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now because someone or something ordered it done. If you refuse, then we will
find volunteers. You will be expected to teach them all that you can about the
problem, and then they will go and make the attempt. They will not have as
good a chance as you would, but we will try and we will keep trying until we
are down to no one here and we cannot win. We must. If we don't get that ring
then the rest doesn't matter."
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They nodded. "This vault. You have information on it? Yes? Can we know what it
is?"
Hawks gave them as detailed a description of the situation as he could. They
listened attentively.
"That is not a difficult sequence but it is very tricky," Chow Dai said. "No
amateur, particularly in an unfamiliar body, could do it. It is worse because
it is mostly mechanical. The mechanisms are not all that different from one
big illusion in our uncle's show. His wife would get into a coffin, and then
they would fill it with water, seal it with many chains and locks, and my
uncle would have to pick them all and open the coffin before she drowned. She
was a
Buddhist who had studied with some mystics in the high mountains and could
remain under for several minutes, more than most people, but it was still a
matter of speed and skill. As little girls, we knew just how it was done, and
we would often practice with the coffin empty against an hourglass timer. Many
long times it took us up to an hour -far too long. Now we could do it, perhaps
faster than
Uncle Li could. This is a very complicated version of the same problem. No one
aboard here could be taught to do it fast and perfect the first time in just a
few days or weeks or even months, and we cannot exactly duplicate it here
because we have not seen it and its hidden surprises."
"Nonetheless, we must try," he told them.
Sabira spoke. "You would not be going in alone, as you might have had to do
under other circumstances. We-the Indrus crew and some of the others-have
talked it over. We know the land, the people, the customs. It was decided that
one of us at least should go as well, take the same route as you are asked to
take, to help teach you the subtler ways of those people. We also have a
mindprinter program for the language, which is basically a very distorted
version of
Hindi, which is my first language. The omens of the gods brought us to you, as
the minds behind the attack on the great computer demon brought you here. With
all these things on our side, we cannot fail. Compared to what we might face
with the others, this is readymade for us."
They gaped at her. "You would become one of them, as well? Forever?"
"It is my duty. I will not tell you that I am excited by the prospect, but I
do not fear it, either."
The twins looked at Hawks. "How long before this would happen?"
He shrugged. "The Vulture has a lot more to set up, and we have to coordinate
things. We don't think that getting you in will be a problem. We've been
running
Pirate One in and out at regular intervals for months now, so that it appears
to be a new but regular run. It isn't even challenged anymore. Vulture can
arrange a much easier and more convenient arrival than we arranged for him.
We've manage to get his old ship out and put in one with a transmuting
station-the same one we used on the island world. We can send directly from
Pirate One to that transmuter now, if Vulture is there and we time it right.
In fact, first we have to find prospects for Star Eagle to copy and study, and
get them to Pirate
One, where we now have a transmuter and some storage. Covers must be arranged,
and no
one, least of all Master System and its personnel, must suspect. We are pretty
sure that down there at Cochin Center someplace is a Val. You will have to go
in and be accepted there before you pull the job. Then we have to get you all
out and away under their noses. It's going to be very tricky and very
dangerous.
Even Vulture can't become a Val."
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"Very well, then," Chow Dai said almost matter-of-factly. "Then we will do
it."
He was surprised. "Just like that? Don't want to talk it over or think about
it?"
"There is no need to do so. We would both be dead at the hands of the security
guards at China Center had this not been arranged as you say. You have given
the reason we have never understood, which was why we were taken from there
and sent to where only important people are sent. The ones who chose us did
not make us break into the Center apartments and offices or steal. We did that
ourselves, and we were caught for our ignorance. Our lives and our bodies were
forfeit because we were caught. They belong to the ones who saved us. You
cannot know what it is like to be so helpless as we were, to be beaten and
raped not by one but by many brutish men, again and again. Neither of us has
really been able to get close to a man since then, nor really trust another.
When this-Vulture-
creature saved us from Sabatini, we owed still more. We will do it"
"Nobody owns anyone's bodies or lives here. That's what this is all about." He
looked at Chow Mai. "And you? You agree?"
"We do not need to speak. We know each other's minds," the other said.
Hawks sighed. "All right then. We'll set it up."
PASSAGE: TWO CHARACTERS MEET IN HELL
THE ENORMOUS CREATURE ENTERED THE SMALL DOMED enclave easily, pressing the
passwords as if it had set diem up, which it had. No one was present to greet
it, which mildly irritated it, but it stalked down the entry corridor and into
the main room where it found a lone Earth-human sitting with a glass and a
bottle.
"You're late," the man said. "I'd offer you some, but I know it would be a
waste."
"You should lay off that stuff," the creature admonished. "Those substances
that dull the mind are dangerous."
The man chuckled. "And you should know, right? So I lay off the drinking and
the smoking and maybe an occasional pleasure pill and I won't die young? I'm
already dead, remember? I sure as hell do. Scared the living shit out of me,
too. Damn it, if you can't even sin in hell then what's the use of living any
kind of life?"
The creature let that pass. "You have been monitoring the progress of our
friends?" it asked.
"Naturally. That's what this floating mausoleum was designed to do, wasn't it?
After all, we reprogrammed Star Eagle back on Earth. You know, I wonder when
Hawks is gonna think of that? He's a pretty clever fellow."
"Perhaps too clever for his own survival. The real question is what are their
chances of success?
The man sighed and took another sip of his drink. "This stuff's good. Like the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]