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Selby felt a sudden stillness inside him. David had brought the dog to
Engo from the distant planet of his birth, yet Johnny claimed having him since
he was a puppy. He had the sharp memory of Lora's sudden fear when he'd
remarked, "Johnny's a strange boy, isn't he?" And she'd said that Johnny was
extremely perceptive, which he'd already discovered. But Hallam Vogel's
records didn't show that at all. He had found Johnny quite ordinary; David had
been the perceptive one.
Selby had the wild thought that the boy next to him wasn't Johnny Sloan at
all, but was David Gant. If Johnny had died and David had taken his name...No,
that was impossible. David Gant had been tall for his age, blonde,
light-skinned. And crippled. The record had been explicit. But the boy next to
him was dark, stocky, short -- an exact picture of Johnny Sloan's record. All
but the IQ. Johnny was anything but ordinary.
He brought his jumbled thoughts into order. David Gant had been the pk.
There was scant doubt of that. And David was dead. He knew that from Simon,
Lora, and Johnny, and he'd seen the grave. Everything was too pat, he
reflected. Something was terribly wrong, but what? He wanted to ask Johnny
bluntly, but refrained, fearing that the boy would withdraw. He couldn't
afford to alarm him. He decided on another tactic.
Glancing sideways at the boy, he said, "Last time you said you weren't afraid
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of me?" He made it a question.
"I'm not, Mr. Selby."
"How can you be so certain?"
"You asked me that, too," Johnny countered.
"I know," he agreed. "You said that you could see in my mind that I was all
right, but I'm wondering if there might not be another reason."
Johnny said slowly, "I was told."
"By whom?"
"Mr. Simon."
"Simon?" Selby felt a distinct shock. He had expected the boy to name
Lora.
"He says you're not like the others," Johnny explained. "He thinks you're more
like Captain Cromwell."
"I take that as a compliment, Johnny."
The boy looked at him. "Why did you ask how I felt?"
"Because I want you to trust in me, believe in me."
"I do, Mr. Selby."
"Did Simon tell you anything about Philip Wig?"
"He's an evil man," Johnny replied.
"And dangerous," he cautioned.
"Mr. Simon told me that."
"You know about the detector beams, I suppose?"
The boy nodded. "I go around them."
Startled, Selby asked, "You know where they are?"
"Mr. Simon told us."
"How would he know?" Selby looked sharply at him and took a wild guess.
"From Lieutenant Stagg's mind?"
"Mostly," Johnny acknowledged. "He couldn't get them all but he got the main
ones."
"Simon must be extremely sensitive," Selby reflected.
"He knows just about everything," Johnny asserted. "He told us about the
groat."
"He did? You have to be very careful," he cautioned.
"Naw, I can sense it," he replied disdainfully. "So can Rok."
Selby eyed him thoughtfully. "Do you know where Simon is?"
"Not right now. I haven't been listening."
"I haven't seen him around lately," he said casually.
"Mr. Simon?" Johnny looked at him, then closed his eyes and turned away.
For a long moment he was silent, then looked back again, his face puzzled. "I
can't hear him, Mr. Selby."
"Can you usually contact him?" Selby asked sharply.
"Well, not always."
Selby saw the worry in the boy's face and let the subject drop. For a while
they sat silent again. The river, the wind in the agora trees, the orange
half-moon now high in the east -- everything combined to paint a picture in
Selby's mind of a planet which no longer was so alien. Not when he considered
people like Simon, Lora Gant, the boy next to him whom Hallam Vogel had
certainly underrated. Johnny Sloan was as sharp as they came. The latter
thought gave him a twinge of unease.
Finally he said, "I hear Mr. Olaf is coming to take you away."
"In a few days," Johnny replied.
"He must be a good friend."
"He is, Mr. Selby."
"Does he come here often?"
"I've never seen him," the boy admitted, "but I knew he sends us lots of
things."
"Never seen him?"
"No, just Mr. Simon."
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"Then he's been to Engo before?"
"Yes," the boy answered simply.
Selby suppressed the urge to question him, afraid of going too far. He wanted
to ask of the people he'd seen going toward the meadow, and of Lora's remark
that they were escaping, but sensed it wasn't the time. Something warned him
that the boy, so talkative now, suddenly could become mute. He didn't want
that to happen.
Instead, he asked, "Why do you come here alone...at this time of night?"
Johnny brought his eyes around, searching Selby's face. "I was talking with
someone," he said finally.
"With Mr. Olaf?"
"No."
"Who?" he persisted.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?" he asked wonderingly.
"I've never seen him," Johnny explained.
"Oh, then you talk telepathically?" As Johnny nodded, he asked, "What do you
talk about?"
"Our bridge."
"Bridge?" Selby stared at the dark river, trying to grasp the boy's meaning.
Johnny caught his glance and said, "No, not there -- not over the river."
"A bridge to where?"
Johnny glanced away without answering and Selby asked, "What bridge, Johnny? I
don't understand. Who is the man? Where does he talk to you from?"
"From there," Johnny said. He flung a hand upward, pointing toward the twin
galaxies that formed the Magellanic Clouds.
"He talks to me from there."
"He talks to me from there." Selby stared disbelievingly at the sky, Johnny's
words ringing in his ears. Was the boy mad? Deluded? Making a fool of him? No
man could communicate across so vast a gulf, not even with the best equipment
ever conceived. No ship could cross it. Even with the miracle of travel
through the time stream, the great Federation ships were restricted to their
own galaxy. In time, scientists intoned, and they spoke in terms of many
thousands of years. And yet... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]