Anderson, Poul - [Time Patrol]10 by The Shield of Time

Author:The Shield of Time [Time, The Shield of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

XI

Nathan Abrams was not a tall man, and he was getting somewhat bald and plump. The bathrobe swirled almost ludicrously about his pajamaed legs as he turned in his pacing. But Koskinen had never before seen so great an anger on so tight a leash.

A little hoarse with talking, he sat back and listened to his host. "Good Lord," Abrams said through his teeth, "I had some notion of how much rottenness there is around, but when the thing comes out in the open like this, it's past time to fight!"

"Using what for weapons?" Trembecki asked.

Abrams's hand chopped in the direction of the shield unit. "There's that, to start with."

"Take quite a while to produce enough and organize a group."

"And meanwhile Dave-" Leah Abrams's voice wavered. As if to give herself something to do, she began putting food on the plates. "I'm sorry," she said to Koskinen and Vivienne. "You must be starved."

In spite of everything, Koskinen's look and mind turned to her. He had naturally known about Dave's sister, but she was only fifteen when the Boas departed. He had not expected to find someone slim and supple, gray eyes, freckles dusted faintly across a piquant nose, reddish-brown hair falling softly to her shoulders, a dancer's way of walking. She must have considerable backbone too, he thought. Abrams had not yet told his wife about this meeting, he didn't know if she could stand it, but his daughter had come along as a matter of course.

Besides, it was good of her to remember about breakfast. He was starved. Still he hesitated, while Abrams stood and fought himself. The girl seemed to read his thought. "Go ahead," she urged. "You needn't pretend that our troubles have spoiled your appetite. As a matter of fact, I think I'll have a bite myself."

Vivienne smiled. "You're too tactful for your own good. But thanks, Miss Abrams."

"Lean, if you don't mind. We're in the same army now."

"I'm not so sure of that," Trembecki said.

"What do you mean, Jan?" Abrams demanded.

"Well-"

"I wasn't proposing anything rash, you know. We want Dave back first of all, and everyone else from the ship. We've got to proceed cautiously. But sooner or later, maybe we'll have to-" Abrams broke off.

Trembecki finished for him hi a brutal tone: ' Tight against our own government?"

"Well...against Marcus, at least. This puts the capper on everything I'd known about the man previously. I tell you, he's a power maniac, and he's got to be stopped."

"Let's drop the swear words, Nat," Trembecki said. "Neo-fascism doesn't come out of nowhere, any more than Caesarism does. That's what we've got now, Caesarism, modified only slightly by the fact that it arose in a republic more sophisticated than Rome was. But it arose as the answer to a very real need, survival in the thermonuclear age. You don't want to overthrow Caesar if the price is a civil war that weakens us for the barbarians."

"I wasn't thinking of any such nonsense!"

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.