by David Gullen
‘Where are you headed?’ the car said.
Novik stuffed his hands in his pockets and kicked at the road with the toe of his boot. Despite everything he grinned. ‘How’s it going, Mr Car?’
‘I needed to find myself.’
The answer surprised him. ‘Did you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good for you.’ Novik resumed walking.
The Cadillac rolled quietly beside him. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t there.’
Novik remembered the madness of the border crossing. The speed, the gunfire and screams. So much blood. ‘There was nothing you could have done.’
‘If I had been–’
‘No.’ Novik faced the car. ‘I’ve replayed what I did a hundred times and Josie’s still dead. Don’t think like that, Mr Car, it hurts too much.’
Novik had been wrong about a lot of things but he knew he was right about this. He’d been wrong about Benny, wrong in Spades, a world-class kind of wrong. And he’d been wrong about Mr Car too. Simple machines never came back to say sorry.
A diamond squadron of white lights silently tumbled across the sky.
‘There’s one thing you need to know,’ the Cadillac said.
Whatever it was Novik knew he deserved it. ‘Hit me.’
‘It’s Ms Carr.’
Novik fought an intense, lethal battle with his smile and won. ‘You think you’re a–?’
‘I know I am,’ Ms Carr said forcefully. ‘Trapped inside this admittedly glorious electro-mechanical body.’
‘Well, okay,’ Novik said slowly. ‘If that’s who you are, that is who you are.’ He couldn’t help himself. ‘What difference does it make?’
‘You’d be surprised.’ Ms Carr’s engine purred, the passenger compartment lights dimmed and soft music began to play. ‘Why don’t you climb in and find out?’
The heck, Novik thought, I’m being come on to by an automobile. ‘So where are we going?’
Ms Carr looked up at the stars. ‘Anywhere we want.’
Far overhead, Ellen Crane was currently being translated into a more slender form in one of Ambassador Spoke’s starships. Even though she would still retain her remarkable exoframe, and whatever her final appearance, it would still be her own body.
But Ms Carr wasn’t the Cadillac. Her body didn’t define who she was in the same way as Ellen’s did, or Novik’s. She could radically change her form, yet remain the same person.
She sounded her horn, ‘Are you going to get in or what?’
‘Are we cool?’ Novik said.
‘We are completely and awesomely cool.’
Novik opened the door, ‘Are you still going to call me sir?’
Ms Carr laughed, ‘You have a lot to learn about girls.’
‘I know.’ Novik settled himself into the passenger seat. ‘Let’s go.’
They got. And the going was good.
Main Characters
Novik A drifter, idealist
Josie A drifter, realist
Benny Their hitcher
Mr Car A car
Marytha A beatcop poet
Palfinger Crane The cash machine
Ellen Hutzenreiter-Crane His daughter
Bianca Hutzenreiter His wife
Raymond StJohn A loyal friend
Guinevere Snarlow President of the USA
Oscar Gordano Her bitch
Cheswold Lobotnov A weird little smart guy
General Andriewiscz A boy with his toys
Mitchell Gould King of New Orleans
Ayesha His consort
Manalito His right-hand man
Black An Old-fashioned Boy
Morgan Likewise
Theodore A mystic warrior
Gretel His equal
Bernard Halifax A man who lost his way
Jericho Wilson A burned out, deadbeat loser
Masters A special agent
Johnson A special agent
About the Author
David Gullen was born in Africa and baptised by King Neptune He has lived in England most of his life and has been telling stories for as long as he can remember. He currently lives behind several tree ferns in South London with the fantasy writer Gaie Sebold.
Credits
The quotations at the beginning of chapters 5 and 22 are taken from James Burke’s book Connections, used with kind permission.
The calling of the dolphins in chapter 31 was inspired by Arthur Grimble’s account in his autobiography A Pattern of Islands.
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