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took his cattle home with him wherever he went.
 It is not seemly to work for hire. Can you not set yourself up independently?
 Not in my line of business. Trying to change the subject, he noticed that Olkeloki was continuing to
stare out the window.  Looking for something, old man?
 Not something. Someone. It is important to see if he smiles favorably on us as we pass. Such omens
are important.
Oak frowned.  If who smiles on us?
 The old mzee. He gestured off to his left.  Over there.
Oak scanned the side of the road, the brush beyond. Nothing.
 You must look higher. Oak had the feeling Olkeloki was teasing him.  Much higher.
 Oh! Merry's jaw dropped. Oak saw it at the same time.
 That's a natural rock formation. You pull this gag on everyone who comes by here with you, right?
Olkeloki was not smiling.  It is not a gag, Joshua Oak. He indicated the face that glared down at them
from the sheer cliff above the highway.
 That is the greatest laibon of the Maasai. When Oti was two thousand years old he took all of his
clothes and worldly possessions and burned them. Then he prayed to Engai Narok, the good black god.
For all the services he had rendered to the people of Africa and for being a gentle and wise soul, Engai
Narok rewarded Oti with immortality by making him a mountain.
 Right, sure. Oak turned his gaze resolutely back to the road lest the Land Rover vanish into a pothole.
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Just because these shetani things had turned out to be real didn't mean he had to buy every wild story the
old man chose to invent. Merry, on the other hand, kept her face tight to the window. As they roared
down the highway, and as the hundred-meter-high face in the mountain receded behind them, she was
certain its expression changed from a glower to a faint smile.
Sheer cliffs and dusty plains fell behind as the highway turned south into dense miombo forest. They
were less than eighty miles from the coast. The increasing humidity was a reflection of the ocean's
proximity. Broken pavement began to give way to long stretches of gravel mixed with dirt.
 We must not become bogged down here, Olkeloki warned them.
An hour later it began to rain. Not hard, but steady and unvarying as though an unseen tap had been
opened. Oak grimaced as they plunged through a deep crater. You couldn't judge the depth of a pothole
when it was filled with water. He found himself driving on the shoulder. Big trucks had cut the heart out of
the main part of the road. Where it wasn't covered with water the highway looked like it had suffered a
heavy bombardment.
The constant jouncing threatened to shake the skin off his bones. It was much harder on Merry, but she
gritted her teeth and didn't complain. The Land Rover he wasn't worried about. It was built for this kind
of terrain. Human beings weren't.
Sweat streamed down his neck. His clothes were soaked.  How much more of this? They had left the
village of Korogwe far behind. Surely Chalinze wasn't much farther.
 Perhaps a hundred miles, the old man told him.
Oak groaned. He was exhausted from trying to guess which water-filled potholes were shallow and
fordable and which went halfway through the continental plate.
 If it keeps raining like this we're going to need a boat.
 We have no boat and we must not stop. This will get worse before it gets better, Joshua Oak.
Sometimes this road stops even vehicles with four-wheel drive. Big trucks disappear in these woods. Not
beer trucks beer trucks never get lost. But eighteen-wheelers, as you call them, and whole busloads of
people. They try to drive this road in the rain and they vanish and are never seen again.
 People say that bandits kill the passengers and drivers and then take the vehicles off to hidden garages
in the forest so they can dismantle them and sell the parts, but we wise ones know better. They sink
down into the mud or 
 Or? asked Merry anxiously.
 Or the shetani get them. Remember, they love dark places. What is darker in the daytime than a rainy
forest?
 Then what the hell are we doing here? Oak sputtered. He swerved to miss a big hole and almost sent
them crashing off into the brush.
 We are here because we cannot waste time. We must reach Chalinze tonight. If we are caught out here
in the darkness it will be dangerous.
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 I'm going as fast as I can, damnit! It'll be a helluva lot more dangerous if I hit one of these potholes
wrong and we bust an axle. He wiped sweat from his face. His eyes stung.  I'm no professional driver.
 But you said  Kakombe began.
 I said that I liked to drive, but on roads, not through swamps! Just because I like it doesn't mean I'm
good at it.
 If you are tired, then I will drive. Kakombe started to unfold himself.
 No, no, it is all right, Alaunoni, said Olkeloki quickly.  If necessary I will drive. I have more
experience with automobiles than you.
Merry had been listening; now she broke in.  Hey, like I told you, it rains all the time where I come
from. I have my own four-wheel drive and I know how Wait a minute. I know what's going on here.
None of you have asked me to drive because I'm a woman. That's it, isn't it? She put both hands on the
back of Oak's seat and pulled herself forward.  For Christ's sake, Josh, is that why you've been driving
yourself into the ground? Because you didn't want to ask me for help? He didn't reply, licked sweat
from his lips.
She flopped back in her seat and folded her arms angrily.  That's just terrific. Here I've come halfway
around the world, fighting off spirits all the way, so I can drive through a storm with three male chauvinist
pigs.
Kakombe frowned and looked at Olkeloki.  What does she mean?
 She means this! Oak brought the Land Rover to a sliding halt on the side of the road. The highway
stretched on ahead like a pale-gray tunnel through the trees. He turned to look in back.  Merry, I've
been straight with you through this whole fantastic business. One of the main reasons I'm here is because
I was worried about you getting in over your head from the start. I always thought that was called
chivalry, not chauvinism.
 You came because you thought you were going to get rich! she snapped.
 Well, yeah, that too. I said it was only one of the reasons. But it was an honest one.
 Great! Then why don't you let me drive?
He hesitated only briefly.  Because I thought I could play superman and impress the hell out of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]