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New Alexandria has to offer is knowledge, not cash. Knowledge to help
Rhapsody improve its own situation, to make things better here for everyone.'
'They don't want to make things better,' said Bayon. 'They want to keep things
the same. But I'm not going to let them do that. I'm going to crack their
system. I want them to know that I exist.'
'You can't, Bayon. We just don't have that kind of leverage. Akim Krist isn't
enough. The grotto itself isn't enough. There's no way, Bayon. You'll only get
us all killed.
What will it prove?'
'We can't die, remember,' he said. 'We don't exist.'
'That's their story,' I reminded him. 'If you wanted that way out, you could
have killed yourself any time. You're behaving like a suicide, not like a
survivor. This compulsive insistence on making them kill you is a concession
to their way of thinking.
You're trying to make them prove that you don't exist, by literally wiping
yourselves out of existence. This is their game you're playing, not yours.'
The gun muzzle came up.
'Get back to the workface,' he said flatly. 'Both of you. We'll send Capra
back with another message.'
'Do you want Sampson down here?' I protested. 'Sampson and his guns?'
'Sampson will pay my price. He won't risk his own life to kill us. He'll side
with me, because I hold the grotto. He'll do things my way.'
'He won't.'
'Get back to the face.'
'Tob!' I appealed. 'It's your life as well. And all the rest of you. He's
playing with your lives. Can't you make him see reason?'
'Shut up, outworlder!
said Bayon. Which just about said it all. No, they couldn't make him see
reason. He was their leader. I was a suntanned, dark-haired starman.
Charlot's hair was white, but there was no mistaking on which side of the
fence he stood.
We were escorted back to the grotto. Harl made as though to push us onto the
face with the rest of the prisoners, but Charlot stepped into the cave
instead. Harl hesitated, so I
followed Charlot. Harl apparently decided that it didn't matter much. Bayon
was following and, to judge by the sound of his voice, he didn't much care
either. I could hear him directing his instructions to Cyolus Capra. I
wondered vaguely whether Capra had decided to hear him or not. If not, I
didn't suppose he would hold out for long. Akim Krist might die rather than
speak a single word, but Capra would compromise without much of a fight.
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'Well,' I said to Titus. 'This is it'
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'You should have let me talk to him,' said Charlot.
'You didn't even know how things stood,' I pointed out. 'I'll bet Jad Gimli
didn't even tell you his name, did he? He sent you down here blind to make
what you could of the mess, didn't he?'
'There was no reason for you to lose your temper,' insisted Charlot.
'I didn't lose my temper. You've got nothing to complain about. You'd have got
not an inch further for all your oil and slickness. You just can't talk to the
man. He's decided on his pound of flesh and he'll take no substitutes. If
every ducat were ten thousand ducats, he'd have his bond. That's the way it
is.'
'He's mad.'
'He's not mad. Just single-minded. He's been condemned to hell by these people
and he wants them to let him out again and say they're sorry. He doesn't just
want to run away. That's all it is.'
'You approve?'
'Hardly. It's likely to cost me my life. I'll do anything I can to change his
mind. But I understand how he feels. I only hope he'll compromise when Sampson
lets him down.'
' Sampson lets him down.'
If
'You don't think he'd agree? Take on a whole planet?'
'I think he'll be very tempted to cheat. You saw him - don't you think he's an
unsuitable vessel to fill with trust?'
'He's a hothead. But he's not stupid. He wouldn't dare side with fifteen men
against a world.'
'That's not what I'm afraid of,' said Charlot quietly. 'When I said "cheat" I
meant both ways. He'll promise everybody anything, and take it all himself.
He'll have us killed and blame it on Bayon. He'll scuttle Bayon just as soon
as he's off-planet with the goods.'
'
He couldn't
'
'Let Well Alone,' Charlot reminded me. 'It's not even against the Law.'
'Well, all I can say,' I said, 'is that you have a very nasty mind. You really
think it will go that way?'
'It's a possibility.'
'You'll never convince Bayon.'
'No.'
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ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
'We could warn him, though.'
'Would it do any good?'
'It might,' I said. But I had my doubts.
Things looked blacker with every hour that went by, and with every thought
that crossed my mind.
A few minutes of unhappy silence passed, and then I said: 'If we could get the
beamer away from Bayon, we could destroy the grotto in a matter of minutes.'
'And what would that prove?'
'No grotto, no price.'
'And then we get killed for nothing.' [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]