Transreal Cyberpunk by Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling Read Free Book Online

match. “I suppose you didn’t notice the faint luminescence of the sod?” She pulled some crumpled blades of grass from her pocket. “A Kirlian analysis will prove interesting.”
    “But, of course, the ants—” I began.
    “Will you two fakers shut up a minute?” Vlad broke in. “I’m trying to think.”
    I swallowed hard. “Oh yes, Comrade Genius? What about?”
    “About finding what we came for, Nikita. The alien craft.” Vlad frowned, waving his arm at the valley below us. “I’m convinced it’s buried out there somewhere. We don’t have a chance in this tangle and ooze ... but we’ve got to figure some way to sniff it out.”
    At that moment we heard the distant barking of a dog. “Great,” Vlad said without pausing. “Maybe that’s a bloodhound.”
    He’d made a joke. I realized this after a moment, but by then it was too late to laugh. “It’s just some Evenk mutt,” Sergeant Mukhamed said. “They keep sled-dogs ... eat ‘em, too.” The dog barked louder, coming closer. “Maybe it got loose.”
    Ten minutes later the dog bounded into our camp, barking joyously and frisking. It was a small, bright-eyed female husky, with muddy legs and damp fur caked with bits of bark. “That’s no sled-dog,” Vlad said, wondering. “That’s a city mutt. What’s it doing here?”
    She was certainly friendly enough. She barked in excitement and sniffed at our hands trustingly. I patted the dog and called her a good girl. “Where on earth did you come from?” I asked. I’d always liked dogs.
    One of the soldiers addressed the dog in Uzbek and offered it some of his rations. It sniffed the food, took a tentative lick, but refused to eat it.
    “Sit!” Vlad said suddenly. The dog sat obediently.
    “She understands Russian,” Vlad said.
    “Nonsense,” I said. “She just reacted to your voice.”
    “There must be other Russians nearby,” Nina said. “A secret research station, maybe? Something we were never told about?”
    “Well, I guess we have a mascot,” I said, scratching the dog’s scalp.
    “Come here, Laika,” Vlad said. The dog pricked her ears and wandered toward him.
    I felt an icy sensation of horror. I snatched my hand back as if I had touched a corpse. With an effort, I controlled myself. “Come on, Vlad,” I said. “You’re joking again.”
    “Good dog,” Vlad said, patting her.
    “Vlad,” I said, “Laika’s rocket burned up on re-entry.”
    “Yes,” Vlad said, “the first creature we Earthlings put into space was sentenced to be burned alive. I often think about that.” Vlad stared dramatically into the depths of the valley. “Comrades, I think something is waiting here to help us storm the cosmos. I think it preserved Laika’s soul and reanimated her here, at this place, and at this time ... It’s no coincidence. This is no ordinary animal. This is Laika, the cosmonaut dog!”
    Laika barked loudly. I had never seen the dog without the rubber oxygen mask on her face, but I knew with a thrill of supernatural fear that Vlad was right. I felt an instant irrational urge to kill the dog, or at least give her a good kick. If I killed and buried her, I wouldn’t have to think about what she meant.
    The others looked equally stricken. “Probably fell off a train,” Mukhamed muttered at last.
    Vlad regally ignored this frail reed of logic. “We ought to follow Laika. The ... Thunder-God put her here to lead us. It won’t get dark till ten o’clock. Let’s move out, comrades.” Vlad stood up and shrugged on his backpack. “Mukhamed?”
    “Uh ...” the sergeant said. “My orders are to stay with the vehicles.” He cleared his throat and spat. “There are Evenks about. Natural thieves. We wouldn’t want our camp to be raided.”
    Vlad looked at him in surprise, and then with pity. He walked towards me, threw one arm over my shoulder, and took me aside. “Nikita, these Uzbeks are brave soldiers but they’re a bit superstitious. Terrified of the unknown.