Robert Charrette - Arthur 03 - A Knight Among Knaves by Robert N. Charrette Read Free Book Online Page B

decent chance for Holger to come out ahead.
    Someone passed him, horn blaring, and sluiced water across the windscreen. The wipers were momentarily rendered useless. When visibility returned to its previous miserable level, the taillights of the car that had passed him were already distant. That driver wasn't allowing himself much

    margin for error, given the road conditions. Whoever he was he was in a big hurry. Someone heading to cut Holger off?
    He wished he'd thought to have the computer agent primed to survey and relay the messages to his hunters. Even a simple counting function would have told him the number of operatives arrayed against him. Then again, maybe it was just as well he hadn't added any functions to the agent. More muscle would have made the thing more visible to the De partment's safeguards. For all he knew, the agent had been detected and the message he'd just received was what the Department wanted him to receive. Operatives could be clos ing in on him right now. The hurried driver might be arranging a roadblock. Others might be—
    Paranoia, he told himself. A useful survival trait, if not overdone. There was no good reason to think his agent com promised. He was ahead in the game. He was doing fine He'd worked to eliminate problems and reduce the trouble he would have in the test, and he'd succeeded. Thinking other wise was just paranoia.
    Wasn't it?
    Certainly. He'd built a proper fail-safe into the agent. If it had been discovered, its complex of programs would have dissolved and unleashed a code eater to devour the fragments. The only reasonable course was to assume that the agent hadn't been compromised.
    He would have felt better if it hadn't been raining.
    It had been raining the day of the accident. He didn't remember much about the accident, but he remembered that, even though remembering made his head ache. The doctors said that the memory loss and the headaches were to be expected. Typical traumatic stress reaction. They said that in time, when he was better able to deal with it, he might remember. For now, they said, don't worry about it. The doctors had done what they could; the Department took care of its own. Don't worry about the past, they said. Deal with the present. Concentrate on the present.
    Good advice, given the road conditions.
    He almost missed the exit onto the A33 because he wasn't concentrating. It wouldn't do to miss his meeting with the contact in Southampton. A headache had come out of nowhere to almost blind him. The doctors had said that it might happen. It was mercifully brief; some kind of feedback problem, he guessed. A recurrence at the wrong time could be a real problem. He'd have to speak to the doctors about it. After the test was successfully completed.
    His agent narrowcast him another alert being sent out on the monitoring system. His testers were putting out a general notice. Case D-23. Holger didn't recognize the code, but the prefix indicated a technical glitch. Not his problem if they were having trouble.
    The rain let up just before he reached Southampton's old city gate, Bar Gate, but no bar to him. Almost there. Traffic was almost nonexistent as he headed down High Street, doing an impression of a cautious, poky, tired driver, to give himself a chance to assess the site. The streets were empty of people even though the rain had stopped. Given the hour and weather, the only civilians to be encountered would be those caught somewhere by the evening storm—or those who would have even less desire to encounter Holger than he had to meet up with them. That was good.
    The Red Lion was ahead on the left. Light showed in the barely translucent old glass windows, advertising the pub remained open, but there was no one loitering in front, nor anyone in sight on the sidewalks. Holger could just stop the car, get out, and walk into the pub. The whole thing could be over in a matter of minutes.
    He doubted it would be so easy.
    Proof of his suspicion came when he