[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

feeling that way, even if it's part of the job. So, luckily, today we don't
have to deal with anything like that."
Jak thought he might express his own approval but decided it was better to
just remain silent; there are times when added attention is just not
desirable.
The officer said, "Now, Jak Jinnaka, unfortunately you have revealed a
proclivity for escape, so I truly am sorry about this, but we'll have to load
you onto a dolly and take you back strapped down. Those are strict orders. But
at least it's a short flight you're not going all the way to Fermi and you
won't be too uncomfortable, and once you get there, it's rather like a very
spartan hotel room without any doors. You'll see. Really, there's not much to
get upset about."
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Jak didn't agree, but saw no good reason to say so. He listened as the
helicopter took everyone else away, and the officer gave a series of
incomprehensible orders that seemed to involve nothing but strings of
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John Barnes - The Duke of Uranium acronyms.
In a few minutes, the dolly came crawling over on its treads, and, not
urgently, they tied him to the framework. It was all metal tubing without
padding, so it hurt a little as the dolly crawled back to the copter, but it
was only for a few minutes and it wasn't any worse than it had to be. As the
tractor crawled into the passenger space, Jak saw that the inside of the
copter bore several plaques with the insignia of the
House of Cofinalez, as he had expected. He might be in gentle hands, for now,
but they were the hands of the enemy.
Chapter 9
A Comfortable Place With a Little Bit of Style
People moved to Tjadou for the climate, if they couldn't stand the cold or the
damp, because it was only about ten degrees off the equator and because even
with the drastic revision of the Earth's climate by the
Bombardment, there was still sunshine there almost every day. So since people,
mostly older people, moved there for the sun, the warmth, and the dry clean
air, the buildings and streets were laid out to shelter them from sunlight and
to provide cool spaces, and huge pipelines were run in from the catch basins
at the feet of the glaciers that covered Italy, bringing in immense quantities
of fresh water, so that people could plant gardens as big as they liked,
filling the air with water and pollen that would eventually make it impossible
for people like themselves to breathe, which was likely to be the only limit
on the growth of the town.
Because this process was far from complete as yet, more people were still
moving in all the time, and aside from its constant population of the elderly,
the place was something of a boom town, as a bedroom community for the
industrial areas of central Africa. Many of the officers of the Duchy of
Uranium's local garrison chose to live here permanently, because it was a fine
place to raise a family and the climate could hardly be equaled, and there
were superb homes available at very reasonable prices. In fact, as a kind of
hobby or sideline, many of the Uranium Army's officer corps had become so fond
of the place, and so familiar with the good things that were available, that
they had become real-estate brokers here in Tjadou.
This was particularly useful for political prisoners to know, because the
Duchy of Uranium adhered to all international conventions regarding the
comfort of prisoners, so that most of them were ultimately released on
monitored house arrest within the city of Tjadou, where they might well find
that they had to live and work for decades. It was, of course, regrettable
that some perfectly fine people who no doubt were good citizens of the places
they came from had so grossly inconvenienced the Duke that it was necessary
for them to be taken out of circulation, but still there was a world of
difference between being thrown into a dungeon or buried in an unmarked grave,
as opposed to merely finding oneself in a fine, growing, modern community one
that in fact many free people were moving to voluntarily.
Jak learned all of this, but in much more detail, as the helicopter circled
the city, waiting for clearance to take him to the maximum security prison. He
was dreading it, although all the soldiers continued to assure him, in between
discussing the merits of the various neighborhoods of the city, with special
emphasis on
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John Barnes - The Duke of Uranium rapidly appreciating real-estate values,
that very few people remained in maximum security for long, and that there was
a good chance that within a month or two he would be living in a small
apartment
"somewhere convenient where you can walk to the main prison campus for your
required visits, with good access to shopping and banking. There are a lot of
nice little places just inside the patrolled area, and we can fix you up in a
comfortable place with a little bit of style."
Uncle Sibroillo had always told him that if nothing else, you could always be
thinking, analyzing, getting a handle on your situation, and the major thought
running through Jak's mind right now was that these people truly had an
incentive to make sure he didn't escape, so this was all going to be much
harder.
The copter finally set them down on the roof of the main prison facility, and
they wheeled Jak out to an elevator and took him down to the main office to do
the paperwork. "We're not exactly booking you," the officer explained,
"because Uranium officially has no laws about political behavior, and after [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]