Originally Posted by
Ramil 4
“Far away from Earth, far away from Cailis, where you’ve been killed, Kay…” said Van Curtis who stood on the edge of the pad looking down, a bit of ocean, a dark strip of a forest, and a patch of night clutched between them, “there is the planet Graal.”
“I haven’t heard of it.”
“Not surprising. It’s a new poorly developed world. My interests demand/require my presence there.”
Van Curtis suddenly spat into the emptiness and Kay suppressed a smile – this act was completely out of character for the aThan’s owner.
“It’s good you don’t laugh, Kay. What you just heard is strictly secret/confidential in itself. And I will have to tell you more and trust you even more than that. I’m taking risks/chances…”
Van Curtis turned to Kay and grasped/clutched his shoulder.
“Do you know what it’s like to be the most powerful man in the galaxy? Billions of people hate me. Those who cannot afford to buy aThan, those who went bankrupt paying for it, and those who can’t stand the luxury of this residence. Billions of hating eyes, millions of hating hands… I pay not only for protection against/from potential killers. Apart from that I keep personnel for psychological protection against those ill-wishers which could have some psychic powers even without knowing this themselves. Beyond this residence, beyond Terra, they wouldn’t just kill me, no… They would torment me for years until I go mad and become a nitwit peeing in his pants. No aThan would help me then. Yet, I’m willing to risk/chance…”
“Do you need a bodyguard?” asked Kay, unbelieving/not believing all of that.
“Not that simple. If I disappear for as little as one day from within these walls it would become known. Competitors, enemies… A hundred mice would bite a cat to death, Kay. And I am a very fat and lazy cat. I will have to risk and trust this business to my son. And you, Kay Altos, a professional bodyguard will accompany him/will be by his side protecting him.
“I agree… if my agreement matters”, said Kay, “a job is a job, even if it has/it entails more risk than usual. You could simply hire me.”
“Really? And make it so that everybody knows about it? Anyone entering these walls attracts universal attention from many powerful companies and governments. It's even more so for those who leave. But you got here, shall we say, virtually. And you’ll go out the same way.”
“I see,” Kay forced a smile, “I hope it will be painless.”
“Well, much less painful than from an algopistol. According to the Cailis police report you’ve been killed with it?”
Kay didn’t answer.
“I’ve been waiting for a long time, Kay. I had about a hundred men in mind. Experienced pilots, bodyguards, and hired killers. It was necessary that some of them died without paying for the aThan renewal. You know, I hope, that the neural grid implanted under your thick brainpan always works. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve paid for the aThan or not, it would do its job and send a full report about a missing life to space. The company decides on whether to delete this signal from memory or to copy it to a new body. You didn’t renew your immortality and the regional office has deleted the signal. Your body matrix has been deleted too. But I decided otherwise and used my exclusive throughout ]the Empire private resurrector/regenerator and returned you to life, my young unlucky friend. You do not exist officially anymore, but you’re standing here before me.
“Thank you.” said Kay sincerely.
“You don’t need to thank me yet. You will work it off for every muscle, every gland and even for that @@@@ in your bowels which had to be recreated for a complement. If you get my son to Graal then in addition to the documents and a substantive bank account you’ll get the grand prize. Immortality, Kay! No matter how many times you get yourself killed your aThan would be paid up by the company. Well, is it a fair price?
“Quite.”
“I like your reserve, Kay. I’m an old man… even though my body is only fifty years old. I have the right to be talkative. You’re young and you are capable of doing much… with your years. So, Kay, I wish I could provide you with a new body, but experience shows that you wouldn’t be efficient in it. So we’ll have to risk/chance it. Tonight, every office of the company will receive the matrices of three persons: Mr. and Mrs. Ovald and their son.
“Will there be three of us?”
“No. Only you and Arthur will meet with an accident. You are a freelance trader that roams the frontier. Your ship was crushed/wrecked… due to sabotage apparently. All of this will be staged; there is a good simulator in the building. You know, that browsing though the memory of a client is forbidden, but there is always some curious smartass out there who will do it. I hope they won’t look any deeper/any further back than two or three hours before your death.
“Did you browse through my memory?”
“Kay!” Van Curtis thrust his hands in the air. “Perhaps you don’t understand it, but those who set the rules have to play by them. Browsing through memory is forbidden! If an average executive finds out that Van Curtis breaks his own laws even occasionally then my reputation, my empire, all of it would collapse. Moreover, Kay, I don’t give a damn, which particular whore or robber had caught you when you were off guard. I am familiar with your file, Kay. Four times you died shielding the client by yourself, once in an absolutely unequal fight. Once you got drunk and fell into the river…”
“I was pushed, Curtis”
“I don’t care. I hope the price/compensation will make you stay on alert and forget about the little joys of life… for the sake of life itself.”
“Of course, Van Curtis.”
“So, you’ll be resurrected/regenerated. I don’t know where, Kay, for the sake of your own safety. There are twelve chances out of a hundred that we’re being watched even here.”
Kay looked up into the clear sky.
“Young man, there are so many screens above us that there is practically no difference between the basement and the roof. So, you’ll be resurrected/regenerated and then you will buy a ship. You’ll have limited credit otherwise it would raise suspicions. But don’t think of me as of a skinflint. When your money is spent there will be additional amounts arriving. Then you will go to Graal. After landing my son on/at any safe place then you can do whatever you want. And he’ll see to our family business.”
“Sounds easy, Van Curtis.”
“Simplicity rules/Keep it simple, Kay.”
“Let’s speak about guarantees then.”
Van Curtis frowned.
“What are the guarantees that my aThan would/will be renewing? Where are the guarantees that once on that precious Graal of yours that Curtis junior wouldn’t beam the back of my head? Where are the guarantees that a dozen killers wouldn’t go for removing/disposing of Kay Altos who knows too much?”
“Well, well, well…” Van Curtis smacked his lips as elderly people do. He walked along the edge of the pad and said with regret:
“You risk much, Kay…”
“It’s the profession.”
For a second Curtis peered at Kay. Kay looked directly into his face struggling to suppress the compulsion to avert the/his eyes. At last, Curtis laughed:
“Profession you say? And how do you judge about my profession, the head of a galactic corporation … by the movies? Do you know that almost two hundred years ago when my firm had been no more than another curious line in the news that one of my bitterest enemies bought the aThan? He died soon in an accident. There weren’t many clients then, nobody simply believed us in those days, and the price of life in the world after the conflict in Tucano seemed too high. I directed the resurrection/regeneration process myself. I could… yes, I could…”
Curtis stopped speaking looking somewhere afar/somewhere off in the distance.
“Our feud lasted for many more years, Kay. He kept renewing his aThan. At last I bankrupted him. Then Shulman terminated the contract, took off on his yacht/private ship and headed for the nearest star.”
“This could be a gesture dictated by the circumstances” said Kay very mildly.
“You’re not a fool. A gesture, you say? Of course! But remember, was there a single word about my dishonesty in business among all those lies that they keep pouring/heaping on me every hour in every information network? A word at least?”
Kay shook his head.
“People don’t work for me for money alone, and not even for life. They are committed because I don’t betray my men/betray them.”
“All right” Kay suddenly got tired of arguing. “There is one last question. How do you guarantee my honesty?”
“Your honesty? It’s quite simple, Kay. There is the neural grid in your brain. If you betray me then sooner or later, in whatever hole you would be hiding, you will face death. And believe me, you’ll resuscitate/regenerate in this very house. It would happen no later than when I have hired the best torturers one can buy for money. You would be tortured forever, Kay. It would be your personal hell. Hundreds, thousands of years of torments. Pain would become your air, your food and your dream. You’ll be dying and be resurrected/regenerated for even stronger/even more excruciating pain. You would be given rest in order to intensify your agony later. I would gather writers that would devise new torments and producers that can turn them into a play. I would get sadists from prisons and lovers of human meat from clinics. I would seek help from other races and they would dig up archives on the wars with humans. And you would be brought sometimes here to the most quiet and cozy place in my house and I would remind you of this conversation.”
Curtis Van Curtis, the master of life and death stood/was standing before Kay Altos from the planet Altos, the rootless/homeless maverick who didn’t even have a surname and talked very calmly and earnestly. When he stopped Kay lifted his arms:
“You are persuasive, Van Curtis, I’m yours forever.”
“I never doubted it.” Curtis shivered his shoulders, “It’s chilly, Kay. Let’s go to/into the study, I don’t want to catch a cold on top of/to add to my problems.”
The floor under them obediently went down. They floated in a black capsule in a force field and Van Curtis looked with curiosity over a man to whom he had promised the greatest reward and the most horrible ordeals since the beginning of the world. He was a god, a strange god of the Human Empire that had a right to punish and pardon, to kill and to return to life. A god that is afraid to step down from his hand-made Olympus.
“Can your son fly small interstellar ships?” Kay looked as if he’d already forgotten the recent conversation.
“Not only small ones.”
“Weapons?”
“He manages handguns quite well, he’s good with ship mounted weapons, he’s worse with cold weapons… all these planar swords and other exotics.”
“Is he physically developed?”
Curtis gave a short laugh and patted his belly:
“He is, far better that I am. I’d say that he’s in perfect shape for his years.”
“Well, it’s quite accepta…” Kay raised his eyes. “How old is he, Curtis?”
“He was born sixteen years ago”, said Curtis vaguely.
Kay made a wry face, but his grimace was caused more by relief rather than discontent.
“Biologically though, he’s twelve years old.”
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