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stranded here in the mountains.
' 'But the Indians have taken good care of us, and they showed me a road that must lead to a town
sooner or later. The pilot said we were about fifty kilometers from Ciudad Nuevo, and if your friends are
still there ..."
"You took me with you? When you could have left me for the police to pick up and gotten away by
yourself?"
Surprise, David said, "Yes, I suppose I did."
"Don't you realize that if I make contact with the PRU, they will consider you to be our prisoner?''
He shrugged. "I never thought of that."
BEN BOVA " 296
The next morning the chief led David out of his hut as soon as they had finished their clay bowls of grainy
gruel. The whole village seemed to know that their visitors were leaving. The older healer led Bahjat out
of her hut, and as the two of them met in the village's central open area, everyone else clustered about
them.
Silently, solemnly, the chief presented them each with red and blue blankets.
"They're beautiful," Bahjat said as she accepted hers. "Where do they get them?"
"Maybe they keep sheep someplace farther up in the mountains," David said. "Or they trade pelts for
them."
Others came forward and presented them with sacks of grain and small, ornately decorated eating
bowls.
"For our journey," Bahjat said.
David nodded, remembering the gift that he had decided to give. He stepped toward the chief and
pointed to the knife in the man's twine belt.
A frown crossed the chief's face, but slowly he pulled the knife from its leather sheath and handed it to
David. The whole village was silent, watching.
David went back to the small pile of treasures they had given him and took the little bowl in his left hand.
Then, with the knife in his right hand, he made a swift slash across the meaty back of his forearm. It
wasn't deep, but it stung and quickly started dripping blood.
The villagers gasped. Bahjat's mouth fell open. David handed the knife back to the chief and then put the
bowl beneath the cut. Several drops of blood spattered into it. He handed the bowl to the chief.
"It's the only thing I have to offer," David said, "for now."
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The chief was clearly moved. He held the bowl in one outstretched hand, the bloody knife in the other.
He raised them both and turned for the whole village to see. A murmur of approval went up.
"You're still bleeding," Bahjat whispered.
"It'll stop in a minute," David said. "I've got a very strong clotting factor."
And then he realized what the chief was going to do.
COLONY " 297
The silver-haired man, looking as solemn and strong as the mountains themselves, put the cup to his lips and drank
David's blood.
^InshallahVBahjat said softly.
Then the chief deftly cut his own arm and let the blood drip into the bowl. He handed it back to David.
"You're not going to ..." Bahjat's voice choked off as David drank the chief's blood.
The villagers shouted. The chief raised his hand and rested it solidly on David's shoulder. He said not a word; none
was needed. They simply stood there for a long moment while the whole village watched and the mountain winds
sighed and moaned above them.
At last the chief stepped back. David picked up the food and blankets, and he and Bahjat started on their way. The
chief sent two men to lead them through the forest and down to the road. He himself retired to his hut, too moved to
make the short journey himself.
By the time the sun was high, David and Bahjat were trudging down the paved highway, alone again. They had
skirted the construction site, choosing instead to find the town where they had a chance of linking up with a local PRU
group.
"But what was that ceremony all about?" Bahjat was asking.
"I wanted to give them something to show how grateful we were for their kindness to us." David's arm throbbed
slightly, but the bleeding had long since dried up. "They saved our lives, after all."
"Yes, but... blood?"
"That's all I had. And it has a deep meaning for them. I think we've been officially adopted as members of their tribe."
"You have," Bahjat said. "They ignored me."
Grinning at her, he said, ' 'We could go back and repeat the ceremony for you. I'm sure they'd be very glad ..."
"Never mind!"
They walked along the empty highway for a while, under the warming afternoon sun. Then Bahjat asked, "How did
BEN BOVA " 298
you get me to the village if I was unconscious when the plane landed up there?"
"I carried you," David said absently. He was still thinking about the villagers and what he could do to
help them.
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"You carried me? All the way to the village?"
"It wasn't far."
"And then you stayed there while I was sick for two more days and nights?"
David nodded.
"Why did you stay with me?"
"You were sick. I couldn't leave you."
She stopped and grabbed at his arm. "But don't you realize that we're enemies? I hijacked your space
shuttle. You want to go to Messina; that's the last place in the world that I want to be. When we reach
the town I'm going to contact my friends and you'll be our prisoner, our hostage."
Tapping the gun at his waist, David said, "Maybe you'll be my prisoner."
Bahjat shook her head. "You couldn't get very far without my help."
"And you would have been in a police hospital in Argentina without my help," he countered.
"So you expect me to be grateful."
"I expect you ..." David stopped, took a deep breath, and then began walking again. "Look," he said,
"can't we just be friends and leave the politics aside?"
"That's impossible," Bahjat said firmly.
"Well, impossible or not, we'd better give it a try. We're going to be walking down this road together for
a long time, it seems to me. And if your friends in Ciudad Nuevo aren't any better than the people we've
contacted so far, we may be on the road even longer."
Bahjat said nothing. David kept on walking and she stayed alongside him. After a while he began singing
a song she had never heard before. She tried to frown at him, but she found herself smiling back, instead.
For Your Eyes Only
28 August 2028 To : Dr. Cyrus S. Cobb Prom: Mr. T. Hunter Garrison Subject: Operation Proxy
Phase I of the operation is now essentially complete, and Phase. II will be initiated shortly. As you know, Phase II will
escalate very quickly and reach its planned objectives in less than three months. At that time, the evacuation phase of
the operation will begin. All preparations aboard Island One must be finished, therefore, within sixty calendar days of
receipt of this memorandum. DESTROY AFTER READING!
TWENTY-SEVEN
T. Hunter Garrison sat in the sweltering hot greenhouse at
the far end of his quarters atop the Garrison Tower and watched the holographic cross-country conference. The
hologram screen in the greenhouse was full-sized. It gave the illusion that the greenhouse was cut in half: where
Garrison sat was a hot, humid tropical garden filled with orchids, ferns, lianas; where Leo and the other rebels sat was a
crazy-quilt conference table, with a different background behind each of the two dozen guerrillas.
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Garrison leaned forward in his powerchair's enfolding softness, his bald head glistening as he watched the
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