[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Down below in the floral crater, underneath a bunch of green bananas, sat the
two Japanese gene-doctors playing some game using ivory pieces marked with
squiggles. They looked philosophical.
They getting enough exercise? They ever work out on the bars?
The guard shook his head. But they do some sort of slow dance routine every
morning. For an hour or two.
You d better watch that, advised Maccoby. That s Chinese boxing. It s a
martial art. You speed that dance up, and you become a lethal weapon.
The guard patted his pistol, and smiled. rest of the time, they sit and
meditate. Or play games. Or
Listen, boy: all those Oriental games are strategy games. That s how they
plan battles.
We never have to go in. They do their own gardening.
You d better remember: four chimps once escaped from here.
Everything s under control, McKinnon said soothingly. You can rely on me.
Maccoby stared at his former partner, wondering whether this was a broad hint.
He nodded and deleted his mental note about the nourishment of alligators.
There were times when a commander-in-chief ought
file:///C|/3278%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Ian%20Watson%20-%20Converts
.html (156 of 165) [1/17/2005 6:52:02 PM]
Page 112
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Converts to be flexible.
You want to speak to them, boss?
Speak? Naw & People talk too much. The word, from now on, is hush. Strength
is silence.
The word, actually, was Egnach ; but Reuben couldn t pronounce it, except
when he was asleep.
Down in the Chimporium, the only sound was the faint click of a mah-jong tile.
This was about the three hundred and fiftieth game that Ohira and Shiba had
played.
|
Go to Contents
|
Chapter 34
Still further away, in a curtained motel bedroom, a suitcase of money lay open
on a bed. Mentamorpha eyed it.
I
am going to be an actress, she said defiantly. That s final.
You mean, find somebody real who fits the part, and copy them? That isn t
acting. That s cheating.
Anyhow, what happens if you get to audition for a murderess? Or somebody
haunted by infinite evil? Or the Queen of Atlantis? Where are you going to
find one of those walking down the streets?
Prote wore the middle-aged body of a bank manager from a hundred miles back
along their route. He ought to have changed it by now, but they had left the
previous city in rather a hurry, so he was still stuck in the same male flesh.
Mentamorpha tossed her head. That was dumb thinking on my part. I don t need
a real-life prototype to copy. All I need to do is copy the mind of a classy
actress then
I ll be an actress too.
Sure, then you ll have glossy photos of you stuck up everywhere. You may be
the brains of this outfit, honey, but you re way off track on that one.
Publicity is the last thing we
Prote parted the curtains slightly again.
Anyway, it s all irrelevant. There s a blue Ford parked over there. I ve seen
it before. Front wing s buckled. And I ve seen the guy at the wheel. He was in
Berryford. He s been sitting watching for twenty minutes.
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.html (157 of 165) [1/17/2005 6:52:02 PM]
Converts
A cop?
Don t think so. He was just watching us in Berryford, too. He followed us on.
He doesn t care if we play
Bonnie and Clyde, just so long as he can stick to us.
Government agent?
Hardly! It s got to be someone hired by the new Farm management, right? Now
that I ve spotted him, we can shake him. Here s where he loses the scent. But
we ll have to act right away. Otherwise a back-up team could be on the way.
You are telling me the truth? You aren t just trying to turn me off my acting
career?
Copy my mind. See for yourself.
I don t want to copy your mind. You know, if I did that we couldn t stick
together. Or if you copied my body, Prote. It would be a sort of violation.
I m telling you the truth all right! And now I m slipping out the back way,
to find a woman to copy.
Any damn excuse! Mentamorpha stared disconsolately at the unslept-in bed.
And here was me thinking we were going to have a little fun, while you re in
that body. I m not a fucking dyke, you know. I m sick of sleeping with one
damn female after another!
Page 113
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Honey, I promise you, once we re far enough away I ll find some really neat
man to copy. You can pick him out yourself. I ll give you a fun weekend.
A fun fortnight
.
A week.
Ten days.
No, damn it, a week.
Just get packed, will you? I ll rent us a new wagon. We ll drive to the
nearest airfield and hire a private plane. We can afford it. Then we ll hop
jets for a while. That ll shake our bloodhound for the next year or so. I
guess it was plain bad luck him finding us. But it could be our fault, a bit.
We haven t been looking over our shoulders enough. We ve been moving too
slowly. We ll pull a few big jobs then head abroad.
How about the South of France?
file:///C|/3278%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Ian%20Watson%20-%20Converts
.html (158 of 165) [1/17/2005 6:52:02 PM]
Converts
Cannes!
No, not the Cannes Film Festival. I was thinking more of Monte Carlo. We
could be a winning combination. Then we ll travel right round the world.
Wouldn t you like to be able to think in Hindi and
Chinese? Wouldn t you love to have Indians and South Sea Islanders tumbling in
the sheets with you?
Hey, that sounds interesting.
And if we re right round the other side of the Earth, we won t have this
nagging sense of old Thelma plucking at us. The scene they re in, I don t want
to know about, however neat it seems to them. We ll put a bit more inverse
square law between us and the Farm.
Couldn t it be Thelma who sent that man?
What, Thelma co-operate with Robina? You know our tribe are all bottled up.
Thelma s the genie with the light brown hair. She s stuck in a bottle. And
they re all very happy in it, thank you. Look, I ll be back in an hour. You be
ready, hmm?
Ready for another woman.
I ll copy an old woman this time. I ll be a mother to you. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl ocenkijessi.opx.pl
Down below in the floral crater, underneath a bunch of green bananas, sat the
two Japanese gene-doctors playing some game using ivory pieces marked with
squiggles. They looked philosophical.
They getting enough exercise? They ever work out on the bars?
The guard shook his head. But they do some sort of slow dance routine every
morning. For an hour or two.
You d better watch that, advised Maccoby. That s Chinese boxing. It s a
martial art. You speed that dance up, and you become a lethal weapon.
The guard patted his pistol, and smiled. rest of the time, they sit and
meditate. Or play games. Or
Listen, boy: all those Oriental games are strategy games. That s how they
plan battles.
We never have to go in. They do their own gardening.
You d better remember: four chimps once escaped from here.
Everything s under control, McKinnon said soothingly. You can rely on me.
Maccoby stared at his former partner, wondering whether this was a broad hint.
He nodded and deleted his mental note about the nourishment of alligators.
There were times when a commander-in-chief ought
file:///C|/3278%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Ian%20Watson%20-%20Converts
.html (156 of 165) [1/17/2005 6:52:02 PM]
Page 112
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Converts to be flexible.
You want to speak to them, boss?
Speak? Naw & People talk too much. The word, from now on, is hush. Strength
is silence.
The word, actually, was Egnach ; but Reuben couldn t pronounce it, except
when he was asleep.
Down in the Chimporium, the only sound was the faint click of a mah-jong tile.
This was about the three hundred and fiftieth game that Ohira and Shiba had
played.
|
Go to Contents
|
Chapter 34
Still further away, in a curtained motel bedroom, a suitcase of money lay open
on a bed. Mentamorpha eyed it.
I
am going to be an actress, she said defiantly. That s final.
You mean, find somebody real who fits the part, and copy them? That isn t
acting. That s cheating.
Anyhow, what happens if you get to audition for a murderess? Or somebody
haunted by infinite evil? Or the Queen of Atlantis? Where are you going to
find one of those walking down the streets?
Prote wore the middle-aged body of a bank manager from a hundred miles back
along their route. He ought to have changed it by now, but they had left the
previous city in rather a hurry, so he was still stuck in the same male flesh.
Mentamorpha tossed her head. That was dumb thinking on my part. I don t need
a real-life prototype to copy. All I need to do is copy the mind of a classy
actress then
I ll be an actress too.
Sure, then you ll have glossy photos of you stuck up everywhere. You may be
the brains of this outfit, honey, but you re way off track on that one.
Publicity is the last thing we
Prote parted the curtains slightly again.
Anyway, it s all irrelevant. There s a blue Ford parked over there. I ve seen
it before. Front wing s buckled. And I ve seen the guy at the wheel. He was in
Berryford. He s been sitting watching for twenty minutes.
file:///C|/3278%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Ian%20Watson%20-%20Converts
.html (157 of 165) [1/17/2005 6:52:02 PM]
Converts
A cop?
Don t think so. He was just watching us in Berryford, too. He followed us on.
He doesn t care if we play
Bonnie and Clyde, just so long as he can stick to us.
Government agent?
Hardly! It s got to be someone hired by the new Farm management, right? Now
that I ve spotted him, we can shake him. Here s where he loses the scent. But
we ll have to act right away. Otherwise a back-up team could be on the way.
You are telling me the truth? You aren t just trying to turn me off my acting
career?
Copy my mind. See for yourself.
I don t want to copy your mind. You know, if I did that we couldn t stick
together. Or if you copied my body, Prote. It would be a sort of violation.
I m telling you the truth all right! And now I m slipping out the back way,
to find a woman to copy.
Any damn excuse! Mentamorpha stared disconsolately at the unslept-in bed.
And here was me thinking we were going to have a little fun, while you re in
that body. I m not a fucking dyke, you know. I m sick of sleeping with one
damn female after another!
Page 113
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Honey, I promise you, once we re far enough away I ll find some really neat
man to copy. You can pick him out yourself. I ll give you a fun weekend.
A fun fortnight
.
A week.
Ten days.
No, damn it, a week.
Just get packed, will you? I ll rent us a new wagon. We ll drive to the
nearest airfield and hire a private plane. We can afford it. Then we ll hop
jets for a while. That ll shake our bloodhound for the next year or so. I
guess it was plain bad luck him finding us. But it could be our fault, a bit.
We haven t been looking over our shoulders enough. We ve been moving too
slowly. We ll pull a few big jobs then head abroad.
How about the South of France?
file:///C|/3278%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Ian%20Watson%20-%20Converts
.html (158 of 165) [1/17/2005 6:52:02 PM]
Converts
Cannes!
No, not the Cannes Film Festival. I was thinking more of Monte Carlo. We
could be a winning combination. Then we ll travel right round the world.
Wouldn t you like to be able to think in Hindi and
Chinese? Wouldn t you love to have Indians and South Sea Islanders tumbling in
the sheets with you?
Hey, that sounds interesting.
And if we re right round the other side of the Earth, we won t have this
nagging sense of old Thelma plucking at us. The scene they re in, I don t want
to know about, however neat it seems to them. We ll put a bit more inverse
square law between us and the Farm.
Couldn t it be Thelma who sent that man?
What, Thelma co-operate with Robina? You know our tribe are all bottled up.
Thelma s the genie with the light brown hair. She s stuck in a bottle. And
they re all very happy in it, thank you. Look, I ll be back in an hour. You be
ready, hmm?
Ready for another woman.
I ll copy an old woman this time. I ll be a mother to you. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]