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John%20-%20The%20Jagged%20Orbit.txt
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SIXTEEN THE POINT AT WHICH THE OUTLAY ON MAINTENANCE BEGINS TO EX THE COST OF
CHANGING TO A
REPLACEMENT
Without warning Flamen's comweb circuit reverted to normal and he found
himself back in touch with
Prior. The moment he realized, the latter's face took on a shifty expression
which Flamen recognized from years of close association: the look which
signified that he was about to put over some really monstrous con job on the
assumption almost always justified that the person he was dealing with had
overlooked some very subtle trap. He might be naïve in some matters, as
witness his ready acceptance of a Lar as everything the advertising claimed,
but when it came to closing a deal weighted in his own favor he was
brilliantly devious. That, chiefly, was why Flamen put up with him. He had
never dared tarnish his own image of himself by learning the whore's-trading
skills required to keep afloat in the cut-throat ocean of modern business, yet
he correspondingly did not dare to forgo them altogether. Prior was a perfect
compromise: the epitome of self-deluded honor, who could dismiss the most
flagrant kind of cheating from his conscience on the grounds that he had
thought of it and he could not possibly be a dishonest man.
Flamen tensed. If he, now, was to become the target for Prior's personal
talent&
"Matthew, as far as I can comp it out," Prior began, "you just made a very
serious charge against the direcof Holocosmic."
"I don't recall making any sort of charge against anyFlamen said hastily. "But
if you have something important and urgent to say, why not& ?"
He cast around in his mind for a chance of privacy. Everything said over the
comweb in these offices, as in the offices of any firm contracted to the
Holocosmic netwas monitored, analyzed and if necessary relayed to the
directorate. Ah yes!
"Why not ride out to the Ginsberg with me and call on Celia?"
"Not this afternoon," Prior said.
"Oh, come now! She's your sister as well as my wife, remember." A hamhanded
attempt to get something discreditable on the record; it failed.
"I'm booked for exercises with my citidef group," Prior said, ever the solid,
responsible member of society. "Besides, you know that Dr. Mogshack
disapproves of intrusions from his patients'
former environment, and I wouldn't care to go against his judgment."
"I regard contact between husband and wife as highly normalizing, even if he
doesn't." The juiceless old stick, Flamen added to himself but it wouldn't do
to utter the comment aloud, not when he had so narrowly scraped under the
blade of Holocosmic's guillotine by appealing to
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Mogshack's reputation.
"That's as may be," Prior shrugged. "Nonetheless, the point I'm getting at is
this." He hesitated, with an air of calculation. "Matthew, to be blunt, I
think you're becoming a trifle paranoid about this trouble we're having on the
show. While I concede" switch to reasonconcession-making tone "it's debatable
whether Holocosmic can be said to have afforded us maximal coin our attempts
to eliminate the interference fouling up our transmissions, it's something
else altogether to associate that with failures of our internal comweb here at
the Etchmark." Back to stern, fatherly manner, though he was only three years
Flamen's senior: the standard role of the knowledgeable worldly manager
protecting the admirably idealistic star of the show from his own lack of
cynicism.
"So I suggest," he concluded, "you authorize me to call in an outside expert
to substantiate these suspicions of yours. They're far too grave to be allowed
to pass unchallenged."
Flamen stared at him incredulously. Outside expert? Had Prior taken leave of
his senses? What
"outside excould outfox Holocosmic's own computers what court could anyone
persuade to believe in the fantastic notion of a major network sabotaging its
own transmisOnly one explanation occurred to him for Prior's extraordinary
behavior, and before he had time to think it over the pressure of
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/D...runner,%20John%20-%20The%20Jag
ged%20Orbit.txt (18 of 153) [2/1/2004 3:07:22 PM]
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/John%20Brunner/Brunner,%20
John%20-%20The%20Jagged%20Orbit.txt anger had driven him to blurt it out.
"What happened to put you on Holocosmic's side all of a sudden? Did one of the
brass take you out of bugrange and make you a proposition? No matter what kind
of a minefield I'm driven into, I
can't jump clear! I have bugs keeping watch on my bugs!"
He was distantly aware that the look on Prior's face had shifted from smugness
to pure horror, but he plunged on anyway. "And if I could afford bugging to
that standard, you're the first person I'd sic 'em on! Not wanting to go visit
your own sister when she's in the hospital!" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]