The Monster Trilogy. Brian Aldiss

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      ‘Never mind. Up guards and at ’em, Bernie. Shake the world! I’m on your side.’

      The great green-and-white waves of the Pacific came curling into Hilo Bay, Hawaii. The foam scattered in the sunlight, the water lost its power, crawled up the volcanic sands, sank down again, and miraculously revived, to make another assault on the beaches.

      Larry and Kylie came out of the ocean shaking the water from their hair.

      ‘I just know something is wrong, Larry. Please let’s get back to the hotel,’ she said.

      ‘Nothing’s wrong, sweetie. Forget your intuitions. It’s something you ate. How can anything be wrong? We’ve only been down on the beach an hour.’

      ‘I’m sorry, Larry,’ Kylie said, reaching for a towel. ‘I just feel kind of edgy inside. I need to get back to the hotel to see if there’s a message or something. You don’t have to come. I can go on my own.’

      ‘Oh, shit, I’ll come. You’ll be making me nervous next.’

      Back in the Bradford Palace, where they had now been staying for three days, everything was normal. Phoning down from their room to Reception revealed no message. Nothing had happened.

      ‘I’m sorry, darling,’ Kylie said, nuzzling him. ‘I just had that silly feeling. You want to go back to the beach?’

      ‘No, I don’t want to go back to the beach. Supposing you get another funny spell directly we’re down there. We could be bouncing back and forth like yo-yos all day. I’m going to drag a six-pack on that balcony and tan. Forget it.’

      ‘Don’t be like that, Larry. I wish you wouldn’t drink so much.’

      He turned and grinned as he headed for the fridge. ‘You got some religious objections or something?’

      She stood in the middle of the room, nibbling an index finger. She said nothing to him when he returned, switching on the TV too loud on his way to a cushioned lounger on the balcony of the suite. She looked out past him, through the tall palms, past the busy road and the other hotels and the whole vulgar commercial razzmatazz of Hilo Bay, to where there was the green line of the ocean, beyond the shallows where the swimmers and surfers sported, a line that offered at least the prospect of infinity.

      Sadly, she turned away, changed into a loose caftan, and took a copy of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula over to a side-sofa to read, out of range of the TV screen.

      She had marked her place with the wrapper of a Hershey bar.

      With a part of her mind, Kylie was aware of a commercial on television for the local Hedge’s Beer. It’s slimming, it’s trimming – get a Hedge against inflation. A news bulletin followed.

      Absorbed in her reading, she hardly took it in until Larry yelled from the balcony: ‘Bernie Clift!’

      There was Clift’s face on the screen.

      Against library pictures of desert, the announcer was speaking. ‘The scientific world – or at least that part of it meeting yesterday at a conference in Houston – was in uproar over a statement made by famous palaeontologist, Bernard Cliff. Cliff claims he has discovered a race of human-like beings who lived millions of years before the Stone Age, in the time of Ally Oop.’

      Clift was seen at a microphone, brushing back a lock of hair from his forehead and speaking above a hubbub. ‘On the evidence of a pair of graves in Utah we cannot generalize too freely. But the workmanship of the coffins, which is surprisingly modern in technique, suggests a high degree of culture. Dating methods indicate beyond doubt a date of some 65.5 million years ago. This clearly places the coffins and the bodies they contain back at a period when the tyrannosaur and other giant dinosaurs were still roving the continents.’

      The clip ended. Back came the announcer, saying, ‘Later, Cliff revealed that a preliminary analysis of the two fossilized bodies indicates strong shoulder development with much enlarged shoulder blades. Which leads to the hypothesis that Cliff’s new discoveries could possibly have evolved from a flighted species, such as the pterodactyl or pteranodon. As shown in this artist’s impression.’

      Over the sketch, his voice continued, ‘A natural wave of scepticism greeted the Utah announcement …’ By this time, Larry and Kylie were arm in arm before the TV set, exclaiming in excitement.

      ‘Scepticism!’ Larry exclaimed. ‘What else?’

      ‘… and it’s not from the Bible Belt only that these protests have come. Within the last hour, Professor Danny Hudson of the Smithsonian Institute has issued a challenge to Bernard Cliff to put up or shut up. He is reported as saying he expects the evidence to become available to quote unbiased scientific examination unquote.’

      Mina’s face appeared on the screen.

      She was in mid-spate. This was evidently an excerpt from a longer interview in Clift’s defence. She had time to say only, ‘They all laughed at Christopher Columbus, remember? Columbus thought the world was round, the idiot.’

      She laughed and was faded. The station announcer reappeared.

      ‘Professor Cliff is unavailable for further comment. That was attractive green-eyed 46-year-old Mina Legrand, close associate and intimate friend of legendary Joe Bodenland, who once claimed he had gone back in time to shake hands with Frankenstein. Bodenland now heads the multi-national Bodenland Enterprises.

      ‘Our sources report that Bodenland himself is missing. Mina Legrand could not comment, beyond stating Bodenland was interested in the amazing new discovery. Meantime, let’s hope all those Utah critters are well and truly extinct …’

      ‘Oh God …’ Kylie switched off the power before the commercials popped up, and turned to Larry.

      He set down his half-empty glass.

      ‘You were right all along, sweetie. Something is wrong. My father needs me. We’re going to have to catch the next plane.’

      ‘Oh, no, Larry. Your father has to look after himself, just as you say he always made you look after yourself. You’re only going to lay yourself open to a snub if you interfere now. He’ll be okay. Joe’ll be okay. Let’s go back to the beach.’

      ‘Jesus!’ He waved his hands above his head. ‘Who just now wanted to get off the beach? Women – I’ll never understand them. Pack, Kylie. We’re off. Utah. That’s where Joe’ll be. Old John.’

      She blocked his way to the bedroom, angry and pugnacious.

      ‘I’m not going back to Old John. Nor are you. Screw Old John. Think, will you? You are married to me. You are no longer going to live under your father’s shadow. I love the old boy, but he is going to ruin your life if you are weak. Can’t you understand that? Everyone else does.’

      ‘Weak, am I? We’ll see about that.’ He grabbed her wrist and twisted her round until she sank to the ground. ‘Baby, I’m all action when I get going, and I’m going right now.’

      As he ran into the bedroom, Kylie got to her knees and shouted, ‘Buster, if you go you’re gone for good, get that? Your parents have already loused up our honeymoon once. I’m not having it again. Ring your mother if you’re so anxious СКАЧАТЬ