Jack L. Chalker X 3 Cerebus A Wolf in the Fold

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of our bugs in your place, too. You wouldn't be kidding us, would you, Zhang?
There's nothing on that tape but normal noises. No conversation on the phone
at all, although we do hear your wife come in and ask 'Who was that?' and you
reply."
I whistled. I was impressed, and so was Bogen although not in the same way.
"So what's the answer?"
"You'll get your tissue."
"Shall I pick up or do you deliver?"
"Very funny. No, it should be picked up, if only because I want to see how
they collect the sample."
"I'll get a boat started up," I told him.
"No. As a precautionary measure, Chairman Laroo has ordered that you never set
foot on the island again, and security will fry you if you try."
"That wasn't part of the deal!" I protested, feeling a sinking sensation in my
stomach. If Security went along, I had to be there.
"We changed it. You're are an admitted assassin, Zhang, and we don't minimize
your skills. We can't afford to take the chance."
"But I'll have to come in if they give me anything."
"Nope. If anything physical is required that we can't handle, you will send
your wife. Between the psych implant against killing and the fact that she's
native here, we feel more secure."
"I don't want to involve her! The deal's off!"
He laughed evilly. "Well, that's okay, but if it ends here, so do the both of
you. You knew that when you started this. Our terms, or forget it. Now, send
her over in two hours exactly.''
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"All right," I sighed. "We'll play it your way for now. But wait a minute.
She's of the motherhood. She's prohibited from ocean travel."
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"By whom? By authority of Chairman Laroo she's been waived of that
requirement.
Anybody gives you trouble on it, tell 'em to call me."
"But I thought she had a psych implant against it."
"We had Dumonia remove it. It wasn't much anyway. Go ahead. We're wasting
time."
I switched off, feeling less than confident now. This change in the ground
rules was hairy indeed.
Dylan, however, didn't mind at all. "We're in this together, remember."
I nodded, and could do nothing but see her down to the docks and off. She was
excited to be on a boat again, for she really did love the sea. She was gone
about five hours, a time in which I became increasingly worried and nervous.
When she finally returned I was still apprehensive.
"They didn't do anything to you, did they?" I asked her.
She laughed. "No. Mostly I took the wheel and had a little fun. That's a
gorgeous place inside there, though. They only let me on the main floor,
handed me the sealed, refrigerated case here, and marched me back."
I looked at her nervously. Would I know if they'd replaced her with a robot?
Would I know if they'd pulled a fast one with the psych machines?
Well, I'd know the robot situation if we swapped during the night, and I felt
reasonably confident that at this stage they wouldn't risk it. For the other,
I'd need Dumonia if I could trust him.
Suddenly I stopped short. "That son of a bitchl" I muttered. "That crafty old
anarchist!"
She looked at me, puzzled. "What? Who?"
"Dumonia. He's ahead of both Laroo and me. He knew this all along, set me up
for it."
Points of similarity indeed. He knew damned well what he was saying when he
told me that.
We just brought the case into the apartment and then waited for more
instructions, which didn't come. Finally, we got tired of waiting, caught up
on some routine paperwork, and went to bed.
In the morning the case was gone. I reported the theft to Bogen, who sounded
none too thrilled about it all. He'd had lenses, agents, and a full security
system trained on the place, and nobody had seen a thing. Worse, at least five
separate tracing devices had been placed inside the case, all of which had
functioned perfectly, apparently. At least they still were they said the case
was still in the apartment. The trouble was, no amount of detection and
searching could reveal it, although they finally came up with a tiny recording
module, something like a tiny battery, wedged inside the floorboards.
Sure enough, it nicely broadcast exactly all five tracing signals.
Bogen was both furious and unnerved by it all. I knetw damned well that a far
different account would reach Laroo, one in which Bogen didn't look so bad.
I had to admire the Confederacy's ftther agent in this area, who seemed head
and shoulders above even me, at least in audacity. In fact I was so impressed
that when he called and made an appointment for us to go and see him, I could
hardly wait.
The samples had been gone nine days, and during that time little of interest [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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