[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
he's a hater and he's mean. He's going to hurt her and make her hurt other folks like he hurt us. You just
wait."
"I don't believe I will," Toni-Marie said. She didn't know when she had ever heard anything quite so
depraved or disgusting, and she'd been around a lot of depraved, disgusting things since her death.
Buddhist compassion was all very well, but she was not a Buddhist and neither was Buzz Horn. They
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
were Texans, and her kind of Texans had a whole different idea about dealing with his kind of Texans
than Chime did. "Chime's got a real good heart but sometimes she's kinda naive. Look, I'm gonna try
somethin', so don't you think I'm serious when I go talk to your pa, okay?"
"Okay."
The ghost hoard had thinned around Chime Cincinnati now. Chime was still bound and staring into
space. Toni-Marie felt a little silly about it, but she put on her most seductive expression and moved with
a very unghostly sway as she sauntered up to Chime and said, "Say there, Chime, I just want you to tell
me again about Shambala. I'm beginnin' to wonder if I made the right decision about leavin' Texas."
She was hoping that the real Chime wouldn't answer first, that maybe she was saving her energies for the
trip home and that the sexy come-on would convince Evie's nasty daddy to come out and play instead.
So Toni-Marie was relieved to see Chime's face altering its expression from sweet to sly, and then
Chime ask in a drawl as broad as Toni's, "When did you leave Texas, sweetheart?"
"Why, just the other day.And what I want to know is, are there gonna be living folks in Shambala doing
as well as they are in Texas? You know, the NAC was hardly touched at all by the war, just a few little
old volcanoes and such. And everybody there has done sowell after the war, and there's this baby boom
so big they need psychic brokers like that fella McCobb my daddy hired for me. If I wasn't so crazy
about you and Mikey, Chime honey, I could have been real big in the cattle industry right now.Whole
new life, just like that. There is a massive breedin' program going on at the university too. Just enough
folks were killed so that the entire northern continent is wide open for anybody with guts enough to take
it. I guess I'm just too retirin' for somethin' like that. Never did cotton to power much myself-"
"There's a lot to be said for power." The fellow inside Chime tried to make her face look like it did when
she was being reasonable, but she just looked sneaky."How'd you get back to Texas, little lady? I
thought us ghosts-meanin' you ghosts, of course-were doomed to haunt wherever we-you-died."
"Well, I got lucky. Mr. Meru banished me and Mikey to the ends of the earth, and we found out that
covered just about any place we wanted to go, including Houston, so I went back to check on my folks.
They had this whole new life all arranged for me just like that. Too bad that poor little bein' back home
will get born without me to guide it... but I don't have much of a head for business and I didn't figure I'd
be any good in the cattle industry."
"I'm sure you did the right thing."
"Thanks, Chime."
She passed over Meru on her way back to the ghost hoard, and he was smiling directly at her. He might
be a shit, but hewas at least a sensitive shit. A moment later she heard Chime's voice say in a phony
imitation of Chime's own soft tones, "Master, I've got a real good idea.
You hate Buzz for what he did to you, and I'd really like to get rid of him. Why don't you do us both a
favor and try to banish him out of me like you banished my friends that time? I know you're not feelin'
well, but I don't expect you want Buzz ruinin' the neighborhood in Shambala any more than I do."
"Oh, very well, my child, if you insist," Meru said with a weakness that wasn't feigned. "However, you'll
have to try to trick his spirit into peeking out your mouth so that he'll be in position to be exorcised."
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Chime opened her mouth, and Toni-Marie saw Buzz's ghost come halfway out while Meru mumbled to
himself a moment, then said, "Evil spirit who will not be ruled by me, go now, be banished to the ends of
the earth!" And with that Buzz's ghost flew out of Chime's mouth and disappeared.
Evie and the baby ghosts watched warily. "Do you reckon he's really gone? Gone for good?"
"I do," Toni-Marie said. "And I sure do hope he likes barbecue sauce."
Stoney and Chime had to make two trips to take all of the survivors back to Shambala, but the journey
was unexpectedly much easier than Chime had thought. For one thing, the shield over Shambala, from
the air, had a sort of glow to it. And even before they saw the shield, they saw a flicker of fire, shining
like a candle flame from the top of the first mountain they flew over. She crossed her fingers when the
nose of the plane encountered the first layer of the barrier, but the plane went through it as if it was
nothing more than a cloud. As they passed over the signal fire, a small dark figure waved up at them and
Chime smiled and waved back at Lobsang Taring. Her dear friend had come through for her in yet one
more incarnation.
Signal fires were lit on each of the other mountain passes too, and other small dark figures peered up
into the plane's shadow,then hopped up and down waving hands and bits of clothing.
Lobsang Taring had been about to douse his fire and start home when Mike suddenly appeared on the
other side of the fire. "Thanks, Dad," his son said with tears shining on his pale cheeks.
"My poor son," Taring said. His Buddhist calmness warred with his breaking heart. Never more would
he have his boy's company down in the tunnels, for he knew immediately that this could not be Mike.
This was Mike's ghost.
"I'm going to be okay now that you've helped Chime lead us back home," Mike was saying. "And I just
wanted to stop and say goodbye-I mean, I expect I'll be around again soon but it may take me a while to
learn to talk again. Anyhow, that's all I wanted to say. Just that I love you and, uh, please don't put out
that fire yet. Chime and the pilot are going back for another load."
And at almost the same time, Viveka Vanachek picked up a handful of snow to douse the fire, only to
have the snow fly from her hands."Not yet, Mom. There's another plane coming," a voice said in her
head. She turned her head slightly and there was Mike, sitting up on a rock.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]