[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

put them on and walked, her heavy, stumping gait satisfied her. "Now the
gloves-I got stuff to age the hands, how they look, but takes too long for
now."
She stood, posed, and he looked at her. "Peace take me, Rissa!-I mean
Metrokin-if 1 hadn't seen you do it-"
"Who knows? Maybe you're lookin' at your own young slut, thirty years along.''
"Never!" He shook his head. "Now then-you want time alone with that bunch
before I come in-
right? So I'll have a
\r193
\rguard take you over there. You want him to know who you are, or not?"
"Least knows, the better, 'less you got some clown you can trust-"
"We'll keep it to ourselves, mostly. And I've set up the quarters they'll see
you locked into, tonight, and come out of in the morning."
She gave Cele Metrokin's croaking laugh. "What they dun-no is, 'sgot a back
door to it, as theirs ain't. Well, Tregare- let's get off our ass."
RISSA did not have to pretend nonrecognition of her guard; the man was from
offship. O'course! I'm fresh outa freeze, and this one don't know Tregare's
chambers are shot to hell.
With the guard directing her she clumped downship and across to the building.
Inside, her guide
file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Busby,%...iew%2005%20-%20The%20Long%20View
%20v1.0.txt (90 of 137) [7/14/2004 3:28:44 PM]
file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Busby,%20F.%20M%20-%20L...M%20-%20Long%20V
iew%2005%20-%20The%20Long%20View%20v1.0.txt became confused; while he led her
in the wrong direction, she was hard put to keep silent.
Finally she said, "You dunno, zerchface, why the hell don't you ask?" Eyes
narrowed, he looked at her. For a moment she expected a slap for her rudeness,
but he shook his head and moved her along. Next time they met someone, he did
ask directions-and soon escorted her to the conference room.
Inside, she looked at the Committee members. Remember- I ain't seen these
before!" "Hello, Doming," she said. Then, "Curse me for a Client! You're my
goddamn' colleagues-you bunch of carved-
up freaks?" She made her heavy-footed way to a chair and sat. "What in hell
got into ya? I heard stuff-sure-but why ya wanna be such friggin' monsters?"
Someone-Gemskull, it was-said, "It's a status matter. You've been off Earth;
you wouldn't understand. A-a competition, with no one else allowed to
compete."
Metrokin's harsh laugh. "What I think-you sorta forgot when to quit. No wonder
this snotnose
Tregare's got his boots up our ass! You'd stuck to business-"
"For that matter," said Fringe Ears, "you're as much a prisoner as we are. So
who are you to talk?"
"Went into Stronghold, we did-all the signals right. Then we're landed and
Police come aboard-
only they ain't Police at all, they're Tregare's. How'm I supposed to lift
ship-stand
194
on the ramp and fart, maybe?" She shook her head, a jerky motion. "Anyway-he
didn't take no whole damn planet off me, like he did you."
Scar Ridge said, "We're wasting time. The question is, what can we do about
it?"
"Dunno about you," said Rissa. "Me, I'm gonna make a deal,"
The Dairy Queen's unlikely breasts heaved. "Traitor! If the guards weren't
here, I'd-"
Page 122
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"You'd what? Smother me with them haybags you got? If you fell over
frontwards, your head'd only make it half ways. What are those things-plastic
or somethin'?"
"They are not. it's a glandular treatment-very expensive, too, to maintain."
"Shoulda tried one for your brains-alia ya. But looka here, now-we gotta try
workin' together.
Better chances that way. So-who's top freak between ya?"
"Don't you know?"
"Sure-I know it's Hrodicken. But I never seen ya before, any more than you
seen me. So whicha you pincushions is Hrodicken?"
Gemskull said, "She's dead, I'm told. I'm next in line-after you and Obrigo,
of course."
"You gotta name? Or do I gotta read your monogram off your head?"
"Zavole-Aarem Zavole."
"Awrighi, Zavole. Tregare gets here, you give him the story. All the how-so,
why we been runnin'
things this way, the stuff he's so pissed about."
"Why not you? You're senior to all of us."
"Been off Earth too long-outa touch with all the small shit. Besides, you talk
it better."
She pulled at the little finger of her right glove-the sign for Tregare,
watching the monitor in his office, to enter. While Zavole still temporized,
Tregare walked in and sat.
"Okay-school's started. You been having fun together, kicking old times
around? How about it, Metrokin?"
"Har'ya, Tregare? You coulda warned me about the freak farm-some a these, make
a maggot puke.
They watch the store half the time they spend tryin' to look so candy-ass,
you'd be on 'tother end of the stick here."
\r195
\r"Maybe." Tregare spoke quietly. "It strikes me, before I decide what to do
with you lot, I'd better hear your side of it. If you have one."
"Such a coincidence," said Fringe Ears, "that the idea strikes you when we've
just been discussing it here."
"Stuff it," said Rissa. "Any sense at all, he's got eyes and ears on us."
"Yeah," said Tregare. "And what kind of deal, Metrokin, do you have in mind?"
"Shit-simple, Tregare-I play your game, I'm home free."
"Think I'd leave you in voting control? You're crazy."
Rissa said, "Hell with that. I mean-you don't punish me for nothin', I live
good-and when I
want, you let me off Earth. No comin' back, I don't need to-out there I own
enough-"
"I'll think about it. First you play my game-you do that, you won't be
punished. I'll go that far with you, Metrokin."
"And the rest of us?" said Zavoie. Tregare shrugged; the man continued. "You
wanted to hear our side of it. Do you know how the present system began?"
Tregare leaned back, relaxed now. "What part of it do you have in mind?"
file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Busby,%...iew%2005%20-%20The%20Long%20View
%20v1.0.txt (91 of 137) [7/14/2004 3:28:44 PM]
file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Busby,%20F.%20M%20-%20L...M%20-%20Long%20V
iew%2005%20-%20The%20Long%20View%20v1.0.txt
"A hundred and twenty years ago, roughly, this continent had twice its present
population and couldn't afford its own government. The system of corporate
elections, bidding for the job of governing, saved the economic structure from
total collapse. It was supposed to be a stopgap-"
"And it was," said Tregare. "Because after UET'd been in power a while, they
stopped having any elections."
"Well, yes-but that was before any of us were born."
Page 123
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Not me," said Rissa. "You, maybe."
"Yes-I'd forgotten. But the terrible problem was still overpopulation-and so
many of the people with no work, no way to earn a living,"
"So somebody had a bright idea," Tregare said. "Total Welfare."
"Total Welfare, and UET's brilliant discovery of star drive." Rissa did not
correct the man's idea of how UET had gone into space. He said, "The Welfare [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]