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."You have no right to do this." Tinker blinked to keep tears out of her eyes."I haven't done anything.""Sorry, kid, them's the breaks." Durrack actually sounded like he was sorry.Finally Briggs moved down to the less personal territory of Tinker's pantspockets.There the search slowed to a crawl.Tinker's pants had a half dozenpockets, and all of them held something.After the first handful, Briggsdumped the items onto the floor of the backseat."Please don't lose the nuts and bolts," Tinker said."They're irreplaceable."The pockets empty, and double-checked, Briggs stepped back away from Tinker."If she kicks you with those boots, you're going to know it.""Take them off," Durrack ordered Tinker.Briggs sorted through the pile on the car floor, confiscating "dangerous"items: three different-sized screwdrivers, a pocket acetylene torch, and herSwiss Army knife.They went withher boots into the trunk."Can I have the rest of my stuff back?" Tinker asked, nearly whispering in aneffort to keep from showing how much she wanted her possessions."Just get in.You can pick it up while we drive."Tinker scrambled into the backseat.There was no lock switch, door handle, orcom device.Durrack slid into the passenger seat, letting Briggs drive."Where's thehospice?""You cut through downtown and go up past where the Hill District used to be."Tinker stuffed away her things."Where?""Centre Avenue out of town.Corner of Old Center and Old Penn.""New roads named after old roads that don't exist anymore." He programmed itinto the nav system.It must have been tied to one of the few governmentsatellites, because it actually seemed to be working.Distantly a police siren rose, but they were already turning off her street.Tinker slumped back in the seat.If the police arrived at her place now, shewouldn't be there to be rescued."Who are you two, anyhow?" She contented herself with kicking the back of thefront seat."I'm Corg Durrack.My associate is Hannah Briggs.We're with NSA.""What's that?""National Security Agency."It just didn't make sense.What had she done to bring these guys down on her?"What do you want with Tinker? He's never been in the United States."Durrack made a negation sound."He was born in the United States someplace.Hewould have been five when the gate first moved Pittsburgh to Elfhome."Oh, this made sense why they didn't suspect her of being Alexander Bell.Theywere looking for someone nearly ten years older than her.They hadn'tPage 65ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlconsidered that Tinker was anything but a naturally inseminated child.Add inher male name, and they were obviously completely lost.Still, that didn't explain why they were looking."We want to protect Tinker," Hannah Briggs said."He's in a lot of danger.""So you keep on saying." It was a good line to have someone betray a lovedone."Why would anyone want to hurt Tinker? He runs a scrap yard.He keeps hisnose clean.He's a good guy."Briggs gave a flat laugh and murmured, "Yeah, right."Durrack gave Briggs a hard look."He's an extremely intelligent young man whoapparently understands the working of the phase gate and in all possibilitycould build one."Understood it, yes.Build one? She'd never considered doing that, mostlybecause the parts were too exotic to find as scrap in Pittsburgh."So?"Durrack threw her a surprised look."Do you have any idea how rare that is?""Apparently not.""People like that can be counted on one finger.No one has been able todevelop a hyperphase device since Leonardo Dufae's death.The Chinese figuredout how to build it off the designs they stole, but they can't change it orimprove it.If they could, we wouldn't have this little weirdness calledPittsburgh.Then up pops Tinker, son of the gate's inventor, trained by thesame man, andone assumes privy to any family secrets.""Yeah.Energy equals mass times constant squared."Durrack turned in his seat now to consider her in a silent study.They crossedthe heavyMcKees Rocks Bridge, all stone and steel, hopping parts of the riverbankbefore crossing theOhio River proper, still choked with barges.It would be a week before rivertraffic returned to normal.The roads, though, were clear, and minutes laterthey were crossing the Allegheny River on the Fort Duquesne Bridge."Tinker applied to Carnegie Mellon University last Shutdown.It took them awhile to put all the pieces together and notify NSA.We've blacked it out,except letting them issue an acceptance letter.Hopefully, no one else put thepieces together either.""What pieces?""That Alexander Bell listed Leonardo Dufae as his father, and that accordingto the testingAI, he understood all the questions, even though he answered them wrong [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]