Vaughn leaned back from the table and thought about it. “I can’t think of a single way I’ve been influenced.”
“Not noticing is the whole point of influencing sobody,” Rachel began.
I interrupted her.
“My theory goes like this. Evil Beatnik can influence people that might be vulnerable to possession. We’re all under thirty, but those of us who are anti-authority, and who are, or at least try to be cool, are most vulnerable.
“Rachel knows he’s influenced her to do at least one thing, and if you think about it, she fits the profile. My guess is that of everyone else, Vaughn’s the most vulnerable.”
“What happened to Rachel?” Vaughn spoke more loudly than normal. From the expression on his face, I doubted he believed .
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Rachel said. “Let’s just say I could tell it wasn’t behind what I wanted to do.”
Vaughn frowned for a second, and then his eyes widened.
“You fucked Lucas? That ought to clear up a few worries. He’s dated a little, but people’ve always wondered if he was gay.”
“I did not fuck Lucas. I almost fucked Lucas, and if he’s not interested in won, he does a great imitation.”
“Wait, you blueballed him? That’s hilarious.”
“Can we move this conversation away from my sex life, and back to Evil Beatnik?”
“Seconded,” Jaclyn said, “If there’s a line between what we need to know, and too much information, we just went over it.”
“Right,” I said. “What we know about him from the reports is he’s not a killer or anything. All he wants is confusion. So he gathers people up and uses them to create confusion by breaking rules, screwing up how society works, and sotis by taking over policital protests.”
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Marcus picked up the reports again. “Don’t forget the sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Well, except in the ‘50’s. Then it was sex, drugs, and jazz. Did you notice that he took over bands and musicians a lot?”
“That did happen a few tis,” I said.
Marcus held up his hand with fingers outstretched. “Five tis in what I’ve read so far.”
Vaughn shook his head. “I’m not saying we should leave him alone, but if he’s the spirit of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, that’s not so bad. Well, except for the drugs, I guess, but political protests? They’re good, right? Sotis that’s the only way things change.”
Jaclyn spoke practically the second he stopped talking. “My grandpa said you could always tell the protests Evil Beatnik was at from the ones he wasn’t at by the fires and the rioting.”
“Oh,” Vaughn said. “Now that you ntion it, I kind of rember that from the reports.”
“Exactly,” Rachel said, “and the original League only ever got rid of him by taking out his followers, and revealing who he was possessing. After that, he’d disappear. Well, except when they managed to find the person he was possessing, and take the ring.”
“And that only worked once they were all over thirty,” Marcus said. “If they grabbed it before that, they got possessed. How are we going to avoid that? When they fought him in their twenties, he ssed with their heads constantly, and it’ll be the sa with us now. Plus, if Nick’s right, you and Vaughn could turn at any ti.”
“This drives crazy,” Vaughn said. “I’ve been around for almost a year, and you still don’t trust ?”
He pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. “I get sick of people assuming I’m my grandfather co back. I get sick of my parents bringing up my drug problems all the ti, but you guys? You ought to know better. That’s why you think Beatnik’s got his hooks in , right?”
None of us said anything.
“Well, fuck that, I’m going ho.”
He walked toward the elevator.
I said, “Vaughn, wait a second.” Everyone else started talking too.
Jaclyn blurred, and the next ti I saw her, her chair was empty and she stood directly in front of Vaughn.
“No one thinks you’re your grandfather,” she said. “We think you’re a little more at risk of being affected than the rest of us, but we’re all at risk. That’s the problem.”
Bluish-white sparks ran the length of Vaughn’s hands.
“Get real,” Jaclyn said. “You know that’s not going to work.”
The sparks stopped.
Vaughn turned his head back toward the rest of us. He looked a little dazed.
“Shit. You’re right.”
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