By the end of Mrs. Ferguson's sermon, in spite of himself , Salazar had the feeling of being revealed the inmost secrets of the cosmos, although he could not recall anything definite that she had said. It was all gauzy figures of speech interlarded with snatches of pseudoscience and commonplace truisms such as "Is it not true, my children, that people whom you like are likely to like you in return?" But she spoke with such verve and conviction as to give the impression that nobody had ever thought that thought before.
Perhaps, Salazar thought, Yaamo had by now heard that he, Salazar, was opposing the Adriana Company's project, even if not very effectively so far. Since the plan promised Yaamo revenue for developing the island, he would want to get Salazar out of the way. Possibilities ran from murder to a modest bribe. He wondered how big a bribe it would take to subvert his own rectitude. More likely he ought to worry about being arrested, tried, and sentenced to a flogging that, while merely painful to a Kook, was fatal to a Terran.
Salazar, however, had all his father's stubbornness in carrying through, despite hell or high water, a task he had started. Since Yaamo's police might be looking for him, they would probably try the railroad. When they learned that he had come down on the express the day before, they would next go to Levontin's to see if he had taken quarters there. Before he left the library, Salazar asked:
"Have you any books on the religions and philosophies of India?"
"You mean full-sized printed books, not cards or reels?"
"Yes."
The librarian consulted her file and came up with Panikkar's Creeds and Cults of the S.A.F. The initials stood for "South Asian Federation."
"May I borrow it?" he asked. "Have you a card?"
"No. I haven't been here long enough to get one."
The librarian produced a form, which Salazar filled out. As she handed over the book, she said:
"I wouldn't let anyone else have one of our real books if he didn't have a local address. We don't have many, and they're hard to get from Henderson. But since you're a Salazar, I can make an exception."
Salazar thanked her and walked out with the book. In his rectilinear mind he would never have thought of using family connections to bend the rules, which made him angry when someone else did it. But, he supposed, as the human species was addicted to the practice, he might as well take advantage of it. A microfiche card would have been more convenient than this half-kilo tome, but he had no viewer on Mount Sungara to read it by.
Salazar walked past Mao Dai's retsuraan to Levontin's, swiveling his eyes for signs of being followed. On the waterfront street he passed Terrans and an occasional Kook. One of the latter was a policeman with rifle and painted-on badges. Salazar said: "Wangabon!" meaning "Good afternoon."
"Wangabon!" the Kook replied with a nod, while his neck bristles rippled in a pleased way. Doubtless, thought Salazar, he was pleased at being treated with ordinary courtesy by an alien. The cop otherwise showed no interest in stopping or questioning Salazar, who inferred that no order had yet gone out to watch or detain him.
When Salazar entered Levontin's, he found the lobby full of tourists, Suvarovians from the rumble of Russian consonants. Levontin came up saying:
"Mr. Salazar! I did not expect you or I would have saved you a room."
"Mean you're full?"
"Ah, yes! Today the Ijumo dumped all these Russkies on me, twice as many as I was prepared for! So Olga and I sleep on pads in my office, having given up our own room."
"Has anyone been asking after me?"
"No, sir, no one."
"Well, can you find another pallet for me? I can sleep on the lobby floor if I must."
"I don't think ..."
"What's this?" said Hilbert Ritter, who had materialized out of the crowd with Suzette on his arm. "Hello, Kirk; what are you doing here?"
"Library research. What are you doing here? I thought you'd gone back to Oõi with the other Patelians."
Ritter replied, "We thought we'd make one more try at talking sense into Alexis. So we turned the Patelians over to Igor, who was out of the clinic with his arm in a sling, and saw them off. We figured we'd make a quick trip to Amoen and get back in time for the Ijumo's next sailing.
"We got to Amoen and Kashania all right, but as for Alexis, we might as well have argued with a tornado. Then the down train had a breakdown, so we missed the sailing. The Ijumo was supposed to go out again tomorrow, but Captain Oyodo says that's canceled. She'll be laid up a few days while he fixes some engine trouble. Anyway, you needn't sleep on the floor just anywhere. We have an inflatable mattress you can use in our room."
"Thanks; glad to," said Salazar.
"Had dinner yet?" asked Ritter. "No? We were setting out for Mao Dai's; figured we'd beat the crowd."
"Let me stow my gear and wash up," said Salazar, "and I shall be with you."
At Mao Dai's, the kyuumeis plodded in their eternal circle, giving the outer ring of the restaurant floor its slow, creaking rotation. Salazar turned in his holstered pistol at the check room in obedience to a sign in Reformed English:
PEITR3NZ WIL PLIIZ CEK WEP3NZ IN KLOUK RUUM
They crossed the inner, stationary ring of flooring to the outer, rotating ring as Mao ceremoniously ushered Salazar and the Ritters to a table for four on the rotating ring. Salazar looked around, memorizing the decor lest, if he had to visit the gents', he have trouble finding his place coming back because that place would have moved.
Things loosened up after two rounds of drinks. Hilbert Ritter talked of his research into the caste system of Sunga. Suzette talked of notes she was making for a book on the dialects of Feënzuo. Salazar told of the ethology of the stump-tailed kusis.
While they talked, the annular dining room filled with Slavic tourists. Then Mao Dai appeared with the vast, globular form of the Reverend Valentine Dumfries. Mao said:
"I hope you will not mind letting Mr. Dumfries have your vacant seat. All others are taken."
"No-o, of course not," said Hilbert Ritter. "Sit down, Reverend."
"Thank you," said Dumfries, carefully lowering his bulk. Salazar had visions of the chair's collapsing or of Dumfries's getting wedged between the chair arms and requiring carpentry to release him.
"Well, now," said Dumfries, "isn't it nice to be all together peacefully? Mr. Salazar, I understand you have just come down from Mount Sungara. What is going on there? I have just come from Doctor Deyssel's clinic, where I visited poor Cantemir. He tells an extraordinary story of which I cannot make sense."
"He ordered me off the mountain," said Salazar, "and when I refused to go, he tried to murder me."
"Oh, not really! I cannot believe that George—"
"If shooting at someone with a big-game rifle isn't attempted murder, I don't know what is."
"That's not what he says at all. Furthermore, he claims that you tied him up and mutilated his private parts in a most indecent manner."
"Not true," said Salazar. "He tried to scr—excuse me, to have carnal intercourse with his female Kook helper and got his membrum virile skinned."
"Incredible! I know that George is a bit wild at times, but I must use such instruments as the Demiurge puts into my hand. I fear things at the Adriana camp have gotten into a mess, and I shall have to go north to take personal command. As you see, I am hardly built for roughing it in the outback." He gave a little self-deprecating laugh.
"Still," continued Dumfries, "I cannot believe that George would so flagrantly violate the strictures of the Terran Bible. In eighteenth Leviticus congress with beasts is forbidden, and in twentieth death is prescribed for the offense."