Читать книгу The Orchid Nursery - Louise Katz - Страница 20

A tall, broad shadow falls between me and the sky. The Ecuman, I think.

I feel his attention on me though I cannot see his face for his torchlight has blinded me. I tightly grip the blade hidden within the folds of my cuff. Then I hear that characteristic hiss of breath inhaled through a tiny hole. A careforcer then, not an Ecuman; not a soldier, but a porter. I realise it is only the bulk of the rolled tent she wears looming up well over her head that makes her seem so large and manly above me. But now the figure turns the torchlight back on itself, under-lighting it to make quite sure I see clearly the horrible wreckage of her face, the grotesque cicatrix of her lips. The scar is new, not yet fully grafted. Xeniicut230.

But what difference does that make? I will kill her anyway. Soon I know she will pucker up into a whistle … any moment now … I summon all my energy and nerve to attack her.

But then she lowers the torch and directs it away from me. She walks away.

Once she is well out of my immediate vicinity she whistles – not an alarm, but an all-clear. Why?

They move on.