Page 6 (1/2)

"You're leaving God and the Devil to the Talamasca, then, as you promised "

"I' the Devil to the Talamasca," he said "I don't think the Talamasca as a psychic order was ever that interested in God "

All this was faed it We both kept our eye on the Talamasca, so to speak But only one member of that devout order of scholars had ever known the true fate of David Talbot, the for was dead His nareatsadness to David, the loss of the one human who knehat he was now, the hu mortal friend, as David had been mine

He wanted to pick up the thread

"You've seen a vision?" he asked "That's what's frightening you?"

I shookin the blink of an eye I hear itin a normal conversational voice to another, or I hear its steps behind me on the street, and I spin around It's true I'm terrified of it And then when it shows itself, well, I usually end up so disoriented, I'utter like a co Then I'll catch that fragain" "And what are the words?"

"Can't give the frag them before I realized what they were On so a voice from some other locale, so to speak, you kneasn't a mere mortal in the next room But for all I knew, it could have had a natural explanation, an electronic explanation "

"I understand "

"But the frag, and one says-the one, that is¡ªsays, 'Oh, no, he's perfect, it has nothing to do with vengeance, how could you think I wanted ed "It's, you know, the middle of a conversation "

"Yes," he said, "and you feel this Thing is letting you hear a little of itjust the way I thought the vision in the cafe was meant for me "

"You've got it exactly right It's toro, I was in New Orleans; I was sort of spying on the Victihter, Dora She lives there in the convent build - I mentioned It's an old 1880s convent, unoccupied for years, and gutted, so that it's like a brick castle, and this little sparrow of a girl, lovely little woman, lives there fearlessly, completely alone She walks about the house as if she were invincible Well, anyway, I was down there, and I had co¡ªit's, you know, a shape as old as architecture, s, inner courtyard "

The rather typical late-nineteenth-century brick institution " Exactly, and I atching through the s, the progress of that little girl walking by herself through the pitch-black corridorShe was carrying a flashlight And she was singing to herself, one of her hymns They're all sort of medieval and modern at the same time "

"I believe the phrase is 'New Age,' " David suggested

"Yes, it's soious network I told you Her prograoing to sing and dance people into Heaven, especially the women, apparently, or at least they'll lead the way "

"Go on with the story, you atching her"