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Rio had announced a special mass of thanks and salvation for tomorrow, noting
that if the impact had come sooner, along the coast, there would have been
massive loss of life.
The announcer then paused to gather more information, and the station began
playing Jobim s
Quiet
Night and Quiet Stars . . .
The captain switched off the radio and drove slowly over to the road.
Well, that big one in the mountain must have been the one that hit below,
Tony noted.
The captain frowned. Maybe. But I can t understand if it was that big, and
much smaller pieces caused so much damage, why we didn t have a minibomb
effect here as well.
That was quite a jolt when it hit, Anne Marie pointed out.
Exactly. The jolt, yes, but something that hot, hitting with that kind of
force, should have done far more if it s anywhere close, and I think it is.
I m beginning to have a very bad feeling about this.
What do you expect? Martian invaders? Tony joked.
No. Nothing like that. He took a deep breath. Well, here we go.
Solomon was surprised at how far they managed to get before fallen rocks and
other debris stopped them. They were actually at the lower turnout of the last
switchback be-fore the main road and could see down the steep kilometer or
more to the paved road below even though they couldn t reach it.
Anne Marie gasped at the sight on that main road. What is it? Tony pressed
her.
The meteor! Or at least the big piece of it! It s huge
! It s stuck half in the road and half in the opposite hillside. It looks
mostly buried in the hill and there s a lot of bubbling and hissing around the
edges, but you can see a big part of it! It s glowing
a dull, almost golden yellow, and it looks like some huge gemstone, kind of
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like stained glass. Good heavens! I d almost swear it was something
artifi-cial!
The captain stared at it. Just my imagination? he won-dered. Or is that huge
flat area facing outward the shape I m afraid it is?
He got out and surveyed the path, dully illuminated by the glow of the strange
object. Surveying the scene, he went back to them and said, I think I can
angle the car so it ll give us light from the headlights the first part of the
way down, after which, if that thing keeps glowing, we won t need any more
light. It might be a tight fit, but I think we can get the wheelchair down,
though we might have to lift it over at one or two places. Are you willing?
I think better down than back up at this point, Anne Marie replied.
It was not an easy task, but it was manageable. At one point dirt and rock had
covered much of the road, making it difficult to get the wheelchair around
without going off the side, but the captain managed, then, bracing her on the
other side, got Tony around as well. Several times the blind man stumbled, but
he was game all the way, and in about thirty minutes they made it down to the
road.
The meteor had taken out much of the paved area, and between its own extrusion
and the landslides the impact had caused, it would clearly be some time before
any vehi-cle could get past. Still, there was more than enough room for them
to manage, if no more slides occurred, and once on the other side, they would
at least be well positioned when the first cars driven by the curious or
investigators made it to the scene.
I m surprised there aren t a lot of people on both sides already here, Anne
Marie said. I know we were hardly the only ones to come up this route.
We don t know how bad some of the slides are else-where, and perhaps other
pieces fell as well, doing dam-age, Tony pointed out. It might well be a
while, but at least I believe we have more of a chance down here than up
there. What do you think, Captain? What should we do now?
Solomon was staring at the meteor. Huh? Oh, sorry, I wasn t paying
attention. He paused a moment, then said, You two stay right here. I ve got
to get something off my mind one way or the other. I won t be but a moment.
With that, he walked down toward the still-glowing ob-ject. As he approached,
the thing seemed to change some-how; the glassy surface took on a duller
sheen, and then other forms seemed to appear just underneath.
Anne Marie gasped. It looks like something alive
! she said. Like a network of arteries and veins or fluids go-ing through
pulsing tubes. I ve seen this sort of thing under microscopes!
Your imagination is getting the best of you, her hus-band responded. You ve
been through a lot tonight.
No, no! I m serious! I swear it! And it seems to be get-ting more and more
detailed as the captain goes
nearer to it. Captain! she called out worriedly. Don t go any closer! Watch
out!
The captain gestured confidently with his right hand. He walked around to the
left, where the shoulder of the road still allowed passage, and as he did, a
single gemlike face in the center seemed to darken on its own, becoming in a
moment jet black, while the rest of the object remained un-changed.
Son of a bitch! I
knew it! the captain grumbled. A damned hexagon
! He stood there staring at it and said, louder, You coulda been a little
more subtle, damn it!
The object didn t respond. He knew it wouldn t. Al-though so advanced that it
would be incomprehensible to Earth science, it was just a machine.
I don t want to go through it all again! he told it, knowing he was talking
only to himself. I didn t even want to do it the last time, and you forced
me. What do you want me to do? Wipe out everything again?
Just when they ve gotten to the start of the fun part? Before I ve even
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completely forgotten who and what I am? Screw up thou-sands of civilizations
because one damned thing went re-freshingly wrong in history? Well, I won t do
it! Get her to do it!
She knows how! I encoded her and linked her to the Well!
He stopped for a moment, trying to calm down. Maybe it had gone for her as
well. It would be ironic if she, too, were in Brazil, although what she d be
doing in the Ama-zon basin was beyond him. Still, he knew the machine wouldn t
let him stay here while somebody else did the re-set. He hadn t taken himself
out of the core matrix. If somehow it allowed him to get around the embedded
frag-ment without taking him in, swallowing him up, it wouldn t matter. It
would send more of these, and more, until he would feel under constant
bombardment. Either that or it would figure some other way. When one had the
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