Migration by James P. Hogan

Author:James P. Hogan
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781439134474
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2010-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

Korshak had nothing to gain by staying longer, and Bahoba had as good as said that he didn’t expect him to do so. Korshak left shortly afterward, carrying his bag slung across a shoulder. At this point he had formed no clear plan of what he intended to do next. His guess was that if Tek didn’t want to be found, as seemed to be the case, its first move would be to try and leave Plantation, which would mean getting to the ferry dock at the hub. However, six spokes connected the torus to the hub, three of which provided general access for anyone wishing to travel. Hence, the only way to keep a watch on who was leaving – assuming he could get there before the next ferry departure – would be to find somewhere suitable to wait at the dock itself. The next spoke continuing northward was now the nearest with a public-transit service to the hub, so instead of angling back through Forest the way he had come, Korshak took the wider track leading directly down to the valley floor.

His thoughts had progressed that far, and he had gone only a short distance from the house, when, not far ahead of him, a figure who had been sitting on one of several cut stumps by the side of the track straightened up, looking in his direction. It was a woman in a light jacket and tan shirt worn open over casual pants. She gave every indication of having expected him and having been waiting. As Korshak drew closer, he recognized her as Lois Iles, the optical physicist from the Hub observatory on Aurora. Years previously, in the time leading up to Aurora’s launch, she had also been involved in identifying and recruiting likely candidates for the mission.

It had been a while now since their paths had crossed. He had last seen Lois at a reception that Masumichi had held celebrating the first child to be born to one of his innumerable relatives. She was somewhere in her forties now, her shoulder-length hair still blond and wavy. The firm set to her mouth and features was relieved from harshness by a rounding of the nose and chin, and just at this moment softened further by an expression of amusement at Korshak’s obvious perplexity.

“Hello, Korshak,” she said.

It was a day of one weird thing after another. “I don’t believe in coincidences,” Korshak replied simply.

“I waited a little way farther up, nearer the house, where I thought I’d be able to catch you before you reached it, whichever way you came,” she said, as if that explained anything at all. “But I missed you somehow. The first thing I knew was when you and Bahoba were crossing the yard at the back. So I waited here. I had a feeling you’d probably come down this way – but it was close enough to see if you went back the same way you came.” She paused. Korshak just stared at her.

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