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conspiracy of terror and tyranny to take over the world of a hundred years ago
as a haven for our dying elites?
My God, I don't know..
John Hallman, Sen's opposite number in Plasmonics, stared at Scholder with a
mixture of wonder and doubt. "So, who's supposed to be in on this?" he asked.
"How many of the people here know what Pipe Organ's for?"
"Kahieb and Justinaux," Scholder replied. "Miskoropittis, Craig, Quincy,
Bonorinski...people like that-everyone at D6 level and above, certainly. At a
guess, say, oh, five to ten percent."
"What about Juanseres and the Security people?"
Scholder shook his head. "They're just doing a job."
"But how could a secret of that magnitude have been kept for so long?" Haliman
objected.
"Are you saying that all the other people who work here-us, for instance-could
have been duped for this long? It doesn't seem possible."
"Don't underestimate the people behind it," Scholder told I him. "They may be
few in number, but they still have a lot of influence. But the time to tell
you the whole story isn't now."
Hallman looked at T'ung-Sen. Sen spread his hands helplessly, shook his head,
and said nothing. In the end, Eddie said, "Whether it's true or not will sort
itself out later. The question that matters is, what do we do now?"
Scholder took the initiative. "It has to be brought to the attention of the CN
for a full investigation," he said. 'And if the authorities here won't
cooperate, then the CN will have to send in a CIAF force to make them."
"Now wait a minute -- " Hallman began.
"It's the only way" Scholder insisted.
"What about the Brazilian government? Are they mixed up in it?" Eddie asked.
"They know that Pipe Organ exists, obviously, but they believe the
time-travel, cause-and-
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effect, research-station story. So they keep the subject classified." --
"Look, would somebody mind filling me in?" Colonel Adam- I son said, sounding
bewildered.
"CN? CIAF? What are you talking about?"
Scholder explained, "The world we're in here hasn't had a major conflict since
the end of the Great War, over a century ago in 1918. The major powers
abandoned large national armies years ago, and since then have practiced other
forms of rivalry based on healthier ways of competing.
"But local squabbles do break out from time to time, and situations occur that
require firm-handed action. There isn't a I world government, but virtually
all of its nations belong to a
Council of Nations that acts as a kind of world court for settling :j
differences-like the
League that you're familiar with, except this one works. And between them the
world's nations support a -~ global organization known as the Combined
International
Armed Force, which gives the CN a set of quite effective teeth." Adamson
nodded. "Okay" he said to Hallman. "So you've got the means here to deal with
the situation. I don't really want to get involved. All I
did was leave home this morning to spend a normal day at work. This is your
century, not mine. Why can't you organize some people to take over that
machine for just long enough to send us back where we came from? Then you can
spend as long as you want figuring out how to get this place
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ration.txt closed down."
Hallman stared at him incredulously. "Send you back? You've got to be joking!
You can't expect to just materialize out of nowhere with a story like this and
then disappear as if nothing had happened. Who knows what you may have
started?"
"What do you mean, we started?" Adamson protested, becoming genuinely alarmed.
"Look, it was your goddam machine that got us here. We -- "
"You tapped into our line," Hailman retorted.
Scholder held up a hand and nodded resignedly. "If we have to remain for a
while until this is cleared up, then so be it," he conceded. "But that's all
going to take time. Meanwhile, there are still two more of our people in this
place somewhere. I want to find them and get them out of wherever they are
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