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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] from tension, it seemed to take three or four attempts to place each of the next three crystals. Lars was muttering imprecations by the time Killashandra could test the third one. No sooner had she struck the crystal than the door panel slid open and the aperture was filled by Trag's bulky figure. "Trag, I bless your timely arrival. We're both fingers and thumbs trying to set this manual. A fresh hand and a sane mind will work wonders!" Trag gave her a nod of his head and stepped inside, giving Lars a cursory glance before his attention was completely taken by a critical appraisal of their endeavors. Killashandra ignored the entrance of Ampris, Torkes, Thyrol, and Mirbethan, who filed slowly into the room in Trag's wake. Trag picked up the tuning hammer and struck each of the crystals. Trag merely nodded his head. Lars made a noise of protest but Killashandra shot him a warning glance. The fact that Trag had no comments to make was all the approval she required, knowing better than to expect overt praise from him. For a very fleeting moment, however, she was seized with a totally irrational desire to throw her arms about Trag's neck, a notion which she quickly suppressed without revealing it by so much as a grin. Elder Torkes, resembling the scavenger bird more faithfully than ever, seemed about to step forward, then, apparently, changed his mind as if aware of how Trag's bulk diminished his stature to insignificance. "You have only just arrived, Guildmember, and as it is now midday, refreshment has been prepared for you." Torkes began with scant courtesy. Trag dismissed the offer. "You gave the Guild to understand the matter was of the most urgent." "We need to eat," Killashandra said tartly. "Just send us in some food, please, someone," and she picked up more brackets as Trag removed the next Page 124 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html crystal from its bed of plasfoam. "We might even finish this today if given the chance to work without interruption." "Not quite." Trag amended in his deliberate fashion as he held the crystal up for inspection in the ceiling light. Satisfied he lowered it, his gaze traveling beyond to the fascinated observers. "If you please?" And he extended his hand toward the door. Killashandra, her eyes on Lars's blank face, had to fight not to chortle at the aura of dismay, fury, and shock emanating from the four high ranking Optherians. But her hands were free of both sweat and tremble and, with Lars carefully tightening the matching bracket, they were ready to fasten it the moment Trag inserted the crystal in place. The door panel whooshed over the rectangle of sunlight. Killashandra tightened her bracket just as Lars finished his. Trag took up his hammer for the ceremonial tap and the D, mellow and clear, broke the silence of the room. "Just two more, Trag and I believe we'll have something to show you," Killashandra said, reaching for more brackets. "This is Lars Dahl." "A lover posing as a bodyguard! A young man with highly suspicious credentials," Trag said bluntly, his hooded stare fixed on Lars. Killashandra held up a hand to restrain any understandable outburst from Lars but he only smiled, inclining his head in brief acknowledgment of the description. "According to Elder Ampris or Torkes?" Killashandra asked, grinning at Trag as she faced him squarely. Trag focused his attention on her. Had she not been so positive of her own righteousness, she would have been hard pressed to maintain her composure beneath that basilisk stare. "I will hear your explanation, then, for I warn you, Killashandra Ree, the Guild looks with disfavor on a member who abrogates her contractual obligations for whatever personal reasons obtain . . ." Killashandra stared at Trag incredulously. "I was given two assignments here, Trag, by you -- " "The secondary assignment was considerably less important than the primary -- " Trag's big hand indicated the unfinished installation. "The two are more closely linked than you or Lanzecki imagined when the Guild accepted that contract. But then abduction ought not to be a high-risk-factor on well-ordered, conservative secure Optheria. Right? Ever aware of my primary obligation," Killashandra allowed some of her outrage to color her voice, "I swam dangerous channels from one island to another in order to escape the one I was dumped on. Confounding all parties and managing thus to return to my primary contractual obligation." Trag merely raised his eyebrows. "Tell me, Trag, what is your opinion of subliminal conditioning?" Trag's bleak eyes widened fractionally. "The Council of the Federated Sentient Planets has declared any form of subliminal projection morally criminal and punishable by expulsion from the Federation." "Then if I were an Elder," Lars said in a quiet, faintly amused tone, "I wouldn't be so quick to accuse anyone else of having highly suspicious credentials." "If you will assist us to install the next two crystals, Trag, I believe we may be able to prove our allegation," Killashandra said. "If you cannot prove this allegation, Killashandra Ree, you are liable to severe discipline and censure." "Then isn't it convenient that I'm right?" "Guildmember, I have been subjected to subliminal conditioning," Lars said, as if he sensed her minute uncertainty. Trag turned his penetrating stare on the islander. "The insidiousness of subliminal conditioning, Lars Dahl, is that the victim is totally unaware of the bombardment." Page 125 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "Only if he is unprepared, Guildmember. My father, late an agent of the Federated Council, was able to safeguard me, and other friends, against electronically induced subliminals. Which, I might add, are particularly adaptable to the heavy emotional experience of the sensory organ." "Late an agent?" Killashandra fancied she saw some diminution of Trag's intractability. "Trapped here by the same restraint which keeps Optherians from competing in galactic enterprise," Lars replied. "Contact with the Federated Council has only just been reestablished after nearly thirty years -- " She and Trag heard the minute sound at the same instant and assumed suitable poses of interrupted labor when the door panel slid open. Mirbethan escorted the lunch table which the security guard wheeled in. "If you'll just leave it there, Mirbethan," Killashandra gestured with a hand full of brackets while Trag and Lars bent over an already sited crystal, "we'll take a break shortly." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |