Page 8 (1/2)
RIK saw the Baker killed He saw him crumple without a sound, his chest driven in and charred into s ruins under the silent push of the blaster It was a sight that drowned out for him most of what had preceded and almost all that had followed
There was the dim memory of the patroller&039;s first approach, of the quiet but terribly intent manner in which he had drawn his weapon The Baker had looked up and shaped his lips for one last word that he had no ti of blood in Rik&039;s ears and the wild screa in all directions, like a river in flood
For a ated the improvement Rik&039;s mind had ed toward hi h they were a viscous sea of h Rik and Lona turned with the current and were carried away There were eddies and subcurrents, turning and quivering as the flying patrollers&039; cars began to hover overhead Valona urged Rik forward, ever outward to the outskirts of the City For a while he was the frightened child of yesterday, not the al
He had awakened that rayness of a dawn he could not see in the less roo hishad knit together and beco ready to happen ever since the un to "reh yesterday The trip to the Upper City and the library, the attack upon the patroller and the ffight that followed, the encounter with Baker-it had all acted upon hi dor activity, and now, after a sleep, there was a feeble pulsing about the, long, lonely stretches, and great silences
Finally he turned his head to one side and said, "Lona"
She snapped awake, lifting herself to an elbow, peering in his direction
"Rik?"
"Here I aht?"
"Sure" He couldn&039;t hold down his excitement "I feel fine, Lona Listen! I remember more I was in a ship and I know exactly-"
But she wasn&039;t listening to him She slipped into her dress and with her back to him smoothed the seam shut down the front and then fumbled nervously with her belt
She tiptoed toward him "I didn&039;t mean to sleep, Rik I tried to stay awake"
Rilc felt the infection of her nervousness He said, "Is so?"
"Sh, don&039;t speak so loudly It&039;s all right"
"Where&039;s the Townman?"
"He&039;s not here He-he had to leave Why don&039;t you go back to sleep, Bik?"
He pushed her consoling arht I don&039;t want to sleep I wanted to tell the Townman about my ship"
But the Towr~man wasn&039;t there and Valona would not listen Rik subsided and for the first tih he were a child and he was beginning to feel like a ure of the Baker entered with it uk blinked at him and was, for a moment, daunted He did not entirely object when Valona&039;s co arm stole about his shoulder
The Baker&039;s thick lips stretched in a smile "You&039;re early awake"
Neither answered
The Baker said, "It&039;s just as well You&039;ll betoday"
Valona&039;sus to the patrollers?"
She remembered the way he had looked at Rik after the Town at Rik; only at Rik
"Not to the patrollers," he said "The proper people have been inforh"
He left, and when he returned shortly thereafter he brought food, clothes and two basins of water The clothes were new and looked coe
He watched theive you new names and new histories You&039;re to listen, and I don&039;t want you to forget You&039;re not Florinians, do you understand? You&039;re brother and sister fro Florina-"
He went on, supplying details, asking questions, listening to their answers
Rik was pleased to be able to des of his memory, his easy ability to learn, but Valona&039;s eyes were dark orry
The Baker was not blind to that He said to the girl, "If you give me the least trouble I&039;ll send him on alone and leave you behind"
Valona&039;s strong hands clenched spasive you no trouble"
It ell into thewhen the Baker rose to his feet and said, "Let&039;s go!"
His last action was to place little black sheets of limp leatherette in their breast pockets
Once outside, Rik looked with astonish could be so coet it on, but ould help hiirl at all Even her legs were covered with thin material, and her shoes were raised at the heels so that she had to balance carefully when she walked
Passers-by gathered, staring and gawking, calling to one another Mostly they were children, ed idlers The Baker seemed oblivious to them He carried a thick stick which found itself occasionally, as though by accident, between the legs of any who pressed too closely
And then, when they were still only a hundred yards fro, the outer reaches of the surrounding croirled excitedly and Rik made out the black and silver of a patroller
That hen it happened The weapon, the blast, and again a wild flight Was there ever a time when fear had not been with him, when the shadow of the patroller had not been behind him?
They found the districts of the City Valona was panting harshly; her new dress bore the wet stains of perspiration
Rik gasped, "I can&039;t run any ot to"
"Not like this Listen" He pulled back firrip "Listen tohio on and do what the Baker wanted us to do?"
She said, "How do you knohat he wanted us to do?" She was anxious She wanted to keep
He said, "We were to pretend ere froave us these" Rik was excited He pulled the little rectangle out of his pocket, staring at both sides and trying to open it as though it were a booklet
He couldn&039;t It was a single sheet He felt about the edges and as his fingers closed at one corner he heard, or rather felt, soon the new surface was difficult to understand though he began carefullyout the syllables
Finally he said, "It&039;s a passport"
"What&039;s that?"
"Soet us away" He was sure of it It had popped into his head A single word, "passport," like that "Don&039;t you see? He was going to have us leave Florina On a ship Let&039;s go through with that"
She said, "No They stopped him They killed him We couldn&039;t, Rik, we couldn&039;t"
He was urgent about it He was nearly babbling "But it would be the best thing to do They wouldn&039;t be expecting us to do that And ouldn&039;t go on the ship he wanted us to go on They&039;d be watching that We&039;d go on another ship Any other ship"
A ship Any ship The words rang in his ears Whether his idea was a good one or not, he didn&039;t care He wanted to be on a ship He wanted to be in space
"Please, Lona!"
She said, "All right If you really think so I knohere the spaceport is When I was a little girl we used to go there on idle-days sometimes and watch from far away to see the ships shoot upward"
They were on their way again, and only a slight uneasiness scratched vainly at the gateway of Rik&039;s consciousness Some me he should re
He drowned it in the thought of the ship that waited for the his fill of excite distance There had been the wild stories of the previous evening, telling of patrollers attacked and of daring escapes By thisthe stories had expanded and there hispers of patrollers killed
He dared not leave his post, but he craned his neck and watched the air-cars pass, and the grient was cut and cut till it was al the City with patrollers, he thought, and was at once frightened and drunkenly uplifted Why should itkilled? They never bothered hiood job It wasn&039;t as though he were a stupid peasant
But he was happy
He scarcely had ti in the outlandish clothing thata passport through the slot
A glance at her, a glance at the passport, a glance at the list of reservations He pressed the appropriate button and two translucent ribbons of fil out at them
"Go on," he said impatiently "Get them on your wrists and move on"
"Which ship is ours?" asked the woners were infrequent at the Florinian spaceport In recent years they had grown more and more infrequent But when they did come they were neither patrollers nor Squires They didn&039;t seem to realize you were only a Florinian yourself and they spoke to you politely
It made him feel two inches taller He said, "You&039;ll find it in· Berth &039;7, madarandin surreptitious calls to friends in the City for , even more unobtrusively, to tap private power-beam conversations in Upper City
It was hours before he found out that he had made a horrible ed at her elbow, pointed quickly and whispered, "That one!"
Valona looked at the indicated ship doubtfully It was much smaller than the ship in Berth &039;7, for which their tickets held good It looked aped, with a raround level
Rik said, "They&039;re airing it They usually air passenger ships before flight to get rid of the accuen, used and reused"
Valona stared at hi of vanity groithin himself "I just know You see, there wouldn&039;t be anyone in it now It isn&039;t comfortable, with the draft on"
He looked about uneasily "I don&039;t knohy there aren&039;t h Was it like this when you used to watch it?"
Valona thought not, but she could scarcely remember Childhood memories were far away