Raoul gave a shout of laughter. Torch glanced at him, hardly seeing him.
«That’s what I said,” said Karina. «Those were my exact words.»
«Would you care to explain them further?» Torch took refuge in his dignity.
Karina opened her mouth, Raoul regarding her with respect and delight, and was about to expound her views on customs in general and Torch’s sexual desires in particular when there was an unwelcome interruption.
«Just what in hell are these felinos doing on my deck, Raoul?» said Captain Tonio grimly, emerging from below.
«Come on out of here,” snapped Torch, dragging Karina to her feet.
Furious, she aimed a swift kick at his crotch. Torch saw it coming, sidestepped, grabbed her foot and heaved. Karina turned a rapid midair somersault and landed lightly on all fours. Snarling with rage, she hurled herself at Torch’s throat. He seized the ratlines above his head and met Karina’s leap with the full force of both feet.
«Animals …!» Tonio was shouting. «Where in hell are my crew?»
Karina rolled end over end and fetched up against the deck railing with a crash. Torch dropped into a crouch and awaited her next attack.
Raoul kicked Torch violently in the buttocks.
Now Torch, caught completely by surprise, pitched forward onto the deck. Karina pounced on him, threw an arm around his neck and began to drag his head back. He uttered one strangled grunt, then began to fight grimly for his life. Unable to shake Karina off, he rose unsteadily to his feet, lurched across the deck popeyed and throttled, and began to climb the ratlines with Karina affixed to his back like some infant primate. When he judged he had enough height he let go.
They hit the deck with a crash, Karina underneath.
The crew, appearing belatedly, saw their chance and moved in. The contestants were pried apart and pinioned. Karina was gulping for air, hardly able to stand. Reaction hit her and she urinated uncontrollably, wetness streaming hotly down her legs.
«Get her off my deck!» shouted Captain Tonio, outraged. «There are passengers below!»
Torch was in little better shape, but he was able to shake himself free from his captors. He took Karina by the elbow. «Come on,” he said. Leading her to the rail, he bent down, seized her thigh, and pitched her unceremoniously over the edge. Then he turned to face the True Humans and, summoning the tattered remains of his dignity, said, «I must apologize for her behavior, Captain Tonio. It will not happen again, I can assure you. You must understand, there is no mother to teach discretion to her grupo. All this will change when I am ordained as their squire.…»
He was already bigger than any of the True Human crew despite his youth, and the figure he cut hovered uncertainly between strength and pathos.
«That’s all right,” said Tonio unhappily. «Forget it, forget it.»
«All the same,” said Torch slowly as though the words were forced out of him by the pressure of his own pride, «If I hear you refer to me as an animal again, Captain Tonio, I will kill you.»
With a final venomous glance at Raoul he vaulted over the rail and was gone.
Astrud
«He’s such a big boy,” said Astrud. «It’s difficult to discipline him. This felina — how friendly was she? What was she like?»
«Like any other felina,” said Tonio. «Pretty and aggressive, and she fought like a tiger. Red-haired, though. That’s unusual. Her father’s El Tigre.»
“ TheEl Tigre?» Astrud regarded her husband in some alarm. «He’s the revolutionary, isn’t he?»
«He’d like to be a revolutionary, but there simply isn’t going to be a revolution.» Tonio felt the need to explain. «Right now, True Humans and felinos are dependent on each other — we have this mutual interest, the sailways. From Portina right down the coast to Rio de la Plata we and the felinos operate the sailways together — that’s nearly a thousand kilometers of track covering eight Cantons. If it wasn’t for the sailways, we’d be a string of warring coastal tribes, the way we were centuries ago. But the sailways have joined us together so now we have trade instead of wars, and everyone’s better for it.
«And now, a few of the felinos are saying they want their share of the trade. They say they’re not satisfied with the fees they earn from towing. They want their own sailcars. And we can’t let that happen.»
«Why not?» Up here in Rangua hill country she was sheltered from politics — and Tonio rarely discussed his work.
Tonio walked to the window. He could see the Atlantic bright in the sun, with the grassy downs rolling to the beach, and the guanacos grazing. The sailway ran across the downs and a car was passing, sail brilliant with sunshine and bearing the emblem of its owner: the whale of Rio Pele. Squat, powerful crewmen were hauling on ropes and Tonio cocked a practiced eye at the wind indicators relative to the sails; and he decided the captain knew his business. To the south he could see the lower boundaries of the tumpfields, and one of the gigantic tumps was in view, like a great gray slug with the tiny figure of the tumpier perched on its back. This was his life; this was his place in the hill country and he wouldn’t want anything to change.
He said, «The felinos control the hills. There are over thirty hills on the coast which are too steep for the cars to climb unassisted, so we have to use shrugleggers. Only felinos can make shrugleggers work. Why? Because the shrugleggers are scared of the felinos.» He checked off the points on his fingers. «Because the felinos have jaguar genes in their make-up and by Agni the shrugleggers can sense it!
«Now, just imagine if the felinos could operate their own cars. For a start, they wouldn’t have to pay towing fees, which is one of the biggest items in any voyage, believe me. So they’d be able to undercut the Canton and Company rates, and get a big share of the trade. Not only that, but there are certain prestige runs where they could block our craft.»
«Like the Tortuga Races?»
«Exactly. They’d make a killing on the tortugas. Our craft would never get past Rangua North Stage. They’d hold them up while they let their own cars through, and they’d get all the best prices while our own cargoes went rotten and started exploding. No. The one thing we can’t let happen, is for the felinos to get their own sailcars.» He sighed. «The felinos think we don’t like them — and God forgive me I called them animals today. But it’s not that. It’s simply a matter of survival. We can both survive if we stay apart and stick to our separate jobs. But if we let the felinos in on our job when we don’t have the physical characteristics to do theirs, then we cut our own throats.»
Astrud made her way slowly up the stairs towards the bedroom of Raoul, her son the stranger. Her mind was in the past, remembering that bewildering, hurtful day when Tonio had mocked her barrenness by bringing a baby into the house and assuming, without question or explanation, that she would bring it up as if it were her own.
She’d tried, as a devout follower of the Examples must try, and as the years went by she’d learned to love Raoul because, after all, the situation was no fault of his. But she could never understand Tonio’s attitude, or give any credence to his ridiculous story that some woman had given him the child one day. It was like a legend told by an old man at the inn, or one of those odd songs the Pegman sang. No — she was morally certain the baby was Tonio’s, and she felt he ought to have the decency to tell him who the mother was.
And yet Raoul bore no resemblance to Tonio and sometimes, when some trick of the light threw his cheekbones into relief and shaded in the hollows of his eyes, he didn’t look like a True Human at all. Even his hair was a strange color, and she regularly anointed it with a dark resinous oil to tone it down.