Gordon Dickson Time to Teleport (v1.0) (lit)

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attempt to get away from the two men holding him.
"Let him go," said Eli. "It's all right. Let him go."
SlowlyClyde and Ntoane released him. Howell stared wildly at Eli for a
moment, then suddenly the stiffness went out of him and he crumpled. Eli
caught him and eased him into a chair. Howell was shaking.
"Mel!" said Eli sharply, over his shoulder to the tall young man. "Give him
something to calm him down. He'll be all right." He put his hand on Howell's
shoulder. "You'll be all right, Arthur."
"God!Oh, God!" said Howell brokenly, his face buried in his hands.
Eli patted him on the shoulder and turned to Ntoane. There was a weary but
triumphant smile on his face.
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"And now," he said. "I'm ready to go to work. I imagine you can help me?"
Ntoane stared back at him and slowly a smile crept out to erase the strain on
his own features and he nodded.
"Yes," he said. "Yes, Eli, I can. Several million of us can."
10
Anthony George Sellars sat frowning at the desk before him in the Speaker's
anteroom of the Main Council Room ofCableIsland . Swelling up from the
polished desk top a small screen showed him the station on Calayo Banks Cay,
from the point of view of one of the airboats at rest beside it. The solar
roof was smashed and broken where the door to the jetty had been blasted loose
from its hinges, and the furniture of the solar itself was overturned and
disordered, but that was all.
The storm blocks that closed the elevator shaft had not yet been cracked.
This was unfortunate but merely as a matter of timing. An airboat with
sufficient explosive to blast an entrance should make its arrival within
minutes. No, the station would undoubtedly be opened. That was not what
bothered Anthony Sellars at the moment. It was the fact that he had handled
the whole business very badly first by not taking care of Eli the minute his
men had taken young Poby Richards and forced the knowledge of Eli's location
from him, and secondly by mistakenly putting his trust in Clyde. He had
thought he had observed in the young Spokesman for Communications a
hardheadness equal to his own; and, as always when he allowed himself to trust
to anyone besides himself, he had been disappointed.
He sighed and rose from the table. In a few moments the remnants of what had
been the Council of Group Representatives would be gathering in the
amphitheatre beyond the small door to his right that led into the Speaker's
Section of the Main Council Room. Some would come from the lower levels of
theIsland where they had been virtual prisoners since his unobtrusive coup
here several days back. Others would have been salvaged from cities around the
world where and when his men could find them. In some cases both the spokesman
and the underspokesman of a group were dead or unobtainable and a local group
head had been brought in in their place. But, one way or another, there was a
representative for every group; and even now they would be entering the Main
Council Room, for their last official meeting.
When they were all seated, it would be his job to go in and tell them that
the group system was ready to be abolished and hint that those of them who
wished to co-operate would be absorbed into his own governing organization.
After that there would be nothing left but the formality of a vote. It was not
a prospect to which Tony Sellars looked forward with any particular triumph.
Nor could it be said that it affected his emotions adversely, either. It was
merely the next step that should be taken in its proper order, one more duty
to be performed.
He turned and began to pace the room, not nervously, but with a measured
steadiness, as if the occupation was some particularly necessary exercise.
There was in his walk the same thing that marked all his action, a studied
acknowledgement of duty. Tony Sellars was in fact, in the truest senses, a
slave to duty.
Few people understood this man who had been Spokesman for Transportation for
over twenty years. People did not warm to Anthony George Sellars the way they
warmed to Eli Johnstone. Rather they were chilled by him and in many cases,
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repelled. Themajority disliked him and were a little afraid of him. A minority
found things to admire in him; and surprisingly, within the ranks of this [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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