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The Lovers :: Фармер Филип Хосе
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Fobo came back in and said, 'What're you going to do?'
Hal squared his mouth and said, 'You take her by the shoulders, and I'll carry her feet. Rigid as she is, we won't need a stretcher.'
As they carried her down the steps, he said, 'Can you hide us after the operation, Fobo? We won't be able to use the gig now.'
'Don't worry,' the wog said enigmatically over his shoulder. 'The Earthmen are going to be too busy to run after you.'
It took sixty seconds to get her into the gig, hop to the hospital, and get her out.
Hal said, 'Let's put her on the ground a minute. I've got to set the gig on auto and send her back to the Gabriel. That way, at least, they won't know where I am.'
'No. Leave it here. You may be able to use it afterward.'
'After what?'
'Later. Ah, there's Kuto.'
In the waiting room, Hal paced back and forth and puffed Merciful Seraphim out in chains of smoke. Fobo sat on a chair and rubbed his bald pate and the thick golden corkscrew fuzz on the back of his head.
'All of this might have been avoided,' he said unhappily. 'If I had known the lalitha was living with you, I might have guessed why you wanted the Easyglow. Though not necessarily so. Anyway, I didn't find out until two days ago that she was in your apartment. And I was too busy with Project Earthman to think much about her.'
'Project Earthman?' said Hal. 'What's that?'
Fobo's V-in-V lips parted m a smile to reveal the sharp serrated ridges of bone.
'I can't tell you now because your colleagues on the Gabriel might, just possibly, learn about it from you before it takes effect. However, I think I can safely tell you that we know about your plan for spreading the deadly globin-locking molecule through our atmosphere.'
'There was a time when I would have been horrified to learn that,' Hal said. 'But now it doesn't matter.'
'You don't want to know how we found out about it?'
'I suppose so,' Hal said dully.
'When you asked us for samples of blood, you aroused our suspicion.'
He tapped the end of his absurdly long nose.
'We can't read your thoughts, of course. But concealed in this flesh are two antennae. They are very sensitive; evolution has not dulled our sense of smell as it has among you Terrans. They allow us to detect, through odor, very slight changes in the metabolism of others. When we were asked by one of your emissaries to donate blood for their scientific research, we smelled a – shall I call it furtive? – emanation. We finally did give you the blood.
Fobo came back in and said, 'What're you going to do?'
Hal squared his mouth and said, 'You take her by the shoulders, and I'll carry her feet. Rigid as she is, we won't need a stretcher.'
As they carried her down the steps, he said, 'Can you hide us after the operation, Fobo? We won't be able to use the gig now.'
'Don't worry,' the wog said enigmatically over his shoulder. 'The Earthmen are going to be too busy to run after you.'
It took sixty seconds to get her into the gig, hop to the hospital, and get her out.
Hal said, 'Let's put her on the ground a minute. I've got to set the gig on auto and send her back to the Gabriel. That way, at least, they won't know where I am.'
'No. Leave it here. You may be able to use it afterward.'
'After what?'
'Later. Ah, there's Kuto.'
In the waiting room, Hal paced back and forth and puffed Merciful Seraphim out in chains of smoke. Fobo sat on a chair and rubbed his bald pate and the thick golden corkscrew fuzz on the back of his head.
'All of this might have been avoided,' he said unhappily. 'If I had known the lalitha was living with you, I might have guessed why you wanted the Easyglow. Though not necessarily so. Anyway, I didn't find out until two days ago that she was in your apartment. And I was too busy with Project Earthman to think much about her.'
'Project Earthman?' said Hal. 'What's that?'
Fobo's V-in-V lips parted m a smile to reveal the sharp serrated ridges of bone.
'I can't tell you now because your colleagues on the Gabriel might, just possibly, learn about it from you before it takes effect. However, I think I can safely tell you that we know about your plan for spreading the deadly globin-locking molecule through our atmosphere.'
'There was a time when I would have been horrified to learn that,' Hal said. 'But now it doesn't matter.'
'You don't want to know how we found out about it?'
'I suppose so,' Hal said dully.
'When you asked us for samples of blood, you aroused our suspicion.'
He tapped the end of his absurdly long nose.
'We can't read your thoughts, of course. But concealed in this flesh are two antennae. They are very sensitive; evolution has not dulled our sense of smell as it has among you Terrans. They allow us to detect, through odor, very slight changes in the metabolism of others. When we were asked by one of your emissaries to donate blood for their scientific research, we smelled a – shall I call it furtive? – emanation. We finally did give you the blood.