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my being here was all his doing."
"He agreed to be our agent, our 'blind,' if you will. He's telling anyone who
will listen how clever he was."
"He's one of your Steering Committee, too?"
"Under consideration. He knows about as much as you do."
"Getting me here was a test for him?"
"In a way. We could have acted directly."
"Sure. Just give me a call."
"You told one of our members about Marconi some years ago. We found her
through some & Italian, shall we say, connection. Lamont Randolph had done
business with her last year, without actually knowing her identity, and he was
on our 'possibles' list. So we used him to approach her, knowing that you'd be
going into the clinic soon." He put his hands in his pockets and looked up.
"And frankly, we'd hoped you would need a little help with your million,
because of the accident."
People who say "frankly" make me glow with trust. I skimmed a stone out over
the water. "I don't understand why you went to all this trouble."
"If we'd simply asked, you would have refused. As you say, you're not a
joiner."
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"Yeah, maybe. Nothing you've said makes me real hot to make an exception."
"Well, I haven't explained "
"Let me explain something," I said, standing up. "My life is already at the
mercy of one secret outfit, the
Stileman Foundation. So Fatso grabs me as soon as I get out of the clinic, and
shoves me into the middle of another secret organization & the one that's out
there drinking Claudia's booze.
"Now you tell me that they are just a front for the real secret organization,
your Steering Committee. So now you're going to tell me there's a secret cabal
in the middle of the Steering Committee?"
"No. The committee is the last of the Chinese boxes."
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BUYING TIME - Joe Haldeman
"How can you be sure? Anyhow, there's this Russian guy who's been blackballing
me "
"Who told you that?"
"Randolph." He nodded slowly. "So this Russian had to change his mind or die,
and once he did one or the other, you were able to give Fatso the word and
have him dangle Maria Marconi in front of me. And have it all timed so that
I'm just out of the clinic and theoretically vulnerable to wealth."
"No one thinks you can be bought."
"I see. You did all this to get my attention. So you can present a carefully
reasoned argument that I will find irresistible."
He looked uncomfortable. "Not just to get your attention, no & but I suppose
we did want to demonstrate to you that we were more than an elitist debating
society. That we could make things happen in the real world like finding the
woman you had lost for more than half a century."
"Okay. Let's assume Maria does show up and, therefore, you have impressed me
and earned my undying gratitude. Then what? You tell me the secret password?"
"You're not making this easy, Mr. Barr."
"Sorry. I don't have much practice at it."
He took out a cigarette and blew on its end. It sparkled into life, but he
just looked at it for a moment, not smoking.
"All I can really say is that we are profoundly dissatisfied with the state of
the world, we feel we have the capacity to change it, and we are currently
engaged in carefully developing a consensus as to what must be done and how we
should go about it. We'll work covertly within governments and transnational
corporations to precipitate slowly I emphasize, slowly the changes we feel are
necessary." He flipped the cigarette down toward the water, unsmoked. "We will
do it with you or without you."
"When do you start?"
"We've begun. Asking you and a few others is part of this stage of the plan."
"How many are you?"
"I'm not sure. Perhaps a hundred actual members, and half that number under
consideration for membership."
"Doesn't sound like very many people, to rule the world."
"We only want to guide it. Forget the Star Chamber power fantasy the ephemeral
papers are always
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