Page 12 (1/2)

Seyiven me an idea But even with his inspiration, and oes exactly as planned, the chances of it working are fifty-fifty at best In all probability ives me hope For myself and Ray He is like ht that he is to be snuffed out so young He rong to say I would give up without a fight I fight until the end

There is a concept NASA is entertaining to launch huge payloads into space It is called Orion; the idea is revolutionary Many experts, in fact, say it won&039;t work in practice Yet there are large nuineers who believe it is the wave of the future in space transport Essentially it involves constructing a huge heavily plated platform with cannons on the bottom that can fire miniature nuclear bombs It is believed that the shock waves fro and power is perfectly balanced--can lift the platform, steadily into the sky, until eventually escape velocity is achieved The advantage of this idea over traditional rockets is that tree could be shot into space The primary problem is obvious: ants to strap theoing off beneath it? Of course, I would enjoy such a ride Extreme radiation bothers reat resources, I do not have a nuclear bomb at my disposal But the idea of the Orion project inspires a plan in me Seymour hit the nail on the head when he said Yaksha must be placed in a situation where he thinks all three of us will perish That will satisfy Yaksha He will then go to Krishna believing all vampires are destroyed I theorize that I can build my own Orion with dynamite and a heavy steel platform, and use it to allow Ray and me to escape while a secondary blast kills Yaksha

This is how I see the details I let Yaksha into ht hi blast I know the possibility will entice Yaksha We can sit in the living rooht the fuse He will see that the boh to kill us all

But what he will not see is the six inches of steel sheeting under the carpet beneath my chair and Ray&039;s Our two chairs will be bolted to the steel sheet-- through the carpet The chairs will be part of the metal plate--one unit Yaksha will not see a smaller bomb beneath the floor of the plate This bomb I will detonate, before Yaksha&039;s fuse burns down This bohts in er bomb

Simple Yes? There are probleer the larger bomb before we can fly clear I estio off almost simultaneously But Ray and I need rise up only fifteen feet on our Orion Then the blast frohts If the two bombs are more than fifteen feet apart--ideally twice that distance--then the shock wave froer bomb before we have achieved our fifteen feet elevation

Our heads will heal quickly after we s as we are in one piece

The physics are simple in theory, but in practice they are filled with the possibility for liure Ray and I will be dead before sunrise But any odds are good odds for the damned, and I will play them out as best I can

I stop at a phone booth and call my primary troubleshooter in North America I tell him I need dynaet them? He is used to my unusual requests He says he&039;ll call back in twenty minutes

Fifteen minutes later he is back on the line He sounds relieved because he knows it&039;s not good to bringinformation He says there is a contractor in Portland who carries both dyna Franklin and Sons--they build skyscrapers He givesup Portland is eighty miles away The time is ten-fifty

I sit in ht, listening to the people inside The place is closed, but there are three securityTV The other two are in back sht thinking about Krishna, hoping he will help me, I am not predisposed to kill these three I climb out of my car

The locked doors cause me no problem I am upon the stoned men in the back before they can blink I put them to sleep with moderate blows to the temples They&039;ll wake up, but with bad headaches Unfortunately, the guy watching TV has the bad luck to check on his partners as I knock theun when he sees me, and I react instinctively I kill hi the bones in his chest with a violent kick I drink a belly

full of his blood before he draws his last breath I am still weak

The dynamite is not hard for me to find with my sensitive nose It is locked in a safe near the front of the building, several crates of thick red sticks There are detonator caps and fuses Already I have decided I will not be taking ht I will need a truck from the warehouse to haul the steel sheets The metal is not as thick as I wish; I will have to weld several layers together I find a welding set to take with me

There are actually several suitable trucks parked inside the warehouse, the keys conveniently left in the ignitions I load up and back out of the warehouse I park my Ferrari several blocks away Then I am on the road back ho by the fire as I coed He is a va silly like that But the signs are there--gold specks deep in his once uniforrace to his movements no mortal could emulate He stands when he sees h at the question I a as simple as yes or no I step toward him

"You are with me," I say "You are the same as me When you met me, did you think I was alive?"

"Yes"

"Then you are alive How do you feel?"

"Powerful Overwhelmed My eyes, my ears--are yours this way?"

"Mine are more sensitive They become more and more sensitive with ti back?"

"Yes"

"When?"

"At dawn"

"Will he kill us?"

"He wants to"

"Why?"

"Because he feels we are evil He feels an obligation to destroy us before he leaves the planet"

Ray frowns, testing his new body, its vibrancy "Are we evil?"

I take his hands and sit hiin to crave blood, and the blood will give you strength But to get blood you don&039;t need to kill I will show you how"

"You said he wants to leave this planet He wants to die?"

"Yes He is tired of life It happens--our lives have been so long But life does not tire me" I am so emotional around Ray, it amazes me "I have you to inspire me"

He smiles, but it is a sad smile "It was a sacrifice for you to save me"

He takes , I could see you were afraid to give me your blood What happens when you do? Does it lad that I can squeeze his body with all th and not break his bones "Don&039;t worry about me I saved you because I wanted to save you"

"Is o of hi at h his thought processes have begun to alter He didn&039;t protest when I told hioes deeper than blood

"Was it necessary?" he asked