[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
than any of the others, so that it afforded ample legroom. It was interesting,
Bleys thought, that none of them seemed concerned about the fact that they
would be look-ing up to him. It argued an unconscious sureness of them-selves.
"And this," Half-Thunder was saying, stopping beside the fifth person, "is
Iban. For personal reasons she uses only one of her names. I'm sure you'll
understand. Iban is Systems Institute."
They were all a little too sure of themselves in this sit-uation, Bleys
thought. It would do no harm to jolt the sit-uation a little and see what the
results would be.
"Honored," said Bleys, and fired his first gun of the meeting in the form of a
question. "Very honored to meet you, Iban. What are your other names?"
Neither Iban herself nor the others gave any large or ob-vious signs of
disturbance. But the question was calculat-
edly impolite, and Bleys was aware of a slight, but general, stiffening around
the circle.
Iban, however, looked back at him without a change of expression on her
narrow-boned face under very black hair. She was wearing a simple, almost
austere dress of deep-ocean blue.
"As Half-Thunder told you," she said calmly, "my other names are personal. For
your information, Iban is a tribal name for the Sea-Dyaks of Old Earth."
Strangely enough, while the name "Sea-Dyaks" rang a faint bell in Bleys' mind,
he found he knew nothing in de-tail about that particular people, tribe, or
ethnic group. But he was sure that they had been from the oriental area of New
Earth and Iban, like Toni, did not look oriental. She was slight-boned and not
so much pretty as beautiful, in a knife-like sort of way. She looked almost as
ready to bite as speak.
"Thank you," said Bleys with a smile. "It's kind of you to explain."
"Will you sit down, Bleys Ahrens?" said Half-Thunder, now, just behind him.
"We have a float for you here. As it happens, one of our number was unable to
be here to-day. I hope it's adjusted to your comfort."
Bleys turned. It was possible, but not likely, that they would have had a
chair identical with all the rest made for him, hastily, in order to give him
the impression that he was merely filling the seat of an absent member. He
stepped back and sat down. The seat was in fact just the exact height off the
floor so that his legs were comfort-able; and the interior of the chair,
between its arms and back which was adjustable in any case had been expanded
to accommodate his longer limbs and body.
"Well now," said Half-Thunder, who had reseated him-self in his own float,
"you're comfortable?"
"Very," said Bleys.
"Then, if you'll excuse me for a second," said Half-Thunder, "we'll say
nothing for a moment while I set up a shield."
He touched a stud on his wristpad, and a blue bubble
began to grow from the arm of his chair, expanding until it surrounded all of
them right to the walls of the room and the entrance to the balcony.
Having reached the walls, the bubble stopped growing. It was identical in
appearance with the security bubble Dahno had produced. Either Dahno had been
lied to, or else one of the unbreakable rules necessary to Newtonian society
was not all that unbreakable where the Council was concerned. Half-Thunder
took his hand from the wristpad.
"A security device," he said to Bleys. "We want to make sure that none of the
Council's deliberations are ever made public; and it's impossible for anyone
to spy through this particular shield."
"Sensible," said Bleys.
He gazed about at them, trying to put his finger on the common quality among
them that was alerting him.
Their faces were perfectly calm; and, with the. exception of Lemair's,
Page 146
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
politely friendly, but otherwise revealing no information about their inner
attitudes or thoughts. None of them showed any signs of tension or animosity.
None-theless, there was that common element in them all that had triggered all
his defensive instinct. He had not felt like this before, not even facing the
CEO Club on New Earth or even facing Pieter DeNiles. They were like DeNiles,
but much more actively inimical.
It was not so much that quality in them that concerned Bleys right now. He had
expected sooner or later to meet up with people like this, even a group like
this, organized and united in their attitude toward him. What was concern-ing
him was the quality in them that was signaling itself to him through one of
his senses. But he had heard nothing in any voice, no sign of tension, nothing
in the way they spoke or their appearances
Then it came to him. It was in the way they all looked back at him. Steady and
all curiously alike. Their eyes of all colors from the very dark of Iban's to
the ice-blue of Georges Lemair but all, all those eyes examined him in the
same way.
They weighed and measured him. They sliced him up into small transparent
slices to be examined on the screen of a microscopic camera in the mind of
each. He had not moved them in the slightest degree by his deliberate
impo-liteness to Iban. They were as they obviously had been from the moment he
had entered the room remote, delib-erative, and absolutely sure of themselves.
"Have you seen our Symphonie des Flambeaux, Bleys Ahrens?" asked the motherly
Din Su.
Bleys looked at her agreeably. But, as she spoke, his mind was racing. The
question itself was innocuous. The Symphonie des Flambeaux was indeed
considered one of the several Wonders of the Worlds even including Old Earth.
Until the claim became ridiculous in the last cen-tury, Newtonians had been in
the habit of insisting that the Symphonie des Flambeaux ranked first among all
such wonders, ahead even of the Final Encyclopedia.
The breath of the air through the partly open door to the balcony cooled the
side of Bleys' face that was toward it. Din Su's question, apparently harmless
as it was, was still also the opening gambit of the Council's talk with him,
and merited study as much as a Queen's-pawn to Queen's-pawn-four opening in a
chess game between master play-ers. The piece moved was one of little power,
the move could be simply an automatic one; but in the hands of such a player
it could also indicate a dangerous pattern of at-tack.
If so, it was a pattern Bleys must deduce, make plans to oppose and be ready
to meet.
CHAPTER
28
"Not yet, I'm afraid," Bleys said. "As you probably know, I just got here. I
haven't had time. But I'll be seeing it tomorrow. I wouldn't want to miss
seeing at least one performance."
"So," said the light tenor of Georges Lemair. The chem-ist himself had not
stirred, or the expression of his face al-tered. "Sight-seeing as well as
work is that the kind of trip it is?"
Bleys looked at him pleasantly.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]