Keepsakes by Resnick Mike

Author:Resnick Mike [Mike, Resnick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9788865860526
Google: L9x_CgAAQBAJ
Publisher: 40K
Published: 2011-03-14T05:00:00+00:00

***

We were debriefed for three full days when we got back to Goldenrod, but it didn’t help much. Knowing that they could appear to be anyone didn’t make spotting them any easier, and knowing they could read your thoughts didn’t help you to protect those thoughts. The only change came when the government doubled the department’s budget and added 75 Men and aliens to the staff.

Then came a rigorous series of physical and mental tests to make sure the Star Gypsies hadn’t infiltrated the department. Somehow I knew we wouldn’t turn up any of them, and in the end we didn’t.

“Why would they come here anyway?” said Jebediah. “We never act, we only react. They don’t have any need to misdirect us.”

“It’s just a matter of touching all the bases,” I said. “Probably nothing we do will make a difference, but we can’t take the chance.”

“I know,” he said. “We should have shot one of them when we had the opportunity. At least we could have turned him over to our scientists and maybe learned how to spot them.”

“The Republic frowns on cold-blooded murder,” I said.

“The Republic’s never been up against anyone or anything with these abilities,” replied Jebediah.

“You’re not thinking it through,” I pointed out. “How are you going to kill a creature that can read your thoughts and knows what you’re going to do as soon as you yourself know?”

“If I decide when he’s 20 feet away, he’s not going to be able to stop me.”

“Unless walls can prevent him from reading thoughts, he’ll know before he opens the door, in which case he either won’t open it or he’ll be prepared. Besides, any way you cut it, that’s murder.”

He sighed deeply. “I suppose you’re right. I just hate to see what they do to their victims. The fact that they’re willing victims doesn’t matter; they don’t know what they’re going to have to give up.”

“Anyway,” I said, “the only way we’re ever going to stop them is to figure out why they do what they do. Even if the department sanctioned a couple of shootings, what would we get from it? Two corpses, and maybe a way to spot them. It wouldn’t stop them from visiting world after world and looking for work.”

“As far as I can tell, they’ve never made a deal for straight cash,” said Jebediah. “It’s got to be the trinkets.”

“Of course it is. But why? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since I left the Navy and came to work here.”

“You were in the Navy before you put in 27 years here? You don’t look that old.”

“I wasn’t there long. Just under two years. Got my leg blown off in the Sett War. Ever since, I’ve been walking around on one the government gave me.”

“I never noticed.”

“No reason why you should have. It’s not the handicap it once was. Hell, Marcus Quintoby was the best-paid Murderball player on the planet last year, and he’s got two prosthetic arms.”

We spoke a little

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