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already refused to give me. So I taught and fretted, and went on with life.
I'd set up the new SII difference engine beside the first in my study and
began to edit and transfer files.
The next Monday, I was back in Zuider, in the early evening, while Llysette
was giving extra time to one of her upper level students who was preparing for
a recital. Normally, Bruce and his brother Curt closed at six, except on
Fridays, but Bruce had agreed to meet me. That bothered me a little as well,
but Bruce had always been accommodating.
With that faint smile he gave when he had more on his mind than he wanted to
reveal immediately, Bruce escorted me back to his own laboratory-workroom. He
closed the door.
I'm not that secretive, Johan, but someone else might decide I'm open if they
saw us, and that creates ill feelings if I don't answer their knocking when
they see me.
I understood that. It was like refusing to talk to a student, even if you were
late for class.
Here we are. Bruce gestured to the items sitting on the green cloth at one
end of his workbench, which was piled high with equipment even I couldn't
recognize.
Four of the items I recognized, because I'd brought them to Bruce the previous
Thursday. One looked like a pocket calculator, and two of the others looked
like ballpoint pens, except they were special projectors Bruce had made for me
when we had gone to Deseret. When the pens went into the decorative slots on
the sides of the device and the delete key was pressed, the calculator became
a zombification device, or a ghost-removal projector. The same was true of the
hair dryer, except it took two switches to turn the hair dryer into a ghosting
weapon. The pens, calculator, and hair dryer functioned as they should,
otherwise.
What did you do to them? I asked. The calculator and the dryer look the
same.
More powerful storage cells, a bit better projection coils, Bruce replied.
They were in good shape, and it didn't take much to upgrade them.
The device I didn't recognize looked like an antique fountain pen, faintly
bulbous, and yet distinguished in its bulk and style. The casing was black,
chased with gold swirls. What's that?
The same as the calculator, except it's an emergency, single-jolt zombifier.
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
One battery, one jolt, maybe a second weak jolt, but you don't have to fiddle
with anything.
I sighed. What do you know that I don't?
Bruce smiled. Not a thing. Or not much. Someone's monitoring the LBI
wiresets, and it's through the circuits at New Bruges Telewire, from what we
can determine. There have been several gentlemen, and even a lady, of the type
we both recognize, who have been observing us. Ergo . . . you mean a lot to
someone. He fingered his beard. What do you know?
I don't. The only contact either of us has had was one wireset call from the
present head of our previous agency. He practically insisted that Llysette had
to go to the arts dinner . . . said she deserved it. Then he asked me to drop
in for a chat.
Bruce winced. Do you have any ideas about what he has in mind?
None. No mysterious briefing materials, no wireset calls . . . nothing.
They have a very big problem, Johan. So big that they don't want anyone to
know, or have any idea of what it is. They also can't use any existing agent,
for some reason. His smile turned crooked. They need the best, and you were
among the best.
Thank you. That's a distinction I'd like to put behind me.
So would they, but they don't have any choice. And they need both of you.
I nodded slowly.
I'm glad I beefed all this up. Bruce gestured toward the gadgetry. I'd
carry the big pen with you all the time. Replace the battery once a month,
whether you've used it or not. And . . . remember . . . if you have a choice,
don't use these where someone is using radio or videolink equipment nearby.
The harmonics in some of the frequencies will create a rather large burst of
static on most equipment.
You didn't tell me that before.
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