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Michael was less concerned with the bugs, since he packed enough antibugging
equipment inside his jacket to electronically fumigate a skyscraper. Hopefully
their would-be listeners wouldn't interfere, trusting in Dana to report to them
later.
She was small, blonde, pretty, quiet: the last woman in the world he would have
selected as a self-appointed martyr.
"Hello Dana," he said gently,
"Mr. Yan?" Not Michael, as in the office, but mister.
There was defiance in her voice, in her eyes, in her stance. He didn't know this
girl at all. Longin had been wrong.
She was daring him. All right. Her Polish was better than his English, despite her
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odd accent. She was from Georgia. He remembered because he was always
confusing it with Russian Georgia.
He gestured at the bridge leading over the pond and they started off toward it.
The ripples on the surface were reflected in the surrounding glass walls of the
Embassy buildings. How the Americans loved their glass!
"Dana, I love you." She stumbled and her expression changed drastically. At least
he'd put her off her guard.
"You've got a funny sense of humor, Mr. Yan."
"Michael, please. I'm not old enough to be called 'mister.'"
"Michael, if you will. I don't believe No, wait a minute." She smiled sardonically.
"Of course you love
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WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . ..
me. You also love Maricella, Jean, Don-anna and all the other girls in the office.
You love everybody."
"Yes, that's right. And everyone thinks we Poles are crazy because we love
everybody. It causes us jo much trouble."
"You didn't love the Germans," she reminded him. He shrugged.
"What were we supposed to do? Nobody else seemed ready to stand up to the
maniac. Fortunately, the Germans declared war on us first. You didn't have to
fight anybody. Why complain? We hated it. War isn't our style."
She looked at him challengingry, but with a little less belligerence, he thought.
"You make such a big deal out of it. He was just another petty despot."
Just another petty despot! Michael shuddered. He'd read the madman's book. It
was fortunate King Yampolsky XIX had recognized the danger and mobilized the
armed forces early. The French, English, Americans, and others showed no
inclination to fight, despite the madman's avowed intentions.
Six long months of war. But the madman had been killed and a form of
democratic monarchism patterned on the Republic had been established in
Germany, with that popular war hero what was his name? oh yes, Goering,
elected first King. Germany had been well-behaved ever since.
It was the establishment of the Polish form of government hi Germany that really
irked the Americans, though. But the Germans had had all examples to choose
from and had chosen the best.
"Dana, this tantrum of yours is understandable, I suppose. An outsider could
read all sorts of things into those loading specifications. But it's not true, about
Mars."
"Is."
Spoiled child. Typical adolescent American messiah complex. He stared hard at
her and tried to sound solemn.
"I swear on my honor, Dana, that tomorrow's launch
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Polonaise
has nothing whatsoever to do with claiming any planet or moon or setting up any
base thereon. We haven't done it on Luna . . . why should we do it on Mars? I'm
just an engineer, Dana, I'm not involved with anything like your CIA.
"Why can't you believe me when I swear that we're only interested in preserving
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the peace of mankind what peace there is in a world where the Japanese and
Brazilians and the Semitic Union all have thermonuclear capability?
"Peace and freedom don't you see? Poland's had the stablest government in the
world for over three hundred years now. Why should we want to jeopardize that
by antagonizing your country, or the Russians?"
"It's wrong to slave under a dictator!" she sputtered. "Monarchies are outmoded,
archaic, despotic forms of government. No other major power has a king or
queen."
"And no other major power is quite as major as the republic, for that very reason.
What's wrong with 'slaving' under the highest standard of living in the world? So
we have a true king, with absolute power. He serves only for five years. And then
we elect a new king, or queen, from the nobles and princes. It works. That's the
only rationale I can give you."
"It'll collapse any day now," she insisted, "and then maybe you'll get a real
democracy."
"Good God, no! Anything but that, Dana. A 'real democracy,' like yours? Where
the legislature is paralyzed, the executive corrupt, the courts logjammed? We've
become what we have precisely because we've avoided all that.
"Just as an example, to change the republic's television networks to 3-D
hologram, the king signed a proclamation. You're still arguing over who gets what
rights, years later. And we've not called on the final check the Society of
Assassins for 230 years."
She didn't understand. They never would, he thought sadly. An elected monarchy
was impossible
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WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . ..
and therefore could not exist. This did not trouble the Poles.
"Look, don't ruin this launching, Dana. I don't blame you for misinterpreting the
data you found. You don't really know what all that information means, do you?"
She looked at the Koi, playing near her feet. "Well, not entirely, but there are
orders for material that. . ."
"Suppose," he sighed, "I agree to take a lie-detector test? Voluntarily, here, on
one of your own Embassy's machines? Would that satisfy you?" Longin wouldn't
like that, but at this point Michael didn't see what else he could do. If it didn't
work, Longin would have only himself to blame.
He'd told him he was only an engineer.
She looked uncertain. "You'd do that?"
"Right now, if you want."
"Well, yes, I guess that would do it." She looked confused. "That fueling data ... I
was so sure."
"Anyone would be, I guess." He put an arm around her shoulders. "Let's go take
that test."
The multiple launch was a great success. The King was pleased, Longin was
pleased, everyone connected with Project Polonaise was pleased.
It was two weeks later that his intercom buzzed and a harried secretary reported
that there was a hysterical woman in the lobby, screaming Michael's name hi
juxtaposition with unpleasant words.
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"She had a gun with her, too, sir, but it was detected at the gate. The security
people have her."
"What does she look like?" He already knew, but the secretary confirmed it. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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