One Million Tomorrows by Bob Shaw

Author:Bob Shaw [Shaw, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780575111110
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 2011-09-29T14:30:00+00:00

“I know I must have seen this on your compcard, but I’ve forgotten the details,” Kendy said. “Tell me, Mr. Carewe—what is your actual age?”

“I’m forty.”

“Oh! You tied off quite recently then.”

The phrase “tied off” jarred with Carewe and he almost told Kendy not to use it—then he realized what was in the other’s mind. It was well-known that very old cools, afraid of death yet tired of life, sometimes were literally overwhelmed by the deathwish. Without conscious volition, they became walking disaster areas where mishap followed mishap until the inevitable fatality occurred.

“Quite recently,” Carewe said. “I’m not accident prone, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“It was just a thought.” Kendy surveyed the little ward with distaste, obviously anxious to get away and attend to more important matters. His pink healthy skin was almost luminous in the morning sunlight slanting through the window. “There was the business in your chalet, then the trouble with the floater on the river, and …”

“I’m not accident prone, and I have every intention of staying alive,” Carewe interrupted.

“As I said, it was just a thought.”

“I appreciate that, but my definition of an accident does not include poisoning and stabbing.”

“We recovered the floater from the river,” Kendy said with a frown, apparently unwilling to discuss the attempted murder allegation.

“Yes?”

“A pin was missing from the height sensor linkage. When it fellout the sensor thought the vehicle was parked or grounded, and naturally it shut off the power.”

“Naturally.”

“Well, at least it had to be accidental—there’s no way I can think of to make a pin like that fall out at a predetermined point on a journey.”

Carewe traced patterns on the bed sheets with one fingertip. “I’m not familiar with the design of your floaters, but I imagine that when one is passing over a river this height sensor linkage gets doused with water.”

“It’s bound to.”

“Suppose someone had removed the original pin and replaced it with one made of, say, gordonite?”

“What’s gordonite?”

It’s an alloy which dissolves almost instantaneously on contact with water.”

Kendy sighed theatrically. “We’re back to the mysterious plot against your life. You’re suggesting there’s a would-be murderer in the base.”

“Wrong!” Carewe felt his anger returning. “Yesterday I was suggesting that, now I’m telling you.”

“I’ve made a check on the personnel from every contingent—there’s nobody in the base who has a new gash on his face.” Kendy got to his feet.

“And how about that little fringe of land surrounding the base? Africa, I think you call it.”

Kendy smiled. “I like your sense of humor, Mr. Carewe. There’s a very old British joke in which King Darius meets David at breakfast the morning after he had thrown him into the lions’ den. The king says `Did you sleep well?’ and David says, ‘No—as a matter of fact I was troubled by lions,’ and the king sniffs and says, ‘All I can say is, you must have brought them with you.”

Carewe smiled uncertainly. “That’s a joke?”

“It baffled me for a long time, too. Then—I’m a student of Nineteenth and

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