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felt like both their eyes were boring straight into me.
Rick got me a drink a whiskey and soda and I almost in-haled it. While he
continued to make small talk with the com-mander and the doctor, I
polished it off and got another. I had needed a drink bad, and when the first
had no immediate effect, I ordered a double and drank a second one.
By the time Rick finished, or could finish, considering they were his bosses,
I was beginning to feel no pain at all and was nursing a third drink and
second double.
"Well," he said, not noticing, I guess, "that's all the impor-tant people. The
rest are from the university and Washington, and I know them about as well as
they know you, which is not at all."
I took a step, suddenly felt a bit dizzy, and latched on to him for support.
"Whoa!" I managed.
He looked at me and frowned. "You all right?"
"I I think maybe I'm a l'il bit drunk, love."
He rolled his eyes, got me firmly in hand, and started for the door slowly but
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steadily, nodding to folks as he went. Both he and I had the thought that I
was getting drunker and less steady by the minute and might not make the door.
By the time we did, I was happy, uncaring, dizzy, and not quite aware of what
planet I was on. Rick guided me down some hall and off to one side, out of
view of the reception area but on the same floor. It wasn't a room, more like
a lounge area in the middle of the building, but it had some nice chairs and
couches, and I man-aged to settle down into one of the latter. I felt a lot
better, a lot steadier when I did so.
Then, suddenly, I seemed to fall right through the couch.
I was falling, falling down the hole, twisting, winding, yet not hitting the
sides...
Something told me I'd been here before.
This time there was no dramatic flyover, no grand transfor-mation. This time I
hit the hot sands, and it stung.
I cried out, rolled over on my back, and spit out some of the sand that had
gotten into my mouth. Then I just stretched out and lay there, the sand
feeling very warm but not intolerably hot. My eyes were closed as I tried to
keep the universe from spinning around so fast.
I heard somebody, or something
, running toward me and managed to open my eyes and raise my head a little.
What I saw was another of those somewhat familiar figures, that of a woman,
stark naked but with her body all painted up, running straight for me. I tried
to at least sit up, but I
couldn't. Not yet. All I could do was groan and wait for the woman to reach
me.
She knelt down beside me and then started what for all prac-tical purposes was
a routine physical examination. Finally she finished, with me just continuing
to groan and unable to func-tion, and stood back up, looking down at me. "Stay
here. Do you understand me?"
I managed a nod.
"Okay, then. Stay here. I'll be back in a couple of minutes with something to
help your head."
I sank back, and I'm not sure how long it was before she re-turned.
Certainly minutes, maybe half an hour. I didn't feel much better, and I
mostly wanted to just keep my eyes shut and remain as I was. It wasn't a
hundred percent comfortable, but any other position would have been worse.
I felt a strong arm helping me raise my back a bit, and the woman offered me a
gourd with something liquid in it. "Drink this. It'll make the aches and
dizziness go away."
That sounded good enough for me; I drank in the first mouthful of the stuff,
then choked and tried to spit it out. That shit was foul
! She was intent, though, and forced it down. Al-most as soon as it was all
gone inside me I
began to sit up on my own and see perfectly well, only I was coughing and
spit-ting and letting loose with a string of curses.
"That fuckin' cure's worse'n the goddamn disease
!" I protested.
"Yeah, well, you're up on your rear end now, anyway," the woman noted.
I was coming out of it, and even though the awful taste re-mained, I was
remarkably awake, aware, and clear-headed. I knew precisely where I was
and who she was.
"Wilma?"
Her head shot up, and the expression was suspicious, not concerned as before.
"How do you know that name?"
"Wilma, it's me
! Cory! Don't you recognize me?"
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"You ain't no Cory ever knew. You got the wrong plumbing."
I
For a moment I was startled by this. Then, suddenly, I real-ized that falling
back into this netherworld when I'd passed out had instantly restored not just
the old two but all three person-alities and existences to perspective,
although physically and perhaps primarily I was still Rina.
"Wilma you remember when we all kind of merged to-gether and I took control of
Angel's body and came through with you? This is kind of like that.
I'm Cory Maddox and Drew Maddux, and I'm also Korinna."
"Yeah? And how do I know that? You don't look like no-body ever saw."
I
"I probably do
, but you don't remember it." I managed to sit up and stretch.
"What this sand, anyway? It's is hot
."
"Gold dust, mostly. Don't change the subject. You can't be Cory 'cause he's
still alive and kicking in the hands of the in-stitute. I
know
. I've actually seen him and talked to folks who talked to him.
You
I never saw."
As carefully as possible I explained what had happened as much as I could, not
really understanding it myself.
I don't think Wilma bought most of it, but she was willing to at least accept
that I wasn't a threat inside her domain. "So why are you back here?" she
asked at last.
I shook my head. "Beats me. At least I'm human this time, for whatever that's
worth. Somehow I don't know how somehow I think the complete
'me' is bein' stored down here someplace, somehow. When I'm here, I'm whole.
When I'm up there, I'm just one mostly. Almost like, well..."
"What?"
"She'll be all right in a while,"
Les Cohen assured Rick.
"Just too much booze too fast."
"Then maybe I should just take her home."
"Nonsense! Why risk bouncing her around and all that? Be-sides, you're on duty
tonight, aren't you? So where's she better off? Home, out cold and alone, or
here, where you can check on her?"
Rick sighed.
"Yeah, I guess you 're right."
"Go on back for the facilities tour and relax. I'll make sure she's
comfortable and station a nurse outside the clinic. If she wakes up, which
I doubt before tomorrow sometime the way she looks now, I'll call you.
Okay?"
"They've got my body up there!"
Wilma must have thought she was facing a madwoman. "What in hell are you
talkin' abput? You're right here!"
"But I'm also there
. Two different reality planes and some interconnection between the two.
That's how it's done! Somebody's got an active switch on me somehow."
"Well, you sit here and babble, lady. Me, I'm goin' back."
"No! Wait! We need to connect somehow on that plane!"
Wilma was dubious. "Yeah? Why? Even if I buy what you're selling, you said you
didn't remember much of any-thing when you're there."
"Maybe, but I didn't know much when we first met, either. Besides, I met
somebody at the party tonight you already know. Sexy Danielle Tanaka."
That got her interest a bit. "Yeah? Where? At the institute?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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