thing, I said. It was very heavy. A nugget of destructiveness. I spun the cylinder. Six bullets. It had a curious smell.
Both the guns are thirty-eights, said the man, with a slight note of disdain. Those are man-stoppers. He showed me a small cardboard box. You'll have plenty of ammunition available to you for whatever it is that you are going to do on this boat.
Don't worry, Jake, said David firmly. Things will probably go without a hitch. And I thank you for your usual efficiency. Now, go have a pleasant evening on the island. And I shall see you at the Centaur Cafe before noon.
The fellow gave me a deep suspicious look, then nodded, gathered up the guns and the little box of bullets, put them back in his canvas bag, and offered his hand again to me and then to David, and out he went. I waited until the door had closed.
I think he dislikes me, I said. Blames me for involving you in some sort of sordid crime.
David gave a short little laugh. I've been in far more compromising situations than this one, he said. And if I worried about what our investigators thought of us, I would have retired a long time ago. What do we know now from this information?
Well, he's feeding on the old women. Probably stealing from them also. And he's mailing home what he steals in packages too small to arouse suspicion. What he does with the larger loot we'll never know. Probably throws it into the ocean. I suspect there's more than one post box number. But that's no concern of ours.
Correct. Now lock the door. It's time for a little concentrated witchcraft. We'll have a nice supper later on. I have to teach you to veil your thoughts. Jake could read you too easily. And so can I. The Body Thief will pick up your presence when he's still two hundred miles out to sea.
Well, I did it through an act of will when I was Lestat, I said. I haven't the faintest idea how to do it now.
Same way. We're going to practice. Until I can't read a single image or random word from you. Then we'll get to the out-of-body travel. He looked at his watch, which reminded me of James suddenly, in that little kitchen. Slip that bolt. I don't want any maid blundering in here later on.
I obeyed. Then I sat on the bed opposite David, who had assumed a very relaxed yet commanding attitude, rolling up the stiff starched cuffs of his shirt, which revealed the dark fleece of his arms. There was also quite a bit of dark hair on his chest, bubbling up through the open collar of the shirt. Only a little gray mixed in with it, like the gray that sparkled here and there in his heavy shaven beard. I found it quite impossible to believe he was a man of seventy-four.
Ah, I caught that, he said with a little lift of the eyebrows. I catch entirely too much. Now. Listen to what I say. You must fix it in your mind that your thoughts remain within you, that you are not attempting to communicate with others-not through facial expression or body language of any sort; that indeed you are impenetrable. Make an image of your sealed mind if you must. Ah, that's good. You've gone blank behind your handsome young face. Even your eyes have changed ever so slightly. Perfect. Now I'm going to try to read you. Keep it up.
By the end of forty-five minutes, I had learned the trick fairly painlessly, but I could pick up nothing of David's thoughts even when he tried his hardest to project them to me. In this body, I simply did not have the psychic ability which he possessed. But the veiling we had achieved, and this was a crucial step. We would continue to work on all this throughout the night.
We're ready to begin on the out-of-body travel, he said.
This is going to be hell, I said. I don't think I can get out of this body. As you can see, I just don't have your gifts.
Nonsense, he said. He loosened his posture slightly, crossing his ankles and sliding down a bit in the chair. But somehow, no matter what he did, he never lost the attitude of the teacher, the authority, the priest. It was implicit in his small, direct gestures and above all in his voice.