"The Road," Red said.
"I never had labor problems before," Chadwick commented.
"Who's the kidnapee?" Flowers asked.
The wall around the building's door had begun to crumble. Timyin Tin had backed down the stairs. The truck turned and tore off up the street.
"Strange, yet not strange," Chadwick observed, "and well-timed."
One
Speeding down the Road under the big golden arch, Red lit his cigar and regarded his passenger from beneath the shadow of his cap's bill. Chadwick, decked in many colors, his thick fingers heavy with rings, still perspired from the run to the vehicle. Each time he moved, his programmed contour seat underwent a radical readjustment. As he shifted often, the seat suffered constant metamorphosis about him. He tapped his fingers. He looked out of the window. He glanced furtively at Red.
Red grinned back at him.
"You're out of shape, Chad," he commented.
"I know," said the other, lowering his eyes. "Disgusting, isn't it? Considering what I once was..." Then he smiled. "Can't say it wasn't fun doing it, though."
"Cigar?" Red suggested.
"Don't mind if I do."
He accepted it, lit it, turned suddenly and glared at Red.
"You, on the other hand," he said, gesturing with the fire, "are no longer as old as you once were. Do you wonder why I hate you?"
"Yes," said Red. "Outside of being out of shape and overweight and covered with paint, I'd say that you are very similar to the person I knew a long while ago. I believe that your condition and mine are much alike, only yours is masked."
Chadwick shook his head.
"Come on. Red! That can't be. Don't you think I'd know it—or my doctors would—if I were growing younger and stronger and healthier?"
"No. Whatever the process, I feel that in your case it has an awful lot to work against. With you, it's had to run just to stand still. For the life you've led, I'd say you're in remarkably good shape. Even with the finest medical care, anyone else would probably have been dead by now."
. "I wish I could believe you, but all I can agree on is that I do have a strong constitution."
". .. You have an affinity for fire, you have a thing about accumulating wealth—"
"You're crazy! Everybody likes money, possessions. That doesn't prove anything. As for fire ... ." He drew hard on the cigar, exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Everyone has little peculiarities. Just because my memory is spotty too..."
"Who was your father?"
Chadwick shrugged.
"Who knows? I remember living at an inn."
"Near an entrance to the Road."
"What does that prove? My father probably was a Road man. I had to come by the talent some way. That doesn't mean he was something like you—" He was silent a moment. Then, "Oh, no," he said. "You are not going to try telling me that you are my father."
"I never said that—or thought it. But—"
"This whole thing has to be a fantasy of yours. It's too damned circumstantial. There is too much conjecture, too many wild premises—"
"That's what I say," Flowers interrupted. "I wish you could have locked him up somewhere and had a therapist of some sort work him over."
"She's right," Chadwick said. "Too much of your
thinking these days springs from your very fallible memory and guesswork."
Red chewed on his cigar and looked away. "All right," he finally said. "Maybe so. Tell me, then
—Why did you call off the decade and agree to come with me?"
Chadwick's fingers did a drumbeat on the dashboard. "Partly because you said that you think you are going to die in a very peculiar fashion shortly, and you aroused my curiosity," he said. "And partly after hearing
—and even helping with—all the garbage and paranoid guesswork I permitted you to feed into the SPHINX, I want to see where this is going to take us. And partly—at the end—because I was in a hurry to get out of there." "You saw that creature appear out of nowhere." "... And I have seen stranger things in a long and colorful career."
"Exactly. So what is the problem in believing my story?"
"You've nothing to back it up with. Even if you're right, I'm still right in not believing without evidence. Red, if I'd known you were in the shape you're in, I'd
never have started the feud. It wouldn't have been worth it."
"Stop it!" Red turned away.
"So you do have a few doubts yourself? I suppose that is a healthy sign."
"You believe nothing I've said?"
"I believe you are a fool—of unknown origin—and that you are probably headed for your doom."
"Will someone please feed that tape into my scanner?" said Flowers. "It may take a while to see whether you want me to find you a seacoast in Bohemia."
"Here," said Chadwick, passing over the printout.
Red inserted it into a slot. It was digested.
"I can tell right away," said Flowers, "that this is
going to be quite a drive." "Ridiculous," said Chadwick, placing his cigar in the
tray and folding his arms. "You're helping me whether you like it or not." Red
laid his cigar aside also. "A very long drive. Flowers?"
"Yes."
"Then put us to sleep. I don't feel like talking with him the whole time."
"The feeling is mutual," said Chadwick.
A soft hissing sound began.
"I ought to just gas you both permanently and become a Flying Dutchperson, like that car I heard about 'a while back, flitting down the centuries with a pair of skeletons inside."
"Very funny," said Red, breathing deeply.
Chadwick yawned.
"The whole thing..." he began.
Two
Randy had changed six flat tires. He had also seen the radiator, the generator and a fan belt replaced. Had a tuneup too, while the brakes were being relined. Leaves had blithely charged it all to Red, with whose account it would sooner or later rendezvous. And who knew how much fuel? He had lost track.
And they continued on ...
"Where?" Randy repeated. "When?"
"I'll know it when I see it," Leila replied.
"At this rate, you'll run us back to the Ice Age."
"Not that far, I think."
"He will show up there, though? You're sure?"
"I'm afraid so. Hurry."
"And you want to save him from a death which you say he now desires?..."
"We've been through all this."
"... because he believes it will work some transformation?"
"That's why he ditched me," Leaves said. "I caught
on to his death-wish before he was ready to admit it." "Then obviously neither of you believe him." "I believe my own visions," Leila said. "If he dies
there, he dies. Period."
Randy rubbed the stubble on his chin and shook
his head. "I don't know that I would attempt to stop him from
doing whatever he wishes to do most, whether it seems futile or not. All I really wanted to do was meet him. I'm not even certain what I'd say..."
"You've already met him."
"You'd better explain."
"That old couple with car trouble. That was us— Reyd and myself—a long time ago, before we grew younger. You were the one. I didn't remember it until
then-" "What the hell was that?"
"What?"
"Something big—like an airplane—went over." "I didn't see anything." "It was back a ways. I caught it in the rearview
mirror."
Leila shook her head.