[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
The baron stood impatiently by a steel door with three heavy sec bolts on it.
"You say you want to see my pets, then you can't be bastard bothered to turn
up on time. I think I'll cancel my invitation to you."
His voice was harsh, like a cold norther over a granite slab. The handsome
mouth was curled in disdain.
Krysty stepped closer to him, smiling. "That would be a great disappointment,
Baron. We hoped to pass this way, before the accident to our wag. We had heard
so much throughout Deathlands of Baron Sean
Sharpe and his unusual collection."
"Unusual, Miss Wroth?"
"Yes."
"Wrong. It is fucking unique." A wintry smile drifted across his lips.
"However, I wouldn't have it said through this fair land that I refused the
plea of a pretty woman. No, not pretty. Quite beautiful. You may see my pets."
"Thank you, Baron." Krysty came close to dropping him a curtsy.
"But I will waste no time with it. Joaquin?"
"Baron?"
"Do the honors. Make sure all is locked and safe. Any mistake and I'll have
the skin off your back."
"Aye, Baron." The hesitant note of doubt was impossible to mistake.
"What is it, man?"
"He won't show us." Emma was right behind Ryan, and he just caught her
whisper.
"How much should I show them, Baron?"
"Ah, yes. Well, well Good man, good. The animals and reptiles and fishes."
"Nothing more?"
"No." The syllable was like the snapping of a steel-spring beartrap.
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%2...20-%20Ground%20Zero%20(v1.0)%20[h
tml].html (122 of 220) [12/28/2004 12:58:41 AM]
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Axler,%20Jam...0-%20Deathla
nds%2027%20-%20Ground%20Zero%20(v1.0)%20[html].html
"Right, Baron."
Sharpe looked along the group of outlanders. "Enjoy," he said. "Meet at
supper."
He turned on his heel and stalked off, back toward the main house, the heels
of his boots clacking off the stone path, fading into the distance.
"I'll open up," the sec sergeant said.
Ryan stopped him. "Question, Joaquin."
"What is it?"
"Sharpe ever married?"
"No. Not that taken by women. Not in that sort of way." He continued quickly,
"Nor boys, neither. Not that way at all. Once every few months he asks me to
find him a good clean girl from one of the shanties."
"But if they're good they're not clean, and if they're clean they're no good,"
J.B. said, repeating one of the old war wag jokes.
Joaquin grinned. "Ace on the line. I get a slut in. Have her washed and looked
over by a woman. Goes into the baron's room. Hour later comes out. Handful of
Page 81
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
jack. Warning about keeping her silence. And that's it."
"He changes a lot, doesn't he?" Mildred said. "Almost like he's two different
people, both of them living in the same skin and sharing the same brain."
The sec man nodded his agreement. "Been like that since he had a bad fever,
about a year ago. Bloody flux and black water. Life was feared for. Seems to
some of us been serving him a long time that he's not quite the same man he
was before. Says one thing, then says 'something else. Like watching a
butterfly going around a flower garden."
"He hear voices?" Mildred asked.
Joaquin shook his head. "Baron Sharpe? You kidding me? You sayin' he's a
stupe, lady?"
"No, no."
"Good. Because there's nothing much wrong with him that time won't heal."
The black woman had worked in general practice before becoming a specialist in
the medical science of freezing, and she knew that a good doctor listened
carefully for what wasn't said as much as for what was said.
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%2...20-%20Ground%20Zero%20(v1.0)%20[h
tml].html (123 of 220) [12/28/2004 12:58:41 AM]
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Axler,%20Jam...0-%20Deathla
nds%2027%20-%20Ground%20Zero%20(v1.0)%20[html].html
"Nothing much that time won't heal? I'm interested, Joaquin. I have medical
training. Anything else that you've noticed?"
The sec man looked at her for several long, considered seconds. "Not my place
to talk about the man who pays me jack and places food on my plate."
"But"
" 'Couple things. You've seen him be changeable. Times the baron seems upset
by things that are going good. Other times he's amused by bad news. And he's
gotten to be a whole lot more interested in his
'collection' than he used to be three or four years ago. Main thing in his
life."
"What kind of interested?" Ryan asked.
"Ville's going to rack an' fuckin' ruin, Cawdor. Me and some of the older
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]