[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Joao slipped into his seat.
The pod danced across a pattern of eddy ripples, turned and faced downstream
toward a shaft of sunlight that stabbed through the clouds. Slowly, great
patches of blue opened in the clouds.
'There's the sun, the good old sun,' Rhin said, 'now that we don't need it.'
A need for male protection came over Rhin, and she leaned her head against
Joao's shoulder. 'It's going to be sticky hot,' she whispered.
'If you'd like to be alone, I could step out on the float,' Chen-Lhu mocked.
'Ignore the bastard,' Rhin said.
Do I dare ignore him?
Joao wondered.
Is that her purpose - to make me ignore him? Do I
dare?
Her hair gave off a scent of musk that threatened to clog Joao's reason. He
took a deep breath, shook his head.
What is it with this woman ... this changeable, mercuric ... female?
'You've had lots of girls, haven't you?' Rhin asked.
Her words elicited memory images that flashed through Joao's mind - doe-brown
eyes with a distant look of cunning: eyes, eyes, eyes ... all alike. And lush
figures in tight bodices or mounding white sheets ... warm beneath his hands.
'Any special girl?' Rhin asked.
And Chen-Lhu wondered:
Why does she do this? Is she seeking self justification, reasons to treat him
as I wish her to treat him?
'I've been very busy,' Joao said.
'I'll bet you have,' she said.
'What's that mean?'
'There's some girl back there in the Green ... ripe as a mango. What's she
like?'
He shrugged, moving her head, but she remained pressed close to him, looking
up at his jawline where no beard grew.
He has Indian blood, she thought.
No beard: Indian blood.
'Is she beautiful?' Rhin persisted.
'Many women are beautiful,' he said.
'One of those dark, full-breasted types, I'll bet,' she said. 'Have you had
her to bed?'
And Joao thought:
What does this mean? That we're all bohemian types together?
Page 83
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
'A
gentleman,' Rhin said. 'He refused to answer.'
She pushed herself up, sat back in her own corner, angry and wondering why she
had done that.
Do I torture myself? Do I want this Joao Martinho for my own, to have and to
hold? To hell with it!
'Many families are strict with their women down here,' Chen-Lhu said. 'Very
Victorian.'
'Weren't you ever human, Travis?' Rhin asked. 'Even for just a day or so?'
'Shut up!' Chen-Lhu barked, and he sat back, astonished at himself.
The bitch! How did she get through to me like that?
Ahhh, Joao thought, she touched a nerve.
'What made an animal out of you, Travis?' Rhin asked.
He had himself under control, though, and all he said was, 'You have a sharp
tongue, my dear. Too bad your mind doesn't match it.'
'That's not up to your usual standards, Travis,' she said, and she smiled at
Joao.
But Joao had heard the crying-out in their voices and he remembered Vierho,
the Padre, so solemn, saying, 'A person cries out against life because it's
lonely, and because life's broken off from whatever created it. But no matter
how much you hate life, you love it, too.
It's like a caldron boiling with everything you have to have - but very
painful to the lips.'
Abruptly Joao reached out, pulled Rhin to him and kissed her, pressing her
against him, digging his hands into her back. Her lips responded after only
the briefest hesitation - warm, tingling.
Presently he pulled away, pressed her firmly into her seat and leaned back on
his own side.
When she could catch her breath, Rhin said, 'Now, what was that all about?'
'There's a little animal in all of us,' Joao said.
Does he defend me?
Chen-Lhu asked himself, sitting bolt upright.
I don't need defense from such as that!
But Rhin laughed, shattering his anger, and reached out to caress Joao's
cheek. 'Isn't there just,' she said.
And Chen-Lhu thought:
She is only doing her job. How beautifully she works. Such consummate
artistry. It would be a shame to have to kill her.
They have such a talent for occupying themselves with inconsequential, these
humans, the Brain thought.
Even in the face of terrible pressures, they argue and make love and throw
trivialities into the air.
Messenger relays came and went through the rain and sunshine that alternated
outside the cave mouth. There was little hesitation over commands now; the
essential decision had been made: 'Capture or kill the three humans at the
chasm; save their heads in vivo if you can.'
Still, the reports came because the Brain had ordered: 'Report to me
everything they say.'
So much talk of God, the Brain thought.
Is it possible such a Being exists?
And the Brain reflected that certainly the humans' accomplishments carried an
air of grandeur that belied the triviality of their reported actions.
Is it possible this triviality is a code of some sort?
the Brain wondered.
But how could it be ... unless there's more to these emotional
inconsequentials and this talk of a God than appears on the surface?
Page 84
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
The Brain had begun its career in logics as a pragmatic atheist Now doubts
began to creep into its computations, and it classified doubt as an emotion.
Still, they must be stopped, the Brain thought. No matter the cost, they must
be stopped.
The issue is too important ... even for this fascinating trio. If they are
lost, I shall try to mourn them.
Rhin felt that they floated in a bowl of burning sunlight with the crippled
pod at its center.
The cabin was a moist hell pressing in upon her. The drip-drip feeling of
perspiration and the smell of bodily closeness, the omnipresent tang of
mildew, all of it gnawed at her awareness. Not an animal stirred or cried from
either passing shore.
Only an occasional insect flitting across their path reminded her of the
watchers in the jungle shadows. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]