Gene Wolfe - An Evil Guest

She grinned. “I’ve been waiting to say this, Gid. Get back to the wolf.”

“Indeed. People attacked by tigers often do nothing to defend themselves. They simply stand there until the tiger kills them.” Gideon took a bite of sour cabbage. “The tiger has told them they are tiger food, you see.”

“I saw their sign as we left,” Cassie said as the black hopper that doubled as a sedan lifted off. “It’s a woman with no head, and it ought to scare me. Why doesn’t it?” She was full of roast hare and spätzle, champagne and Black Forest cake, and felt relaxed, sleepy, and perhaps a little romantic.

“Because it assures you that women should talk as long as they’re able to.”

“Really?” She considered. “I don’t think so.”

“You may be right. You’ve had my explanation...”

They hopped.

“What’s yours?”

“That was it, wasn’t it? We’re back home.”

“More or less. High enough that the noise shouldn’t bother anybody on the ground much, and low enough to be under the radar — I hope. Over a thinly populated area with an old timber road running through it.”

“You love me, Gid?”

“Much, much more than I should.”

“You trust me, too. We’ve already talked about that, so I won’t ask. I’m going to say right now that I won’t touch anything you tell me not to touch or do anything you tell me not to do. I won’t hop or go up. Not an inch off the ground.”

For a moment he turned to glance at her.

“When we go back to the rental, I want to drive this. You can show me the way in the rental. When we get to the agency and you’ve turned it in, you drive this to my hotel. All right?”

“No.”

She stroked his arm. “Please, Gid?”

“Absolutely not. You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“Last chance. Please?”

“No, and I don’t think there’s anything you can do or say that will make me change my mind. I’m saying no for your sake, Cassie.”

Gently, the black hopper landed on two faint tracks that wandered away among trees. As its tires took its weight, the headlights came on.

“Well, I’m going to try. I wasn’t going to tell you yet, but it’s the only thing I’ve got. I had company last night — company that scared me half to death. Maybe they were trying to be friends. I hope so. But I don’t want to sleep alone in that hotel room tonight. I was going to ask you to stay with me, but I won’t now. I’ll call Ebony and try to talk her into coming up to my room and sleeping with me.”

“You weren’t going to do that?” The black hopper rolled silently forward.

“No. I wanted you there in the bed with me.”

“If I would let you drive this?”

Cassie sighed. “I’d want you anyway, Gid. Ebony wouldn’t be much fun, and if those bat-things came back, she’d probably be as scared as I was.”

“They look on you as a friend, I’m sure.”

“That’s scary, too. Please, Gid? I’m a good driver, because I don’t drive enough to get confident. I’ll drive very conservatively, stop at all the stop signs, and never speed, I promise.”

“Why do you want to do it?”

Seconds passed before she answered, and when she did her voice had fallen almost to inaudibility, becoming small and frightened. “Well, because I want to feel, just for a little while, that I belong with you and Wally. You can’t understand that.”

“I think I may.”

“You’re not a woman, so you can’t. I want to be — I want to matter. I want to be somebody, not because I’m Wallace Rosenquist’s woman or because I’m Gideon Chase’s woman. Because I’m Cassie Casey.”

“You are someone, Cassie. You just don’t know it.”

“If I were, you’d let me drive.”

Silence descended. Shadowy trees appeared to jog past them, moving rapidly and purposefully while they bumped and jolted. At last Gideon said, “I’ll stop and get out. You get behind the wheel so I can coach you.”

“How far do I get to drive?”

“All the way into the city.”

“In this?” She smiled.

“No, when we get the rental you’ll drive that.” He braked. “We can change drivers now.”

She shook her head. The smile was gone.

“You’d be alone in this car. It would be a terrible risk.”

“But I can drive it now?”

“Yes.” He opened the door and got out. “Until we come to the place where we left the rental.”

She hesitated, then nodded.

They met at the front of the car, where blue-white beams from the headlights fenced them on both sides. Gideon caught her there and kissed her, released her, and felt her cling to him.

When the doors had closed again, Cassie sat behind the wheel. “Now tell me what I mustn’t do. Tell me that first. After that you can tell me how it works.”

“There’s only one thing you mustn’t do. Don’t start the computer. Hopping and warping require it, both of them. Leave it off, and you’ve got a very simple car that employs a micropile to generate electricity. An electric vehicle like this is actually easier to drive than a hybrid or an all-fuel.”

She nodded.

“There’s a motor for each wheel; and the wheels are A, B, C, and D, starting left front and going clockwise. The four little gauges up top are giving you information on those wheels individually. Don’t worry about them. That big dial in the middle is the speedometer, of course. Keep it below ten until we get on a better road. If this one gets any worse, keep it below five. By now you’ve already found the accelerator and the brake pedal.”

She nodded.

“I’ve been using them, mostly because I need to train myself to drive using my left leg. You can use them, too, but you don’t have to. Now say ‘ten’ loudly and firmly.”

“Ten!”

The acceleration was gentle and very brief. When the virtual needle touched ten, it ceased.

“It will steer itself if you tell it to, but that will be tricky, especially on a road like this. I’d stick with manual steering, if I were you.”

“What if I want to use the pedal or the brake?”

“Just do it. The car will respond normally. The only way you’ll have a problem is if you try to give a verbal command at the same time. Hit the accelerator and shout ‘Stop!’ for example. It will obey one or the other, but there’s no way to tell which. Don’t do it.”

“I won’t.” She crossed her heart while thinking of what she might do.

“The doors lock automatically when you start and unlock automatically when you stop. If you want to keep them locked, just say ‘Lock.’ ”

“It’s not responding to you when you say those things, is it?”

“No. For one thing, I’m not saying them loudly and firmly enough. More importantly, I’m not sitting in the driver’s seat. If you want to test it, make sure you’re going to like what happens when it obeys.”

“Let me try. Seven! ”

The car slowed, the virtual needle creeping down.

“What else do I need to know?”

“How to reverse. Here’s the switch. Throw it, and the car will slow down and back until you brake. Or you can say ‘Reverse.’ When you do, the switch will change positions automatically.”

Cassie smiled. “I’ve got it.”

“To go forward again, push the switch the other way or say a number. In reverse there’s a top speed of two miles an hour.”

She studied him. “You could back faster than that.”

“You’re right, but I’d have to use the computer to change the setting. You’re not going to turn the computer on. Are you?”

“No. I’d be in over my head, and I know it. Is it much farther?”