Sasha flicked her hands at the wall, making the sign for mosaic, and two dozen mirrors opened at once, showing almost every room in the house and a few views of the outside. She watched Esperanza throw open the door of her room, pulling on her robe with fire-drill urgency. Rovil, still wearing all his clothes, stood in the middle of his room, looking at the door as if deciding whether to come out. And Grandpop, poor tired old man, was the last to appear, wearing nothing but boxer shorts. By the time he stepped onto the balcony, Lyda was already below, pulling at pieces of machinery.

“What have I done?” Sasha cried. “Why is she so mad?”

Elk Heart’s knuckles tightened on his spear, but the chief said nothing. Squidly drifted down to place a tendril on her shoulder. Tinker watched her with his headlight eyes.

“Maybe we should turn off these windows,” Mother Maybelle said.

“Screw that,” Bucko said.

Lyda and Grandpop were fighting now, or rather, Lyda was yelling at Grandpop and he was trying to get her to calm down. Then Esperanza turned on the lights to the room, which startled them both and interrupted Lyda’s shouting—but only for a moment.

“Should I go out there?” Sasha asked.

“Ah advise against it,” Zebo said. “For now.” HalfnHalf nodded his two heads in agreement.

Tinker pinged significantly, and Sasha noticed something strange in one of the far windows. Somebody was moving out by the garage. She zoomed in, and saw that it was a man in a black cowboy hat, a white man she’d never seen before. An electrical box attached to the garage was open. He reached inside it—

The wall blanked. The mirrors were gone, and with it all light in the room. Sasha flicked her hands, but the house, her faithful house, refused to respond.

“Uh-oh,” Bucko said.

A tiny flame flared in the corner of the room. Sasha stood up.

He leaned against the wall, the brim of his hat pulled low over his eyes. He touched the match to his cigarette, puffed once, then dropped the match to the floor.

Bucko said, “How the hell did he get out of—?”

Sasha held out her hand. The bear shut up.

The Wander Man ground out the match with the toe of one black boot. “You know who that man is out there, right?”

Sasha nodded. “He’s you.”

“Close enough, Miss Sasha. Close enough.” He looked up and smiled. None of the IFs moved. They were all, even Elk Heart, terrified of him, and he knew it.

“You listen carefully,” he said. “And do exactly what I say.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“You crazy motherfucker.” I threatened him with a fragment from the broken machine, a length of flat steel that ended in a sharp tip. “You’re building them.”

Edo blinked at me as if the light was too bright. Esperanza and Dr. Gloria hovered in the corner of the huge living room, like seconds ready to step between the combatants. Well, good luck with that.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “I’ve never seen—whatever that is.”

“The paintings are upstairs, Edo. The fucking blueprints. You got Gilbert to design it for you, and you fucking made it, then you’ve got one sitting in your fucking house.”

“Please, Lyda, I—”

“How many did you make, Edo? Where’s the factory putting them together? How many churches do you have out there?”

He stared at the coffee table and the remains of the printer. Most of the machine was intact, but shards of plastic and bright pieces of stainless steel were scattered over the wooden floors. “Did this—did you get it from Eduard’s office?”

“Do not try to blame this on him,” I said. “You’re the evangelist, Edo. I never thought you’d actually try to do it, but then I saw the first one in Toronto—a chemjet to print One-Ten.”

“I swear to you—”

“Stop lying. I know about the churches. I know about ‘Logos.’ Just tell me what you’ve done to Sasha. Are you giving her Numinous?”

“What?” He gave a very good impression of being shocked. “Of course not!”

Dr. Gloria said, “You don’t believe that.”

“Why not?” I said to Edo. “You told me you thought everybody should be on it.”

“Yes, but a small amount. Not like us. God is … too strong in us. I would never do that to a child.” He stepped toward me, and I swiped at him with my improvised blade. He stopped and raised his hands. “Lyda, she’s been like us since the beginning. You have to believe me.”

“How about everybody else, Edo?” I asked. “How about dosing the world?”

The room went dark. Even the hallway lights winked out. I jumped back from Edo, keeping him and Esperanza in front of me. But they seemed just as surprised as I was.

Only Dr. Gloria’s figure was clear to me in the dark. Her appearance required only fauxtons. “What’s going on, Doc?”

Before she could answer, someone darted into the room: Sasha. She ran to Edo and threw her arms around his waist.

“It’s okay,” Edo said to her. “Nothing to be afraid of.”

The girl gestured frantically toward the kitchen. “It’s just a power failure,” he said. Her hands fluttered in exasperation, but of course with the power out, the walls were silent.

Esperanza moved toward the kitchen. “I’ll get the flashlights,” she said. Sasha threw up her hands, a clear No! But the maid did not see her and stepped through the arch.

Sasha was frantic now, pulling at Edo, and he tried to soothe her. From the kitchen I heard a thump, then a crash of metal, as if Esperanza had knocked over a rack of skillets.

“Esperanza?” Edo called. He moved toward the kitchen. Sasha seized his arm, trying to keep him from moving. “Please, Sasha—stay with Lyda.”

A silhouette appeared in the archway. “Howdy, folks,” the voice said.

It was the cowboy. He tilted back his hat and said, “Good to see you again, Lyda. And you must be Mr. Vik.”

Dr. Gloria stepped in front of me. Her wings snapped open in a blaze of white. “Don’t move,” she told me, “until I tell you to move.”

Edo had stopped in the middle of the room. “I’m sorry,” he said to the cowboy. “Who are you?”

The cowboy lifted his hand. Moonlight glinted on the barrel of the pistol. “Have the little girl take two steps away from you.”

Edo stepped to place himself in front of Sasha. “No,” he said.

“I’m going to count to three,” the cowboy said.

Sasha looked to her left, into the dark at the edge of the room. Then she looked back at the cowboy. She didn’t move from Edo.

“I’m a traditionalist,” the cowboy said. “And it’s customary to spare the child. But I will do what’s necessary.”

Sasha looked up at Edo. She gripped his hand in both of hers, and seemed to squeeze it.

“I love you, too, sweetie,” Edo said. “Now go on. Don’t worry about me.”

She let go of him and stepped away, moving not toward me, or even toward her bedroom, but toward the corner of the room where she’d been looking a moment before.

Edo raised his arms. “If you harm anyone else in this room, God’s judgment will be upon you.”

Sasha stopped, and picked up something from the floor. A length of metal, just like mine.

The cowboy hadn’t seen this—his eyes were on Edo. “Aw,” he said. “I thought you believed in a god of infinite love.” He fired: two loud bangs. Edo jerked and fell forward. His huge body crashed into one of the chairs, then slid sideways. The cowboy swung his pistol toward me.

Dr. Gloria shoved me backward. The fiery sword appeared in her hand. She raised it and rushed forward like a whirlwind of flame. The pistol fired twice more. I was jerked backward by some force, and then suddenly my legs tangled and I fell to the floor.

The cowboy screamed and fell to his knees before the angel reached him. “No more,” she said, and plunged the sword into his gut.

The cowboy looked down in amazement. The weapon was sunk to the hilt in his stomach; I could see its fiery blade on the far side of his body. After a moment he tilted sideways and collapsed to the floor.