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Mr Lyss was silent Watching Mr Lyss be silent was al on the er than seemed possible in a situation like this

Finally the old man said, "Your kind What kind are you? Not a Martian, I know"

"A Coht that be?"

"Not born of man and woman," said the piano player, and now the soft notes caraveside-funeral scene in a ood

"If not from man and woman," the old man said, "then froineered flesh corara that rese that imitates free will but is in fact obedient slavery Fro and froain"

Those words were to Nuibberish Yet his heart must have understood part of as said even if his brain couldn’tca so enorive a na, but it was like so one side, and suddenly there was a break in the trees so he could see theand yet he had forgotten they were there, h a layer of clouds and reappeared above, e that for awas like that but ain, as if he was re mountains of his own

The sad music played into the silence, and after a while, the Xerox Boze said, "Kill

"Be merciful and kill me"

Mr Lyss said, "I’ve never been a man known for his mercy If you want to be dead, be merciful to yourself"

"I’m what I am, and have no mercy in me But you’re human, so you possess the capacity"

After another silence, Mr Lyss said, "Whose laboratory?"

"Victor’s"

"Victor who?"

"He calls himself Victor Leben And Victor Immaculate But his real name, of which he’s proud, is Frankenstein"

Nummy knew that name He shivered Those were the kind of movies he never watched He’d seen part of one so what trouble he was getting into, and it so upset hi, and she turned it off She hugged him, kissed him, made him his favorite dinner, and told him over and over that none of that stuff was real, it was just a story, the same way that a nice and happy story like Charlotte’s Web was just a story, what Grandmama called fiction, and no fiction story could ever be real

If the Xerox Boze wasn’t lying, Grand before Not any blessed thing The possibility that Grand was so disturbing that Nuain

"Frankenstein? You think I’ry, just curious

"No You asked I told you It’s the truth"

"You said you’re an obedient slave You were made that way Why would you betray him?"

"I’m broken now," said the Xerox Boze "When I sahat Boze broke in ears won’t shift anymore Please kill aze fro hands as if they fascinated him as much as they hypnotized Nummy

The tune sort of slipped into a new tune, which was even sadder than the first Grandreat composers could build mansions with music, mansions so real that you could see the rooms in yourIt was a big eray, and the ere gray because they looked out on nothing

"Frankenstein," Mr Lyss said "If men from outer space, then why not this But I won’t kill you I don’t knohy It just doesn’t feel right"

Surprisingly, the old un

Nummy worriedly reminded him, "Sir, he killed the Boze He’ll kill us He’s a monster"