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 Let uss ssay for the moment that I accept your protesstationss of ignorance and innocence. Will you act
as civilized as you profess to be? Will you help uss to find and identify the cowardly assassinss hiding
among your own kind?
Lwo-Dvuum did not hesitate.  It would be the polite thing to do. Bno-Cassaul looked at him sharply.
The educator ignored his companion.
Takuuna hissed an appreciative reply.  I appreciate the cleverness of your ressponsse, but it doess not
ansswer my quesstion. Will you, or will you not?
 We will, Lwo-Dvuum assured him.
The administrator rose. The insignia on his lightweight jacket shimmered in the dim light.  Then thiss
interview iss at an end. I will take you at your word, educator. You will be provided with a ssufficiency of
background material to enable you to assisst, inssofar as you are able, in the ongoing ssearch for the
unknown malefactorss. Your own actionss will of coursse be ssimultaneoussly monitored. If it iss felt at
any time that you have conssented to assisst in the hopess of ssecretly providing information about the
ssearch to the very oness we sseek, I assure you that you will ssuffer a fate as ultimately final as it will be
exquissite in the detailss of itss execution. The recorder shut down his instrumentation and stood as
Takuuna prepared to exit the room. Halfway to the door, the administrator paused to look back.
 You truly have had no contact with the human, or with any of hiss kind?
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While both eyes remained focused on the AAnn, Lwo-Dvuum tilted forward the domed upper third of a
much relieved body.  Not to my knowledge. My friends and I know so little of the species to which you
refer that I am almost too uninforme to reply knowledgeably on the matter.
Takuuna s only response was to emit a long, slow hiss as his tongue flicked out absently between the
long upper canines at the front end of his jaws. Lwo-Dvuum could not be certain, but it struck him that
the negative reply on this particular subject struck the AAnn as particularly disappointing. The educator
could not help that. Throughout the course of the interview, only truth had been told.
Except for the part about helping the AAnn locate and identify the insurgents. That had been a
bald-faced lie. But it had bought time. It was something that had to be explained to a certain quietly
fuming programmer as soon as the two of them were released outside the AAnn administrative complex.
 What di you mean, teacher, when you sai we woul help these trespassers an thieves find those
among us who have decide to resist the Imperial presence on our worl with more than just words?
Lwo-Dvuum s eyestalks twisted around to allow a cautious glance directly behind them as they hopped
steadily away from the heavily fortified complex.  What woul you have ha me sai ?  No? Do you value
your manipulative appendages? While I am not entirely sure I approve of the actions of our unknown
brethren, even if I ha an inkling as to their identity I woul no more relay it to these AAnn than I woul
unsanctify my parent. He paused while they hopped onto one of the ubiquitous moving sidewalks that
sped Vssey around the interiors of their cities.
 Do you think the AAnn believe you? Bno-Cassaul wondered aloud.
 What does it matter? We are out of that awful place.
 They will begin monitoring us. The programmer glanced around uneasily.  They may be doing so
already.
 Let them. Lwo-Dvuum settled comfortably into an open support slot and let his lower body relax
against it.  It is clear they have been  monitoring our circle anyway.
 Yes, that s true, the programmer had to admit.  They will seek results.
 An we will happily provide them with information that is as believable as it is innocuous. We will seem
to aid them without actually doing so. There is little else we can do about it. Despite what the official
seeme to believe, we have no idea what individuals or what circle carried out the attacks to which the
male referre .
 No, Bno-Cassaul declared,  but I wish I di . I woul seek to graft a budding from anyone so brave.
Lwo-Dvuum looked thoughtful.  They must be very clever, whoever they are, to have overcome the
stringent AAnn security measures on not one but two different occasions. We coul learn much from such
individuals. The educator eyed the upper bodies of the many Vssey passing them in the opposite
direction.  Perhaps someday we will. Perhaps someday the honor of meeting these brave representatives
of our people will fall to us.
 How do we know there are several? Bno-Cassaul averred after a moment s thought.  Might there not
be only one militant, acting alone?
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Lwo-Dvuum s hearing frill rippled in quiet amusement at the programmer s credulity.  Don t be a bent
budding. How could a single dissident accomplish all that the AAnn relate ? No, I am convince the
destruction is the work of no less than a circle of four or five. That woul be the minimum necessary to
deceive an circumvent those as clever as the AAnn. Has not our own circle recognize their abilities,
their persistence, and the long, difficult hopway we must travel to ri ourselves of them?
Several of Bno-Cassaul s tentacles gestured assent.  I suppose that is so. Programmer eyed educator
curiously.  What do you make of the AAnn s obsession with this human creature? Do you think it has a
basis in fact, or was he using it to surprise and to test us?
 I m not sure, Lwo-Dvuum confessed.  Why he would think we might have been in contact with, much
less been receiving advice or material aid from such an exotic creature, I cannot imagine.
 Do you think there really might be a human on Jast, perhaps even in the vicinity of Skokosas, and that
that is why the official felt the nee to pose the query?
 I don t know. The moving hopway turned a corner. Ahead lay a local transport terminus. Lwo-Dvuum
would have preferred access to his ouvomum, but it could only accommodate one passenger in any case.
Besides which, Bno-Cassaul was a confirmed user of modern transportation. The educator would resign
himself to speed.  But given the AAnn s obvious concern about the possibility, I think it woul behoove
our circle to initiate a few discreet inquiries an fin out.
 Any species that can give the toothy ones the jitters is one whose acquaintance I would like to make.
 Assuming the human person actually exists, Bno-Cassaul was quick to point out,  an is still on Jast.
 Even if it is not, Lwo-Dvuum replied, the soft words emerging slowly from the flattened mouth that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]