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"Your body odor could knock it down faster," Cherise said crisply "I cannot wait for a shower They want to go all Psycho on me, fine At least I’ll die clean"

She held out her arms, and Kevin passed her the toddler, ake, alert, and watchingon himself I didn’t take it as a compli hiot the boy situated on her hip

"Okay, how about Ronald? I’o with a dead president the Go with Thomas"

"Tommy," Cherise said immediately "Jefferson Yeah, okay How’s that, To hed and clapped his hands "Toet clean"

"Enjoy," I said I was going to be in hot pursuit of that shower, but first I wanted to go through the office The looters had probably taken everything of value, but I wasn’t looking for things to pawn or spend

Kevin hesitated at the door "You going to be okay?"

I flipped a hand at hied and went away

The drawer seeh there wasn’twith it, and realized that it had a false bottom I pressed on the back, and the front popped up

Underneath that lay a big, black semiautomatic pistol, with two full clips and a box of bulletsand a sawed-off shotgun, and shells

"Sweet," I said, and stuffed it all into a recyclable shopping bag that was lying on the floor Small-business owners Like Boy Scouts, always prepared

I also found a private stash of alcohol, which I left, except for one bottle I planned to use for first aid Or encies, whichever canificant first aid kit, well stocked, and some shelf-stable cookies, power bars, and chips that I put into another bag

I was feeling pretty good by the time I locked the flimsy door on my motel room The room was clean and empty, and as far as I could tell, nobody had bothered to loot it The bathroom still had soap and shampoo With the power off, it was dark as a cave, but I’d brought a flashlight from the office, and set it up to shine on the shower area I dumped my filthy clothes in the sink to soak The water was lukewar

The shower started out lukewarain was an intense relief I could have hope again Hope that if I had to die, at least I would do it with shiny, bouncy hair

Soasped, got soap in my eyes, and rinsed as fast as I could It’s a ht You’d have heard so water drowned out any sound of an intruder

"It’s amyself to believe it Okay, I was in a creepy deserted hts Okay, I was in a horror movie cliche, naked in a shower in a creepy deserted oing to be soot killed naked in a shower in a creepy deserted hts

I shut off the water with a firrabbed the thin shower curtain, and rattled it back Water trickled ice-cold down ht up chill bumps all over rabbed a towel, dried off, and wrapped it spa- style aroundThis wasn’t the kind of place that provided free plush robes, or even paper-thin ones I stood on the cold tile, picked up the flashlight, and angled it around in every corner of the s

"Moth," I said, triuht to helpas I scrubbed my clothes with bath soap I refilled the sink several ti it up on the side of the tub and the shower rod

Then I walked out into the ht fro onfor me

And not just any Djinn

Rahel

Rahel was back to her old self--beautiful, sharp-edged, dressed in a neon yellow tailored pantsuit with a plunging neckline white shirt Cornrowed hair, with aernails matched her outfit, and her eyes were a pure, luminous white

I stopped in the doorway and braced myself with one hand Rahel didn’t move She didn’t speak She didn’t seem to even knoas there

I lickedhappened, and then her head tilted, very slowly, to one side Beads clicked together with a dry-bones rattle like the warning of a rattlesnake in slowfor it, but she didn’t ain I took a tentative step forward, then another one No reaction I made it to the rickety side chair that came with the

"office table" and its cheap las would holdShe didn’t feel like Rahel She looked the part, but Rahel would already have fired off soernails, tried to killRahel right noas very far from the Djinn I knew

"Who are you?" I whispered Those white eyes stared at , but blind I just happened to be the direction in which they stared; it didn’t feel like focus

"Is this--are you--"

I couldn’t exactly come out with it, but I understood, on a very priaze An intelligence so vast that it couldn’t possibly understandi unaided at the surface of the table, I could see theto understand But I didn’t think she did Or could And that wasalar

"Can you let me talk to Rahel?" I asked, in the softest, e "I just--she can translate for you Help you understand" Although how that was going to get across I couldn’t i to communicate with e I couldn’t detect it, much less understand it

So , especially when the hive was so, so large

I was screwed

Rahel stared through me for what seemed like an hour, but couldn’t have been more than a couple of ht, and she surged up to her feet, took two steps forward, and her hand went aroundto press backward; the chair tipped against the wall, pinning ood it did It was like kicking bare toes into solid rock I felt the sharp, biting sting as her fingernails pressed in, and I had a griraphic vision of hoould look when she flexed her hand and drove those nails into soft flesh and ripped my throat out in a spray of blood

But that didn’t happen Rahel froze, our faces inches away This close, the white glow in her eyes broke up into a coruscating brilliance--every color, all colors, flickering by at such speed that only the constant white gloas left I was looking into so that hu up, shutting down, refusing to hold the infor again, just as I had on board the ship, and I couldn’t shut it out

And then, just like that, it was over She let go, I overbalanced and fell to the floor on my hands and knees, and Rahel turned and stalked toward the door