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Before Bobby could do as I wanted, the reeking wind brought with it another h the curved wall, as if five feet of steel-reinforced concrete were no more substantial than a veil of un with both hands, dropping his flashlight without switching it off
The spectral visitor was startlingly close, less than twenty feet frohts and shadohich served as continually changing cae, I couldn’t at first see the intruder clearly Gliments, it looked manlike, thenelse but a lu doll
Bobby held his fire, perhaps because he still believed that ere seeing was illusionary, either ghost or hallucination, or so desperately to the saered closer to us
By the time it had taken three uncertain steps, I could see clearly enough to identify it as a ht spacesuit More likely, the outfit was an adapted version of the standard gear that NASA had developed for astronauts, intended primarily not to shield the wearer from the icy vacuum of interplanetary space but rather to protect hiically contae helmet featured an oversize faceplate, but I wasn’t able to see the person beyond, because reflections of the whirling light-and-shado strealas On the brow of the helmet was stenciled a name: HODGSON
Perhaps because of the fireworks, son didn’t react as if he saw Bobby and , and his voice was by far the loudest of those still borne on the foul wind After staggering a few steps away fro up both hands to ward off an attack by so that was invisible to unfire
Though I’d heard no shots, I ducked reflexively
When he fell to the floor, Hodgson landed on his back He was propped halfway between a prone and a sitting position by the air tank and by the briefcase-size waste-purification-and-reclamation system strapped to his back His arms fell limp at his sides
I didn’t need to exaht have killed hi
If he’d already been a ghost, how could he die again?
Some questions are better left unanswered Curiosity is one of the engines of human achievement, but it’s not much of a survival mechanism if it motivates you to see what the back side of a lion’s teeth look like
Crouching, I scooped up Bobby’s flashlight and clicked it off
An immediate drop in the ferocity of the wind seey input froered all this bizarre activity
The stench of stea to e and shiny Too real
I wanted to get out, but I didn’t head for the exit I was afraid it would actually be there when I reached it, whereupon this waking dreahtmare
In every surface, the pyrotechnics continued undihts, this extraordinary spectacle had been self-perpetuating for a short while, and it would probably power itself even longer this ti with suspicion I expected another figure to coalesce out of the bright, ceaselessly changing cyclora than the son Apparently, the disorienting effect of the light show did not affect his equilibrium as it did un He believed it was protection
I, on the other hand, figured that the weapon was potentially as dangerous as the flashlights Any lead pellets not stopped by the target wouldto floor to ith deadly velocity And every time a bit of lead shot struck any surface in the chaht be absorbed by that glassythese weird phenomena
The wind subsided to a breeze
Carnivals and catastrophes still glittered and blazed through every curving surface of the rooe-red spouts like volcanic eruptions
The vault door appeared dauntingly solid
No ghost had ever looked as real as the body in the spacesuit Not Jacob Marley rattling his chains at Scrooge, not the Ghost of Christmas Future, not the White Lady of Avenel, not Hamlet’s dad, certainly not Casper
I was surprised to find my balance restored Maybe the brief disruption of equilibriuhts and shadows, but had been merely another transient effect similar to the pressure that, earlier, haddifficult
The hot breeze--and the stink it carried--disappeared The air was cool and calan to fade, as well
Next, perhaps, the spacesuited man on the floor would dissolve into a twist of icy vapor that would rise and vanish like a wraith returning to the spirit world where it belonged Soon Before we had to take a close look at it Please
Certain that Bobby couldn’t be persuaded to retreat, I followed hionzobehemoths: a maximum kamikaze commitment as total as his more characteristic slacker indifference When he was on this board, he would ride it all the way to the end of the barrel--and one day straight out of this life
Because the lights in the walls were contained within the surface layer of glassypower into the egg rooht," Bobby said
"Not s myself to take a close look at the back side of the aforeht of the body as Bobby ht and played it over the far too solid ghost Initially the bea, but I quickly steadied it
The Plexiglas in the helh to let us see either Hodgson’s face or his condition
He--or possibly she--was as still and silent as a headstone, and whether a ghost or not, he seemed indisputably dead
On the breast of his pressure suit was an A was a second patch, featuring a speeding locon, which evidently had been adapted to serve as the logo for this research project Although the ie was bold and dyna to bet son as a uishing features on the front of the suit were six or eight holes across the abdoson had turned to face the wall out of which he had appeared, how he had held his hands up defensively, and how he had jerked as if hit by automatic-weapons fire, I at first assumed that these punctures were bullet holes
On closer inspection, however, I realized that they were too neat to be gunshot wounds High-velocity lead slugs would have torn therips or starburst punctures rather than these round holes, each as large as a quarter, which looked as though they had been die cut or even bored with a laser Aside frounfire, these were far too large to be entry wounds; any caliber of a would have passed directly through Hodgson, killing Bobby or me, or both of us
I could see no blood
"Use the other flash," Bobby said
Silence had replaced the last ht, h the walls, perhaps o Experience suggested that this phenomenon, too, was about to wind down, and I was reluctant to stiain