Rob Grant by Colony

Author:Colony
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-01-04T13:47:47+00:00

21

‘You are talking about the sign on the door, yes?’

Lewis nods.

‘The sign that says: “Fire Exit”?’

Lewis and Oslo look at each other sideways. ‘Are you telling me,’ Lewis takes a step towards him, ‘that you can interpret those symbols?’

‘Yes.’

‘He’s lying.’ Oslo intrudes coldly, but there’s a hint in her voice that she wants to be disproved. ‘Naturally, he’s lying. He doesn’t want to go back in the jar.’

‘Of course I don’t want to…’ Eddie can’t even bring himself to say it. ‘Of course I want to live. But I’m not lying. I can read.’ Eddie looks around the room frantically. ‘See, over there, the sign over the speaker? It says: “Ship Com”. And there, over that keypad: “Temperature Override”.’ But Lewis and Oslo seem unswayed. This is insane. How do you prove you can read to a pair of illiterates?

Lewis gets an idea. ‘All right.’ He turns and picks out one of the jars. ‘Who’s this?’

Eddie reads the label.

Lewis passes his palm over it, and the computer confirms Eddie’s interpretation.

Oslo is hard to convince. Perhaps Eddie knew the jar’s incumbent, or the head bears a familial resemblance to someone Eddie did know. She makes them repeat the procedure a dozen times, until even Lewis is way beyond satisfied.

‘That’s enough, Bernadette. He can do it.’

‘So do I get to live, or what? No rush. I’d just like to know what to pack for the next fifty years. Will I need socks, or not?’

Lewis responds with a less than heart-warming: ‘For now. We’ll keep you in the suit for now.’

Oslo asks: ‘Do you think we should still try to pass him off as Dr Morton?’

Lewis nods. ‘I think that it might be easier to sell Dr Morton to the, uhm, dissident faction than Charles whatever-he-was, Head of Ice Cream.’

Eddie’s about to protest that Community Planner was in fact an important, nay vital assignment, but catches himself in time. The planning behind this mission doesn’t appear to have yielded tremendously outstanding results. He really doesn’t want to claim undue credit for it.

Oslo looks at him with testing eyes. ‘Are you up for this? Even if you were the real Dr Morton, this wouldn’t be an easy ride.’

‘I am the real Dr Morton.’

Oslo nearly smiles. ‘He certainly has a Mortonesque look to him.’

‘I am so Dr Morton. I am brimming over with Dr Morton-ness.’

‘Well then,’ Lewis slaps him on his metal shoulder, ‘welcome aboard, Dr Morton. I’ll call a planning meeting right away. It’s time you met the rest of the Pilgrim Parents. Bernadette, can you get him up to Planning Committee Room One without demolishing any decks?’ Oslo nods. ‘I’ll pave the way, Piers. Talk you up, eh? I’ll meet you there in fifteen.’

Lewis leaves.

Oslo is looking at Eddie quizzically.

Eddie says: ‘What?’

‘I don’t get you, mister. You come over… well, you seem so … stupid, I suppose.’

‘Thanks.’

‘And yet you can decipher the hieroglyphics. Where did you acquire that skill?’

Tricky ground, this. It’s in Eddie’s interest to build up his rarity value. If they

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