Half the Day Is Night Read Free Page B

glanced back, he could still see the dome. But then he had to work to catch up. Funny there weren’t any other domes out this way, Bennet must be taking him out away from the city. They angled up a bit until the ground disappeared. He looked back again, barely able to make out the glow of the dome. Goddamn it was cold. He should stop right here and not go any farther. He should swim back.
    Which was ridiculous, Bennet must have a reason for swimming this way. He concentrated on working his bad leg better, making his kicks more even. This would be good exercise. The therapist had told him that swimming was good, no weight on his knee. No dome visible behind them. The farther they went, the more depth the dark had, not by the absence of light so much as the quantity of dark that separated them from the lighted dome. Entropy made palpable. Entropy, quit thinking like a physics student. Besides, entropy isn’t a substance, it’s an absence. Disorder, not malevolent, but the slow seepage of energy, the heat leaving his body, swimming slower and slower, as Bennet, the machine, would disappear into the dark at the edge of the light cast by his mask. He would be lost out here, without even directions like up and down. He wouldn’t even realize he was slowing down, but he would get slower and slower until he was empty and the heat of his body evenly, randomly dispersed among the cold water.
    Particularly paranoid this morning, he thought. It was the dark, the dark always bothered him. A child’s distress, maman don’t turn out the light.
    He was panting with the effort to keep up. Bennet wanted him to ask to slow down. Macho nonsense. So ask to slow down, you stubborn fool. Where were the other domes? What were they doing out here? How did Bennet know where they were? They could be angling up. That was dangerous, could lead to the bends. Nitrogen bubbles in the blood. Stroke.
    Paranoia, he sang to himself, par-a-noi-ah. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they aren’t really out to get you. If he lost Bennet he would turn around and try to head back for the dome but there was a good chance he would miss it in the darkness, particularly with his tendency to veer. His recyc unit would go on taking oxygen out of the water for days, but already the cold was making his hands stiff. How long until hypothermia? He would die of exposure in a couple of hours. Very convenient for Bennet. He could say he’d thought David was behind him, and he didn’t know when they’d gotten separated. In a few hours, would he find another dome?
    Bennet stopped suddenly, with a graceful swirl of hands and arms, and hung. “Don’t go swimming alone,” he said, “It’s easy to get lost.”
    â€œParanoia,” sang in David’s head. “How do you know where to go?”
    â€œI used to be a fish jockey, I’ve got an implant in the back of my head that tells me what direction Port Authority is. You can get one if you really want to, but you don’t need it unless you plan to do a lot of swimming.”
    â€œWhich way is the dome?”
    Bennet pointed slightly to the right of the way David thought they had come. He peered into the dark but all he could see was the cone of light from their headlamps. Bennet’s headlamp went out on his right, and as he turned, the Australian made a couple of strong kicks that took him out of the cone of David’s light.
    Abruptly he realized he had been moving for the space of half-a-dozen kicks in the direction Bennet had vanished. He didn’t remember moving. No sign of the reflecting bands on Bennet’s recyc unit, and he should have been able to see them. He halted. Was he paranoid if he was correct? He turned in a full circle to see if he caught the glint of silver off Bennet’s fins or unit. Bennet could go anywhere, up or down as well as any direction. Turning had been a big mistake, without anything to