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City revenues rose as property values soared and as the county shared the initial incohts on land it owned The e the tax windfall to get a head start on developing the infrastructure that a population booinally intended to be a new high school with the amenities usually found only in rich suburban schools or private schools This included an indoor Olyrams second to none

Before the school could be completed, however, the people of Rainbow Falls saw their inflated drealory pricked when, for environovernment restricted exploitation of the newly discovered oil deposits and gas fields, regulating the projects already under way had to be closed Tax revenues collapsed back to their former level as property values fell and outside investh school, which was already under construction, had to be slashed The indoor swi pool would re it, installing the equip all the ancillary spaces--locker rooht bankrupt the Rainbow Falls School District Maintaining and heating it would be forever beyond the capacity of their operating budget

Ultirade school in need of expensive repairs and improvements was closed, and the students were moved to as now Meriwether Lewis Elementary

Principal Raines and Chief Jarmillo circled the pool as they discussed the fate of the current crop of students Crop was indeed the right word, because a tea two classes at a time into the pool from the shallow end," Melinda Raines said, "and h and there’s no hope of cli out The Builders will follow, take theht in Teachers will patrol the peri to the principal’s voice echo off the cold gray walls, Jarmillo said, "Any chance students still in the classrooms will hear any of what happens down here?"

Melinda Raines shook her head "The walls are two-foot-thick, steel-reinforced, poured-in-place concrete"

"What’s above us?"

"That ceiling is the floor of the gymnasium It’s also two feet thick Nevertheless, on the day of the field trip, we’ll cancel all athletic activities and lock the gy, no one will be up there to hear the the unfinished pool, ell lighted, the half farther from the double doors lay in shadows that thickened as they receded into full darkness Jarmillo had the impression of support columns and half-built interior walls

Before the chief could ask, Principal Raines said, "Stadiu on that side would have been an array of supporting facilities like locker rooms, offices Beyond those, a lobby None of it was finished The below-street entrance to the lobby was never completed In fact the exterior steps were filled in with earth, so there’s no exit from this space except by the doors we entered"

"All of that area can’t also be under the gymnasium," he said

"No It’s beneath a few feet of earth and the teachers’ parking lot Essentially, we’re in a soundproof bunker"

"Have we replaced the teachers?"

She shook her head "The janitorial crew, the school nurse, and the culinary staff are with us Tonight and toht, we’ll take the teachers in their hoood day," Chief Jarmillo said

Principal Raines said, "The final phase--children’s day Will you co them all over town," he said "I’ll want to see asanswered the bishop and been well answered in turn, Arnie analyzed the ga his next led to cope with the unwanted e they had received from the tattooed chess master

Carson, Michael, and Deucalion were present when Victor Helios, alias Frankenstein, perished Carson was certain that the circumstances of his horrific death allowed no possibility that he could have been revived He had been simultaneously electrocuted, suffocated, and crushed

Further ere present fell dead as well, except for Deucalion In his altered body, Victor had contained power cells that converted electricity to another life-sustaining energy of his invention When he died, those batteries were tapped to relay a signal by satellite to every member of the New Race that he had created while in New Orleans, a lethal signal that at once terod, he would not per the study, Carson said, "The very fact thatthem fall down dead is proof that no life re Scout, Deucalion said, "Perhaps it proves just what you say But he was a genius, even if a de that he had a contingency plan, a means by which to survive the death of his body, to survive not as a spirit deep in Hell, but in the flesh and in this world"

"You say you know," Carson countered, "but in fact you only feel that he’s still out there You don’t knohat the contingency plan could have been or where he is, or what he’s doing How can we turn our lives upside down, go chasing off after a phantolow of his birth lightning pulsed through Deucalion’s eyes as he said, "Considering what you know ofsuch as this is more than a sensation, more than an emotion, that it may be a truth perceived by intuition, far more than a hunch Far more A revelation"

Carson turned to Michael, but Michael shook his head and looked toward aas if to say, If you want to debate a two-hundred-year-old sage with mysterious powers, have at him, but you don’t need my help to make a fool of yourself

In the embrace of the self-described er for his greater attention The sed face was only a featts short of rapturous, as if she felt as safe in his arms as she would have been in the care of Saint Michael the archangel, celestial warrior

"But even if he’s alive somehow," Carson said, "and even if you could find him, what could Michael and I do that you can’t do better yourself? With your powers With your … strength"

"You can move more openly in the world than I can with my face and my occasionally illuht and destroy him alone As before, I need allies And I know the two of you have the wit and courage to face down dragons I don’t know that of anybody else"

For the ame board "You know you’ll do it, Carson Michael knows, and you know it, too You were born to kick butt and set things right"

She said, "This isn’t a video ga with the world for thousands of years, all that’s wrong now coeddon is more than the name of an old Bruce Willis movie Maybe you’re not Joan of Arc, but you’re more than you think you are"

In the two years since Deucalion cured Arnie of severe autisht that he had not only taken away that affliction but had also given the boy soreater than his years But not only wisdom Another quality, perhaps not of mind or body but of character, an ineffable quality of which she are, though she could not name it

To Deucalion, she said, "Even if anted to help, even if we should, what are we to do? If Victor is alive somehoe don’t knohere he is We don’t knohatat all"

"He’s up to what he’s always been up to," said Deucalion "He wants to murder the idea of human exceptionalism, debase all life until it has no value whatsoever, acquire ultioals, thereby destroy the soul of the world As for where he is … one way or another, we’ll soon know the place"

One of Carson’s two cell phones rang The tone was that of the line given solely to Francine Donatello, their office er, who used it only on exceptional occasions, usually regarding a crisis related to one of their current cases Grateful for the distraction, Carson answered the phone

Francine said, "I got this call from a woman, she claimed it’s aShe left a phone number"