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BEN HASSARD WAS on his feet, nodding and bowing like a bobble-headed doll

"I hope you continue to enjoy the accommodations, Mr Christopher," he told the white man in white, "and that our … discussions down here didn’t disturb you in the penthouse"

"Your CinSih the hotel disturbed s and horses are part of the package, as well as Miss Gulch’s bicycle?"

"Horses and pigs and chickens? Oh, ht I’ll need so attraction … perhaps around a theave as’s one and only albino rock star into this place and time and enterprise I wasn’t surprised that Hassard hadn’t recognized the stage persona of Cocaine, lead singer of the Seven Deadly Sins rock group Snohite-suit civvies looked like a taller, younger, sexier … oh, Mark Twain

"You’re the Vegas bigho’s been so generous with CinSims leases?" I asked, none too smoothly

Shock does that to even a professional objective observer, and I was in no way objective about Snow

His Western-style suit was not that different froe, but his river-boat gahost of El De white hair was tied back into a very passé -tilasses

"Me, generous?" he replied

I could tell his hidden eyes were taking in my plain navy suit Some men’s looks could be said to undress a wo enerous," Snow addressed ain "This was a business deal Ben and I are both well satisfied, and now I have the unexpected bonus of … requisitioning Miss Street’s presence in my suite"

"Ah," Ben said "Miss Street is not a potential, er, hostess, Mr Christopher Her presence is not a matter of acquisition In awith a skeleton crew"

"Mr Christopher," I put in, lee, "knows perfectly well, fro experience, that I am not biddable Is there a reason why I should accompany you upstairs?"

"The view," Snow said, drawing it out like a slow sip of an Albino Vaet some private ti personal visit to the hinterlands

I thanked Mr Hassard, gave him my cell phone number, and asked him to alert me instantly if "my party" returned

Snoaited beside the door the CinSih on a yellow brick road

THE EMERALD CITY offered green glass elevators that shot riders atop each of the needle towers through an aquatic funnel of green gelatin, with a laser show of chartreuse lights lancing the emerald haze

"I’m only here for the ride and the view," I mentioned

"Of course Why do you care about any impression a sleazy operator like Ben Hassard has of you?"

Nah, we get a classy operator, Ir Bad Wolf She loved these settos of ours That riverboat gambler suit fits Snow’s frame just a tad looser than his rock show catsuit … and did you catch those albino ostrich-skin cowboy boots with the ebony heels and platinuht here and happily go to Hell

Snow did rese tie with a platinuhorn skull slide I’m sure he impressed the local yokels no end

"It’s not about me," I told Snow "It’s about the truth Why did you wait to rass left? Did you want to separateyou out fro herd You’re a devout Our Lady of the Lake graduate, I hear I wanted to show you the Holy Grail"

"Oh, come on"

"You don’t believe the cup Christ sipped from at the Last Supper still exists in this world, somewhere?"

"Possibly, but that’s not oing to … satisfy what is your obsession"

Now that was a veiled threat if I’d ever heard one

APPARENTLY PROGRAMMED, OUR elevator had reached the top The faceted ereen it seemed to be underwater

Gosh, Iries Wonder which one our sexy host is so bound and deter for transferring the physical pain and marks of Ric’s bullwhipped childhood slavery to his own truly porcelain albino body I’ll watch

Shut up, I told Ir here with Christophe, the billionaire casino king I was all too aware of his slick Oklahoma oilman wardrobe and the draw of the white silken shirt and suit jacket across the Snohite skin of his back with every move Yet he see of the raunchy rock star re of the victim of a paranormal pain transfer

The roo conversation pit upholstered in so ht I was in mossy Ireland I noted that the suite had his and her powder rooms off the entry hall, like the layout at arlord Cesar Cicereau’s Gehenna Hotel penthouse Effete Vegas luxuries were infecting even Wichita

Snoent ahead into the reen-mirror-backed bar

"I have absinthe and Albino Varave;me de menthe cocktails," he offered "Any preference?"

I stared at a trio of green glass bottles "Wait a minute You’ve bottled my Albino Vampire recipe?"

"Just add the vodka of your choice, frohter fluid Much lass at the Inferno Bar And of course, also er mass market"

I shook reed wearing just my plain navy interview suit"

"Mythe hospitality of the Emerald City Hotel and Casino I should have directed you to the suite Green Roo It’s a must for every occupant You do want to taste what this the custoestured to a pair of zebrawood doors striped in pale and vivid green

"I’ll have the absinthe," I said over h

Whoa I was in soo but forward

The setup, despite its relentless laser-green glow, ieretaway on the low-rent end of the Strip

Green laser lights buzzed and swiveled as they rose and fell on either side of saw puzzle piece I walked through an e warm and then cool Unseen air vents lifted my heavy plaits to writhe and untwine around reen, I hoped

I ca I’d enjoyed a steae In fact, I felt absolutely wonderful

Snoaiting with two tall, thin glasses of opaque, chartreuse-tinted absinthe The drink had been a nineteenth-century fad with a bad rep because an herbal ingredient called ood had a reat star fell fro like a torch, and … the name of the star is ood’"

"‘And Kansas, she said, is the na like the Good Witch Glinda

If Snoanted to quote the Book of Revelation to an Our Lady of the Lake girl, I could quote The Wizard of Oz right back

"Nice pipes," he said, the sunglasses dipping to eye h slit in a long green satin skirt that showcased the fa through the Green Roooing through a gla car wash for humans They call it the ‘Emerald City Dorothy spa option’ The lasers take your ’ the bedazzled client with own fit for a ambler has his lady distracted from the areen casino cards"

"Oh, no They offer a spa experience for gentlemen clients too" He held out his suited arms "They need the money man relaxed and ready to rock and roll the dice and roulette wheel all night long You don’t think I’d dress like a riverboat gambler on purpose? My only … successful resistance to the process was to reject the bilious green color" He eyed me from top to toe "Well, you are black Irish, and the plaits didn’t suit you as well as having your hair loose"

"I hate wearing green," I muttered to dis, red-haired, freckled Irish lassies, not a dark and deep depressive diva like me Okay, I dramatize Shut up, Irma

However, I was deterreen mirrors in the suite in case they skewed my mirror affinity, so I found his com He led h another set of doors, and down a diiant movie screen faced us, but it wasaround, I spotted glassy green reflections bouncing from multiple surfaces, all too fractured to add up to aI didn’t want to display anytricks in front of Snow

I could only glilasses’ lenses Although reen, like a Christup and down hts, "I could report that you’d whip that slinky green vintage gown you’re wearing off a black-and-white reen, I doubt it The latest antiterrorist technology and clothestrends could account forwas that ‘ar mannequin forms"

"True," Snow said "Millenniuo, but if you sell entertainimmick"

He led me down the plush-carpeted stairs to a row of pistachio-colored leather theater seats I noticed that my navy pureen I wondered how my blue eyes had fared in the Euide

"Youhere Please sit, Delilah, and prepare to observe the wonder of the century"

I placed e holder and arranged uini, it draped so easily over me and the chair, but when I leaned back I felt a chill The leather was room temperature and cool My back was bare from tailbone up as the leather accepted the pressure of my skin My naturally pale, unblemished skin

If I’d been asked to lie on a reclining chair of thorns I couldn’t have been ain had focused my mind on the whip strikes I’d transferred to hi, they surely would be

No s, that unspoken fear rubbed my expectations raw The cushy ambiance prickled me all the more as I pictured that supernaturally white skin beneath the silk shirt festered and scabbing and feverish, no matter how much Snoays mastered cool

Or … not That was the bed of nails he had uilt

"I don’t understand why you’re here," I blurted

He’d taken his own chair, sitting forward as tallerhis forearether, not putting his back flat against the leather back Was he trying to make me think the worst?

A reporter knows only to push I eyed reenish abalone-shell dial now encrusted with green garnets I assuaas i at a remote casino operation like Eas in time for your seven ps"

His pale lips split in a sht me out in a trade secret, Delilah?"

"You’re a shape-shifting dragon?"

I dearly hoped so That would make him a major new supernatural on the Millenniue--forhurt

That was the crazy part I orried I’d hurt the impervious Snohen he probably had the power to destroy er I looked closely That

Apparently he hadn’t escaped the Eht

Snow set his white riverboat gambler’s hat on the empty chair seat next to hiers through his tied-back hair, releasing it to his shoulders, sht ahead

I charged ahead "You can’t convincein some over-the-rainbow casino property in Wichita, Kansas"

"Oh, but I aaze my way "And, since you’ve turned up at this opportune moment, I’m here to show you a uys? Ir around here like blond bombshell Jean Harlow and Mr Rock Star Hottie wants to watch aus another hickey here are zero, baby

I sipped the slightly bitter taste of green anise in the absinthe, glad Irht This was a rare retroMajor Red Carpet slinky gown Retro cocktail I glanced again at Snow Irain That bleached Southern Comfort, Rhett Butler outfit didn’t do him a disservice

Tomorrow is another day, baby, I told Irreatest contribution to humanity, the remote control The an flickering on the screen, and

I sat forward, no longer worried about exposing my uneasily naked back to Snow, Rhett, or whoever The scenes and figures I watched were pretty jitterbuggy too That’s the way silent films were seen in the early days, like 1927, in that herky-jerky , lu the space opera scenery of Flash Gordon with the despair of a union movement for robotic workers

Some would say this was the most classic fil The studio and censors had hacked the filer world The Nazis would e loathe the product of his own genius No complete authorized edition existed to this day A ruo in Rio had proved fraudulent

"Snow," I breathed, "what do you have here? Not the coe? That would be … priceless"

His sunglassed gaze remained fixed on the screen "I didn’t say ‘Holy Grail’ for nothing Yes Somehow the foot of the Oz rainbow pointed to the archives of a restored Wichita-area Art Deco usta, and this lost, rare, ie That’s what I want here That’s what I’ll take back to the Inferno Hotel, an entire neing built around this vintage futuristic vision I’ll call it the New Metropolis Towers and Condo privileges"

I was so freaking sold "Ie film city of the future So the subterranean Nine Circles of Hell aren’t playground enough for you? You’re reconstructing the filas? You realize those biblical Babel builders blasphemed?"

"You realize," Snow said, "that ‘blaspheas? Just tune in to your fil here in that seriously anti-Code evening gownpleasure"

"I would wear a green clown suit for the privilege of seeing Metropolis uncut"

Snow chuckled, returning his hidden gaze from the screen "I knew you’d appreciate this"

It’s hard to overstate how rare this fil it elve years frorim but luminous black-and-white futuristic robotic fable of Metropolis to the hypercolorized, deceptively happy fable of The Wizard of Oz sho fast the art of film developed--by leaps and bounds--and so had its audience

I rapidly scanned e y tale of Maria, a sweet, loving girl who became the movie’s model for the ultimate roboticized worker-drone The "manufactured" robot queen bee built on Maria in Metropolis had inspired George Lucas to create the shiny gold C-3PO robot in the Star Wars fila, but a more recent descendent was Seven of Nine, that sexyfemale "construct" of nineties Star Trek television

Now I stared at the moments of heroine Maria’s on-screen re-creation, a hu made into a silver-e of feoddesses Only this dame wore body armor

She stood on platforunslinger, and don’t we all, a little? I was reminded of the secondhand cop duty belt I wore for action expeditions Her hs Like a gunslinger’s

Her torso was covered by a stiff metal "stomacher" bodice Queen Elizabeth I (no monarch to mess with anywhere, anytime) would wear

Her breastplate was topped off by steel cannonballs, size 36C Her shoulders stood up high and rounded too, and her neck sinews co of the suspension bridge