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problem of the rrôn, and other old gods, too. And not incidentally, the fate
of countless worlds, no matter how grandiose that sounded to her when she
thought it.
But Jake came first.
CHAPTER 8
Charlotte, North Carolina
PETE SAT on the green park bench, feeding a pair of fat mallards and trying to
appear inconspicuous. He had a good day for sitting a bright, breezy North
Carolina spring morning, with pink dogwoods and daffodils and forsythia and
azaleas ringing the lake and lining the paths, and the skyline of Charlotte
rising over the top edge of the dogwoods like some Chamber of Commerce guy s
postcard wet dream.
Pete kept expecting the brief, awful explosion of a bullet tearing into the
back of his head, though, and that spoiled his enjoyment of the weather, the
view, or the fact that he was away from the confines of Cat Creek for the day.
He pulled bread out of the paper bag he carried and tossed crumbs to the
ducks. On the bench beside him lay a small, square hand mirror. He ignored the
mirror.
A man in a gray suit sat down beside him, opened a bagged breakfast from
Hardee s, and began to eat a ham biscuit.  This is a real pain in the ass, you
know.
Pete did not look over. Fred had been both a good friend and Pete s secret
boss for the last three years. Pete said,  I m sorry about that. Can t be
helped. Take the mirror.
Fred picked up the mirror without question.  All right. So what s the
emergency?
 I ve made contact.
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A short, pregnant pause.  Damn. That s not an emergency, Pete. That s
success.
 It s an emergency. You know how we thought we were pretty close to
understanding the technology? How we thought we were maybe five years from
having things back under control again, whether they decided to make contact
with us or not?
Fred didn t say anything. They both knew it was a rhetorical question.
 Hold the mirror in the palm of your hand, Pete said. He got a mirror out of
his own pocket, took a folded piece of paper from the same pocket, then rested
his fingertips just above the surface of the mirror. It began to glow with a
soft green light, as did the companion mirror in Fred s hand. Fred swore
softly. Pete shook his head.  That s not the problem. Wait for it.
He shoved the paper into the surface of the mirror, which shimmered and
distorted like smooth water disturbed by a pebble. The paper disappeared. An
instant later, the glowing surface of the mirror in Fred s hand began to
ripple, and the paper popped out onto the surface of the glass. The green glow
in both mirrors died away almost instantly.
 Sweet Jesus H, Fred muttered.  What the hell& ?
Pete put his own mirror back in his pocket and began tossing crumbs to the
ducks again.  You know the old saying about any sufficiently advanced
technology being indistinguishable from magic?
Fred, staring at the mirror in his hand, nodded.
 Welcome to the brave new world.
Fred sat there for a moment, staring at the mirror lying in his trembling
hand.  The mirror isn t everything, is it?
 Secure lines are a problem, too. Basically& well, basically, secure lines
don t exist anymore. These guys can send things through mirrors, and they can
look into mirrors and see what anyone, anywhere, is doing at any time.
Fred s skin turned the color of week-old fireplace ashes.  Our ETs did this?
Pete considered telling the truth, then shrugged.  I don t know who developed
it. I know the ETs have it.
 What else is there? How bad does this get? Jesus Christ, this was a national
security nightmare before. Now& how the hell do we secure a facility against
this sort of technology?
 Maybe we hire some of them to work for us. If they built it, they have to
have ways to block it.
Fred turned the mirror over in his hand and studied the back.  How did you get
this?
 I ve had a breakthrough. I m in contact with some of the ETs. My lead in
England paid off, in spite of how long it took.
Fred looked directly at Pete for the first time since he sat down.  You re in
contact? With a live one? And this is the first you ve mentioned it?
 Not one. Several. And they re watching me. For all I know, they re watching
me now but I don t think so. I got one of them to ask me to come to Charlotte [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]