THE MADAGASCAR MATTER – Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

“Cursed? How the hell is that possible? No one’s been near him since I touched down except for you and me.”

Andrian waved his hand. “I am only repeating what the shaman tells me. I have no idea how anyone would have gotten to him. But there is always the chance that they employed an unusual method to do this.”

I wasn’t sure any of this made sense. I’d heard rumors of magic and all that crap before, but at the Academy, the instructors focused on real world problems rather than the stuff of legends. “Yeah, but wouldn’t a curse have to be done with the person close to Zero? I mean, he was fine until we rolled the Rover. It was after that that he went bonkers.”

Andrian translated for the shaman who clucked her tongue twice and then rattled off a machine gun of Malagasy that I couldn’t even begin to start to translate. Andrian waited until she’d finished and then turned back to me.

“She says that whoever did this knew exactly who they were targeting. Being in the same location is not necessary to exert will over him.”

I looked down at Zero’s body. “So, could this guy we’re running from – Joobah – could he do this?”

Andrian frowned. “He could not back when I knew him much better than I do now. But many, many years have passed since we were close. And anything could have happened in the ensuing time.”

© 2010 by Jon F. Merz All rights re­served

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