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When he stepped out of the ht, about sixty feet farther along the hall, drew his attention It was big, perhaps as large as four s on a Jerusaleed, and a riot of other anatomical features Numerous faces appeared to be embedded in the body, some in the oddest places The face nearest to where a head belonged--and obviously the roup--rather resembled Werner

From this reprehensibly undisciplined creature came a dozen or two dozen voices, eerily childlike, all of therossly offensive word: "Father … Father … Father … Father …"

CHAPTER 48

IN THE LIBRARY of the Helios mansion, Erika Five said, "I found it by chance yesterday"

She slid her hand along the underside of a shelf and flicked the concealed switch

A section of bookshelves swung open on pivot hinges, and ceiling lights revealed the secret passageway beyond

Jocko said, "This feels bad to Jocko You want Jocko’s opinion Opinion is--not good"

"It’s not just the passageway It’s what lies at the other end of it that’s the bigger issue"

"What lies at the other end?"

Crossing the threshold, she said, "Better you see it than I tell you I’d color my description, no matter how I tried not to I need your unbiased opinion"

Hesitating to follow her, Jocko said, "Is it scary in there? Tell Jocko true"

"It’s a little scary, but only a little"

"Is it scarier than a dark, damp storm drain when you don’t have your teddy bear anyine one would be a lot scarier than this"

"Is it scarier than Jocko’s teddy bear being full of spiders waiting for bedtime so they can crawl in his ears when he sleeps and spin a web in his brain and turn him into a spider slave?"

Erika shook her head "No, it isn’t that scary"

"Okay!" Jocko said brightly, and crossed the threshold

The floor, walls, and ceiling of the four-foot-wide passageere solid concrete

The secret door in the bookshelves closed automatically behind the troll, and he said, "Jocko must really want that funny hat"

The narrow corridor led to a formidable steel door It was kept shut by five inch-thick steel bolts: one in the header, one in the threshold, three in the right-hand jaes

"What’s locked in there?" Jocko asked "Soet out"

"You’ll see," she said, extracting the bolts one by one

"Is it so like that"

"Is it so poop at him?"

"No That won’t happen here"

Jocko did not appear to be convinced

The steel slab swung shts on the farther side

The subsequent twelve-foot-long passageway ended in a door identical to the first

Scores of metal rods bristled from the walls, copper on Erika’s left, steel or soht A soft hum arose from them

"Uh-oh," said the troll

"I wasn’t electrocuted the first time," Erika assured him "So I’m pretty sure we’ll be okay"

"But Erika is luckier than Jocko"

"Why would you say that?"

The troll cocked his head as if to say, Are you serious? "Why would Jocko say that? Look at you Look at Jocko"

"Anyway," she said, "there’s no such thing as luck The universe is less chaos That’s what Victor says, so it must be true"

"A black cat crossed Jocko’s path once Then it ca"

"Jocko found a penny in the street after ht Ten steps later, Jocko fell down an openwhere you’re going"

"Landed on an alligator"

"An alligator in the storht, but it is New Orleans"

"Turned out to be two alligators Mating"

"You poor thing"

Indicating the rod-lined passageway, Jocko said, "You go first"

As on her previous visit, when Erika entered this new corridor, a blue laser beaain, as if assessing her for

Reluctantly, Jocko followed her to the next steel door

Erika extracted five deadbolts and opened the final barrier, beyond which laht swelled to reveal a less, twenty-foot-square space furnished as a Victorian drawing room

"What do you think?" she asked the troll

In just the second day of her life, Erika had arrived at a crossroads Perplexed and irresolute, she needed another opinion of her circumstance before she could decide what she any floor and said, "Smooth" He squinched his toes in the antique Persian carpet and said, "Soft"

Putting his peculiar nose to the William Morris wallpaper, he inhaled deeply, savored the smell, and said, "Paste"

He admired the ebonized-walnut fireplace and licked the Williaan tiles around the firebox "Glossy," he said of the tiles

Cupping his left hand around his left ear, he leaned close to one of the la silk, as if he were listening to the light "Wednesday," he said, but Erika did not ask why