Ecce and Old Earth by Vance Jack

Author:Vance, Jack [Vance, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780812557015
Publisher: Orion
Published: 1991-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

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Chapter VII

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Chapter VII, Part 1

Wayness rode the omnibus from Tzem to Draczeny, and apparently was not followed. At Draczeny she changed to a slideway car and was conveyed at great speed to the west.

Late in the afternoon the car halted at Pagnitz, a transfer station on the route which continued all the way across the continent to Ambeules. Wayness pretended to ignore the stop; then, at the last possible instant, jumped to the station platform. For a moment she stood watching to see if anyone else had altered his or her plans at the last minute, but no one had done so – specifically no plump little man in a dark suit with a black mustache like a smudge across his pallid face.

Wayness took looking at the Inn of the Three Rivers. From her room she telephoned Pirie Tamm at Fair Winds. Pirie Tamm spoke cordially: “Aha, Wayness It is good to hear your voice! Where are you calling from?”

“At the moment I am at Castaing, but I am leaving at once for Maudry and the Historical Library. I will call you as soon as possible.”

“Very well; I won’t keep you on the line. Until tomorrow. “Half an hour later Wayness placed a second call to Pirie Tamm at the bank in Yssinges.

The circumstances had made him testy. “I never thought I would see the day when I distrusted my own telephone! It’s a damned outrage!”

“I’m sorry, Uncle Pirie. I know that I am causing no end of trouble.”

Pirie Tamm held up his hand. “Nonsense girl! You are doing nothing of the sort of the sort. It’s the uncertainty I find galling! I have had experts in to check out the entire system but they have found nothing. They also guarantee nothing. There are too many ways to tap into a system, so we must continue to take precautions, at least for the time. Now then, what have you been doing?”

As succinctly as possible Wayness told of her activities. “I am now on the way to Trieste where I hope to find Xantief, whoever he is.”

Pirie Tamm gave a deprecatory grunt, the better to mask his feelings. “It seems, then, that you have climbed – or is it descended? – another rung on the ladder. Either way, should we consider this an achievement?”

“I hope so. The ladder is already longer than I might like.”

“Hmf, yes indeed. Stand by a moment while I look into the directory. We’ll pick up a line on this fellow.”

Wayness waited. A minute passed and another. Pirie Tamm’s face returned to the screen. “‘Alcide Xantief’: this is his name. There is a business address, no more: Via Malthus 26, Trieste Old Port. He is listed as a dealer in ‘Arcana,’ which means whatever you want it to mean.”

Wayness made a note of the address. “I wish I could rid myself of the conviction that I was being followed.”

“Ha! Perhaps you are, for a fact, being followed and this is the basis of your conviction.

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