The Pale Man Rises

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

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It was dark and once more Clay Reese was standing at the broad screened opening on the landing of the second floor hallway. Maxwell Lewis was standing beside him once again, there because the pale man had given Clay the duty of guarding him full time. He had also charged Clay with the surveillance of the patrolmen the old man Willie Brown had revealed were presently monitoring the road that ran along the front of the Alliance School. As they stood there Maxwell continued to try and engage him in conversation.

"Tell me something will you?" he asked Clay. Clay turned to him with a look of frustration. "I thought I told you I am not interested in answering any of your questions." he said and then he turned back toward the screen. "Why...what are you scared of?" "I'm not scared...it's just that it's a waste of your and my time to do so." Clay said.

"What if I ran?" Lewis now asked him. "I would have to kill you. The truth is I would like to kill you now." Clay said still looking straight ahead. "Don't you see...you don't seem the type to me?" Lewis now told him. Clay turned to him. "It doesn't matter whether I'm the type or not. I would have no choice." "But you say you want to kill me. That is what I don't understand?" Clay drew closer to him. "Look at me you fool, look at me...do you think I have a choice?" he said rather loud.

"You're sick...I understand that, but surely something could be done for you?" Clay smiled at him. "Don't be so naive Lewis, there is nothing that can be done for me...for any of us." "What does that mean?" Max asked his fear enhanced by the statement. Reese continued to watch the police vehicles that stood at the entrance of the school and periodically stopped other vehicles that journeyed past. It was apparent to him that the police would not cease doing this any time soon, it was now early evening, and still they remained at their post.

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He turned back to Lewis now. "I know you're not stupid Lewis." He said with the hint of a smile. Lewis frowned. "He's some kind of a monster isn't he...I mean how can he turn into a dog like that?" Reese said nothing. "Well at least tell me what he meant by saying I might be your goddamn dinner for Christ's sake?" Reese just looked at him with that stoic expression.

Reese was growing exasperated with his questioning and now he ordered him back into the hall ahead of him. Lewis frowned again and did as he was ordered. They then returned to the room where the pale man and the others remained. Reese then shoved Lewis over to the wall where his uncle sat. "The cops are out there and it doesn't look like they are going to leave anytime soon." he told the monster.

There was a stir over where the two black men were seated. The pale man looked to them and when he saw them whispering to each other he spoke harshly. "Silence, I warn you I have powerful hearing and plotting an escape will only serve to shorten your lives." Both men sagged with the burden of his words and fell back against the wall where they sat and grew ever somber.

"I say we kill them." Wayne Crumpler said from where he sat. The pale man said nothing in response. Seeing this Crumpler sniffed cynically. The pale man reached up and used his left index finger to lower the dark glasses on the bridge of his nose. He looked at Crumpler hard with his dubious yellow eyes. Crumpler smiled weakly. What was it strike five?

The only time he'd struck out this much was at Camp Lejeune when he was in the Marine Corps. One nappy-headed pitcher from the Toledo area took special delight in fanning him with a variety of curve balls during their inter-company baseball games. He would've taken his frustration out on him with his Louisville Slugger if the som' bitch hadn't been anointed as the next Sandy Sadler on the camp boxing team. He remembered watching the memorable bouts Sadler had with Willie Pep therefore he didn't wish to approach the mother fuckin' coon with nuthin' less than his M-1 rifle. "When are we going to get some blood master–I suppose I could even drink their..." he made a face of disgust. "....fuckin' blood!" he now said compounding his error.