No, Adjudicator, said Jasmel. I saw no evidence of mental instability, no sign that he wasnt happywell, as happy as one who had lost a mate could be.
Ill vouch for that, said Adikor, speaking directly to the adjudicator. Ponter and I were very happy together.
Your word is somewhat suspect, given the present circumstances, said Sard. But, again, I have made my own inquiries, and they confirm what you have said. Ponter had no debts he could not handle, no enemies, no nadalpno reason to leave behind a family and a career.
Exactly, said Adikor, knowing that yet again he should be quiet but being unable to control himself.
So, said Adjudicator Sard, if he had no reason to wish to disappear, and no mental instability, then we return to Bolbays assertion. If Ponter Boddit were merely injured, or dead by natural causes, the search teams would have found him.
But said Jasmel.
Child, said, Sard, if you have some proofnot simple assertions on your part, but actual evidencethat Adikor Huld is not guilty, lets have it.
Jasmel looked at Adikor. Adikor looked at Jasmel. Except for the odd person coughing or shifting in his or her chair, the giant hall was quiet.
Well? said the adjudicator. Im waiting. Adikor shrugged at Jasmel; he had no idea whether presenting this would be the right thing to do. Jasmel cleared her throat. Yes, adjudicator, there is one other possibility
Chapter 27
It had been an uncomfortable night for Mary.
Reuben Montego had wind chimes in his backyard; Mary thought all people with wind chimes should be shot, but, well, given that Reuben did have a couple of acres of land, normally they probably didnt disturb anyone else. Still, the constant tinkling had made it hard for her to get to sleep.
Thered been much discussion of sleeping arrangements. Reuben had a queen-size bed in his bedroom, a couch upstairs in his office, and another down in the living room. Unfortunately, neither of the couches folded out into beds. Ultimately, they agreed to give Ponter the bed; he needed it more than anyone else. Reuben took the upstairs couch, Louise had the downstairs couch for the first night, and Mary slept in a La-Z-Boy, also in the living room.
Ponter was indeed sickbut Hak wasnt. Mary, Reuben, and Louise had agreed to take turns giving further language lessons to the implant. Louise said she was a night person, anyway, so Hak could be taught pretty much around the clock now. And Louise had indeed disappeared into Ponters room a little before 10:00 P.M., not coming down to the living room again until after 2:00 A.M. Mary wasnt sure if it was the sound of Louises arrival that woke her, or whether she had really already been awake, but she knew she had to go up now and help Hak learn more English.
Speaking to the Companion was uncomfortable for Mary, not because she was unnerved talking to a computerfar from it; she was fascinatedbut because she had to go alone into Ponters upstairs bedroom, and because she had to close the door behind her, lest the noise of her conversations with the Companion disturb Reuben sleeping next door.
She was astonished by how much more fluent Hak had become in the hours the Companion had spent talking with Louise.
Fortunately, Ponter slept right through the language lesson, although Mary did have a brief moment of panic when he suddenly moved, rolling over on his side. If Mary understood what Hak was trying to convey, the Companion was pumping white noise through Ponters auditory implants so that the quiet conversations Hak was having wouldnt disturb Ponter.
Mary only managed about an hour of naming nouns and acting out verbs for Hak before she was too tired to go on. She excused herself and went back downstairs. Louise had stripped down to her bra and panties and was lying on the couch, partly covered by an afghan.
Mary leaned back in the recliner, and this time, out of sheer exhaustion, fell quickly to sleep.
By morning, Ponters fever had apparently broken; perhaps the aspirin and antibiotics Reuben had given him were helping. The Neanderthal got out of bed and came downstairsand, to Marys shock, he was absolutely naked. Louise was still asleep, and Mary, curled up in the recliner, had only recently awoken. For half a second, she was afraid Ponter had come down looking for her orno, doubtless, if he were interested in anyone, it was surely the young, beautiful French-Canadian.
But although he glanced briefly at both Louise and Mary, it turned out he was really heading for the kitchen. He apparently hadnt noticed that Marys eyes were open.
She was going to speak up, objecting to his nudity, but, well
My goodness, Mary thought, as he crossed through the living room. My goodness. He might not be much to look at above the neck, but
She swiveled her head to watch his buns as he disappeared into the kitchen, and she watched again as he re-emerged, holding one of Reubens cans of Coke; Reuben had a whole shelf of his fridge devoted to the stuff. The scientist in Mary was fascinated to see a Neanderthal in the flesh, and
And the woman in her simply enjoyed watching Ponters muscular body move.
Mary allowed herself a little smile. Shed thought, perhaps, that shed never be able to look at a man in that way again.
It was nice to know she still could.
Mary, Reuben, and Louise had been repeatedly interviewed by phone now, and Reuben, with Incos permission, had organized a press conferenceall three of them standing around a speakerphone in a conference call to journalists, who were shooting the proceedings through the living-room window with zoom lenses.
Meanwhile, tests were being done for smallpox, bubonic plague, and a range of other diseases. Blood samples had been flown in Canadian Forces jets to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and to the level-four hot lab at the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health in Winnipeg. The results from the first round of cultures came in at 11:14 A.M. No pathogens had been found in Ponters blood yet, and no one else who had been with himincluding all the others now quarantined at St. Josephswere showing any signs of illness. While other cultures were being tested, the microbiologists were also looking at blood samples for unknown pathogenscells or other inclusions of kinds theyd never seen before.
Its a pity hes a physicist rather than a physician, said Reuben to Mary, after the press conference.
Why? asked Mary.
Well, were lucky we have any useful antibiotics left to offer him. Bacteria build up immunity over time; I usually give my patients erythromycin, because penicillin is so ineffective these days, but I actually gave Ponter penicillin first. Its based on bread mold, of course, and if Ponters people dont make bread, then they may never have stumbled on to it, so it might be very effective against any bacteriological infection he brought with him from his world. Then I gave him erythromycin, and a bunch of others, to combat anything he caught here. Still, Ponters people probably have antibiotics of their own, but theyre likely different from those weve discovered. If he could tell us what they use, wed have a new weapon in the war on diseaseone that our bacteria dont yet have any resistance to.
Mary nodded. Interesting, she said. Its too bad the gateway between his world and ours closed almost immediately. There are probably lots of fascinating trade possibilities between two versions of Earth. Pharmaceuticals are surely just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the foods we eat dont occur in the wild. He may not care for wheat products, but the modern potato and tomato, corn, the domestic chicken and pig and cowall of them are forms of life we essentially created through selective breeding. We could trade those for whatever foodstuffs theyve got.