Shadowline Drift: A Metaphysical Thriller Read Online Free PDF Page A

forming words in English, “I knew about Delacort’s first election the year you were born, and you weren’t experiencing benesha travel then.” His English was lightly but indefinitely accented—impossible for Jake to place.
    Jake sat down again, willing in his altered state to consider believing.
    The older man smiled. “When I told you I was well traveled, I meant benesha journeys. I’ve been to places you’ve not even heard of, though mostly I stick to large cities and the people in power. They’re the most amusing.”
    “ Of course,” Jake replied calmly. Who was he to cast doubt on his own hallucination?
    Mawgis leaned forward, his hands on his thighs. “Why, of all the possible people in this world, were you selected to come here and negotiate for benesha?”
    Because I ’m damn good at my job, he thought. But Jake knew that no matter how well he did his work, the real reason he’d been sent was his size. His employer had reasoned that the Tabna would be more willing to listen to someone who looked something like they did.
    “ Exactly,” Mawgis said without waiting for an answer. “But they were wrong.”
    “ You won’t give us benesha?”
    “ We will give you all the benesha your hungry food animals can gobble down. Why wouldn’t we?”
    Jake should have been happy. He felt miserable. He was drugged and hallucinating and was sure this conversation wasn’t really taking place—and Mawgis was giving in too easily. “What’s the trick?”
    “ No trick. We want the world’s people to have benesha.”
    He took that in, tried to think through the ramifications. But his mind slid in a different direction. “If benesha really induces this journey ability, why didn’t the mice and other test animals that ate it travel off to different places in their minds?”
    Mawgis shrugged. “How do you know they didn’t? Anyone looking at you would see nothing more than a man calmly sitting on a mat in the dirt. Besides, benesha only induces travel when properly prepared. The poison must be washed out first.”
    “ Poison?”
    “ Benesha is quite poisonous in its natural state.”
    Jake glared at him. Mawgis was playing at some stupid game, and there was much at stake. But he was stoned, there were still negotiations to finish, and this was definitely not the time to get angry. He shook his head, trying to sort out his thoughts.
    “ The mice did fine,” he said, his voice harsher than he’d meant it to be. “None of them were poisoned.”
    “ Animals always do. Toucans and marmosets are among the animals that are particularly fond of benesha, though kinkajou, howler monkeys, and others dislike it. Only people are affected by the poison.”
    “ But the poison is filtered out or made harmless by passing through an animal’s digestion?”
    “ Not at all. It’s like the poison dart frog. In these forests, there are plants that have special alkaloids. Insects eat the plants, take in the alkaloids, and get eaten by the frogs. The frogs turn the alkaloids, along with other chemicals in their bodies, into deadly toxins that pop up on their skin. You know this already. You’ve seen it on television. American and European film crews love to film Indians rubbing their arrows on frog backs, using the poison to make their weapons deadly.”
    Jake nodded stupidly. He’d watched that scene a dozen times.
    “ In your land,” Mawgis said, warming to his subject, “the monarch butterfly does something of the same, eating milkweed when it’s in the larva stage so as to be poisonous to its predators when it turns into a butterfly. The caterpillar eats a poison that causes it no harm, yet is deadly to its enemies. It’s the same with benesha. Do you understand?”
    Jake nodded again, feeling more stupid by the moment. He was afraid he understood too well.
    “With benesha,” Mawgis said, “saliva and then stomach enzymes activate the poison. An animal becomes lethal with its first swallow. For humans it’s