Unsympathetic Magic - Laura Resnick [126]
“White darkness,” I repeated. “Could the bokor inflict this on someone?”
“It would seem so. And it’s such a dangerous thing to do that it convinces me that the crisis must be very near.”
“Dangerous for me, certainly,” Frank said.
“For everyone,” said Max. “In the throes of possession, Biko—and Puma, if she has also been enthralled—may do terrible things that, as living people rather than as reanimated corpses, they will have to answer for before the law.”
“Oh, no,” I said, realizing what he meant. “If Frank hadn’t gotten away this evening, Biko’s life would be ruined. He’d be a murderer!”
“Er, my life would be ruined even more,” Frank pointed out. “I’d be dead.”
“Or you’d be a zombie now,” I said absently. “The bokor might not waste such an obvious opportunity to replace the corpse that had to be discarded.”
“Okay, this is my body that you’re talking about killing and raising from the dead,” Frank said to me. “So could you speak with a little more sensitivity, please?”
“Lots of luck with that, man,” Jeff said.
“Possessing living beings is also dangerous for the bokor,” said Max. “Having raised zombies, created baka, and tormented young Shondolyn, the bokor is expending still more power by controlling Biko—of whom control was perhaps gained by possessing Puma first.”
Jeff frowned with concern. “I don’t really buy this ‘white darkness’ thing, Max, but I do agree that Biko would be easy to manipulate by threatening Puma.”
“This expenditure of power is costly. It must surely require additional obeisance and offerings to the dark loa whose favor the bokor courts.” Max added, “And since Biko and Puma are living beings, with friends and responsibilities, their absence has already been noticed.”
“Compared to the corpses, who were probably missing for weeks before anyone noticed,” I said, nodding. “So the bokor must be getting desperate! Possessing people who’ll be missed almost immediately and whose behavior will have complicated consequences.”
“The additional danger,” Max said, “is that the bokor will consider Biko and Puma expendable once they have served their purpose, and command them to perform a fatal act.”
“Kill themselves?” Jeff said, appalled.
Max nodded. “However, clearly one of the tasks the bokor has assigned to Biko is the murder of Frank.”
“Tasks?” Frank repeated. “You’re calling my murder a task now?”
“With that, er, feat still unaccomplished,” Max said, “Biko is presumably not yet expendable. So I believe we have time to rescue him.”
“What about Puma?” Jeff demanded.
“Without knowing the purpose for which she was possessed, we cannot be sure,” Max said. “But I strongly recommend optimism.”
Looking at Jeff’s worried expression, I decided not to mention the obvious reason Puma might have been possessed: to make Biko vulnerable. Now that he was under the bokor’s command, his sister might indeed be expendable.
“Well, I can at least tell you where to start looking for them,” Frank said. “In the basement of that building. That’s where I saw the zombies.”
“Oh, that’s so creepy!” I said. “They’ve been down there all this time?”
Frank said, “I don’t know about ‘all this time.’ I only know what I saw Monday night.”
“What exactly happened that night?” I asked.
Frank began by explaining to us that, in contrast to the negative reaction that most people had to Napoleon, he enjoyed herpetology and was interested in the snake.
“You enjoy what?” I asked.
“The study of reptiles and amphibians.” He added, “I’m a huge Animal Planet fan.”
“Uh-huh.”
“But Napoleon’s owner is a crazy old bitch on wheels,” he said. “You know what I mean?”
“I do,” I said.
Mambo Celeste had rebuffed Frank’s interest in the snake during the couple of weeks he’d been filling in for Jeff at the foundation. Then on Monday, Frank had stayed late after class, using the classroom as rehearsal space for a new audition monologue he was working on. By the time he was ready to leave, early in the evening, the building was quiet and seemed