The Jumper (SF Mystery)

The Jumper 14: Life and Death

Rachel stopped and sighed. "Very well," she said, "I promised.

"How old am I? That's actually a very hard question to answer. In fact, I don't think it can be answered, in human language, anyway. I can tell you how long I've been on this planet, living in humans."

"How long?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" She was smiling at him.

"Yes!" Dammit, why does she have to be so attractive?

She smiled even more. "I've lived on this planet approximately sixty thousand years."

He went rigid with shock, the gun dropping to his side. She stepped forward, and put her hand on his chest. He didn't think to raise the gun, as she looked up at him, her chest touching his shirt. "Jeff, if I wanted to take you, I would have taken you already. I told you, I have no intention of harming you."

She turned and moved back a couple of steps, and turned again to face him. "Now, why don't you put that gun away, before I startle you again and you do something we'll both regret?"

Jeff blinked, then thought about what she said. From what he had seen, the old man on the ledge hadn't been any closer to the young man before this whatever-it-was jumped bodies. She might still kill me, he thought, but if she does, there probably isn't anything I can do about it.

He thought some more, then holstered his weapon.

She immediately relaxed, although he could tell she still had a lot of tension. "There," she said, as she moved back into touching range. "That's better, isn't it? See? Nothing to fear."

He started to reach for his weapon again, and she put her hand on his. "Please!" she said, urgently. "If you shoot me, I will continue to live, but I will suffer terribly, and both you and this young woman whose body I am inhabiting will die. I don't want any of those things to happen–well, except that I do want to keep living.

"I was telling you the truth. I could have taken you from the moment you stepped into the truck with me, and there would have been nothing you could have done to prevent it. Remember your promise. Don't take action until you know all the facts, which I promised you I would give you!"

After a moment more of indecision, he nodded, and she stepped back again. He unstrapped the holster, and set it aside.

"Much better," she said, a little bit unsteadily. "Would you like a drink, since we are talking matters of life and death? I could sure use one."

He finally sighed, then noticed she was trembling, and laughed. "Yeah, I guess I could, at that." I'm trembling too. Damn.

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