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"You were laughing," she said seriously, "and we couldn't get you to stop. I'm sorry I had to hit you."
"I wouldn't do it," said Ooljee. "Thought you might react instinctively and flatten me. What were you
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thinking about that made you do that?''
Moody hesitated, finally announced brusquely, "Nothing. Nothing important.
"What we have to do now is concentrate on what we can understand. Because if you look at this thing
too hard, you lose your focus real quick. Let's just work on Yistin Gaggii. He's a murderer and we're
going to take him into custody. That's all we need to worry about."
"I've been thinking.' * Both men turned on Gray hi Us. She didn't back down under their stares. "If he's
at the center of everything that's been happening, then he also might be at the center of this impossible
storm. Pinpoint the nexus of the low-pressure system and we might find him there. If it's over Vegas or
Bullhead City then we can try something else, but if it's as close to here as the National Weather Service
suggested..."
"Give 'em a call," snapped Moody.
She nodded, resumed her seat at the console. "I'm on it."
Ooljee whispered to his partner while they waited. "I know what your problem is, my friend. You think
too much. Especially for a cop."
"What if the people who built this web left their own safeguards behind? What if Gaggii accidentally
stumbles into one of them? You think it's gonna deal with him selectively?" He smiled crookedly. "Try
'not' thinking about thinking about that for a while."
"Nothing is intrinsically good or evil," the sergeant told him. "It is all in how you use it."
"That really reassures me," Moody replied sarcastically. "I'll remember that when Arizona is sinking,in
the middle of the Indian Ocean."
"If such a safeguard exists, it may be clearly labeled."
"You think that'd stop our boy Gaggii? He's come too far to quit now. He'd try getting around it. No,
we've got to get our hands on him before he can make any serious mistakes."
"Idonotthink," Ooljee said quietly, "that Yistin Gaggii wants to move the state of Arizona to the middle of
the Indian Ocean."
"Naw. He just wants to make himself President. Or Emperor of the planet." The detective glanced down
at his partner. "We're gonna have to kill him to stop him. You know that, don't you? Because of that
damn unreal boat outside. If some hatathli codetalkers made that happen over a hundred years ago, it
means you don't need a monitor or spinner to access the web. All you need is the right words, the right
phrasing. It means you can't stop Gaggii by locking him up. You couldn't put him in a hole deep enough
to keep him from making mischief. So we have to kill-him."
Ooljee waited a moment before replying, but not for the reason Moody thought.' 'I think you are right,
but that does not solve the problem."
"How so?"
"What about me? I know the chant. I know the sand-painting."
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Moody eyed him sharply. "What about you, Paul? You tell me."
"I have a fine woman who loves me. I have two wonderful children. I have a job that I like in a place that
I like. I have fulfillment. I do not want to be emperor of anything. More importantly, I want as little to do
with this business as possible. That which grants power can also take it away. Let specialists who can
watch over one another delve into its depths. Let mem stumble across any safeguards that may have
been left floating in its innards.
"I am no hatathli. If we destroy die remaining images of the sandpainting it will be a long time before
anyone stumbles across its secret again. Perhaps never."
"Never." Moody nodded, pleased. "That sounds like a decent length of time. Never, yeah." The
terrifying, indifferent emptiness of the universe receded a little, bearing some of the fear he felt with it.
"Don't you wonder?" Ooljee asked him. "If the code-talkers are responsible for what happened to that
ship, don't you wonder what else might be floating around in the web?''
"Make you a deal," the detective said curtly. "I won't think so much if you won't wonder so much."
Grayhills had information. "The center of the low is only forty-five miles north of here. South of the gap
at Cedar Ridge, somewhere between the highway and Marble Canyon." She looked back up at them.
"It's still fixed, not moving."
"Real close." Ooljee checked his gun. "He did not have to come into town to get what he wanted. Let's
go. We have a killer to apprehend and a storm to stop. Among other things."
The two men exchanged grim grins.
Chapter 21
THE SKYCUTTER PILOT was reluctant to take them up, did so only because Ooljee pulled rank. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]