Ambient by Jack Womack Read Free Book Online Page B

his lawyers, and their
holographic seal affixed at the bottom of each page.
    "Clause 16A," he said; I found it and read it. I read it twice
more.
    "Seriously?" I asked.
    "Even now, it steadies. Even if you decide otherwise in my
request for assistance, you'll claim 25 percent of my holdings
and future inheritances. You serve well, OM. Goodness claims
those who wait."
    "Even if I decide otherwise, this stands?"
    He nodded. "Though if you do, and I'm taken first," he said,
the hint of that smile long faded, "you may not enjoy for long.
His hands could cut all our strings, and drop us in middance.
Consider."
    We neared our destination, the Trade Towers. Smoke still drifted
near the base of the south tower, where the latest blast had occurred. Our operations were located in the north tower, as was
Mister Dryden's downtown apartment. To the right of the towers,
near the river's edge, stood the beginnings of the floodwall. When
the possibility of the Green first showed itself, years ago, the city
borrowed funds from the Old Man toward the construction of a
fifty-foot wall intended to surround Manhattan. The funds were
no less liquid than the waters to be fought and were mostly diverted to other campaigns. The floodwall ran only from the towers south to the Battery. Traditional American handicraft was employed in the wall's construction, and so most of it had collapsed.
    "I just don't know," I said, after some minutes.
    "You don't want better?"
    "I do."
    "A better place to live you'll have. You can move out of the
freak show down there."
    "I like where I'm living," I said-that wasn't strictly true, not
anymore. I liked living with Enid, who liked where we lived.

    "I can't stand even thinking of those Ambients," he said,
shivering again. "The real ones, I mean."
    Mister Dryden knew my sister was an Ambient, a voluntary
one; such had been reported to him many times by the anonymous wishing to further themselves.
    "I'm rather used to them," I said.
    "OM," he said, "You can't know how many you'll help if
you do this."
    "Say that I do," I said. "Someone has to take the fall. Even
if I disguise it we'll be suspected-"
    "They can't touch me," he said.
    "They can me," I said; it wasn't the police, or the Army, that
concerned us, but the Old Man's guards and supporters, who had
their own interests to consider, some of whom were even more
accomplished than Jake when it came to discipline.
    "You'll lowlie it after, at my request," he said. "Out of country. For a couple of months until we can reorganize. Fire a few,
here and there."
    "Still-"
    "Hear my last proposal and decide," he said. "You'll need
assist in this yourself, certain. Rule me out for the obvious. Trust
no one at the estate."
    "Jimmy?" I asked.
    "More in his pocket than mine. You'll need someone lightfooted. Sharp wits about. Trustworthied. Keen to travel. One with
whom you work well. With a bulb dimmer than yours, perhaps,
so as not to outshine."
    "Who?"
    He motioned toward the front seat, looking through the clear
panel. The seat was broad and the car wide; Avalon lay there, on
her knees and elbows, curled up, asleep, facing Jimmy. Her bottom was raised as if for a computer advertisement. Sharp blue
electric flushed my skin. Jimmy pulled our car onto the ramp
leading into the subtower area, and her form was lost in shadow.

    "Avalon?"
    "As described," he said, no discernible emotion in his voice.
This seemed entirely too much like one of my dreams; I felt my
objections drifting into sleep.
    "But-"
    "OM," he said. "It's time for many changes. Her fondness
feeds me no more. I see how you see her. See how she sees you
back. Only nature's way at op. This morning I saw how you
clasped, postconference. Even when eyeshut, I see. "
    "I'd think you wouldn't be very happy about it-"
    "I'm not, on level one. On level two, as said, it's time for
many changes. There's no point keeping what you haven't got."
    A heavily guarded garage area had been built