Part 22 (2/2)

Oh, I think you will, one way or another. Megan?

She held up the hypo gun and turned a dial on the side two clicks. Just give the word, Marty.

Tazlet F-3, Megan said, smiling.

Now that's really illegal.

Oh my. They'll just have to cut our bodies down and hang us again.

That's not funny. Obvious strain in the man's voice.

I think he knows about the side effects, Megan said. They last a long time. Great for weight loss. She stepped toward him and he shrank back.

All right. I'll talk.

He'll lie, I said.

Maybe, Marty said. But we'll find out the next time we jack. You said we were the most dangerous people in the world. Going to make the human race extinct. Would you care to amplify that statement?''

That's if you succeed, which I don't think is likely. You'll convert a large fraction of us, from the top down, and then the Ngumi, or whoever, will step in and take over. End of experiment.

We'll be converting the Ngumi, too.

Not many and not fast enough. Their leaders.h.i.+p is too fragmented. If you converted all the South American goomies, the African ones would step in and eat them up.

Kind of a racist image, I thought, but kept it to my cannibal self.

But if we do succeed, Mendez said, you think that would be even worse?

Of course! Lose a war, you can rise up and fight again. Lose the ability to fight...

But there would be no one to fight, Megan said.

Nonsense. This thing can't work on everybody. You have one tenth of one percent unaffected, they'll arm themselves and take over. And you'll just give them the key to the city and do whatever they say.

It's not that simplistic, Mendez said. We can defend ourselves without killing.

What, the way you've defended yourself against me? Gas everybody and tie them up?

I'm sure we'll work out strategies well ahead of time. After all, we'll have plenty of minds like yours at our disposal.

You're actually a soldier, he said to me, and you go along with this foolishness?

I didn't ask to be a soldier. And I can't imagine a peace as foolish as this war we're in.

He shook his head. Well, they've gotten to you. Your opinion doesn't count.

In fact, Marty said, he's on our side naturally. He hasn't gone through the process. Neither have I.

Then the more fools you both are. Get rid of compet.i.tion and you're just not human anymore.

There's compet.i.tion here, Mendez said. Even physical. Ellie and Megan play vicious handball. Most of us are slowed down by age, but we compete mentally in ways you couldn't even comprehend.

I'm jacked. I've done that-lightning chess and three-dimensional go. Even you must know it's not the same.

No, it's not the same. You've been jacked, but not long enough to even understand the rules we play by.

I'm talking about stakes, not rules! War is terrible and cruel, but so is life. Other games are just games. War is for real.

You're a throwback, Ingram, I said. You want to smear yourself with woad and go bash people's brains out.

What I am is a man. I don't know what the h.e.l.l you are, other than a coward and a traitor.

I can't pretend he didn't get to me. One part of me sincerely wanted to get him alone and beat him to a pulp. Which is exactly what he wanted; I'm sure he could have stuffed my foot up my a.s.s and pulled it out through my throat.

Excuse me, Marty said, and tapped his right earring to pick up a message. After a few moments, he shook his head. His orders come from too high. I can't find out when they expect him back.

If I'm not back in two- Oh, shut up. He gestured to Megan. Knock him out. The sooner we get him jacked, the better.

You don't have to knock me out.

We have to go to the other side of the building. I'd rather carry you than trust you.

Megan clicked the gun to another setting and popped him. He stared defiantly for a few seconds and then slumped. Marty reached to untie him. Wait a half minute, Megan said. He might be bluffing.

That's not the same stuff as this? I said, holding up the pistol.

No, he's had plenty of that in one day. This doesn't work as fast, but it doesn't take as much out of you. She reached over and pinched his earlobe, hard. He didn't react. Okay.

Marty untied the left arm and it jerked halfway to his throat and fell back limp. The lips twitched, eyes still shut. Tough guy. He hesitated, then untied the other bonds.

I got up to help him carry, but winced with the pain in my chest. You sit down, Megan said. Don't lift a pencil until I get a look at you.

Everybody else hustled out with Ingram, leaving Amelia and me alone.

Let me look at that, she said, and unb.u.t.toned my s.h.i.+rt. There was a red area at the bottom of my rib cage that was already starting to turn bruise-tan, on its way to purple. She didn't touch it. He could have killed you.

' 'Both of us. How does it feel to be wanted, dead or alive?

Sickening. He can't be the only one.

I should have foreseen it, I said. I should know how the military mind works-being part of one, after all.

She stroked my arm gently. We were just worried about the other scientists' reactions. Funny, in a way. If I thought about outside reaction at all, I a.s.sumed people would just accept our authority and be glad we had caught the problem in time. '

I think most people would, even military. But the wrong department heard about it first.

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