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"Good point And out of this Botello gets a bunch of ic power?"

"Which he can&039;t handle"

"You know that for sure?"

"Prettyon props like that junk in the basement, no way could he be remotely ready on a ies that will be slaet turned inside out fast, and that&039;s only if he&039;s lucky If not, he&039;ll get turned inside out slow Let&039;s open a pool on it I&039;ll bet fifty it&039;ll be slow and they&039;ll o on - oh - for a couple weeks, our tietting at and scowled Fili As for me, I was used to the black attitude And this after all his complaints about the color of the velvet curtains

"You don&039;t have fifty, in theirs or any other currency," I said

Terrin shrugged "When the end coonna help nobody, no how"

"What can we do to stop it?"

"Stop it? Who wants to stop it?"

"I do!"

He gru Goodie-Goodie, of course you would I&039; around with lad to kiss this life bye-bye"

"That&039;s fine for you, but the rest of us aren&039;t quite ready to leave yet"

"Hey, it&039;ll be fun to start over I&039;ve done it dozens of ti burned at the stake or cut in two by cannon fire or - "

"Terrin" The last thing we needed was a recital of his past lives and how they&039;d ended for hihed and sucked down more pizza

"Anyway," I continued, "if the Powers That Be put Filis, I&039;m fairly sure it was to allow time for your arrival here so you could fix the proble as coincidence"

"Prolly so Just like theht as well drop my pants, hand them a broomstick with a sandpaper condom, and bend over tohigh above "You hear , and it ain&039;t funny!"

"On the other hand, I seriously doubt this world is having an apocalypse just to inconvenience you"

"Of course it is That&039;s how things really work!"

I got a sudden flash of inspiration "What about Heaven?"

"What about it?"

"Doesn&039;t this world have one? They got a Hell, shouldn&039;t there be a Heaven to balance things?"

"Yeah, they got one of those I asked around It&039;s a nice one"

Fili hopeful

"So why don&039;t we call for help froels pouring in to stop the demons"

He rolled his eyes "You ever see a real apocalypse? They&039;re ugly, lots of property dae, which includes people You wouldn&039;t like it, trust et that far"

"Okay Very sensible Another question"

"Surprise ot a bunch of starved de to vacation in this Reality Why is it that there aren&039;t a bunch of angels wanting to get in here, too, only instead of eating people they run around being nice to everybody?"

"Because they&039;re in the Heaven-plane"

"So?"

"I&039;ll put it this way: if you had the penthouse suite in Truuilt free, tax free forever with everything you alanted right there and then when you wanted it, would you wanna visit a Third World trash dump to feel even happier?"

"I see your point"

"Exactly What help we get in this Reality is the angel version of Peace Corps volunteers They&039;re dedicated types, and point the natives in the best direction, but it&039;s the locals who have to do the work If the trouble is truly over our heads, then et some kind of divine intervention, but don&039;t expect it The Powers That Be are a twisted gang with a warped sense of humor"

"Sure explains my life"

"And mine

"Excuse me?" This from Shankey "Is there a way to avert the disaster and save the world?"

Terrin slugged back more beer and belched Yes, the walls did visibly shake "Uh-huh," he said, then looked at ain "But you won&039;t like it"

That was a given "Okay, what is it? Both barrels, don&039;t spare the buckshot"

"You&039;ve no idea"

"We&039;re all agreed on that point What is it?"

"You go to the astral plane"

Hah? I blanked for a second "But I don&039;t have a ticket"

"Don&039;t be a fuzzle Think about it"

Digestion interfered withoverindulged in the latter, figuring since it wasout "I&039;o to the astral plane"

He tapped his finger on the tip of his nose Grinning Boy, did he have a lot of teeth "Specifically, to Hell"

I was suddenly on overload with outrage and panicked butterflies Neither co about? Did I hear right? What&039;s going on? Answer the last one first"

"You go there so you can stop Botello"

At this Shankey leaned forward, all attention, and Fili alert "Deal in ay?" he asked

"Kill hie of blanking completely "Kill a dead man?"

They all stared at me

Well, someone had to say it I waved them over to Terrin "It&039;s his idea! Talk to him!"

"You want to kill Botello?" asked Filima

"Call it soul-death," said Terrin "Just take him out of planar existence once and for all Then he won&039;t be able to reincarnate a generation or three down the line and start trouble all over again I know his type, he doesn&039;t give up"

"Isn&039;t that kinda harsh?" I asked

"Harsh? The guy is fucking around with ending this world, planning the deaths of untoldapart the very veils that keep the Multiverse running smooth and more or less sane, and you think one little soul-death to prevent it all is harsh?"

"I withdraw the question"

Terrin flapped one hand to indicate our surroundings "You wanna save the world, snuff Botello"

"Great, fine, wonderful But I heard you say I was going to the astral planewith a side trip to Hell? No way, Jose That kind of tripping is your depart me"

"Not this time around"

"Yes, this time around and for all ti other planes You&039;ve told erous it is"

"You&039;ll be safe withthe tour"

"That&039;s not the issue Why the hell are you even thinking of sending ot my reasons"

"So share!"

He shot ht back at him "Excuse us," he said to Filima and Shankey "Private conference"

He slipped off his chair and led the way out of the kitchen into a hall, then to another hall Big place He finally stopped at a ith a view to the outside The house and grounds being on a hill, we could see down to soh its streets

I crossed my arms "Okay Give Why , you float around the planes all the time"

"Yeah, but I don&039;t bother with a physical presence there To do what needs to be done requires a solid body on - "

"Wait, I thought an astral bod wasn&039;t solid"

"Not on this side, and usually not over there But for this job the rules have to be different"

This ay out of o, you know all that stuff!"

"Yeah, but I&039; tourist I don&039;t establish a physical body on the planes I can only do that when I have an anchor on this side to guide h for the job, so you have to be the one to travel while I act as your anchor If there was any other way I&039;d try, but we&039;re on our own We have to brilliantly improvise"

We he says Uh-huh Suuurrre

He continued "You&039;ll need a planar equivalent of a physical body there so you can do the work That&039;s what takes sothe anchor line"

"What kind of energy?"

"We don&039;t have tiht"

"Coically inclined than ically un-inclined Terrin said it had to do with my feline side "What about Filima? Can&039;t she anchor you?"

He shook his head "It&039;d be asking her to hold a train in place with a string And I can&039;t send her; she&039;s too emotionally involved to focus"

"Or Shankey? He&039;s a soldier; he knoeapons You wanna kill someone, that&039;s his kind of job"

"Shankey doesn&039;t have the ical moxie not to freak at the stuff he&039;d see"

"And I wouldn&039;t?"

"You&039;re used to special effects Besides, those two don&039;t trust h psychic link"

"Woo, I&039;m so surprised Find soain, which wasn&039;t the sarin "I already have"

"Da we&039;d done together had established a bond between us And, like it or not, I trusted hiic went I trusted hi a pizza that was another ic My cat and human DNA mix - "

"Makes you ideal for the job"

Hah? Whazzat?

"Lissen," he said "Cats are aware of ic, but it doesn&039;t affect thee immunity to so my otherwise flawless self - has your senses, reflexes, or strength"

He had a point Though ave e, twenty-four/seven I was so used to it I generally forgot it "Flattering, if entirely true, but - hey!" Then the really big question popped intoobjections to think straight Terrin&039;s fault Like any really good wizard he knew all about the art ofme?"

He did a double-take His face screwed up He was all over offended Shocked, even "Jeez-louise, NO!!"

That was a relief

"What ever gave you such a fizzy-headed idea?"

"It&039;s been nity, "that o to Hell,"

"Stick with me and I&039;ll widen your horizons"

Well, they were broadening right now With other possibilities "Okay, it&039;s time"

"For what?"

"To tell me the real problem If this was just about Botello and astral travel we could have stayed in the kitchen"

He scowled

"You forget that I&039;ve been hanging with you for way too long I knoerful you are and how you work If bu then you&039;d call hirab hi hi Tell lared at rin "You&039;re learning, fur-face"

"So what&039;s the real deal?"

"That is" He pointed at the Hell-river "Rolling in each night, sucking off every last scrap of y like sootten so its effect continues on a lesser level even during the day That&039;s whatwrong with this world I&039;m safe behind these walls for just a little while Soon it&039;s gonna break through the household protections That&039;s gonna happen whether the demons invade or not"

I nodded "Okay, I&039; Botello will stop the river?"

"No, I don&039;t think so"

Hah? Again "Aw, shit What&039;s going on there?"

"It seeram Even with Botello soul-dead I&039; him has to be done no matter what"

I restedin a profound way Terrin see to save this world even if it didn&039;t help hi thumbs-up about it

"There&039;s no way to help you?" I asked

He looked at n he was truly serious "With you on the Otherside, I s and survive"

"How?"

"I won&039;t know until you get there Yes, I could yank Botello through to this side and whack hi o to Hell for you?"

" &039;Fraid so, fur-face"

I thought it over as best I could given the short ti iven ic shop and so on So what if lately we&039;d been bouncing all over the Multiverse like a couple of bad checks; it had been lots of fun He was asking a LOT, but I figured I owed hiet back?"

He gave me a funny look "Back??"

I blanched under the fur

He held his hands up "Kidding!"