EdgeOfHuman by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

Tyrell Corporation gets shut down -- the way its enemies would like to -- it won't be going back into business. Ever again. This whole complex . . .' She gestured toward the walls of the office suite and by extension, all of the headquarters buildings beyond. "For us to get a look on the U.N.'s business, to be the exclusive suppliers of replicants for the off-world colonies, this entire setup had to be built according to U.N. specifications. All the corporation's research and design facilities are here, along with the manufacturing units, every inch of the assembly lines that put out replicants ready to ship. Even the Tyrell family living quarters are here; that was part of the U.N. requirements as well. The shape of the buildings, the way they're arranged facing each other, everything. It was all done so that when the red button is pushed -- when the built-in self-destruct sequence is initiated -- the results are absolute annihilation to the Tyrell Corporation, with minimal damage to the surrounding area of the city."
    Deckard's eyes opened a fraction wider. " 'Self-destruct'? What're you talking about?"
    "Don't get nervous on me. It's not likely to happen while you're sitting here." She gave a small shrug. "But it could. That's what it was designed to do, from the beginning. All of the Tyrell Corporation's headquarters complex -- everything around us -- was built with enough explosive charges in the substructure and imbedded in the walls, all of them linked by a programmed timing chain, to reduce it to smoking dust."
    She had trained herself to speak of these things dispassionately, by reciting them inside her head. Late at night before she fell asleep, like a bedtime story. "There might be a few pieces big as a man's fist in the pile. There might even be a few pieces of me , if I'm here when it happens. Though I don't think that anybody would be bothered to come and look. Everything's designed to implode, to fall in upon the center; that's why the towers are slanted toward each other. It'd be a thoughtful sort of apocalypse; nobody else would get hurt. So you see, Deckard, if the Tyrell Corporation goes out of business -- if the U.N. authorities are able to justify pushing that red button, starting up the self-destruct sequence -- it won't be going back into business any-time soon."
    "And that's what you believe they want?"
    "Rather than admit their own mistakes? That they were wrong about how they've managed the off-world colonization program?" Sarah leaned her head back for a quill hollow-sounding laugh. "Of course. That's another part of human nature. We always murder rather than apologize."
    Silent, Deckard appeared to be contemplating the empty glass in his hand, holding it by the faceted base. "Am I supposed to think . . ." His murmur was almost too soft to hear. "Am I supposed to think that if the Tyrell Corporation gets blown up into little pieces, that it'd be some kind of tragedy?"
    "I don't care what you think. You can think whatever you want. But I'm not going to let the Tyrell Corporation be destroyed. It's mine." She turned to look out the window behind her, at the towers glazed dark red by the setting sun. "I don't expect you to be as concerned about the fate of the corporation as I am. I just want you to do the job for which I brought you here."
    "Like I told Bryant, a long time ago . . ." He leaned forward and set the empty glass down on the bureau plat, beside hers. "I don't work here."
    "You will. For me."
    "Don't bet on it." His gaze narrowed. "I don't even know what you'd want me to do."
    "Isn't it obvious? There's still an escaped replicant -- a Tyrell Corporation Nexus-6 model, to be precise loose somewhere in the city. I want you to find it and -- what's the word? -- retire it. Before whatever's the next stage of the conspiracy can be set in motion. Before the Tyrell Corporation, and everything that my uncle worked to bring into existence, can be destroyed."
    "Like I told you . . ." Deckard slowly