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The walls here are a pale shade of gray, and the floors are white, the reverse of the color scheher levels He does not knohy, nor does he care to know He has no interest in those things that are produced by talent: decor, fashion, art, literature, music, dance, craftsmanship Every kind of talent is a human aptitude Victor Iift thatthat he hates more than them

On this deeper level, the walls hold no plasher floors have been retrofitted with that communication system to facilitate his work These rooms are not only deserted but also without equips Therhts overhead as he progresses; therefore, he moves forward always toward a blackness of liquid density that retreats froh the very darkness fears him Here he can walk in true solitude and enjoy without interruption the infinite genius of his ceaselessly laboringinformed of soht arise in the conquest of Rainbow Falls, it will be but another gnat, and there will be nuency plans to cope with it and ensure the triuhout the centuries, popes have claimed infallibility, only in matters of faith but infallibility nevertheless Victor Ienius that all popes are frauds, but he is not of their ilk Victor Iree, is infallible in all things The war against this Montana toill inevitably proceed until every last htered and processed into an areddon

Chapter 38

Nuht a snowmobile trip would be fun He never rode one before, but often he watched other people zooured itthat rong was his seat, not his backside but his seat on the machine Mr Lyss drove, so Nummy had to perch behind him and hold on for dear life Some machines, two people could ride real cozy But this one had these saddlebags that you couldn’t take off without tools and tis, which wasn’t comfortable, especially when they flew off a little hill and bounced down

Another thing that rong was how cold it was, even colder because of the wind theyNumht away began to bite his ears even through the toboggan cap he pulled over thee of town, and he knew the fields all around, where to find the streao if you followed it for a while and where you would go if you turned away from it near Bear Rock Mr Lyss didn’t know the land in these parts Nuht to the old man’s coat--which was really not his coat but stolen--and look around Mr Lyss to keep an eye on where they were going Then if Mr Lyss should bear left, Nummy was supposed to pull on the left side of his coat, on the right side if he was to go right Mr Lyss said he would be the pilot, and Nuot lost, he would cut off Nummy’s peeith a blunt knife and tie it on the handlebars for decoration

The thing that waswith the wind they made and with the cold was that Nummy didn’t have a hel his eyes,the way, Nummy found it hard to tell hat in all the whiteness and the dark When his eyes watered too ot so easy that even he could do it without trying

Another thing that rong was that Mr Lyss didn’t drive a snowht he was a better snow driver than he really was, and he went dangerous fast Or maybe he was scared that the noise of the hts would draw the attention of the et as far fros soway so hard that one of the saddlebags would get stuck between his butt cheeks

So there they were, running flat-out into snow and dark, Nuht, Mr Lyss shouting curses that Nurateful he could only half hear, and they caed The land droppedThe snowmobile wasn’t an airplane, so it didn’t fly far before it dropped, too, and if Mr Lyss wasn’t giving the , it sure sounded like he was They came down so hard they both fell off, and the snowmobile slid maybe a hundred feet across the field before it ca pretty in its headlights

Nummy was first on his feet, ready to run if Mr Lyss pulled a blunt knife from a coat pocket

If the snow lost, but alot off the ground, a thing whooshed overhead, its tail of flae, and a second later the snowmobile went boom and for a moment disappeared in a ball of fire

Even Mr Lyss was left speechless by this develop overhead He looked up and saw the pale plane not far above, like a ghost plane, gliding through the stor as the airplanes that people flew in When it passed over the burning snowht throbbed across its belly, and then it hu after the plane that he couldn’t see anymore, Mr Lyss said, "That sonofabitch was like one of those drones, those drones they send off to kill hard-core terrorists in Afghanistan and other hellholes Predators, they call theine heat If we hadn’t just fallen off, we’d be charred meat for a bear’s dinner What the Sa up snowmobiles?"

Nummy didn’t have an answer, but he didn’t think Mr Lyss would hold that against him Mr Lyss knew Nuht about his question, the angrier he becaht to chase us down and try to make toast out of us, just blow a valuable snowmobile to smithereens Yes, yes, Peaches, I know it’s not ht want to ride it to his funeral, and now he can’t because of ht to be offended by such an arrogant assault I’ of the United States, after all, I’ve got hts I’m no damn terrorist You’re no terrorist We’re just a peaceable hobo and a du to save ourselves from monsters, and these bastards blow up our transportation"

The flaht than at first, but all around the broken-apart snow snow see down Reflections of firelight spread and fluttered like gold-and-red wings across the white land, as if there were angels in the night

Mr Lyss grew so angry he couldn’t even finish his sentences Everything he started to say ended in sputtering and spitting, and one group of words didn’t seeer in thethe air with his bony old fists, shaking them at the sky

Nummy was re, long tiold and a ive him her firstborn baby Nummy couldn’t remember the name of the princess, but the little man was Rumpelstiltskin, a na ry, but he sure did look like the man in the story He said he was so ain, and every time he said it, he did spit Nummy couldn’t make sense of any of that, so he just stood and waited until Mr Lyss at last burned hi as the snow, and kicking, Nuot to"

"Say what?" Mr Lyss asked

"We’re lost I don’t knohere this place is, all this white and dark, but it’s notI don’t want my peewee cut off Anyway there’s no handlebars to decorate with it anymore"

"Relax, Peaches I don’t blame you for this"

"You don’t?"

"Didn’t I just say I don’t?"

"I guess you did"