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"Screw deed "Dauys could have heard that from across the state--"

"Tony’s?"

Shit

Blond eyebrows cas to your old guardian?"

Shit, shit

"I--no," I said la to think up the lie I hadn’t bothered with before Which would have been easier if the daave up "Tony’s place is over there" I gestured back toward the e’d coh to have heard all that, so we need to go!"

"Agreed," he said gri for my hand "And then we need to talk"

Only it didn’t look like ere going to be doing either His hand closed over h

"What’s wrong?" he asked, after a few seconds, when I just continued to stand there and look at him

"It isn’t working"

"Youability," I snapped, trying again And again went nowhere Maybe because I couldn’t concentrate withdid you say these effects last?" I asked desperately

"I didn’t And it depends on the person Perhaps half an hour--"

"Half an hour?" I looked at hiht as well be the end of time

And for us, it probably would be

"I can only tell you what so toddler turned one of these loose at Central No one had shields up, and a few people were seen stu--"

"Well, that’s a proble for calood, but he was only one man and Tony could send dozens, ical party favors, they did have lots of things that went bang and crash and blew people’s heads off And we couldn’t even shoot back, because we et unlucky and kill one of them, and that would alter time and then--

"Perhaps no one heard," Pritkin said, not looking nearly concerned enough "Thiseffect, and we are in a depression--"

"Yes, Pritkin! Because that’s the kind of luck we get!" I said shrilly, because the cal started crashing through the trees across the clearing

Chapter Eight

It wasn’t a va, and Tony’s stable had included so by Pritkin’s expression, which had shifted over to his what-the-hell face, it also wasn’t a deht at the start, I thought wildly I should have brought Scully Although I wasn’t sure even she’d have been able to categorize that

It eed fro for so Maybe its head, because it didn’t appear to have one Unless you counted what looked like part of a croaker sack that somebody had stuffed and then cra around like a bobblehead under a floppy hat, staring at nothing because the eyes looked like they’d been Sharpie’d on

It didn’t hly the size and shape of a person, if the person was a barrel-chested linebacker on stilts A lot of it was lass, the latter mostly a bunch of round containers set into indentations in what I guess was its ar with so in with the old ones crossed the front on a diagonal, like the potion bandolier Pritkin sometimes wore But if they were potions, I didn’t knoas supposed to grab one

Since it had what looked like gardening shears for hands

For a moment, I just stared

I knew I should probably be terrified, but I was having a hard ti that any good horror movie producer would have fired his art department for It looked like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz and Edward Scissorhands had had a baby It looked like so and built a robot out of the trash It lookedwell, it looked stupid

"Ho to ask

Not that it helped

"What?" I de else Because no, just no The universe kept throwing these curveballs atwith it, but not when it came down to decapitated robots I had principles I had standards I had--