Greatheart Silver by Farmer Philip Jose

Author:Farmer, Philip Jose [Farmer, Philip Jose]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780575119925
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2013-07-24T21:00:00+00:00

15

He awoke on his back on a hard metal floor. The top of his head hurt. He would have been surprised if it hadn’t. The back of his head was on a soft lap, and tears were falling on his face.

“Jill!” he said.

“Thank God you’re all right,” she said. “But … how … why … are you here?”

“That’s a long story,” he said. He turned his head, wincing, and looked around. The cube looked as bleak and bare from the inside as from the outside. It was, however, furnished with a chemical toilet, a water cooler, a washbowl on a metal stand, a roll of paper towels, a roll of toilet paper, and a pile of blankets.

He rolled off her lap, groaning, and got to his feet. Though he knew the door would be locked, he tried it: Yanking on the knob drove pain through his skull.

“Did they frisk me?”

Jill was on her feet and wiping her eyes with a handkerchief. Even with a sorrowful expression and no makeup, she looked beautiful. A pang of longing and regret for all the lost years shot through his heart. Unfortunately, the abrupt rise in blood pressure made his head hurt even more abominably.

“They took your watch, wallet, and pocketknife,” she said. “Oh, Greatheart, it’s been so long!”

She needed holding, and he didn’t mind some himself, so he held her for a while and kissed the top of her head. Jill sobbed out her story, most of which he already knew. She remembered nothing between being put in the panel truck and waking up here. One of the men had jabbed a needle into her arm, and she had become unconscious immediately.

He told her what had happened to him since they’d parted at UCLA. It took a long time, but while he was doing it he looked around. He hadn’t been altogether wrong about this place. One wall did hold a panel which could be removed so the troubleshooters could get into the computer. It was secured by six large Phillips-head screws.

Jill said, “Do you really think they’ll let me loose after Daddy pays the ransom?”

“I hope so,” he said. “But more’s going on in this deal than appears on the surface. What, I don’t know. But that spray-on circuit on the books has something to do with this. Your father’s up to no good, as usual …”

“Greatheart!” she said. “You can’t mean that he’s in on the kidnapping? That doesn’t make sense!”

“No, I mean that Starling, a genuine Hollywood rip-off artist if ever there was one, is probably after more than just thirty million dollars. He’s shrewd, a real coyote, and he must realize the potential of this, ah, euphoric circuit on the books.”

Laughter burst out of a wall, maniacal laughter that would have done credit to the Shadow of the old radio show.

Silver leaped, saying, “What the?” and then he groaned. The sudden violent movement had shot pain through his head. It was comparable to the pain felt by a hemorrhoidac sitting down on a tack.

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