[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

green tie, "you are Herman Welles."
"Correct. At least, that's what it says on my birth certificate."
"Such forms of identification can easily be faked," Tanner noted.
Welles shrugged. "The price we pay. You will have to take my word."
Tanner stood and crossed the room to the community coffeepot, pouring himself
a foam cup of the steaming brew. "Coffee?" he asked.
"No, thanks."
Tanner returned to his chair and took a long pull from the cup before setting
it down on the table, purposely placing it within the existing scorch mark.
Welles watched silently, observing. While Tanner's back had been turned, the
overweight man had taken out his pipe and now was busy tapping it against a
glass ashtray on the tabletop, knocking out the previous bowl of tightly
packed ashes.
Waiting until Welles had finished and relit the pipe, filling the small lounge
with the smell of burning cherry, Tanner asked his next question. "Married?"
"No. Divorced. Six years now."
"Children?"
"None."
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"How tragic for you. I have a wife, Emily "
Welles cut in. "No, you don't."
Tanner pressed on. "And two children, a boy and a girl."
"Both deceased," Welles added.
Tanner continued to speak, his words overlapping Welles's voice. "I chose
we
chose, Emily and I chose their names, their most unusual names. Special
names. Rachel after my wife's mother. Jolyon for one of my own family members
who died in battle during the War Between The States."
Welles puffed on his pipe and sighed, consulting his notebook. "The names you
give are correct, Doctor. However, they are names of the dead."
Tanner's placid facade collapsed. Welles suddenly found himself sitting across
from a lion. His patient bared his fine white teeth and howled in wordless
frustration and rage, slamming his hands on the table and sending the
half-full coffee cup and ashtray crashing to the floor. "I am Dr. Theophilus
Algernon
Tanner! I have a wife! I have two children! I am a teacher, a scholar, a
lecturer!
By God, I am halfway through writing a book! Nonfiction! The finest minds of
my generation consult with me on a daily basis!"
"Not any longer." Welles now stood, his own temper rising. His round face was
reddening, and a sheen of sweat appeared on his brow. "You, sir, are a
curiosity.
A living science experiment. A man without a frame of reference or a shred of
comprehension."
"You are incorrect, sir! I comprehend all!"
"Tanner, you are fucking Rip Van Winkle. Get used to it." And on that final
pronouncement, Welles slammed closed the black notebook. Always with the
damnable black notebook.
Tanner lunged forward, both arms outstretched to their full length, his wrists
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Axler,_James_-_Deathlands_43_-_Dark_Emblem extended well past the cuffs of his
hospital dressing gown. His rail-thin body skated lightly across the slick
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
tabletop and right at the dumbfounded Welles.
"I have it!" he crowed triumphantly as both of his long-fingered hands clamped
down on Welles's notebook. Tanner snatched it boldly away, rolling, moving to
one side on the table as Welles screeched in shock.
"Damn you, Tanner, give that back!" Welles sputtered. "Give it back or I'll "
"Hush, Welles, before you cause me to fall in gales of laughter at your
schoolboy predicament," Tanner soothed, his rich baritone taking the tone of a
leisurely played bassoon. "Like all bullies, you cannot handle having the
tables turned. You shall have your precious book, full of the damnable lies of
my life and times as filtered through your own corruptive sieve of an
intellect! Shall we begin with the first page of our meeting?"
Keeping the table between them, Doc opened the book and began to read.
" 'Patient appears confused, baffled, uncertain of his surroundings. Perhaps
the decision in choosing subject was hasty, since he shows no signs of open-
mindedness or creative thinking. He seems fixated on one subject, and one
subject only that being his family. His wife and children. This obsession must
be circumvented before subject will be pliable enough for establishment of
mission parameters.'"
"Tanner, you shouldn't be reading that," Welles warned.
"Subject. That's all I was to you then, and all I remain now," came back the
response. "A subject. A test case. You could not even be bothered to write my
name on these pages, nor the names of Emily or Rachel or dear little Jolyon.
You could not even be bothered to remember the names of the lives you ruined,
you despicable miscreant!"
"Now see here, Tanner, you settle down or I'll have to call in security."
"Call them, you elephantine pile of excrement! Show them all what an
ineffectual
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Axler,_James_-_Deathlands_43_-_Dark_Emblem dung heap you really are!" Tanner
taunted as he happily tore one of the blue-lined pages from the book and
crumpled it into a ball. He tossed the wadded paper and giggled darkly as it
bounced off Welles's fat damp forehead with a plop, landing on the tabletop.
"That is one," he said, his voice starting to rise in timbre as he pulled out
a second sheet of the notebook and began to crush it between long, elegant
fingers. "I do hope you utilized one of those photocopying devices I have
heard about to make a second, backup reproduction of your spurious
observations and notes about me."
Pushed into a raging silence, Welles turned and ran to the lounge door, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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