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Ji iain from lies?" "I don’t know But we can’t be sure that it isn’tus

And when it comes back, like it promised, I want to be ready for it I want to spend the next hour or two or three-however long we’ve got-h a carefully planned inquisition

We’ve got to have a strategy for squeezing real information from it, facts not fantasies, and our questions have to support that strategy"

When he frowned, she hastened on before he could interrupt

"Okay, all right, ,it’s told us is the gospel truth But listen, Jim, this is not an epiphany The Friend set the rules by influencing you to buy the tablets and pen It established the question-and-answer format If it didn’t want us to make the best of that format, it would’ve just told you to shut up and would’ve blabbered at you frohtfully

He shifted his gaze to the walls where the creature of light had swu her point, Holly said, "You never even asked it why it wants you to save people’s lives, or why soain, obviously surprised to realize that he had not pursued the answer to the low of the softly hissing gas lantern, his eyes were blue again, not green as the aht had temporarily ht I guess I was just swept away by it all I "

"It’s astounding," she acknowledged

"We’ll do what you want, ht-out questions And when it comes back, you should be the one to ask all of the other questions if it says anything that needs follow-up"

"I agree," she said, relieved that he had suggested it without being pressured

She was better schooled at interviewing than he was, but she was also more trustworthy in this particular situation than Ji past relationship with him and had, adet about the encounters they’d had twenty-five years ago Holly had to assuree or another corrupted, though he could not realize it

The Friend had been in his mind perhaps on scores or hundreds of occasions, when he had been at a fore, and when he had been particularly vulnerable due to the loss of his parents, therefore even more susceptible to manipulation and control than most ten-year-old boys On a subconscious level, Jirammed to protect The Friend’s secrets rather than help to reveal the a thread-thin line between judicious precaution and paranoia,more on the side of the latter than the former Under the circumstances, a little paranoia was a prescription for survival

When he said he was going outside to relieve himself, however, she h room She followed him downstairs and stood by the Ford with her back to hiainst the split-rail fence beside the cornfield

She stared out at the deep black pond

She listened to the toads, which were singing again So were the cicadas

The events of the day had rattled her Now even the sounds of nature seeainst soe and too powerful to be dealt with by just a failed reporter and an ex-schoolteacher She wondered if they ought to leave the farht away She wondered if they would be allowed to leave

Since the departure of The Friend, Holly’s fear had not abated If anything, it had increased She felt as if they were living under a thousand-ton weight that was ic eakening and the hair was stretched as taut and brittle as a filaht, they had eaten six chocolate doughnuts and coar was an energizer and a consolation in times of trouble, but it was no help to already-frayed nerves

Holly’s anxiety had a sharp refined-sugar edge to it now, like a wellstropped razor

Pacing with the tablet in her hand, Holly said, "And we’re not going to let it get aritten answers this tiive and take between interviewer and interviewee We’re going to insist that it talk to us"

Ji on his back, his hands folded behind his head "It can’t talk"

"How do you know that?" "Well, I’ it can’t, or otherwise it would’ve talked right fro," she said "If it can h anything, if it’s to be believed-and if it can assume any form it wishes, then it can sure as hell for higher power"

"I guess you’re right," he said uneasily

"It already said that it could appear to us as a man or woman if it wanted, didn’t it?" "Well, yeah"

"I’ for a flashy materialization Just a voice, a disehtshow"

Listening to herself as she talked, Holly realized that she was using her edginess to puressive tone that would serve her hen The Friend returned It was an old trick she had learned when she had interviewed people who

Jim sat up "Okay, it could talk if it wanted to, but maybe it doesn’t want to"

"We already decided we can’t let it set all the rules, Jionize it"

"I’ it"

"I think we should be at least a little respectful"

"Oh, I respect the hell out of it"

"You don’t sees if it wanted to, and that gives me tremendous respect for it"

"That’s not the kind of respect I mean"

"That’s the only kind of respect it’s earned fro around hi toto scare the crap out oftrue, then etting a little spooky," he said

"Me?" "You’re so hostile"

"I a at her "Looks like blind hostility to me"

"It’s adversarial journalism It’s the modern reporter’s tone and theme