"Jerry Davis - Opposite Ends Meet Here (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

The ship turned out to be a small passenger shuttle with nobody on board. The door was
locked. Kyle stood around for a while, waiting, listening to the hissing and thrumming from
the other ships around him. Tired of standing, he sat down on the ground with is back against
the cold titanium surface of the ship. Soon he was asleep.
Hours later, an air taxi landed nearby and the pilot got out, walked over to Kyle and kicked
him. "Wake up, pretty-boy. Do your job!"
"What? Do what?"
"Your job!" He pointed at the taxi.
Kyle got to his feet and walked over to the craft. When he was close by the door, it opened,
and Debbie stepped out. "You showed up!" she said, sounding surprised. "Oh! Leather! I like
it." She kissed his cheek, and grabbed him by the front of his pants and pulled him toward the
shuttle. Finney stepped out of the taxi and followed, as did several other people. It appeared
they had all just left a party. There were paper streamers in their hair, and a few had paper hats
and noisemakers. They all stunk of alcohol.
"I want everyone to meet my new bodyguard, Bruce," she announced.
After the drunken chorus of "Hi Bruce" was over, Kyle leaned over to Debbie and quietly
said, "My name is not Bruce. It's---"
"Your name is Bruce," she told him. "All my bodyguards are named Bruce."
Kyle frowned, but didn't pursue it. They all crowded into the shuttle as the hatch opened,
Debbie still pulling him along by his pants. She shoved him down in the front row of seats,
and then reclined across him, using him as a pillow. They others sat around them, laughing
and talking. The babble of voices all blended together, and it took Kyle a moment to realize
much of it was in another language, one that he didn't understand. Debbie was laughing, and
posing, and preening, and all the while her hair was in his face and it was making his nose
itch. The pilot sealed the hatch, glanced around nervously at his unruly passengers, gave Kyle
an eyebrow-furrowed look of disgust, and then ducked into the control cabin. Minutes later,
the craft drifted up into the sky.
It took a while, but gravity finally disappeared and the passengers all began asking Debbie
to do magic. "Do some magic!" "Magic!" "Magic, Debbie!"
Debbie produced a small sack of loose pearls, and opened it. The pearls floated out,
drifting, and Debbie said an incantation and made complex motions with her hands. The
pearls aligned in a circle and began spinning as if in an orbit. She leaned far forward, inserting
her head inside the ring so that her neck was the center of the orbit. The crowd applauded.
"Neat trick," Kyle said. "How did you do it?"
The pearls scattered in all directions, bouncing and drifting randomly. All conversation

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Da...erry%20-%20Opposite%20Ends%20Meet%20Here.htm (4 of 23) [10/15/2004 12:50:58 PM]
Opposite Ends Meet Here

ceased. Debbie pulled away from Kyle and turned, looking at him with a cold expression. "I
do not do 'tricks'," she said. "I am a genuine sorceress. I do genuine magic."
Kyle glanced around at all the glaring expressions, finding only one who seemed
sympathetic. It was Finney. Finney cleared his throat, and said, "Everyone, especially Miss
Hitler, might want to bear in mind that---"
"Shut up, Finney."
"Miss Hitler, he is new to us, and knows nothing about you."
"I told you to shut up." Now Debbie had a pouting expression on her face, like that of a
spoiled little girl. "Kanna ectuc enau-k-tu," she said, holding her pouch open. She repeated the
incantation several times, and with her free hand made a grasping movement. The pearls all
drifted from where they had wandered in the cabin toward the open pouch, and bagged