[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

any chance."
"Like on the last one, huh? Look, this is strictly me and you. No big
operation, no giant backup team. If they don't catch me I won't need backup,
and if they do it won't make no difference, now will it? What I'll need from
you, aside from a complete briefin' on this world, these people, all you know
to now and who you got workin' the case so I don't shoot the wrong fella,
access in, free access to the Labyrinth if I got to get out, and some way to
monitor me so I can get information out to the right people, meanin' you,
without gettin' caught."
"We have a resident agent there now, somebody local but she knows about us,
and she uses local talent who don't know about us. She will have to know, and
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at least arrange signals and means of passing messages-if you can pass them."
"They don't keep these folks locked up, do they? Why bother?"
"Good point. The other question is, if they catch you and hook you instead of
killing you outright, will you want to pass anything to us? Those who have
this thing inside them have an overwhelming urge to self-preservation at all
costs."
"Then we got to agree absolute to the opposite," I told him. "We got to agree
that if I get hooked and then make no attempt to communicate within, say, a
month of my first observed opportunity, you'll come in and snatch me."
"But that might kill you! At the very least-well, you visited and talked with
Donna."
I nodded. "That's why. If it takes self-preservation, or preservation of that
thing, to keep me motivated, that should do it."
He nodded. "Yes, yes. Very clever and original. All right. But just what do
you propose to do?"
"I don't know and that's the God's honest truth. I won't know till I'm briefed
and then there on the scene with time to check it all out and learn all the
ropes. Uh-will I have any trouble like in Vogel's world?"
"If you mean color, no. At least, not any more than you would have operating
in your own. You will be in a rough democracy which has the same sort of
failings and virtues as your own, although it's different. But-I can't let you
go in alone, with no plan, no backup."
"Sure you can, if you want results. That's part of your problem all along.
You're so Mister Future, high tech, computer modeled and the rest you don't
have no gut abilities or feelin's. That's why you keep lockin' the barn door
after the horse has already gone."
"Such confidence. Anyone can be broken."
"Yeah. Vogel came damned close to doin' it to me, so it don't take a lot to
break me, but I was ready the first opportunity I got to wring his damned
neck.
I ain't never gonna be no Beth again. I might hav'ta act like her, or worse,
but
I'll never become her. I got you all to thank for that much, and Vogel, too. I
learned the difference between havin 'to be a Beth and wantin 'to be a Beth.
That Donna girl down there-for all her problems and for all that she's a
shadow of what she coulda been 'cause of this, doesn't like it. She's broken,
body and soul; she's been raped in the mind as well as the body. Even if she
didn't have no permanent brain damage she'd be broken and in shock. But if she
could get the ones who did it to her, she would. If she could pass judgment on
'em, she'd demand justice. That's the difference."
"All right." He sighed. "I'll make the preparations. Fewer than six people
will know, all under my control except the resident agent and her people, who
you'll have to watch out for." He paused a moment. "You know, you're taking me
at face
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%2...D.%20Inc%202%20-%20The%20Shado
w%20Dancers.txt (62 of 146) [1/19/03 4:19:23 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20G.O.D.%20Inc%202%
20-%20The%20Shadow%20Dancers.txt value, too. If I were in your position, I,
too, would be a suspect."
"You are," I told him honestly, "but I got to trust somebody. It's that thing
about feelin 's again. I can't get it out of my head that you really love what
you do, that you wouldn't do nothin' else, and that the only thing that could
scare you would be if you had to quit. I can't see how you could be bribed to
sell out, and somehow I kinda suspect you got somethin' on everybody who could
fire you.
He smiled, but said nothin'.
The next few days I spent goin' over all the materials. I didn't trust no
hypnoscan, but I'm a quick study when I'm on a case. I memorized everything I
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could of this world, the important people, the way the opposition's
organization was set up. Aldrath, in the meantime, arranged to transfer some
of my funds into slush funds in the money of the new world, so I wouldn't even
be takin' a dime from the Company on this.
We agreed only on objectives. How much did the players in the game there know?
Who knew the most? Did they have any orders on what they was doin', or was all
the stuff they did directed from above by the two controllers? Who were
Addison and Carlos? Could they be snatched? I didn't expect to hand the whole
thing over-that woulda been beyond belief-but if we could get one of them,
another
Vogel type, we'd have what we needed. Incriminating, absolute evidence against
their boss who would tell Aldrath what he needed to know about the rest of it.
If I could also somehow put together just what it was they was plottin' to do,
then we would be able to make sure that nobody else could do it.
I went back home one last time, to close out a few things and register a will.
It was funny; just like last time, I was calm, I didn't have nightmares or
other scary ideas-I was all business. Not even this late in the game, not this
time. I
don't think I was committin' suicide in a noble cause, not now. I think it was
just that, like Aldrath, I knew and loved my job and I did one thing well and
this time I was in control.
All that stuff about clearin' up personal things back home was really an
excuse to see Bill Markham without nobody suspectin' or knowin' nothin' about
it. I had the idea that Bill's remorse over Sam was genuine, and even though
he was white and blue-eyed, he was one of my own kind. Since his office was in
the same downtown bank buildin' as my account and financial advisors, it
wasn't hard to arrange a meet. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]