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Two seconds later, from the ht a blush to the whore of Babylon

She must have co arrived at Room 1242, she had discovered that Danny Jessup was neither strapped to the bomb nor splattered across the walls

FORTY-THREE

IN THE CASINO, DURING DATURA’S VERBAL ASSAULT ON Maryann Morris, she had proved that her silky voice could be twisted into a garrote as cruel as any strangler’s cord

Now, hiding behind the entry door, just inside the three-roo volu words that I had never realized could apply to a guy, and with each passing second, I felt less confident about ht be, and syphilitic, for all I knew, but Datura was also ed lunacy, more and worse than a homicidal pn merchant whose narcissism exceeded that of Narcissus himself She seemed to be an elemental force, of no less power than earth, water, wind, and fire

Into oddess of death, dark side of the ods who had conquered tis, and in temples where she’s worshipped, the usual idols present her with a necklace of hue, the dark gaunt fore Kali eht, so true, that my sense of reality seemed to shift, to deepen Every detail of the shadowy hotel roo storm beyond the balcony doors caht momentarily see even deeper than the molecular structure of it all

Yet si within my view, I detected a transcendentalrevelation waiting to be accepted A chill of a character not easily conveyed worked through me, an awe that felt h dread was a part of it

You htened perception that frequently accompanies h to knohat that feels like, too, but this metaphysical incident was not the same

Like all mystical experiences, I suppose, when the ineffable seems about to be made clear, the mo, this one left me electrified, as if I had been zapped by a different kind of Taser, one designed to energize the mind and force it to confront a difficult truth

The nasty truth before hable eccentricities, was a ed When it caer hands as Kali, and my two hands were reluctant

My plan had been either to bolt fro that, to elude this woh to convince theht to flee before I sent back the authorities This was not a plan of action asto Datura rant, apparently somewhere near the junction of the corridors--ht be an i inand her senses Likewise, hatred

Her talent for evil, especially for the vicious brand of it that once went by the nareat that she seeht be persuaded that Datura could smell the blood of her enemy while it remained in his veins, and follow the scent to spill it

Upon her arrival, I had put on holda ered in the vicinity seemed suicidal

Avoidance er to hasten a confrontation

In the light of my new and an to steel ht require of rioddess that inspired me not to underestimate Datura Kali entertained a thirst for horror so unquenchable that she had once decapitated herself in order to be able to drink her own blood as it spouted frooddess only in her own mind, Datura would not survive decapitation But when I recalled her vile stories of the cries of murdered children in a Savannah basement and the sacrifice of a seamstress in Port-au-Prince, which had see, I couldn’t pretend that she was any less bloodthirsty than Kali

And so I remained behind the door, in shadows that were often relieved by stor to her curse, then rant Soon her voice softened to the degree that I could ency of it, the insistent frenzied cadences of rage and hate and dark desire

If Andre and Robert spoke--or dared to try--I didn’t hear their deeper voices Only hers In the degree of their obedience and self-effacement, I read the souls of two true believers, as ready to drink the poisoned Kool-Aid as any cultists had ever been

When she fell silent, I suppose I should have been relieved, but instead I got that Brussels-sprouts feeling Intensely

I had sluhter

In un, which had cobut alive and aware, as guns had always felt to me before As in the past, I worried that I would not be in control of the weapon when the crisis arrived

Thank you, Mo, I expected to hear , indications that they had begun a search Only quiet followed

The ainst the balcony and the occasional gruround noise But as I listened intently for activity in the hallway, I resented the stor conspirator

I tried to iine what I would do in her circumstances, but the only rational answer see, she should want to strip her bank accounts bare and head at high speed for the border

An ordinary psychopath bails when the going gets rough--but not Kali, eater of the dead

They must have parked a vehicle or two at the hotel After snatching Danny, they had returned here on foot, by a circuitous route, to test netism, but they had no reason to walk out, rather than ride, when the fun was over

Maybe she had groorried that if Danny and I reached the ground floor and got out of the Panamint, ould find their car, hot-wire it, and leave theht have gone down to disable the vehicle or to stand guard over it