FM Busby Long View 7 Rebel's Quest

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say something, but stopped when a question came from the floor. "What's your
reaction to winning the big prize?"
Pause. Then, "Naturally, I'm delighted. "
Another voice. "How does it feel to grow up in a Welfare Center?"
More quickly this time, Rissa Kerguelen said, "I can't answer that; I've never
grown up anywhere else. How does it feel to grow up outside?" Laughter came,
and Tregare thought, good on you, kid!
"The last big winner called it an utter miracle. Do you agree?"
Obviously gaining confidence now, the girl shrugged. "No. Why should I? Every
month, as long as I can remember, it happens with the winners announced on
Tri-V This time it's me, is all. "
After a moment, "Who will you vote for in the next election?"
Kerguelen shook her head. "I don't understand. "
"Which bidding conglomerate has your support?"
Slowly again, she answered, "I can't say I don't know enough about any of
them. "
"Does that mean you don't favor the present Committee?" Some menace in that
question?
Maybe.., She was flustered; on the screen a close-up showed her biting her
lip. "It doesn't mean anything yet. Give me time to learn. "
A harsh voice. "You better learn fast, kid. "
The implied threat stalled things, then the camera swung to a grey-haired
woman: "What do you intend to do with the money you've won? And with your
life, from now on?"
Not hesitating, Rissa Kerguelen said, "Buy my brother out of Welfare my Uncle
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Voris, too, if he's still alive and share with them. That's the money. " Now,
for the first time, she smiled, and Tregare decided she was better-looking
than he'd thought. "My life? Well, I'm going off
Earth and I'm going to grow my hair down to my butt and the rest of it's my
own business. "
While Tregare chuckled at the kid's feisty answer, he heard gasps from the
media reps, and one said, "You resent your present hairstyle?"
Again no hesitation. "What's to resent? A few sets of clippers are a lot
cheaper than combs and brushes always getting lost and wearing out anybody can
see that. I don't have to like it, though, and I never did. "
She'd slowed them down some, all right. Now someone asked, "What are you going
to do, off
Earth?"
"I don't know yet. What are you going to do, on
Earth?"
Whether or not that reply ended the interview, now the screen cut back to the
first newscaster. "... and that's all we have for you on the missing lottery
winner Rissa Kerguelen. If anyone has any information leading to uh, making
sure of her safety and well-being, please contact us here at... "
Tregare quit listening; he knew bullshit when he heard it and that 'caster was
full of it up to here. The kid, though wherever she was, he hoped she was all
right.
Renni came along to his quarters. Before anything else, she filled him in some
about UETs lottery winners. "Those wins are UETs carrot, Bran. So they get
lots of publicity. For a time, that is. "
"And then?"
"Then it tapers off and disappears. And the winners, very quietly with no
public mention at all, are taken in charge again. "
"What ?"
"Arrested on any flimsy charges UET cares to make. The remaining prize money
confiscated.
And it's back into Welfare. "
Until she yelped, he didn't realize how hard he was gripping her arm. "You
mean, that's how the kid disappeared?"
Rubbing the arm, Renni said, "No. Not this time. Or they wouldn't be doing any
of this on Tri-
V No, she got away. And I think I know how and where. "
"But didn't you just now first hear of her, same as I did?"
"I'd seen earlier mentions, Bran brief ones. But they didn't apply here, you
see, so well, anyway, some facts in that case clicked with some equally
irrelevant material off the UG circuit.
Irrelevant to this ship, I mean. And "
"Are you going to tell it?"
She sat up straight. "Right. Yes, sir. " Okay; he could put up with a little
clowning, until she went on, "Young Kerguelen was taken from the Welfare
Center by a reporter who is one of ours.
The UG, I mean. Where she was taken is not important.
But, from that place, a few weeks later, another of ours put a young woman on
a low-level SST to Buenos Aires. "
"And all that means what?"
"Put it together yourself. And add in Erika Hulzeins Establishment, which
operates somewhere out of Buenos Aires and is most influential in keeping UETs
fingers off that whole country. "
Aunt Erika?
Not thinking, Tregare said, "If the kids with that old tiger, UET can go piss
up a rope. "
Lofall narrowed her eyes. "What do you know about the Hulzein Establishment?"
Now when Tregare took hold of her, it was gently. "More than I intend to tell
you, Renni.
Except that we're on the same side but never got along. All right?"
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It must have been, because for quite a while there, everything else was.
For the rest of that day, in the back of Tregares mind, the mystery of the
Kerguelen youngster's fate nagged him. At one point he even toyed with the
idea of trying to route some kind of illicit call through to the Hulzein
Establishment in Argentina, and asking about the kid.
But such a move would be just plain asking for trouble, and he was already
surrounded with enough potential for that. So he didn't.
Instead he kept his ship waiting in line while the Stronghold fleet went, one [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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