Part 2 (1/2)

She speeded up and held the s.p.a.ce between them almost constant for a kilometer before he began to gain. She forced her legs. It was wind against wind now across the barren amba. The amba was sliced with deep gullies. As her speed failed she was able to take advantage of the remembered course,doubling to lure him into hidden ravines. At two of the deepest cuts she found the wolf waiting for her and crossed by springing to his back where her pursuer would have to clamber up and down.

But for all she could do the man gained steadily. Between gusts of wind she heard the slap and pound of his hard feet. She was gasping when she reached the tumbled hummocks at the foot of the crags. He was close, closer. She leaped desperately up the rocks, remembering the stone that had been flung at the dog. How far could that powerful strange limb propel a missile? She could only dodge upward with searing lungs, all her hopes focused on the tunnel.

That was the crucial part. If he should know these cliffs!

But he was coming straight up after her, not stopping to throw, closing fast. Gravel rattled. She could hear his grunts above her own breathing. He was only paces behind now.

Suddenly shadow was ahead-the old culvert mouth. A rope loop hung inside. She flung her weight into it, spun dizzily for an instant. Then everything gave and she struck ground in a rain of dirt. At her heels, the rockslide cascaded into the culvert, walled him out.

She panted for a time in the choking darkness and then started up the culvert's floor. It was steep; she scrabbled, sprawled, pus.h.i.+ng herself up on her shoulder pads. This was an old skill; as an infant she had rubbed her shoulders raw. Presently there was gray light above. The wolf's head was waiting for her at the top.

She emerged onto the old road bed and they went together to look over the brink of the cliff. It was blowing hard here. She leaned against him as they peered down.

Far below, a red figure worked at the rocks before the culvert. The cliff between them hung sheer, he could not get up this way. The girl sighed, grinned, still breathing hard. She nosed the wolf's back, found the canteen mouth and sucked. He whined softly, open-mouthed.

They went again through the ritual of exposing her body. As he dragged down her breeches she giggled. He growled and nipped at her belly. Then he reared up and pulled off the cap to let the blonde silk blow free.

She advanced to the cliff edge, called into the wind. A red face turned up to her. Its mouth opened.

She motioned with her head, stepped to her left. In that direction the roadway had been breached by a rockslide, leaving a moraine he could climb.

He left off staring and mouthing and began to circle toward the moraine, stopping often to look up.

She paced along above him until rocks came between.

Then the wolf dressed her peremptorily and sent her staggering down the road in the other direction, away from the man. She took up a steady jog, going northwest now with the sun and the wind in her face. Soon the old highway left the cliffs and cut inward between wind-sliced turrets. There were higher crests beyond these to her right, the hills that had once been called Harar. Then she was past the outcrops. The road stretched straight across another mesa top. There were ruins here, adobe sh.e.l.ls, ditches, littered yards under occasional huge eucalyptus trees. Metal fragments lay on the roadside. A rusted gas pump stood like a man as she jogged by. Dust blew. She was beginning to limp.

Now and then the wolf ranged alongside her, then slipped aside to watch her pursuer pa.s.s. The man was on the straight behind her now, coming on doggedly, veering from the strange shapes by the road.

Pursuer and pursued slowed to walking as the light began to change. The distance between them shrank steadily, faster.

The girl was hobbling when she reached a ravine where the road lay in wreckage. A little time gained here, but not much; She was spent. Beyond the wrecked bridge she limped between walls. The road curved around a dead village, ran into an old square. Here the girl turned aside and fell to her knees.

Behind her the man was already leaping through the fallen bridge. It was sunset. The wolf appeared, grunting urgently. She shook her head, panted. He snarled and began to yank at her clothing, shouldering her up.When the man came into the square she was standing alone, her body brilliant in the level light. He stopped, eyes rolling white at the alien walls. Then he took a step toward her and was suddenly in charging onrush. She stood quiet. He leaped, arms grappling her, and she went down under him into the hard dirt.

As they fell together a jet of gas came from between her lips into his face. He convulsed, crushed her. The wolf was on them, dragging the flailing giant off by the arm while the girl coughed and gagged.

When the man had flopped to inertness the wolf pounched over her and nosed her head.

Her gagging changed timbre, she wrapped both legs around the wolf and tried to roll him. He roughed her face with his tongue, planted his paw in her navel and pulled free. When she quieted he was holding the transmitter in front of her face. A snoring noise was coming from the man on the ground.

They looked together at the big body. He was nearly twice the wolf's weight.

”If we tie him to you and drag him he'll get all torn,” the girl said. ”Do you think you can drive him?”

The wolf laid the transmitter down and grunted non-committally, frowning at the man.

”We're only at that place west of Goba,” the girl told the transmitter. ”I'm sorry. He's much stronger than we thought. You-wait!”

The wolf was in the road, standing tense. She listened too, heard nothing... then a s.h.i.+ver in the ground, a tiny rumble. The transmitter began to squawk.

”It's all right!” the girl told it. ”Bonz is here!”

”What do you mean, Bonz is there?” demanded the distant voice.

”We can hear him coming. He must have got through the break.”

”d.a.m.n idiots,” said the voice. ”You're all wasting energy. Base out.”

Girl and wolf squatted together in the dusk beside the snoring man. She prodded at him briefly with her booted foot. Her teeth began to chatter.

The throbbing turned into a clas.h.i.+ng roar and a fan of light swung around the far end of the square.

Behind the light was the dark nub of a small tractor cab. It was towing a flat wagon.

The girl stood up, swung her hair.

”Bonz! Bonz, we've got one!”

The tractor rattled up beside them and a pale head leaned out. The dashlight showed a boy's face, a bony knife-edged version of the girl's.

”Where is he?”

”Here. Look how big he is!”

The tractor's light swung, flooded the supine man.

”You'll have to get him on the wagon,” the boy said. His eyes were hollow with fatigue. He made no move to leave the cab.

The wolf was at the side wall of the wagon, pulling a latch. The wall clanged down to form a ramp to the low cart bed. Girl and wolf began to roll the red body sideways toward the ramp.

”Wait,” the boy said suddenly. ”Don't hurt him. What have you done to him?”

”He's all right,” the girl told him. The man's shoulders were lolling against her knees, his upper arm slashed red where the wolf had gripped him.

”Wait, let me look,” said the boy. He still did not get out but sat staring, Licking his thin lips.

”Our savior.” His voice was harsh and high. ”There's your d.a.m.ned Y chromosome. He's filthy.”

He pulled his head back and they tumbled the unconscious man up onto the cart. There were hasps and straps on the floor. The girl's boots were got off and she fastened him down, her bruised toes clumsy. As they got him secure he began to groan. The girl pulled back her lips to reveal the syringe fastened between teeth and cheek and carefully jetted more vapor on his face.The boy watched them through his rear window, twisted in his seat. He was drinking from a canteen. On the wagon the girl unhitched her companion's harness pack and they ate and drank too.

They grinned at the boy. He did not grin back. His eyes were on the great red-gold man: The girl toed him idly, jostling his thick limbs, his genitals.

”Don't do that!” the boy called sharply. The air was cold.

”Do you think he needs a blanket?” asked the girl.

”No! Yes,” he said exhaustedly.

When the wolf reared up beside the cab door the boy was bent over, hauling blankets from behind his seat. The cab's interior was cluttered with tubing and levers. On the floor, where the boy's feet should have been, was an apparatus from which tubes led upward. When he straightened up it could be seen that he had no legs. His torso was strapped to the seat and ended in a coc.o.o.n of canvas into which tubing led. His face was wet-streaked.