Smallworld Read Online Free PDF Page B

their own world on the wall screen. Magus was fascinated by forests, by worlds that could hold whole square kilometres of trees.

    “Does water come from the air where you come from?” said Magus.

    Asahara nodded. “A great deal of water. Sometimes too much. Sometimes we call it smog, sometimes fug, sometimes acid rain. You saw the Devil, Magus, didn’t you, when it came into the church and took Elder Inherit-The-Wind.”

    The boy nodded. “I drawed it for you.” He pushed a chalk tablet across the table.

    “Wow,” said Asahara. There were horns. There were wings. There was a tail.

    “You missed out the pitchfork,” she said.

    “Didn’t have it,” said the boy. “Must have left it at home.”

    “What was its skin like?” said Asahara. “Did it look like hair, or chitin, or metal?”

    “It was blurry most of the time,” said the boy. “But it had to slow down to turn corners, like a dog on a wet floor. It had great big feet. It digged its claws in when it turned, and dropped down low to the deck.”

    “Yes,” said Asahara. “It would have to.” She looked at the chalk picture again. “These wings are very small.”

    “They were glowing,” said the boy. “It stopped and flapped them after every time it moved fast.”

    “Well I’ll be,” said Asahara. “Heat sinks.”

    “Elder Raffaele said we might be able to track it on something called infrared,” said the boy, pronouncing the word ‘infraired’. “He said that was the same as heat.” He licked his lips, staring at the spigot on the wall. “It’s hot in here. Can I have a glass of lemonade? The others say your lemonade in here is cold.”

    I knew there had to be a reason why they all turned up straight away. Asahara reached for the spigot and poured a clear plastic glass of what the children had been told was lemonade, a carbonated Tetsushuri company vitamin and amino acid delivery system. Then she sat stock still, staring into the liquid.

    “There’s a rainbow in my drink,” said the boy. “If I drink the rainbow, will I have God’s promise to never again destroy the Earth inside of me?”

    The rainbow fanned out from a narrow point. Trying to correct for refraction, she traced the line of rainbows mentally out of the glass, across the Bridge, and—

    — out through the Bridge landing window.

    “It’ll be a hollow promise if you do, Magus.” Frantically, she fished at her belt for the communicator.

    “It’s been listening in on our conversations. That must mean it understands English. The laser beam aimed in through the landing window bounces off the glass, the glass vibrates when people talk, the micro-vibrations in the glass echo back and tell you what they’re saying—”

    Adeti waited patiently for the talking to stop. “Where did this laser come from?”

    “ Outside the ship. I’m shining one of our own measuring lasers out at the same angle till I hit rock and following it with image intensifiers. There’s not much of a horizon here, I reckon it would have to be within fifty metres and at least two metres tall —”

    Adeti shouted into the communicator. “Calm down! Calm down , mister! How long ago did this happen?”

    “ Just now. Not two minutes. I think it’s gone now. I can’t see it. I think it scooted off over the rocks, there’s some big ones about thirty metres out, I could go out and take a look —”

    Wong and Shankar shook their heads very definitely at Adeti, who confirmed: “Negative. Stay right where you are. There’s two ways it could have hidden. It could have scooted off over the rocks, or it could have dropped down low and scooted in closer to the ship.”

    “ Oh god. Did I lock the door? Magus, did I lock the door? No, hang on, hang on, hang on…I’m switching the intensifiers into the infrared band…YES!” The Correctness Officer’s breathing grew slower in the communicator. “It went away over the rocks! Captain, the Devil leaves a hot trail in air! It