The Computer Connection by Alfred Bester

Author:Alfred Bester
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743487139
Published: 1975-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

When I got to the tepee at last, Natoma was there with Borgia and M’bantu. Also the wolves. Also Jacy. I was too exhausted to be surprised. The Zulu took one look at my face and said, “I will take the wolves for a walk.”

“No, please. It might be better for me to talk. You know what happened?”

“We do,” Borgia said. “Guess called at the house and asked us to come here. He told us why.”

“Dr. Guess said you would probably try to hole up like a sick animal and would need all help,” M’bantu added.

“Dio! Do I!” I tried to crawl up to reality. “I— Where’s the Greek?”

“He go,” Natoma said. “Businessiness.”

“What has happened to the poor girl’s clay?” Jacy asked.

“They— They wanted to bury her in a public compost. I held out for a private. El Arrivederci . That’s what took so long Arrivederci Until we meet again. Isn’t that a laugh? Fee w-would have—” I began to cry. I’d been holding it back for hours and now it came out in bursts and heaves. Natoma put her arms around me to comfort me. I shook her off. “No,” I said. “I killed her. I deserve nothing.”

“My dear Guig,” Borgia began briskly.

“Nothing!” I shouted.

“Love Fee,” Natoma said.

“Yes. Yes, Nat. She was my baby, and I watched her grow into a woman A great lady And I killed her. Arrivederci , F. I’ll never see her again.”

“The cryocapsule killed her, Guig.”

“D’you know how and why, McB? I know and I know I’m accountable. I murdered her.”

“No, no, no!” They were all emphatic.

“It was the oversophisticated machine, Guig,” M’bantu said. “It was bound to break down sooner or later. Machinery always does.”

“But this time I made it break down.”

“How?”

“I talked too much.”

“To whom?”

“The machine.”

M’bantu threw up his hands. “Forgive me, Guig. You’re not making sense.”

“I know it. I know it. Fee-5 gave me the information when we were in the bubble. She could bug Extro’s conversations with Sequoya. I had to blab it like a damned show-off. Damn me. Damn my goddamn mouth. And she’ll never be able to forgive me. Never. Never. Never—” I burst into tears again.

Jacy said, “I will take Guig for a walk. Just the two of us. Please wait here, children.”

M’bantu said, “It’s dangerous to walk without protection. Take a wolf. I will instruct him.”

“Thank you. No wolf will be needed. Kiss him, my love.”

Natoma kissed me and out we went, Jacy’s hand on my shoulder. It was the usual hell in the streets; a labyrinth of horror. The streets and lanes twisted and corkscrewed, crossing each other, sometimes broken through abandoned buildings, giant heaps of debris and small wastelands. They were dotted with rotting bods, alive and dead and stinking. There were cul-de-sacs where gangs lurked, fought, and swung in Sado-Mac wars that would have astonished Krafft-Ebing. We passed one blind alley where a small mob was poised for an attack, but they were all skeletons in tatters. Burned by a flesh gun.

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