All of an Instant by Richard Garfinkle

Author:Richard Garfinkle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

XVII

On a spray-swept beach on the island of Fiji, five years futureward from the broken island, Nir and Kookatchi squatted on the sands, passing back and forth from one hand to the other the last of their stolen power supplies. That it was a clue to the nature of the breaking was clear. But how to pursue it without venturing into the broken island? That was the question that had stymied them. Conversation had vanished into contemplation as they considered the strangeness of this unchanging object, Nir waiting for inspiration to strike him, Kookatchi hoping that some appropriate memory would surface.

Two teenaged girls, wrapped from head to toe in the latest figure-concealing beachwear, watched the two strange men tossing the power cell back and forth like a toy. The girls had just that morning flown from their home in Alaska to swim in the warm Pacific waters before going to work at the direct-neural-stimulation musical recordings factory in the evening. The two had been close friends since birth but now were rivals for a promotion. They had come to Fiji together in order to try and patch up their differences so that whichever of them was promoted would not lose the friendship of the other.

“The tall one’s a protester,” one of the girls whispered, distracted from her purpose by the scandalous sight of Nir’s naked form.

“He can’t be,” the other said. “Not out in plain sight. The police wouldn’t let one of them run free in a public place.”

“Why else would someone be naked on a beach?” the first one argued, wrapping her gauze blanket tighter around her body.

“I don’t know,” said the second. “What should we do?”

The first girl pulled a circular metal disk out of the fashionable lime green pouch tied to her thigh and slid a long fingernail, painted with the face of a cougar, around its outer edge. There was a momentary hum, then a voice came from the disk. “Fiji security police. How may we assist you?”

“There’s a protester on the beach,” the girl said in a hissing whisper.

“Turn on your transponder and an officer will be there within five minutes.”

The girl tapped the center of the disk three times. A small spot of pink light began to blink on and off from the place she had touched. The two young women went to hide behind a large outcropping of rocks to watch the police apprehend these dangerous criminals. Both agreed this was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to them. Their future rooted-rivalry was quickly forgotten in the pleasure of the moment.

Neither Nir nor Kookatchi had paid any attention to their observers. Indeed, they were paying precious little attention to their surroundings at all. They had anchored onto the Fiji beach for lack of any idea of where to go or what to do. They had begun tossing around the power cell to fill the empty silence between them.

Kookatchi tossed the dumbbell through the air and watched it twirl in a graceful arc down toward Nir, an idle moment of beauty amidst the dullness.

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