Channeling Cleopatra Read Online Free PDF Page B

Kid the double-helixed ropes to his
process.
    By now, Duke pretty well understood what
Chimera's process was all about, but he wasn't very interested. Why
the hell would anybody want someone else's excess baggage in the
way of memories, anyway? He didn't even want all of his own, most
of the time, especially the ones involving the ex-wives. He sure as
hell didn't want someone else to climb inside his skull with him
and snuggle up and yap all the time where he couldn't keep them
quiet when he preferred to be alone. And he had a lot of thoughts
he didn't care to share with anyone. Jesus, the things rich people
thought of to keep themselves entertained!
    Fortunately, nobody was asking him to
participate in the process, just to protect it, which he would do
because it was kind of interesting and also, he could keep an eye
on the Kid. This was a big break for her. He had never had or
married enough money to be able to send her or the other kids off
to fancy schools, and of all of them, Leda would have enjoyed that
the most. She had to get her education through the Navy, and she
did all right. She'd been working with the state lab since she got
out. But this kind of thing was what she'd always wanted to do, and
he was glad she wanted him along to help her. Of all his offspring,
Leda was the one who took after him the most, poor baby.
    Hiking down the road in the heat, Duke
mopped the sweat off his face with both hands and flapped his
loosened shirttails to give his belly a little breeze. He looked
forward to one of the imported beers in Chimera's fridge. He was
mentally tasting it, feeling it pouring cool and smooth down his
throat, when he heard the roar bearing down on him from behind. He
jumped aside barely in time to escape being run down. He got up,
dusted himself off, and stared down the road at the oddest-looking
machine he had seen in a long time. He fell instantly and totally
in love and forgot all about the beer. He had to have that
bike.
     
     
    CHAPTER 3
     
    About three days after they arrived on
Kefalos, Chimera received a phone call at the villa. Leda was
dutifully staring into a microscope, though the truth was she was
still so jet-lagged she had trouble seeing color until she finished
her third cup of coffee.
    Chimera, chipper as ever, said into the
phone, "Oh, yes, she is right here. Do you want to speak to her?
Oh, yes, that would be much better! We will see you soon."
    "Let me guess," Leda said. "Was that Wolfie
maybe?"
    "Yes! He is here to speak to a couple of the
board members who wish a blending. One will be arriving soon, and
he wishes you to sit in on the interview."
    That sounded good to Leda. What kind of a
nut, other than most of her friends, would volunteer to be
possessed by the soul of some long-dead person who had probably
never been all they were cracked up to be to begin with?
    Leda tried to look halfway respectable,
since they were meeting a member of the board. She put on a clean
print skirt and plain T-shirt, and a beaded necklace and matching
earrings, each adorned with an eye of Horus, a friend had made for
her. Then she and Chimera tootled up the hill to the main offices
and lab in a cute little corporate golf cart-esque
three-wheeler.
    Thinking again of her friends, she asked
Chimera, "What do you do if everybody wants to be the same person?
I know at least three candidates for Mary, Queen of Scots, two for
Elizabeth the First, and you wouldn't believe the number of
nutcases who would really like to be Anne Boleyn or Henry the
Eighth. And it's a darn good thing for you guys King Arthur,
Guinevere, Lancelot, and especially Morgan Le Fey and Merlin were
more or less fictional, or you'd need graveyard loads of them to
fill the demand from the Society for Creative Anachronism
alone."
    Chimera considered this a reasonable
question and didn't even crack a smile. "First, this is still a
very expensive procedure, you understand, Leda. While we obtain as
much sample material as we can from each