An immediate drop in the ferocity of the wind seemed to support the
theory that even the minimal energy input from the beams of our
flashlights had triggered all this bizarre activity.
The stench of steaming tar and rotting vegetation was also fading.
Rising to my feet again, I glanced at the door. It was still there.
uge and shiny. Too real.
I wanted to get out, but I didn’t head for the exit. I was afraid it
would actually be there when I reached it, whereupon this waking dream
might become a waking nightmare.
In every surface, the pyrotechnics continued undiminished.
Previously, when we’d doused the flashlights, this extraordinary
spectacle had been self-perpetuating for a short while, and it would
probably power itself even longer this time.
I regarded the walls, the floor, and the ceiling with suspicion.
I expected another figure to coalesce out of the bright, ceaselessly
changing cyclorama, something more threatening than the man in the
bio-secure gear.
Bobby was approaching Hodgson. Apparently, the disorienting effect of
the light show did not affect his equilibrium as it did mine.
“Bro, ” I warned.
“Cool.”
“Not.” He had the shotgun. He believed it was protection.
I, on the other hand, figured that the weapon was potentially as
dangerous as the flashlights. Any lead pellets not stopped by the target
would most likely ricochet from wall to ceiling to floor to wall with
deadly velocity. And every time a bit of lead shot struck any surface in
the chamber, the kinetic energy of the impact might be absorbed by that
glassy material, further powering these weird phenomena.
The wind subsided to a breeze.
Carnivals and catastrophes still glittered and blazed through every
curving surface of the room, Ferris wheels of rotating blue lights and
orange-red spouts like volcanic eruptions.
The vault door appeared dauntingly solid.
No ghost had ever looked as real as the body in the spacesuit.
Not Jacob Marley rattling his chains at Scrooge, not the Ghost of
Christmas Future, not the White Lady of Avenel, not Hamlet’s dad,
certainly not Casper.
I was surprised to find my balance restored. Maybe the brief disruption
of equilibrium hadn’t been a reaction to the spinning lights and
shadows, but had been merely another transient effect similar to the
pressure that, earlier, had muffled our voices and made breathing
difficult.
The hot breeze and the stink it carried disappeared. The air was cool and
calm once more. The sound of the winds began to fade, as well.
Next, perhaps, the space suited man on the floor would dissolve into a
twist of icy vapor that would rise and vanish like a wraith returning to
the spirit world where it belonged. Soon. Before we had to take a close
look at it. Please.
Certain that Bobby couldn’t be persuaded to retreat, I followed him
toward Hodgson’s body. He was deep into the same stoked, gonzo mind set
with which he surfed twenty-foot, fully macking behemoths, a maximum
kamikaze commitment as total as his more characteristic slacker
indifference. When he was on this board, he would ride it all the way to
the end of the barreland one day straight out of this life.
Because the lights in the walls were contained within the surface layer
of glassy material and shed only a small fraction of their illuminating
power into the egg room itself, Hodgson wasn’t well revealed.
“Flashlight, ” Bobby said.
“Not smart.”
“That’s me.” Reluctantly, steeling myself to take a close look at the
back side of the aforementioned lion’s teeth, I stepped cautiously to
the right of the body as Bobby moved less cautiously to the left. I
switched on one flashlight and played it over the far too solid ghost.
Initially the beam jiggled because my hand was shaking, but I quickly
steadied it.
The Plexiglas in the helmet was tinted. The single flashlight was not
powerful enough to let us see either Hodgson’s face or his condition.
Heor possibly she was as still and silent as a headstone, and whether a
ghost or not, he seemed indisputably dead.
On the breast of his pressure suit was an American-flag patch, and
immediately below the flag was a second patch, featuring a speeding
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