"Why are you bothering?" Dolan wanted to know.
"Because she knows a damn sight more than we do," Erwin told him. "She knew that thing in my house by name. I heard her call it Kissoon."
"What about him?" Testa said to Harry, throwing the question over her shoulder.
"What about who?" Harry replied.
"You said Kissoon." "I didn't say a word."
"Well somebody did."
"She heard me!" Erwin whooped. "Good girl! Good girl." Dolan was intrigued now. "Maybe she'd hear better if we said it together," he suggested.
"Not a bad idea. After three...
This time Testa stopped. "You didn't hear that either?" she said to Harry. He shook his head. "Okay," she said. "No big deal."
"What are you talking about?"
She pushed through the crowd to an empty doorway, with Harry following. The store-a florist's-was closed, but the scent of flowers was powerful.
"There's somebody talking to me, Harry. Besides you. His name's Toothaker."
"And... where is he?"
"I don't know," she said. "I mean, I know he's dead. I was in his house. That's where I saw Kissoon." She kept scanning the crowd while she spoke, hoping to catch a glimpse of the presence, or rather presences, she'd heard. "He's not alone this time. I heard two voices. they want to get through to me. I just don't know how to tune in."
"I'm no help, I'm afraid," Harry said. "I'm not saying they're not here@'
"It's okay," Tesla told him. "I just have to listen-2'
"You want to find somewhere quieter?"
She shook her head. "I might lose them."
"You want me to step away?"
"Don't go far," she said, and closing her eyes, tried to shut out the din of the living and listen for the voices of the dead.
Dorothy caught hold of Maisie's arm, very tight. "What's wrong?" Maisie said.
"I really don't... I don't feel too good at all Dorothy said. Her surroundings had started to throb in rhythm with the band, as though everything had a heart sewn inside it (even the sidewalk, even the sky), and the closer the band came, the harder those hearts beat, until it seemed they would surely burst, every one of them burst wide open, and tear a hole in the world.
"Shall I get you something to eat?" Maisie said. The drums were louder with every beat: booming and booming. "Maybe a tuna salad, or-"
Without warning, Dorothy bent double and puked. The knot of people in front of her parted-not quickly enough to keep themselves from being spattered, but fast-as she heaved up what little her stomach contained. Maisie waited until the spasms had stopped then tried to coax her out of the sun into the shade of the diner. But she wouldn't go, or couldn't.
"It's going to burst," she said, staring down at the ground.
"It's all right, Dottie
"No it isn't. It's going to burst!"
"What are you talking about?"
Dorothy shook off Maisie's grip. "We've got to clear the street," she said, stumbling forward. "Quickly!"
"What's going on down there?" Owen said, leaning out of the window. "Do you know that woman7'
"The one who just puked? Yeah. It's Mrs. Bullard. She's a real bitch." "Extraordinary," Owen said.
Dorothy was pushing and shoving her way through the crowd. She was yelling something, but Owen couldn't catch it over the din of the approaching band.
"She looks really upset," Seth said. "That she does," Owen said, leaving the window and heading for the stairs.
"Maybe she saw the avatars!" Seth yelled after him.
"The same thought occurred to me," Owen said. "The ve same-"
Dorothy Bullard's warning had not gone unheard by the crowd around Kitty's Diner. As she strode forward they cleared a path for her, in case she intended to puke again. One girl, perhaps a little worse for drink, failed to get out of her way fast enough and was shoved aside as Dorothy charged the barricade. It fell before her, and she ran out into the middle of the crossroads, waving her hands wildly.
At the head of his shining ranks, Larry Glodoski saw the Bullard woman flailing in front of him, and was presented with a choice. Either he brought the band-and thus the parade-to a halt in the next ten seconds, or trusted that somebody would have the presence of mind to gei the bitch out of his way before there was a collision. In truth, it was no dilemma at all. She was one; they were many. He lifted his baton a little higher, and marked the beats with sharper motions than ever, as if to erase the woman from the street in front of him.
"I'm listening," Tesla murmured, "I'm listening as hard as I can." Every now and then she heard what might have been a munnur, but her mind was whining with hunger and heat. Even if it was the ghosts speaking she could make no sense of the sounds.
And now there was yet another distraction: some kind of brouhaha up at the crossroads. The crowd had become more frenzied than ever. She went up on her tiptoes in the hope of seeing what was happening, but her sight was blocked by heads and balloons and waving hands.
Harry had the scoop, however. "There's a woman in the middle of the street, yetting@'
"Yelling what?"
Harry listened for a moment. "I think she's telling people to get off the street@'
An instinct she would once have called Raul's had her out of the doorway in a moment, back into the swelter and stench of the crowd, pushing Harry ahead of her. "Clear the way!" she yelled to him.
",my?"
"It's the crossroads! it's something to do with the fuc@ing crossroads!"
"Do you see them?" Seth said, as he and Owen carved their way to the front of the crowd. Owen didn't answer him. He was afraid if he opened his mouth he'd cry out: in hope, in pain, in expectation. He ducked under the barricade and out into the open street.
This was the most dangerous of moments, he knew: when everything could be gained or lost. He hadn't expected it to come upon him so suddenly, Even now, he wasn't certain this wa. s f moments, but he had to act as though it indeed the moment o were, The sun suddenly seemed merciless, beating on his bare head, softening his thoughts, and On the bare street, softening that too. It would flow soon, the way it had in the vision he'd shared with Seth; flow into the place where flesh met flesh, and the Art ignited
"Get away!" Dorothy yelled, turning to appeal to the crowd. "Get away before it's too late!"
"She has seen something," Owen thought.
There were people converging on the woman from all sides, intent on silencing her, but Owen put on a burst of speed to reach her first.
"It's all right!" he yelled as he went, "I'm a doctor!"
It was a trick he'd used before, and as before, it worked, He was given clear access to the crazed woman.
Larry saw the doctor wrap his arms around poor Dorothy, and offered up a little prayer of thanks. Now all the guy had to do was get the Bullard woman out of the way-but quickly, quickly!-and the rhythm of the band would not be broken. He heard somebody in the ranks calling, "Larry? We gotta stop!" Larry ignored the cry. they still had another ten strides before they would reach the spot where the doctor was talking to Dorothy.
Nine, now. But nine was plenty. Eight
"What are you seeing?" Owen demanded of the woman. "It's all going to burst," she said to him. "Oh God, oh God, it's all going to burst!"
"What is?" he asked her. She shook her head. "Tell me!" he yelled at her. "The world!" she said. "The world!"
Harry had no difficulty clearing a way through the crowd for Tesla. Now he lifted the barricade and she ducked under it, out into the open street, delivering her into the arena. There were perhaps a dozen players-ahead of her-excluding the band-but only three were of significance. One was the woman at the very center of the crossroads, another the bearded man who was presently talking to her, the third the WI young man a few yards ahead of her, who was calling out: