"Vonda N. McIntyre-Screwtop" - читать интересную книгу автора (McIntyre Vonda N)

Jason had been at Screwtop only three sets. He was losing weight quickly here, for he was a
big-boned man with little fat to burn. Kylis hoped his family would discover where he was and ransom
him soon. And she hoped they would find him before he tried to run away, though she had stopped trying
to argue him out of the dream. The marsh was impassable except by hovercraft. There were no solid
paths through it, and people claimed it held undiscovered animals that would crush a boat or raft. Kylis
neither believed nor disbelieved in the animals; she was certain only that a few prisoners had tried to
escape during her time at Screwtop, and the guards had not even bothered to look for them. Redsun was
not a place where the authorities allowed escape toward freedom, only toward death. The naked
volcanoes cut off escape to the north and east with their barren lava escarpments and billowing clouds of
poison gas; the marsh barred west and south. Screwtop was an economical prison, requiring fences only
to protect the guards' quarters and the power domes, not to enclose the captives. And even if Jason
could escape alive, he could never get off Redsun. He did not have Kylis' experience at traveling
undetected.
The fern forest's shadows closed in around them, and they walked between the towering blackish-red
stalks and lacy fronds. The foliage was heavy with huge droplets formed slowly by the misty rain. Kylis
brushed past a leaf and the water cascaded down her side, making a faint track in the ashes and mud on
her skin. She had washed herself when she got off duty, but staying clean was impossible at Screwtop.
They reached the sleeping place she had discovered. Several clumps of ferns had grown together and
died, the stems falling over to make a conical shelter. Kylis pulled aside a handful of withered fronds and
showed Jason in. Outside it looked like nothing but a pile of dead plants.
"It isn't even damp," he said, surprised. "And it's almost cool in here." He sat down on the carpet of
dead moss and ferns and leaned back smiling. "I don't see how you found it. I never would have looked
in here."
Kylis sat beside him. A few hours ago she had slept the soundest sleep she had had in Screwtop. The
shade alleviated the heat, and the fronds kept the misty rain from drifting inside and collecting. Best of all,
it was quiet.
"I thought you and Gryf would like it."
"Have you seen him?"
"Only across the compound. He looked all right."
Jason said aloud what Kylis feared. "The Lizard must have had a reason for letting him take my shift.
To make it harder on him." He too was worried, and Kylis could see he felt guilty. "I shouldn't have let
him do it," he said.
"Have you ever tried to stop him from doing something he thinks he should?"
Jason smiled. "No. I don't think I want to." He let himself sink further down in the moss. "Gods," he
said, drawing out the word. "It's good to see you."
"It's been lonely," Kylis said, with the quiet sort of wonder she felt every time she realized that she did
care enough to miss someone. Loneliness was more painful now, but she was not lonely all the time. She
did not know how to feel about her newly discovered pleasure in the company of Gryf and Jason.
Sometimes it frightened her. They had broached her defenses of solitude and suspicion, and at times she
felt exposed and vulnerable. She trusted them, but there were even more betrayers at Screwtop than
there were outside.
"I didn't give you those extra rations so you could save them all," she said. "I gave them to you so
you'd stop starving yourself for one day at least."
"We could all get out of here," he said, "if we saved just a little more food." Even at midmorning,
beneath the ferns, it was almost too dark to make out his features, but Kylis knew he was not joking. She
said nothing. Jason thought the prisoners who fled into the marsh were still alive there; he thought he
could join them and be helped. Kylis thought they were all dead. Jason believed escape on foot possible,
and Kylis believed it death. Jason was an optimist, and Kylis was experienced.
"All right," Jason said. "I'll eat one more. In a while." He lay down flat and put his hands behind his
head.