Part 23 (2/2)

The eighth day, Laveda's with her. She tells me to keep my hands off Coral, and I figure it out. They're a couple of d.y.k.es, right? Says she'll cut off my c.o.c.k...Yeah, well, she hasn't yet. The c.u.n.t.

Anyway, after she lays this on me we go out to the garden and get naked, and Laveda starts this chanting s.h.i.+t, holding up a fifth of Remy. I was cold sober. I never do drugs. Maybe she had me hypnotized or something, who knows? But anyway, pretty soon I hear this other voice-a man's voice. Coming out of nowhere. It says, ”What are you doing?”

Laveda hands me the bottle. ”Say, 'I'm watering my head.'”

So I say it.

”Let me water the head,” the voice says.

”Tell him 'no.'”

So I tell him no.

Then the dirt over the head starts to move, like a finger's drawing in it. It draws the same design, that figure-eight with the x's, like Laveda cut in the guy's forehead.

”Now he may water your head,” Laveda tells me.

”Go ahead,” I say.

Something s.n.a.t.c.hes the bottle out of my hand and it falls to the ground and the cognac spills out. That's it. We get dressed, and the gals take off.

I spent a while out there looking for a speaker. Figured there might be one hidden around somewhere. But if there was, I didn't find it.

The next morning, Laveda and Coral come back. First we strip down, then I have to dig up the head. What a f.u.c.kin' sight it was. They made me take out the beans, dig'em right out of his ears and nostrils and mouth and...and out of his eyeholes. The beans'd sprouted a little, by then. Laveda held up this mirror and told me to put one of the beans in my mouth. ”Don't swallow it,” she told me. She didn't have to tell me that.

I put one in my mouth, like she said, and held it in my cheek like a wad of chewing tobacco. Only it didn't taste like tobacco. It tasted like a rotten f.u.c.kin' corpse.

Anyway, I look at the mirror and bango, I'm gone.

Lacey knocked on the bathroom door and entered. ”Breakfast is...”

On the floor where Hoffman had been, she saw six bandages: three hovering several inches above the tile, the others pressed against it. And she saw his silver p.e.n.i.s and s.c.r.o.t.u.m. He lay on his back, one handcuff around a leg of the sink.

”Just in time,” Hoffman said.

Dukane poured turpentine onto a washcloth. The cloth left his hand, moved through the air, and began to stroke the p.e.n.i.s.

”He's free ?”

”Just one hand,” Scott told her.

”All I need,” said Hoffman, rubbing himself to an erection. ”Squeamish guys. Don't want to touch my d.i.c.k. How about you?” He flung the cloth at Lacey. It slapped her upraised arm, and she knocked it away. ”Rather lick me? Wouldn't get the paint off, but it'd get me off.”

”Shut up!” Scott yelled.

”Touchy touchy. This guy's got a hard-on for you, hon. Don't we all?”

Dukane pounded down, his fist hammering the emptiness near the bandages.

Hoffman grunted.

Lacey hurried from the bathroom. ”Breakfast is on the table,” she called back.

She rushed into the kitchen, breathing deeply, fighting her revulsion. Afraid she might vomit, she bent over the kitchen sink.

”That guy's an animal,” Scott said, stepping up behind her.

”Stop maligning animals.”

He laughed softly, and kissed her bare shoulder.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, just popped a bean in my mouth. Just like that, I'm gone. I look down and can't see nothing-no legs, no d.i.c.k, no nothing. I feel myself. I'm all there, just like normal, only I can't see myself. I give Coral's t.i.ts a squeeze and watch'em bunch up, and Laveda stabs me in the back with a f.u.c.kin' dagger.

Hurts like s.h.i.+t. I go down, wondering why they went to all the trouble making me invisible if they're gonna kill me.

Laveda says, ”I warned you not to touch her.” Then she tells me I'll be okay, I can't be killed'less I'm hit in a vital place like my heart or a big artery or I'm burned, or something; I've drunk at the river and I'm all powerful and I'll heal up in no time flat. She tells me to get up, and I do. I can feel myself bleeding for a while, but pretty soon it stops.

She tells me to take the bean out of my mouth. I do, and presto I'm there again.

Long as I've got one of the beans in my mouth, she says, I'll be invisible. When I spit it out, you can see me again. But if I swallow one, it's so long Sammy for weeks, maybe months. It'll digest, see, and some of it'll get in my system. Long as any's in my system, I stay invisible.

Then Laveda lets me know what it's all about. She's got big plans for me. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to head off for D.C. and do a job on the president, the V P, the speaker of the house. Presto, instant chaos. That's just the thing for Laveda and her bunch. They'll be free to do what ever they want. And it'll be a cinch for me, right? I can go anywhere, do anything. I can't be stopped. I pretend it's a great idea.

Well that night, I get a few ideas of my own. Laveda's right, I can go anywhere and do what ever I please; I could think of plenty of stuff I'd rather do than spend the rest of my life knocking off people for The Group.

So I strip and pop a bean in my mouth, and do a little exploring. I explore my way right into Laveda's room, which turns out to be just down the hall. Coral's there, too. Just like I figured.

They're sitting around gabbing. Turns out, I'm the first guy they've done this number on. Laveda'd tried it herself, a year ago, and Coral's saying how she'd like a crack at being invisible.

Laveda sort of puts her off. I think I know why, too. Reason she hasn't gone around making lots of her people invisible. It gives them too much power. She wants all the power for herself, wants to stay in control. She just made me invisible to get a job done for her. And I figure I'm probably expendable, she'll wipe me out once I get it done.

Well, they finally leave off their jabber and get down to rolling on the bed. You should've seen those two go at each other. Grunting and groaning, licking, eating each other out. I almost popped my load, just watching. Must've gone on for an hour. I wanted to jump right on'em and stick it in the nearest hole, but I held off. Didn't want to mess with Laveda. The gal's bad news.

They finally get done. I see Coral making for the john, so I get in quick ahead of her. She starts taking a shower. Okay, I know Laveda's out in the other room and if she gets me, I've had it. But I'm invisible, right? How's she gonna hurt me if she can't find me?

So I climb into the shower with Coral. She suspects something when the door slides open, but before she has a chance to yell I bash her head on the tile and knock her out. More than out, dead. So then I lay her down in the tub and have my fun. You ever let it go after holding back for an hour? Nothing like it. Thought I'd bust, I came so hard.

Okay, I get out of the tub and dry off-don't want to be tracking water, you know. Then I get scared'cause I see myself in the f.u.c.kin' mirror! It isn't me, really. The place is all steamy and there I am, like a hole in it. Bad news! I wanted to get outa there. So I hurried and finished drying, and snuck open the door a crack, just enough to see out. Laveda was on the bed. Looked like she was asleep.

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