"Hey, Roy liked my coffee," Winn said. "I think you just prefer your candy. That's fine, all little girls like candy."

"You're starting to p.i.s.s me off," Deem said.

"I'm bored," Winn replied. He slid down a little in his seat, adjusting himself. Deem knew Winn had a reputation for being sizeable in the endowment department, and she couldn't help but notice how much of Winn was straining in the tight jeans. She glanced away before he could catch her looking.

Like everyone says, she thought. He's hung.

She'd considered becoming involved with Winn early on when they first met. He was charming and handsome, and at first she felt she'd met someone who understood her on her gifted level, and it appealed to her. But after a while she decided Winn was too much to handle as anything more than a friend. She learned he had a harem of both women and men who'd sleep with him whenever he wanted, and she found that irritating. He'd tried to seduce her early on, but she put the brakes on it and made it clear their relationship was going to be on a professional level only.

And it's going to stay that way, Deem thought. Even if he's huge.

"Look," Winn said, putting his coffee cup in the Jeep's cup holder.

Deem looked up, searching. She saw the figure as it crested the skyline of the house, a dark, crouched shape that was quickly moving along the top of the roof. It ran up to the brick chimney and placed its head into it.

"It's blowing the corpse poison," Winn said. "Virginia's gonna have another blister to take care of."

It pulled its head out of the chimney and looked around. Deem could see its glowing eyes as its head turned.

"Maybe it knows I'm not in the house?" Deem said.

"Maybe," Winn said, watching the figure.

They watched as the figure lifted off the roof. It hovered five feet above the chimney.

"It looks so creepy," Deem said, "a man just hovering in air like that. No flapping of wings, no jet pack strapped on his back."

"Yeah, very unnatural," Winn said.

Deem saw the man's eyes. They'd been centered in her direction for several seconds now, and she had the impression that he'd seen her, sitting in the car.

"I think it knows we're watching it," Deem said.

The figure above the roof drifted higher and began moving away from them. It flew rapidly, rising up and out of their field of vision.

"There's no way you or I could track that," Winn said. "Awan has pointed us in the right direction."

"As long as Sagan saw it," Deem said. "For all we know he's sleeping under a tree."

"He's a greedy little f.u.c.k," Winn said. "I don't think he'd want to risk me taking my business elsewhere."

"We'll see," Deem said, grabbing her Big Gulp and reaching for the door handle. "I'd better go check Virginia. Let's talk in the morning."

"Alright," Winn said, starting up his car. Deem jumped out of the pa.s.senger side, turned to wave at Winn, and began walking to her house. She heard Winn turn the car around behind her and leave.

As she walked back to the house, she thought about Winn's suggestion that she go see Claude Peterson. She hated the idea. Claude was known far and wide as a crazy, a const.i.tutionalist gun nut who kept himself barricaded in his home in Ivins. She knew he'd been raided multiple times by Feds looking for illegal firearms and weapons. There was a rumor he'd laminated his permits and had them nailed to the side of his house.

Maybe I should see him, Deem thought as she walked into the house. At least, rule him out.

She walked to Virginia's room, and knocked quietly on the door. Her mother was sleeping in the master bedroom upstairs, and she didn't want to wake her.

"Virginia," she said, "it's me. I need to come in."

Deem called Winn early the next morning, asking him to meet her for breakfast in Mesquite.

"I've decided to go see Claude," Deem said, sliding into the booth where Winn was waiting. "And I'd like you to come along."

"Alright," Winn said.

"I'd go myself, but I'm afraid I might get shot," Deem said. "You can at least talk to him, if he has a problem with females and won't talk to me."

"You're a.s.suming the worst," Winn said.

"Always the best approach," Deem said.

They ordered breakfast. Deem ordered a hot chocolate, which came with a large spray of whipped cream on top.

"See, more sugar," Winn said. "Are you noticing a pattern here?"

"Shut up and let me drink what I want," Deem said. "You're like my mother."

"I'm nothing like your mother," Winn said. "I can guarantee that."

"I cut open a blister on Virginia last night," Deem said. "A small one. Bone inside, like the others. She's beginning to freak out."

"Any word from Eliza yet?" Winn asked.

"She emailed me to say that some friends of hers are looking for an object like Awan's."

"I wonder if those friends are Roy and Steven," Winn said.

"She didn't say," Deem said. "I a.s.sume if it was them she'd have mentioned it."

"Unless there was a reason not to," Winn said.

"All I care about is getting the object," Deem said. "I don't care where it comes from."

"Well, you should," Winn said. "The history of the object matters. Tells you a lot about where it came from, and what it might do. Some of that s.h.i.t is dangerous."

"You've had some experience with it?" Deem asked.

"My mom," Winn said. "She had a couple of items. She didn't do a good job of locking them up. One day when I was eight or nine I found this magnifying gla.s.s. Had a wooden handle and I remember the metal surrounding the gla.s.s had these little markings on it. So I'm thinking, great, let's take it outside and burn up bugs."

"Gross," Deem interjected.

"So I'm frying ants, and they're popping like normal, and then I see a lizard. It was about six inches long. I trapped it and put a brick on its tail so it couldn't move. Then I used the magnifying gla.s.s on it."

"That's cruel," Deem said.

"I know, I was stupid," Winn said. "And I was eight. So anyway, the lizard doesn't burn. There was no smoke like with the ants. It just sat there, and I remember thinking that maybe it was dead, or the magnifying gla.s.s was broken. Then it began to cough up its insides. I felt bad, so I took the magnifying gla.s.s off it, but it kept puking. Then all of it came out. Its tail pulled up into its body and came out its mouth. It literally flipped inside-out. Freaked me out. I put the magnifying gla.s.s back and didn't touch it again."

"That's a horrible story," Deem said as their food arrived.

"I asked my mom about the magnifying gla.s.s a couple of years later," Winn said, "and she wigged out on me, asking how I knew about it, if I'd been snooping. She told me never to touch it. Next time I looked for it, she'd moved it. I never saw it again, until she died and I went through her things."

"So you still have it?" Deem asked.

"Yes, but what am I going to do with it?" Winn asked.

"I wonder if it would work on something larger," Deem said.

"Like what?" Winn asked.

"Like a dog, or a person," Deem said.

"Now you're being gross," Winn said. "I have no interest in finding out. It was disgusting. I never tortured another living creature after that. I don't even kill spiders. Everything's got a purpose on this Earth."

"She had other objects?" Deem asked.

"Two others," Winn said. "I know they're special, because they change shape when I'm in the River. But I have no idea what they do."

"And she never said anything about them?" Deem asked.

"Are you kidding?" Winn asked. "She was completely freaked out that I knew about the magnifying gla.s.s. She didn't trust me with that kind of stuff."

"Because you were a juvenile delinquent," Deem said.

"That was a very brief part of my life that is long over," Winn said.

"But she didn't trust you?" Deem asked.

"No, not really," Winn said. "I mean, she was far from perfect. A bad mother by most standards. She changed when I got taken to juvie. She never really trusted me after that, scaled way back on the training."

"How old were you?" Deem asked.

"Sixteen," Winn said. "Just started driving."

"So she trained you before that?" Deem asked.

"Yes, from when I was ten," Winn said. "Probably not like most, though. She was drunk most of the time. Occasionally she'd show me things in the River. After sixteen, nothing. It was like a switch. My being in juvie really p.i.s.sed her off."

"Sorry to hear that," Deem said. "At least you're a straight arrow now. Well, kinda straight."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Winn asked.

"You can't really call yourself straight if you have s.e.x with men," Deem said.

"Everyone's got their vices," Winn said. "You like to drink liquid candy and swear, and I like to have s.e.x with both men and women. And why shouldn't I, I'm d.a.m.n good at it."

"So you keep telling me," Deem said.

"I can get you some testimonials if you want," Winn said.

"No need. I believe you."

"Wow, next thing you know, you'll be drinking coffee."

"I doubt that."

"When did you want to go see Claude?" Winn asked.

"Right now, if you're up for it," Deem said.

"I suppose we could try to call him," Winn said, "but I don't think he has a phone."

"Probably figures they'd bug it anyway," Deem said, finishing up her breakfast. She stood up and threw money down on the table. "I'm buying, and I'll drive."

"Love it when a woman takes charge," Winn said smiling.

Deem walked up to the gate in the chain link fence surrounding the small house on the outskirts of Ivins. There were three signs on the gate: "No Solicitors," "Beware Of The Dog," and "This House Insured By Smith and Wesson."

"Do you think he really has a dog?" Deem asked Winn, who was right behind her.

"Probably," Winn said. "I would if I was him. I think it's the Smith and Wesson sign you should worry about most."

Deem opened the gate and walked into the yard. A short cement path led to the front door. In the yard was a large board with papers stapled to it. It was covered in plastic to protect the papers from the elements. The writing on the papers had faded in the sun. Deem peered at the board, trying to read the doc.u.ments.

"It's a copy of the Const.i.tution," Winn said.

"Oh," Deem said. She noticed that under the Const.i.tution board were two more signs, "This is Private Property" and "Keep Out."

"He likes signs," Deem said. She looked at the house; it had large antennas on the roof. They were much taller and larger than television antennas. "Do you see those?" she asked Winn, motioning to the roof.

"Looks like he's into shortwave radio," Winn said. "Lots of people on the fringe are."

Deem walked up to the door and knocked. A dog started barking loudly, and she could hear it jumping up against the door on the other side. As she waited she read more signs on the front door: "I have spent over $3,512 fixing this door due to no-knock warrants. I have yet to be reimbursed."

"If you are selling or promoting something and you've ignored my 'No Soliciting' sign, don't expect a warm welcome."

"Jesus," Deem said. "I don't know if this was a good idea."

"We'll soon find out," Winn said. "I hear someone coming."

The door opened. Deem wasn't sure what she was expecting, but she was surprised to see a short man, thin, wearing a b.u.t.ton down shirt and knee-length shorts. He was wearing sandals. He looked like he might be in his early sixties. He had his hand wrapped around the collar of a large pit bull which was barking and trying to leap out of his control.