John Brunner Jagged Orbit

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away again as though she were afraid of being rebuked for
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"I'll take that as an invitation!" Flamen said icily. "Good afternoon! By the
way, Miss Clay, I'm heading back to the city by skimmer perhaps I can give you
a ride somewhere?"
"The fastest route out of here is the one I take," Lyla said. "Yes, please."
"But, Lyla !" Dan reached out to take hold of her arm. In the same instant
Ariadne said anxiously, "Miss Clay, is it wise to ?"
"But nothing," Lyla cut in. "You blamed me for giving a short performance,
then you admitted that you slapped me awake ahead of time. You come home at
all, you come crawling. Do you understand?"
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THIRTY-SIX AN OBLIGATION IS LIKE A MUSCLE: WHEN YOU CONTRACT IT IT GETS BIGGER
AND HARDER
Three faces, not just one, appeared in Prior's comweb screen, split by a half
and two quarters.
Voigt occupied the half, naturally; Prior noticed he'd invested in some new
ears. He, and the blank occupying the upper quaron the other side, had sound
and vision links workbut the remaining caller a scowling kneeblank seemed as
yet not to be spliced into the circuit
"Mr. Priori" Voigt said with professional cordiality. "We haven't spoken in
far too long.
Nonetheless, I should apologize for disturbing you at your home."
Prior mouthed a conventional rejoinder.
"Let me introduce Mr. Frederick Campbell, of the Bureau of State and Federal
Relations," Voigt went on. "He's appealed to me for some assistance, and I
think the best thing I can do is refer him to you. Mr. Campsuppose you brief
Mr. Prior yourself."
"With pleasure," Campbell said, his tone contradicting the words. "Well,
perhaps I should start by explaining that my work is concerned with the
negotiation of city tax contracts, and this morning
I had to visit Black-bury and discuss their purchases of water and power for
the coming year. And just as I was leaving I uh& Well, I had a rather awkward
problem dumped in my lap."
"Don't tell me," Prior said sourly. "The dinge there." He pointed at the
remaining corner of the screen. "Well, right now I have problems of my own,
and the last thing "
"I know you have, Mr. Prior," Voigt cut in. "Do I have to remind you that the
PCC monitors the transof all licensed vu-stations? It hasn't entirely escaped
our notice that the incidence of transmission faults affecting the Matthew
Flamen show has hit a statistically improbable high.
That's why I thought of bringing our ah involuntary visitor to your attention.
The name of that dinge, as you termed him, happens to be Pedro Diablo."
"What?" Prior jerked like a newly hooked fish. "Are they out of their skulls,
parting with a man like that? Why, he's worth a couple of army corps all by
himself!"
"I understand that's his own opinion also," Campbell muttered. "I had the
story in not inconsiderable detail after he'd been forced into my skimmer at
gunpoint this morning."
"But what possessed them?"
"A visit from Herman Uys," Campbell said.
"Uys? In Blackbury? But I wouldn't have thought he'd be seen dead in& " Prior's
voice tailed away in beAfter a pause he added feebly, "Anyhow, I didn't know
he was in the country."
"Nor did Diablo," Campbell said grimly. "Nor which is far worse did the
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Immigration Service." He wiped his face with a large yellow handkerchief. "The
Afrimust have developed some wholly new technique for deceiving our computers,
I guess. But that's irrelethey've tipped their hand and we'll be on guard in
the future. Let's stick to the point."
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He tucked away his handkerchief and leaned closer to the camera.
"Apparently Uys has been conducting heredity checks on all municipal
employees. Mayor Black has rashly promised to cut back the non-melanist
heredity of the city's population to twenty-five percent in the next genand I
need hardly tell you that the rigidity of his attitude is backfiring very
satisfactorily. We've alhad undercover feelers regarding the proposed
safe-conduct of surplus population units, chiefly young unmarrieds, to other
cities in order to widen the gene-pool, but
I'm pleased to say we can scotch that idea under the Mann Act. However& "
He hesitated. Suddenly his executive urbanity slipped like a carnival mask on
a broken elastic.
"Frankly, Mr. Prior, we're, engaged in so many tickmaneuvers right now, with
such minuscule compuweightings in our favor, that the dismissal of Pedro [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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