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much care for cold country.
"Will you relax?" She gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder. "We've lost
them. Can't you tell? They don't even know what kind of vehicle you're
traveling in, or if you're on a bus, or a plane, much less where you are."
He divided his attention between her and the relentlessly spectacular
scenery. "You didn't meet these people. I did. They're not going to give up.
If any military base managed to track or record what happened up in the
mountains last night, sooner or later connections are going to be made with
Jed. Right now they're trying to keep it quiet, but if the story breaks wide,
my face will be in every paper and on every evening newscast within an hour."
"And a very nice face it is, too." Her trivializing of the situation was
disarming. "You really think anyone's going to take those saucer people
seriously?"
"I suppose not."
"Then calm down, Ross Ed. Enjoy the ride." She grinned and nodded toward the
back. "Take a lesson from your friend."
Indeed, there was no disputing that of the three occupants of the van, the
alien was by far the most relaxed. An unfair comparison, Ross knew, because in
Jed's case it was a permanent condition.
An hour later they pulled over so Ross could take the wheel for a while. He
flinched when she picked the body up and set him in her lap, arranging the
three arms in a kind of tripartite fold. Crossing the three legs was more
difficult; left over center, center over right. The result left Jed looking
like a spurious fugitive fromSesame Street . The intimate, repeated physical
contact had no visible effect on her.
"Don't you think you should put him back on the floor? What if somebody seems
him?"
"What if they do?" Raising one alien arm, she let it flap loosely at a
passing car. "What do they see? A man and a woman cruising along in their van,
enjoying the scenery. If they look real close they might see that the woman
has a very strange doll or a real ugly baby in her lap. I feel sorry for poor
Jed. How'd you like to ride all the way toCalifornia lying on the floor? Just
drive, Ross Ed. We're not going to stop any traffic up here."
By unspoken mutual agreement they let the radio occupy the conversational
space for a while. Eventually Ross turned back to her. "You know, Caroline,
you've been awfully good to me throughout this whole crazy business."
"Don't think I don't know it. I told you why."
"I'm not looking for any kind of long-term relationship."
"Ever had one?"
He told her about his own two marriages.
"Naw," she decided when he'd finished the distressing reci-tation, "you never
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have. You can be married to someone without having a real relationship. I
know; I've done both."
"Just the same, don't get any ideas. I like you, Caroline, and I don't want
to see you get hurt."
"What,moi , get ideas?" Her eyes widened as she placed her fingers over her
cleavage. "Why, Ross Ed, I would never think of such a thing. I'm just helping
you make it toCalifornia ."
"Just so long as we understand each other."
"Right." The van banged as they hit a pothole. "You know, you give me a funny
look every time I touch Jed." Holding the alien by the shoulders, she turned
it toward her. "Doesn't he?" Shaking it back and forth, she managed to induce
in the head and neck a passable imitation of a nod.
Ross clenched his teeth. "Don'tdo that."
"Why not?" She was honestly bemused. "What's the prob-lem?"
He couldn't forget the night in Lordsburg: the gun and the addlepated
bullets. "When people& touch& Jed, they sometimes see things. Other times,
stuff happens."
"Is that all? Look what happened last night."
"No, not like that. I mean,personal things. Your surroundings don't act
natural. Pictures form in the mind."
"Are you talking about telekinesis and telepathy? That's fantasy. Besides,
he's dead." Her eyes were inches from the alien's own. They didn't stare back.
"I don't reckon it has anything to do with Jed. Obviously, he can't do
anything. But the suit's anodier matter."
"Well, I've picked him up, turned him around, bounced him in my lap, played
with his limbs, tossed him in back, and I haven't felt or seen a single thing
out of the ordinary."
"I guess he, or his suit, likes you. Or at least doesn't see you as a threat.
Or maybe, just maybe, there's no rhyme or reason to it. Maybe sometimes the
suit reacts to contact and sometimes it doesn't." He told her about Lordsburg.
"That's quite a story." Her attitude had become less flippant and she
regarded the alien in her lap with new respect. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it
only reacts to certain people. Something in their brain waves, or their
movements. Personally, I think both Jed and his suit are comfortable with us.
Can't you see how he's enjoying the scenery? He's hardly taken his eyes off
the road." Her cheeks dimpled.
He studied the console. "I'd feel better if we had some coolant along. It's
getting hot outside."
She was shaking her head slowly. "There's a whole gallon in the back right
storage bin. You really don't know how to relax, do you?"
"Yeah, I do," he objected. "Guess I might as well, since you seem to have
thought of everything."
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"Coolant, jumper cables, spare fan belt, tools. Dead alien. Your name it,
I've got it on board." She jiggled Jed on her lap. "Oversized testosterone
unit *who doesn't know when he's well off. Oh yeah, I always travel properly
equipped."
He could only grunt by way of response, unselfconsciously confirming her
evaluation.
As they slowed to pass through small towns with unpro-nounceable names, no
one looked at them twice. Thousands of tourists made the look-see loop through
the reservations and the locals were accustomed to strange vehicles and their
even stranger occupants.
When the road finally turned west toward the great unbroken gash in the earth
known as theGrand Canyon , Ross Ed's energy level rose perceptibly. Eventually
they'd swing south to pick up Interstate 40. If they weren't confronted there
he suspected that it would be clear sailing all the way toCalifornia .
Exhausted from the previous long, late night, they stopped early at a motel
inTubaCity . Ross checked in while Caroline struggled to squeeze the van into
one of the few shady parking spots.
The clerk who checked them in spared him the embarrassment of trying to
decide what sort of accommodations to request by announcing regretfully that
every room in the motel came equipped with twin beds. The formalities
concluded, they found their room, cranked the air-conditioning to the max, and
did what little unpacking was required.
The clerk, whose name was John Qaannasqatszi, watched through one of the
heavily tinted office windows as the new-comers moved in. They seemed to have
no luggage at all. Not that it was any of his business. The switchboard buzzed
as other guests demanded his services.
It was while switching in an incoming call for number thirtylfour that he
noticed the big Texan transferring something large and bulky from the van to
the room. It had arms and legs and a funny-shaped head.
It couldn't be, he told himself. A brief glimpse wasn't enough to support
anything but rank speculation. Still, he found it impossible to banish the
image from his thoughts. Pondering, analyzing, he debated how best to proceed
based on what he'd observed.
He'd seen it before. Not, as Ross Ed might have suspected, posed on the front [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]