Part 19 (1/2)
The paths she took were shorter, although it was still bet-ter than seven hours walking, not counting the breaks, until he once again saw the border. She stood there, letting him pa.s.s through, and then pa.s.sed through herself. Nowshe was followinghim, but she seemed determined to stick with him.
He stopped, turned, looked her in the eye, and shook his head ”no,” but she had no reaction to that, although she must have understood it and continued to follow him.
Well, as much as he'd haveliked to take her along, it was impossible. What would she eat? How could she with-stand the climatic extremes of the journey in the nude? What would happen when he got on a truck or some other automatic device her people wouldn't touch?
Still, she followed him right up to the farm buildings and waited while he knocked.
The old Ambrezan male was there, apparently doing ac-counts. He stared out at the girl in the front yard and gave a typical Ambrezan”Chi chi chi!” which was basically an expression of thoughtfulness. ”So she's the one you went in to get?”
”No, she's another. Somebody totally different.”
”Yeah, I figured if you come back, it'd be empty-handed. I no sooner got back to the house than the wife called for me to go after you. Seems another female much like you showed up in the capital just about that time.”
Brazil was delighted at the news. ”Did they give a name?”
”Dunno. Got the note here someplace.”
”Well, more important, is she still there?”
”Maybe, but I got the impression she was there to go to Zone. The gate's right in the city center, you know. Wanted to find out about her friends, I think they said.Chi chi chi! Now where in-ah! Here!”
”You'll have to read it for me,” Brazil told him. ”I'm all right with the translator at languages, but reading is some-thing else again.”
”Oh. All right. Let's see . . . 'Female Type 41 arrested near the city border at ten-fourteen this morning for being illegally out of a Glathrielian-allowed district. Proved to be alien of same origin as you. Received clothing, pa.s.sage to Zone tomorrow for locating rest of her party.”
”Hmmm . . . Wonder if she's still in Zone or the city? She'd have to come back there through the gate, anyway. May I use your communicator and call in and see?”
”Sure. No problem. What about the female there?”
”She'll wait.” He went inside and placed a call to the comm center.
”Yes, her name was registered as a Mavra Chang,” the comm tech informed him. ”Went down to Zone yesterday, returned in the evening. Got provisions and left this morn-ing. The law prevents any Type 41 from being in the city for more than two days, anyway.”
”That's the one. How did she leave? And where did they take her?”
”She left by air shuttle. She was going south to the bor-der with Erdom. I a.s.sume one of her party is down there someplace or she's going to try and make a boat connection of some sort. At any rate, she said she would probably not be back unless she needed to use a Zone gate as an escape route.”
”d.a.m.n!” Brazil swore. ”No chance I could get an air-drop to the same spot?”
”Maybe in a couple of days or so. Not right now. We don't run those for the convenience of aliens, you know.”
The Ambreza had a small air fleet, operating, as it had to, totally within the hex, that basically consisted of a few dozen helicopterlike vehicles which were used for emergen-cies and for big shots to move around. How she'd talked herself into a ride down there was a mystery, but that she'd been able to do so sounded like the old Mavra.
”Was she informed that I was here and looking for her?”
There was an embarra.s.sed silence for a moment, then the comm tech answered, ”Yes, she was informed.”
”And?”
”She said that she'd have to move fast or you might catch up to her.”
He sighed. ”All right. Thank you,” and signed off.
The old Ambrezan chuckled. ”Ain't it always the d.a.m.nedest thing, son?”
”Huh? What do you mean?”
”Well, you come up here lookin' for her, and she's down there and she don't even want to see you. On the other hand, you pick upanother one you didn't know, didn't want, and can't seem to get rid of!”
He nodded and sighed again. ”Sure is. Well, thanks for your help. Any way to get some transportation out of this region?”
”Might be able to help. Dunno what your girl out there's gonna do, though. They don't like machines, you know. They don't like much ofanything 'cept maybe each other. Where you goin'? South to Erdom? That's pretty mean country even if you know it. All desert 'cept right along the coast.”
”No, I don't think so. In fact, while I'll probably get in touch with the emba.s.sy just to see whereshe might be go-ing, it's not worth chasing her at this point, particularly if she has some reason for avoiding me. I think I'm best off heading east from here. Catch a s.h.i.+p and get on my way. I, too, have some people I promised to look up far from here.”
”Well, it's up to you, son. I'll see what I can do about a call in to the foreign ministry, and then we'll see about gettin' you a ride east. From this distance it might do you best to go overland by horse rather than go through all that convoluted bunch of roads that'll take you three hundred kilometers to go fifty.”
He gave a small smile. ”And I suppose you might have a horse for sale.”
”Could be. Ain't got no saddles that'd fit you, though.”
”I can make do with a blanket and a bridle,” he a.s.sured the Ambrezan. ”Let's go see what you have.”
They went out and walked back beyond the outbuildings to a large open pasture between the headquarters and the parklike glade where Terry had entered the Well World. Quite a number of good-looking horses were there, and he looked them over.
He picked a strong-looking brown gelding after survey-ing the herd. ”How much?”
”Oh, I reckon a hundred and fifty'll do it.”
”A hundred and fifty! I'llwalk before I'll pay a hundred and fifty for a gelding to get me fifty kilometers!”
”No, no, son. I ain't tryin' to cheat you. That's for thetwo of them.”
Nathan Brazil looked around and saw the girl, now mounted atop a horse without blanket, bridle, or anything else but looking very much at home there. She smiled at him.
He felt like a cross between a sucker and merely a d.a.m.ned fool, but he paid anyway. h.e.l.l, otherwise he wouldn't have put it past her to just steal the d.a.m.ned horse or, worse, try to run along after him. At least he could get most of the money back at the port when he sold the two horses.
Erdom
AT FIRST THERE HAD BEEN THE DIZZYING SENSATION OF FALLINGnearly identical to that first hex gate that had brought them all to this strange new world, but then the sensation had ab-ruptly ceased and she had fallen into the deepest sleep she had ever known.
Doctor Lori Ann Sutton awoke feeling groggy, hung over, and a little sick to the stomach, lying on what felt like a bed of warm sand.
She opened her eyes and looked around and saw that itwas a bed of warm sand. At least it was sand, and there was an awful lot of it under a mean hot sun that was still low on the horizon. Or was it going down? Who could tell?
She sat up, scratched where the sand had pressed against her side, and immediately felt a terrible sense of wrongness. The whole scene-sand, sky, sun-had all the colors she expected, but there seemed to be even more. She could ac-tuallysee the heat, and there were darker areas as well.
I'm seeing into the infrared spectrum!she thought won-deringly. And maybe beyond. Maybe, just maybe, inboth directions. Theentire spectrum?