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Shadow of the giant

Shadow of the giant

Titel: Shadow of the giant Kostenlos Bücher Online Lesen
Autoren: Unknown
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days of freedom now that the Hegemony is powerless, my research is not illegal
here. So I don't have to be prepared to dispose of my subjects at a moment's
notice."
    Bean looked at Petra. "He still says 'dispose of
instead of 'murder.' "
    Volescu's smile grew sad. "How I wish I had all your
brothers," he said. "But that's not why you're here. I already served
my time and was legally released."
    "We want our babies back," said Petra. "All
eight of them. Unless there are more."
    "There were never more than eight," said Volescu.
"I was observed the whole time, as you arranged, and there is no way I
could have faked the number. Nor could I have faked the destruction of the
three discards."
    "I've already thought of several," said Bean.
"The most obvious being that the three you pretended to find had Anton's
Key turned had already been taken away. What you destroyed were someone else's
embryos. Or nothing at all."
    "If you know so much, why do you need me?" asked
Volescu.
    "Eight names and addresses," said Bean. "The
women who are bearing our babies."
    "Even if I knew," said Volescu, "what purpose
would be served by telling? None of them have Anton's Key. They aren't worth
studying."
    "There is no nondestructive test," said Petra.
"So you don't know which of them had Anton's Key turned. You would have
kept them all. You would have implanted them all."
    "Again, since you know more than I do, by all means
tell me when you find them. I'd love to know what Achilles did with the five
survivors."
    Bean walked up to his biological half-uncle. He towered over
him.
    "My," said Volescu. "What big teeth you
have."
    Bean took him by the shoulders. Volescu's arms seemed so
small and fragile within the grasp of Bean's huge hands. Bean probed and
pressed with his fingers. Volescu winced.
    Bean's hands wandered idly along Volescu's shoulders until
his right hand nested the back of the man's neck, and his thumb played with the
point of Volescu's larynx. "Lie to me again," whispered Bean.
    "You'd think," said Volescu, "that someone
who used to be small would know better than to be a bully."
    "We all used to be small," said Petra. "Let
go of his neck, Bean."
    "Let me crush his larynx just a little."
    "He's too confident," said Petra. "He's very
sure we'll never find them."
    "So many babies," said Volescu genially. "So
little time."
    "He's counting on us not torturing him," said
Bean.
    "Or maybe he wants us to," said Petra. "Who
knows how his brain works? The only difference between Volescu and Achilles is
the size of their ambitions. Volescu's dreams are so very, very small."
    Volescu's eyes were welling up with tears. "I still
think of you as my only son," he said to Bean. "It grieves me that we
don't communicate any better than this."
    Bean's thumb massaged the skin of Volescu's throat in circles
around the point of his larynx.
    "It surprises me that you can always find a place to do
your sick little brand of science," said Petra. "But this lab is
closed now. The Rwandan government will have its scientists go over it to find
out what you were doing."
    "Always I do the work while others get the
credit," said Volescu.
    "Do you see how I nearly encircle his throat with just
one hand?" said Bean.
    "Let's take him back to Ribeirão Preto, Julian."
    "That would be nice," said Volescu. "How are
my sister and her husband doing? Or do you see them anymore, now that you've
got to be so important?"
    "He's talking about my family," said Bean,
"as if he were not the monster who cloned my brother illegally and then
murdered all but one of the clones."
    "They've gone back to Greece," said Petra.
"Please don't kill him, Bean. Please."
    "Remind me why."
    "Because we're good people," said Petra.
    Volescu laughed. "You live by murder. How many people
have you both killed? And if we add in all the Buggers you slaughtered out in
space...."
    "All right," said Petra. "Go ahead and kill
him."
    Bean tightened his fingers. Not that much, really. But
Volescu made a strangled sound in his throat and in moments his eyes were
bugging out.
    At that moment Suriyawong entered the lab. "General
Delphiki, sir," he said.
    "Just a minute, Suri," said Petra. "He's
killing somebody."
    "Sir," said Suriyawong. "This is a war materials
lab."
    Bean relaxed his grip. "Still genetic research?"
    "Several of the other scientists working here had
misgivings about Volescu's work and the sources of his grants. They were
collecting evidence. Not much to collect. But everything points

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