Borderlands 5 Read Online Free Page A

Like the face of Jesus, for example.”
    “You’re telling me that Christ has been portrayed as having seventy-two faces?”
    “No, whiz-kid, I’m telling you that Christ had seventy-two faces. Every picture you see is nothing more than a variation on one of them. Faces change over the course of a lifetime, dear boy. All in all, each of us wears seventy-one.”
    “I thought you just said—”
    “—I know what I said, I recognized my voice. There is one face we possess that is never worn—at least, not in the sense that the world can see it. The best way I can explain it is to say that it’s the face you had before your grandparents were born. That is the face I need from you. It exists here— ” He cupped one of his hands and covered his face from forehead to upper lip. “—in the Rami Temporales .”
    “In the muscles around the eyes?”
    “No, those are part of the Rami Zygomatici, an area controlled by the Temporales , which is a much larger and influential group in the temporo-facial division of—oh, for goodness’ sake! Are you in the mood for an anatomy lesson? Are you worried that I’m going to pull out a scalpel and cut away? I’m not a graduate of the Ed Gein School of Cosmetology, so put that notion out of your head this instant.”
    I stopped at a red light on 21st Street. “Then I guess I don’t understand what you mean at all.”
    “Perhaps we need to expedite things a bit. Turn left.”
    The light changed and I made the turn. Even though the entrance to the park should have been a good six miles farther, here we were. I pulled into the parking area and we climbed out.
    “I have some luggage in your trunk,” said Listen. “If you wouldn’t mind … ?”
    It was a large, bulky square thing that reminded me of a salesman’s sample case. I lifted it out of the trunk and damn near snapped my spine. “What’s in here, the population of a small Third World nation?”
    “ Is a tad on the heavy side, isn’t it?  Sorry.”  Listen took the case from me and dangled it from one hand as if it weighed no more than a tennis racket.
    “Do you have a favorite spot here?”
    “You already know the answer.”
    “Of course you’re right. I just wanted to see if you’d lie to me again like you did about having your picture taken.”
    “How did you know that?”
    “I do my homework, dear boy. You’ll be turning forty-two in July, and since the day of your birth you’ve been photographed exactly one-hundred-and-nine times, counting your employee identifications and driver’s licences. By the time they’re your age, the average person has been photographed close to a thousand times, be it individually or as part of a group. But not you. One-hundred-and-nine times, that’s it.”
    “It’s over there.”
    “What is?”
    “My favorite spot.”
    “Ah, yes, the picnic area near the footbridge. Where Penny Duffy kissed you when both of you were in the eighth grade.”
    I took a seat at the picnic table while Listen walked up to the footbridge and took in the entire park.
    “Know anything about ‘places of power’?” he said.
    “Like Stonehenge?”
    “Exactly. Stonehenge is a perfect example. The Irazu volcano in Costa Rica, the Ruins of Copan in Honduras, Cerne Abas Giant, and Bodh Gaya where Buddha achieved enlightenment are a few others. Places where the forces of the Universe are intensely focused and can be harnessed by the faithful.”
    “Don’t go all New-Age on me, okay?”
    “Don’t make me ill. There are well over a thousand such spots, but believe it or not, only seventy-two are genuinely significant. Only seventy-two are filled with such power that you can feel the Earth thrum like some excited child who’s filled to bursting with a secret their heart can no longer contain. This park—” He made a sweeping gesture with his arm. “—is one of those seventy-two places. The Indian Burial mounds here are so potent they’re scary.”
    “Is that why we’re