29: Naivety, Incredulity, Anger, Bitterness, Escape
Bruce Lawrenceson decided that, yet again, he had been terribly naive.
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Bruce Lawrenceson decided that, yet again, he had been terribly naive.
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I was on the bridge, researching recent Board activity, when the news hit.
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She pushed me into a shuttle nearby and sat me down, then said, “Truder Redmane, I am here to take you back. You have broken your contract of work with Redmane Minerals, and they are permitted to force your return and sequestration for the duration—” [more...]
Lee jumped out of her chair and ran for the stairs. She was sure the man exiting the Governor’s office was Truder Redmane.
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Lee pounded the desk. Reviewing the files from Brivik security, she couldn’t believe some of the things they let slip. Primarily being slow to realize that the “terrorist” who’d started killing guards was Truder Redmane.
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I love this line:
Psychological determinism, before being a theoretical conception, is first an attitude of excuse, or if you prefer, the basis of all attitudes of excuse.
—p137, Jean-Paul Sartre, Essays in Existentialism, Kensington, New York 1993
“Three Redmane interceptors, they said we’d committed security violations, want us to power down and surrender.” [more...]
I looked to my right, saw two guards, and walked towards them quickly. One looked at me in time to take my punch to the throat. I stepped closer to get his pistol from his holster, pull up his armor, and shoot him in the stomach. The other guard had his visor flipped up, so I shot him in the face, then took his gun as well.
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I made it onto Brivik, through the spaceport, without incident. Free. On a planet. Real air. Real gravity.
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Looks Good on Paper was far away. Far away, locked inside a secret base in a dangerous asteroid belt under intense scrutiny within a remote solar system. And Shara felt the distance.
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Lee ducked the punch and came back up again with her gun jammed against the contract-breaker’s nose. Her phone chimed.
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I set up the transfer, and had it ready to go. Three hundred million. I looked up at Shara, and said “You know you won’t get to spend it.”
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“We don’t know that it’s him.”
“No, but who else, given blackmail from something that Truder knows and activity at his bases?”
“We don’t have enough information, no matter how it looks, to do what you propose.”
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Shara was in my way.
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“So where is she now?”
“Ops doesn’t know.”
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Near the middle of the asteroid belt, I directed Shara to approach a large hunk of rock. I broadcast a code to it, and a section slid sideways, revealing a docking bay. Shara was clearly impressed, and I was gratified by this.
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“How much is the reward?”
“One hundred million.”
“So little?”
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Death seems closer in the quiet places.
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Looks Good on Paper was outbound from the Rithvi system when Shara heard about the reward. One hundred million for finding Truder Redmane.
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“What if that’s all a cover?”
“How?”
“What if the whole point of the archive planet role is to make us assume that’s where he got the information?”
“Where else could it come from?”
There was a pause as the Board Members considered this.
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Lee drew her gun as she slammed Korza against the bulkhead, jamming her forearm against his throat. “Look, Korza, if I say you get checked for explosives, it happens. No more shit. You helped me get Stephanos, but now do what I tell you or I’ll throw you off this ship. And I might wait until warp.”
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As the large man walked into the room, Lee let go of Korza’s balls and moved around behind him, putting Korza between her and the stranger, and keeping her gun ready for either of them.
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Looks Good on Paper was still Shara Clavell’s ship.
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