Night Walk by Bob Shaw Page A

train, going in the opposite

direction, slid into place beside the one on which Tallon was traveling.

He saw that at top speed the few feet of space that separated the cars

at a station multiplied in the same ratio as the cars' speed, so that

they were quite widely strung out.

The students got out at one of the urban ganglia, but there was a continuous

supply of other passengers to keep him provided with borrowed eyes.

He noticed the women were more attractively dressed and more sophisticated

than was usual in the colder north where the austere influence of

Reformation, the governmental seat, was stronger. Some of the girls were

wearing the new visi-perfumes, which surrounded them in pastel-tinted

clouds of fragrance.

Once he used the eyes of a young woman who, judging by the way Tallon

kept seeing himself in the center of his field of vision, was showing

some interest in him. He flicked to another pair of eyes a few seats

away and got a look at the woman. After noting that she had a bronzed,

blond attractiveness Tallon, with the comfortable feeling of successful

cheating, went back to her eyes to find out just how much she was

interested by the number of times she looked at him.

Soothed by the movement of the carriage, the sun-lit warmth, the very

presence of women, Tallon felt the first stirrings of sexuality that he

had experienced in a long, long time. How good it would be, he thought

drowsily, to be living normally again, to be swimming with the warm currents

of life, to have a woman with red hair and whiskey-colored eyes. . . .

Tallon turned off his eyeset, and slept. He awoke to the persistent chiming

of the public address system, and switched on the eyeset again. A man's voice

announced that the carriage was about to reach the city of Sweetwell,

the northernmost point of the section, and would then be swinging to

the east. Any passengers who wished to continue traveling north would

have to get off and cross the Vajda Strait on the ferry. They would be

able to board the central section train on the other side.

Tallon had forgotten that the bottom of the continent was separated from

the rest by a narrow incursion of the sea. He began to swear silently,

and was immediately astonished at the change in his attitude a few hours

of comfort and safety had brought about. Last night he had been prepared

to crawl to New Wittenburg on his hands and knees if necessary; today

he was annoyed at having to change trains on the journey.

He stretched, and seeing himself perform the familiar action, realized

that the blond girl was still opposite him and still showing interest.

He turned his face until he seemed to be looking directly into his own

eyes and smiled his best smile. The picture of himself looking pale and

haggard, perhaps romantically so, remained for a few seconds before the

girl's gaze slid away to the passing buildings outside the train.

He guessed she had smiled back at him for a moment, and he was warmed.

Tallon stood up as the platform came alongside; the man nearest the

compartment door slid it open. The girl rose at the same time, and he

knew she was smiling at him again. Outside, the platform was drifting by,

and it was now imperative for Tallon to get off without falling. He had

automatically motioned the girl to go ahead of him, then remembered that

if she did he would be out of her field of vision.

"Sorry, miss," he muttered regretfully, and elbowed past her to the door.

She gasped, but his sudden rudeness had the useful effect of fixing her

gaze firmly on his back. He got down onto the slideway and stepped safely

on to the stationary platform. The girl continued to shoot angry glances

at him when she was off the train, and until she was out of range he used

her attention to guide him to the waiting ferry. It was about noon and the

day was brilliantly clear. He was hungry again and decided to treat himself

to a huge meal on the far side of the Strait,