[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] He sighed. He could see someone had tried hard to put together a themed package. ?Sorry, Lurch. I can t do this. He tried to explain why not, and made her understand he was serious. I don t have to play if I don t like the company. I ve never been that kind of rockstar, don t plan to start. Thanks, but no. Lurch blanched. He would not have thought her whey face could turn whiter, but it did. She argued her case, becoming agitated. The person who put this together didn t understand. I do, I tried, but what the President, uh, or people round him see is, they ll see you being awkward. Please Ax. You can do this. You have to do it. Sorry, said Ax. Credibility issue. Surely the White House can understand a credibility issue? Ah, well, he was thinking, watching her shocked face. So that s the way things are, and that nice civilised patrician gent I was talking to was really Pigsty Liver For whom might is right, and now I ve bust the deal She left, saying she d get back to him. Ax, crestfallen and exasperated, wondered if his life was actually in danger (she had been so flustered), but decided not. Fred Eiffrich isn t Caligula, he s just an emperor whose favour is easily lost. Too bad. And if Ax no longer had a patron in this town, that was okay. He had a contingency plan. In the morning he took the Metro to Dupont Circle, bought himself coffee and a muffin and went to sit in the park. People walked briskly, a school class of teenagers were doing drill-exercises. Sparrows flirted and chirruped and hunted scraps. The central fountain featured a ronde of undraped forms, male and female: sleek, pallid stone. Two white guys, clad in running shorts and singlets, sat on the rim of the bowl talking quietly. Could one of them be my man? He wondered if he d been stupid about the gig, but decided he d been right to say no as an opening gambit; see what Lurch comes back with. . . On his VIP ticket he d have flown into Shannon by private jet (no flights to England, but he could have handled the rest of the journey). Getting out of the USA otherwise, when he had little money, wasn t supposed to be here, had a chip in his head and came from a contaminated country, was not going to be straightforward. But he d been working on it. I like to be in charge of my next sandwich. The sparrows caught his attention. What a strange city it is, where nobody feeds the birds. He wanted to crumble some of his blueberry muffin for them, but respect for Lurch s feelings restrained him. I d hate to create an artificial food chain . . . One of the little birds hopped to within inches of his foot, without the bait. She looked up. He saw in extraordinary clarity the blonde stripe above her shining dark eye, the soft pelt of smoky brown feathers. She reminded him of Fiorinda, and he had a wistful thought that she might come to his hand. He could almost feel the tiny claws, digging into him Oh He recognised the penumbra of something untoward happening in his brain, and the next instant there was Fiorinda, her living ghost: Fiorinda, in her stormcloud indigo and the orange fluffy cardigan, one arm across her breast, the bi-loc set in a white-knuckled grip against the side of her head. His heart leapt. Oh God, she has remembered. My telecoms-allergic babe finally realised why the fuck I gave her that thing. She looked as if she d been crying. ?Ax! ?Fiorinda, my baby. What s the matter? What s happened, sweetheart? ?Ax, you have to come home. Sage has gone. Olwen wouldn t give him life support any more. You don t know because he wouldn t let us tell you, but he was taking far too much snapshot, in the Zen Self experiments. He said he couldn t stop, it was something he had to do, and now he s gone to Caer Siddi. The moment he saw her, the moment he heard her voice, the world turned upside down and righted itself, and he was there, in the world he thought he d lost, loving her and Sage, grasping that they were in trouble and he d have to sort it out ?You two haven t been getting on then, I take it. And the stupid bugger wouldn t let you tell me. Fiorinda, don t cry, it ll be okay. Just explain to me what went wrong  She shook her head, her trouble only darker. ?N-not at this distance, Ax. You don t understand, he s gone. He was, I think he was dying when he left Rivermead. No one who goes to Caer Siddi ever comes out again. He s never coming back. Sage is gone. Things are okay here but not too good. Fergal s taken command of the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl blacksoulman.xlx.pl