Chapter 53 Chapter fifteen

"No," Thor told Sarai, "we're not going to Hyperion. That's not the right solution." "If you don't go, you will make us accomplish nothing." Sarai's lips were white with anger, but her voice was calm, trying to control herself. "No. I'm telling us not to do something wrong." Sarai finally exhaled with a hissing sound.She waved to the window, from where she could see their four-year-old playing with a toy pony in the backyard. "Do you think our daughter has the time...to make us do the wrong thing...anything?" "Sit down, mate."

Sarai remained standing.The sprinkles of sugar on her yellowed cotton dress were gleaming.Thor remembered the naked young woman rising in the phosphorescent wake of the moving island of Maui. "We've got to do something," she said. "We've seen a hundred medical or scientific specialists. She's been tested, pricked, probed, tortured by more than two dozen research centers. I've been to all of the Shrike church on planet; they don't see me. Merio and other Hyperion experts at Imperial University say there is no such thing as Merlin's disease in Shrike church teachings, and the natives on Hyperion have no cure for this merger Or clues or other legends. The team's three years of research in Hyperion has not come to any conclusions. Now the research there is also declared illegal. The entrance to the Time Tomb is only allowed to be opened to so-called pilgrims. A travel visa to Hyperion is next to impossible. If we take Rachel, the journey will kill her."

Saul paused for breath and took Sarai's arm again. "I hate to say it again, old man. But we did our best." "Our efforts are not enough," Salai said. "What if we go as pilgrims?" Saul hugged his shoulders disheartened. "The Church of the Shrike chooses its victims for sacrifice only from among thousands of volunteers. The Web is full of foolish and hopeless people. Few ever return." "Doesn't that prove a point?" Sarai whispered eagerly, "Someone or something is hunting these people." "Bandits," Thor said. Sally shook her head. "Colin."

"You mean the Shrike." "It's Colin," Sarai insisted, "exactly like what we saw in the dream." Sol started to get annoyed. "I didn't see any Golan in my dream. What Golan?" "The same red eyes that stared at us," Sarai said, "and the same Colin that Rachel heard about in the Sphinx that night." "How do you know what she heard?" "In a dream," Sarai said, "before we walked into the place where Colin was waiting." "We both dream differently," Saul said. "Man, man . . . why haven't you told me this before?"

"I thought I was crazy," Sarai said softly. Sol thought of his secret conversation with God and put his arms around his wife. "Oh, Saul," she whispered, leaning against him, "it's painful to watch. It's so lonely living here." Sol hugged her.They had tried to go home—home, of course, always to the Bana Fields—to visit relatives and friends half a dozen times, but each visit was always ruined by the stream of journalists and tourists.It's not anyone's fault.The news will always spread like wildfire in an instant, spreading through the Wanfang data network of one hundred and sixty ring-net planets.To tickle the itch of curiosity, one need only insert the Universal Card into the terminal's touch display, and then step into the teleporter.They also tried to arrive quietly and travel anonymously, but they were not spies after all, and these efforts were always pitifully in vain.As long as they return to the ring network, they will be surrounded in twenty-four standard hours.While research institutes and large medical centers could easily provide a security barrier for such a visit, friends and family suffer.Rachel is the news.

"Maybe we can invite Tessa and Richard again..." Sarai began. "I have a better idea," Sol said, "you go alone, wife. You want to see your sister, and you want to see, hear, even smell our house... …Watch the sunset in a place where there are no tuataras…Walk in the fields. Go.” "Go? Just me? I can't leave Rachel..." "Nonsense," Saul said, "leaving a child twice in twenty years—nearly forty if you count the good old days . . . It's not like it's not caring enough. It's a miracle we've all put up with each other in our family, we've all imprisoned each other for so long."

Sarai looked at the desktop, lost in thought. "But won't the journalists spot me?" "I bet no," Saul said, "they're all about Rachel. If they're after you, go home. But I promise you won't be At least for a week, you can visit everyone." "One week," Sarai took a breath, "I can't..." "You're sure to find a way. You actually have to. It will give me more time to spend with Rachel, and when you come home refreshed, I can spend a few more days selfishly Follow my book." "The masterpiece of Kierkegaard?"

"No. It's something I'm writing myself. It's called The Problem of Abraham." "What a poor title," Salai said. "That's a stupid question in itself," Thor said. "Go and pack your bags now. We'll drive you to New Jerusalem tomorrow so you can teleport away before the Sabbath begins." "I'll think about it," she said, not sounding convinced. "Go and pack," Saul said, hugging her again.When he let go, he turned her so that her back was to the window, so now she was facing the hall and the bedroom door. "Go ahead. By the time you get back from home, I must have thought of something we could do."

Sally settled. "Can you guarantee it?" Sol looked at her. "I promise you, I'll figure it out before time destroys everything. I swear on Rachel's father, I'll find a way." Sarai nodded, the first time he had seen her so relaxed in months. "I'm going to pack up," she said. The next day when Saul and the children returned from New Jerusalem, he went out to water the barren lawn, and Rachel played quietly in the house.When he entered, the pink light of the setting sun infused the four walls with a feeling of warmth and tranquility like sea water, but Rachel was not in the bedroom, nor in other places she frequented. "Rachel?"

When no one answered, he checked the backyard again, and the street was also empty. "Rachel!" Saul ran into the house and was about to call the neighbors, but suddenly there was a soft sound from the deep cabinet that Sarai used to store things.Thor gently opened the screen. Rachel was sitting under a pile of hanging clothes, Sarai's antique pine box open between her legs.Photos and holograms littered the floor, of Rachel in high school, of Rachel when she left for college, of Rachel standing in front of Hyperion's rock-carved hillside.Rachel's research comlog lay on the four-year-old Rachel's lap, whispering.Thor's heart was gripped again by the confident young woman's voice.

"Daddy," said the child sitting on the floor, her own voice a faint echo of the one in the comlog, only tinged with fear. "You never told me that I have a sister." "You didn't, little one." Rachel frowned. "Could this be when Mom...wasn't old enough? No, no, no way. Her name was Rachel too, she said it herself. How could it be..." "It's nothing," he said. "Let me explain to you..." Sol realized that the phone in the living room rang, and had been ringing for a while. "Wait a minute, honey. I'll be right back." The hologram that appeared on the Visuo Inoue looked like someone Thor had never seen before.Saul didn't activate his imager, and he wanted to hang up the man quickly. "Hello?" he said hastily. "Mr. Winterborough? May I ask if you are Mr. Winterborough who once lived in the area of ​​Barna and now lives in the village of Hebrondam?" Sol wanted to disconnect, but stopped again.Their access codes have not been made public.Occasionally, businessmen from New Jerusalem would call in, but ring network calls were extremely rare.And, Sol suddenly realized that today was the Sabbath, and it was past sunset, and he felt a cold cramp in his stomach.At this time, only emergency holographic calls can be accessed. "What's up?" Thor asked. "Mr. Winterberg," said the visitor, looking vacantly past Sol, "there has been a nasty accident." When Rachel woke up, his father was sitting by her bed.He looked very sleepy.His eyes were red, the stubble had already appeared on the top of his long beard, and his cheeks were grayed by the beard all over his face. "Good morning, Dad." "Good morning, darling." Rachel looked around and blinked. Some of her dolls, toys and other things were there, but this wasn't her house.The lighting is also different.There was something wrong with the atmosphere.Her father looked different too. "Where are we, Dad?" "We're traveling, little one." "where to?" "Never mind where you're going now. It's time to get up, dear. Your bathwater is ready, and then we'll change." A black dress she had never seen before lay at the foot of her bed.Rachel looked at the dress and then at her father. "Daddy, what's going on? Where's Mommy?" Thor rubbed his cheek.This is the third morning since the accident.Today is the day of the funeral.He'd been telling her the truth for the past few days because he couldn't imagine lying to her; it seemed like an unforgivable betrayal—to Sally or to Rachel.But he felt he couldn't go on like this. "There was an accident, Rachel," he said, his voice raspy with pain. "Mom died. We are saying goodbye to her today." Thorn paused.He knew now that it would be a while before Rachel really came to terms with her mother's death.On the first day he didn't know if a four-year-old could fully comprehend the meaning of death.Now he knew Rachel could.