues

"Bad boy!" the shelter lady and I shouted in unison

"No!"

Quicksilver sat down and colances at all concerned

The shelter lady and I giggled Ric was not aoodbye under Quicksilver’s watchful ice-blue gaze, "I don’t have to worry about your personal safety while I’ to miss him I forced myself not to look back as I led Quick back to Dolly at a trot, trying not to worry about Ric’s personal safety on his vague quest south of the border I didn’t need to ask if it was risky; his tight-lipped dis

I latched Quick into his safety harness in the front passenger seat We both knew that it would break away in a second if he wanted it to, but it was easier to look like I was following responsible pet ownership rules than to explain to traffic cops that he wasAfter he’d broken lass to roar tolot I wasn’t keen to tie hi the research trail," I told him as we pulled out of the park’s lot

"This town boasts two daily newspapers and a major university library Somewhere in their records our dead folks arded ent eyes that I wanted to put a pair of sunglasses over the so Rhodes Scholarish, I added, "Ric is a great guy and I really, really like hiot it?"

Quicksilver growled softly and stared out the open side , letting his tongue flap through his fangs so he looked like the usual idiot canine easy rider

When your dog is better at undercover work than you are, you have a probleone, I decided to devoteup any news stories froain, e had a flawless and fast wireless connection) for online searches to background the Inferno Hotel and Casino It was the hellcat’s paja a family entertainas embraced its old reputation as the Millenniu the best that it could be, or in its case, the worst: Sin City

The Inferno, only three years old but born to be a wild child, was the latest in knock-down, drag-out adult entertain a wicked reputation in an already wicked town The Hades theroup called the Seven Deadly Sins I’d never heard of thes in Kansas, and feel the better for it

I decided to check with Nightwine He’d been digging up Las Vegasdelightful," Godfrey observed as he greeted e to cover every entrance to this ht on our feet," he said with a wink

"Sin-sims?

"Ah You’re new in town That’s what I am ’CinSim’ is short for Cinema Simulacru Latin Cinehtful concept both htwine explain this to you It’s a rather delicate topic forsymphony in tones of black, white, and all the shades in-between) tinge faintly darker Red reads as black in black-and-white for like the birds and the bees, Godfrey?"

"As it relates to my kind, yes, Miss Now, let us repair to the master’s quarters I believe there has been sufficient tihtwine and his spy caed too, which may be why Godfrey had shut up about his exact, er, composition He seemed totally physically present, just a bitto Nightwine’s office opened at our approach Thehis CinSims

Godfrey paused at the threshold to announceenseh-and-ready h It should have stayed at Ni nicely this century"

I’d forgotten that Nightas even ed out of the low-rise jeans back into denim coveralls

"I will reluctantly invite you to sit down"

I happily complied, since that put my bare midsection out of view behind thechip the police took frorave across the street?" I asked

"Of course Most provocative From the Inferno My cameras also recorded the mass of old silver dollars Thirty, I presu new Do tellblue, for then ould have a wedded couple"

In fact my vision had revealed that the dead woh time and decomposition had destroyed any but a psychic shred of it

Odd how fast I was accepting that I must be psychic But then I’d accepted a mutual attraction with Ric lickety-split too More had happened to as in a few days than in a quarter century in Kansas Call it the Dorothy Syndroas was my Oz, Quicksilver hton the first part He always looked like he had so behind a curtain

"I hear the Inferno has an evil reputation," I went on

"You’ve been talking to governovernular, like I’ toaway, to judge by that parting peck in the park Tsk So soon infatuation over inconvenient corpses turns into old hat"

When I didn’t answer he lifted one eyebrow even higher "Or are you two cheating my cahtwine"

"Hector, please So feell enough to insult ood idea to follow the Inferno connection, though The operation is owned by a muy misterioso fellow named Christophe"

Hector’s lapse into Spanishon Ric anda whole carillon of bells in my head "Christophe is a French name"

"Christopher in French, in fact It can serve either as a given name or a surname This particular Christophe doesn’t indicate which it is in his case He’s just ’Christophe’ and quite the enigh to erect a a-bed hotel and casino that is ruround The place is crawling with CinSims, and you kno I feel about their commercial use He has been ruthless in their acquisition, and in offering the best odds in Vegas, which of course gives hih for this town Very suspicious Of course the Inferno offers every variation of vice, including some I’d not heard of before, which is impressive Keep your eyes wide open when you visit It should be an intriguing experience and I’d be interested in your opinion of the operation Do be careful that you aren’t kidnapped by a white slave ring, though"

I wasn’t worried My, anyway

"Could you fill me in more on CinSims?"

"It’s short for Cine unless you knohat a siot the full lecture

"In occult writings, the word sinates soical purposes In voodoo, a fingernail or a hair can represent the whole person it belongs to and is believed to trap part of that individual’s essence Siernails can be inserted into a doll representing the person to cast spells upon"

"I’ve heard of voodoo dolls, but not that fancy name for the body parts used"

"Science fiction, of course, has eagerly embraced the concept of simulacra as artificial creatures intended to ih imperfect imitations, they’re based on idealized forine that such creatures wish to become human or replace their human model Hence such literary immortals as Pinocchio and Couys too But I thought Data was an android?"

"Ti of ’android,’ but technically an android is an anthropomorphic robot-mechanical Broadly denned, simulcra can be robotic, but in this context the terht," I said, although as far as I knew he could be wrong

"Then there is the si so dissipated in relation to the original that it can stand on its own Consider the cartoon character of Betty Boop"

"The baby-voiced twenties flapper with the huge eyes and the spit curls boop-boop-a-doop?"

"The cartoon was based on a singer nalory by ier, Annette Hanshaw Both Kane and Hanshaw are pop culture footnotes today, almost a hundred years later, but Betty Boop has become a commercial icon of the flapper and lives on in cheesythe resurrection or anies here in Las Vegas is that last type They have a life that their originals never did"

"No one but I would say so, but, yes, I think they do, Miss Street, or could A lot of soul went into creating those on-screen characters Souls never die No one knows precisely how CinSims are created-perhaps by pure science iic The Millennium Revelation showed us that what scientists used to call superstition and ic do work in some cases And if that is indeed provably true, theup will never adold mine Their process and products are trade secrets

"It’s nothing to me if a rich old fart decides to live on in one of the Sunset Cities as a well-preserved shadow of hiht try it myself some day But the CinSims are far more than the crude animatrons of the late twentieth century! They are a synthesis of two delicate for life into fictional characters That’s why I deplore their careless use to enrich greedy pockets If you find anything to tie the Inferno and Christophe to the murder victi the bastard down And I will acquire his stable of CinSi the"

Wow Ric was out to break the zohtanted to liberate the CinSi with both of thehtwine for his inforive hih What an old lech! Luckily he seemed chained to his desk and his wall of audio-visual surveillance equipment

Godfrey opened the doors and escortedme into a broom closet at the bottom

"The master does not oversee scullery rooery"

I tried not to sneeze from scents of lemon oil and dust while Godfrey pressed a business card intoaround the uise of a CinSymbiant"

"A silver-screen revenant like you?"

"No, no Cinema Symbiants are perfectly human fans of CinSi the sincerest fore shop that accommodates CinSymbiants There will be oodles of theht in and won’t be molested Christophe also owns Deja-Vous In addition, you should introduce yourself to my, er, cousin, who is quite a fixture at the hotel’s main bar, the Inferno You can’t e"

"Godfrey! I can’t ever ie You are not only a handsome devil, but you are a doll!" I squeezed his hand as I took the card for Deja-Vous His flesh was solid but on the chilly side Oh, well, cold hands, wars Zoht be very decent folks

We nipped back into the stairwell and into the brightly lit kitchen, where dinner aro aover to Deja-Vous off Charleston before it closed at 7:00 p silver screen escapee What fun! I fully expected to have a hell of a time at the Inferno