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He was not accusto children He liked it

After Deucalion assured the kids that they would not have to endure the dark in the back of the truck for more than a few minutes, he closed the doors and said to Carson, "Why do the sentries call s, he’s the patron saint of travelers, especially of children They say he was a Canaanite of gigantic stature Seems to me, Christopher fits you better than your current handle"

In a tiht to life, when he was full of rage and had not yet realized what his mission must be, he na Mary Shelley titled her book Frankenstein; or the Modern Proy, Pros from clay and endowed them with the spark of life Made by Victor, the modern Prometheus, Deucalion was in effect his son, and he felt, back then, that he should carry the name to reainst all of nature

Now he knew that the lightning of his birth pulsed in his eyes as he said to Carson, "I haven’t earned a better name than the one I have now"

"Earned? Back in Louisiana, you presided over Victor’s death in the landfill"

"But now he’s back Version 20" He started forward toward the driver’s door, then stopped and turned to theet the money for this? He left New Orleans with only a fraction of my maker’s fortune"

"He’s like a Broadway producer," Michael said "He found some backers"

"Backers with deep pockets," Carson said "So deep they ht as well be bottomless"

Deucalion said, "Even if these new creations can be defeated, and even if he can be killed, perhaps we ought to be worried about the reaction of his backers when they get no return for their investot behind the wheel of the truck As he pulled out of the driveway and turned left, he tapped the horn--and it sounded as he braked to a stop at Erika’s place By the tian to disereet the transportation, was not sure where he would go when he had wheels If Chief Rafael Jar a hard new kind of law to this hellish toas not the real Jarround up like Dagget, then roads out of Rainbow Falls were probably blockaded This was the War of the Worlds or so the movement of people in a captured toas always a priority in a war To be seen approaching the roadblock and then turning away from it would invite pursuit Frost wanted to avoid pursuit After what he had seen, he didn’t think he’d survive being chased by whatever the things were that pretended to be local cops

As he prowled this residential neighborhood, wading along snow- steadily closer to the business district, he saw shadowsbehind drawn curtains in so theing a doorbell or two At a few houses, he saw faces at s, people see because maybe they weren’t people any more than the brunette from the cocoon had been the beauty queen that she first appeared to be

A car turned the corner a block away, and as its headlights swung in his direction, Frost crouched on the sidewalk beside a Lexus SUV Maybe the driver of the approaching vehicle was so out, human and trustworthy But if the police were not really police, and if they were patrolling with the determination to liht be assisted by others of their kind driving ordinary vehicles instead of marked squad cars, on the lookout for pedestrians and unauthorized ine, Frost heard theof snow chains as it cruised past without slowing

Driving et than if he remained on foot, but he continued to seek transportation Instead of cruising around at rando spot where he could keep a watch on all approaches, yet where the crystallized exhaust of the idling engine would not attract attention, so that he could stay warain time to think Perhaps in the last row of for-sale vehicles in a closed car dealership, far back fro supermarket on Ursa Avenue It would be closed now, the lot deserted, and a dark corner there ht be just the place

When he found the old Chevy--winter tires but no snow chains--in front of a house in the next block, he tried the driver’s door He dared to think that he ht have some luck left, after all, when the car proved not to be locked He had a penlight and a multifunction penknife, but luck was indeed with him; he didn’t need to hot-wire the Chevy when he found the keys under the floor ine sounded tuned and well hts, popped the hand brake, and shifted into drive, half expecting to hear a shout and see the angry owner rushing down the front-porch steps But he pulled into the street and drove aithout a protest being raised

The vintage car needed time to warm up before the heater would work As he drove, Frost anticipated the first wash of hot air with no less relish than he had ever looked forward to a filet-non dinner--or to sex, for thatof a tiht retire on some tropical shore or in a desert resort where they didn’t sell gloves or winter coats because no one ever needed them Now he dared only think ahead fifteen or twenty oal was simple survival

Of the choices available to hi lot was the closest, and he remained watchful street after street, leery of an encounter with a patrol car As the heat at last breathed from the vents, he realized that the Chevy offered more than mobility and heat He turned on the radio--and discovered that the alien invasion was not as secret as he feared it ht be and that it wasn’t an alien invasion

Chapter 51

Nummy put his foot down He said no to Mr Lyss, who didn’t like anyone saying no to him Nummy said no, no, no, the ht there in the living roo beside the piano and Mr Lyss holding the long gun Grandht Nuht hie of him, to put his foot down in the nicest way he could when soht

The Xerox Boze said he wasn’t one of those things that gobbled up people He said he wasn’t born out of a cocoon but instead out of a s were called Builders, and he was called a Communitarian, and he couldn’t eat someone any more than he could kill himself

Nummy didn’t believe a word of it Monsters were , never anything nice, which hy Nummy wouldn’t watch their movies If s to people, then of course they would lie Lying would be no big deal Even a dummy knew that

Mr Lyss was no dummy, but he believed the monster He said the monster sahat the Boze sahen the Boze died, and now the s anyht call it a spiritual conversion, except the monster didn’t have a spirit and so couldn’t be converted He said you also ain experience, except the monster was never born in the first place, only ain, only broken

Nummy asked if the monster had seen the Lord, and Mr Lyss said maybe not the Lord,on what the Boze saw Buton the other side

So then Nummy wanted to knohat the old man meant by the other side The other side of what? Mr Lyss said the other side of life, over where the dead go Nummy said that was called either Heaven or Hell, it wasn’t called the Other Side And Mr Lyss said different people have different ideas about that The Other Side ht be this world again but you’re a new person, or even sometimes you’re an animal, what they called reincarnation Nummy said that was silly, nobody would believe that, Mr Lyssit up People couldn’t be animals, and they certainly couldn’t be a carnation, which was just a flower Mr Lyss said that if he was being called a liar, he would fry Nummy’s nose with some onions and fix him so he had to pee out of his left ear

At that point, the piano player again asked Mr Lyss to kill hied for death so hard that Nu hi wasn’t in their nature, and this one didn’t shed any tears, but he sounded really miserable Nummy felt sorry for him He wondered if maybe he put his foot down too hard

Nummy said to Mr Lyss, "I don’t want to be mean to him, not even a monster Lots of meanness has come my way, so I kno bad it feels"

"There’s an attitude Grandmama would admire," Mr Lyss said

"But I’m scared," Nummy said

"Well, Peaches, haven’t you been scared pretty h all right? I’ve got ood care of you, haven’t I?"