[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
The moon was the color of molten copper.
An acid-etched frost line ran diagonally down the window to the faired curve
of exterior skin. Chen-Lhu's eyes followed the line and, for a moment as he
Page 57
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
stared at the place where the window ended beside him, he thought he saw a row
of tiny dots, like barely visible gnats marching across the window.
In an eyeblink, they vanished.
Did I imagine them?
he wondered.
He thought of alerting the others, but Rhin had been near hysteria for almost
an hour now since witnessing the death of their camp. She'd have to be nursed
back to usefulness.
I could've imagined them, Chen-Lhu thought.
Only the moon for illumination - spots in front of my eyes; nothing unusual
about that.
The river had narrowed here to no more than six or seven times the pod's
wingspan. A
shadowy wall of overhanging trees hemmed in the track of water.
'Johnny, turn on the wing lights for a few minutes,' Chen-Lhu said.
'Why?'
'They'll see us if we do,' Rhin said.
She heard the almost-hysteria in her own voice and was shocked by it.
I'm an entomologist, she told herself.
Whatever's out there, it's just a variation on something familiar.
But this reasoning lacked comfort. She realised that some primal fear had
touched her, arousing instincts with which reason could not contend.
'Make no mistake,' Chen-Lhu said, and he tried to speak softly, reasonably.
'Whatever overwhelmed our friends ... it knows where we are. I merely wish the
light to confirm a suspicion.'
'Are we being followed, eh,' Joao asked.
He snapped on the wing lights. The sudden glare picked out two caverns of
brilliance that filled with fluttering, darting insects - a white-winged mob.
The current swung the pod around a bend. Their lights touched the river bank,
outlined twisting medusa roots that clutched dark red clay, then swung with
the vagaries of an eddy to pick out a narrow island - tall reeds and grass
bending to the current, and the cold green reflections of eyes just above the
water.
Joao snapped off the lights.
In the abrupt darkness, they heard the whining hum of insects and the metallic
chime calls of river frogs ... then, like a delayed comment, the coughing
barks of a troop of red monkeys somewhere on the right shore.
The presence of the frogs and monkeys, Joao felt, carried a significance that
he should understand. The significance eluded him.
Ahead, he could see bats flicker across the moonlit river, skimming the water
to drink.
'They're following us ... watching, waiting,' Rhin said.
Bats, monkeys, frogs, all living intimately with the river, Joao thought.
But Rhin said the river carried poisons. Was there reason to lie about that?
He tried to study her face in the dim reflections of moonlight that penetrated
the cabin, but received only the impression of gaunt, withdrawn shadows.
'I think we are safe,' Chen-Lhu said, 'as long as we keep the cabin sealed and
get our air through the vent filters.'
'Open only in daylight,' Joao said. 'We can see what's around us then and use
our rifles if we need to.'
Rhin pressed her lips together to prevent them from trembling. She tipped her
head back, looked up through the transparent strip across the roof of the
cabin. A wilderness of stars
flooded the sky, and when she lowered her gaze she could still see the stars -
a shimmer of points, tremulous on the river surface. Quite suddenly the night
filled her with a sensation of immense loneliness that was at the same time
Page 58
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
oppressive, holding her locked between the river's jungle walls.
The night was odorous with jungle smells that the vent filters could not
remove. Every breath was thick with baited and repelling perfumes.
The jungle took on a form of conscious malignancy in her imagination. She
sensed something out there in the night - a thinking entity which could
swallow her without a moment's hesitation. The sense of reality with which her
mind invested this image flowed over her and through her. She could give it no
shape except immensity ... but it was there.
'Johnny, how fast is the current along here?' Chen-Lhu asked.
Good question, Joao thought.
He bent forward to peer at the luminous dial of the altimeter. 'Elevation
here's eight hundred and thirty meters,' he said. 'If I've located us
correctly on the right river, the channel drops about seventy meters in the
next thirty kilometers.' He worked the equation in his head. 'I can only
approximate, of course, but it'll be a six to eight knot current.'
'Won't there be a search for us?' Rhin asked. 'I keep thinking ... '
'Don't think that way,' Chen-Lhu said. 'Any search, if it comes at all, will
be for me - and not for several weeks. I knew where to look for you, Rhin.' He
hesitated, wondering if he was saying too much, giving Joao too many clues.
'Only a few of my aides knew where I was going, and why.'
Chen-Lhu hoped she'd hear the secrecy in his voice, get off this subject.
'You know how I got in here,' Joao said. 'If anybody thought to look for me
... where'd they look?'
'But there's a chance, isn't there?' Rhin asked. Her voice revealed how
desperately she wanted to believe in that chance.
'There is always a chance,' Chen-Lhu said. And he thought:
You must calm yourself, Rhin.
When I need you, there must be no problems of fear and hysteria.
He set his mind then to the way Joao Martinho must be discredited if they
reached civilisation. Rhin's help would have to be enlisted in this
enterprise, of course. Joao was the perfect scapegoat and this situation was
made to order - if Rhin could be persuaded to help.
Naturally, if she proved obstinate, she could be eliminated.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]