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In the lab Victor raised this Father Duchaine from spilled blood before the real Father Duchaine had died, a trick more complicated than the one that thein the front pew beside his priest, Victor said, "How do you sleep? Do you dreahtmare about the Hands of Mercy But I can never recall the details"

"And you never will That’s ift to you--no , of course"

"One ofa serious crisis of the mind I don’t knoho he is He called me … but he is afraid to come to me"

"Perhapsnot afraid, sir," the priest said "Ashamed Ashamed that he has failed you"

That state, Patrick? The New Race has no capacity for sharammed to know shame, and only because Victor found her more erotic in the throes of it

"Shame," he told Patrick, "isn’t a virtue It’s a weakness No Natural Law requires it We rule nature … and transcend it"

The priest evaded Victor’s gaze "Yes, sir, of course I think what I ret that he hasn’t performed to your expectations"

Perhaps the priest would need to be watched closely or even subjected to a day-long examination in the lab

"Search the city, Patrick Spread the word a oddly I’ you and a few other key people with this search, and I know that you will perform up to my expectations"

"Yes, sir"

"If you find him and he runskill him You kno your kind can be killed"

"Yes, sir"

"Be cautious He’s already killed one of you," Victor revealed

Surprised, the priest ain

"I’d prefer to have him alive," Victor continued "But at least I need his body To study Bring hih to the rack of votive candles that the pulsing crimson reflections of the flames crawled Patrick’s face

This inspired Victor to ask "Do you sometimes wonder if you’re damned?"

"No, sir," the priest answered, but with a hesitation "There is no Hell or Heaven This is the one life"

"Exactly Your mind is too well made for superstition" Victor rose from the pew "God bless you, Patrick" When the priest’s eyes widened with surprise, Victor smiled and said, "That was a joke"

CHAPTER 40

WHEN CARSON PICKED UP Michael at his apartot in the car, looked her over, and said, "Those are yesterday’s clothes"

"Suddenly you’re a fashion critic"

"You look … rumpled"

As she pulled away from the curb, she said, "Ru"

"You didn’t get any sleep?"

"Maybe I’m done with sleep forever"

"If you’ve been up ," he said

"Don’t worry about it, Mohs, drank through a straw "I’ot the reflexes of a pit viper"

"Do pit vipers have quick reflexes?" "You want to get in a pit with one and see?" ""You are wound tight What’s happened?" "Saw a ghost Scared the crap out of me" "What’s the punch line?"

What she hadn’t been able to say to Kathy Burke, she could say to Michael In police work, partners were closer than mere friends They had better be They daily trusted each other with their lives

If you couldn’t share everything with your partner, you needed a new partner

Nevertheless, she hesitated before she said, "He see sucker, but heto anything I’ that coffee with so?" "He said he’stoo fast" Carson accelerated "The hands of a strangler, one heart from a mad arsonist, one from a child et it" "Neither do I"

BY THE tiht’s Funeral Ho that happened in Allwine’s apartment

His face revealed no skepticism, but his tone of voice was the equivalent of raised eyebrows: "You were tired, in a weird place--"

"He took a gun away froht have been the essence of her astonish about the experience that had seeun away fro testicles All I’ is that he was dressed in black, the apart trick was probably just a trick" "So maybe he manipulated me, and I sahat he wanted me to see Is that it?" "Doesn’t that make more sense?" "Sure daic act in Vegas"

Looking at the funeral home, Michael said, "Why’re we here?"

"Maybe he didn’t really move faster than the eye, and maybe he didn’t in fact vanish into thin air, but he was dead-on when he said Allas in despair, wanted to die … but couldn’t kill himself"

From a pocket she withdrew the four memorial booklets and handed them to Michael

"Bobby had like a hundred of these," she continued, "in a drawer of his nightstand All from different funerals at this place Death appealed to hiot out of the car, slammed the driver’s door, and met Michael on the sidewalk