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If she's a prisoner, would they let her out here to watch us land? Nobody seems to be guarding her, or even looking in
her direction. Could she be one of them?
He reached the top step, and she was standing there.
"David?"
"Evelyn," he said.
"Itis you!"
He reached out his hand and she took it, stepped next to him, and slid her arm around his waist. Up ahead of them,
neither Bahjat nor Hamoud saw what they were doing.
"What's happened to you? How are you?" Evelyn asked. David said, "I was going to ask you the same thing. Are you
... on their side?"
"A bit," she replied. "I was actually trying to get to you. How did you get away from Island One? What have you
been up to all these weeks?"
He laughed. "Believe it or not, I was looking for you."
She clung closer to him and smiled happily. "Tell me all about it."
Nodding, he answered, "It's a long story."And there are parts of it that I can't tell you, he realized.
Looking up at the laboratory building, David saw that it
BEN BOVA " 376
was a low, ground-hugging, two-story structure. Strictly efficient, with no decorations marring its sleek,
window-walled sides. Flat roof with a yellow windsock drooping from a short mast.Helicopter pad up there, David
concluded.
Evelyn chattered about Hamoud and the worldwide PRU organization as the group went inside the building and
walked into the large, open central area where long cafeteria tables were set up in perfect rows. Stainless-steel counters
and serving trays, hot plates, coffeemakers, and grills stood off to one end of the big, two-story-high area. The entire
far wall was a window that looked out on the drizzling gray landscape of bare trees and a nearly empty parking lot.
Leo and Hamoud stood off in one corner with Bahjat between them. The huge-black man made the swarthy Arab look
stunted, and Bahjat looked like a waif beside them. It quickly became apparent that the two men didn't agree on
something or other.
Power struggle?David asked himself as he sat at one of the tables. Evelyn went off and came back a moment later with
stale sandwiches and tepid, synthetic coffee. David ate gratefully, but he kept his attention on Leo and the Arab.
"The Arab ... he's the one they call Tiger?"
"Yes," Evelyn said. "His real name is Hamoud, and he's Kurdish, not Arab."
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Leo's been the boss in this area, but Hamoud is higher in whatever internal organization the PRU has,David
thought.He thinks he's the boss.
"Be careful of him," Evelyn said in a low voice. "He enjoys killing."
David nodded, then turned and counted the others sitting or lounging on their feet in the cafeteria area.Looks like
more of Hamoud's people here than Leo's. It's going to be an interesting time.
Then he noticed that Bahjat had started to do the talking. She spoke more and more, and both men lapsed into silence.
Despite himself, David grinned.She's going to be the
COLONY " 377
boss, after all. I'll be damned.Somehow, he wasn't surprised.
Their meeting finally broke up as David munched the soggy sandwiches. Bahjat went off with Hamoud, and David felt
his innards burning. But Leo was heading for him like a brooding black mountain looming closer and closer.
"Okay, spaceman, we gonna find you a safe place to stash your ass."
Evelyn got to her feet beside David. "I'll see you later," she said.
David nodded and followed Leo.
Not so bad,David decided after a shower and shave.Some people on Earth live pretty well.
The laboratory's upper floor included a few one-room apartments. Whom they had been built for, or why, was a
mystery to David. But they were comfortable and fully furnished, with a bathroom full of soaps and shaving gear, a
tiny refrigerator/freezer stocked with frozen foods, a microwave cooker, and even a TV set.
A knock sounded at his door. He crossed the carpeted room in four strides and grasped the doorknob. It wouldn't
turn.Locked from the outside.
"Who is it?" David called.
"Evelyn."
' 'The door's locked.''
A key scraped in the lock and the door swung open. David saw that an Arabic-looking youth held the key. And a
carbine. Evelyn was empty-handed.
David reached for his shirt, took it off the bed where he had dropped it, and pulled it on.
Evelyn smiled at him. "I thought you'd want to come down to the cafeteria for dinner. Some of the local people just
brought in a whole carload of pizza and beer."
Tucking the shirt inside his pants, David said, "Would you rather eat here? There's food in the freezer. We'd have
some privacy."
The guard slammed the door shut without waiting for Evelyn's answer. They heard the rattling of the lock.
She laughed. "I suppose that decides the matter." She
BEN BOVA " 378
was wearing a simple light green dress that showed, off her coloring very well. She watched David carefully, as if
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seeing him for the first time.
"You look more like your old self," she said.
Instinctively, he put a hand to his chin. "Oh, you mean ... I shaved."
"And your skin and hair are back to their old colors, almost."
' 'I washed off the tint. No need for a disguise now, I guess."
"You've lost weight, though. You look ... harder."
"Yes, I suppose I do." He gestured toward a sling-back chair near the window. "Sit down and enjoy the sunset while I
pop something into the cooker."
Going toward the chair, Evelyn said, "This is like old times up in Island One."
"Old times," David echoed.
"A lot has happened since then," Evelyn said.
"Damned right," he agreed fervently.
Turning back toward him, Evelyn said, "Tell me about it. I want to hear all of it."
"Sure," he said, trying to sort out in his mind how much he actually could tell her. Stalling for time, he asked, "But tell
me, how did the PRU arrange to make this research laboratory its local headquarters? How well organized are these
people? What are they planning to do with us?"
Evelyn sank back into the chair. "I don't know what Hamoud's going to do next. I doubt that he knows himself. Except
that it will have to be something bigger, more spectacular, than Leo's urban offensive."
"Bloodier, you mean," David said from the tiny kitchen alcove.
"Most likely," Evelyn said. "He's in love with headlines, Hamoud is, and he feels that Leo and Scheherazade have had
all the publicity. He wants his share."
"God help us."
"Exactly. He's a born killer."
"This research lab it seems to be part of Leo's setup."
"It is," Evelyn replied. "This laboratory has been supplying him with drugs that he needs."
COLONY " 379
"Narcotics?"
She shook her head. "No. Hormones, steroids. I don't know the chemistry, but apparently he's been using them since
his college days to maintain his size and strength. Now he needs them just to live. He'll collapse without them."
"So that's why we're here," David said.
"But there's a fly in the soup. The laboratory has been closed down. And all the drugs that Leo needs have been
carefully removed from here. The place has been stripped of everything that Leo needs deliberately."
David slid two frozen dinners into the microwave cooker and let the door slam shut.
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"He's been tricked," he said.
Evelyn nodded. "He's been assassinated. Without those chemicals, he'll die."
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Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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