[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
night table, pulled some tissues, and picked up a small mirror. She started
to remove some of her makeup.
As she was doing this, her feet turned one of the boots on its side, and then
held it in place while the other foot released studs at four points. The sole
fell open on tiny inner hinges, revealing a number of small gadgets. She
gingerly got one she needed, clasping it between her toes of one foot, and
then grasped another with the other foot.
Ready now, she slipped off the pullover, got up, and pulled down the
body-stocking. As she leaned down to take it off, her left hand grabbed both
of the devices.
Nude now, she stood up and actually turned around. The motion looked natural,
but the watchers would draw the obvious conclusion: nothing hidden in the body
cavities. Her fingers, the same ones that suckered rubes with cards and the
shell game since she was small, held the two small devices invisibly. Assuming
the lotus position on the bed, she turned the lights off with her right hand.
In the exact instant the lights went off, she dropped one of the devices on
the bed and pointed the other at the chandelier. She was guided by a beam of
light she could see only because of special contact lenses she wore.
Striking the camera, she snatched the other device, a tiny rectangle, and
positioned it so it
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20...0-%20Exiles%20at%20the%20Well
%20of%20Souls.TXT (26 of 183) [7/1/03 1:17:05 AM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20W...f%20Souls%200
2%20-%20Exiles%20at%20the%20Well%20of%20Souls.TXT
Page 27
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
rested on the pillow, pointed toward the camera. Satisfied, she put the first
gadget down and relaxed in the lotus, eyes closed.
All of this had taken less than ten seconds.
Satisfied by what she could see through her special lenses, that she'd gotten
it right, she opened her eyes, relaxed, then carefully and silently slid off
the side of the bed, trying not to jiggle the little rectangle.
Free of the bed, she checked and saw that the gismo was still in position.
The device was incredibly complex; she'd discovered it only when it was used
to trap her in a minor con, and she'd paid plenty for it. What it did,
simply, was freeze the first image the camera saw and hold it there. There
was an automatic adjustment of several seconds from the standard to the
infrared mode, a little longer to refocus. She then had eleven seconds to
shoot and position the feedback projector, as it was called.
Quietly, with the stealth and caution of an expert burglar, Mavra dressed
herself. She started to put on the boots, then thought better of it,
remembering the I clattering echo of the halls.
She removed the buckle from the whip-belt and used its pin to fix it under
the whip, then turned the small whip handle so it could be easily drawn by
releasing the nearly invisible binding studs.
She hadn't been removing her makeup with the tissue; she'd been smearing it
evenly all over her face and rubbing her hands with it as well. Now she took a
small shrink-wrapped pack from her left boot and opened it, removing the tiny
pad. Carefully, methodically, she smoothed it over all exposed areas of her!
skin. The mild chemical, reacting to another in the1 makeup, caused it to turn
a deep black. Next she re-moved the special contact lenses, squeezed two
drops in her eyes from a nearly minute dropper, then took another, different
pair out of her pack and
?!>""d them in. They were clear, but if she activated the tiny power supply
in her buckle, they would turn into infrared lenses. More than one on New
Pompeii had cat's eyes.
Switching to that mode, she picked up the mirror carefully and looked at
herself. She looked exceedingly monstrous, of course, but the chemical
black-ener was an effective shield against the heat radiation infrared viewers
saw. She touched up a few spots until she could see nothing in the mirror. Her
hands she checked visually.
Then came the nodules. They fit under her long, sharp nails, and the injector
point actually merged with the points of her fingernails. She loaded each one
of them, not all with the same stuff. More than once these nasty 1'ttle
devices had saved her neck- and cost others dearly.
Finally she touched the second power-pack module on the buckle. This energy
source fed the material in the chemicals and in her clothing. Heat-sensitive
devices would ignore her.
They were still trying to figure out that jewel robbery on Baldash.
She wanted this job over and done quickly, if possible. The girl, anyway. If
it could be done tonight, fine. If not, she'd at least know the lay of the
land.
The big door lock was no problem, but the four sensors in the door were. The
door was nearly flush with the mounting; she could only slip in two matching
strips. The third took some work with a blade. Though she had no knife, the
specially treated organic material in her boot had served as one. The toenail
of a large animal on some distant world, sharpened, treated like her own
nails. A nice, thin, flat blade.
The other strips slipped in easily, and she carefully and slowly opened the
door. No alarms, so she peered cautiously outside. The hallway was dark but
apparently not guarded. For all his reliance on people, Trelig used a
professional supersecurity system, one he'd bought and paid for. And that was
his mistake. Successful criminals-the ones they hadn't caught- had countered
them long ago. They would be on infrared, and with mikes. If she didn't make
much noise and if the protective circuits were in, she should be invisible.
She stepped out into the hall and carefully closed the door behind her
Page 28
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
without a sound. There were no flags. She was safe.
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20...0-%20Exiles%20at%20the%20Well
%20of%20Souls.TXT (27 of 183) [7/1/03 1:17:05 AM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20W...f%20Souls%200
2%20-%20Exiles%20at%20the%20Well%20of%20Souls.TXT
This would have been harder if he'd kept the hall lit, she thought.
But nothing was impossible in this line to the Cat Goddess, as she was called
on lots of wanted lists. They even suspected who she was, but they had never
proved anything.
She met no one on her way back to the banquet hall, which, she discovered,
was the only obvious entrance or exit. Only one camera there; she'd checked
that at dinner.
She moved as close to the entrance as she could and peered out of the
curtains. The camera, which was linked to a small paralyzer, rotated along a
rail on the base of the dome. A single fixed camera in the dome itself
wouldn't have supplied adequate coverage; the moving one covered the entire
area in thirty seconds. She timed the movements repeatedly to see that they
hadn't varied it. Only for twelve seconds was the entrance out of view. And
the entrance was about ninety meters from her.
Experience and training paid in the calculations- the area of view and the
like going through her mind. She took two deep breaths, then watched the
little camera go around, hit the precisely calculated point. At that instant
she sped for the entrance, making it outside in under eleven seconds,
something considered impossible, she knew, for such a tiny woman.
But this was .7 G.
She didn't take the steps, but climbed, catlike, over the side and down to
the bushes below.
It was not dark outside, but there was no one in view, and she was quick
despite the vertical drop.
The trick was a tiny little bubble, several of which she carried in her belt.
The bubble, no larger than the head of a pin, formed an incredibly thin
secretion that created tremendous suction when rubbed between the palms of her
hands. It had been her special secret of success in burglary; she had created [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl freetocraft.keep.pl
night table, pulled some tissues, and picked up a small mirror. She started
to remove some of her makeup.
As she was doing this, her feet turned one of the boots on its side, and then
held it in place while the other foot released studs at four points. The sole
fell open on tiny inner hinges, revealing a number of small gadgets. She
gingerly got one she needed, clasping it between her toes of one foot, and
then grasped another with the other foot.
Ready now, she slipped off the pullover, got up, and pulled down the
body-stocking. As she leaned down to take it off, her left hand grabbed both
of the devices.
Nude now, she stood up and actually turned around. The motion looked natural,
but the watchers would draw the obvious conclusion: nothing hidden in the body
cavities. Her fingers, the same ones that suckered rubes with cards and the
shell game since she was small, held the two small devices invisibly. Assuming
the lotus position on the bed, she turned the lights off with her right hand.
In the exact instant the lights went off, she dropped one of the devices on
the bed and pointed the other at the chandelier. She was guided by a beam of
light she could see only because of special contact lenses she wore.
Striking the camera, she snatched the other device, a tiny rectangle, and
positioned it so it
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20...0-%20Exiles%20at%20the%20Well
%20of%20Souls.TXT (26 of 183) [7/1/03 1:17:05 AM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20W...f%20Souls%200
2%20-%20Exiles%20at%20the%20Well%20of%20Souls.TXT
Page 27
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
rested on the pillow, pointed toward the camera. Satisfied, she put the first
gadget down and relaxed in the lotus, eyes closed.
All of this had taken less than ten seconds.
Satisfied by what she could see through her special lenses, that she'd gotten
it right, she opened her eyes, relaxed, then carefully and silently slid off
the side of the bed, trying not to jiggle the little rectangle.
Free of the bed, she checked and saw that the gismo was still in position.
The device was incredibly complex; she'd discovered it only when it was used
to trap her in a minor con, and she'd paid plenty for it. What it did,
simply, was freeze the first image the camera saw and hold it there. There
was an automatic adjustment of several seconds from the standard to the
infrared mode, a little longer to refocus. She then had eleven seconds to
shoot and position the feedback projector, as it was called.
Quietly, with the stealth and caution of an expert burglar, Mavra dressed
herself. She started to put on the boots, then thought better of it,
remembering the I clattering echo of the halls.
She removed the buckle from the whip-belt and used its pin to fix it under
the whip, then turned the small whip handle so it could be easily drawn by
releasing the nearly invisible binding studs.
She hadn't been removing her makeup with the tissue; she'd been smearing it
evenly all over her face and rubbing her hands with it as well. Now she took a
small shrink-wrapped pack from her left boot and opened it, removing the tiny
pad. Carefully, methodically, she smoothed it over all exposed areas of her!
skin. The mild chemical, reacting to another in the1 makeup, caused it to turn
a deep black. Next she re-moved the special contact lenses, squeezed two
drops in her eyes from a nearly minute dropper, then took another, different
pair out of her pack and
?!>""d them in. They were clear, but if she activated the tiny power supply
in her buckle, they would turn into infrared lenses. More than one on New
Pompeii had cat's eyes.
Switching to that mode, she picked up the mirror carefully and looked at
herself. She looked exceedingly monstrous, of course, but the chemical
black-ener was an effective shield against the heat radiation infrared viewers
saw. She touched up a few spots until she could see nothing in the mirror. Her
hands she checked visually.
Then came the nodules. They fit under her long, sharp nails, and the injector
point actually merged with the points of her fingernails. She loaded each one
of them, not all with the same stuff. More than once these nasty 1'ttle
devices had saved her neck- and cost others dearly.
Finally she touched the second power-pack module on the buckle. This energy
source fed the material in the chemicals and in her clothing. Heat-sensitive
devices would ignore her.
They were still trying to figure out that jewel robbery on Baldash.
She wanted this job over and done quickly, if possible. The girl, anyway. If
it could be done tonight, fine. If not, she'd at least know the lay of the
land.
The big door lock was no problem, but the four sensors in the door were. The
door was nearly flush with the mounting; she could only slip in two matching
strips. The third took some work with a blade. Though she had no knife, the
specially treated organic material in her boot had served as one. The toenail
of a large animal on some distant world, sharpened, treated like her own
nails. A nice, thin, flat blade.
The other strips slipped in easily, and she carefully and slowly opened the
door. No alarms, so she peered cautiously outside. The hallway was dark but
apparently not guarded. For all his reliance on people, Trelig used a
professional supersecurity system, one he'd bought and paid for. And that was
his mistake. Successful criminals-the ones they hadn't caught- had countered
them long ago. They would be on infrared, and with mikes. If she didn't make
much noise and if the protective circuits were in, she should be invisible.
She stepped out into the hall and carefully closed the door behind her
Page 28
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
without a sound. There were no flags. She was safe.
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20...0-%20Exiles%20at%20the%20Well
%20of%20Souls.TXT (27 of 183) [7/1/03 1:17:05 AM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20W...f%20Souls%200
2%20-%20Exiles%20at%20the%20Well%20of%20Souls.TXT
This would have been harder if he'd kept the hall lit, she thought.
But nothing was impossible in this line to the Cat Goddess, as she was called
on lots of wanted lists. They even suspected who she was, but they had never
proved anything.
She met no one on her way back to the banquet hall, which, she discovered,
was the only obvious entrance or exit. Only one camera there; she'd checked
that at dinner.
She moved as close to the entrance as she could and peered out of the
curtains. The camera, which was linked to a small paralyzer, rotated along a
rail on the base of the dome. A single fixed camera in the dome itself
wouldn't have supplied adequate coverage; the moving one covered the entire
area in thirty seconds. She timed the movements repeatedly to see that they
hadn't varied it. Only for twelve seconds was the entrance out of view. And
the entrance was about ninety meters from her.
Experience and training paid in the calculations- the area of view and the
like going through her mind. She took two deep breaths, then watched the
little camera go around, hit the precisely calculated point. At that instant
she sped for the entrance, making it outside in under eleven seconds,
something considered impossible, she knew, for such a tiny woman.
But this was .7 G.
She didn't take the steps, but climbed, catlike, over the side and down to
the bushes below.
It was not dark outside, but there was no one in view, and she was quick
despite the vertical drop.
The trick was a tiny little bubble, several of which she carried in her belt.
The bubble, no larger than the head of a pin, formed an incredibly thin
secretion that created tremendous suction when rubbed between the palms of her
hands. It had been her special secret of success in burglary; she had created [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]