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.I will give you points for style, at least.You finally surpass yourfamously barbaric sire in the art of murder." He bowed, the gesture spoiled bythe uninterrupted fit of humor.Cally hadn't heard a mentat laugh before didn't know they could.She could dowithout hearing it again.Winchon's giggle could have curdled milk."If you knew Pardal was trying to kill me, how do you rationalize helping himdo it, I wonder?"Page 325ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"My dear colleague, I would have forever applauded your self-sacrifice in theadvancement of civilization.The death of one of the Wise is always poignant,"he sighed, a hand clasped to his heart."I have, alas, tired of yourcharmingly self-righteous and cautious company, Human Mentat Michelle O'Neal.Good-bye," he said.Cally felt the hair on the back of her neck try to crawl up her scalp line.Apparently they were through with the talking.The mentats were locked into perfect stillness, standing apart yet swathedtogether in sheets of silver light and shadow.Seemingly random portions ofthe building alternately shook and cracked.In one corner, the ceilingcrumbled as an I-beam curled, stretching and deforming like hot taffy.Themassive weight of the building above it creaked threateningly.The destructionslowly stilled and froze, air sparkling with an alien haze which strainedagainst some undreamt of aether, unmoving, stalemated.As if by mutualconsent, the buzzing tension stilled, as both took precious moments for deeperbreath.They stood, panting, somehow managing to glare at each other andremain preternaturally impassive at the same time.You have hired the worst sort of barbarians to do your violence,Michellethought.Do not be melodramatic,Erick replied.They are all barbarians.My hirelingsare killing sophonts for money, so are yours.There is no difference.Barbarians are mutually expendable.So we come, yet again, to our mutual philosophical debate,Michellethought.You have never understood that in humans who are not damaged, theembryonic basis of clan loyalty is nature, not nurture.They thus have aninherent value.If you do not find some clan loyalty in an Earth Human, youhave a defective one.What clan loy He stared, as if for the first time, at the frozen Earthercombatants.Oh, good grief.The attackers are your clan, either by birth oradoption.And the Darhel thought you were dangerous before.It is the perfectcosmic joke.Fine, you were right, I was wrong.But how truly hilarious!"Okay, holy fuck," Cally said, looking out from under the stairwell.The two combatants had stopped for the moment.The stasis had broken as soonas they started their titanic battle and Cally had tried to get a shot in onErick.But the round had been absorbed into the swirl of power around the twoand never hit.Page 326ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Bit of a pickle," Mosovich admitted."Do we know each other?""I think we met once when I was a kid," Cally said."I looked different.Fullbody sculpt.Cally O'Neal.""Oh, I remember you," Mosovich said."Pleasure to finally meet you again.I'dmention that I heard from very good sources that you were dead, but.""Long story.""Perhaps another time," Mosovich said, raising his arms over his head as thetwo mentats raised their hands.This time the power was confined to a small space between the two mentats.Asmall very strange space.Tremendous heat was burning off of it but every timeCally tried to look into the spot her eyes basically tried to crawl out of herhead.She stopped and looked at the combatants instead, noticing for the firsttime that the weird distortion aroundthem was gone."I wonder." Cally said, raising the rifle to her shoulder.Michelle caught the power she was driving before it could do much more thanblast the boxes on the far wall.And Erick, whose body burned to ash in amoment.But the splash of blood on the ground was evidence of why he had suddenlyfailed."What did you do?" Michelle shouted, looking over at her sister."I dunno," Cally said, standing up."Saved your life? Killed a monster?""I cannot understand why you did that!""What part of horrible mass murderer of innocent people did you miss? Besidesthe target part, that is.""I never hired you to kill him.You do not kill the Wise!""Just did," Cally noted."My only regret is that you burned him to ash.I'dhoped to pull out his skull and shrink his head.I figured it would make ahell of mantelpiece."Page 327ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Can it, Cally," Papa O'Neal said, crawling out from under a desk."Let mepoint out that Michelle has a point.There are only a few mentats inexistence.The termination of one is going to be big news.Which means bigtrouble.The flip side is, other granddaughter, that he was a mass murderingpsychopath with enough power, by your own statements, to wipe out multipeworlds.So I have little regret for her actions.The alternatives don't bearthinking.""I do not believe he was that kind of threat," Michelle said."Thedifferences were philosophical.""So were the differences between the US and the Soviet Union," Papa O'Nealsaid."Couple of hundred million people died.You probably need to get yournose out of the ivory tower and take a good look at history instead ofphysics.Most wars in the last century have been about philosophicaldifferences.""I can, however, present his death in terms of threat, and the heat of themoment," Michelle admitted."For the sake of the O'Neals, Grandfather, youneed to be very careful who our people kill.Please pardon my presumption.""Your 'Wise' need to understand that someone who gives the orders forhenchmen to round up and kill Human beings in horrible ways no longer has acredible claim to being a navel-gazing pacifist," Papa O'Neal said,definitely."The O'Neal Bane Sidhe don't make it a habit to clean up everyproblem in the galaxy.Not enough days in the week.But we can make anexception.Do you read me, Granddaughter?""I.read you, Clan Leader," Michelle said."I will make that point quiteplainly to the mentats.And I'm sure that the Indowy masters, when they areapprised of Erick's full actions, will make it even more plain.The issueshould never arise again.In any case, you have accomplished the purposes forwhich I hired your team.Thank you.Now, I need to take the device back toAdenast and construct a credible story for how it got there." She raised herhand.And Cally reached out like a cobra and caught it."Oh, no you don't." she said, raising the rifle.* * *When Cally caught Michelle's hand, Papa O'Neal knew they were all in for it.The storm clouds were just hanging in the air.Well, it was probably best tolet them get it out of their systems.It had been a real long time coming.Heput his head in his hands and turned away, wiping the sweat from his face.Hecould smell the rust of blood, too, but that was nothing new.Their voiceswere so close in pitch that he could only sort out what was being said byaccent and content.Page 328ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]