Tramping across the sand, the wasteland which was the Nevada Desert, Freya Garden Gaines knew that it would be a long time before she got back to the condominium apartment in Carmel.
And anyway, she thought to herself, what did it matter? What did she have to look forward to? The thoughts she had had as she floundered in the intermediate regions into which the t.i.tanian Game-players had hurled them ... I don"t repudiate those thoughts don"t repudiate those thoughts, she said to herself with envenomed bitterness. Pete has his pregnant mare, his wife Carol; he"ll never notice me again as long as I live.
In her pocket she found a strip of rabbit-paper; getting it out, she removed the wrapper and bit it. With the light cast by her cigarette lighter she examined it and then crumpled it up and violently flung it away from her. Nothing, she realized. And it"ll always be like this for me. It"s Pete"s fault; if he made it with that Carol Holt creature he could have made it with me. G.o.d knows we tried it enough times; it must have been several thousand. Evidently he just didn"t want to succeed.
Twin lights flashed ahead of her. She halted, cautiously, gasping for breath. Wondering what she had arrived at.
A car lowered itself warily to the surface of the desert, its signal lights flashing on and off. It landed, stopped.
The door opened.
"Mrs. Gaines!" a cheerful voice called.
Peering, Freya walked toward the car.
Behind the wheel sat a balding, friendly-looking elderly man. "I"m glad I found you," the elderly man said. "Get in and we"ll drive out of this dreadful desert-area. Where exactly do you want to go?" He chuckled. "Carmel?"
"No," Freya said. "Not Carmel." Never again, she thought.
"Where then? What about Pocatello, Idaho?"
"Why Pocatello?" Freya demanded. But she got into the car; it was better than continuing to wander aimlessly across the desert, alone in the darkness, with no one-certainly none of the group-to help her. To give a d.a.m.n about what happened to her.
The elderly man, as he started up the car, said pleasantly, "I"m Doctor E.R. Philipson."
She stared at him. She knew-she was positive she knew-who he was. Or rather, who it it was. was.
"Do you want to get out?" Doctor Philipson asked her. "I could, if you wish, set you back down there again where I found you."
"N-no," Freya murmured. She sat back in her seat, scrutinized him thoroughly, thinking to herself many thoughts.
Doctor E.R. Philipson said to her, "Mrs. Gaines, how would you like to work for us, for a change?" how would you like to work for us, for a change?" He glanced her way, smiling, a smile without warmth or humor. A smile utterly cold. He glanced her way, smiling, a smile without warmth or humor. A smile utterly cold.
Freya said, "It"s an interesting proposal, but I"d have to think it over. I couldn"t decide just like that, right now."
Very interesting indeed, she thought. "You"ll have time," Doctor Philipson said. "We"re patient. You"ll have all the time in the world." His eyes twinkled. Freya smiled back.
Humming confidently to himself, Doctor Philipson drove the car toward Idaho, skimming across the dark night sky of Earth.
NOVELS BY PHILIP K. d.i.c.k
Clans of the Alphane Moon
Confessions of a c.r.a.p Artist
The Cosmic Puppets
Counter-Clock World
The Crack in s.p.a.ce
Deus Irae (with Roger Zelazny) (with Roger Zelazny)
The Divine Invasion
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dr. Bloodmoney
Dr. Futurity
Eye in the Sky
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Galactic Pot-Healer
The Game-Players of t.i.tan
The Man in the High Castle
The Man Who j.a.ped
Martian Time-Slip
A Maze of Death
Now Wait for Last Year
Our Friends from Frolix 8
The Penultimate Truth
Radio Free Albemuth
A Scanner Darkly
The Simulacra
Solar Lottery
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Time Out of Joint
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
Ubik
The Unteleported Man
VALIS.
Vulcan"s Hammer
We Can Build You
The World Jones Made
The Zap Gun