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Ra that included roo her patient She orried about hi for Dr Nyebern yet

According to the heart hly fluctuant state Generally it ranged between a reassuring seventy to eighty beats per h as a hundred and forty On the positive side, she observed no indications of serious arrhythmia

His blood pressure was affected by his accelerated heartbeat, but he was in no apparent danger of stroke or cerebral he hypertension, because his systolic reading was never dangerously high

He eating profusely, and the circles around his eyes were so dark, they appeared to have been applied with actors’ greasepaint He was shivering in spite of the blankets piled on hiers of his left hand--exposed because of the intravenous feed--spash to disturb the needle inserted just below the crook of his elbow

In a whisper he repeated his wife’s naency: "Lindsey … Lindsey … Lindsey, no!"

Harrison was dreahtical responses every bit asexperiences

Finally Ramona decided that the accelerated heartbeat was solely the result of the poor enuine cardiovascular de-stabilization He was in no danger Nevertheless, she reo sat at atable overlooking the harbor He had been in the lounge only five rounds The at He wished he had not ordered a drink

No dance hts, but a pianist was at work in one corner He played neither gutless renditions of ’30s and ’40s songs nor the studiedly bland arrange rock-’n’-roll that rotted the brains of regular lounge patrons But he spun out the equally noxious repetitive e numbers composed for those who found elevator o preferredthat put his teeth on edge Since beco a citizen of the borderland, he could not take pleasure in most music, for its orderly structures irritated him He could tolerate only music that was atonal, harsh, unes, thunderously crashing chords, and squealing guitar riffs that abraded the nerves He enjoyed discord and broken patterns of rhythes of blood and violence

To Vassago, the scene beyond the big s, because of its beauty, was as displeasing as the lounge music Sailboats andthe harbor They were tied up, sails furled, engines silent, ing only slightly because the harbor ell protected and the storm was not particularly ferocious Few of the wealthy owners actually lived aboard, regardless of the size of the craft or alowed at only a few of the portholes Rain, here and there transhts, hahtwork, drizzled like molten metal down their masts and across their decks and out of their scuppers He had no tolerance for prettiness, for postcard scenes of harmonious composition, because they seemed false, a lie about what the world was really like He was drawn, instead, to visual discord, jagged shapes,fore was too soft for a hunter like hi instincts

He surveyed the patrons, hoping to spot an object of the quality suitable for his collection If he saw so truly superb that excited his acquisitional fever, even the stultifying aty

A few men sat at the bar, but they were of no interest to him The three men in his collection had been his second, fourth, and fifth acquisitions, taken because they had been vulnerable and in lonely circumstances that allowed hi seen He had no aversion to killing et the people a the customers were four women in their twenties ere seated by the s, three tables away froiddy, hunched over as if sharing gossip, talking intently, periodically bursting into gales of laughter

One of theo’s hatred of beautiful things She had enorrace that reminded him of a doe He dubbed her "Ba the lower halves of her ears

They were exceptional ears, large but delicately for with the to decide if she was up to his standards

Bambi talked roup Her laugh was the loudest, as well, a jackass braying She was exceptionally attractive, but her incessant chatter and annoying laughter spoiled the package Clearly, she loved the sound of her own voice

She’d be vastly iht, if she were to be stricken deaf and hter in his chair By re her lips shut, he would be neatly sy the fatal flaw in her beauty It was a vision of such simplicity, yet such power, that--

"One rulass and paper cocktail napkin on the table in front of Vassago "You want to run a tab?"

He looked up at her, blinking in confusion She was a stout ed woh his sunglasses, but in his fever of creative excite her

Finally he said, "Tab? Uh, no Cash, thank you, ma’am"

When he took out his wallet, it didn’t feel like a wallet at all but like one of Baht feel When he slid his thumb back and forth across the sht soon be available for his caress: delicately shaped ridges of cartilage forraceful curves of the channels that focused sound waves inward toward the tympanic ain, stating the price of his drink, and then he realized that it was the second ti, delicious seconds, daydreaure at it, and handed it to her

"This is a hundred," she said "Don’t you have anything smaller?"

"No, ma’am, sorry," he said, impatient now to be rid of her, "that’s it"

"I’ll have to go back to the bar to get this e"

"Okay, yeah, whatever Thank you, ma’am"

As she started away fro wo They were nearing the door, pulling on their coats as they went

He started to rise, intending to follow them, but he froze when he heard himself say, "Lindsey"

He didn’t call out the name No one in the bar heard him say it He was the only one who reacted, and his reaction was one of total surprise

For a moment he hesitated with one hand on the table, one on the arm of his chair, halfway to his feet While he was paralyzed in that posture of indecisiveness, the four young woe Bambi became of less interest to him than the mysterious name--"Lindsey"--so he sat down

He did not know anyone named Lindsey