Chameleon by Otto Gramm (new reading .TXT) 📕

Alex gave a guffaw.

– Lin told me how he had once replaced your window on the screen, through which he launched a video with the attack of those your zingai.

The men burst out laughing.

– You’re not gonna believe it, but his bass flew up to tenor. – Diego mocked, looking at Will.

– You can only imagine how our Spaniard sang. – He retorted.

– So he’s also a bit of instigator. – Alex grinned. – And scolds you only for a show.

– We all miss fun around here.

– Sad thing is that by his smooth face, you can’t see when he’s lying and when he tells the truth. – Will said.

Alex made a familiar skeptical hem.

– Did you rumble him? – Diego sounded surprised.

– Can’t remember exactly, but I think I saw him lying.

– Strange. With you, he behaved quite tactfully.

– And how did he behave when you first came here?

– As he wanted. – Spaniard answered, as he sat on the bale and picked up his leg. – I spent the first weeks on board in the cocoon. This is a capsule in the aid post, which recovers the severest injuries. Sort of resuscitation. You’ll get there one day.

– I’m sure I will. So, you’ve been here since when?

– I joined the crew almost century after Will. In 1521. I was a sailor. Lived south of Seville, on the coast. Sailed on merchant ships, fought with Indians, sought for golden temples in jungle of the Yucatan. We’ve lost many of ours killed by disease and snakes...

– Serpents can’t do any harm to this guy. – Will interrupted Spaniard and turned to Alex. – When we first examined him, we found such a cocktail of antibodies to snake toxins that even Cap was surprised.

– I got into the aspid nest. – Diego brushed it away as something ordinary. – Got a dozen bites, but survived. Then one of our harquebusiers blundered out that my blood brought salvation from snake venom... That’s when I almost died.

– You were rescued by Kyle? – Alex asked.

– No, I fled, barely keeping half of my blood. Wandered in the wilds, then I found a small village of the Totonacs, where I was accepted and cured... Nice people.

– They say that they told him the secret of Eldorado. – Will interrupted again.

– So said those who lynched me! – Diego scowled. – I lived in the village for more than a year, until there came our troops. They slaughtered all the civilians as some cattle. Like if they’d killed people every day... I stood up for them and met that harquebusier on the battlefield.

– His choice was a crucial term for joining the crew, which he didn’t know then. – Will moved away from the column and began to pace around the loft. – After he deserted eleven people died from the serpents’ venom in the troop of conquistadors, including the brother of the harquebusier. Diego’s lynch was a hell... literally. We barely managed to get him out of the fire... Kyle was in another place then. – He explained. – Without him, the plan for salvation was impossible: we had to replace the Diego’s corpse and erase the memory of lynchers. Thank God, we were right on time.

– Wait! – Alex stretched up. – What year, you said? Did you go with Cortez?

Diego smiled and nodded.

– In hoc signo vinces! Fernand loved to repeat this phrase. – He brushed back a strand of hair from his face and then frowned. – He stormed Tenochtitlan then, I was found by one of his reconnaissance squads.

– Damn, I’m talking to a legend!

– Aw, please! – Spaniard blushed.

– That’s right, Di. – Will said, as he stood with his back to the window and clasped his hands on the chest. – Don’t thwart, remember the main motto of our captain.

– And what’s his motto? – Alex asked, curious.

– Whether they praise you or disgrace you – keep silence.

– Reminds me more “the customer’s always right”. – Alex snorted.

– A great man is always willing to be little. – Diego smiled, and his face again got adorned with angular pattern of the black imperial. – Emerson said that. Even the greatest love beautiful phrases... Did your warder have a motto?

Alex frowned, thinking.

– Not really. Gaibs never shut his mouth quoting Caesar, Virgil, showing off before Warren. And doc repeated only one phrase. – Alex caught the puzzling glances of Will and Diego. – I’m surrounded by idiots.

The guests laughed softly and then turned simultaneously toward the empty doorway.

– Kyle calls us. – Will explained. – Some business. And you must rest.

– In this mess? – Diego asked, lifting his eyebrows.

– Don’t worry. – Alex replied. – I’ll think of something.

– Mas ven cuatro ojos que dos. (Four eyes are better than two).

– Smart ass! – Will growled.

– It’ll take few seconds. – Diego winked and bolted out of the room.

– I know his seconds! Bigger than mine.

Alex laughed softly. Meanwhile, Scot went to the deep of the loft.

– Hey, lift your ass! – He shouted. – I need a help here!

Together they moved a massive metal rectangular frame to a cleared space and, having laid it on the floor, covered with several elastic sheets. On its top the put the mattress, which they had found plenty in the loft.

– Well, it really took few seconds. – Will wiped his palms with a pleased mien.

– Thanks again. – They shook hands.

– Are you done already? – Spaniard resented, reappearing at the doorway. – And for what, if you please answer, I have rummaged my entire cabin?

He went in and with a sullen aspect handed Alex a bag.

– Take it. I still have nowhere to hang it. This way I’ll have another reason to come up. Handmade! Consider as a gift from all of us. Welcome!

Looking in the bag, Al pulled out a folded sailor’s hammock.

– Thank you. – He smiled brightly. – Now, I’ll be lost in choice.

– Don’t get yourself a migraine. – Will hemmed. – Well, let’s go, mi amigo español.

– Let’s go, mo charaid. – Before leaving, he turned to Scot over his shoulder. – By the way, you didn’t give me any present when I joined you.

– And who had cured your ass from burns so that there was not a single scar left on? Consider this my present for you. – At the doorway, Will spoke to Alex. – Rest. Yes, and oil is on that box.

– Thanks again. – Alex muttered softly, as Will left the room.

Left in the loft alone, he removed his friendly mask and gave way to exhaustion: his shoulders dropped, his head heavily sunk on his chest. With a loud exhale, he fell on his new bed, lifting a cloud of dust into the air.

– Aw, well. – He drawled, clearing his throat. – The first is the worst.

Gradually, a pleasant feeling after talking with Will and Diego evaporated, leaving only solitude and a strange excitement. Alex was lying on the bed and looking at the transparent ceiling and he could not understand why the stars in the sky rotated faster. His hands and legs were anchored to the mattress, ears buzzed with the sound of a surf. He felt a wave rolled up to his feet, rose along the body and smoothly tore him from the bed. Then came another one and another one and... Alex was carried away by a rapid torrent into the ocean, into unknown depths, where was no light and no bound between sky and earth. Everything twisted in a huge whirlpool, which sucked him farther and deeper, into the very heart, into the black crater, where since time immemorial lived an ancient fire. A terrible fire, unknown to people. Its flame of the color of the darkest waters draws miserable travelers and does not let go.

– Oh! – Alex shuddered and woke up at once. He hardly got up and wiped his wet forehead.

“What happened? Why is this dizzy feeling and strange fear? And why I... can’t remember?” Grabbing his head, he tensed, trying to restore the sequence of events. “Will came to see me when I was here... No! I came back here, but from where?”

– К-Kyle!.. – Alex almost fell back on the bed, but he had time to grab the mattress. Then he began to mutter incoherently, helping himself with gestures. – I was in his room... library on the right, table – next to it, on the left – a bookcase with herbs... – His index finger stopped on each subject. – Teas... Stones... Rare opal... Column... with the stars. To the right is a sofa and... an armchair and... – Alex slowly looked at his right hand. – His blood... Serum...! Immorta...

With a soft moan, Alex removed the wet bangs from his forehead. He remembered that the process did not go smoothly, he remembered the pain and... End. He ran into a wall in his head.

– No, it took a few more minutes before I left! – Alex again felt weak and dizzy. – What did he say to me? What did he do? – His limp body fell on the bed, half-closed eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, focusing a couple of times on something invisible, and tiredly closed. As the mind of Alexander Koldoum let go of the last thread to guess, the picture arose before him: he and captain were sitting in front of a round floating table with a chessboard and ancient porcelain figurines on it. “I would like to offer you a small deal”, captain began, twisting the statuette over the board. “I will teach you how to play chess and in return I ask you from now on to be more tactful and in the future try to give more accurate and reasonable answers to my questions. Even if it takes a few minutes for introspection.”

Alex agreed and listened with a great interest to captain’s teachings, looking forward to their forthcoming party. Soon he fell sound asleep and after awakening, he did not remember anything about his previous thoughts. However, he was well versed in what he had never known before – in chess.

– Lord mighty! What happened here! – Linda gasped, as she went into captain’s room. The whole crew had already gathered there, somehow located among the debris. The folks were surprised not less than she was, but also quite discouraged by the recent confession of captain, which Mrs. Presley did not have time to hear.

– You what?! – Mitch wondered.

– But why did you do it? – Vivy asked, amazed.

– What are you speaking of? – Linda looked around at everyone with a blank stare.

– The thing is, Lin, that our leader put the new one on the block, which in fact locked his abilities deep inside. – Shad explained to her, standing at the table and looking out the window.

– O-okay! – She muttered in a low voice and sat down on the soaring chair that Will had ceded. – And what does it mean?

– It means that he won’t be able to destroy a thing. – Scot replied.

– Is it bad? – She looked, puzzled at empath, who had turned his back to everyone. Usually such a pose declared his categorical disagreement or discontent. And Shad’s opinion was weighty.

– On the one hand, this is a very sensible solution as you can see. – Diego pointed to the ruined room, where the smell of burning was still slightly floating. – And we were just about to hear from our empath the reverse side of the coin, when you came in.

– I would like to hear all the motives from Kyle first. – The young man replied without turning around.

– You can see them. – Kyle uttered, standing at the other side of the window, closer to the sofa. In his hand, he held a crumpled cat’s statuette. – Alex