[Callahan 04] Callahan's Lady by Spider Robinson

Author:Spider Robinson [Robinson, Spider]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science.fiction
Published: 2011-01-26T17:21:13+00:00

“Answer by moving your head: you think you need this?”

Again…

“Think about how much you want this. Think about why you think you need it.”

Diana’s face was suffused with a hopeless naked yearning.

Lady Sally said, looking her square in the eye, “Forget it. Really.”

Diana’s face smoothed over.

“Please forget all about it,” the Lady amplified, “what it is, and what it does, and why you felt it was necessary, and at least the last three crucial insights that allowed you to create it, and above all forget everything-except my orders!-that has transpired from this moment back to the time you walked in my House.”

Diana now had the preoccupied expression of someone who is playing a game of chess with herself that is going to take hours.

“Are you mad at anyone anymore?” the Lady asked her softly.

She shook her head no, slowly, wonderingly, and went back to her chess game, Lady Sally turned back to me. “I must confess that a part of me is tempted to just put this thing back on her finger, ask her to make sure that it never leaves her finger, and turn her loose. She’d never figure out exactly what was wrong, but for the rest of her life she’d be exactly the sort of agreeable, pliable blonde that some men dream of. She certainly deserves it, for what she has done to my friends this night. But there’s too much risk that someone else would figure things out, and take it from her dead hand. And besides, I’d hate to be responsible if someone asked her to drop dead.”

I giggled. “Me, I’d kind of want to be around the first time someone asked her to go-“

“Please, dear. Vengeance is counterproductive. Not to mention the fact that it gets your soul all sticky.”

Vengeance made me think of something. “Lady, what’s going to happen when Sergei’s people find out he’s dead?”

“Oh, God. Well, there’s no publicity problem at least.

When a KGB man dies in a-“

“Sergei was KGB?”

“No, dear, he was a private citizen who carted around a poison tooth and a small cannon as eccentricities. As I was saying, when a KGB bites down in a bordello across the river from the United Nations, there is very little difficulty in making it didn’t happen. But we must be very careful never to let them suspect for an instant why he didn’t did it. You and I must give that some thought. But first things first. Wait here patiently, everyone!”

Together we dragged Sergei’s body out into Reception, where Ruth still snored. We left him curled up as naturally as we could on a couch, covered him with his coat. I changed to my own overcoat, and my own boots. We fetched out the guns and ax and smashed sign; the weapons went into the gun-locker and the shards of wood and paper went out into the dumpster. Then we hurried back into the Parlor. Kate had taken Judith and Priscilla up to the Infirmary.

Lady Sally went to Diana. “Diana, listen to me carefully, please.

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