VIIBelgrade’s machine-like brain and body needed fuel, and he rubbed his hands with satisfaction. Tucking his feet under him, he sat supplely on the floor; Adam stifled his anger the best he could and sat down opposite. Jim-Hull placed the food between them.
The tray seemed to be of hammered copper. The food was of a variety and excellence amazing to the visitors. Naturally, the body of the meal was meat, some of it broiled over coals, some fried in fat. There was a heavy black flesh which Adam thought must be whale; it was strong but not offensive to a healthy man’s appetite. Another meat tasted like venison. A third was certainly a rich-fleshed water bird, perhaps wild goose, more likely penguin.
There were small hard-baked loaves of bread, rich, nutty, and faintly sweet. Of course the
