Part 34 (1/2)

”She's coming around,” Lucky said.

Nelli made a little crooning whine of pleasure.

I remembered that I had just watched Max behead Lopez, and I sat bolt upright. ”Nooooo!” ”Nooooo!”

The sudden movement was too much for me, and I nearly blacked out again.

”Take it easy,” said Lucky, his arm supporting me so I could remain sitting.

”Lopez!” I wailed.

”That was not Detective Lopez,” Max said firmly. ”That was a doppelgangster.”

I was panting with anxiety. ”It's not him? We're sure it's not him?”

”Yes,” Max said.

”You're sure? sure?”

”Positive.”

Lucky s.h.i.+fted position a little. ”Take a good look, kid. No body. Just ephemeral substances.”

”No body?”

”No,” Lucky said. ”Just feathers and dirt and bird bones and c.r.a.p like that.”

I looked around the room. It was a chaotic mess. And there was indeed no corpse. ”Bird bones . . .” I said vaguely. I remembered thinking that I had seen pale little sticks when Lopez-oh, G.o.d, Lopez!-exploded all over the room. Those must have been bird bones.

Lucky said, ”That thing wasn't real. It wasn't him.”

I rubbed my hand over my face. ”It seemed like him. Just Just like him. It seemed so real.” I tried to banish the memory of the doppelgangster's expression right before Max cut off its head. I felt a surge of nausea. ”It sounded just like him. It said exactly what he . . .” like him. It seemed so real.” I tried to banish the memory of the doppelgangster's expression right before Max cut off its head. I felt a surge of nausea. ”It sounded just like him. It said exactly what he . . .”

”Of course,” Max said gently, handing me a gla.s.s of water. ”It was fas.h.i.+oned after him. It was created to be identical to him in all outward appearances.”

I took a sip of water, then said, ”But you knew.”

”Nelli's keen senses alerted us,” Max said.

Nelli gave a little woof! woof! and wagged her tail. and wagged her tail.

”Yeah, that was d.a.m.n good work,” Lucky said to her.

The velocity of Nelli's tail increased until it could have seriously injured anyone in its path.

”Her objective at the sit-down, of course,” Max said, ”was to identify doppelgangsters. But until she encountered the creature posing as Lopez, we didn't know whether she could indeed do so. Tonight's incident, however, was conclusive. We now know we have an excellent means of detecting the presence of a doppelgangster.”

”That's a relief,” said Lucky.

I found it unnerving to hear Lopez's perfect double described as ”the creature.”

”But it was the first time I'd ever seen her react like that,” Lucky added. ”So I wasn't a hundred percent sure until I cut that thing and saw there was no blood.”

”You ripped open his face, Lucky!” I shuddered in remembered horror. ”If that had been the real man, you'd go to prison for a.s.saulting a police officer with a deadly weapon.”

”Well, let's say I was ninety-five percent sure. Nelli never acted like that before, after all. Not even at the sit-down, when Danny was disrespecting her and deserved to get his leg chewed off.”

Nelli went back to snuffling at the piles of ephemeral matter that were scattered all over the floor.

”Yes, excellent notion, Nelli,” Max said. ”Continue studying our adversary's handiwork. We must learn all that we can from this encounter.”

”How are you feeling now, kid?” Lucky asked.

”Like I still want to scream.”

”It's most unfortunate,” said Max, ”that the doppelgangster was armed and dangerous.”

”Y'think?” said Lucky.

”Rather than destroying it,” Max said, ”I would have liked to capture and question it. That's why I hesitated, my dear fellow, to dispatch it after you exposed its true nature.”

”Great, so now we gotta capture capture one of those things?” Lucky said. one of those things?” Lucky said.

”One that isn't as dangerous as this one was,” Max said.

”This one was only dangerous,” I said angrily, ”because he was-”

”It, my dear,” Max said. ”It. You need to dissociate that mystical, ephemeral creation from the man it resembled.”

”It didn't resemble resemble him,” I said in shaky voice. ”It was absolutely identical to him! And it only became dangerous because you all attacked it-which is exactly what would make Lopez dangerous, too!” him,” I said in shaky voice. ”It was absolutely identical to him! And it only became dangerous because you all attacked it-which is exactly what would make Lopez dangerous, too!”

”That's a fair point,” Max conceded. ”The situation was fraught.”

”You really think that gun woulda worked?” Lucky asked Max. ”It was in that thing's hand when you lopped off its head, and-”

”Oh, G.o.d.” I felt faint again.

”-I saw it explode into dirt and stuff, too.”

Max frowned thoughtfully. ”At the time, I was too agitated by the realization that the creature was armed with a deadly projectile weapon-as Detective Lopez himself would be-to consider this. But you bring up an interesting point, Lucky.”

”That the gun might not have fired?” I asked.

”Yes. Or that it may only have seemed seemed to fire. The killer is a very talented sorcerer, but his creations are illusions, after all. They're convincing, but they're nonetheless subject to practical limitations.” Max added, ”However, we're theorizing without enough information. It's also possible that a bullet which is part of such an elaborate duplicate may indeed be effective, as was the creature's physical blow when it knocked down Lucky. So we must treat any armed doppelgangster with extreme caution.” to fire. The killer is a very talented sorcerer, but his creations are illusions, after all. They're convincing, but they're nonetheless subject to practical limitations.” Max added, ”However, we're theorizing without enough information. It's also possible that a bullet which is part of such an elaborate duplicate may indeed be effective, as was the creature's physical blow when it knocked down Lucky. So we must treat any armed doppelgangster with extreme caution.”

”Good point, Doc. And even if the gun didn't work,” Lucky said, ”I guess the doppelgangster coulda picked up a real weapon-one of them swords you got on the table, maybe-and killed Nelli that way.”

”Speaking of Nelli,” I said to Max, ”you never mentioned that if she detected a doppelgangster, she'd try to tear it apart!”

”She did react quite strongly, didn't she?”