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Harvey and it was surprising that the younger worker had not taken his teacher's side. This came out in the briefing when Saldo said, "I knew he was right, but you wouldn't believe me, either." Apparently Saldo had sided with his teacher, but the others had lumped them both in one bag. Ever conscious of his role as educator, Old Harvey chided Saldo for this remark. "If you thought that, you should've given your own arguments, not mine." The troop filed out of the room properly chastened. Hellstrom smiled to himself. They were good stock and learned quickly. One had only to give them the correct example. "In age is balance," as his brood mother had been fond of saying. Youth, to her, represented an extenuating circumstance which had always to be taken into account. The words of Nils Hellstrom. Of the billions of living things on earth, only man ponders his existence. His questions lead to torment; for he is unable to Page 51 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html accept, as the insects do, that life's only purpose is life itself. Tymiena Grinelli had not liked this assignment from the beginning. She hadn't objected so much to working with Carlos (they'd combined forces many times in the past) as she did to the time she would spend with him when they were not working. Carlos had been flashingly handsome in his youth and had never accustomed himself to the gradual wearing away of his compelling attraction to women. She had known that the off-duty association would be a constant bout of sortie and repartee. Grinelli didn't fancy herself as a femme fatale, but she knew from experience her own magnetism. She had a long face that might have been taken as ugly were it not for the personality behind it. This shone through overlarge and startlingly green eyes. Her body was slender, the skin pale, and there was about her an air of profound sensitivity that fascinated many men, Carlos among them. Her hair was a dark red-auburn and she tended to keep it confined in tight hats or berets. Tymiena was a family name and its original Slavic meaning had been "a secret." The name described her manner. She held herself in constant reserve. Merrivale had alerted her sense of danger originally by assigning only the two of them to the case. She had not liked what she had read in Porter's accounts and in the reports accumulated under the label of "The Hellstrom File." Too many of these reports had been second or third hand. Too many of them were semiofficial. They smacked of amateurism. Amateurs were a deadly indulgence in this business. "Only two of us?" she'd objected. "What about the local police? We could file a missing-person report and --" "The Chief does not want that," Merrivale had said. "Did he say so specifically?" Merrivale's face darkened slightly at any reference to his well-known propensity for personalized interpretation of orders. "He made himself abundantly clear! This is to be handled with the utmost discretion." "A discreet local inquiry sounds to me well within that requirement. Porter was in that area. He's missing. These reports in the file indicate others may have disappeared there. This family of picnickers with the twin babies, for instance, they --" "A logical explanation has been accepted for every such occurrence, Tymiena," Merrivale interrupted. "Unfortunately, logic and actuality do not always coincide. Our concern is for the actuality and, in our pursuit of it, we shall utilize our own tested resources." "I don't like their logical explanations," Tymiena said. "I don't give one particle of a damn what explanations local dumbheads may have accepted." "Our own resources only," Merrivale repeated. Page 52 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "Which means we put our lives on the line again," she said. "What does Carlos say about this case?" "Why don't you ask him? I've arranged for a briefing at 1100 hours. Janvert and Carr will be here, as well." "Are they in this?" "They're in reserve." "I don't like that, either. Where's Carlos?" "I believe he's in Archives. You have almost an hour to explore this matter with him." "Merde!" she said and swept from the room. Carlos was no more helpful than Merrivale. The assignment had struck him as "routine." But then, assignments tended to strike Carlos as cast in some [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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