The Return of Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future Read Online Free

in.
           "What was that all about?" she said, entering the house.
           "I fed the computer the data about my skeleton and told it I'd been approved. But I didn't know what your skeletal history might be, so after I went in I deactivated the security system." He paused. "I also ordered all the windows to polarize. We can see out, but no one on the outside can see in, even if we have the lights on."
           "Do you do this kind of thing often?" she asked.
           "Certainly not," he replied. "I get people who are hungrier than I am to do it for me."
           She stared at him with an expression that was a cross between concern and admiration. "There's a lot more to you than meets the eye."
           "Thank you," said Danny. "I won't even offer an obscene rejoinder." He looked around. "So what do you think of our new quarters?"
           "Elegant," she said, walking through the entry room. The carpet anticipated her steps and thickened as she walked, and the mural on the wall slowly, almost imperceptibly, began turning into a three-dimensional scene, then gradually added motion. It went back to being a flat painting as they passed into the next room.
           "This is some house!" she said. "I've never been close to anything like this!"
           "Yeah, a person could get used to this without much effort," agreed Danny, as a chair positioned itself to accommodate him.
           "As long as we're going to be stuck here for a day or two, let's go upstairs and see if we can see the lake," suggested the Duchess.
           "Why not?" assented Danny, following her to a staircase. As they put their feet on the first wide stair, it metamorphosed into a carpeted escalator, totally silent, and gently transported them up to the second floor.
           They walked to a window and stared out.
           "You can almost see it," she said. "If we were even one floor higher we'd have a magnificent view."
           "I saw a third level of windows when we were outside," said Danny. "There's probably an attic above us somewhere. We should be able to see it from there."
           They searched through the rooms, and finally came to an airlift next to a storage closet.
           "This has got to be it," said Danny. "It's the only thing leading up."
           "What do we stand on?" asked the Duchess nervously as she looked down to the basement some thirty feet below.
           "Just step into the shaft," explained Danny. "It'll sense your presence, and you'll stand on a cushion of air that'll take you up to the attic."
           "You're sure? I've never seen one of these things before."
           "They're all the rage on Deluros VIII and the bigger worlds," said Danny. "Give it another twenty years and they'll be just as popular here."
           She looked skeptical, so he stepped into the shaft first. When she saw him standing on air she joined him, and they floated gently up to the attic.
           "Lights," he ordered, and suddenly the attic was illuminated with soft, indirect lighting. As tidy as the house had been, the attic was that chaotic. Books, tapes, disks and cubes were stacked awkwardly on the floor, paintings were piled against a wall, each leaning on the other. Piles of old wrinkled clothes sat side by side with piles of unmarked plastic boxes.
           "Take a look, Danny!" she enthused, staring out a window. "You can see the whole lake. It's gorgeous!"
           "Just a minute," he replied, walking to another window. He knelt down, pushing a few plastic boxes aside. One of the ancient boxes literally cracked open and fell apart.
           "Don't you just love the way the moonlight plays on the water?" said the Duchess.
           "Oh, Jesus!" whispered Danny.
           "I didn't hear you."
           There was no answer, and she turned to him.
           "I thought you were looking out the window," she said,