"I'm sorry, Charles." She smiled at him assuringly and blinked again. "We're just excited about tomorrow, I guess, aren't we?" Fairchild returned his stare to his glass, noticed it was empty, and filled it. "Can't I interest you in a drink, yet, Mr. Caine?" Mrs. Fairchild said. "Not right now," Caine said. "Oh." Her voice pouted. "But I think we should celebrate. Here Charles and I have come all this way to find the Screece gem, and we're sitting within fifty miles of it, and I think we all ought to celebrate." Fairchild spoke to Caine without raising his head. "Maybe Mr. Caine doesn't really believe in the existence of the Screece gem. Do you, Mr. Caine?" he said, looking up. Caine took a cigarette from a package in his shirt. "I'm just paid to get you to a temple, not to think." "You're evading the question," Fairchild said. His eyes were narrow now, and a bit glazed. Caine lit his cigarette and blew smoke into the damp air. He kept his voice non-committal. "I've heard about it. Everybody in the Colony has heard about it." "Correction," said Fairchild. "Everybody in the System has heard about it." "It's a very popular myth," Caine agreed. The man stood up. "It is not a myth, Mr. Caine. It exists and it's in that temple, do you hear me? There is no dammed myth about it, just cold hard fact, and I'm going to find it and take it out of there! Is that clear?" Caine watched the man's taut figure. He inhaled his cigarette. "I told you, Mr. Fairchild, I'm just paid to fly the ship and I'm not paid to think. I'm responsible for getting you to the temple. That's all." "Listen," Fairchild said, crossing to Caine and reaching for the front of Caine's shirt. "Don't get insolent with me...." Caine slapped the man's hand away. "Charles!" the woman said. The man blinked and touched his slapped hand against his chest. "Sorry, Mr. Caine," he said, finally. "Didn't mean to fly off that way. Little nervous, you see. All that time in space, searching around this way. We're just this close, and I'm getting too
Prev.
Back
Top