Phantoms

Chapter 43

Victory?

Bryce stood on the sidewalk, studying the town. Listening.

Waiting. There was no sign of the shape-changer, but he was reluctant to believe it was dead. He was afraid it would spring at him the moment he relaxed his guard.

Tal Whitman was stretched out on the pavement. Jenny and Lisa cleaned the acid burns, dusted them with antibiotic powder, and applied temporary bandages.

And Snowfield remained as silent as if it were at the bottom of the sea.

Finished ministering total Jenny said, "We should get him to the hospital right away. The wounds aren't deep, but there might be a delayed allergic reaction to one of the shape changer's toxins. He might suddenly start having respiratory difficulties or blood pressure problems. The hospital is equipped for the worst possibilities; I'm not.”

Sweeping the length of the street with his eyes, Bryce said, "What if we get in the car, trap ourselves in a moving car, and then it comes back?”

" We'll take a couple of sprayers with us.”

"There might not be time to use them. It could come up out of a manhole, overturn the car, and kill us that way, without ever touching us, without giving us a chance to use the sprayers.”

They listened to the town. Nothing. Just the breeze.

Lisa finally said, "It's dead.”

:"We can't be sure," Bryce said.

"Don't you feel it?" Lisa insisted." Feel the difference. It's gone!

It's dead. You can feel the change in the air.”

Bryce realized the girl was right. The shape-changer had not been merely a physical presence, but a spiritual one as well; he had been able to sense the evil of it, an almost tangible malevolence.

Apparently, the ancient enemy had emitted subtle emanations-Vibrations?

Psychic waves? — that couldn't be seen or heard but which were registered on an instinctual level.

They left a stain on the soul. And now those vibrations were gone.

There was no menace in the air.

Bryce took a deep breath. The air was clean, fresh, sweet.

Tal said, "If you don't want to get in a car just yet, don't worry about it. We can wait awhile. I'm okay. I'll be fine.”

"I've changed my mind," Bryce said." We can go. Nothing's going to stop us. Lisa's right. It's dead.”

In the patrol car, as Bryce started the engine, Jenny said, "You remember what Fyte said about the creature's intelligence? When he was speaking to it, through the computer, he told it that it had probably acquired its intelligence and selfawareness only after it had begun consuming intelligent creatures.”

"I remember," Tal said from the back seat, where, he sat with Lisa." It didn't like hearing that.”

:"And so?" Bryce asked." What's your point, Doc?”

"Well, if it acquired its intelligence by absorbing our knowledge and cognitive mechanisms… then did it also acquire its cruelty and viciousness from us, from mankind?" She saw that the question made Bryce uneasy, but she plunged on." When you come right down to it, maybe the only real devils are human beings; not all of us; not the species as a whole; just the ones whore twisted, the ones who somehow never acquire empathy or compassion. If the shape-changer was the Satan of mythology, perhaps the evil in human beings isn't a reflection of the Devil; perhaps the Devil is only a reflection of the savagery and brutality of our own kind. Maybe what we've done is… create the Devil in our own image.”

Bryce was silent. Then: "You may be right. I suspect you are. There's no use wasting energy being afraid — of devils, demons, and things that go bump in the night… because, ultimately, we'll never encounter anything more terrifying than the monsters among us. Hell is where we make it.”

They drove down Skyline Road.

Snowfield looked serene and beautiful.

Nothing tried to stop them.