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part to further tie Ronschke into the investigation. Gleeson s a lot smarter
and a lot more devious than he might appear on the surface.
Van der Stegen finally placed his brandy glass down on the table and leaned
forward.  Yes, he is. All that is highly plausible, Stein, he said.  So we
don t know exactly who took my handipad. Whether it was Tasha herself or not
is unimportant. I still don t see how they could possibly use it to do any
damage.
 Ahh, that s where I come in. I m fringe. I recognize I m fringe, Mr. Van der
Stegen, and I ve already been told directly by one particularly unsavory
character who worked for the other side that William Warburg intended to use
that to his advantage. He had no expectation that I was going to come up with
any real results from my work on the case. He was going to report back to the
board that the investigation into the crew s disappearance had drawn a blank.
Due diligence and all that, but nothing that would tell anybody anything. That
would also buy him enough time to complete the experiments on Dairil III. To
Warburg s mind, psychic investigation, psychic anything, is a waste of time,
and that would be used to prime the board.
 I don t see how 
 That was just the first step. With that sitting in the back of their minds,
Warburg was going to distribute the contents of your handipad to the board.
There s a lot of stuff there, Mr. Van der Stegen, that is just as fringe as
anything I m involved in. Alchemy, the philosophers stone, Ouroboros, all of
that. Warburg was going to use it as evidence that you d lost your grip. He d
come up with real results because of hard scientific work, and you, dithering
around with this suspect philosophical stuff, had gone nowhere, throwing away
company resources along the way. His argument would have been that you d
obviously lost your grip on reality, perhaps become a little senile, and had
become a risk to the company s operations, wasting funds with nothing to show
for it. One research effort is a significant drain on company resources, but
two, when the second one is highly suspect and undertaken in secret, without
the board s approval . . . well, that would hurt.
 No doubt you re pumping Outreach funds into your effort. You would be seen
not only to be wasting money and resources, but to be losing your mind. Faced
with that evidence, you d have no choice but to cede control to your daughter.
Warburg would have suggested it, and he would have gained full backing of the
Outreach board. Then, in partnership, she and Warburg could continue
unhindered. You d be out of the picture, Tasha would have what she wanted, and
Warburg would be free to carve out his empire. The perfect union. Until, of
course, Tasha decided to take how much she really wanted. But that would be
another game to be played out accordingly when the time came.
Jack sat back and spread his hands.  That s it. That s the whole story.
Van der Stegen said nothing for some time, and then he grinned. He actually
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grinned.
 Very good, Stein. I m afraid Tasha and William are going to have to wait a
while longer. I always knew he was a sly, calculating bastard. It was my work
that put him onto this path in the first place. Just like him to ignore that
and deny any connection. He probably doesn t realize that I have complete
records of our initial discussions about this problem. When I confront them
with this, they re going to have to sit back for a while and learn some
patience. I m not ready to retire yet. Not by a long way. And now that I have
the full information about the mining crew, I m the one who ll have the upper
hand.
 And what about the crew? Aren t you going to do anything?
 What? What should I do, Stein? They re not my responsibility.
Jack had had enough.  Don t you feel anything, Mr. Van der Stegen? Anything
at all? You re acting as if this is just some big game to you.
Van der Stegen said nothing, just shrugged.
 Dammit, said Jack quietly. There was nothing he could do to influence this
man. Nothing at all. And there was nobody he could tell either. No one who
would make any difference. He leaned forward, slapping his hands on the tops
of his thighs.  Fine, he said with finality.  Look, there is one thing I want
to know. Call it my own curiosity, but can you tell me something?
 Hmmm? What is it? Van der Stegen was only half paying attention now.
 I don t understand, Mr. Van der Stegen. What is all this stuff about
alchemy, about the kabala? What relevance does it have to any of this research
your people have been involved in?
 Fair question, Stein, and actually one I m prepared to answer. As a race,
we ve made enormous advances over the last centuries. Science and technology
have moved at a pace that s almost impossible to track, and yet we remain
ignorant. As we ve advanced, as things have become easier for us, we ve moved
farther and farther away from true knowledge. How many of us really understand
the way things work? How many really know the way things fit together? I have
long believed that we, humanity, have known things far beyond the accumulated
scientific and technical knowledge we profess today.
 I don t understand. . . . [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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