"What do they do?"

"They can crawl inside him. He won't be able to figure out where you are. Don't open it until you're ready. They can only live for a few seconds outside the box without someone to go in."

Daniel took the box. "Thank you, Sam, that's very kind of you to share with me."

"Here," said the boy, extending his arm again. On his palm were a couple of small objects. "Take these too."

"What are they?"

"I don't know. William gave them to me. Maybe you can figure them out."

Daniel looked like he'd just won the lottery.

"Will you come back and visit me again?" he asked.

"I will, if you want me to," Daniel said.

"Yes, I would like you to," the boy said.

"Jeremy may not let me in, though. He keeps this place locked up."

"I'll ask Jeremy to let you in," the boy said. "He's very nice. I'm sure he'll let you visit."

Steven's concerned heightened. He wasn't at all sure it was a good idea for Sam to tell the Pastor that he'd had visitors. Then again, there was no way to stop him from telling the Pastor anyway.

"Do you want us to find your body, in the forest?" Daniel asked. "We could bury you properly in a grave. Maybe a hallowed grave, here at Jeremy's church?"

"No," the boy said. "Please don't. I want to keep trying to get younger. If I could just stay younger long enough, mother will love me again."

"All right, we're going to go now, Sam," Daniel said. "Thank you for visiting with me. I'll try to come back and see you later."

"Goodbye," the boy said, his face beginning to dim.

Chapter Nine.

"I've only heard about these," Daniel said, "and most people think they're a myth."

They were in the car, returning to Seattle. Daniel was in the back seat, looking at the wooden box that contained the bugs.

"What do they do, exactly?" Roy asked.

"Well, if I marry up what Sam told me," Daniel said, "with what I've heard about them, they're a kind of parasite. The box keeps them dormant. When I dump them out they'll seek a host."

"So the idea would be to dump them out onto Frank, if he appears tonight?" Steven asked.

"Yes," Daniel said. "One of the side effects of these insects is that they open up all moments in time, but they cause the host to misjudge the present moment. It creates constant anxiety in the host that they feed off. That will neutralize Frank, because he'll never be able to find us."

"What, he'll be looking for us for eternity?" Roy said.

"Essentially," Daniel said. "He'll have billions and billions of moments to choose from. The odds of him picking our present moment are so great, he's effectively gone forever."

"I would prefer to kill him," Steven said. "Leaving him hunting for us for the rest of time seems like a bad idea."

"It works," said Roy. "It achieves the goal."

"No Dad," Steven said, "my goal is not to leave another monster able to return and cause havoc. We left Michael, we left Jurgen. David left Frank. n.o.body ever finishes up these problems, they just 'neutralize' them. Frank needs to be gone, not just inconvenienced in his search for us."

"I don't think you fully understand what 'gone' means," Roy said. "Nothing's ever really gone. Frank's body is dead, but you can't kill a soul, not one with this kind of energy."

"And these things," Daniel said, examining the other objects Sam had given him while not really paying attention to Steven and Roy's discussion, "are amazing. One of them might be a rare chronosphere. I'll have to check it back in Spokane. Absolutely amazing, can't believe he gave them to me."

"Sam likes you," Roy said. "I think the fact that you've got a boy that is about his age when he died made a connection with him that neither Steven or I would have been able to make. So I'm glad you came along."

Steven was still fuming from the kill vs. neutralize conversation. He'd go along with the plan for now, lacking any better alternatives. But if an opportunity arose to completely take down Frank, he was going to do it.

They all decided a large room was needed to work in, so Steven decided to sleep on the couch in the living room. Roy and Daniel agreed to watch, taking shifts if necessary. Steven removed the rectangular object from his arm and left it in his bedroom, locked in a nightstand drawer. He didn't drink any protection. This time they wanted Frank to appear.

"The moment we learn Frank is in the room," Daniel said, "we should move into position around Steven."

"Then you'll open the box?" Roy said.

"Yes, I'm guessing he'll grab Steven by the throat, that's what he's done in the past. I'll move over to him and open it. Be prepared to enter the flow immediately after I do; I don't think you'll be able to see these insects unless you're in the River. We only need one to enter Frank. If there are a couple more, they'll die off quickly, but don't touch them."

"What about the gla.s.s?" Steven said. "Will that stop them from entering him?"

"It shouldn't," Daniel said. "The cage keeps him from getting out, but it shouldn't stop things from getting in."

They settled into chairs and Steven rested on the couch, closing his eyes. It was just after ten o'clock and they were all tired from a long day.

"Daniel," Roy said, "perhaps you and I should drink some protection."

Before Daniel could answer, the gla.s.s figure appeared in the room. It was not standing next to Steven, it was standing next to Roy. In two quick moves, it had its hand around Roy's neck, then had Roy lifted off the couch.

"Steven!" Daniel shouted, waking him. Steven swung his feet off the couch and stood, moving over to Roy and the gla.s.s figure. Roy was gasping for air.

Daniel stood and raised the wooden box above the left shoulder of the figure. He slid the lid of the box open, and turned the box upside down. At first Steven saw nothing come out, then he remember to enter the River.

Once in the flow, he looked for the insects. There were not one or two emerging from the box, there were dozens. They were bright white and about four inches long. They twisted back and forth as they moved, like a centipede. Several landed on the gla.s.s surface of the figure and began to bore into Frank. Dozens more hit the ground and began to slither around, searching for a host. Steven saw a couple remain on the box, and began twisting towards Daniel, who was still holding it.

Drop the box! Steven thought. Daniel didn't move. He wasn't yet in the flow.

Steven left the flow at the exact moment that Daniel entered it. He rushed behind Daniel and swatted the box out of his hand. It crashed to the floor and slid a few feet away. Then Steven reentered the flow.

Several of the centipedes had made it to Daniel's hand before the box was dropped, and were crawling up his arm. Daniel could see them now and was swatting at them.

The gla.s.s man had dropped Roy, who was holding his neck in pain. Roy had entered the flow, and was avoiding the insects as they moved toward him. They were slowing.

Vertical bars began to appear in the gla.s.s man and within a few seconds he was gone. Steven turned to look at Daniel, who was still struggling with the insects. He had swatted all of them off his arm except one, which he was pulling on. Its head had entered the skin near his wrist, and Daniel had hold of the body of the insect, tugging at it.

Help me, Daniel thought. Steven didn't know what to do to help.

Just hold onto it, Steven thought. Don't pull so hard you break it.

It's boring into me, Daniel thought. It's got its head in already. I'm not pulling it, I'm just trying to hold it in place. It's going to break itself off. Do something! Hurry!

What do we do? Steven thought. The idea of using a flame to get a tick head to release from the skin came to mind, but would that work on these creatures?

It didn't matter. Steven saw the body of the insect snap, leaving an inch of the body in Daniel's fingers. Before Daniel could drop the broken half and reach for what was left of the bug, it slithered under his skin. Daniel looked up at Steven, panicked.

Maybe we can cut it out, Steven thought.

Vertical bars began to appear in Daniel, and he started to fade.

Daniel! Steven thought. Wait!

In another moment, Daniel was gone. All of the white centipedes on the floor were now still, turning translucent. Steven exited the flow.

Daniel's body was slumped on the floor.

"s.h.i.t!" Steven said, kneeling next to Daniel and searching for a pulse. It was there, he was still breathing.

Roy returned from the River, holding his neck, barely able to speak. "What happened to him?" he asked.

"One of them got into him," Steven said. "He didn't drop the box fast enough. Hundreds of those bugs came out, there were too many of them."

"Some landed on Frank?" Roy asked, kneeling next to Daniel's body.

"Yes, that part worked, I think," Steven said. "What do we do?"

"Help me get him up onto the couch," Roy said. They lifted Daniel carefully and laid him down. He seemed to be sleeping.

"Well, this is f.u.c.ked up worse than Hogan's billy goat," Roy said.

"Do we take him to the hospital?" Steven said. "We know what's happened to him, but we certainly can't tell the doctors and nurses that."

"We gotta get this figured out," Roy said, "or he'll stay like that forever. And if he's in a hospital, it'll make it d.a.m.n hard to do anything with him when we have a solution."

"I'll call Eliza," Steven said. "Maybe she'll know what to do."

"Yes, call her," Roy said.

Steven took out his cell phone and called her.

"Steven?" Eliza answered.

"Eliza? We've got a big problem."

Steven saw Eliza waving her arm at the arrivals pick up. She was hard to miss. She was a tall and imposing woman, but not overweight. Her hair was wild, swirling around her head chaotically. She moved gracefully and deliberately. She had a large suitcase with her. Steven parked the car at the curb and popped the trunk, then stepped out to give her a big hug and help get the suitcase into the back of the car. They both hopped back into the front seats and Steven drove out of the airport. It was around 10 a.m. Eliza had taken the first flight out of Sacramento.

"It was bad timing," Steven said. "Had he entered the flow just a second or two earlier he would have seen how quickly the insects were moving and how many there were."

"I found this medical supply store on the internet," Eliza said, referring to an address she had on a sc.r.a.p of paper. "It's between the airport and your home. I need to stop there and pick up some things on the way to your place if that's all right."

"I'm sorry, Eliza," Steven said. "This was certainly not how I wanted your first visit here to go. And I'm sorry I got Daniel wrapped up in this."

"Daniel's a big boy, he makes his own decisions," she said.

"But Troy..." Steven said and then paused, unsure if he should have brought it up.

"Ah, he told you," Eliza said. "Well, that does complicate things. But I'd be helping him no matter what, he's a good friend."

"You found Troy a babysitter?"

"He's staying with Joe. Having Tommy to play with, he'll think he's in heaven. So he's fine. And Joe will keep an eye on the barrier."

"Any ideas how to proceed?" Steven said. "Roy felt we shouldn't take him to a hospital."

"G.o.d no," Eliza said. "They'd just poke at him and it'd make it hard for us to do what we need to do. No, his body is going to need some routine care but we can do that. We'll get an IV going to keep him hydrated, and we may need to place a tube in him to feed him. I'll catheter him and we'll get a bedpan. We'll keep him clean and comfortable, make sure he doesn't get bedsores or his muscles atrophy. It's a short term solution but we can keep his body going for a while. Unfortunately, just as we need a time expert, we've lost access to the best one I know."

Steven reached over and grabbed Eliza's hand. "I know we'll figure this out," he said.

She squeezed his hand and looked back at him. "I'm not so sure."

When they arrived at Steven's house, Roy was there. He and Eliza greeted each other warmly and they took Eliza to Daniel. He'd been moved into the guest bedroom next to Steven's room. Steven half expected Eliza to react when she saw Daniel lying on the bed like a corpse, but she when straight to work without a moment's hesitation. She checked all of his vital signs, then began arranging things, asking Steven for help as she went. After an hour she had Daniel's room the way she wanted, and she joined Steven and Roy in the living room. Roy had his book in his hands, reading through it. Steven was sipping coffee.

"Would you like some?" he offered to Eliza.

"I would love some," she said. Steven went to the kitchen and poured her a mug. I think she takes it black, Steven thought.

"Correct," she said from the other room. Steven smiled and brought the mug to her.

"Well, he's about as comfortable as I can make him," she said, sipping at the hot coffee and settling into a stuffed chair. "I can guarantee you this was the right thing to do. The hospital wouldn't have known what to do with him, and they'd just be sending him through endless tests trying to figure it out. Daniel doesn't have that kind of money. As long as we keep an eye on his fluids, he should be fine for a while."

"Any progress with the book, Dad?" Steven asked Roy.