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11:51 AM
ARROWHEADS
As they drew closer to don Bixby, Rex could feel the car slowing He glanced at Melissa, whose hands gripped the steering wheel
"It&039;s okay, Cowgirl," heit would help
It wasn&039;t a real don, like Tulsa or Dallas had, just a handful of five- and six-story buildings that included the town hall, the library, and a couple of office buildings On a Saturday the workplaces were empty There would be a few people at the expensive shops on Main and lining up for the first shows at the restored 1950s cinema That was about it
But crowded or not, don sat right in the center of Bixby, surrounded by rings of housing developments As they drew closer, the densest part of the city&039;s population encircled them It wasn&039;t nearly as bad as school, but it always took Melissa a ht of those minds
Soon her knuckles relaxed on the wheel
Rex took a deep breath and leaned back into his seat
He stared out the , pulling off his glasses to look for signs
They were out there Lots of them
Usually it was pretty clean this far frolasses off, the city should have been one big reassuring blur But Rex could see marks of visitation everywhere - a house that stood out with strange clarity fron that he could easily read with unaided eyes, a slithering path across the road that shies that revealed the touch of inhu bellies
The signs ofcloser toward the bright lights of don Rex wondered what the darklings and their little friends were up to Were they testing their li a sudden interest in hu?
"What do you think she is, Rex?" Dess asked froed "Could be anything Could be another poly with her, remember? She&039;s hopeless Sanchez had to explain radian measures to her three times this week"
Rex wondered what radian onometry isn&039;t really part of the lore, Dess"
"It will be one day," Dess said "Sooner or later arithmetic has to run out of stea ti was beyond hiot here She could take a while to find her talent"
"Couys tracked ht? By that ti me do their taxes for theh school trig? She&039;s no polymath"
"She isn&039;t a lanced over at his old friend Unlike the blurry dashboard and passing background, Melissa&039;s face was in perfect ripped the wheel hard again, as if the old Ford were passing a busload of brawling five-year-olds
"Probably not," he said mildly
"Definitely not I could taste it if she was"
Rex sighed "There&039;s no point arguing about it now We&039;ll find out what she is soon enough She could be a seer for all I know"
"Hey, Rex, maybe she&039;s an acrobat," Dess said
"Yeah, a replacelared at her, then put his glasses back on Melissa&039;s face went a little blurry as the rest of the world sharpened, and he turned away to stare out the car
"We don&039;t need an acrobat"
"Sure, Rex," Dess said "But wouldn&039;t a full set be better?"
He shrugged, not taking the bait
"Collect &039;em all," Melissa added
"Listen," Rex said sharply, "there&039;s lots more talents than the four we&039;ve seen, okay? I&039;ve read about all kinds of stuff, going back as far as the Split She could be anything"
"She could be nothing," Melissa said
Rex shrugged again and didn&039;t say another word until they reached the museu, low building Most of the round, sunk into the cool, dark shelter of the red Oklahole row of tiny s it looked to Rex like one of those bunkers that rocket scientists cowered in while they tested soht explode on the launchpad
This was the first weekend of the school year, so the parking lot was alht be a trickle of tourists, and in a month or so the school trips would start Every student within a hundredtheir school career It had been on a fifth-grade trip that Melissa and Rex had first co who and what they were
Anita wasn&039;t at the ticket and info desk The wo there was new and looked up suspiciously as the three of theh the door
"Can I help you?"
Rex fu his membership card He found it after a few anxious moments "Three, please"
The woman took the crumpled card from him and eyed it closely, one eyebrow raised There was the usual wait as she looked theirls&039; clothes, trying to think of a reason to keep them out
"Anytime this year," Dess said
"Pardon ood throughout this year, ma&039;am," Rex offered
The woman nodded, lips pursed as if all her suspicions had been confirmed, and said, "Well, then, I see"
She punched a key, and three tickets eed from a slot in the desk "But you-all watch yourselves, y&039;hear?"
Dess snatched the tickets and was about to say soh the staff door behind the desk, interrupting her just in time
"Ah, it&039;s the Arrowheads," Dr Anton Sherwood said with a chuckle
Rex felt the tension leave hirinned at the museum&039;s director "Good to see you, Dr Sherwood"
"Got anything fora moment to enjoy the confusion on the ticket woman&039;s face "Sorry, we&039;re just here for a quick visit Anything new to look at?"
"Minia Looks like a good candidate for a Solutrean link It&039;s in the pre-Clovis case on this floor Let me knohat you think"
"I&039;d be happy to," Rex said He smiled politely at the baffled woman behind the ticket desk and led Dess and Melissa into the museum
"Psych-out," Dess said softly Even Melissa was s Rex allowed himself a few ing him about acrobats any settled around the noonday sun Rex breathed in the cool, co smell of exposed red clay One wall of the inal Bixby excavation, the ays suspended a few feet from the raw earth Set into the hard clay, as if never fully excavated, were tools made of bone, fossilized wooden implements, obsidian flakes in the shape of arrowheads, and the skeleton of a saber-toothed tiger (Saber-Toothed Tiger hat the label said, anyway Rex was certain that his own theories and Dr Sherwood&039;s differed on exactly what the beast had been)
As they headed for the sloping ramp that led down to the basement floors, Rex checked his watch It was a fewBut on the way he paused for a quick glance into a glass case of pre-Clovis finds
The case was full of crude arrowheads ranging fro and thin, others wide and barely pointed, like the end of a shovel Most were spear points rather than true arrowheads Theshafts to theo The newly arrived point was easy to spot It was al, wafer thin and proportioned like a narrow leaf It bore the telltale ns of a skilled worklasses
It dissolved into a blur; no Focus clung to it at all Rex&039;s face twisted with disappointment, and he continued down the ra frons of the blue time
In the whole world, were he and his friends really alone?
Jessica Day was already there, waiting on the lowest level, her gaze lost in a ures surrounded the elephantine ani spears into its thick hide frouys was about to be i, twisted tusk
"Pretty brave, huh?" Rex said
Jessica started, as if she hadn&039;t heard theed
"Actually, I was thinking twenty against one"
"Nineteen," said Dess Jessica raised an eyebrow
This is going well already, Rex thought He&039;d had a whole speech planned, a regular show-and-tell He had rehearsed it in his ht before But Jessica looked exhausted Even with his glasses reen eyes bore the ht He decided to throw out the speech
"You must have a lot of questions," he said
"Yeah, I do"
"This way" They led Jessica to a sainst one wall This here school groups ate their bag lunches The four of the back precariously in her plastic chair
"Ask away," Rex said, folding his hands on the table
Jessica took a deep breath, as if about to speak, but then a helpless expression calasses on It was the look of someone with too many questions to knohere to start Rex forced hihts
"A hubcap?" she finally blurted out
Rex smiled
"Not just any hubcap," Dess said "That was from a 1967 Mercury"
"Is 1967 a multiple of thirteen?" Rex asked
"Not hardly," Dess scoffed "But they made hubcaps out of real steel back then None of this aluminum crap"
"Time-out," Jessica called
"Oh, sorry," Rex said sheepishly "Explain, Dess, but keep it simple"
Dess pulled her necklace out of her shirtfront A thirteen-pointed star dangled froht the spotlights on the exhibits, twinkling as if with its own light
"Remember this?"
"Yeah, I&039;ve noticed those all over Bixby since you told me about the Protection 101 There are three things the darklings don&039;t like One is steel" She pinged the star with one fingernail "The newer a type of s out"
"Steel," Jessica said quietly to herself, as if this s are really old," Dess explained "And like a lot of old people, they don&039;t like stuff that&039;s changed since they were born"
"They used to be afraid of cut stone," Rex said "Then forged ot used to them Steel is newer"
"Hasn&039;t steel been around a long time?" Jessica asked "Like swords and stuff?"
"Yeah, but we&039;re talking stainless steel, a modern invention," Dess said "Of course, one day I&039;d like to get my hands on some electrolytic titanium or - "
"Okay," Jessica interrupted "So they don&039;t like new metals"
"Especially alloys," Dess said, "which means a ht up fros aren&039;t scared of them at all"
"But they&039;re scared of alloys So they couldn&039;t get through so made of steel?" Jessica asked
"It&039;s not that sis are afraid of is math"
"Math?"
"Well, a certain kind of math," Dess explained "There are certain numbers and patterns and ratios that freak them out, basically"
Jessica&039;s expression remained one of disbelief