Free Soulminder by Timothy Zahn Page A

sure,” Everly said. “At the moment we’re up to about seven, all in low-level, non-critical positions. More or less the sort of deep-mole gambit we expected. I’m having them watched until we’re sure we have everyone, at which point we can throw the whole group out at once.”
    “Are they all CIA?” Sommer asked.
    “No, actually they’re a mixture of military and civilian intelligence types,” Everly told him. “From what my contacts have said there seems to have been a kind of jurisdictional struggle when you first hit the scene, which the Secret Service apparently won. My guess is they invited these other people into their Soulminder task force to help soothe any feathers that were still ruffled.”
    “So the CIA people in the construction crew are really on temporary Secret Service duty?”
    “Or else they’re the CIA keeping its own hand in,” Everly said dryly. “They can be sore losers sometimes.”
    “Wonderful,” Sands growled. “Just wonderful. On one side we’ve got Congress trying to legislate and oversight-committee us into their own box, and now we’ve got the Executive Branch doing its best to put us on strings. What’s next, the Supreme Court?”
    “Oh, they’ll find a way into it eventually,” Everly agreed. “But I doubt it’s the Administration that’s behind this mole operation, at least not directly.” He waved a hand, the gesture encompassing the lab. “Remember that you have a hell of a lot of very important lives in the palm of your hand here, and no one in government is ever happy at leaving that kind of power under private control.”
    “But they always have that problem, at least potentially,” Sommer pointed out. “You get the President visiting some out-of-the-way place and having a heart attack, and they’re going to be stuck with local doctors.”
    “And they don’t like it one bit, which is why the Presidential party always includes an Army doctor,” Everly said. “But flukes like that they can’t control. Soulminder they can.” A faint smile twisted at his lips. “Or so they think.”
    Sands looked at Sommer. “We’ve got to head them off,” she said. “Go public with this, maybe, and let the country know what they’re up to.”
    “I’d strongly recommend against that, Dr. Sands,” Everly said, shaking his head. “There’s a loud chunk of the populace that thinks all health care should be under government control, and another chunk who don’t trust any form of big business. If you force the issue into the open, you’re likely to get both groups of people calling for a government takeover.”
    “They try it and they can all go straight to hell,” Sands said, her voice icy. “I’ll destroy Soulminder before I’ll let anyone take it away from us.”
    Sommer swallowed. Do I feel that strongly about it ? he wondered uncomfortably. If push really came to shove, would he be willing to sacrifice all the potential good in Soulminder for … was it really anything more than pride?
    “I wouldn’t worry about any serious takeover bids, at least not at the moment,” Everly said, saving Sommer from having to say anything. “Mr. Porath’s people downstairs have good reputations—they could tie anything overt into legal knots with their eyes closed.” He nodded toward the blank TV. “Actually, people like the Reverend Harper are some of your best allies right now.”
    Sands gave a snort. “You are kidding, I presume.”
    “Not really. His followers may feel uneasy about Soulminder, but they damn well don’t trust the government.”
    “Ah,” Sommer nodded as understanding came. “If they think Soulminder is potentially evil and that the government is controlled by atheists, it would be utterly disastrous if the government took us over.”
    “Right,” Everly said. “And there are a lot of people who’d react that way, with or without Harper’s religious overtones.”
    “So we’re back to your floodlit-microscope theory, are we?”