Deserted Cities of the Heart by Lewis Shiner

Author:Lewis Shiner [Shiner, Lewis]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, General, Subterranean Press
ISBN: 9780385246378
Google: b1Wzr9i9MeUC
Amazon: 1596063041
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 1988-04-15T07:00:00+00:00

t h r e e

Thomas was sitting on top of the big pyramid when Faus-

tino’s man found him. He’d spent the early morning cleaning out

the temples with a shovel he’d found inside. Somebody, probably Eddie,

had already made a start at it. With a machete he could have cleared the plants off the roof and sides. He didn’t see much chance of getting one, though.

Faustino sent Righteous, the dark-skinned kid with the knitted

tricolor Rasta cap. The kid started climbing the high, narrow steps of

the pyramid and gave up after the first dozen or so, leaning on his gun and breathing hard. “¡Oye!” he yelled when he got his wind back. “¡Tu hermano!”

It was something about Eddie. He started down.

Faustino had been checking on Eddie for three days now. He had an

old-fashioned leather medical bag with almost nothing inside. A stetho-

scope and a blood pressure gauge with a cracked dial. That was about it.

Whatever drugs he’d had were used up long ago.

Thomas thought it was a waste of time. Eddie was gone, catatonic,

like the other kid who’d screwed around with the mushrooms. Now

there was news. The first thing, the obvious thing, that came into his

head was that Eddie had died.

When he got within ten or fifteen steps he said, “Eddie?”

“Sí,” Righteous said. The kid was twitchy, moving to internalized rhythms. He left a pause after the “sí,” like he wanted to add “señor” but wasn’t sure of the politics of it. “He is awake,” he said in Veracruz Spanish.

“Jesus Christ,” Thomas said.

They had the f laps open, but the inside of the tent smelled sour

and decayed to Thomas, mildewed. Eddie looked like somebody had

let almost all the air out of him. Faustino was taking his blood pressure with the battered gauge and Lindsey was trying to talk to him in

Spanish. She didn’t really speak any, but she’d been trying to learn it out of a book. Thomas supposed he had to admire her for the attempt. Her

141

142

lewis shine r

clothes hung loose on her body and there were fatigue circles around

her eyes. It didn’t make her any less desirable.

“Hey, big brother,” Eddie said.

Faustino made some notes on a piece of lined paper. It was almost

filled with other writing and had turned brown along the folds. He put

it and the stethoscope and blood pressure gauge back in his bag. “If he rests,” he said in Spanish, “I think he’ll be okay.”

“Gracias,” Thomas said. Like with Righteous, formalities came hard.

“Muy amable.”

On the one hand the rebels were feeding them and otherwise leaving

them pretty much alone. On the other they were hostages of a sort. Even though Carla hadn’t said anything to them about ransom demands.

In fact, with the last-minute decision to come to Na Chan instead of

Nahá, nobody knew where they were, not even Lindsey’s parents or

Shapiro back at the project. It could be weeks before anybody even

thought to look for them.

Of course, if they were crazy, they could always try walking out

through the jungle.

Faustino nodded and left. Thomas looked at Eddie, lying there with

his feeble, self-satisfied smile, and thought about how all of this had been because of him.

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.