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"Yar!" a tall, skinny man in a black suit replied promptly His face was covered with some sort of rash which he scratched obsessively
"I brung him," Gasher said "I told yer you could trust me to do it, and didn&039;t I?"
"You did," Tick-Tock said "Bang on I had some doubts about your ability to remember the password at the end, there, but - "
The dark-haired woman uttered another shrill caw The Tick-Tock Man half-turned in her direction, that lazy s the corners of his- what had already happened - she was staggering backward, her eyes bulging in surprise and pain, her hands groping at soe tumor in the middle of her chest which hadn&039;t been there a second before
Jake realized die Tick-Tock Man had , a move so quick it had been no more than a flicker The slim white hilt which had protruded from the scabbard looped over the Tick-Tock Man&039;s shoulder was gone The knife was now on the other side of the roo out of the dark-haired woman&039;s chest Tick-Tock had drawn and throith an uncanny speed Jake wasn&039;t sure even Roland could ic trick
The others watched silently as the wo harshly, her hands wrapped loosely around the hilt of the knife Her hip bu lamps and the one called Hoots darted forward to catch it before it could fall Tick-Tock hi tossed over the ar the woht beneath one of the rugs and she tumbled forward Onceback the foot which had been dangling over the arain like a piston It buried itself in the pit of the dark-haired wo backward Blood spewed from her mouth and splattered the furniture She struck the wall, slid down it, and ended up sitting with her chin on her breastbone To Jake she looked like a ainst an adobe wall It was hard for hi to dead with such terrible speed Neon tubes turned her hair into a haze that was half red and half blue Her glazing eyes stared at the Tick-Tock Man with terh," Tick-Tock said His eyes shifted to the other wo-haul trucker "Didn&039;t I, Tilly?"
"Ay," Tilly said at once Her eyes were lustrous with fear and excite-ment, and she licked her lips obsessively "So you did, many and many a time I&039;ll set ht, if you could reach up your fat ass far enough to find the me my knife, Brandon, and mind you wipe that slut&039;s stink off it before you put it in ed man hopped to do as he had been bidden The knife wouldn&039;t coht on the unfortu-nate dark-haired wolance over his shoulder at the Tick-Tock Man and then tugged harder
Tick-Tock, however, appeared to have forgotten all about both Bran-don and the wohed herself to death His bril-liant green eyes had fixed on so which interested him much more than the dead woman
"Come here, cully," he said "I want a better look at you"
Gasher gave him a shove Jake stu hands hadn&039;t caught him by the shoulders Then, when he was sure Jake had his balance again, Tick-Tock grasped the boy&039;s left wrist and raised it It was Jake&039;s Seiko which had drawn his interest
"If this here&039;s what I think it is, it&039;s an omen for sure and true," Tick-Tock said "Talk to ul you wear?"
Jake, who hadn&039;t the slightest idea what a sigul was, could only hope for the best "It&039;s a watch But it doesn&039;t work, Mr Tick-Tock"
Hoots chuckled at that, then clapped both hands over his mouth when the Tick-Tock Man turned to look at him After a moment, Tick-Toc looked back at Jake, and a sunny s at that set that it was a dead woainst the wall Looking at it alet that these people were crazy, and the Tick-Tock Man was likely the craziest inmate in the whole asylu "Ay, a likely enough name for such; after all, what does a person ith a timepiece but to watch it once in a while? Ay, Brandon? Ay, Tilly? Ay, Gasher?"
They responded with eager affir sain Now Jake noticed that the s or not, stopped well short of the Tick-Tock Man&039;s green eyes They were as they had been throughout: cool, cruel, and curious
He reached a finger toward the Seiko, which now proclaimed the time to be ninety-one minutes past seven - AM and PM - and pulled it back just before touching the glass above the liquid crystal display "Tell ed?"
"Huh? Oh! No No, it&039;s not boobyrigged" Jake touched his own finger to the face of the watch
"That , if it&039;s set to the frequency of your own body," the Tick-Tock Man said He spoke in the sharp, scornful tone Jake&039;s father used when he didn&039;t want people to figure out that he didn&039;t have the slightest idea what he was talking about Tick-Tock glanced briefly at Brandon, and Jake saw hied nated toucher Then he dismissed the notion and looked back into Jake&039;s eyes "If this thing givesto death on your oeetmeats in thirty seconds"
Jake sed hard but said nothing The Tick-Tock Man reached out his finger again, and this time allowed it to settle on the face of the Seiko The an to count upward again
Tick-Tock&039;s eyes had narrowed in a grimace of potential pain as he touched the face of the watch Now their corners crinkled in the first genuine sht it was partly pleasure at his own courage but mostly simple wonder and interest
"May I have it?" he asked Jake silkily "As a gesture of your goodwill, shall we say? I a cully - so I auest" Jake stripped the watch off his are waiting palennelman, don&039;t he?" Gasher said happily "In the old days soh price for the return o&039; such as him, Ticky, ay, so they would Why, my father - "
"Your father died so blowed-out-rotten with the s would eat him," the Tick-Tock Man interrupted "Now shut up, you idiot"
At first Gasher looked furious and then only abashed He sank into a nearby chair and closed histhe Seiko&039;s expansion band with an expression of awe He pulled it wide, let it snap back, pulled it wide again, let it snap back again He dropped a lock of his hair into the open links, then laughed when they closed on it At last he slipped the watch over his hand and pushed it halfway up his foreare there, but said nothing
"Wonderful!" Tick-Tock exclaiet it, cully?"
"It was a birthday present from my father and mother," Jake said Gasher leaned forward at this, perhaps wanting to ain If so, the intent look on the Tick-Tock Man&039;s face changed his
"Was it?" Tick-Tockhis eyebrows He had discov-ered the s it, watching the light go off and on Then he looked back at Jake, and his eyes were narrowed to bright green slits again "Tell , cully - does this run on a dipolar or unipolar circuit?"
"Neither one," Jake said, not knowing that his failure to say he did not knohat either of these terreat deal of future trouble "It runs on a nickel-cadmium battery At least I&039;m pretty sure it does I&039;ve never had to replace it, and I lost the instruction folder a long tio"
The Tick-Tock Man looked at hi, and Jake realized with dis to decide if Jake had beenfun, Jake had an idea that the abuse he had suffered on the way here would seeht do He suddenly wanted to divert Tick-Tock&039;s train of thought - wanted thathe thought randfather, wasn&039;t he?"
The Tick-Tock Man raised his brows interrogatively His hands returned to Jake&039;s shoulders, and although his grip was not tight, Jake could feel the phenorip and pull sharply forward, he would snap Jake&039;s collarbones like pencils If he shoved, he would probably break his back
"Who was randfather, cully?"