[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

in the rhyme at all, but it was still heartening to find the elements coming
together.
"Well, as Macore says, we now have the puzzle in place," Marge noted. "The
trick is to solve it in just the right order."
"That is less a trick than it seems," Poquah said, sud-
denly appearing in the midst of them and making them all jump. He had one hell
of a power when he cared to use it.
"Damn! Don't do that!" Joe gulped, catching his breath.
"I assume you heard Marge's story?"
"Indeed, yes. A practiced demonologist improbably and implausibly set down
incur midst, just when we need one. This is the hand that Providence has now
specifically provided us. Come let us go back to the trailer and compare notes
on tonight. Perhaps, with the help of our thief, we can now assemble our plan
and perhaps under-
stand theirs."
Macore listened with intense concentration as each of the three told what he
or she had seen and heard and about Father O'Grady as well. Then he thought
long and hard and made notes in a small notebook he'd bought, occasionally
asking esoteric-sounding questions on things like computers and television
transmissions.
Finally he said, "Okay, I think I got what they're going to try. Let me float
it past you and see if there's anything fundamentally wrong with my thinking."
"Shoot," Joe invited him.
"Okay, now as I understand it, we've got a demonic presence, at least Hiccarph
grade, plugged into the house.
Right? And we've got a world-class sorcerer in Dacaro sort of as a bridge
between the demon and audience. Now
JACK L. CHALKER 237
remember my trick with the electric gadget in Ruddy-
gore's vault? Put them together and it's obvious."
"I'm afraid it is not obvious to me," Tiana told him, and the others nodded.
He sighed. "You're real suckers, you know that? You gotta think like them to
get inside them. Okay, at its heart, its lowest common denominator, what's a
spell? Energy, right?"
"I'm with you so far," Marge said. "Go on."
"So where does the energy for a spell come from? It
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...ds%203%20-%20Vengeance%20of%20t
he%20Danc.txt (188 of 242) [1/19/03 4:31:04 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Dancing%20G
ods%203%20-%20Vengeance%20of%20the%20Danc.txt doesn't come from nowhere it
comes from the energy that's all around us. Heat, light, you name it. We
convert a tiny part of that into another form, like that microwave oven over
there or the TV. We do it by sheer will, by a talent or power we're born with
to varying degrees, and they do it with transformers and all that other
mechanical stuff, but it's all the same in the end. Now, you undo a spell
basically by converting the spell energy back into its original form. Got me?"
"You make it sound so simple," Tiana said acidly.
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"Well, no matter, that's what happens. You want a doctor's thesis or something
with three syllables or less?
Okay, now this might not be a hundred percent right, or even close, but it's
as right as what I just said about spells.
This television thing. It takes light energy from what's reflected off its
source and turns it into some other kind of energy in the camera. Then it's
sent in little jiggles to this sender, which changes it again and shoots it up
to this man-made moon. Am I right so far?"
"An oversimplification, but, yes," Poquah agreed.
"So, it gets bounced back down to any receiver that's tuned to it, changed
back into its previous form, then back into the form before that, and finally,
in the TV, changes back to light that hits the viewer. Never mind if that's
really right, the point is energy at the source is transformed just like a
spell and directed by machines until it not only hits someplace else but can
be infinitely duplicated and exactly duplicated at every receiver
238 VENGEANCE OF THE DANCING GODS
and finally at every TV that turns to that channel. Don't you see that's what
he's gonna do? He's gonna broadcast a spell that'll take on anybody who tunes
in, even for a minute!" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]