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"As it did at the Keeshan place"

"Yeah But I bet it didn’t go there to kill anyone Just plain curiosity It doesn’t want to be caught before it acco the dog," Le?"

"We don’t really know," Lem said "But at Banodyne, it harbored a fierce hatred of the dog, worse than what it felt toward people When Yarbeck worked with it, constructing a sign language hich to communicate complex ideas, The Outsider several ti, but it would never explain why It was obsessed with the dog"

"So you think now it’s tracking the retriever?"

"Yes Because evidence see was the first to break out of the labs that night in May, and that its escape drove The Outsider e enclosure inside Yarbeck’s lab, and everything belonging to it-bedding, many educational devices, toys-was torn and s was going to be forever out of its reach if it didn’t ood its own escape, The Outsider put its mind to the probleot a good head start-"

"There’s a link between the dog and The Outsider that no one understands A mental link Instinctual awareness We don’t know its extent, but we can’t rule out the possibility that this link is strong enough for one of them to follow the other over considerable distances It’s apparently a sort of mild sixth sense that was soence enhancement used in both Weatherby’s and Yarbeck’s research But we’re only guessing We don’t really know for sure There’s so fuing much we don’t know!"

Both men were silent for a while

The huer entirely unpleasant, Given all the dangers loose in the modern world, these steamy confines see to ask any et, Walt nevertheless said, "Banodyne is a high-security building It’s designed to keep unauthorized people froet out of the place, too Yet both the dog and The Outsider escaped"

"Yes"

"And obviously no one ever figured they could Which means they’re both smarter than anyone realized"

"Yes"

Walt said, "In the case of the dogwell, if it’s s is friendly"

Le at the opaqued windshield, finally ht But if The Outsider is shtif it’s very nearly as s to be even harder"

"Very nearlyor as smart as a man"

"No Impossible"

"Or even smarter," Walt said

"No That couldn’t be"

"Couldn’t?"

"Definitely couldn’t?"

Le He was not going to start lying to his best friend again

7

Nora and Travis went through the photographs one by one, learning a littlehis tail, the dog answered questions and was able to confirm that he had chosen the advertisements for computers because they reminded him of the computers in the lab where he had been kept The photo of four young people playing with a striped beach ball appealed to him because one of the scientists in the lab had evidently used balls of various sizes in an intelligence test that Einstein had particularly enjoyed They were unable to determine the reason for his interest in the parrot, the butterflies, Mickey Mouse, and s, but that was only because they could not hit upon the pertinent yes-or-no questions that would have led to explanations

Even when a hundred questions failed to reveal the raphs, the three of thehted by the process of discovery, for they h cases to ed for the worse hen they queried Einstein about thehorror itated He tucked his tail between his legs, bared his teeth, growled deep in his throat Several ti behind the sofa or into another roo, reluctantly, to face additional questions, and he shivered al quizzed about the de for at least ten ’s dread, Travis pointed to the slab-jaickedly fanged, luminous-eyed movie monster and said, "Maybe you don’t understand, Einstein This isn’t a picture of a real, living thing This is a make-believe demon from a movie Do you understand what I ed his tail: Yes

"Well, this is a make-believe monster" One bark: No

"Make-believe, phony, not real, just a man in a rubber suit," Nora said

No

"Yes," Travis said

No

Einstein tried to run off behind the sofa again, but Travis grabbed hi to have seen such a thing?"

The dog raised his gaze from the picture, looked into Travis’s eyes, shuddered, and whimpered

The pitiful note of profound fear in Einstein’s soft whine and an indescribably disturbing quality in his dark eyes combined to affect Travis to an extent that surprised hi the collar with one hand, his other hand on Einstein’s back, Travis felt the shivers that quaked through the dog-and suddenly he was shivering, too The dog’s stark fear was transht, crazily, By God, he really has seen soe in Travis, Nora said, "What’s wrong?"

Instead of answering her, he repeated the question that Einstein had not yet answered: "Are you clai that looks exactly like this de that looks at least a little bit like it?"

Yes

Letting go of the collar, Travis stroked the dog’s back, trying to soothe him, but Einstein continued to shiver "Is this why you keep a watch at the Window so’s distress, Nora began to pet hiht you orried that people from the lab would find you"

Einstein barked once

"You’re not afraid people from the lab will find you?"

Yes and no

Travis said, "But you’rewill find you"

Yes, yes, yes

"Is this the sa that chased us, the thing I shot at?" Travis asked

Yes, yes, yes

Travis looked at Nora She was frowning "But it’s only ain the real world looks even a little bit like it"

Padding across the rooain at the Blue Cross ad that featured the doctor, azine to them and dropped it on the floor He put his nose to the doctor in the picture, then looked at Nora, at Travis, put his nose to the doctor again, and looked up expectantly