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together. He forgets that he doesn't understand. Maybe he's improving. Don't you think so? Maybe the next time we come out he'll be a little clearer. Wouldn't that be good? Glen and Alia, won't you let go for poor Willy? And Alia Narova broke the flashing exchange with an angry sob. "Willy's upset!" she cried. "He won't answer me." With an effort, Tropile expelled the false memories and the pseudo-voices. "Stop a minute, everybody!" he shouted. "If you're so worried about what Willy Page 74 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html wants, let's give him a chance to speak for himself." The Snowflake seven-eighths of it fell si- lent. It was the turn of the remaining one-eighth to speak. It didn't do so, however. Uncertainly, Alia Narova quavered, "Willy?" No answer. "He feels funny," said Spyros Gulbenkian. Then everybody knew that Willy felt funny, because the motionless body jerked into violent motion. "What's he doing?" Tropile cried. "Willy! Cut it out! The way you're wriggling around you could hurt something!" The suddenly thrashing, sinuously writhing body of Willy became motionless again. Then, member by member, systematically it moved a finger at a time, a toe, an arm, like the owner of a new car trying out its controls. "My God," breathed Mercedes van Dellen, "it's not Willy, is it?" The voice of Willy said gently, "No. I have borrowed Willy to tell you that you must do something quite soon." "Willy!" Mercedes screamed. Willy repeated, "No, not Willy. I'm sorry. I had to kill him, so to speak. He won't be back. I'm what your friend called 'the green boy with all the arms.' " "Told you so," said Kim Seong. "Yes, madam," said Willy. "We had your sort in my world, too. It was an interesting world and a pleasant one, at least until we started running it for the benefit of the machines, and then let the machines start running it for their own benefit." "How can you talk our language?" Corso Navarone asked faintly. Wistfully Willy said, "We used to have more than two hundred languages, some good for one thing, some good for another. We were expected to know them all. One more what does it matter? We were a clever race. Oh, yes, we were clever! I have thought for some time that you would be interested to know how clever, ever since I first noticed you observing us." Mercedes whimpered. "You noticed? Did did the Pyramids also notice?" "Wait one moment, please," said Willy's voice. There was a lengthy silence. Then Willy's voice said regretfully, "That is something else I would like to talk to you about at some length: What, exactly, do Pyramids 'notice?' But there is something you may think more immediate. You made a mistake when you broke into the Polar Library. You weren't strong enough to do that yet. Of course, you couldn't have been expected to know." Tropile, awe and shock to one side, had had more than enough of veiled hints and subtle warnings. "So?" he growled. "So you touched off trouble when you holed through to the Library," Willy said apologetically. "The Pyramids, ah " It broke off for a moment, then resumed with an almost audible equivalent of a shrug. "Let's say, they 'noticed,' though that is quite inexact. At any rate, the Omniverters excuse me, what you call the Pyramids have been waiting to take action for the arrival of the one they keep on your planet. It has arrived. All eight of them are now headed for this tank of yours, with, I believe, the intention of doing a thorough job of destroying it. I wish you well. You are not an unattractive race." Tropile gritted his teeth; there was nothing veiled or subtle about that; it was all too understandable. "Will you tell us what to do?" he demanded. "I can't," it said. "I'm dead." So perhaps it had not been all that understandable after all. 16 There was, of course, no longer any question of personal wishes. Tropile and Alia Narova swiftly slid back into the Snowflake. If they allowed themselves Page 75 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html any personal thoughts at that moment, it was only a poignant regret for what might have been. Not an unusual one, in the history of the human race. Their survival was at stake. As good men and women had all through the history of Earth, sometimes in a good cause and sometimes not (though seldom did anyone think it not), they sadly said good-by to reverence for all life, to freedom of speech, to habeas corpus and to the all-too-alienable right to wear striped socks when they chose. They joined the Army. They were not, perhaps, a very prepossessing Army, but that didn't matter much; they were definitely at war. They were one significant item in the table of forces deployed on and in the binary planet. There were four altogether: 1. The Snowflake itself (somewhat below strength because one of its members was unavoidably handicapped, being dead.) 2. The other human beings at large somewhere within the planet the "mice." And, on the other side of the battle line: 3. The machines and systems of the Pyramids. 4. The Pyramids themselves. Few human generals would willingly have sought battle when they were so outmatched. The Snowflake didn't seek it either, but the battle was coming nearer to them all the time. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |