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He said that sos of beauty because they were inspired by anguish By their deep sense of loss By their search for

Beauty came at the expense, however, of certi-

tude, efficiency Creating a beautiful piece of art, Victor said, was not an ady because it in no way furthered mankind’s conquest of itself or of nature

A race without pain, on the other hand, a race that was told its iven its purpose by its creator, would never need beauty, because it would have an infinite series of great tasks ahead of it Working as one, with the single-minded purpose of a hive, all mees of Earth as ordinary humanity had failed to do, and then become the masters of the other planets, the stars

All barriers would fall to them

All adversaries would be crushed

New Men and New Women would not need beauty because they would have power Those who felt powerless created art; beauty was their substitute for the power they could not attain The New Race would need no substitute

Yet Victor collected the art and the antiques of the Old Race Erika wondered why, and she wondered if Victor hih literature to be sure that Old Race authors would have called hiave Erika hope that in hiht with patience be tapped

Still in theby Jan van Huysuned and dated 1732 For this still life, Victor had paid rapes appeared ready to burst with juice at the slightest touch Succulent peaches and plums spilled across a table, caressed by sunshine in such a way that they seelow from within

The artist realistically portrayed this ripe bounty yet est the epheifts

Mesenius, Erika was subconsciously aware of a furtive scrabbling The noise grew louder, until at last it distracted her fro rooed crab on soe blind mission, a severed hand crawled across the antique Persian carpet

CHAPTER 63

detective dwight FRYE lived in a bungalow so overgroith Miss Manila bougainvillea that the main roof and the porch roof were entirely concealed Floral bracts--bright pink in daylight but more subdued now--dripped from every eave, and the entire north as covered with a web of vine trunks that had woven random-pattern bars across the s

The front lawn had not been ed for years The house ht not have been painted for a decade

If Frye rented, his landlord was a tightwad If he owned this place, he hite trash

The front door stood open

Through the screen door, Carson could see a ht back toward the kitchen When she couldn’t find a bell push, she knocked, then knocked louder, and called out, "Detective Frye? Hey, Dwight, it’s O’Connor and Maddison"

Frye hove into sight, backlit by the glow in the kitchen He wove along the hall like a seaeway in a troublesome swell

When he reached the front door, he switched on the porch light and blinked at theh the screen "What do you asoles want?"

"A little Southern hospitality for starters," Michael said

"I was born in Illinois," Frye said "Never shoulda left"

He wore baggy pants with suspenders His tank-style, sweat-soaked undershirt revealed his unfortunate brsts so coht," she said "There’s soot no interest in that anylistened as if he had been bobbing for olives in a bowl of oil

Getting a whiff of him, Carson took a step back from the door and said, "What I need to knohen you and Harker went to Bobby Allwine’s apartet, the less I like the sloppy red cases Nobody strangles anymore They all chop and slice It’s the damn sick Hollywood influence"

"Allwine’s apartment?" she re to et off on torn-out hearts and dripping guts, but I’ queasy in my midlife It’s your case, and welcome to it"

Michael said, "Never there? So how did Harker know about the black walls, the razor blades?"

Frye screwed up his face as if to spit but then said, "What razor blades? What’s got you girls in such a pissy mood?"

To Michael, Carson said, "You smell truth here?"

"He reeks with it," Michael said

"Reeks--is that soot to admit it is," Michael said

"I wasn’t half drunk and feelin’ charitable," Frye said, "I’d open this here screen door and kick your giblets clean off"

"I’rateful for your restraint," Michael said

"Is that soot to ad for the porch steps, Carson said, "Let’s go, let’s ," Michael said, "we’re having such a nice chat"

"That’s another wisecrack, ain’t it?" Frye deot to admit it is," Michael said as he followed Carson off the porch

As she thought back over her encounters with Harker during the past couple of days, Carson headed toward the car at a run

CHAPTER 64

AFTER CUFFING jenna’s wrists and ankles to the autopsy table in his bedroom, Jonathan Harker used a pair of scissors to cut away her clothes

With a daently cleaned the blood fro froan to wake, he used the squeeze bottle to dribble two or three drops of chlorofor the fuain from consciousness

When the woman was naked, Jonathan touched her where he wished, curious about his reaction Rather, he was curious about his lack of a reaction

Sex--disconnected from the power of procreation--was the primary means by which members of the New Race relieved tension They were available to one another on request, to a degree that even the

They were capable of performance on demand They did not need beauty or e to stimulate their desire

Desire in thegirls with old ly, in every combination, each with the sole purpose to satisfy hireater affection than they had toward the food they ate, with no expectation that sex would lead to a relationship

Indeed, personal relationships between ed Jonathan sometimes suspected that as a species they were hardwired to be incapable of relationships in any of the ways that the Old Race experienced and defined them

Couples committed to each other are impediments to the infinite series of conquests that is to be the uniform purpose of every member of the New Race So are friendships So are fa creature oal They must live by a system of values so simplified as to allow no room for the concept of morality and the differences of opinion that it fosters