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reasoned action nonetheless.
At first she simply felt, well, normal, and for a while that was enough. Those
inner urges, those bouts of losing control, of nearly sick cravings, seemed to
vanish while leaving little in their place. This was not, of course, normal to
an Erdomese, but it seemed normal in almost any other context. She felt, well,
much like Tony and Anne Marie seemed to feel, or Mavra. She was simply
herself, but in complete control, not needing anything just to remain sane.
Free. Free to study, free to learn, free of any thought of returning to Erdom.
Yet when she looked at herself in the mirror, she liked what she saw. If
anything, she liked it more than she had, felt more comfortable about the
person who stared back at her. Although those urges and emotions had at times
been overwhelming and omnipresent for what had seemed forever, it now was
difficult, even impossible, to remember what that had felt like. She felt
every bit a female, no less than before; certainly she didn't feel sexless or
frigid or an "it." And yet, well, those things she'd gathered around or made
or picked up in the markets that were so obviously phallic now seemed pretty
silly. She wasn't quite sure just what sort of change other than allowing her
independence the doctors had wrought, but if this was the extent of it, well,
it was something she could surely live with and might have died without.
Tony came back from the city with what she hoped was an answer to Anne Marie's
report of only a few days before. Anne Marie, at least, was excited. "This is
the first time they ever sent a reply to one of our reports! And so quickly,
too! Perhaps they've found something out! Play it!"
Tony removed the cube and pressed her thumb firmly on the one side that had an
inlaid red surface. The cube took a few cells of skin, compared them with the
genetic code it carried, seemed satisfied, then said in a voice that came
through as a soft and pleasant woman's voice, "Please do not play the rest of
this inside your home. Take it to an open area well away from any others,
particularly natives, and repeat the process. The cube contains a small zonal
scrambling device that will cover an area about three meters square, so be
close to it. The message will play only once, erasing itself as it plays, so
pay close attention. When done, burn the cube in any open fire. The message
will now pause until you take these precautions, and you will not hear this
preamble again." "My goodness!" Anne Marie exclaimed. "Sounds rather serious,
doesn't it?"
"It certainly sounds as if something, at least, is going to happen," Tony
agreed. "Let's take the precautions and go down to the jetty and see what they
have to say." She paused a moment and had a puzzled look. "I wonder why that
many precautions. Surely they do not think that even this tent is bugged-could
they? I mean, who would bug us?"
"Someone who is certainly near death from boredom," Anne Marie responded.
"Still, let's do this cloak and dagger business by the rules, dear." They all
left the tent and went down perhaps two hundred meters to the jetty, where
the gentle ocean water, softened by far-off undersea reefs, lapped against
the sides. It was a nice, bright day, warmer than usual and with a gentle
wind.
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0of%20Souls.TXT (24 of 157) [7/1/03 1:20:24 AM]
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There was nobody else around close enough to observe them. The three gathered
close, and Tony took out the cube and pressed again on the red area. "This is
Ambassador Aliva speaking for the
Special Committee," said the female voice in Dillian, which the two
centauresses understood directly and made an extra authenticity check
possible as well. "We have evaluated our report on this clinic and its
specialists, which coincides with intelligence from other sources, and we
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
believe that you have stumbled on the key to the disappearances and also to
why action is now mandated. As a result, we have arranged for an Agonite
whose character is beyond question and who has both knowledge and authority
in combating this criminal syndicate to assume command of a special unit that
will follow up this lead.
"His name is Janwah Kurdon, and he is an officer in the Agonese Secret Police.
Please do not be put off by this; Kurdon has been in something like an exile
since mounting a campaign against the syndicate and being blocked by corrupt
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