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And they're armed." As a terrified Nrrna sidled cautiously out the back flap,
Kelly decided that if this wouldn't persuade the female, she'd have to think
of some other plan. Only nothing, absolutely nothing, would come to mind.
when Nrrna returned, she was shivering and the fur along her entire stripe
stood up.
"They are very powerful males. They are dangerous. They look for
Hrriss." She took Kelly by the hand. "We must go to First Speaker.
Such males should not be on Rrala. They should not be in our village."
There wasn't time to wait until dark, for the males might take to searching
the houses and Kelly didn't think they'd like finding a
Hayuman in a Hrruban village right then. She covered her bright hair with an
edge of a sleeping fur and wrapped herself in Nrrna's big winter cloak, the
all-important dossier clutched to her chest with one arm.
"We don't have to go to the Treaty Island grid to get to Hrruba, do we?"
Kelly asked, suddenly realizing that her mad scheme had a few large holes in
it.
"No, we can reach Hrruba from here,' Nrrna reassured her. For once the little
female had made up her mind, she was capable of as much cool resolution as
Kelly. "Until the Island grid was established, all shipping and travel were
done through the village grids. It is only to satisfy the Controller of what
is being sent in and out of Rrala that all goods now go first to the Island."
"Where are we likely to find the First Speaker?"
"First we will go to the Executive Cube which houses the Speakers'
chambers. Someone there will direct us to First Speaker Hrruna." Nrrna was
pressing the appropriate codes into the transport controls. She gestured for
Kelly to step up onto the grid. "If they do not arrest us first.
Their first bit of good luck was that they arrived late in the Hrruban night.
No one was immediately visible, although they heard the rumble of several
voices issuing from a side corridor. Together they raced down the nearest
aisle until they spotted a curtained alcove.
They dove behind this and sank to the floor, their knees cocked so that they
would not disturb the fall of the draperies.
when light began to filter through the sootcovered window, Nrrna carefully
crept out to find out where she might find the First Speaker's quarters. She
returned to Kelly, who had been fearful of discovery, that at any moment, a
functionary would arrive to pull back the curtains.
"The Council is not in session today,' Nrrna whispered to Kelly.
"The First Speaker has expressed a wish to be alone in his retreat."
Kelly's hopes crashed about her. Nrrna gave her hand a little pat, her eyes
gleaming. "The chief of the Council chamber told me how beautiful was the
First Speaker's retreat and I do not think he realized that he also told me
exactly where it is. We must go swiftly while there are not too many using
the slidewalks." Then she wrinkled her nose. "Even
in that cloak, Kelly, you do not stand or walk or even smell like a
Hrruban."
"It's too late to worry about a minor detail like that,' Kelly said,
nervousness making her snappish.
"What about me limping and crouching over like I'm ancient or hurt?"
"That is a very good idea, Kelly, and Nrrna nodded approvingly.
"I am your dutiful daughter, taking you to see the beauties of the
countryside.
It is fortuitous that the fur you took is a white pelt.
Here." Nrrna made some rapid adjustments with her delicate hands, and,
although Kelly felt she was more in danger of suffocation than discovery, she
let Nrrna's strong hands guide her as she settled into a limping gait which
she felt suggested advanced age and decrepitude.
With corridors and aisles separating blocklike buildings many levels deep,
Hrruba was not unlike Earth, which surprised Kelly, though she managed only a
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few glimpses behind the folds of the pelt.
They rode a slow-moving beltway to a remote section of the capital city of
Hrruba. Around them, Hrruban workers, clad in tool belts or robes to denote
profession and status, passed them on every side. The only differences
between the Human workers of Earth and the Hrrubans were the preponderance of
bright colors in the latter's dress, the inborn grace with which they moved,
and the scent. Scent, not smell, for although it was just as strong as the
odors of Earth's passages, it was different.
"Do not speak if anyone bumps you,' Nrrna whispered. "Your Hrruban is good,
but your accent would inform anyone that you are from a colony."
"I couldn't talk if I wanted to. Is it much farther?" Kelly murmured.
Her right hip was protesting the unnatural gait, and she ached to stretch her
back up.
Nrrna peered at the lettering on the block they were passing, and her pupils
contracted to slits in the strong light. "Not very far. We are nearing the
passageway. We must get off as soon as we see a lift.
First Speaker lives on the top floor." Hrruna's retreat was in a
well-soundproofed block of the Hrruban residential complex. To the surprise
of both Kelly and Nrrna, no one guarded the entrance or any of the lifts.
Though only one, Nrrna discovered, went as far as the twenty-second story.
When the lift stopped, the door slid back and, to their utter consternation,
the First Speaker faced them. Later Kelly would remember that a green light
blinked above the lift, informing the
First Speaker that someone was coming to his retreat.
"By the first mother, what brings such a lovely young one to the door of such
an old man? Is this your mother who comes to entreat me?
Or to protect her cub?" He beckoned them to leave the protection of the lift.
Once they had moved on into the first of the boxlike rooms that comprised the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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