From: "Alice Turner" <akt@attglobal.net>
Subject: (whorl) Buried Alive
Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 22:28:53 

Robert and Alex,

No, we're somewhat at cross purposes here. Horn knows perfectly well how to
kill an inhumu--he was present at Quetzal's death, after all. The secret he
has learned from Krait is how *not* to kill an inhumu while giving the
appearance of doing so. Let's use Occam's razor here. Horn as political
leader has
presided over the live burial of (let's assume) 25 inhumi. Horn as military
leader covertly digs up and coerces or bribes 18 or these (more to come)
into
operating in his side in a highly original military maneuver (I applaud
whoever it was who remarked that Wolfe has put some new, well, maybe not
life--undeath <g>?--into the overworked vampire genre). How would he
possibly know how to do this, and to plan it so far in advance, without
help? That is why I think this knowledge (and possibly advice too) is
Krait's secret.

Alex's "intelligent blood" theory remains strictly theoretical. But you need
a rational explanation for Horn's strategy, which is why I invoke Occam's
razor.

-alga



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