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He recalled the pleasure of blue eyes captured between the l of his hands and his body, the s inspection

His red robe lay at the foot of the shelves, where he had dropped it He picked it up, slipped into it, cinched and knotted the belt

All the while, he scanned the eyes, and none of thearded him with scorn or rejected him

Not for the first time, Bryan wished that his mother’s eyes were part of his collection If he possessed those eyes of all eyes, he would allow her communion with every convexity and concavity of his wellproportioned body, so she could understand the beauty of him, which she had never seen, and could know that her fears of hideous mutation had been foolish and that her sacrifice of vision had been so pointless, stupid

If he had her eyes before hiently into his ue Then he would shole, so she ht see that his perfection was internal as well as external

Thus enlightened, she would laht of his birth, and it would be as if the intervening years of estrangeod would then co would be easier and would move more rapidly toward co of the Apocalypse

But the hospital staff had disposed of her dao, in whatever manner they dealt with all dead tissue froret

Standing in the foyer, Harry tried not to look toward the light at the end of the hall where the kitchen door was ajar, so his eyes would adjust to the darkness quicker It was time to move on But they had choices to make

-Ordinarily he and Connie would conduct an interior search together, room by room, but not always Good partners had a reliable and mutually understood routine for every basic situation, but they were also flexible

Flexibility was essential because there were some situations that weren’t basic Like this one

He didn’t think it was a good idea to stay together because they were up against an adversary who had weapons better than guns or subard had al could waste theertips or soic they hadn’t seen yet

Welcome to the ’90s

If they stayed widely separated, say one of the the first floor while the other took the rooms upstairs, they would not only save time when time was at a preee Harry moved to Connie, touched her shoulder, put his lips to her ear, and barely breathed the words: "Me upstairs, you down"

From the way she stiffened, he knew she didn’t like the division of labor, and he understood why They had already looked through the first floorinto the lighted kitchen and kneas deserted

The only other light in the house was upstairs, so it was more likely than not that Ticktock was up in that other room She wasn’t worried that Harry would botch the job if he went up alone; it was just that she had a big enough hateon for Ticktock that she wanted to have an equal chance to be the one who put the bullet in his head

But there was neither time for debate nor the circumstances, and she knew it They couldn’t plan this one They had to ride the wave

When he moved across the foyer toward the stairs, she didn’t stop him

Bryan turned away from the votive eyes He crossed the room toward the open door His silk robe rustled softly as he moved

He was always aware of the time, the second and minute and hour, so he kneas still a few hours away He needn’t be in a rush to keep his proer to locate him and see to what depths of despair the e of tiame of hideandseek

The fool would kno, that he was up against immeasurable power, and that escape was hopeless His fear, and the ahich he’d now regard his persecutor, would be enor for a while

First, however, Bryan had to satisfy his physical hunger Sleep was only part of the restorative he needed He knew that he had lost a few pounds during the most recent creative session The use of his Greatest and Most Secret Power always took a toll He was fa out of his bedrooht, away fro the hallway toward the back stairs that led directly down to the kitchen

Enough light spilled from his open bedroom door to allow hiht, reflections of the young god Beco purposefully to infinity in swirls of royal red, royal red, red upon red upon red

Connie did not want to split off from Harry She orried about hi home, he had looked like death warmed over and served on a paper plate He was desperately tired, a walking mass of contusions and abrasions, and he had seen his world fall apart in littlenot merely possessions but cherished beliefs and e

Of course, aside from the part about lost possessions, much the same could be said of Connie Which was another reason she did not want to separate to search the house Neither of the the nature of this perp, they needed a greater advantage than usual, so they had to separate

Reluctantly, as Harry moved toward the steps and then started up, Connie turned to the door on the right, off the foyer It had a lever handle She eased it doith her left hand, revolver in her right and in front of her Faintest click of the latch Ease the door inward and to the right

Nothing for it but to cross the threshold, clearing the doorway as fast as possible, doorways always being theto the left as she entered, both hands on the gun in front of her, ar her back to the wall Straining her eyes to see in the deep darkness, unable to find and use the light switch without giving away the ga plenitude of s in the north and east and allsrso many s on the exterior, were the’e?fered onlypressed against the panes, like cloudy gray water, and she had the queer feeling of being under the sea in a bathysphere

The rooht somehow She didn’t knohat it was that she sensed, rongness, but it was there

So was also odd about the wall at her back when she brushed against it Too sun with her left hand, and felt behind her

Glass

The as glass but it wasn’t abecause it was the wall shared with the foyer

For afrantically because anything inexplicable was frightening under the circuers slid across a vertical sea