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flowers, and the pathways, something was missing. He looked again.
Trees! Only a handful of dwarf trees were scattered amid the statues, the
pathways, and the hedge maze on the right side where two boys and three girls
shrieked as they tore down the dead-end and hidden corridors.
He nodded in understanding. With the high winds, the town couldn't afford the
damage of a substantial tree thrown into a building.
After sniffing at the air and discovering nothing but the smells of newness-new
brick, new stone, new plastics-he glanced around the square again before
beginning his walk to the right and toward the street that would lead to the
landing field at the western side of the town.
His steps slowed as he passed two women who sat at opposite ends of a stone
bench rising out of the too-green grass imported from New Colora, grass
originally from Old Earth. "... that's him . . . one they call the Captain ..." Gerswin
ignored the whispers and kept walking.
"Captain of what? He's a major."
"Some say he's the devil's Captain . . . Was a devil-kid. . . ."
"... good-looking in his own way. ..."
Gerswin kept walking and let the voices fade into the background as his steps
brought him opposite the community hall.
His eyes passed over the closed endurasteel doors. Automatic portals would
have taken too much energy-particularly for civilians, the Service had noted.
Gerswin had agreed with the decision, but not for that reason.
He turned right, down toward the main gate and the short landing strip
beyond.
A patch of green before the wall and me gate appeared as he approached-
another park. The tops of the mountains behind the foothills were barely visible
under the whitish gray of .the higher than normal clouds. The lower stratus layers
that raced westward above the town had not reached the foothills yet, nor had the
rain begun to fall, although it would.
Gerswin caught the glint of a flitter, the one coming to pick him up and
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increased his already quick steps.
While the town represented the future, he felt ill-at-ease on the wide streets
between the low buildings. He understood why the older shambletowners had not
taken the offer to move from their crowded lanes, even though the confinement
of the shambletown was not for him and never had been.
Would he always feel uncomfortable in the future he was helping to build?
Would the reclaimed lands seem strange after the desolate high plains of purple
clay, purpled grasses, coyotes, and ice rain?
He paced onward, his face set in an expression showing neither joy nor
sadness.
Chapter XLVII
Gerswin juggled the heavy, double-ended and double-bladed knife in his left
hand, then balanced it on his fingertip, finally flipping it end over end into the air,
where he snatched it right-handed at its mid-point.
He glanced at the targets, ignoring the figure who waited behind the wall at his
back, the wall that surrounded the makeshift practice range. The last glimpse he
had caught indicated that Major Vierio was still waiting, although it had only
been minutes since he arrived.
Vierio's approach had been diffident, almost hesitant. When Gerswin had
stopped to walk over, the other had motioned him back, saying, "Finish up.
However long it takes. I'll wait."
Gerswin raised his eyebrows in puzzlement, but turned from the target and
began to walk away.
Abruptly, he dived to the left, twisted in mid-air, releasing the knife, and
tucked. He came out of the roll on the balls of his feet, the second knife in his left
hand momentarily-before it too sped toward the target.
Dusting his hands on the legs of the old flight suit, he trotted forward to
retrieve the knives. As he covered the nearly ten meters between him and the
target he had chosen, he checked his accuracy.
Both knives would have penetrated the heart, had the target been a man,
although the first had not gone through the plastic-shielded and stiffened foam as
much as he would have liked.
He frowned as he stepped up to the target, listening, but there was no sound of
movement from Vierio. He eased the first knife from the target and replaced it in
the waistband sheath. The second followed.
Glancing upward at the clouds, he could see the light gray darkening in the
north, a sign that the ice rain would be returning.
He sniffed, but the air remained dry, with little hint of moisture.
Reiner Vierio still sat quietly on the far side of the back stone wall, waiting
patiently, although Gerswin knew he was ready to leave Old Earth for his
promotion to commander and his transfer back to New Augusta in whatever
obscure screen-shoving assignments detail his orders had brought.
Gerswin took a deep breath and walked to the far left end of the unofficial [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]