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

Shall we make a wager?

No. I never take easy prey. Yon cannot win. Mit knows.

MH cannot know. A storm he can predict; it has no self-will. I am a man. My fate is not predetermined.

It is in this respect

"Whatever are you two thinking about that distracts you from the immediate prospect?" Finesse murmured, self-assured and twinkling.

"Free will or not free will."

She smiled, and again he felt the impact. Oh, she knew how to use her assets! "As William Ernest Henley put it in 'Invictus1: 'It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll; I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my Soul!"'

Knot considered her curiously. "Which side are you on?"

"I'm on your side, Knot. And on CC's. I know what's
best for you. That's why I must work to reconcile the two of you; you belong together."

"I have no use for CC! I refuse to join it. My free will will not permit it."

"So you prefer to argue with Mil? This is futile."

"I defend my right to pursue my own destiny!"

"Your unconquerable Soul," Finesse agreed. "I like it."

"You really believe in this stuff, don't you! You think everything will come out exactly as the crab predicts."

"I know it will. But that doesn't mean you are in any way under duress."

"This is a contradiction!"

"Not at all. It simply means that your free will will bring you to CC."

"I could knock you out and toss you into the electricity. Neither your faded memory nor your fouled-up recording would ever betray the truth. You cannot force me to join!"

Finesse put her hands on his shoulders. In the flickering electric light her face was animated despite its stillness, the shadows leaping across nose, lips and brows. She was eerily beautiful. "Knock me out. Throw me away."

Of course he could not. "Pointless. Your memory and recording will be washed out anyway, by my psi and the storm. But CC has the prior recording anyway. I can't hide any longer. But I still don't have to join."

Finesse smirked knowingly. Knot threw his arms about her, bore her back against the rock, and kissed her savagely. She offered no resistance.

He drew back. "No! This is how you're doing it! Seducing me. You showed me how good it could be, with your sophisticated subtle expertise, getting me hooked; then you carefully reminded me with the holo, making sure that hook was tight; now you're putting your price on it. You figure I'm already addicted. You think I'll throw away my conscience for your favors." "I wouldn't respect you if you did." "So it's all right with you if we just lie here awhile, wait out the storm, then go back to the main enclave?"

"It's all right with me if you try to do that. But I would be deceiving you if I said I thought you'd succeed.

You will join CC before we leave here, or at least make a sufficient commitment."

"I submit I will notЧand that you will not remember any of this, and this time will have no recording to remind you. You will either have to turn me in for hiding the leadmuter, or let me go entirely. I have beaten you, this time."