Page 6 (1/2)

I hang a right turn into the parking area, coear Ahead, at the western end of the parking area, a series of sturdy wooden posts, set in concrete and linked by a couple of rows of cables, define the point at which the land drops away into the hills that roll doard the sea

The only way that I’ to have a chance to creep up on the house in which Norris Hiskott lives is to create sufficient chaos to preoccupy all of the Harmonys, chaos that their puppetnore

I press the brake hard, rev the engine, feel the truck strain to be free, let up on the brake and an instant later the accelerator, snatch the pistol froins to roll, and leap fro off froer, stumble, fall, roll, and scramble to my feet as the vehicle ru is h won’t be clear until it hits the posts, but the distance is too short for it to loseand load is probably sohty thousand pounds In my book that is an irresistible force, and the fence falls short of being an immovable object

I keep pace with the truck, sort of escorting it toward the drop-off I have decidedly uilt, relief, anxiety--when the posts crack off where they’re sunk in concrete They splinter, tu steel cables that snap al from pole to pole, and lash whistles fro sees and the re the plunge

FIFTEEN

So this creepy disehted stairs that look like they ht evaporate behind me and leave me with no way down, and what I think of first is how and why my parents always used to tell er

What I think of second, while I’et the Hood visits Grandma’s house after Grandma has been eaten alive, and she’s suspicious and all about this transvestite wolf in Grand in Grandma’s bed, but the twit doesn’t tumble to his true identity until he actually eats her If the hunts to cut open the wolf’s stomach and let Grand but a couple of bowel movements Of course, it’s also screwy, the wolf supposedly sing theer or a bear or some woodland creature to apply the Heimlich maneuver

At the top of the stairs, there’s a narroalk of stainless steel The softly illuloohs that look out on the darkness and the freaky sphere

The sphere is still silvery and gli that puts out such a bad vibe, which reminds me of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, which I recently read Old Scarlett is super-pretty and vivacious, and you’ve got to admire her in some ways, but you know almost from the start, this babe is six different kinds of messed up I don’t think I could have lived back then, if you want to know, because I would have been so mad about slavery and all, not to mention no TV

Up here on the catwalk, about thirty feet above the floor, I see a feature of the sphere that wasn’t visible frole ros see and like one foot high, set flush in the metal surface with no frames If you consider the size of the sphere, the s aren’t really big They don’t look like ordinary glass, either What they look like are thick slabs of rock crystal or so Beyond theht and terrible shadowsshadows flying and leaping and twisting so crazy I don’t like this thing at all, and I totally mean that

As I turn away fro one of the doors along the catwalk, two big s brighten, though hardly so you’d notice When I peer through one of theue shapes, which probably lass is heavily tinted and polarized, so it looks clear from inside but not from out here, which is like the s in the Harmony Corner diner

An electric lock buzzes and clicks, and the door between those ts swings inward a couple of inches, as if I’ invited inside Which reminds me of Hansel and Gretel They come upon a house in the woods, it’s ht away chon on it, never once realizing it can’t be anything but a lure and a trap Then the fiendish old witch invites them inside, and they say sure, this is a cool place, and she’s so obviously fattening thehter with pancakes and apples and all It’s like the tenth biggest , instead of the two urchins, ends up baking in the oven

So I push the door open wider, and I don’t see any old, wrinkled hag anywhere in there, or a wolf, or any living thing Living things are nearly alhat get you, so as I cross the threshold, I don’t feel quite so naive as Hansel and Gretel Besides, I’m not here just to stuff so to learn so about Norris Hiskott that will ht s I didn’t like

The roo talls are all kinds of mad-doctor equipment that I couldn’t say what any of it is In front of one of the two big s is this long console with a lot of switches, buttons, levers, dials, gauges, indicator lights, and monitors, all dark and silent The computers are dated, and it feels like no one has been here in a long time On the other hand, there’s no dust, not a speck of it, as if the place has been airtight since they h the s, I can see the upper part of the silvery sphere It looks like the moon come down to Earth

In the back wall is another steel door, locked There’s a six-inch-square vie about two-thirds of the way up the door, and when I stand on tiptoe, I can see through it, except the room beyond is dark

The voice that sounds like that of a Darth Vader wannabe issues fro: "Jolie Ann Harain"

"Tell me about Norris Hiskott"

"Well, snoop and sneak that you are, you heard everything I said to Harry"

"That is correct"

"Then you’ve already heard just about every nasty thing that ain"

"You should have paid attention the first time Anyhat are you, some kind of pervert, you suck on other people’s pain?"

After a silence, he says, with no emotion except curiosity, "You do not seeht of yours again"

"Why do you not like me?"

"Snoop, sneak--heard that anywhere before?"

"I a my job"

"And what is your job?"

"That is classified inforain about Norris Hiskott"

"Why?"

"I want to compare what you said to Harry hat you noill say to nificant discrepancies You will tell ain"

These past five years have given me some bad attitudes, letto wreck my whole life once Hiskott is dead and I’ told what to do, even little things I just can’t put up with it I really can’t Even if , just tell o off It h Mom and Dad only hat’s best forHiskott tellswith Maxy and all It’s just too freakingis,me what to do, because I’ll want to punch him or hit hi told that I will tell this guy about Hiskott again stea "Yes, sir" and "Please, sir" all day long I just can’t bear it I really can’t

" ‘Discrepancies’‘lies’?" I ask "Listen to me, butthead, I don’t lie I’m a mess, if you have to know, I’m a train wreck, but I don’t lie, so you can just shut up, you can just stuff it where the sun don’t shine"