Free The Fenris Device by Brian Stableford Page A

you’ll just do as you’re told.”
    â€œIt’s still not worth the risk,” I insisted.
    â€œOh, it’s worth it,” he said. “It’s worth it. You don’t understand. I keep telling you that you don’t understand but you won’t believe me, just like you won’t believe I can read your mind. They never believed me. Not any of them. They never took any notice. But I knew. I knew, because I could read their minds. They thought they could keep it from me. They thought they could block me out of their minds by just not looking at me, just not seeing me. But they didn’t understand. It’s worth it to me, to get the Fenris device. It’s worth all of life to me. It’s worth more than the world, more than the universe. You don’t understand, do you?”
    â€œNo,” I said. “I don’t.”
    â€œI know what you think,” he said. “I can read your mind. You think I want to raise the Varsovien for someone else. You think the Gallacellans are paying me. You think Ferrier’s paying me. Well, Ferrier’s dead, and so is that girl of his. And I never talked to a filthy alien in my life. Nobody’s paying me for the Varsovien . I want it for myself. You think I want it so I can escape, don’t you? You think I want it so I can run away from the police, run away and sell it to some other world. Well, you’re wrong. I don’t want the Fenris to sell. I don’t want it to escape. I want the Fenris device to use.”
    â€œUse on who?” I asked faintly. I already knew.
    â€œOn all of them,” he said. “On all of them. The whole world. Pallant.”

CHAPTER SIX
    â€œJohnny,” I said calmly—I had to be calm, in spite of everything—“we’re going down. I don’t think there’s anything else we can do.”
    â€œWhatever you say,” he said.
    â€œYou’ve got to stay steady. Is the captain with you?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThen tell him to get out. Tell him to go lie on his bunk and pray. I don’t want him in a position where he might so much as catch your eye. OK?”
    â€œAll right, Grainger.” Nick’s voice floated up from the depths. “I’m on my way.”
    â€œGood. Now, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. Instead of going in on a long arc, like I did before, I’m going to go straight in. A vertical dive at high speed. I’m not going to pull out until I hit the garbage in the last few thousand feet, and then I’m going to pull out so that the storm wind sits on my tail, and I’m going to keep it there. That way I think I can cope with all the dirt and the vapor. If the wind changes while I’m pulling out, we’re dead, but it’ll only be a matter of seconds, and I think that chance might owe us that much. Now you’ll know when I go into the curve because it will hurt me and I’ll probably scream. If and when you hear me, you keep that plasma in the web—because if it bleeds it won’t just leak, it’ll explode, and there’ll be one dead Johnny in the drive-chamber. The rest of us will survive you by about a second and a half. Now, you understand what I’m going to try to do?”
    â€œI get it,” he said.
    â€œFine. Eve?”
    â€œI know. Just the stun. When you give me the word. It’s going to hurt you, you know—hurt you badly.”
    â€œâ€˜That’s what I’m relying on,” I told her. “Nothing like pain to sharpen up the reflexes.”
    â€œOr paralyze them,” she said.
    â€œThat’s another concession that chance owes me,” I said. “I won’t seize up.”
    â€œGet on with it,” said Maslax.
    â€œYou’re sure in a hurry to die,” I commented.
    â€œNobody’s going to die,” he said.
    â€œHow many people are there on Pallant? Twenty million? That’s a lot of