The I Inside by Alan Dean Foster

Author:Alan Dean Foster
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf, epub
Published: 2011-09-05T17:08:20+00:00

It was easy to find a lower-class hotel, midtown and away from the rivers. He paid for the night in cash. Once inside he double-locked the door and spent several tedious hours under a bright lamp altering his credit card again. Only when his latest identity was safely in place did he let himself lie down.

He slept much better than he'd expected to. Exhaustion overcame his anxiety. Whatever had helped him escape Lisa's building did not let him off without making any demands on his body.

When he finally awoke it was midday. Using the directory in the optophone, he located the type of store he needed. It wasn't a long way off. Little was, in Nueva York. Avoiding the come-ons of the cabs, he walked the necessary half-mile.

The proprietor was most helpful, and Eric soon returned to his room. No one confronted him, but he knew he had to do something. Citizen indifference wouldn't protect him forever. Sooner or later some zealot would recognize him from the repeated publication of his portrait and point him out to the police.

The spirit gum was hard to work with and he found himself wishing he'd spent more time in company amateur theatricals. At last he had the moustache in place. Then he worked the bleach through his head until he was a nice Nordic blonde. Putty would have altered his entire face, but he chose not to chance it. He had no experience with such materials, and a badly done false nose would draw more attention than his real one.

He found a barber to cut his newly bleached hair. When he finally glimpsed himself in a mirror, it was still the face of Eric Abbott that stared back at him... but only on close inspection. He was satisfied.

Thoughts of how to regain contact with Lisa occupied him for the rest of the day. It was not enough to see her anymore. Somehow he had to get her away from her gilded prison.

The fecund streets of the city led him to an amateur astronomy shop. Shelves were filled with everything from miniature radio telescopes for eavesdropping on Orion to thick books pinpointing meteor impact sites.

"Can I sell you something?" asked the hopeful man behind the counter.

"I need a telescope."

"I see. What kind, sir?"

"Something small and compact."

The man nodded as though he dealt with such requests every day. He probably did, Eric mused, but from customers with different intentions.

"Something that would fit easily inside your coat pocket?"

"That would be nice." Eric added what he hoped would pass for a nervous smile.

"Going to gaze at some heavenly bodies?" The man winked.

Eric hesitated before responding, but the salesman seemed more understanding than accusative.

"Something like that."

"I understand. It's your business, of course. I'm required by city law to inform you that it's a municipal felony if you're caught within city limits pointing a telescope anywhere at an angle of less than sixty degrees."

"I follow you."

"Fine." The man turned and caressed a cabinet with a magnetic key, began searching exposed shelves.

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