Riverworld Saga, Book 5 - Gods of Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer

Author:Philip Jose Farmer [Farmer, Philip Jose]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

"Tom will have to be told," she said. "Surely, he'll do what must be done."

"I'll call him now," Nur said.

She sat down to wait, thinking that she would hear from him in ten or fifteen minutes.

However, the screen glowed on the control console in less than six minutes. She was surprised to see, not Nur's, but Tom Turpin's face. It was red under his dark skin, and his face was contorted.

"I'm contacting all of you!" he shouted.

You, she understood, would be the seven companions. But what was he doing in the central area forming the O at the tips of the pie-slice-shaped private worlds? And why were his favorite woman, Diamond Lil Schindler, his cronies, Chauvin, Joplin and other

musicians, and their women there?

"OK! I see all of you there! Man, I'm mad! Mad, do you hear?"

Nur's voice, quiet and soothing, came.

"Calm down, Tom. Tell us what happened."

"They threw me out!" he screamed. "Overpowered my guards, grabbed me and my friends, and threw me out! They said I wasn't King Tom no more! I was through! I couldn't ever get back in! So long, goodbye, farewell, adieu, adios, motherfucker!"

"Who's they?" Burton's voice said. "Was Bill Williams the ringleader?"

"No, not him! He moved out two days ago into one of the empty worlds! It was Jonathan Hawley and Hamilton Biggs did it! They were the ringleaders, I mean!"

Alice had probably been introduced to the two, but she did not remember the names.

Gods of Rivenvorld /

"Something like this was to be expected," Nur said. "There's little… nothing… you can do about it, Tom. Why don't you move into one of the empty worlds? And be very careful the next time you select someone to bring in?"

"I can't even do that!" Tom yelled. He raised his arms and brought them down violently, his hands slapping his thighs. "Can't even do that! Williams is in one of them! The gypsies have taken over another! I know 'cause I saw them coming out of it! I can't get into any of the other four! Somebody's locked them with codewords! I don't know who did it, but I think Hawley and Biggs did it! They're holding them for excess population or whatever! Maybe they did it just out of spite!"

"It could be worse. They could have killed you," Nur said.

"Yeah, Pollyanna, it could have been worse!"

Turpin was weeping now. The big black woman, Schindler, put her arms around him. He sobbed on her neck while she smiled, exposing the twinkling gems set into her teeth. On Earth, she had been one of the most important madams of the St. Louis Tenderloin district and one of Turpin's lovers.

Alice waited until he had released himself from Diamond Lil's embrace, and she said,

"You and your friends can stay at my place, Tom."

The others, Burton, de Marbot, Aphra, Frigate, and Nur, hastened to extend their invitations.

"No," Turpin said, wiping his eyes with a huge violet handkerchief, "that ain't necessary, but I thank you. We'll just move into apartments."

He raised a fist

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.