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much time I actually had in which to work them over, they might, probably
could, be able to hold out on me. I was not about to leave them in my
cabin all day; and the only alternative was to turn them over to Ship's
Security before I reported for duty. I was loath to do this, as I did not know
whether there were any others aboard, whoever they were, or if they had
anything more planned, since the J-9 trouble had not come off as they had
expected. Had it succeeded, it would surely have postponed the September
15 target date.
I had a fee to earn, which meant I had a package to deliver. The box was
pretty empty, so far.
"Gentlemen," I said, my voice sounding strange to me and my reflexes
seeming slow. I therefore attempted to restrict my movements as much as
possible, and to speak slowly and carefully. "Gentlemen, you've had your
turn. Now it is mine." I turned a chair backward and seated myself upon it,
resting my gun hand on my forearm and my forearm on the back of the
chair. "I will, however," I continued, "preface my actions with that which I
have surmised concerning yourselves.
"You are not government agents," I said, glancing from one to the other.
"No. You represent a private interest of some sort. If you are agents, you
should doubtless have been able to ascertain that I am not one. You
resorted to the extreme of questioning me in this fashion, however, so my
guess is that you are civilians and perhaps somewhat desperate at this
point. This leads me to link you with the attempted sabotage of the J-9
unit this previous afternoon ... Yes, let's call it sabotage. You know that it
was, and you know that I know it, since I worked on the thing and it didn't
come off as planned. This obviously prompted your actions of this evening.
Therefore, I shan't even ask you the question.
"Next, and predicated upon my first assumption, I know that your
credentials are genuine. I could fetch them from your pockets in a moment,
if they are there, but your names would mean nothing to me. So I will not
even go looking. There is really only one question that I want answered,
and it probably won't even hurt your employer or employers, who will
doubtless disavow any knowledge of you.
"I want to know who you represent," I said.
"Why?" asked the larger man, his frown revealing a lip-side scar which I had
not noticed at his unmasking.
"I want to know who put you up to being so casual with my person," I said.
"To what end?"
I shrugged.
"Personal vengeance, perhaps."
He shook his head.
"You're working for somebody, too," he said. "If it is not the government, it
is still somebody we wouldn't like."
"So you admit you are not independent operators. If you will not tell me
who you work for, will you tell me why you want to stop the project?"
"No."
"All right. Drop that one ... I see you as associated with some large
contractor who got cut out on something connected with this job. How does
that sound? Maybe I can even make suggestions."
The other guy laughed, and the big one killed it with a quick glare.
"Well, that's out," I said. "Thanks. Now, let's consider another thing: I can
simply turn you in for breaking and entering. I might even be willing to say
you were drunk and indicated that you thought this cabin belonged to a
friend of yours who didn't mind a little foolery and who you thought might
stand you to a final round before you staggered off to bed. How does that
sound?"
"Is this place bugged, or isn't it?" asked the shorter one, who seemed a bit
younger than the other.
"Of course not," said his partner. "Just keep your mouth shut."
"Well, how does it sound?" I asked.
He shook his head again.
"Well, the alternative is my telling the whole story, drugs, questions, and
all. How does that sound? How will you stand up under protracted
questioning?"
The big one thought about it, shook his head again.
"Will you?" he finally asked me.
"Yes, I will."
He seemed to consider this.
" ... Then," I concluded, "I cannot save you the pain, as I wish to. Even if
you possess drug-consciousness, you know that you will break within a
couple of days if they use drugs as well as all the other tricks. It is simply
a matter of talking now or talking later. Since you prefer to defer it, I can
only assume that you have something else planned to stop RUMOKO ... "
"He's too damned smart!"
"Tell him to shut up again," I said. "He's giving me my answers too fast and
depriving me of my fun ... So what is it? Come on," I said. "I'll get it, one
way or another, you know." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]