Harry Harrison by Planet of No Return v 1.1 (doc)

Author:Planet of No Return v 1.1 (doc)
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-06-12T11:59:47+00:00

10: Taking Charge

“The wound is healing quite well,” Lea said, holding Brion’s hand and turning it back and forth as she looked at the stump of the missing finger. She spread antiseptic cream on the wound while he watched.

“Arb’t klrm,” he said.

“If you are trying to say ‘That hurt’, you’ve got to learn to swallow the terminal sounds a good deal more, or the noisome natives are never going to understand you.”

“It’s a pretty repulsive language.”

“That’s just your linguistic isolationism talking, Brion. Taken abstractly, no language can possibly be repulsive …”

Brion interrupted her with a raised finger, then spoke quietly. “Don’t look now, but Ravn is trying to make a run for it. I’ve been waiting for this. I’ll give him a bit of a lead before I grab him. I want him to run and to feel that he is getting away from us at last. Then, when I grab him again, he should be in despair. Perhaps I can get through to him then when his defence are down, convince him to talk to me. I haven’t wanted to force it up until now. But if he has this much energy I think that he can use some shaking up.”

“Give him an extra shake for me. Whenever he looks at me he has that same disgusted expression that he had when you gave him the cooked meat to eat.”

“His is a very stratified society, you saw that for yourself.”

“Yes. With women somewhere below the bottom. Ahh, there he goes. He’s getting to his feet now, looking in this direction.”

“Turn away as though you don’t see him. I want him to have some hope of escape — before I take it away from him. This should be a traumatic situation that might very well get him off his guard.”

Ravn knew that the Old One Who Talked would not pursue him. He sat always in the same place. And of course the She was of no importance. It was only the big Hunter he feared, for this one’s strength was like that of two men. Yet the chance must be taken now, when the Hunter was not looking. Ravn had eaten and rested. He was the Ravn and still strong in the legs since for many years he had pursued and killed Meat-things. He had outrun them — and now he would outrun the Hunter as well. The Hunter was stupid, not even looking. The Old One was stupid too for he just sat there and gave no alarm. Slowly at first, this was the way, he crept away through the grass — now leap up, fast! Like the wind, like the Meat-things — he would never be caught now.

Lea watched the old man running fleetly across the plain, further and further away. “Aren’t you taking a risk?” she asked. “The old bastard has a good turn of speed. It would be a shame to lose him now. There could be trouble, you might have to fight with his friends. They could be waiting for him out there.

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