"Liz Williams - A Shadow Over the Land" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Liz)

the bed cover seemed far too thick. It made my skin itch uncomfortably, but I must
have fallen asleep, because when I next opened my eyes, the light that poured
through the little window was thick and golden.
 When I looked at my watch I discovered that it was four in the afternoon. I
showered and changed, then went downstairs. Reception was deserted. I stepped
out into the street, still feeling the remnants of sleep around me. It was very quiet,
and the sun was sinking to cast long shadows across the packed ochre earth of the
road. I must have dreamed as I lay sleeping in the stuffy hotel room, because I could
not shake the feeling that I had been speaking to someone. I felt light-headed and
strange, and wondered whether it was some after-effect of the temperature control,
but then I realized that I was hungry.
Even in the smallest place, there is always a market. In Yaounde, it lay at the
back of the temple and consisted of a few stalls selling household goods, cheap
clothes, and fast food. The smell of frying plantain made my mouth water. At the
end was a caf├й, a lot more appealing than the dark and arid bar of the hotel. I went in
and sat down. It was full of people: soldiers and mining personnel. Everyone seemed
to know one another, no surprise in a place as small as this. I typed my order into
the keypad, and, as I did so, something warm butted against my shins, startling me.
The woman sitting opposite me reached under the table and extracted a small child,
who gave me a long and uncertain stare.
тАЬSorry,тАЭ the woman said.
тАЬThatтАЩs okay. She just made me jump.тАЭ
тАЬYouтАЩre with the scientists?тАЭ
ItтАЩs always the same in a small town; they like to place you, to know who you
are.
тАЬYes, thatтАЩs right. WeтАЩre here for the next six weeks or so.тАЭ
тАЬOut in the Rift,тАЭ the woman said, wonderingly.
тАЬHave you been there?тАЭ
She smiled at me. тАЬNo, never. Why would I?тАЭ
The little girl was marching a plastic doll across the table. She was making it
talk, babbling away on its behalf.
тАЬWhoтАЩs dolly talking to?тАЭ her mother asked. The child gave a radiant smile.
тАЬDemelo.тАЭ
Her mother laughed. тАЬOh, okay.тАЭ I did not recognize the word. The woman
gave her daughter a pat. тАЬCome on. We should be getting back.тАЭ She hefted the
child into her arms, and, at that point, my food arrived. I did not see them go.
I went to bed early that night and had no dreams that I can remember. The
next day was hot, even so soon after dawn, and a bright glaze lay across the sky.
The sun rested in a bronze halo above the distant cliffs of the Rift. Vauchelade
wanted to get going before the heat became too intense to travel. He had acquired a
ground car from the military base, which proved both smoother and faster than the
GTV. Yaounde fell behind us in a cloud of dust. For the first thirty kilometers, we
saw scattered farmsteadsтАФround, white perma-domes surrounded by fieldsтАФand
then there was nothing but the plains. The veldt is arid, speckled with stones and
tufts of coarse grass. We saw no life, and the sky, a lid the color of bone, was
empty of birds.
The dust of the Ushete is also the color of rust. It rose up in a soft cloud,
lifted by the wheels of the car, to settle against the windscreen. Vauchelade switched
on the airwipers, but the dust continued to swirl up to hide the plains from view.
Vauchelade turned the wipers to a constant setting and sealed the windows. The air