The Earth Lords by Dickson Gordon R

Author:Dickson, Gordon R. [Dickson, Gordon R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fantasy, Fiction
ISBN: 9780441180448
Google: qAJdzQlFYMkC
Amazon: 0441180442
Goodreads: 2245156
Publisher: Ace
Published: 1988-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

chapter

fourteen

THE OUTER ROOM of the Library was lit and open twenty-four hours a day. Bart had picked an evening several days after his encounter with the Emperor, here, to begin his search of the Library itself. Though there were still people about, they were fewer than during the days.

A stack slave slept in a chair behind the desk, but the rest of the room was empty of life. At the moment Bart stepped onto the interior carpet, he heard footfalls approaching through the stacks, with their uncarpeted floors; and a moment later there came into view three Hybrids.

Two of them were unremarkable, dark-suited men in their thirties, one with thinning brown hair, one with a mop of faded blond above a round face. But the third, walking between the other two, was a narrow-waisted, broad-shouldered man with a swarthy skin, a sharp nose and astonishingly bright blue eyes.

Bart had never seen this particular Hybrid before, to his knowledge; but something about him riveted Bart’s attention. In spite of the fact Bart did not know him, there was something familiar about him. It was as if Bart felt he should recognize him. As if he had known him, even though Bart knew he had not.

At the same time Bart became conscious that he had halted directly in front of the doorway, toward which the three were headed.

Hastily, he stepped aside. The two Hybrids on either side of the one who had attracted Bart’s attention merely glanced at Bart as they approached and passed. But Bart became suddenly aware that the third man’s bright blue eyes were concentrating on him with an intensity that made him uncomfortable. Here was not a man, like Chandt, who was responding as someone with an authority to maintain. The feeling that reached Bart was merely one of curiosity. But it was a curiosity as blinding as a mirror with the full sun reflected in it, and as sharp as the end of a needle.

Then the three passed him, and the one with the blue eyes took his gaze off Bart and looked ahead, putting a hand on one shoulder of each of his companions. He herded them before him, out the door. Bart felt a strange desire to follow, to find out more about him. Then he remembered what he was here to do, put the feeling from him, and continued on past the circular desk area with its sleeping slave, on into the stacks.

In the time that had passed since Pier had given him the freedom of the Library, Bart had been using some of his free time to explore it. He had had vague notions of trying to find information that might help him to escape from this Inner World, but had really had little idea of exactly what to look for. But now, a few days ago, Paolo had given him a name. That, combined with the dead end he had seemingly come up against in his physical exploration of the corridors, had led him back here.

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