第20节

If she was the loyal soldier-citizen he believed her to be there would

be no problem. But until she proved that beyond all possible doubt it

was wiser not to take any chances. As long as she was marooned in

Nebraska she could not warp his own mental processes or affect his

deliberations in any way. And he would circumvent any treachery by

cutting Wallis out of the planning process they had begun that very

day. He would continue to receive documentation but it would not be

the real thing.

Only Malone and the other units would know the final plan. Roz and

Steve would be left in the dark. If they played their parts, all well

and good, if not, well ... Amtrak could survive the loss of a

wagon-train.

Sensitives like Roz and Steve were a lurking cancer; a menace to the

system. Their elimination - by death, or permanent transfer to the

overground - was the only way to secure the future of the Federation.

The Department of Psionics would be discredited, disbanded; Karlstrom's

doubts would be vindicated. AMEXICO could return to the tried and

tested ways of secret warfare, and its director would sleep more

soundly in his bed.

It was a neat, satisfying scenario, but Karlstrom knew from experience

that things never went entirely to plan.

Somewhere along the line somebody always fucked-up.

The reason why he had held his job for so long was because he was also

an expert in containment - the art of damage limitation.

Disclosure was a central feature of that art. You never told anyone

anything they did not need to know, and you never ever gave them bad

news when good news might be just around the corner. That was why

Karlstrom had decided not to tell the President-General about Roz

Brickman's new and alarming capability. If challenged, he would defend

himself- like all canny administrators - by saying he was waiting for a

fuller report.

CHAPTER FOUR

After the violent confrontation that preceded the wounding of

Clearwater, Steve had not been looking forward to telling Cadillac that

she was now on board Red River, but when he finally caught up with the

Mute and Malone's renegades, it did not go as badly as he had

expected.

Cadillac - still crippled with guilt over his part in the affair- was

so relieved to learn that Clearwater was alive, he brushed aside the

awkward fact that she was in the hands of the Federation.

Having come prepared for a bitter wrangle, Steve found the Mute's

fatalistic reaction somewhat disconcerting.

Malone, of course, was still posing as the stalwart leader of a

renegade band and Cadillac- while appearing somewhat less than

overjoyed to find himself in their company - gave no sign of being

aware that Malone and his henchmen were undercover agents or that,

during Malone's brief absence, he had been picked up by a Sky-Rider of

Air-Mexico and flown into the Federation for a head-to-head with

Karlstrom and Wallis.

Steve, who had been one of the main items on the agenda, was also

unaware of Malone's flying visit to Grand Central. Wallis had merely

told him that Karlstrom had approved his outline plan. He was to

proceed on the assumption that an attack on Red River would take place;

the final game-plan would be conveyed to him when all the pieces were

on the board.

Cadillac already knew he and Roz could communicate telepathically.

Steve was now obliged to repeat the story for Malone's benefit, unaware

he had already been briefed by Karlstrom. And Malone, alerted by

Cadillac's ill-considered claim that Steve was an undercover agent, had

to appear to accept his story whilst pretending (for Cadillac's

benefit) to secretly mistrust him!

As Jake Nevill had observed on the wagon-train, there were so many

layers of deception it was difficult to keep your place in the

script.

The swirling cross-current of lies threatened to become a vortex which,

if they were not careful, could send them and the whole operation do