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"Because I need you just as much as you need me. You have plenty of men,
power, and money. I have big plans. Now clear the serfs out."
There was a bowl of krenoj on the table and Jason rooted around for a fresh
one and bit off a piece. The Hertug was thinking hard.
"You came back," he said again. He seemed to find this fact astonishing.
"Let us. talk."
"Alone."
"Clear the chamber," he ordered, but he took the precaution of having a cocked
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crossbow placed before him. Jason ignored it; he had expected no less.
He crossed to the badly glazed window and looked out at the island city. The
storm had stopped finally, and weak sunshine was lighting up the rain-darkened
roofs.
"How would you like to own all that?" Jason asked.
"Speak on." The Hertug's little eyes glittered.
"I mentioned this before, but now I mean it-seriously. I am going to reveal to
you every secret of every other clan on this damned planet. I'm going to show
you how the d'zertanoj distill oil, how the Mastreguloj make sulphuric acid,
how the Trozelligoj build engines. Then I'm going to improve your weapons of
war, and introduce as many new ones as I can. I will make war so terrible that
it will no longer be possible. Of course it will still go on, but your troops
will always win. You'll wipe out the competition, one by one,
starting with the weakest ones, until you will be the master of this city,
then of the whole planet. The riches of a world will be yours, and your
evenings will be enlivened by the horrible deaths you will mete out to your
enemies. What do you say?"
"Supren la Perssonoj!" the Hertug shouted, leaping to his feet.
"That's what I thought you would say. If I'm going to be stuck here for any
length of time I want to get in a few body blows to the system. I have been
entirely too uncomfortable, and it is time for a change."
14
The days grew longer, the sleet turned to rain, but even that finally stopped.
The last clouds eventually blew out to sea and the sun shone down on the city
of Appsala. Buds opened, flowers blossomed and filled the air with perfume,
while from the warming waters of the canals there rose another odor, less
pleasant, that Jason could just as well have done without. But he had very
little time to notice it, for he was working long hours at both research and
production, a constantly exhausting task. Pure research and production
development were expensive, and when the bills mounted too high the Hertug
scratched in his beard and mumbled about the good old days. Then Jason had to
drop everything and produce a fresh miracle or two. The arc light was one;
then the arc furnace, which helped with the metallurgical work and made the
Hertug very happy, particularly when he found out how good it was for torture
and fed a captured Trozelligo into it until he told them what they wanted to
know. When this novelty palled, Jason introduced electroplating, which helped
fill the treasury both through jewelry sales and counterfeiting.
After opening the Mastreguloj glass sphere with elaborate precautions, Jason
satisfied himself that it did contain sulphuric acid, and he constructed a
heavy, but effective, storage battery. Still angry over the kidnapping, he led
an attack on a Mastreguloj barge and captured a large supply of acid, as well
as assorted other chemicals. These he was testing whenever he had the time. He
had followed a number of dead-end trails, but had been forced to abandon them.
The formula for gunpowder escaped him, and this depressed him, though it
cheered his assistants who had been raking through old manure piles for
supplies of saltpeter.
He had more success with caro) and steam engines, because of previous
experience, and developed a lightweight, sturdy marine engine. In his spare
moments he invented movable type, the telephone, and the loudspeaker-which,
with the addition of the phonograph record, did wonders for the religious
revenue in production of spirit voices. He also made a naval propeller to go
with his engine, and was busily perfecting a steam catapult. For his own
pleasure he had set up a still in his rooms, with which he manufactured a
coarse but effective brandy. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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