Страница 73 из 94
16
Alice didn’t now for how long she had been sleeping; t could have been ten minutes, it could have been three hours. But suddenly she heard a voice:
“Alice!”
She immediately opened her eyes and looked around.
The room was empty. She could still hear footsteps moving back and forth on the other side of the door. They were guarding her carefully.
“Alice, can you hear me?”
“Is that you, Purr?”
“It’s me. Come to the corner that’s as far from the door as you can get and help me.”
Alice got quietly to her feet and went to where Purr told her.
And she saw what was there in the corner, flush in the floor, a grate. On the other side of the metal grate looking up at her was the furry face of the little archaeologist.
“Don’t be sad.” The archeologist whispered, blinking his one purple eye. “We’ll get you out of here.”
“But how did you get here>“
“No time to t now, but, in general, while they were all shouting and chasing after you I opened the bag and jumped out; they almost trampled me. No one was paying any attention to a kitten so I was able to follow after and see where they put you. It helped that I’d sewn the tail back on.”
“And then…”
“And then I scouted out the building. I found grate leading to the steam tu
Alice pulled at the grate. The grate hardly lifted.
“Pull!” Purr’s words were a prayer. “They’ve almost come for you.”
On the other side of the door they could hear voices. Someone was about to enter the room.
With all her strength Alice tugged at the grate and she pulled it up, and landed with a loud clang on the stone floor.
“Jump!” Purr commanded. “Don’t be afraid; it’s not high.”
At that very moment the door to the little room began to open; Alice, closing her eyes tightly, jumped into the black pit as Purr scarcely scampered to one side.
“Follow me!” He said.
Alice ran for what seemed to be forever along the dark corridors of the spaceport’s below ground maze of pipes and tu
“You can rest at home. Listen! There’s a hue and cry for us.”
They were able to run out the back door of the space port a minute before the whole building was flooded with soldiers. What saved them was the number of people in the space port had become so great that the soldiers and policemen sent to capture the state criminal found it impossible to move quickly it at all.
17
The long, adventurous day on the planet Coleida was at last coming to a close. The sun had descended to the level of the high trees of the park that surrounded the space port.
“Oh, I’m so tired!” Alice said when she had made it to the first of the trees and wrapped her arms about its bole to support herself. “I could just collapse.”
The furry little archaeologist had peered out from behind the door to see if they were still being chased.
“Don’t give up now, Alice.” He said. “Get a grip on yourself. Your work is only half over.”
“Why half. We did it! We saved the whole planet.”
“I don’t know that.” Purr said. “I don’t know, my child.”
He was speaking like a very old, wise, grandfather.
“You spread the vaccine, you did. But only if we make it back will we learn if it produced the result that we want.”
“You’re telling me that when we get back everything may be the same as before?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then it’s better if we don’t go back. It’s better if we stay here.”
“You’re tired, Alice.” Purr said. “And exhausted.”
The hollow beating of drums from the playing of a distant orchestra reached the forest. The thick, warm air resounded with the drumbeat. Garlands of enormous multicolored balloons flew over the roofs of the space port buildings.
“I just can’t imagine that they’re all going to get sick…” Alice said.
“Perhaps they will not get sick; but if you had never delivered the vaccine you not for certainty that they would all have been destroyed. And that would have been much worse.
Alice nodded. The little archaeologist was right.
“Can you catch your breath.” he asked. “We have to hurry. By sundown we have to get a lot further from the city.”
“But where are we going now?” Alice asked; she wanted to go no where at all. She just wanted to lay down on the grass and fall asleep. But she would have to wait and sleep at home. “The railway station?”
“On the contrary.” Purr answered. “They would recognize us instantly. After the astronauts you must be the most recognizable face in the city. Several million Coleidans saw you on TV. We’ll go on foot.”
They set off through the forest. Purr ran ahead. Choosing his direction by the sun he walked in a direction that would take them toward the railroad tracks that led to the smaller city where the archaeologists had set up camp.
Alisa had scraped her foot but Purr would not permit her to stop and deal with it. “An interesting turn of events.” Alice thought. “While we were on our way here I was in charge, but suddenly he’s remembered that he’s the older and he’s leading me.” But Alice had no desire to argue with the little archaeologist. And she had no desire to try and convince him that no matter what happened Petrov and Richard would find and rescue them. All Purr would say would be that they would never be found.
Suddenly the forest came to an end. The band of trees had been very narrow. On the other side of the forest started a vast, empty field, and beyond that were more buildings. There was no way they could leave the shelter of the trees; a small yellow helicopter was circling over the empty ground, and from the buildings a chain of policemen was slowly heading for the trees. For Alice.
“A police cordon.” Purr said. “They suspect we’re hiding in the forest.”
“What are we to do.” Alice asked. “Hide ourselves in the woods?”
“They would find us. Head this way.”
As he had scouted ahead Purr had noticed some structures in the trees. He led Alice there.
In a large well trodden and muddy field surrounded by a low barrier stood a number of attractions: swings, Ferris wheels, and other amusement machinery similar to those that once stood in the parks of Earth, yet at the same time very different.
The fugitives crawled beneath a creaking carousel of fantastic winged and tentacled creatures and law flat on the ground. The floor boards hung so low they almost touched them, and in the cracks and crevices between the boards Alice could see a thin bad of very bright sky.
They had made it just in time. No more than three minutes later the policemen reached the amusement park. Alice could hear them calling to one another. Then one of them stepped onto the carousel and the floor boards bent underneath his boots.
Alice wanted to sneeze it was dusty and stuff beneath the carousel. The policeman stopped and stood directly over her, blocking off the light from the sky with his boots, and asked another one loudly.
“You checked underneath yet?”
“No.” The answer came from some distance away. “Take a look.”
“I don’t have a flash light.”
“You don’t need one. There’s no room for anyone underneath there anyway.”
The policeman stepped off the carousel onto the ground. Alice quickly crawled to the furthest wall and hugged the ground.
The wooden hatch was thrown open and the policeman’s black silhouette appeared in it. He seemed to look in her direction forever, then asked: