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its clones die, while it has kept on living! Every one of them is so improbable
that it couldn't possibly happen, yet there they all are in uncountable numbers,
immortals waiting to die at any instant. Remarkable. Does this little parable of
yours have any point?"
"No, but it sure makes you think, doesn't it? So what do you want to do today?"
"I don't know, except let's not try to be amoebas," Ian said. "I think that we
have just about exhausted all of the possibilities before us. Nothing comes to
mind. Can you think of anything interesting?"
"Well, okay, look. Neither one of us has ever tried anything really kinky. Now,
I'll bet that if we looked for it, this palace of yours will turn out to have a
dungeon, complete with cages full of nearly naked slave girls in leather, eager
to taste our whips and nipple clamps, or perhaps your personal branding iron."
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"You know, Tom, I think that you are probably right. I mean, I truly believe
that our ladies really would volunteer for that sort of thing, if we asked them
to do it. But the question is, wouldyou actually ask them to do such a thing?"
"Well, no, I couldn't. Look, I wasn't being serious. The truth is, I feel very
protective toward these girls. I don't think that I could hurt one of them if my
life depended on it. But I at least I came up with something original. Now it's
your turn to think up something for us to do today."
"Yeah. Well, we could always go flying again. We're still a long way from
earning our pilots' licenses."
"True, but somehow, I don't feel like flying today. How about if we get some
horses and ride down to the factory area? We could nose around there for a
while, and maybe find something interesting."
"I think that's a dull, stupid idea, Tom, but it's the best one I've heard
today, so let's act on it."
We walked out of Ian's Taj Mahal, to find two dozen of our ladies mounted and
waiting for us, along with the two oversized horses we would ride, Diablo and
Trigger. All the girls were in jodhpurs, riding boots, and nothing from the
waist up except for some oversized sombreros.
As we mounted up, I said, "Ian, have you noticed that our staffs have been
wearing less and less lately? I haven't asked them to do that. Is it your
doing?"
"Not guilty. Ming Po, why are all of you wearing just jodhpurs?"
"It is vera painful to ride horse with no long pants on, Ian," she said in her
best try at a Chinese accent.
"You know what I mean. Why are all of you women topless?"
"It is what we wished to not wear."
"Okay, thenwhy did you wish to not wear shirts, or tops, or whatever you call
what you're not wearing?"
"It is not me, of course, for I have receive far more than I deserve, but many
other have notice that the less clothes a woman wear, the more likely she is to
be noticed by two of you men."
"There you go, Tom. It's all just part of our infinite local sex appeal." Ian
turned back to Ming Po, and said, "If you don't feel the need for attracting me
any further, why are your breasts as bare as every one else's?"
"Because when everyone does something, then it is the fashion. A woman must be
in fashion, yes?"
Ian looked confused, trying to absorb that one.
I could see that he didn't want to say anything, so I said, "It's passing
strange, ladies, but I for one will happily suspend my disbelief in the apparent
universe, in return for the ample services rendered."
There was no point in having Ian be the only one who was confused.
It was an hour's ride to the industrial area. The distance was only about six
miles as the crow flies, but except for maybe the subways, nothing went straight
on our island. There weren't any real roads at all. But the ride was enjoyable,
and the scenery was good, which was why we rode the horses in the first place.
By scenery, I mostly mean that the ladies on the whole island were wearing a lot
less than they had been three weeks ago. Back in the states, that wouldn't have
been a good thing, since most people (of both sexes) didn't have bodies that you
really wanted to see stripped down. Down here, where everybody looked like they
were between eighteen and thirty-five, and physical fitness freaks besides,
well, it wasn't bad.
Butwhy were they doing what they were doing? Was it just this business of it
being the new fashion? Or were theyall offering themselves to us? That was a
scary thought. There were more than thirty thousand women on the island.
It is possible to have entirely too much of a good thing.
* * *
I suppose that touring factories might strike most people as a strange way to
spend a day, but you have to understand that engineerslike to do things like
that, and we don't think that it's at all strange. It's kind of fun, actually,
like visiting museums, but of the present, instead of the past. As a group, we
technical types have an abiding fascination with finding out exactly how the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]