Cryptozoic! by Brian Aldiss Read Free Book Online Page B

prickle,

a greater surge of electricity through the cells of the body. And old

Borrow had it, Borrow , who had stopped being any sort of artist years

ago and turned himself into a shopkeeper and his pretty wife into an

assistant for the sake of cash, Borrow , fussy about his shirt cuffs,

Borrow had got the message and delivered it back!

What hurt was that Borrow knew he had done it. That was why he had tried

to cushion Bush from the shock by reminding him that he held the record

for low-distance mind-travel. Bush might be washed up as an artist, ah,

but he held the record for low-distance mind-travel! So Borrow had known

Bush would recognize the merits of the panels and had pitied him because

he, Bush, could produce nothing similar.

How much were those panels fetching in 2090, for God's sake? No wonder

The Amniote Egg was flourishing; there was capital to back it now.

The shopkeeper-artist was on a good thing, turning his inspiration into

hamburgers and tonic water!

Bush hated his thoughts. They kept coming, though he called himself

a bastard. Those panels . . . of course Gabo . . . Pevsner . . . in two

dimensions -- no, they had their predecessors, but these were originals.

Not a new language, but a bridge from the old. A bridge he himself might

have found; now he would find another, have to find another! But old Borrow

. . . a man who'd once dared to laugh at Turner's masterpieces!

"Double whisky," Bush said. He couldn't pull himself together to say

thank you as Borrow sat down on a stool companionably beside him.

"Is your girl here? What's she like? Blonde?"

"She's dirty. God knows what color her hair is. Picked her up in the

Devonian. She's no good -- I'm only too glad to lose her." It was not

true; in his shame, he could not think what he was saying. Already,

he wanted to look at the panels again, but was unable to ask.

Borrow sat in silence for a moment, as if digesting how much of Bush's

statement he should believe. Then he said, "You still work for the

Wenlock Institute, Eddie?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Guy in here yesterday called Stein -- must still be around. He used to

work for Wenlock too."

"Don't know him." That Stein connected with the Institute? Never!

"Need a room for the night, Eddie? Ver and I can fix you up."

"I've got my own tent. Anyhow, I may not be staying."

"Come on, you must have a meal with Ver and me, tonight after we've closed.

There's no hurry -- there's all the world in the time, as they say."

"Can't." He made an awful effort to pull himself together and stop being

a bastard. "What the hell is an aniniote egg anyway? A new dish?"

"You could say that in a way." Borrow explained the amniote egg as the

great invention of the Mesozoic Era, the one thing that brought about the

dominance of the great reptiles over hundreds of millions of years. An

amnion was the membrane within a reptilian egg that allowed the embryo

reptile to go through the "tadpole" stage inside the egg, to emerge into

the world as a fully formed creature. It enabled the reptiles to lay

their eggs on land, and thus conquer the continents. For the amphibians

from which they had developed laid only soft and gelatinous eggs that had

to hatch in a fluid medium, which kept them pegged to rivers and lakes.

"The reptiles broke the old amphibian tie with the water as surely as

mankind broke the old mammal tie with space-time time. It was their big

clever trick, and it stood them in good stead for I-don't-know-how-long."

"The way your store and bar is going to do for you."

"What's upset you, Eddie, boy? You're not yourself. You ought to go back

to the present."

Bush drained his glass, stood up, and looked at his friend. With a great

effort, he conquered himself. "I may be back, Roger. I thought -- your

constructions were okay." As he hurried out of the bar, he saw there

was one of the constructions hanging as decoration on the canvas wall.

All the clocks of his mind were hammering furiously.