Warp Read Free Page A

Standing up in his skiff, he looped the rope around his wrist and threw out the net one last time.
    For a moment nothing happened. Then there was a gentle tug on the line. Malo looked over the side, down into the water.
    A big shape was moving under him, and he heard a little splash, very tiny, and something heaved hard on the other end of the rope, which was still tied to his wrist.
    It pulled him right out of his boat and into the water.
    â€œSo are you working?”
    Hollis blinked and looked in the other direction.
    â€œNot really,” he said. “Not right now.”
    â€œWhat have you been up to?” said Brian, looking up at him while still hanging on to his ankles. “I never know when I’m going to run into bad old Hollis Kessler anymore. I thought you were at some design company in Back Bay, they did museum displays or something—”
    â€œI was. I quit.”
    Brian straightened up and patted his stomach.
    â€œI should keep going,” he said. “All those Eurobankers think I’m going to be some kind of fat American. You like these sneakers?”
    He held one out towards Hollis. It was a complicated patchwork of canvas and rubber and leather.
    â€œThey have gel in them.”
    â€œGel, I put on my head,” said Hollis, in a fake Yiddish accent. “To put on my feet, who knew?”
    Brian looked out across the park at the couple again.
    â€œShe sure as fucking hell is cute,” he said.
    â€œOh. I almost forgot—Prasad says hi.”
    â€œI know. I saw him too.”
    â€œDid he clue you in? Wise you up?” Brian turned and looked at him suddenly. “Set you straight? You know how he’s always laying this stuff on people, about what’s wrong with them? I bet he had a high old time with you. Not that there’s anything wrong with you, cowboy,” he added hastily, holding up his hands. “Hey, we need you. You’re probably the last person I know who isn’t—I don’t know. Fucking somebody else over for more Experience Points, or something like that. You’re not—you know what I mean. Infected.”
    Formerly a public health inspector, I am now the last human being left alive on earth.
    I am Chingachgook. The Last of the Mochicans.
    â€œPrasad. What a penis that guy is. You know what Sree called him? An ABCD: American-Born Confused Deshi. ‘Deshi’ is supposed to be slang for Indian, or something. You want to jog with me?”
    â€œI can’t,” Hollis said. “I don’t have sneakers.”
    Brian nodded and looked back over his shoulder at the steep slope that ran down the other side of the hill, down to the road. He pushed his long hair back behind his ears.
    â€œI should go,” he said. “Anyway, what are you waiting around here for? Shouldn’t you be getting out of here too?”
    â€œYes.” Hollis sighed and looked around for the woman with the ferret, but she was nowhere in sight. “I should try to get back to the building before they do—I can’t have him catching me coming in. They’ll be a while, though. I think they’re having an affair. I should try blackmailing him.”
    The sun had sunk lower on the horizon, the bottom edge eclipsed by the tops of the trees, and they could look straight at it without squinting. Brian put his hand on Hollis’s shoulder for balance and switched to his other leg. Their long shadows ran back into the shadow of the hill and merged with it.
    The ball-playing couple had a tiny white subcompact parked on the grass at the other end of the field. They watched the woman as she went through her purse on the hood of the car, looking for her keys.
    Pretty. Must destroy.
    â€œSo when’s your flight?” Hollis said.
    â€œNext Thursday. A week from today. Boston to New York to Stuttgart. On Lufthansa! ”
    He did a Nazi salute, still standing on one leg.
    â€œDas bestes Airflügt! Ist zo