Hunters Run Page 0,44

choice did he have? The other Ramon was Maneck's enemy too. It was a common ground for now, and if there was a way to kill Maneck and free himself from the sahael, then he could handle the rest later. The questions of who and what he was, how he'd fit into a world with another Ramon in it, they'd have to wait. Survival came first. Freedom from this slavery came first. And the first thing to do was to earn Maneck's trust, make it think that he was wholeheartedly cooperating, lull it into a sense of false security until he could find the chance to put a blade in the alien's throat.

The plan, amorphous as it was, steadied him. If he had a scheme, there was at least a way to move forward... .

"You have calmed yourself," Maneck said. Ramon hadn't heard it approach.

"Yes, demon," Ramon said. "I suppose I have."

He flipped open the cigarette case. It was empty, save for the engraved Mi Corazon that Elena had had etched in the silver. My heart. Here, my heart, smoke yourself to death. Ramon chuckled.

"I do not understand your reaction," the alien said. "You will explain it."

"I just wanted a cigarette," Ramon said, keeping his tone friendly. See how safe I am? See how ready I am to cooperate with you? "Looks like that greedy fuck out there smoked them all. Too bad, eh? Ah! I would enjoy a good smoke." He thought wistfully of the cigarette he'd used to light the fuse all that time ago. Or that the other had used. The cigarette he had smoked with other lungs, in another lifetime.

"What is a 'smoke'?" Maneck said.

Ramon sighed. When it wasn't like speaking to a foreigner, it was like speaking to a child.

He tried to describe a cigarette to the creature. Maneck's snout began to twitch in revulsion before Ramon had half finished.

"I do not comprehend the function of smoking," Maneck said. "The function of the lungs is to oxygenate the body. Does not filling the lungs with the fumes of burning plants and the waste products of their incomplete combustion interfere with this function? What is the purpose of smoking?"

"Smoking gives us cancer," he said, repressing a grin. The alien seemed so solemn, and puzzled, that he could not resist the impulse to have a little fun with it.

"Ah! And what is 'cancer'?"

Ramon explained.

"That is aubre!" Maneck said, its voice harsh and grating in its alarm. "Your function is to find the man, and you will not be permitted to interfere with this purpose. Do not attempt to thwart me by contracting cancer!"

Ramon chuckled, then laughed. One wave of hilarity seemed to overrush the next, and soon he was holding his side and coughing with the strength of the laughter shaking him. Maneck moved nearer, its crest rising and falling in a way that made Ramon think it was questioning - like a child who has to ask her parents what she has said to amuse them.

"Are you having a seizure?" Maneck demanded.

It was too much. Ramon howled and kicked his feet, pointing at the alien in derision. He couldn't speak. The absurdity of his situation and the powerful strain his mind had been under amplified the humor of Maneck's confusion until he was helpless before it. The alien moved forward and then back, agitated and uncertain. Slowly, the fit faded, and Ramon found himself spent, lying on the ground.

"You are unwell?" Maneck asked.

"I'm fine," Ramon said. "I'm fine. You, though, are very funny."

"I do not understand."

"No. No, you don't! That's what makes you funny. You are a funny, funny, sad little devil."

Maneck stared solemnly at him. "You are fortunate that I am not in cohesion," it said. "If I were, we would destroy you at once and start again with another duplicate, as such fits indicate that you are a defective organism. Why did you undergo this seizure? Is it a symptom of cancer?"

"Stupid cabron," Ramon said. "I was laughing ."

"Explain 'laughing.' I do not comprehend this function."

He groped for an explanation the alien would understand. "Laughter is a good thing," he said weakly. "Pleasurable. A man who cannot laugh is nothing. It is part of our function."

"This is not so," Maneck replied. "Laughing halts the flow. It interferes with proper function."

"Laughing makes me feel good," Ramon said. "When I feel good, I function better. It's like food, you see."

"That is an incorrect statement. Food provides energy for your body. Laughing does not."

"A different kind of