[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

MX KNOWS BEST 119
He turned and left. Alien stared after his small, blocky figure as it
disappeared down the hall. After a moment, he followed.
Gait was waiting for him, at the landing pad.
"Oh, here vou are," he said, a little impatiently, as if he had been waiting
for some lime. "Come on. It's late enough already and I have to be in court
early tomorrow."
He led the way to the platform, and they took off.
It was a quiet ride back to the city. Alien was think-
ing, and Gait evidently had his mind on the case he was to plead the next day.
When they reached the city transportation center and left the platform for
separate cabs. Alien, instead of going directly home to his apartment, rode to
a little neighborhood bar for a cup of coffee.
He was in an incredibly disturbed state of mind.
Great rewards and great penalties juggled themselves in his mind. On the
surface, it was fantastic that he should feel this deeply about a situation
into which he had rather unwillingly fallen. But there was Leta.
who had so strangely and so quickly reached through to him, and for whom he
felt what he was convinced was, for the first time, a real and actual love.
The short, thick-bodied Frank Campanelli, on the other hand . . , The sharp
crystals of a genuine ha-
tred were growing in the nutrient solution of Alien's resentment toward the
man. The two emotions built on each other, even while Alien cautioned himself
to go slowly, go carefully, so as not to be swept away by the swift current of
his own turbulent feelings.
In his mind he resolved a cold, analytical appraisal of the situation. Leta
was the product of her environ-
ment. Fifteen years of devotion to a common purpose had bonded their two lives
together. There seemed no way to destroy that bond without destroying at
120 Gordon R. Dickson least one of the parties to it, and Alien he thought to
himself with a touch of self-righteousness unlike
Frank, could not seriously consider murdering an-
other man.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Gordon%20%20Dickson%20-%20The%20Stra
nger.txt (88 of 190) [10/16/2004 4:39:06 PM]
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Gordon%20%20Dickson%20-%20The%20Stra
nger.txt
Alien shoved his coffee cup angrily from him. He was furious at the
Page 64
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
particularly self-defeating struc-
ture of the problem. On the one hand, Leta; on the other, Frank. And over all,
the looming greatness of the job of sabotage they were all committed to,
together.
Like a sharp breaking-in of light on some dark place, the answer dissolved the
obscurity of the situ-
ation. Of course! Once the sabotage had been com-
mitted, once their work had been discovered in millions of coder panels and
the general population had begun to wonder how long they had been there, had
begun to question and doubt MX, speculating on whether there might still be
other, more secret gim-
micks concealed in it then there would be no more work to link Frank and Leta
together. Then Alien would face no more problem.
Or would he? The sudden doubt sprang thornily upright in his mind. Fifteen
years were a great many years to live and work together. How strong could the
habit of association grow, nourished by the win-
ters, springs, and summers of all those years? After the job was done, would
the ghost of it still stand in the moonlight, a knife in its hand, barring
Alien's way to Leta?
There was a coder panel in a booth across the room.
Alien half-rose before he remembered, and sat down with a curse on his tongue.
Of course, he couldn't use it now. But this was exactly the kind of question
that
MX was set up so beautifully to render a decision on.
Disgustedly, Alien reached for his coffee cup, saw what he was about to do,
and changed the motion of his hand to punch for a drink.
MX KNOWS BEST 121
Yesterday he had thought that he would never be able to look at an alcoholic
beverage with enjoyment again. But the Scotch and soda he punched for tasted
clean and comforting when it came. And the quick glow, following shortly after
it was down, took the unyielding edge off his disappointment.
He ordered another and sipped it. Already his mind was bouncing back from the
block of the prohibition he had agreed to. To be sure, only a fool would do
what he had almost done go up, punch out the problem, giving his own name,
Leta's and Frank's, and request a decision on the possibility of what he
wished. But MX had been set up to handle theoreti-
cal problems, too. And what could be dangerous about a theoretical problem
posed by an anonymous questioner?
How to phrase it? Alien revolved ideas in his mind, finished his drink and
punched another. Then, with this half-completed, he got up and went over to
the booth housing the coder panel.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Gordon%20%20Dickson%20-%20The%20Stra
nger.txt (89 of 190) [10/16/2004 4:39:06 PM]
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Gordon%20%20Dickson%20-%20The%20Stra
nger.txt
Theoretical, he coded on the simple keyboard all children learned in school
nowadays. Then he stated the problem in general terms, giving fictitious names
for himself, Leta, and Frank.
MX was slow answering, slower than he ever re-
membered it being. And then, when the panel above the keyboard did light up,
the words upon it were not what he had expected.
Questioner to furnish additional data on these two addi-
tional points.
1. What is the nature of the work on which the older man and the girl have
been engaged for the fifteen years stated?
2. Did the younger man referred to cease relation-
ships recently with another girl or woman not mentioned, as a result of a
decision by MX?
Page 65
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
122 Gordon R Dickwn
For a few seconds, Alien did not move. Then, very quietly, leaving the
questions still on the screen, he stepped back and out of the booth. Quietly,
he closed the door, and quietly, he walked out of the bar. In-
stinctively, his legs took him at a fast pace away down the nighttime street.
So, MX perhaps had been able to guess his identity from the situation in his
questions. Who would have thought its knowledge and its system to be so
fantas-
tically extensive? But that would be the most it could do. There had been no
clue to Leta or Frank in what he said. As far as MX could know, they might be
any two people, any two people anywhere in the world.
Certainly there could be no record of them among the list of people MX would
have of those whom he had had dealings with before.
As he went homeward, his spirits started to rise and after a while he found
himself whistling. What he needed, he told himself firmly, was a good night's
sleep. In the morning, things would be different.
But MX was a tireless creature, and under the desire circuit it was not
created to leave a problem unsolved.
Click, click, click, went MX. In the endless cells and banks of its structure,
little lights glowed, little im-
pulses of current shot through. The problem was investigated, a picture built,
an answer found.
From a slot in a pane! overlooking a desk where a light glowed, five cards
shot out to a wire basket.
The bottom one glanced off an edge of the basket and all five slid out to lie
under the soft glow of the light above. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]