Pantheon 00 - Age of Godpunk

Pantheon 00 - Age of Godpunk by James Lovegrove

Book: Pantheon 00 - Age of Godpunk by James Lovegrove Read Free Book Online
Authors: James Lovegrove
Tags: Science-Fiction
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in the corner of the pool area. It was the Australian Aborigine, the man housing the spirit of Crow. He moved tentatively towards the rim of the pool, shoulders hunched against the onslaught of the rain.
    “Hey, mate!” he called out to Set. “What’s up?”
    “Someone heard. Oh, thank heaven!”
    “You all right?”
    “No. No, it’s not good. I have accident. Slip. Fall in. Now my back, it is bad. I try to move, but no good. The water, it keeps rising higher. If I do not get out, I drown. You must help.”
    Crow looked distinctly unconvinced. “Nah, mate. Not sure I can do that for you.”
    “Please. You must. Otherwise I die.”
    “Yeah, I see that, but you’ve got to look at it from my point of view. What if you’re lying?”
    “I am not lying. This is truth.”
    “I go down there, into that water, and there’s something nasty waiting for me. Like, I dunno, mantraps, for instance. Right next to you, under the surface where I can’t see ’em. One wrong step and snap! I’m bitten like a croc’s got my ankle.”
    Same as when Crow hid those echidna quills in a kangaroo rat’s nest , said Anansi, and got Swamp Hawk to fly down and land on them, and the quills got stuck in Swamp Hawk’s feet .
    “No! I swear,” said Set. “I am in trouble. I need rescue.”
    Crow was weighing it up. His posture said that he wanted to leave Set where he was, but his conscience wouldn’t allow it. If this wasn’t a trick, then his inaction could lead to a man’s death.
    I watched intently, wondering what I would do if I’d let myself become embroiled in the dilemma as Crow had, and feeling rather smug that I hadn’t.
    Finally the Aborigine gave a huge sigh.
    “Fair go,” he said. “I’ll get you out. But I’m not climbing into that pool, I can tell you that for free. The diving board. You’re right under it. I’ll shin along and reach down and grab hold. You stretch up, I reckon our hands can just about meet. Okay?”
    “Yes. Okay. Thank you,” Set said weakly. “But please, hurry. The water, it is almost up to my mouth.”
    Crow went round to the diving board and placed first one knee on it then the other. It seemed firm. He shuffled along until he was fully out over the pool. Then he lay himself flat and extended one arm down.
    The pool was perhaps seven feet deep at its deepest point. Set raised his hand. There was still a gap of five or six inches between his fingertips and Crow’s.
    “Try harder,” Crow said.
    “Come closer,” Set replied.
    Crow may or may not have been aware that manhandling the body of someone with a back injury was not advisable. If Set was suffering from a broken spine, it might leave him permanently paraplegic. As far as Crow was concerned, there was only one way to get the Egyptian to safety – only one way he was willing to do it – and that was hauling him out. Set didn’t seem bothered about the potential consequences, so why should he be?
    He wriggled further along the board so that he could lean over the tip of it. He lowered his hand again, his head and shoulders hanging down. Set clutched for the hand. Their fingers met and locked.
    “There we go,” said Crow. “Up you come now. She’ll be right.”
    But just as he uttered this optimistic phrase and took the strain, ready to heave, Set gave an almighty tug. Something creaked screechingly, and all at once the diving board toppled into the pool, taking Crow with it. His cry of shock was cut short by a heavy splash and a meaty thud.
    Set, who had rolled sideways to avoid being landed on, stood up. He had, of course, been shamming.
    “I win, you lose,” he crowed over Crow, dancing a little jig in the water. “I loosen bolts on the diving board. Ha ha! Next time you better check first, eh?”
    Crow’s only response was a pain-wracked groan. I couldn’t be certain, but judging by the way he had fallen and the angle at which one arm lay twisted beneath him, his shoulder had been broken, and perhaps his collarbone

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