JК
The Stars My Destination ( Tiger! Tiger! ) :: Bester Alfred
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«D'you think it would take him this long to get you? Saul Dagenham?»
«But why didn't you tell him? After the way I ran out on you . . .»
«Because I don't want him going to hell with you. I'm not talking about 'Vorga.' I mean something else. PyrE. That's why they hunted you. That's what they're after. Twenty pounds of PyrE.»
«What's that?»
«When you got the safe open was there a small box in it? Made of ILl Inert Lead Isomer?»
«Yes.»
«What was inside the ILl box?»
«Twenty slugs that looked like compressed iodine crystals.»
«What did you do with the slugs?»
«Sent two out for analysis. No one could find out what they are. I'm trying to run an analysis on a third in my lab . . . when I'm not clowning for the public.»
«Oh, you are, are you? Why?»
«I'm growing up, Jiz,» Foyle said gently. «It didn't take much to figure out that was what Presteign and Dagenham were after.»
«Where have you got the rest of the slugs?»
«In a safe place.»
«They're not safe. They can't ever be safe. I don't know what PyrE is, but I know it's the road to hell, and I don't want Saul walking it.»
«You love him that much?»
«I respect him that much. He's the first man that ever showed me an excuse for the double standard.»
«Jiz, what is PyrE? You know.»
«I've guessed. I've pieced together the hints I've heard. I've got an idea. And I could tell you, Gully, but I won't.» The fury in her face was luminous. «I'm running out on you, this time. I'm leaving you to hang helpless in the dark. See what it feels like, boy! Enjoy!»
She broke away from him and swept across the ballroom floor. At that moment the first bombs fell.
They came in like meteor swarms; not so many, but far more deadly. They came in on the morning quadrant, that quarter of the globe in darkness from midnight to dawn. They collided head on with the forward side of the earth in its revolution around the sun. They had been traveling a distance of four hundred million miles.
Their excessive speed was matched by the rapidity of the Terran defense computors which traced and intercepted these New Year gifts from the Outer Satellites within the space of micro-seconds. A multitude of fierce new stars prickled in the sky and vanished; they were bombs detected and detonated five hundred miles above their target.
But so narrow was the margin between speed of defense and speed of attack that many got through.
«D'you think it would take him this long to get you? Saul Dagenham?»
«But why didn't you tell him? After the way I ran out on you . . .»
«Because I don't want him going to hell with you. I'm not talking about 'Vorga.' I mean something else. PyrE. That's why they hunted you. That's what they're after. Twenty pounds of PyrE.»
«What's that?»
«When you got the safe open was there a small box in it? Made of ILl Inert Lead Isomer?»
«Yes.»
«What was inside the ILl box?»
«Twenty slugs that looked like compressed iodine crystals.»
«What did you do with the slugs?»
«Sent two out for analysis. No one could find out what they are. I'm trying to run an analysis on a third in my lab . . . when I'm not clowning for the public.»
«Oh, you are, are you? Why?»
«I'm growing up, Jiz,» Foyle said gently. «It didn't take much to figure out that was what Presteign and Dagenham were after.»
«Where have you got the rest of the slugs?»
«In a safe place.»
«They're not safe. They can't ever be safe. I don't know what PyrE is, but I know it's the road to hell, and I don't want Saul walking it.»
«You love him that much?»
«I respect him that much. He's the first man that ever showed me an excuse for the double standard.»
«Jiz, what is PyrE? You know.»
«I've guessed. I've pieced together the hints I've heard. I've got an idea. And I could tell you, Gully, but I won't.» The fury in her face was luminous. «I'm running out on you, this time. I'm leaving you to hang helpless in the dark. See what it feels like, boy! Enjoy!»
She broke away from him and swept across the ballroom floor. At that moment the first bombs fell.
They came in like meteor swarms; not so many, but far more deadly. They came in on the morning quadrant, that quarter of the globe in darkness from midnight to dawn. They collided head on with the forward side of the earth in its revolution around the sun. They had been traveling a distance of four hundred million miles.
Their excessive speed was matched by the rapidity of the Terran defense computors which traced and intercepted these New Year gifts from the Outer Satellites within the space of micro-seconds. A multitude of fierce new stars prickled in the sky and vanished; they were bombs detected and detonated five hundred miles above their target.
But so narrow was the margin between speed of defense and speed of attack that many got through.