 | <XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX! he said. What? I yelled over the wind. It was starting to carry him away. I said, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX! he yelled back. Truth and information are not the same thing! he shouted, and he shot up into the sky instantaneously, shrinking to a tiny black dot that hung briefly in the air and then winked out. I stood staring up at the spot where he had been. That wasn’t what he’d been trying to tell me, that truth and information weren’t the same thing. He’d been saying something else but I just hadn’t been able to get it. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. I focused my concentration; there was a sizzling sound. It had been pressed into the sand in front of me in green glass symbols: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Okay, now I’d retain it and work on a translation later. Probably take me the rest of my life, I thought. —Pat Cadigan, Mindplayers.> |
