![]() ![]() And why not? In California, people can go bare-legged in January or wear a jacket in June. Even the oaks are confused: some species drop their leaves for a winter that never really comes. It lasts for three or four crisp, clear days, and then is swept away by a blast of winter - or summer, or spring. Fall comes about fifteen times a year in California. We floated back to the lab through another false California fall day. “Look: sorry to chase you down like this, but we need you back at the lab. “I’ll be sure to write it down,” he grinned. “I hope you keep a journal for posterity,” I said. “Jeez, Sylvia - you look almost happy to see me.” Not some corpse pulling at my worst memories of the war. He was something from the here and now, a real living person in tortoiseshell glasses and a sharp-looking tailored car coat with a silk driving scarf tucked into the collar. Almost nobody ever survives a terraplane accident.Īlvin Greenly tapped me on my shoulder, and I swear I almost hugged him when I saw him. They should just send the coroner’s van out first. An ambulance had landed too, though what was needed was a coroner’s van. ![]() There were already police and firemen on the scene. Someone - one of the other drivers who had stopped to help - had put a jacket over her, as if to keep her warm. Your mind is ready for blood and gore, but not for people who just stop being alive, without a mark on them. I’d seen bodies like hers in the war: they are the worst, because your mind keeps telling you they are about to stand up and start walking around. A blonde in a flowery dress was laying on her side, dead, without a scratch on her, her clothes perfectly arranged, as if she had fallen asleep in the sun. Teen joyriders were scattered in the grass. Roosevelt’s raised hand, then gouged a jagged scar through the earth to its resting place. It had punched a hole through the plywood of the city of the future and Mr. The terraplane was a shattered carapace of burning synthetics and deformed metal. I don’t know why President Roosevelt even bothers running an election campaign: he’ll win his seventh term by a landslide, no matter which scarecrow the Republicans prop up to run against him. The city of the future rises over his shoulders in the background, electric blue. In this billboard, Roosevelt is standing tall and trim, waving to you and you alone. I’d seen a fire from up above and swung down to see if there was something I could do to help.Ī convertible Ford terraplane full of joyriding teenagers had tumbled out of the sky and smashed through one of those giant election billboards of Mr. ![]() When the OSS caught up to me that day, I’d landed my terraplane just off Beacon Chain One, along the California coast. From cancer cures in a hypo to terraplanes to turkeys that cook themselves - a whole world of modern convenience. We reverse-engineered good technology off that saucer too: tech that can do more than destroy. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |