Cade couldn’t decide if the erosion of barriers between them was simply a pragmatic reaction to the situation or signified something deeper and more personal. Even in his own case, he wasn’t sure. One night, after they had sat up late in the suite talking over a bottle of Grand Marnier and then gone separate ways, he returned and stood outside Marie’s door undecidedly. The drink and the closeness had left him mellow, and he found it easy to create scenarios in his mind of reliving lost intimacies. But in the end he turned away and went back to the other room. Something didn’t feel right. He marveled at this apparently newfound sensitivity that he was able to muster. Udovich would surely have approved.
* * *
The next morning, Vrel appeared and announced that they were going to Bolivia. Marie wasn’t used to the Hyadeans’ blunt, unceremonious way of going about things once they had set their mind.
“Just like that. Out of the blue. We’re going to Bolivia,” she repeated lamely.
“Roland, do you remember Corto Tevlak? Wyvex talked about him at that last party of yours,” Vrel said.
“The art promoter who was developing Chrysean outlets, right?”
“Yes. He’s been worried for some time about the way things are going here in the U.S. and on Earth generally, too. Erya talked to him on her way back. He knows others down there who feel the same way, including some Chrysean media people. The public back on Chryse is being misinformed, but questions are starting to be asked. Earth and its cultures are big news right now. This could be a good moment for getting attention in the right places.” Vrel paused to let them absorb that much, then shrugged. “You’re not safe here in the U.S. in any case. I’m told that from South America it would be easier to get you somewhere where you can stay out of the way for a while.”
Just like that.
“Well, it’s a nice thought, Vrel,” Cade agreed. “But just how do you imagine you’ll get us to Bolivia—when every security agent and surveillance computer in the country will be looking for us?”
“In the same way that we’re hosting you now,” Vrel replied. “As guests of the Hyadean government. We fly you there ourselves, VIP class.” He shook his head. “Sometimes I think that Terrans just look for problems, not solutions.”
Cade stared at him strangely. “You do realize what you’re doing, Vrel?” he said. “A pure favor, probably at considerable risk, with no immediate payoff. Doesn’t it feel just a little bit odd?”
“The idea of being motivated by helping others. Yes, I agree— it’s very odd.” Vrel paused to consider the question fully. “My honest answer is that I find it . . . strangely uplifting.” He grinned apologetically. “I can’t explain it either.”
* * *
The following day, accompanied by two other Hyadeans whom Vrel introduced as Ni Forgar and Barto Thryase, they drove out from the city and were admitted to the fenced compound that the Hyadeans maintained inside the military facility that Vrel had been visiting. A flyer carried them to a Hyadean air base in Maryland, where regular alien traffic connected to other points in the U.S., the Hyadean South American enclave, places in Europe, and elsewhere. They departed several hours later in a suborbital supersonic transport bound for the Hyadean mining center at Uyali, in the southern Altiplano region of Bolivia.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
BOLIVIA IS A LAND OF COLOR, contrast, and change, which has been nicknamed “the rooftop of the world.” The western third of the country is covered by the Andes, extending southward from Peru in two roughly parallel chains a couple of hundred miles apart. The western chain, known as the Cordillera Occidental, marks Bolivia’s border with Chile and is the continuation of a high mountain range that begins in northern Peru. Few passes open westward, the lowest being at thirteen thousand feet, and the stretches between are studded with volcanoes, many of them active, with peaks rising above nineteen thousand feet. The eastern chain, or Cordillera Real, consists of a series of great crustal blocks tilted eastward, rising sharply on the western side and descending through a region of rugged, densely forested terrain and mile-deep canyons to the eastern lowlands that make up the remaining two-thirds of Bolivia.