Walter Jon Williams Voice of the Whirlwind

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him as he stepped into the lobby. Working
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Williams, Walter Jon - Voice of the Whirlwind hard? he asked.
Steward gave him a weary grin. Inventory, he said. He stepped to the clear
plastic door and gave it a push. It wouldn t open. A
warning tugged at his nerves.
He looked at the guard. The man was fumbling at his belt. I ll need to unlock
that, he said.
The warning faded away. The guard unlocked the door and
Steward stepped out into the tunnel. He said good-night and repressed the urge
to laugh out loud.
Later, near a waste receptacle, he took Angel s spike, put its needle tip on
the alloy floor, and snapped it in half with his foot.
He tossed the remains into the trash. Angel would miss it by the next day, and
after that it would be far too dangerous for anyone to possess. Pulsar s
software would be altered to look out for anyone using it.
The spikes would be hidden in one of the cargo holds that had already been
filled with goods. He wasn t going to touch them till he d left Vesta.
He wasn t going to leave the ship again. Not until it was docked someplace
where Angel couldn t get him.
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Williams, Walter Jon - Voice of the Whirlwind
CHAPTER 10
It was four days since Pulsar had let him go. Steward lay on his rack,
watching a telecast of Kawaguchi s
Fourth Millennium
.
Page 96
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
This was a classic visionary Imagist drama from the previous century, set in a
mannered future in which a genetically altered posthuman society was
confronted by the return of violent human primitives from a forgotten space
colony, a comedy of manners laced with acid and appalling violence. The
NeoImagist
Policorp Pink Blossom had recently produced an elaborate version of it,
intended as political propaganda for their perception of the future, starring
the free-fall kabuki actor
Kataoka XXII. Brighter Suns, being a nonideological policorp, was broadcasting
it on the feed link from Vesta. Steward was enjoying the show, but suspected
the interpretation was slanted a bit toward the posthuman point of view,
having been dictated by contemporary political realities. Pink Blossom was
showing a decline in its rate of growth and might have concluded that their
vision of tomorrow might need a little polishing in order to get the troops
enthusiastic about their work.
Steward flexed his right hand as he watched the vid. Feeling was almost back
to normal. No permanent damage, he thought.
There was a knock on Steward s door. Come in, he said, setting his vid unit
on record, and Reese entered.
There was an annoyed frown on her face. Out of the rack,
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Williams, Walter Jon - Voice of the Whirlwind buck, she said. We ve been
ordered to Vesta in an hour. We re going into the Power Legation.
Steward sat up. Alarms clattered in his mind. Why? he asked.
There s a Starbright ship in dock, Reese said. The cargo handlers got sick,
and some of the autoloaders have broken down. It s a special cargo, and the
Starbright people don t want anyone but our employees to deal with it. We re
being ordered to help load the stuff by hand.
Why us?
It s those blood tests we had to take. We tested out okay to work with the
Powers.
Steward slapped off the vid. Anger was beginning to fill him.
It s a scheme to get me onstation, he said. They re going to provoke some
kind of incident and toss me in a cell again. Or assassinate me.
Reese leaned against a padded bulkhead and crossed her arms.
Not likely, she said. They let you go once. Why would they pick you up
again?
Steward hesitated for a moment. He had to think of something besides the fact
he was suspected of stealing Angel s key spike. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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