Blind God's Bluff A Billy Fox Novel - By Richard Lee Byers Page 0,111
the key, but it wouldn’t start again.
I tried to open my door, and it was stuck. I crawled out onto the hood and into the storm, not that I hadn’t pretty much been in it all along.
I couldn’t see Timon or the MC12 and had no idea what the crash had done to them. But I could just make out a smudge of yellow. I ran toward it.
When I got close enough, I spotted the Pharaoh behind it, sheltered from the downpour under the big purple cube of the overhang. Then Timon ran up beside me. We were neck and neck for a step or two, and then I noticed his arms and legs stretching like Silly Putty, lengthening his stride. It looked like enough to get him the win, so, pushing for all I was worth, I sprang ahead, stopped dead, snapped my arm out, and clotheslined him.
He thought he was a god, and here in dreamland, he was pretty close. But he was still easy to sucker punch, and my wrist caught him right in the Adam’s apple. He stumbled and hunched over clutching at his neck, while I ran across the stripe of yellow glow, up to the ticket booths, and out of the rain.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The storm stopped a second after I staggered under the overhang. Unfortunately, that still left me soaked and chilled. Timon was just as wet when he came charging up, but he also looked so mad that I could believe he didn’t even feel it.
“Foul!” he croaked. “Cheat!”
“Bullshit,” I answered. “You had your robot spitting fire at me before I broke out the rifles, punched you, or anything else.”
“I’m not talking about that!” He was still yelling, or anyway, doing his best with a bruised throat, and drops of spit flew from his mouth. The rain had washed some of the BO off, but hadn’t done a thing for his breath. “I’m talking about the other traitors! This was supposed to be a contest between you and me, and you had help every inch of the way!”
“Yeah.” Water trickled from the hair plastered across my forehead down into my eyes, and I swiped it to one side. “And all you had was a whole army of puppets and the power to control time and the weather.”
“That’s not the point!”
“True. This is the point. We agreed on a set of rules. They didn’t say anything about me sneaking in helpers, and anything they didn’t forbid was okay. That’s the way you lords play.” I turned to the Pharaoh. “Am I right?”
The mummy smiled and blew a stream of smoke. “I’d have to say that that’s a fair assessment.”
“Damn it!” Timon said. “He isn’t one of us!”
“He is now,” the Pharaoh said. “Because I declare him the winner. And, knowing you for the fine fellow you are, I’m confident you don’t really intend to be a bad sport about it.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Look where that got Wotan.”
Timon gave me a final glare. But then his shoulders slumped, and he thrust out his hand. “Just tell me how,” he gritted.
“How did I get Lorenzo, Murk, and the others into your private playground? Well, it turns out there’s this thing called lucid dreaming. It lets people control what they dream. There are Internet sites and books about it. You should check it out.”
“I know about it! There’s nothing there with the power to weaken my magic!”
“No,” I said. “Definitely not by itself. But Tampa’s full of Old People who know a whole bunch of weird hexes, and no offense, but all of them hate your guts. We took the lucid dreaming info and put it together with their tricks and the stuff you taught me. And once we picked the team of guys to help me, I gave them each a zap of mojo from my Ka. Usually, that’s how I heal people, but this time, it was extra strength to help them get inside this place and do what they needed to.”
Timon scowled. “It was still a fluke! And one I’ll make sure never happens again!”
“That’s okay,” I said. “We only needed it to happen once. Which kind of brings me to the awkward part. I don’t want you hanging around town figuring out how to get back at me and the other ‘traitors.’ Get out. Now. Before sunrise. Otherwise, I may not be able to kill you, but I’ll find a way to make you wish I had.”