Dracula Unbound Read Online Free PDF

he got up and lifted her over to the bunk.
    Lying together on the bunk later, he muttered almost to himself, “Funny how the marriage ceremony annoys Joe. He just couldn’t face it. I had to go through with it to spite him … and to please you, of course.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t spite your father. He’s rather a honey.”
    Larry chuckled. “Pop a honey? He’s a stubborn-minded old pig. Now that I’m an adult, I see him in a more favorable light than I once did. Still and all … ‘Grocery’s a dirty word to him. He resents me being in groceries, never mind I’m making a fortune. I’ve got a mind of my own, haven’t I? It may be small but it’s my own. To hell with him—we’re different. Let me fix you a drink.”
    As he was getting up and walking naked to his baggage, from which a whiskey bottle protruded, Kylie rolled onto her back and said, “Well, it’s Hawaii for us tomorrow. It’ll be great for you to get from under Joe’s shadow. He’ll change toward you, you’ll see. He may be an old pig, but he’s a good man for all that.”
    Larry paused as he was about to pour, and laughed.
    â€œLay off about Joe, will you? Let’s forget Joe. For sure he’s forgotten about us already. Bernie Clift has given him something new to think about.”
    Only a few yards away, Clift and Bodenland were walking in the desert, talking together in confidential tones.
    â€œThis new daughter-in-law of yours—she is a striking young lady and no mistake. And not happy about what I’m doing, I gather.”
    â€œThe religious and the economic views of mankind are always at odds. Maybe we’re always religious when we’re young. I lost anything like that when my other son died. Now I try to stick to rationality—I hate to think of the millions of people in America who buy into some crackpot religion or other. In the labs, we’ve also come up against time. Not whole millennia of time, like you, but just a few seconds. We’re learning how to make time stand still. As you’d expect, it costs. It sure costs! If only I can get backing from Washington … Bernie, I could be … well, richer than … I can’t tell you—”
    â€œRationality,” Clift interrupted impatiently. “It means greed, basically. Lack of imagination. I can see Kylie is a girl with imagination, whatever else—”
    â€œYou have taken a fancy to her. I saw that when we met.”
    â€œJoe, listen, never mind that. I’ve no time for women. And I’ve got a hold here of something more momentous than any of your financial enterprises. This is going to affect everyone, everyone on earth … It will alter our whole concept of ourselves. Hasn’t that sunk in yet?”
    He started off toward the dark bulk of the mountain. Bodenland followed. They could hear the one group of students who had not yet turned in arguing among themselves.
    â€œYou’re mad, Bernie. You always were, in a quiet way.”
    â€œI never sleep,” said Clift, not looking back.
    â€œIsn’t that what someone once said about the Church? ‘It never sleeps.’ Sounds like neurosis to me.”
    They climbed to the dig. A single electric light burned under the blue canopy, where one of the students sat on watch. Clift exchanged a few words with him.
    â€œSpooky up here, sir,” said the student.
    Clift grunted. He would have none of that. Bodenland squatted beside him as the paleontologist removed the tarpaulin.
    From down in the camp came a sudden eruption of shouts—male bellows and female voices raised high, then the sound of blows, clear in the thin desert air.
    â€œDamn,” said Clift quietly. “They will drink. I’ll be back.”
    He left, running down the hill path toward the group of students who had been singing only a few minutes earlier. He called to them in his