[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
little to do with the Soldiers until the trip.
There was a momentary look of pain on Henry's face. Then he was himself again.
"All of them have learned to be aware, all the time, whether on Harmony,
Association or any other world," he said. "You're a woman of Association,
yourself. You should know what being a Soldier of God means."
She nodded. "I do."
Her own temple the temple she had gone to in her childhood had, she
remembered, once been embroiled in a battle with another religious body; and
Soldiers of God, volunteer fighters from other churches, had come to help on
both sides.
"I saw some once when I was twelve," she said. "But most of them weren't like
this."
There was a pause before Henry answered. "These are
all afflicted. Not with a physical affliction. The affliction of a sin. I have
that sin, too."
She stared at him, obviously hesitating. But surely, thought Bleys, watching,
she and Henry were close enough now so that she would venture on the personal
Page 26
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
question that had plainly and instantly come to her mind.
"What sin is that, Henry?" she asked, gently.
Henry turned his head slowly to look at her. Without warning his face had
become implacable. Suddenly, he looked deadly as deadly as he had the one time
Bleys had seen him so before. It was the time when Henry had rescued Bleys
from the anger of a mob of their fellow church members; the time when Bleys
had been forced to leave Henry's farm for Dahno and Ecumeny.
"What it is," he said slowly, "is something I myself have told only my family;
and I believe these men would want an equal privacy. You'll have to do without
an an-swer, I'm afraid."
He looked at her steadily until she nodded. Then he looked away from her again
and directly forward at the front seat; so that, in the reader screen, he now
seemed to look directly at Bleys.
Toni stared at his profile for a moment. To Bleys and he thought also to
her it must have seemed that Henry's attention had gone a long way away from
her, from every-one. But then the expression on his face faded. He turned back
and offered her his brief quirk of a smile. She smiled forgivingly in return;
and they both sat back in silence.
Bleys touched his wrist control pad and went back to the names, figures and
other data in the recording spindle.
Memorizing these and turning over various plans in his head kept his mind
occupied for the twenty minutes or so at the six hundred kilometers an hour
with which the mo-torcade approached their hotel. Once arrived, they were
shown to quarters that were, if anything, more luxurious than those they had
occupied back on Association.
"As soon as everyone's unpacked and ready," Bleys said to Toni, Dahno, Henry
and Ana in the entry lounge of the Master Suite, "we'll gather in my private
lounge here for
a talk. Say, in twenty minutes, standard time. You can wait here for us if you
want, Ana."
A little later, the private lounge saw them seated around a conference table
not only long enough to accommodate all of them comfortably, but also two
individuals who had since joined Ana. Both of these were wearing a padded
single-garment type of business suit which disguised whether they were men or
women, and there were two blue blurs of light where their heads ordinarily
would have been seen.
Bleys sat at one end of the table, Ana at the other, fac-ing him with one of
the two disguised persons on each side of her. There seemed to be emotional
brittleness to the atmosphere in the room, like a miniature rotary storm
sys-tem with its locus in the air above Ana's end of the table. But it was not
greatly disturbing. Bleys decided to ignore it for the moment.
"All right," he said, once they were settled, "Ana, want to bring us up to
date on the situation here?"
'The whole world knew you were coming," said Ana. Here at the conference
table, her strong soprano voice was surprisingly pleasant, in a way that went
far to cancel out her somewhat rawboned, overdressed appearance.
"That couldn't be helped," said Bleys, pleasantly. "I can't control any but a
few of the ships that leave Associ-ation and later call at New Earth. Also,
now I'm part of the Government on Association, as one of the Speakers in the
Chamber there even if I do have a deputy holding down my seat regularly -the
Chamber has to be notified if I go off-planet. That means it was no secret on
Associ-ation about my going to New Earth; so it could hardly be kept a secret
here."
"Well, in any case," said Ana, "the general population of this world knew
almost as soon as we did; and that in-cludes the CEO Clubs and the
Guildmasters. By the way, let me introduce these two on either side of me."
She pointed to the faceless figure seated on her right.
"We'll call this person Jack," she said. "Jack is an Other
who's graduated from our ordinary training. He's also a member of the CEO
Clubs."
Page 27
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Her finger moved to indicate the figure on her left.
"And this will be Jill," she added. "Jill is another grad-uate Other, and in
her case she's a Guild member. Both are fairly high in the hierarchy of
their" she paused a brief moment "secondary organizations."
"Honored to meet you," said Jill.
"Honored to be here," said Jack.
There was practically no difference between their voices, each of which could
be the voice of a man or a woman behind the filter being used to distort it.
"I commend their caution," said Bleys, smiling at each of them in turn.
"I trust you all, myself," said Ana though she looked hard for a moment at
Toni as she said it "but these two are literally risking their lives. Both the
CEOs and the Guilds have a death penalty for any one of their people who
belongs to any other organization. That rule was orig-inally made to keep the
spies of one out of the councils of the other."
"But in spite of that, I'd guess there are still CEO spies in the Guild ranks
and Guild spies among the CEOs, aren't there?" said Dahno.
"Of course," answered Ana, "and spies from other groups beside ours as well,
in both organizations. None from either in ours, in case you were thinking of
asking. We have ways to check that neither the CEOs nor the Guilds could risk
using. However, the point is, Jack and Jill are here now to answer any
questions you might like to put directly about those two organizations,
themselves."
"All right," said Bleys, "both of you, then, what's the general attitude of
the CEO Clubs and the Guild Leader-ship to my speaking tour here? I assume
they're familiar with recordings of the speeches I've made for Harmony and
Association, before?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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little to do with the Soldiers until the trip.
There was a momentary look of pain on Henry's face. Then he was himself again.
"All of them have learned to be aware, all the time, whether on Harmony,
Association or any other world," he said. "You're a woman of Association,
yourself. You should know what being a Soldier of God means."
She nodded. "I do."
Her own temple the temple she had gone to in her childhood had, she
remembered, once been embroiled in a battle with another religious body; and
Soldiers of God, volunteer fighters from other churches, had come to help on
both sides.
"I saw some once when I was twelve," she said. "But most of them weren't like
this."
There was a pause before Henry answered. "These are
all afflicted. Not with a physical affliction. The affliction of a sin. I have
that sin, too."
She stared at him, obviously hesitating. But surely, thought Bleys, watching,
she and Henry were close enough now so that she would venture on the personal
Page 26
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
question that had plainly and instantly come to her mind.
"What sin is that, Henry?" she asked, gently.
Henry turned his head slowly to look at her. Without warning his face had
become implacable. Suddenly, he looked deadly as deadly as he had the one time
Bleys had seen him so before. It was the time when Henry had rescued Bleys
from the anger of a mob of their fellow church members; the time when Bleys
had been forced to leave Henry's farm for Dahno and Ecumeny.
"What it is," he said slowly, "is something I myself have told only my family;
and I believe these men would want an equal privacy. You'll have to do without
an an-swer, I'm afraid."
He looked at her steadily until she nodded. Then he looked away from her again
and directly forward at the front seat; so that, in the reader screen, he now
seemed to look directly at Bleys.
Toni stared at his profile for a moment. To Bleys and he thought also to
her it must have seemed that Henry's attention had gone a long way away from
her, from every-one. But then the expression on his face faded. He turned back
and offered her his brief quirk of a smile. She smiled forgivingly in return;
and they both sat back in silence.
Bleys touched his wrist control pad and went back to the names, figures and
other data in the recording spindle.
Memorizing these and turning over various plans in his head kept his mind
occupied for the twenty minutes or so at the six hundred kilometers an hour
with which the mo-torcade approached their hotel. Once arrived, they were
shown to quarters that were, if anything, more luxurious than those they had
occupied back on Association.
"As soon as everyone's unpacked and ready," Bleys said to Toni, Dahno, Henry
and Ana in the entry lounge of the Master Suite, "we'll gather in my private
lounge here for
a talk. Say, in twenty minutes, standard time. You can wait here for us if you
want, Ana."
A little later, the private lounge saw them seated around a conference table
not only long enough to accommodate all of them comfortably, but also two
individuals who had since joined Ana. Both of these were wearing a padded
single-garment type of business suit which disguised whether they were men or
women, and there were two blue blurs of light where their heads ordinarily
would have been seen.
Bleys sat at one end of the table, Ana at the other, fac-ing him with one of
the two disguised persons on each side of her. There seemed to be emotional
brittleness to the atmosphere in the room, like a miniature rotary storm
sys-tem with its locus in the air above Ana's end of the table. But it was not
greatly disturbing. Bleys decided to ignore it for the moment.
"All right," he said, once they were settled, "Ana, want to bring us up to
date on the situation here?"
'The whole world knew you were coming," said Ana. Here at the conference
table, her strong soprano voice was surprisingly pleasant, in a way that went
far to cancel out her somewhat rawboned, overdressed appearance.
"That couldn't be helped," said Bleys, pleasantly. "I can't control any but a
few of the ships that leave Associ-ation and later call at New Earth. Also,
now I'm part of the Government on Association, as one of the Speakers in the
Chamber there even if I do have a deputy holding down my seat regularly -the
Chamber has to be notified if I go off-planet. That means it was no secret on
Associ-ation about my going to New Earth; so it could hardly be kept a secret
here."
"Well, in any case," said Ana, "the general population of this world knew
almost as soon as we did; and that in-cludes the CEO Clubs and the
Guildmasters. By the way, let me introduce these two on either side of me."
She pointed to the faceless figure seated on her right.
"We'll call this person Jack," she said. "Jack is an Other
who's graduated from our ordinary training. He's also a member of the CEO
Clubs."
Page 27
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Her finger moved to indicate the figure on her left.
"And this will be Jill," she added. "Jill is another grad-uate Other, and in
her case she's a Guild member. Both are fairly high in the hierarchy of
their" she paused a brief moment "secondary organizations."
"Honored to meet you," said Jill.
"Honored to be here," said Jack.
There was practically no difference between their voices, each of which could
be the voice of a man or a woman behind the filter being used to distort it.
"I commend their caution," said Bleys, smiling at each of them in turn.
"I trust you all, myself," said Ana though she looked hard for a moment at
Toni as she said it "but these two are literally risking their lives. Both the
CEOs and the Guilds have a death penalty for any one of their people who
belongs to any other organization. That rule was orig-inally made to keep the
spies of one out of the councils of the other."
"But in spite of that, I'd guess there are still CEO spies in the Guild ranks
and Guild spies among the CEOs, aren't there?" said Dahno.
"Of course," answered Ana, "and spies from other groups beside ours as well,
in both organizations. None from either in ours, in case you were thinking of
asking. We have ways to check that neither the CEOs nor the Guilds could risk
using. However, the point is, Jack and Jill are here now to answer any
questions you might like to put directly about those two organizations,
themselves."
"All right," said Bleys, "both of you, then, what's the general attitude of
the CEO Clubs and the Guild Leader-ship to my speaking tour here? I assume
they're familiar with recordings of the speeches I've made for Harmony and
Association, before?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]