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20at%20Ra.txt (113 of 236) [1/19/03 4:36:50 PM] file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20 Marathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%20at%20Ra.txt She nodded. "Aren't they all? After being here a while and talking with the other priests and priestesses and hearing them excitedly describing adventures we would consider dull and rou- tine, I often have wondered if when the Holy of Holies set the threads of our destinies in this incarnation, it was stipulated that we would get the worst of the worst." Chin shook his head slowly from side to side. "No, it isn't that sort of Page 97 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html destiny. We get the worst because we're good. Per- haps the best. All that will do for us in the end is send us to the next incarnation far earlier than most of the others here, but, until then, we are the best.'' "Perhaps," she responded automatically. Pride was a sin and she could not sin, but was it pride or truth that he spoke? They always did seem to get the nastiest, most impossible assign- ments, and so far they had always performed. He understood her problem with the prideful aspect of his statement and respected it, but he wasn't a holy anything and he felt tremendous pride in himself and the team and in their ac- complishments. He also was dead honest with himself. He loved his work. "Savin and Manya are coming?" he asked her. She nodded. "They will meet us here as soon as they can get cleaned up and prepared. How did you get out here?" "Taxi from the spaceport. I assume we can get a ride back somehow when we're ready, although this isn't exactly on the regular taxi routes. If not, I can use the ship's communicator and have one of the Klees send a taxi out." "No, that will not be necessary. I will go back to the desk and arrange for a cart. Someone will come and pick it up later." He watched as she turned and did just that, and gave a sigh. It wasn't easy being around such a combination of beauty and brains on a no-touch basis, with the knowledge that you hadn't a prayer of ever scoring and that even attempting it would be a sin of the gravest sort. Still, it was sometimes handy if you could THE DEMONS AT RAINBOW BRIDGE 145 pick your confessor and did so judiciously. Somebody who'd tell you to cure your lusts by going out and getting laid. Now thai was a penance he always religiously obeyed. Savin the Holy Peshwa appeared, looking as monstrously handsome as usual, teeth gleaming, pupils just tiny slits now in the bright sunlight. Like Krisha, though, Savin should never be underestimated. He was brilliant, if a bit cold, and a meticulous planner who usually thought of all the angles. The Arm's whip, he was its chief soldier and exceptionally good at it. They all were exceptionally good at what they did. Behind him came a short, squat humanoid; a gnomelike crea- ture with huge yellow eyes with catlike pupils that changed with the light, and a broad slit for a mouth, inside which. Chin knew, was a very large and very long reptilian forked tongue. The hairless body was elephantine gray, the hide tough enough to file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...arathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons% 20at%20Ra.txt (114 of 236) [1/19/03 4:36:50 PM] file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20 Marathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%20at%20Ra.txt stop all but the most powerful arrow or spear, the huge ears rising up from the rounded face like giant leaves, but twitching and turning here and there. This was Manya the Holy Szin. Manya wasn't all that strong and didn't move all that fast, but she had another rather uncommon Talent that had served her and the Arm quite well over time. She was what they called in the old speech a chameleon. If she wished, she could cloud the minds of all around her so that she would be, in effect, invisi- ble except, of course, to Gun Roh Chin, as well as machines, electronic cameras, and automatic sensors. It was one of the few traits that was not due to the mutations of early spacers; it had developed in a fair percentage of her race as a protective mech- anism. So far, only the Gnolls were known to have this ability, and, also so far, there hadn't been another race, no matter how alien or on what brain Page 98 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html wavelengths they operated, that it didn't work on. The Gnolls were a Mizlaplanian plus not shared by the other empires; they existed only within the Mizlaplan. This alone had saved them several times in encounters with those of the Mycohl and the Exchange. Many an opponent had failed to ac- count for Manya, and paid the price of that lapse. Krisha emerged to join the trio, and together they waited for a cart to be brought up. Aside from the usual polite amenities, there wasn't a lot of talk between them. They all knew each other all too well by this time as it was. None of the Holies really wanted to know what Chin had been doing since the last Call, and Chin knew he'd be bored to tears if he asked them the same question. Nor could he tell them anything he knew of the 146 )ack L. Chalker mission, as little as that was, until they were safely aboard and away from this world. This was an espionage matter, and one never knew if an enemy was about in such cases. If nothing was said here that might have the remotest chance of being overheard and reported, then there was no chance of alerting or spooking their prey. Fairly quickly they heard a dull whine, and from around the back of the main building came a small electric cart with Spartan metal benches in back and an equally uncomfortable sculpted plastic driver's seat. The young priest who brought it bowed to them and then walked away without a word. Questions would have been improper and unseemly and there would be no an- swers anyway, since it was none of his business. The trio of Holies got in the back. There was no question who would drive; Chin ranked lowest of this group on any totem pole except in matters of ship command once aboard, and he didn't mind. Truth to tell, he preferred driving to being a passenger in a vehicle driven by somebody who was so confident of reward in the hereafter. It took less time to get back by electric cart than it had to arrive by horse cart, even at the magnificent average speed of twenty kilometers per hour, and Chin went straight to the staff entrance. As they got out, a young woman came up and asked, "Will you be using the car again. Captain?" "No," he responded. "It's all yours." file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...arathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons% 20at%20Ra.txt (115 of 236) [1/19/03 4:36:50 PM] file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20 Marathon%201%20-%20The%20Demons%20at%20Ra.txt She got in and drove off, not back to the retreat but simply to a parking area. Somebody would be along to get it sooner or later, or somebody else would show up wanting to go out there. That was the way of things in the Mizlaplan. There was a shuttle waiting for them; he'd seen to that detail before going up to the retreat. As Spartan as the cart, but utili- tarian, and fully automated. They got in, took seats, strapped themselves in, and the shuttle hissed, ran its self-tests, then lifted off as soon as clearance from the harbormaster's control com- puters was received. In forty minutes it was in orbit; ten minutes later it had maneuvered into position to dock with the Faith of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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