The Ultra Thin Man by Patrick Swenson

Author:Patrick Swenson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780765336941
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2013-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

Now I’ll tell you about the plan to tear apart the Union of Worlds.

That sentence from Forno should’ve sent an electric current through my body, shaking me from top to bottom, but when he said it, I didn’t feel a thing.

Of course that was the plan. It had been Plenko’s goal long before I’d signed on with the NIO. But that wasn’t everything. Without a doubt, Alan and I had become involved in something much larger than Plenko’s Movement. We were part of a large-scale Union-shattering plot, one that Forno had also stumbled onto.

“Is it safe to talk here?” I glanced at the RuBy addict on the cot, who lay still, staring wide-eyed at the top of the tent.

Forno said, “Not even remotely safe.”

“Oh,” I said. “That’s … encouraging.”

He nodded at the cot. “He’s not going to tell anyone a thing. Poor fellow will be dead before too long.”

I gulped, and I imagined I could actually taste the RuBy at the back of my throat. I’d never tried the drug, and although the cinnamon odor was strong, I didn’t know how it really tasted. Another five minutes in this placeand I believed I’d be addicted to the stuff myself.

“All right, tell me,” I said. If we truly were not safe, even hidden in here, then I wanted him to get on with it. My hand squeezed voluntarily on the blaster I still held at my side. “Start with the Conduit. It’s supposed to be a weather control device. I read the specs.”

He drew his knees to his chest and wrapped his massive arms around them. “That was the story the Science Consortium told. Hell, they even showed it. In theory, it could work that way. But it was designed, ultimately, to do something else.”

“To do what?”

“To replicate people,” he said, his eyes distant. Then he shook his head. “Well, no, that’s not the right word. They’re altering them.”

That part seemed only too true, considering what I’d experienced so far, and what Alan had told me from his end, before he went silent.

“Helks?” I asked. “Humans?”

“Anyone changed into anyone,” Forno said, his voice hushed. “The tech I came across in the NIO basement is way beyond me. I did my best to understand and internalize it, because I had no way to transfer the information. The Science Consortium’s using ultrafast x-ray technology, something light-years ahead of anything I’ve heard about. Something about acceleration and diffraction. Heating matter, shocking it. Signals shooting through a superaccelerator.”

“Jesus. The Conduit’s an accelerator?”

Forno nodded. “In part, due to its ultra thin wire. The Conduit’s used to change these pulsed, ultrafast x-rays, and the particle acceleration creates—” He paused, looking me straight in the eye. “Dave, they’ve discovered how to change the very structure of matter.”

Ultra thin wire. I thought back to my encounter with Forno at Floor 13, the warnings, the information about the ultra thin level. He’d hinted then at the Science Consortium’s involvement with the NIO, hinted at topics such as Temonus, Ribon, Coral, and the Conduit.

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