Read Online The Pollinators of Eden by John Boyd - Free Book Online

shoes.”
    This boy was truly upset, she decided.
    “A man likes to dip a spoon, now and then, into deep-dish apple pie,” Hal continued, “but he marries for meat and potatoes.”
    “Are you complimenting me?”
    “Yes, and Paul knows there’s something rotten on Flora. He told me the blooms were originally to attract insects, but there are no insects. What happened to the insects? The flowers ate them!”
    He paused, and his voice sank. “That tree was probing my weakness. It had found my libido. I would have died in that maple grove, a horrible death, in a way you can’t imagine… But they won’t get Paul! They’ve found the wrong weakness—his pure, aseptic, scientific curiosity. They figure that’s a weakness, so they aren’t superplants. Yet, how many Paul Theastons are there compared to the Hal Polinos. Paul has no weakness.”
    Fascinated, Freda listened. Paul had said the orchids were concealing secrets. Hal’s ideas were incoherent, but he was groping toward a theory which supported Paul. Paul had said that Hal was brilliant, but he wasn’t too brilliant. She could certainly imagine what death awaited this semideranged lover in the maple grove.
    He had finished his second martini and was waving for another. “Take animal life,” he said. “All the substructure for an animal kingdom exists on Flora, particularly for herbivorous animals, and after the grass eaters come meat eaters. What happened to the meat eaters?”
    He left the question unanswered, waving his glass. “There’s a dolphin in the oceans of Flora, and the big fish eat the little fish… But I can’t be too optimistic, even there. If the sun doesn’t die too soon, the seaweed will be eating the fish.”
    “Are you suggesting the plants are carnivores?”
    “No, because the grass is cagey. It would poison grazing animals. When a seed falls in that grass, it just melts away. And the grass is right! Any plant on Flora is dangerous, because it has won all its evolutionary wars. Any plant you see on Flora is a victor, a hero, a champion killer.”
    He paused and cast a glance behind him. “I tell you, Freda, the plants are waiting. The flowers are watching. The trees are probing. Far back in their racial memories are recollections of a biped who swung from their limbs, ate their berries and nuts, pulled up their tender shoots. The memory of a biped whom they conquered once, and destroyed, and who has returned, is still with them, and they will strike again.”
    He paused over the remnants of his martini. “Yet, your chief and mine, the good Doctor Gaynor, ninety percent water and ten percent hot air, for the sake of perpetuating a meaningless name, wants to station human beings on that planet. That stupid ass! That administrator!”
    He was teetering on the edge, and she snapped, “Polino, I can’t permit you to discuss the chief of the Bureau in such terms, not in my presence.”
    Haki had come again with another martini. “Haki-san, do you know a pompous old ass by the name of Doctor Charles Gaynor who would low-bridge his grandmother for a political advantage?”
    “He throw spit barrs, sir?”
    “Right, Haki-san! He’s the grandfather of all spit ballers.”
    “Hal, I insist! Pay the girl and let’s go.”
    As submissive as a child, he struggled to his feet, totaled the check with one eye closed, and crumpled a handful of bills onto the table. He turned and held out his hand to Freda, who led him from the pavilion. When they reached the car, she took the driver’s seat, and Hal spoke one sentence, sounding hollow in his throat, “Don’t help Gaynor, Freda.”
    Freda had no intention of not helping Doctor Gaynor, and she likewise had no intention of not helping Hal Polino. Monday morning she arranged with Mrs. Weatherwax for an immediate appointment with Doctor Gaynor.
    Although she deferred to him as Bureau Chief, she enjoyed talking to Doctor Gaynor. His manners that Hal had called pompous were courtly, almost