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"Indeed. And in spite of my reservations, you performed admirably. Warlock, of
course, was in overall charge of your end, and Raven was enlisted when you
inevitably fled. They brought you to Chen, who put enough pressure on you to
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show your vulnerability. Then, of course, you, too, were shipped off to
Melchior so that the team could be assembled with others already there. Our
man coordinating that end was able to add the one you called the Vulture,
without which you would not have had a prayer of doing what you did in our
lifetimes. He also was able to make certain that everyone got the information
they needed, and ensure that the ship you stole and whose core you would have
to use would be the one we modified just for that purpose. Even so, it wasn't
all that easy."
"Your man on Melchior," Hawks said dryly. "Nagy."
"Yes. He was then able to get away with the Melchior escape ship and
eventually join your band, the better to steer you to those in the freebooter
camp who could supply what else you needed. Savaphoong in particular, since he
had been instrumental in supplying illicit murylium to Melchior and thus to us
for some years and we knew you'd need all you could get. Naturally he was good
enough to bring Doctor
Clayben along, since only Clayben could access the enormous backup data banks
in the ship to give you the technology, history, and whatever other
information you would need."
"That's why all that information was in Star Eagle'sdata banks, too. About the
founders and the rest. You put it there."
"Yes. And much more."
Hawks gave a slight laugh. "And now the joke's on you. We brought the rings to
you, but you're the one caught short; you don't know what I was recruited to
find out. You'll die if you try to get off here without using the rings, and
you'll die if you attempt to use them."
"Perhaps," responded Lazlo Chen. "We have no intention of getting off or not
using them, though. You never have appreciated just what is down there, Hawks.
You are not the right personality type to understand or appreciate it. We gave
you only part of the rings' documentation, not all of it. There's godhood down
there, Hawks, and we are the kind of people best capable of appreciating and
using and understanding it. Immortality and near-infinite power!"
"Good people died for those rings, Chen! Others gave up their form, their ties
to their native lands!"
Chen shrugged. "Good people always fight the battles and carry the banner of
ideals to fuel their courage," he said. "You are the historian. You must know
that. But, somehow, it is always people like me who wind up with the fruits.
It is the way of humanity."
"You haven't won yet. There are things even your massive ego hasn't figured
out. Nagy wasn't just a double agent, he was at least a triple. There is
another player in this game."
Chen grinned. "Perhaps. But, Hawks I have the rings and I am here. What
difference does it make who else was playing?" He turned to Clayben. "What
about it, Doctor? Loyalty was never your strong suit when it wasn't to your
advantage."
Isaac Clayben looked at him. "Hawks is right. There is something bigger than
our petty games going on here. Still, this will not wait forever. Untie me,
Chen. Fortwenty percent of whatever's down there, I will open this thing up."
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Hawks was more disappointed than surprised, even after all this time. It was
at the crux of the differences between him and his people and the others,
Ixtapa not withstanding. When honor and loyalty became burdens, you deserved
to be ruled by a machine.
Song Hua came over and untied Clayben. "No tricks," he warned.
Clayben allowed himself to be helped up, then rubbed his arms to restore
circulation. "No, no tricks.
You have the weapons, anyway. No matter what cost, that machine must be reset.
Sorry, Hawks."
"You have the combination?" Ixtapa asked the scientist.
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Clayben nodded. "It is true that you couldn't ever get it from Hawks, but
implanted the mindprinting
I
block. It is based upon an ancient Christmas song and is sung as a set of
descenders based on the number of birds on the face of each ring. It starts
with the five circles and follows the simplest progression five, four, three,
two, one."
Mago Zwa finished pounding in a piton and making a rope secure. "Good thing we
don't need much more," he noted. "We're damned near out of rope. I didn't want
to use these old, rusted pitons, though.
You can't be sure they'd hold."
Hawks watched with mixed horror and fascination as they worked, trying to
think of what to do. The ropes that tied him were solid, fixed. These men knew
what they were doing. He thought about calling in that strike from above as he
had threatened. The trouble was, it would also certainly kill them all if
Master System did not respond in kind. The price of that was to keep the
repulsive system intact, after all their work. It was aperversion for these
men to get it, but did he have the right to stop them if there was no
alternative?
Song Hua was already going down the rope. Lazlo Chen turned and looked at
Hawks and the others.
"Don't try contacting anyone with your inevitable hidden communications," he
warned. "It will not work in any event: our own men followed us and are even
now certainly on the plateau and I can't even reach them with mine. Besides,
it would do you no good. Song Hua personally oversaw the reprogramming of your
ship's pilot. It can do nothing inimical to the interests of the Presidium.
It's in its core." He shrugged.
"Don't worry. We could have just killed you all, but we will be generous to
those who got us here. We are not totally without humanity. In fact, we are
what humanity is all about."
Perhaps,Hawks thought morosely.
Perhaps he is right. The dictators always seized the power and the rhetoric
from the idealists in history, and these types of men were precisely why
Master System was constructed in the first place. It was supposed to save us
from them, the men who would destroy all humanity and even themselves rather
than relinquish control.
They were all down there now, out of sight. Butar Killomen was wriggling,
snakelike in her rope cocoon, trying to move or get free. "I am very
flexible," she told Hawks in a low tone. "I may be able to get out of this."
"Try," he urged, "but I think it's too late. I just wish I could see what was
going on down there."
Voices came up from far below, faint, distant, but distinct.
"Look at this!" someone, probably Ixtapa, said.
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"To business! We've wasted enough time!" came the unmistakable and
out-of-breath tones of Lazlo
Chen. "Check your rings and go to your stations!"
"Are you sure about this sequence, Clayben?" Song Hua asked, perhaps a bit
nervously.
"Hawks thinks so and it makes sense to me. Look at these brittle corpses! It's
my neck, too, you know.
Do you think I could do this if I had doubts?"
"Look at the faces!" Mago Zwa exclaimed. "They they're alive!"
"Robots! Constructs!" Clayben snapped. "Forget them! Here! Everyone set? I've
got the fifth ring. Insert them just like the picture tells you. Now, see in!
Look! The damned panel lit up! I'm right! Nobody make any mistakes now,
though, or we're fried!"
"Inserting number four!" called Zwa. "Those faces! Allah give me strength!
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There!"
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