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Here was the best of organic and machine systeined his way through the endless avenues of this dreah he did not understand--or care--what ultimate function any of it had, what product or service it labored to bring forth He was excited by the entity because it was clearly efficient at whatever it was doing, because its organic and inorganic parts were brilliantly integrated

All of his life, for as many of his forty-one years as he could recall, Shaddack had struggled against the li with all his will and heart to rise above the destiny of his species He wanted to be od and to shape not only his own future but that of all mankind In his private sensory-deprivation chaanised-for metamorphosis than he could be in the real world, and that hat invigorated him

For hi and e, but powerfully erotic too As he floated through that i it throb and pulsate, he surrendered to an orgasenals but in every fiber; indeed he was unaware of his fierce erection, unaware of the forceful ejaculations around which his entire body contracted, for he perceived the pleasure to be diffused throughout him rather than focused in his penis Milky threads of sen spread through the dark pool of nesium-sulfate solution

A few minutes later the sensory-deprivation chaht and sounded a soft alarm Shaddack was called back froht Cove

11

Chrissie Foster’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she was able to find her iftly through even unfamiliar territory

When she reached the rim of the canyon, she passed between a pair of Monterey cypresses and onto another h the forest Protected fro trees, those enormous cypresses were lush and full, neither badly twisted northe ept shore For a h into those leafy reaches, with the hope that her pursuers would pass beneath, unaware of her But she dared not take that chance; if they smelled her or divined her presence by some other means, they would ascend, and she would be unable to retreat

She hurried on and quickly reached a break in the trees Beyond lay a meadow that sloped from east to west, as did most of the land thereabout The breeze picked up and was strong enough to ruffle her blond hair continuously The fog was not as thin as it had been when she’d left Foster Stables on horseback, but the h, dry grass that rippled when the wind blew

As she ran across the field toward the next stand of woods, she saw a large truck, strung with lights as if it were a Christ south on the interstate, nearly athe crest of the second tier of coastal hills She ruled out seeking help froers headed to faraway places, therefore even less likely than locals to believe her Besides, she read newspapers and watched TV, so she had heard all about the serial killers that roa tabloid headlines su up her fate YOUNG GIRL KILLED AND EATEN BY ROVING CANNIBALS IN DODGE VAN; SERVED WITH A SIDE OF BROCCOLI AND PARSLEY FOR GARNISH; BONES USED FOR SOUP

The county road lay half athe tops of the first hills, but no traffic moved on it In any case she already had rejected the idea of seeking help there, for fear of encountering Tucker in his Honda

Of course she believed that she had heard three distinct voices as of those who stalked her, which had to mean that Tucker had abandoned his car and ith her parents now Maybe she could safely head toward the county highway, after all

She thought about that as she sprinted across the e course, those dreadful cries rose behind her again, still in the woods but closer than before Two or three voices yowled si hounds was at her heels, though stranger and s

Abruptly Chrissie stepped into thin air and found herself falling into what, for an instant, seeht-foot-wide, six-foot-deep drainage channel that cleaved the ry shrieking of her pursuers grew louder, nearer, and now their voices had a er

She scrambled to her feet and started to clamber up the six-foot wall of the channel, when she realized that to her left, upslope, the ditch tere culvert that bored away into the earth She froze halfway up the arroyo and considered this new option

The pale concrete pipe offered the lah of a reflective surface to be visible When she saw it, she knew ie line that carried rainwater off the interstate and county road far above and east of her Judging by the shrill cries of the hunters, her lead indling She was increasingly afraid that she would notbrought down Perhaps the culvert was a dead end and would provide her with a haven no , but she decided to risk it

She slid to the floor of the arroyo again and scurried to the conduit The pipe was four feet in diahtly she was able to walk into it She went only a few steps, however, before she was halted by a stench so foul that she gagged

Soe She could not see what it was But ht look worse than it s, must have crawled into the pipe for shelter, where it perished fro deep breaths of the fresh night air

Froled, ululant walls that literally put the hair up on the back of her neck

They were closing fast, almost on top of her

She had no choice but to hide deep in the culvert and hope they could not catch her scent She suddenly realized that the decaying ani her were able to sh they were hounds, the stench of deco the pitch-black culvert again, she followed the convex floor, which sloped gradually upward beneath thesoft and slippery The horrid odor of decay burst upon her with even greater strength, and she knew she had stepped in the dead thing

"Oh, yuck"

She gagged and felt her gorge rise, but she gritted her teeth and refused to throw up When she was past the putrid mass, she paused to scrape her shoes on the concrete floor of the pipe

Then she hurried farther into the drain Scurrying with her knees bent, shoulders hunched, and head tucked down, she realized sheinto its secret burrow

Fifty or sixty feet past the unidentified dead thing, Chrissie stopped, crouched, and turned to look back toward the h that circular aperture she had a view of the ditch in ht, and she could see more than she had expected because, by contrast with the darkness of the drain, the night beyond seehter than when she had been out there