He was wearing motorcycle goggles, and with his face thickly powdered with dust, Pepper did not at once recognize Stoyan Stoyanov from the biostation.
He was holding a large paper bag. He made several steps on the tiled floor with its mosaic picturing a woman taking a shower, and halted in front of Kim, concealing the paper bag behind his back and making odd head movements as if his neck was itching.
"Kim," he said, "it's me."
Kim made no reply. His pen could be heard tearing and scratching the paper.
"Kimmy," Stogan said, ingratiating. "I'm asking you, on my knees."
"Get lost," said Kim. "Maniac."
"It's the very last time," said Stoyan. "The very, very last little time!"
He moved his head again and Pepper saw in the depression at the back of his skinny shaven neck a tiny little pink shoot, sharply pointed and already twining, trembling, avid.
"Just pass it over and say it's from Stoyan, that's all. If he starts telling you to go to the cinema, tell him you've got urgent overtime. If he offers you tea, say you've already had some. And don't accept any wine if he suggests it. Eh? Kimmikins! For the very last time for ever and ever!"
"What're you fidgeting about for?" Kim asked irritably. "Here, turn around!" "Got one again?" asked Stoyan, turning. "Well, it doesn't matter. Just so you hand that over, nothing else matters."
Kim, leaning forward over the table, was busy with his neck, kneading and massaging, elbows spread. He bared his teeth from squeamishness and muttered curses. Stoyan patiently shifted his weight from foot to foot, head bent and neck extended.
"Hello, Peppy," said he. "Long time no see. What're you doing here? I've brought some again ... what can I do? ... Very, very last time ever." He unwrapped the paper and showed Pepper a small bunch of poison-green forest flowers. "Boy, what a smell! What a smell!"
"Stop pulling, you," cried Kim. "Stand still. Maniac.
Useless."
"Maniac. Useless," agreed Stoyan ecstatically. "But! For the last time ever and ever!"
The pink shoots on his boiler-suit were already wilted and wrinkling, raining down on the brick face of the lady under the shower.
"There," said Kirn. "Now get out."
He moved away from Stoyan and threw something half alive, squirming and bloody into the waste-bin.
"I'm going," said Stoyan. "Right away. But, well, our Rita's acting up again. I'm afraid to be away from the biostation. Peppy, you might come over and have a word with them, eh?"
"What next!" said Kim. "Pepper's not needed there."
"What d'you mean, not needed?" Stoyan exclaimed. "Quentin's fading away before your eyes! Just listen. Rita ran off a week ago - all right. Okay, what can you do? But, she came back that night all wet, white, and icy cold. The guard was questioning her, unarmed, and she did something to him, so he's been senseless ever since. And the whole experimental compound has been invaded by grass."
"Well?" said Kim.
"Quentin cried all morning..."
"I know all about that," Kim broke in. "What I don't get is how Pepper comes into it."
"What d' you mean how? What're you talking about? Who else if not Pepper? Not me, eh? And not you... We're not calling in Hausbotcher, Claudius-Octavian."
"Stop it," said Kim, slamming his palm on the table. "Get back to work and don't let me see you here in working hours again. Don't make me lose my temper."
"All right," said Stoyan hastily. "Okay. I'm off. You'll hand it over?"
He placed the bouquet on the table and ran off, shouting as he left: "and the cess-pit's working again."
Kim picked up a broom and swept all the droppings into a corner.
"Mad fool," he said. "And that Rita... Now calculate the lot again. To hell with them and their love affairs..."
The motorbike started banging nerve-rackingly under the window, then all was quiet, with only the piledriver thudding behind the wall.
"Pepper," said Kim. "Why were you at the cliff this morning?"
"I was hoping to catch sight of the director. I was told he sometimes does physical jerks there. I wanted to ask him to send me but he didn't come. You know, Kim, I think everybody lies here. Sometimes I even think you do."
"Director," said Kim, ruminating, "you know that's an idea. You're on the ball. You've got guts..."
"All the same, I'm leaving tomorrow" said Pepper. "Acey's taking me, he promised. Tomorrow I shan't be here, official."
"I never expected that, no," continued Kim, unheeding. "Plenty of guts ... maybe we should send you over there, to sort things out..."
Kandid woke and thought at once: I'll go tomorrow. At the same moment Nava stirred in the other comer.
"Are you asleep?" she asked.
"No."
"Let's talk, then," she suggested. "We haven't spoken to each other since yesterday evening after all. All right?"
"All right."
"First you tell me when you're going."
"I don't know," he said, "soon."
