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"It stopped a whole town"
"Well… yeah," Frank said reluctantly
Jenny said, "Anyway, it’s probably listening to us right this minute It would stop us before we even reached the cars"
They all looked at the heating ducts near the ceiling There was nothing to be seen beyond the athered around a table in the dining rooer a fortress They pretended to want coffee because, soave them a sense of couard on the front doors Guards were useless If it wanted the was getting thicker It pressed against the glass
They were compelled to talk about what they had seen They were all aware that death was co for them, and they needed to understand why and how they were , yes; however, senseless death was the worst of all
Bryce knew about senseless death A year ago, a runaway truck had taught hi he needed to know about that subject
"Thethat… that got Gordy?"
"Yes," Jenny said, "The er"
To Lisa, Tal said, "When Stu Wargle caht, it wasn’t actually hile’s body after we left it in the utility room Then, later, when it wanted to terrorize you, it assumed his appearance"
"Apparently," Bryce said, "the da can impersonate anyone or any animal that it’s previously fed upon"
Lisa frowned "But what about thelike that exists"
"Well," Bryce said, "o, tens of e of dinosaurs Maybe that’s when the shape-changer fed on the that caht’ve been millions of years old?"
"Well," Bryce said, "it certainly doesn’t conforuchi?"
"No," the geneticist said
"So why shouldn’t it also be immortal?"
Jenny looked dubious
Bryce said, "You have an objection?"
"To the possibility that it’s i to i out of the Mesozoic, all right, so that it’s virtually ied serpent fit? I find it da like that has ever existed If the shape-changer becoested, then how could it becoed serpent?"
"There’ve been anied reptiles"
"Reptiles, yes," Jenny said, "But not serpents Pterodactyls were the ancestors of birds But that thing was clearly a serpent, which is very different It looked like soht out of voodoo"
Bryce turned to Tal surprised "Voodoo? What would you know about voodoo?"
Tal didn’t seem to be able to look at Bryce, and he spoke with evident reluctance "In Harleatha Peabody, in our apart, and she was a boko That’s a sort of witch who uses voodoo for immoral or evil purposes She sold charms and spells, helped people strike back at their ene All nonsense But to a kid, it see and spooky Mrs Peabody ran an open apart in and out all day and night For a fewAnd there were quite a few books on the black arts, In a couple of thes of Haitian and African versions of Satan, voodoo and juju devils One of thes And terrible green eyes It was exactly like the thingtonight"
In the street, beyond the s, the fog was very thick now It churned sluggishly through the diffused glow of the streetla from Hell?"
"No," Jenny said, "That’s just a… pose"
"But then why does it take the shape of the Devil?" Lisa asked, "And why does it call itself the naure the Satanicthat amuses it," Frank said "One more way to tease us and demoralize us"
Jenny nodded "I suspect it isn’t limited to the for it has absorbed and anything it can iine So if one of the victims was soot the idea of becoht startled Bryce "Do you mean it not only absorbs and incorporates the flesh of its victie and memories as well?"
"It sure looks that way," Jenny said
"Biologically, that’s not unheard of," Sara Ya black hair with both hands and nervously tucking it behind her delicate ears "For instance… If you put a certain kind of flatworh, with food at one end, eventually it’ll learn to negotiate the rind it up and feed it to another flatworotiate the h the test before Soe and experience of its cousin when it ate the flesh"
"Which is how the shape-changer knows about Timothy Flyte," Jenny said, "Harold Ordnay knew about Flyte, so now it knows about him, too"
"But how in the naed "That’s a question only Flyte can answer"
"Why didn’t it take Lisa last night in the restroom? For that matter, why hasn’t it taken all of us?"
"It’s just toying with us"
"Having fun A sick kind of fun"
"There’s that But I think it’s also kept us alive so we could tell Flyte e’ve seen and lure hi the offer of safe conduct to Flyte"
"We’re just bait"
"Yes"
"And e’ve served our purpose"
"Yes"
Soainst the outside of the inn The s rattled, and the building seemed to shake
Bryce stood so fast that he knocked over his chair
Another crash Harder, louder Then a scraping noise
Bryce listened intently, trying to get a fix on the sound It see It started at ground level but swiftly began tosound A bony sound Like the skeletons of long-dead ," Frank said, "Pulling itself up the side of the inn"
"The shape-changer," Lisa said
"But not in its jellied form," Sara said, "In its natural state, it would just flow up the wall silently"