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"Very, very funny," she promised

"With some little bells on it?"

"If I find a funny hat without bells, I’ll sew as many on it as you want"

CHAPTER 43

CORRIDOR AFTER CORRIDOR, laboratory after laboratory, rooe closets, a perfect hush has fallen over this place

With all of its s bricked up, the building admits no sound from the world outside

Here and there, brainless bodies lie in groups They are all EXEMPTS

No onespoor of the TARGET until those pheromones con of the person who cast them off

Dim memories of this enormous room stir in Chameleon’s mind It seems to have no recollections prior to these

Memories do not interest Cha smell of TARGETS

Frenzies of violence thrill the pleasure center in its forebrain as intense sex hter and only slaughter stiasm Chameleon dreams of war, because for it, war is continuous ecstasy

Suddenly, on the desktop coht-by-six-foot screen ees appear

The screens show a broad avenue, tens of thousands of people, dressed alike and ordered into precise ranks,in cadence to loud edis red with a white circle In the circle is a man’s face

The face is fao, has seen him often and in this very lab

The ca the twelve-lane avenue They are all of bold design unlike any of the scores of typical-building layouts prograe office high-rise or church, or shopping mall

On some of these is is rendered in paint or in es is sh Some are thirty stories

The round level Words are being spoken now, but Cha hordes on the screens are not real people,the many machines, Chameleon seeks what lives only to be killed

For a while it s pheroone Then a new scent

Cha claws scissor with anticipation, and its crushing claw opens wide to grip Its stinger extrudes from under its carapace

The scent is that of a TARGET In the hallway but approaching

CHAPTER 44

ABRUPTLY THE RAIN FELL AWAY behind them and the two-lane blacktop state route lay dry ahead By driving out of the store, Carson enjoyed the illusion of even greater speed than she had actually ed to squeeze out of the Honda

She raised the bottle of never-sleep-again cola fronized the signs of noncritical dehydration caused by caffeine: dry er seat, playing iinary drumsticks, Michael said, "Maybe we shouldn’t have exceeded the recommended dose for the caffeine tablets Already I have NoDoz nostrils"

"Me too My nasal passages are so dry, it’s like I’ air that came out of a furnace, it has just a little burn to it"

"Yeah Feels dry But this is still Louisiana, so at a minimum it has to be ninety percent humidity by state law Hey, you kno much of the human body is water?"

"If it’s the time of month I retain it, I’d say ninety percent"

"Sixty percent for men, fifty percent for women"

She said, "There’s proof--women have more substance than men"

"It was an answer on Jeopardy!"

"I can’t believe you watch TV game shows"

"They’re educational," he said "Half of what I know, I learned froame shows"

"That I do believe"

Moss-draped live oaks on both sides of the road forain off what ht have been colonies of phosphorescent lichen on the fissured bark

"Do you have to drive so fast?"

"Fast? This heap of Vicky’s isn’t good for driving anywhere except in funeral processions"

Carson’s cell phone rang, and she fished it out of an inside coat pocket

"O’Connor," she said

"Detective O’Connor," a wo, Mrs Helios"

When he heard the name, Michael popped up in his seat as if he were a slice of bread in a toaster

Erika Helios said, "I believe you may be aware of who my husband really is At least I think he suspects you know"

"He knoe know," Carson said "He sent two of his New Race assassins after us yesterday Cute couple Looked like dancers We called theh my house, nearly killed my brother"

"Sounds like Benny and Cindi Lovewell," Erika Helios said "I’m of the New Race, too But I don’t know about Benny and Cindi being sent after you yesterday Victor killed me the day before yesterday"

To Michael, Carson said, "She says Victor killed her the day before yesterday"

"Who’re you talking to?" Erika asked

"My partner, Michael Maddison"