A novel thing, it squarely belonged to a family of weapons called LosCapricos, being of those weapons conceived in the heady time of the Elders not necessarily for functionality but instead for uniqueness, to bear a symbol for the House that created it. Each Great House had its own LosCapricos, f...
He was accomplished in history, law, chemistry, geology and mechanics, made many incidental scientific discoveries of importance, was a tireless politician and courtier, founded the Academy of Berlin, wrote fluently in French, German and Latin, corresponded with every man of genius from whom he c...
METROPOLIS. “Wait a sec,” Holly protested. “I thought this was supposed to be some sort of self-esteem workshop.” “Yes,” a dark-haired staff worker assured her as she fastened a polished bronze breastplate over Holly’s chest. A second attendant slid a steel bracelet onto the confused fugitive’s f...
Since the building’s completion in 1984, the “townies” who lived at the base of the hill would joke that the tallest and newest addition in Atherton’s meager skyline liked to send everyone home early during winter by announcing nightfall several hours prematurely. By five-thirty, the last of the ...
In all these cases, with only slight variations, it is plain that Latin America does not exist except, at the very most, as a resistance that must be overcome in order to implant true culture, that of ‘ ‘the modern peoples who gratify themselves with the epithet of civilized.”72 Pareto’s words he...
I want all the latest in Nuri Qam’s dossier. If K Section doesn’t have it, NSA’s computer at Fort Meade will, I’m sure.” “Just what are you looking for?” “Nuri Qam’s brother has allegedly been in Tehran. Name is E. Dochi Chagha Qam. He’s an art coll...
Lauren called her father away from his Harlem office and medical school duties to take care of his old friend while she and Pete escorted Neville More into New York City to meet with the President in his Hyatt suite. “I’d like to spit in your eye,” William Brent Morrow sai...
“Self-mutilation as a means of self-expression has certain intrinsic limits, particularly if you resort to it each time life gets hairy. After a time you run out of limbs. I’ve seen it a few times; psych wards full of fingerless malcontents trying to dislodge their teeth with calculated falls int...
He saw that Hosmer and Emma were out of sight; he stepped over to it and lifted one comer with his stick. He saw white flesh, narrow sinews and the tight bundles of muscle. His first thought was that it was a human corpse, and that fear of discovering a dead man lessened the shock of seeing the h...
When they were assured she wasn’t in any immediate danger, a thick-lidded man decked out in greens wheeled her to a night room and settled her into a bed by the window, a roommate snoring behind drawn curtains. He and another younger man with a smile and an anchor tattooed on one muscular arm too...
Durell had had several bourbons on the rocks sent up from the bar, had eaten a dinner of spiced and curried Indonesian rijstaffel, and the hotel doctor had daubed ointments and antiseptic on the various nicks and bruises he had suffered all over his body. He had been shaved by the barber sent up ...
Two other facts stood out, that he had been writing a letter to his parents, but had been awakened by the clamour of alarm bells. He jumped to his feet, his mind still refusing to grasp what was happening. He was in his day cabin, his jacket hanging on a chair, an empty co...
The reward was something new. Too bad about that. He spoke to them through a sigh. “Don’t believe everything you read, fellers.” “We believe this right enough. You’re Smoke Jensen, and they’s a thousand dollars on yer head.” ...
He took another sip of his Scotch and then sighed. “Remy, you remember the last time Cornelia and I saw you?” ‘Airport. ’ ’ Hayward nodded. “We were returning from the best specialists in the country. Cornelia had only two months to live at that point.” “What?” Remy almost stood, but instead move...
So, on a Spring day, all of its forty boys and as many girls got most mystifying cards, saying: — "Kindly go to Lilac Hill on May sixth, at four o'clock. IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT" That was all. Not a word to show its origin. No handwriting. Just a small, plain card in ordinary pr...
The therapist’s job is to help his transsexual patients under. stand that their pasts cannot be rewritten. Dr. Robert Schwartz (excerpt from Journal of Sexology) "WHAT DO YOU think?” Nat asked Leo as they settled down with their mugs of coffee at a small table in the hospital coffee shop. Cl...
" " ' Inside the silo, the smoke was thick enough to make it difficult to see or even breathe, let alone do enough damage to stop the missile. The hatch at the top of the underground silo was already open. Under the circumstances, the clear, blue sky that showed through the op...
Gordon Carfax had intended never to see Los Ange- les again. Here he was, aboard a jet lowering on the flight path into the new Riverside International Airport. Below, over western Arizona, the air was a thick gray-green. The mountains under them looked like a subterranean range seen through a gl...
He was really getting the hang of this plane. Think left, the plane went left. Think right and the plane went right. Made flying a whole lot easier. He stared at the tree-covered estate below. All he wanted was to get on the ground as quickly as possible. He could tell that Service was down there...
Small women exist in plenty—so do those with gray eyes—but this woman was among the wisest of a sex that is surpassingly wise. There is no surprise in that (or should not be) for it is common knowledge that Woman was created fully a quarter of an hour before Man, and has kept that advantage to th...
The only illumination came from the far-apart maintenance lights and down from the streets above through ventilation shafts. Miranda depended on her ability to see in the dark. Tango held Miranda’s hand and depended on the vampire to keep her from stumbling in the deepest shadows. They walked wit...
The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human understanding. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary Frowning, Gunter circled Roger’s desk, glaring down at Judy’s marked'up map of Sarasota and its environs. Seated in one of the shabby b...