Terraplane by Jack Womack Read Free Book Online Page A

presence. Alekhine's
implant is like mine, in brain instead of neck, and impossible to
remove without-" He paused. "Terrible mess. Either he has discovered way to jam signal, which no one else has ever done, or he
has gone somewhere beyond our range, which is to say, no place."

    "Inferences must have been possible," I said. "What lines were
followed?"
    "From Dream Team reports we ascertain that device as perfected
must involve paraphysics rather than parapsychologics."
    "What's meant?"
    "After long years of study we find no truth in so-called para-
psychologics in traditional sense. Forecasting future, calling up
spirit of dead mother, reading thoughts of strangers; such foolish
things are as dreams. Minds are thick as Kremlin walls unless
Dream Team methods are employed, and then only generalities
may be inferred. Employing such methods we know that paraphysics are involved, that major experiment succeeded. Otherwise, no more.
    Dream Team methods involved modified implants, so that those
so adapted might not only be at all times located but, in some as-
yet-obsure way, have thoughts' track mapped without derailing the
train. "What falls under paraphysics' heading?"
    "Inexpressibles," he said as we entered a bleak avenue carrying
four rutted, scarred lanes. Putty-colored ten-story towers were
stuck like arrows along each side. Cars' shells lined curbs, covered
sidewalks, piled high upon yards as if left by guests at a technological clambake. Rats raced streetways, daring us to strike. "Poltergeists and telekinetic effects. Sonar showing large animals in lakes
where limited food supply prohibits such from existing. Wild
cougars in London suburbs where no one has lost cougar, and
grown alligators in Canadian ponds in dead of winter. Why frogs
fall from cloud-free sky." He pressed a button, shifting to slower
drive as we rounded a turn. "Plane crashes and little girl's body
found, unburned; no little girl on board or on ground reported. A
silver coin in a chunk of granite. The look of a sinner on the face of
a saint. Growth of hair on a mummy's head." He flashed his steel.
"Why one sock of pair always vanishes in dryer."
    "What's meant by transferral device?" I asked. "Transferral
where?"
    "Over rainbow, perhaps," he said, his eyes glistening, as if flashfrozen. "Soon we discover. Novy Marina Roshcha, gentlemen."

    Eight-wheel crowd compromisers, steel skins gleaming, guns
and gas jets shining, guarded each end of a twenty-man soldierline
blockading the avenue. On either side of their wall, the worlds
appeared similar in look. The formation broke to allow our passage; none cared that we didn't slow, none halted us to check ID,
none questioned our intent or purpose or plan.
    "Residents come and go freely, you said," I reminded Skuratov.
"Hasn't the army more immediate situations?"
    "Individuals come and go free, I said. Army is here to prevent
attempts at simultaneous escape of many. Krasnaya prefers to
certify safety of even these citizens, for great loss of life would be
unavoidable if such problematic situation occurred."
    "Krasnaya prefers this?" I asked, seeing Russians of decidedly
unpropagandistic value.
    "As also mentioned, Luther," he said. "Not everyone prefers
fitting into fine-running system just as not everyone rises to appropriate level during lifetime. These neighborhoods offer suitable
surroundings for-how is it put-"
    "Casualties of the system," I said. Their great-grandparents
suffered under the nobles, their grandparents under the Big Boy,
their parents under the nomenklatura and so they suffered under
the supervision of the great Krasnaya multinationale. Inheritance
they provided forever grew, no matter who borrowed against the
trust.
    "They prefer to live in such way, after all," he said. "It is hard to
remember at times." The street sparkled with broken glass as if
diamond paved. Cardboard blocked wind blowing through broken
windows; newsprint curtained those yet