James Rollins Subterranean

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chieftain out of respect for his famous father. Most of the other elders
tolerated him, but he was not well respected. Too volatile, too quick to make
decisions. The council liked to mull over decisions, sometimes taking years to
decide on simple matters. The young chief, with his fidgeting and sudden
anger, was an embarrassment to the older members.
Still, he did have his followers. Harry pointed out an exceptionally thin
male tribesman whose eyes and ears kept darting in every direction. His hands
tugged at the pillow under him as if struggling to find a comfortable position
for his bony rear. "Sin'jari," Harry said. "An oily sycophant of Bo'rada.
Beware of him. He's as sneaky as he is nervous."
"It looks as if a stiff wind could snap him in two," Ben said.
"Don't underestimate the creep. He's the one who convinced the leader that
you two should be killed. He's a wheedling sort of guy. He knows how to play
to people's fears. Work them into a frenzy."
The leader stamped his staff three times on the floor, then sat.
Harry stepped between Ben and Ashley, translating for them as the meeting
opened.
Ashley had expected their fate would be the first item on the schedule, but
she was sorely mistaken. The first item on the agenda seemed to deal with the
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harvesting of the fields. A lengthy dispute seemed to center on whether to
proceed now or to allow the hoofed food animals another month of free grazing.
After much arguing, during which Mo'amba seemed to be dozing, it was decided
to harvest now.
Ashley straightened up, expecting their fate to be discussed next. She was
wrong. The only female council member, Jus'siri, stood up next, assisted from
her pillow by one of her guards due to the preponderance of her gravid belly.
Ashley shifted her feet. Now what? This interminable waiting was beginning to
grate on her. Even Ben was beginning to grumble.
She watched Jus'siri waddle to the small dug-out pit at the center of the
chamber. The other elders encircled her, many smiling in delight.
Ashley's jaw dropped at what happened next.
Ben curled his lip. "That's disgusting."
Jus'siri reached within her belly pouch, both hands disappearing within the
fold. With a bit of a strained face, but with her eyes shining proudly, she
pulled from her belly a brown-speckled egg, about the size of an ostrich egg.
She held it aloft, her belly now sagging empty. The other elders began
stamping their staffs and hooting. Jus'siri then carefully placed the egg
within the small pit not a pit, Ashley finally realized, but a nest! The proud
mother stepped back.
"My god," Ashley blurted, stunned. "They'renot marsupials! They're
monotremes!"
"What?" Ben asked, his lips still curled in disgust.
"Linda and I discussed it. Monotremes. Just like thecrak'an . Egg-laying
mammals. Considered to be an evolutionary link between reptiles and mammals,
sharing traits from both egg-laying like reptiles, but fur-bearing and
milk-producing like mammals. Supposedly an evolutionary dead end."
"Looks like this group took a detour," Ben said.
Ashley turned to Harry. "What're they doing?"
"It's a naming ceremony. Jus'siri is offering her child to the tribe."
Ashley watched as Mo'amba struggled up off his pillow and crossed to the egg.
Kneeling down, he placed both hands gently on the egg.
"What's he doing?" Ashley asked.
Her question was directed at Harry, but Ben answered. "He's reading the egg
and the child within."
Ashley raised an eyebrow toward Ben, but he just shook his head as if unsure
himself how he knew this.
Mo'amba raised his head to the mother, still holding the egg. Smiling, he
mumbled something to her.
"It's healthy," Harry translated.
Then Mo'amba suddenly jerked away, almost accidentally flipping the egg out
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of the nest.
Ben jumped beside her. "I felt it," he said. "Like a baby kicking."
"Felt what?" Ashley asked.
Ben just shook his head again.
Ashley watched as Mo'amba rested his hands back on the egg, even more
tenderly this time, his hands trembling with more than just old age. He again
turned to Jus'siri, who now wore a concerned look on her face. With tears in
his eyes, he spoke to her.
The crowd erupted with cheers, staffs stamping jubilantly.
Ashley turned to Harry, impatient for his translation. "Well?"
Again Ben answered, "The child isheri'huti . It bears the trait of seeing and
speaking with the mind." He turned to Ashley, wonder in his voice. "I actually
felt the child stir."
Mo'amba stood up, his joy so powerful he didn't even use his crutch. He
stamped his staff to quiet the crowd. Once the commotion settled to a low
murmur, he spoke again, punctuating his statement with two stamps.
"I name this childTu'shama ," Harry translated. "The One Who Sees Our
Future."
The crowd erupted, the name Tu'shama chanted from many tongues.
"Well," Ben said, "at least they'll be in a good mood when it comes to
deciding our fate."
Ashley nodded. "Hopefully, they won't simply delay the decision. I don't want
to lose another day."
As if the scarred Tru'gula had understood her words, he stamped for attention
and proposed that the decision on Ashley and Ben's fate be put off. In
response, many heads nodded, even Bo'rada.
Then the bone-thin Sin'jari stamped to be heard. With Harry translating, his
words chilled: "It truly is a time of joy, but we cannot forget that with joy
there is also sorrow. How many widows now wail?"
His words sobered the audience.
"Here stand demons meant to destroy us." He pointed a long finger with thick
knuckles at them. "Ever since they arrived and desecrated this world, we began
to die. We have tried befriending them," he continued, nodding toward Harry,
"but still we have continued to perish. I think it more than chance that when
we finally decide to destroy the demons, a newheri'huti should suddenly
appear. I say it's a sign from the gods. A sign that we must drive the demons
from our world. Without delay!"
Now several heads nodded in agreement with Sin'jari's words.
Ashley reached behind her back and shoved her pistol deeper in her belt,
securing it. She started eyeing the obstacles between her and the door.
Mo'amba stamped for attention.
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Ben's nervous shifting calmed once he saw that Mo'amba was to speak in their
defense. He reached over and squeezed Ashley's hand. "He'll make them see
reason," he said.
Mo'amba waited for the noise of the crowd to subside before speaking.
Sin'jari's eyes twitched, and his hands scrabbled on his staff; he was
obviously worried. But as Mo'amba began speaking, a smile grew wider and wider
on Sin'jari's gaunt face, revealing too many teeth.
Harry translated: "Sin'jari's correct that many of our protective barriers
have fallen. That many of our people have died. I have given this much
thought, spending many hours praying and seeking guidance from our ancestors.
And have come to only one answer." Mo'amba pointed his staff toward Ben and
Ashley. "Sin'jari is correct. They are to blame!"
TWENTY-EIGHT
MICHAELSON CROUCHED OVER HIS ARSENAL, TAKING INVENTORYof his weapons: One
collapsible rifle, a snubnosed AK-47, two pistols, and four boxes of
.34-caliber shells. Why hadn't he requisitioned a grenade launcher for this [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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