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"What?"

"Just hu They can make you see what they want you to see John wants toaround the room, I pointed out the four other residents of Undisclosed who had theon John and me for their lives Five if you counted Jennifer’s boobs separately, as I suddenly had the i somewhat relieved "Good And yeah, like Ji, I guess You knohat I’, Dave? Like that cop in the police station, the one asn’t really there I wasn’t in the room but I remember it anyway, and he looked like a stereotypical cop, like a generic Standard issue An extra in a ain and I wondered how h himself He said, "Hollywood raised us Your h a filter formed by comic books and action movies on Cineuns to school The Devil kno to control us"

Ji up Satan in a conversation where nobody could counter hiels seemed pretty plausible in this context and Jim intended to ride that horse hard

John said, "People ake up in the -eyed alien abductors or a ghostly old wo they saw in someit can’t understand Only here, somehow it becomes real At least to you"

We rode in silence, I think all of us wondering as behind the floallpaper our perceptions had always pasted on the unknown All the things the mind won’t allow us to see, to protect our sanity, or our soul, or maybe just to keep the shit out of our pants

Fred spoke first, breaking the silence

"Well fuck ’em That’s what I say"

Jennifer said, "I took a cinee last semester Most of the fil out in coffee shops, or in apartments over coffee shops But I don’t even have a TV anyhed, wishing Jier attention spans "Okay," I said, "let’s set that aside because at the host stories or va up there in the cockpit is real, real as any of us--"

Crotch-punchingly real!

"--and it can uys understand what it wants with us?"

Fred said, "Man, I think he’s gonnathe best parts froeous"

I sighed again, rubbed my forehead with both hands There was a very real chance that the conversation had taken a turn that would allow John to talk about his dick, which was a subject it could take hours, if not the better part of days, to co it in the bud, I said:

"Nooooo It’s none of that Look, you know the story of the Trojan horse? A few soldiers get inside the eneht they sneak out of the horse and let the rest of their ar the Jah He becas, they ca to open the gate and let their buddies in"

This brought silence I scanned the cartons around us, the vague outlines of a plan for in my head

Fred said, "Dude, how do you possibly know that?"

"I pieced it together through inductive reasoning and inforh the dog Long story"

"Okay," Fred said, accepting it readily I sensed that I was in the presence of the king of the go-with-the-flow types "But why us?"

"Because ere chosen," Jim answered "Called And that’s all that ht, Jim But not by God, unless God is a black liquid in a silver jar Hell, ht of his sister saying the Jamaican had showed up at their house Jiht there, fro on

Did he light the fuse on this whole situation soht they leave fingernail grooves, they’re the ones who are thetoo far the other way, fighting for the Lord, often just because it gives theht

Fred nodded and said, "So what you’re saying is, if we all die, that’s not even the worst-case scenario"