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.He sidled to the edge and looked down.“Awfully dark down there.”“You can see some light way down.Besides, you’re carrying aren’t you?”Kenway stared at him.Zaleski snorted a laugh.“Look who I’m asking! Does the Pope wear a cross? Come on, Miles.You’re armed and dangerous.Don’t be a pussy.”Kenway glared at him, then hitched up his belt.He pointed to the rope ladder.“After you.”Zaleski gave Kenway a thumbs up, then squatted next to the ladder.He grabbed the two ropes, swung his leg over, then started down.“Is this such a good idea?” Jack said.“It’s a great idea, Jack.You’re coming right? Maybe you’ll find those missing hours.”“You can have them,” Jack said.“Kind of late for spelunking.My job’s done here.I think maybe I’ll be heading home.”“No!” Melanie said quickly.“I mean, not just yet.I need to talk to you first.”“All right,” Zaleski said.“Suit yourself.Here goes nothing.”He started down and disappeared below floor level.After a few seconds, his voice echoed up from below.“Come on, Miles, you chickenshit bastard.Let’s go.”Kenway pulled his.45 automatic from under his sweater, flicked off the safety, then put it away again.He sighed, looked around, and—with much less enthusiasm than Zaleski—started down.Jack stepped to the edge of the hole and watched the bristling hair atop Kenway’s head recede into the depths.Damn, that looked deep.Lew came up beside him.“I’ll be.There is some light down there.”“Way down,” Jack said, spotting the faint flickers.“Are you sure you don’t want to go too?” Melanie said, looking at Jack.She sounded almost.hopeful.Jack wondered about that.A moment ago when he’d said he was leaving, she wanted him to stay.Now she seemed to be encouraging him to leave by another route.“I’m very sure,” Jack said.“In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been so sure of anything in my life.But you said you wanted to talk to me.”Lew jumped in before Melanie could answer.“Before we go any further, I need an answer to something.When I asked you if it was so bad down there, you said, ‘Not for me and Frayne.’ What did you mean by that?”Melanie sighed and looked away.Jack saw a touch of sadness and regret in her eyes.“Lewis.when I called it ‘home,’ I wasn’t exaggerating.When that gateway opened, and I entered the Otherness, that’s exactly what it felt like—coming home.For the first time in my life I felt like I belonged.And Frayne will feel it too.”“But I won’t?” Lew said, his voice full of hurt.Zaleski’s voice echoed up from the hole then.“Hey! Something weird down here.like everything’s floating.”Melanie went to the edge and called down.“That means you’re almost there.Gravity reverses at the transition point.You’ll have to climb up the rest of the way.”She waited, and a few seconds later Zaleski’s voice came back, tinged with wonder and excitement, teetering on the verge of hysterical laughter.“Fucking-ay, you’re right! This is the weirdest shit I’ve ever seen!”“Never mind them,” Lew said.“What about me? Why won’t I feel like I belong there?”Melanie turned back to her husband.She spoke matter-of-factly, as if explaining the obvious to a child.“Because you’d be an outsider there, Lewis.You have no Otherness in you.”“Sure I do,” he said, pointing to his leg.“I’m not normal.I’m different too.Not as different as you, maybe, but—”“Different inside” she said.“Frayne and I are different right down to our genes.You’re completely human, Lewis.We’re not.We’re hybrids.”Lew looked stunned.His jaw worked a few times before he could speak.“Hybrids?”“Yes, Lewis.Hybrids.” She walked over to Canfield’s wheelchair and rested her claw on his shoulder.“Neither of us really belongs here.”Jack noticed how Lew’s eyes locked on the spot where his wife was touching Canfield.His heart went out to the guy, but he couldn’t help him.Lew was pushing for answers and Melanie was giving them to him.She could take it a little easier on him, though.“How?” he said [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]