Page 23 (1/2)

Now Jocko stood ready Waiting for questions About Progress for Perfect Peace Standing ready Well, not just standing Dancing fro, but only five or aloo A little bit of the funky chicken Making propeller noises with hisSort of Christmasy

He felt the need to talk, too He said, "Jocko had it all done like an hour ago Ripped it, zipped it, got it done Then Jocko was Princess Josephine Not the real one Stand-in Didn’t put on a dress or anything Stand-in for teatime With Princess Chrissy Her dad, I don’t know Maybe he chops off heads Maybe he doesn’t Jocko sweated from his ears Otherwise did pretty well Jocko hates tea Tea sucks Whoopie pies are good Better than bugs, like Jocko ate back when When he lived in a sewer Way better No whoopie pies in a sewer Jocko likes Little Woot every version Poor sweet Beth She always dies It just rips Jocko up Jocko cries Not ashaood cry But they should remake Little Women Let Beth live Jocko would watch it a thousand times Unless Johnny Depp played Beth You know Johnny Depp? Probably not Different social circles Jocko used to be afraid of Justin Bieber Still is, a little Then saw Depp You have allergies? Jocko does Raspberries Face swells up Lots of snot pours out Well, not snot Uglier than snot Don’t knohat Never had it analyzed Disgusting Jocko can be disgusting Not on purpose though Do you like to pirouette? Jocko likes to pirouette"

The big guy said, "You’ve done an excellent job here"

Jocko alress for Perfect Peace No doubt this Victor Leben is the clone of our Victor I’ve been to the warehouse you discovered they own It’s not where he’s located It’s a center for liquidation of the people they’ve replaced with replicants You found nothing that would pinpoint a location along the End Tiress for Perfect Peace?"

Jocko shook his head Ada to find Jocko shucked every ear of data corn Popped it, buttered it, salted it, ate it up Peeled the online onion down to its last layer Bit every byte of the banana Sliced, chopped, diced, minced, mashed--and what you see is what there is Jocko would bet life on it Jocko will kill hiely Over and over again"

"Progress for Perfect Peace," Deucalion brooded "Knowing this na it, we’ll find him"

Chapter 47

A mild wind came up, and Mr Lyss called it a devil wind, not because devils were blowing around in it, but because it started to smooth away the snowmobile tracks Just as it seemed the trail would be erased before their eyes, they saw house lights through the snow and found their way back to the Boze played After Mr Lyss retrieved his long gun froe, he went into the house, to the living rooh he didn’t want to follow because he was afraid of theabout Mr Lyss that h Nummy didn’t understand what it was It wasn’t just that he sometimes threatened to cut your feet off and feed the other things he wanted you to do In fact, Nummy felt compelled to follow Mr Lyss in spite of the threats Maybe at the beginning the threats were part of whatelse If Grandmama was still alive, she would knohat it was and would be able to explain it

In the living room, Mr Lyss said to the piano player, "Was Bozeman the most depressive sonofabitch who ever lived, or are you just not playing the livelier music he knew?"

"Kill me," the pianobetter than to kill you dead as anyone’s ever been," Mr Lyss said "I’ve killed every damn monster I’ve ever met, and there have been more than a few But I won’t be told to do it by the monster himself I’m not a man who can be bossed around Tell him that’s true, boy"

Nuets his back up easy If he was on fire and soht not do it ’cause it wasn’t his idea first"

"Hell’s bells," the old man said, "where did that come from, boy?"

"It come from me, sir"

"Well, I know it came from you, I heard you say it But it came from somewhere deeper in you than most of your jabber and prattle co more of the same I didn’t ask you to psychoanalyze loomy sonofabitch"

As before, Xerox Bozeman’s hands seemed to float back and forth across the keys, al the music from the piano, as if instead theit out of the to it in a stor hands, as before Maybe Mr Lyss was hypnotized, too, because he listened for a while without saying anything

But then the old man said, "If you want to be dead because of what you sahen Bozeraram"

"The one installed in me in the Hive, in the laboratory where I was made"

"By Frankenstein," Mr Lyss said with soht"

"You’re still sticking to that story"

"It’s true"

"And it’s not true that you’re a Martian or some murderous scum from some other planet?"

"It’s not true," said the piano player

"We burned soht You make those cocoons?"

"No I’m a Communitarian The cocoons are made by Builders We both coht about that for a while before he said, "Earlier I wanted to kill you, but I knew for some reason it was a bad idea I think it’s still a bad idea, daet plenty of satisfaction from it So I’ll tell you what--I’ll kill you as dead as dead can be, as soon as I feel it’s right"

The ht curl up like a pill bug and never uncurl, listening to thatwith us, answer some questions"

"What questions?" the piano player asked

"Any da you a list of questions ahead of ti answers O’Bannon here is a dummy, but I’m not, and you better keep that in mind If you lie to me, I’ll know it’s a lie, I can smell a lie better than a bloodhound can se and feed you well and never kill you You have to earn it Is that understood?"