Caine knew then, in that split second before the wheels of the ship
touched the purple hill, that it hadn't been the boy's demand that
had forced him down, but the girl, watching him through the mirror,
taunting him, daring him, that had made him do this.
He looked up at her and the look she returned made a shiver dance along
his spine.
The wheels touched ground.
The boy clawed at the door. "Lookee, lookee, lookee!" he yelled.
Caine's hand snapped out and struck the boy's fingers away from the
lock of the door.
"Hey!" said the boy, spinning. "Watch out, Driver. Watch out with that.
You don't want to make me mad now, friend. Do you, friend? Do you?"
Caine looked at the narrow glittering eyes of the boy. "No," he said
quietly. "I don't want to make you mad."
"That's fine," the boy said, nodding. "That's fine."
The girl reached over and touched the boy. "You tell him, Vanny. You
tell him anything you want to. He'll listen and nod and say yes to
anything. He's a very sweet fellow, Nic is."
Caine jambed his seat back and stood up. He took out his holstered
pistol from the small compartment beneath the instrument panel. He
strapped the holster to his waist and turned around.
"I don't want either one of you going beyond the boundary of this hill.
I don't like being down here. I'll tell you that before we get out. And
so I don't want any trouble. Get out and look and that's all. In five
minutes I'm taking off. If you're not in this ship you can walk back.
Do you understand?"
The girl raised her eyebrows and whistled. "Listen to the captain."
The boy yanked at the door. "I don't want to hear your damned speeches,
Driver. Open the door that's all, before I get mad."
Caine hit the lock and the boy spilled out to the purple-colored
surface.
Caine looked at the girl. She sat there, legs crossed, smiling at him.
"I asked you your name. You didn't ask me mine. Don't you want to know,
Captain?"
"No," Caine said.
"It's Cice. Isn't that pretty? Cice? Doesn't it sound nice with Nic?"
"No," said Caine, "it doesn't."
She pursed her lips and stood up suddenly. "All right, Driver. Let's
look at the jungle."
Caine climbed out and turned to help the girl. He held up a hand and
caught hold of her fingers. He looked up at her and waited for her to
come down into his arms.
She didn't. She threw his hand away and leaped to the ground, a flash
of gold and blue. She was like a cat, and there was no loss of dignity
or presence when she landed beside Caine. Caine turned away and walked
to the tip end of the ship's right wing.
He reached down and felt of the moss-like substance covering the hill.
It was like a thick carpet, but spongier, and it was moist. The air was
moist, too, and it was in the soft breeze that touched Caine's face and
made the slippery leaves around the hill swing and slide together.
The boy was spinning like a gyroscope, snapping pictures this way and
that, jerking the finished prints out, looking at them, and throwing
them away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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