"Anthony,.Piers.-.Mute (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Susan)

"Well, it's my job to protect the interests of my en-Clave."

Good shot. She respects that attitude.

"You have the power to erase memories," Finesse said.

"You used it on me. Had I not verified my experience with the recording, I would have been sadly confused."

"You were not intended to remember. You would have gone on to your next assignment, and Enclave Min-Mute 58 would have proceeded undisturbed, no harm done."

"It is not my business to be deceived!" Increasingly, her ire was showing, as it worked its way out of her system in the manner of a deep bruise, discoloring the surface only as the healing process advanced.

"You recorded everything?"

"Of course. It is standard CC policy in such cases. Machines are immune to most mind-affecting psi, since machines do not have subjective perception. I now remember the full interviewЧvia that holographic reminder. And you were quite ready to He to cover it up."

"You lied to me first," he protested. "You claimed to be auditing the leadmuter." He was getting angry himself.

She's cooling, Hermine announced. She understands this sort of dealing.

"I was auditing the leadmuterЧand you," Finesse said hotly. "To determine whether CC can use you."

"I refuse to be used by CC."

She likes your independence, grudgingly.

What a marvelous little lie-detector! No wonder Finesse had managed him so well, before. Fortunately she and Hermine had underestimated the potency of his psi, and been overcome by it. Now if only he could find a way to get rid of that holoЧ

Naughty man! You never give up.

Don't tell on me!

I wouldn't think of it. It's so much fun watching you operate. The weasel's admiration for his villainy infused her thoughts.

"It could be very important," Finesse was saying. "I had to be sure you were right for the position."

"I'm right for my present position, and wrong for CC, I assure you. I don't like big government."

"CC is not government at all," she argued. They had come to the field where they had made love before, and here she paused. The grass remained flattened where they had lain, mute vindication of the holograph's account. "The Coordination Computer just happens to be the only

&. !&8tniraent capable of organizing the incredible variety

of physical and mental mutations that space travel has ^brought to the human species. There are millions of people settling thousands of worlds scattered through billions of stars; the mere job of locating a known planet in the immensity of space is a colossal calculation with a prohibi-; lively small margin for error. If it were not for the com-Iputer's ability to match specific mutants to specific habi-S^tats, and direct them there, there would be no human colonization of the galaxy at all."

"I am familiar with the rationale," Knot said dryly. ow could she stand there, looking at the flattened I grass, while spouting CC propaganda? "Some mutants fp-'can breathe only methane-dominated atmosphere, so they are matched with methane worlds. Some can survive only -in quarter gravity, so they are sent to low-gee worlds, /All this may be good and necessary, if we set aside the fact that mutancy is impermanent; mutants breed normals, ft not more mutants of then- type, on the rare occasions when they manage to breed at all. So if normals cannot survive on those frontier planets, the colonists can never raise families. There will never be self-sustaining human communities there. Regardless, it makes the Coordination Computer the de facto ruler of mankind. I distrust and fear that power, and do not want to be associated with it." She is getting to like you, Hermine thought. Now yon are not deceiving her, you are speaking from the heart. And yon like her, because she is very pretty. Are you going to copulate again?

Go chase a fat vole! he thought violently, and the weasel made a ripple of humor.

To Finesse he said: "Something tells me I had better get the hell away from you before you talk me into something I don't like."