Travels in Nihilon Read Online Free Page B

He took the note, put it into the till, and stood by the mirror with arms folded.
    â€˜My change,’ said Adam, after waiting for him to give it back.
    â€˜Sixty-two klipps to the unit,’ said the bartender.
    â€˜It’s a hundred,’ Adam shouted. The old man looked on in disapproval.
    â€˜Certainly,’ conceded the bartender, ‘that’s what you get at the bank. But here it’s sixty-two. Sixty really, but I’m not going to argue about the other two. Economy is frowned upon in Nihilon, especially among tourists.’
    â€˜You’d better accept it,’ the old man said to Adam.
    â€˜But it’s ridiculous,’ he complained.
    â€˜Life is,’ sighed the old man, picking up his rifle and sliding a bullet into the magazine.
    Adam walked away from the bar, sensing danger. On reaching the door he turned for a moment to see the old man and the bartender bent over the counter, dividing a heap of coin between them, which no doubt should have been his change. He hurried outside, anxious once more for the safety of his bicycle.

Chapter 4
    Jaquiline Sulfer, the only female member of our guidebook staff, knew that the first-class luxury express trains of Nihilon travelled at twenty kilometres per hour. Popular trains, on the other hand, went at eighty kilometres an hour, since if one wanted speed, one was expected to pay for it by discomfort, because popular trains had hard seats and no sides, and the railway line after the passage of such a train was littered with people and their belongings that had fallen off. Popular trains were frequently ambushed and de-railed either by political dissidents, or by railway employees who did not like their work. Only the poor, or the jaded rich in search of thrills, travelled by popular trains because they were cheaper and got them there sooner. Popular trains (known as ‘fast trains’) went on a narrower gauge of rail than slow express trains, and were sent on more circuitous routes through topographically difficult country – though those passengers who survived made the journey from the northern frontier to Nihilon City in less than half the time of those who travelled by the Grand Nihilon First Class Slow Luxury Wide-Gauge Bed-and-Board Express.
    Jaquiline had gathered this elaborate matter on the division of trains from someone who had taken a holiday to Nihilon a few years ago. She worked at that time for an eminent psychiatrist, and had transcribed tape-recordings which he had made at the bedside of a so-called psychotic patient, whose pathetic condition was ascribed to his Nihilon vacation. She now remembered his information word for word, without knowing why, and so was determined to make sure, after crossing the frontier, to get a ticket for the correct train.
    Station platforms, even at home, made her feel that she could not altogether rely on knowing who she was if anything unusual happened to her. They were such long, impersonal, dirty, ugly things, with too many goodbyes, lost hearts, and tears stamped into the concrete paving. The sight of a long empty unfeeling railway platform made her want to throw up her hands and wail. But on this occasion she overcame her urge so successfully, due to her strong character, that she appeared extremely brisk and self-possessed. She was a tall, slim young woman whose chestnut-coloured hair had managed to retain its grooming on the boats and trains she had so far travelled on.
    She looked for the way to the Nihilon customs and passport control, making sure that the indispensable Tonguemaster was clipped unobtrusively on to her handbag. Having carried her three suitcases out of the compartment, she now hoped they would be taken by a porter through to the Grand Express on which she wanted to get a sleeping compartment to Nihilon city.
    A few people made their way along the platform to the passport control office, though none used a porter. She wrote in her notebook: ‘To obtain a