[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"Sure you're sure. And you're right. Fat lot of difference that
makes."
"But anyhow, Starkadis too important. Haven't you told that idi
Lord Hauksberg so?"
"I finally got tired of telling him," Abrams said. "What have I got to
argue from except a prejudice based on experiences he's never
shared?"
"I wonder why Brechdan agreed to receive a delegation in the first
place."
"Oh, easier to accept than refuse, I suppose. Or it might have suited
his plans very well. He doesn't want total war yet. I do believe he
originally intended to send us packing in fairly short order. What
hints I've gathered suggest that another issue has arisen that he's
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
planning quite a different move, not really germane to Starkad and
figures to put a better face on it by acting mild toward us. God alone
knows how long we'll be kept here. Could be weeks more."
Abrams leaned forward. "And meanwhile," he continued,
"anything could happen. I came with some hopes of pulling off a hell
of a good stunt just before we left. And it did look hopeful at first, too.
Could give us the truth about Starkad. Well, things have dragged on,
configurations have changed, my opportunity may vanish. We've got
to act soon, or our chance of acting at all will be mighty poor."
This is it,
Flandry thought, and a part of him jeered at the banality, while he
waited with hardheld breath.
"I don't want to tell you more than I've got to," Abrams said. "Just
this: I've learned where Brechdan's ultrasecret file is. That wasn't
hard; everybody knows about it. But I think I can get an agent in
there. The next and worst problem will be to get the information out,
and not have the fact we're doing so be known.
"I dare not wait till we all go home. That gives too much time for
too many things to go wrong. Nor can I leave beforehand by myself.
I'm too damn conspicuous. It'd look too much as if I'd finished
whatever I set out to do. Hauksberg himself might forbid me to go,
precisely because he suspected I was going to queer his pea-ea-eace
mission. Or else & I'd be piloted out of the system by Merseians.
Brechdan's bully boys could arrange an unfortunate accident merely
as a precaution. They could even spirit me off to a hypnoprobe room,
and what happened to me there wouldn't matter a hoot-let compared
to what'd happen to our forces later. I'm not being melodramatic, son.
Those are the unbuttered facts of life."
Flandry sat still. "You want me to convey the data out, if you get
them," he said.
"Ah, you do know what an elephant is."
"You must have a pretty efficient pipeline to Merseian HQ."
"I've seen worse," Abrams said rather smugly.
"Couldn't have been developed in advance." Flandry spoke word by
word. Realization was freezing him. "Had it been, why should you
yourself come here? Must be something you got hold of on Starkad,
and hadn't a chance to instruct anyone about that you trusted and
who could be spared."
"Let's get down to business," Abrams said fast.
"No. I want to finish this."
"You?"
Flandry stared past Abrams like a blind man. "If the contact was
that good," he said, "I think you got a warning about the submarine
attack on Ujanka. And you didn't tell. There was no preparation.
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
Except for a fluke, the city would have been destroyed." He rose. "I
saw Tigeries killed in the streets."
"Sit down!"
"One mortar planted on a wharf would have gotten that boat."
Flandry started to walk away. His voice lifted. "Males and females and
little cubs, blown apart, buried alive under rubble, and you did
nothing!"
Abrams surged to his feet and came after him. "Hold on, there," he
barked.
Flandry whirled on him. "Why the obscenityshould I?"
Abrams grabbed the boy's wrists. Flandry tried to break free.
Abrams held him where he was. Rage rode across the dark Chaldean
face. "You listen to me," Abrams said. "I did know. I knew the
consequences of keeping silent. When you saved that town, I went
down on my knees before God. I'd've done it before you if you could've
understood. But suppose I had acted. Runei is no man's fool. He'd
have guessed I had a source, and there was exactly one possibility,
and after he looked into that my pipeline would've been broken like a
dry stick. And I was already developing it as a line into Brechdan's
own files. Into the truth about Starkad. How many lives might that
save? Not only human. Tigery, Siravo, hell, Merseian! Use your
brains, Dom. You must have a couple of cells clicking together
between those ears. Sure, this is a filthy game. But it has one point of
practicality which is also a point of honor. You don't compromise
your sources. You don't!"
Flandry struggled for air. Abrams let him go. Flandry went back to
his lounger, collapsed in it, and drank deep. Abrams stood waiting.
Flandry looked up. "I'm sorry, sir," he got out. "Overwrought, I
guess."
"No excuses needed." Abrams clapped his shoulder. "You had to
learn sometime. Might as well be now. And you know, you give me a
tinge of hope. I'd begun to wonder if anybody was left on our side who
played the game for anything but its own foul sake. When you get
some rank Well, we'll see."
He sat down too. Silence lay between them for a while.
"I'm all right now, sir," Flandry ventured.
"Good," Abrams grunted. "You'll need whatever all rightness you
can muster. The best way I can see to get that information out soon
involves a pretty dirty trick too. Also a humiliating one. I'd like to
think you can hit on a better idea, but I've tried and failed."
Flandry gulped. "What is it?"
Abrams approached the core gingerly. "The problem is this," he
said. "I do believe we can raid that file unbeknownst. Especially now
while Brechdan is away, and the three others who I've found have
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
access to that certain room. But even so, it'd look too funny if anyone
left right after who didn't have a plausible reason. You can have one."
Flandry braced himself. "What?"
"Well & if Lord Hauksberg caught youin flagrante delicto with his
toothsome traveling companion "
That would have unbraced a far more sophisticated person.
Flandry leaped from his seat. "Sir!"
"Down, boy. Don't tell me the mice haven't been playing while the
cat's elsewhere. You've been so crafty that I don't think anybody else
guesses, even in our gossipy little enclave. Which augurs well for your
career in Intelligence. But son, I work close to you. When you report
draggle-tailed on mornings after I noticed Lord Hauksberg was dead
tired and took a hypnotic; when I can't sleep and want to get some
work done in the middle of the night and you aren't in your room;
when you and she keep swapping glances Must I spell every word?
No matter. I don't condemn you. If I weren't an old man with some [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

skierniewice.pev.pl