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When James came to the phone, Victor honored hinment as butler "And reiven you to the letter I expect absolute perfection in everything a butler does, but most especially in this instance"

AFTER LEAVING HIS UMBRELLA on the terrace and after thoroughly wiping his wet shoes with a cloth that he brought for that purpose, James entered the house on the first floor, by the back door at the end of the north hall

He carried the mysterious object that had obsessed hi directly to the library, as Mr Helios had instructed, Ja sphere on the seat of an armchair

"Are you happy there?" he asked

The sphere did not reply

Frowning, James moved it to another armchair

"Better," the sphere told him

When the crystal ball initially spoke to hi his own business, sitting at the kitchen table in the dor it repeatedly heal The fact that he healed so quickly and so well gave hih forthe sphere said to him was, "I know the way to happiness"

Of course, James at once expressed a desire to know the way

Since then, the crystal ball had said s, most of them inscrutable

Now it said, "Salted or unsalted, sliced or cubed, the choice is yours"

"Can we get back to happiness?" James asked

"Use a knife and," the sphere said

"And what?" James asked

"And fork"

"What do you want me to do with a knife and fork?"

"If peeled"

"You’re ly

"A spoon," said the sphere

"Now it’s a spoon?"

"If halved and unpeeled"

"What is the path to happiness?" James pleaded because he was afraid to de, narroisting, dark," said the sphere "For the likes of you, the path to happiness is one et there, can’t I? Even one like me?"

"Do you really want happiness?" asked the sphere

"Desperately Doesn’t have to be forever Just for a while"

"Your other choice is insanity"

"Happiness I’ll take happiness"

"Yogurt works with Ice cream works with"

"With what?"

The sphere didn’t reply

"I’m in a very bad way," James pleaded

Silence

Frustrated, Ja to do for Mr Helios"

He found the hidden switch, a section of the bookcase pivoted, and the secret passageas revealed

Jalanced back at the sphere on the seat of the armchair Sometimes it didn’t look like a crystal ball Sometimes it looked like a cantaloupe This was one of those tiic was in it Jao out of it and never coe, he came to the first door and removed all five steel bolts, as he had been instructed

When he opened the door, he saw the corridor that Mr Helios had described: copper rods to the left, steel rods to the right A low, o farther, Jaeway, pushed the button to open the bookcase door from this side, and hurried to the sphere

"What is the path to happiness?" he asked

"Some people put a little lemon on it," said the crystal ball

"Put lemon on what?"

"You knohat your problem is?"

"What isto say to that

He returned to the secret passageway, but this time he took the crystal ball with him

VICTOR HAD ASKED JAMES to phone hi his world-class atch and the dashboard clock of histoo long No doubt, awed by his pro more often with his maker, James approached his mission with excessive care

As he waited for the butler’s call, the conviction again rose in him that he was not alone in the Mercedes This ti full well no one was there

He knew the cause of his edginess Until James completed the task he had been sent to do, Victor re future that only he could create As soon as the butler reported completion of the job, Victor could proceed to the farht wait there, and be confident that the future would still be his

CHAPTER 62

CHAMELEON SUSPECTS DECEPTION

Once again, the PUZZLE smells like both an EXEMPT and a TARGET The scent of an EXEMPT is far and away stronger than that of a TARGET, but the second scent is definitely present

The car has been stopped for soet out It sits in silence behind the wheel

After a while, the PUZZLEincrieways, a hidden rooests but does not prove bad behavior

Chameleon assuram is not clear on this point

It is permitted to act on assuorous application of logic, must conform to at least four of five proofs This assumption is Class C

Cha time between kills

It re phase

The pleasure is intense The word Chaasasm, it is as fully in touch with its body as it will ever be--but, strangely, at the same time seems to escape its body and for a , is only pleasure

After the phone call, the PUZZLE sits in silence again

Cha ti poly scent, the infuriating scent

Chaasasm

CHAPTER 63

UNDER THE DUMP, Carson and Michael and Deucalion followed the landfill workers and the resurrected Alphas along a passageway that branched off the main course It would lead them out of the landfill and under the tank farnited faux fire across the glazed curves of the tunnel Because they were at the end of the procession, an inky gloom pooled behind them