'I'll just bet they didn't have it,' her hostess said with a grin.
'And the only way you can get it is with Ron's special permission. I warn you, do not show this around. It's intended for your eyes only. Understand?'
Her eyes shining, Ninel clasped the booklet to her bosom and nodded. 'I'll be careful,' she said. 'Thank you.'
'I know you will. You'd better get along now, honey. You've got a fair piece to travel, haven't you?'
'Yeah.' Ninel was taken aback at first to realize that Balewitch knew where she lived, but then told herself that of course she knew. Hadn't she been given directions on how to get here? Naturally they knew her starting point. If not the exact location of her home.
She thanked Balewitch for her hospitality and for the booklet and started off on her bike. As she rode along it occurred to her that she'd done most of the talking and her new friend knew a great deal more about her than she knew about Balewitch. That wasn't how things usually went with her and she felt a bit uneasy. Still, she had Ron Labane's latest work, actually titled
* * *
'Ron'll be able to smell that shit right through the screen,'
Dog Soldier said.
Balewitch didn't bother to turn around; she continued to type her report into the computer, pausing only to take the roach out of her mouth. 'It relaxes me,' she said shortly in her normal, foghorn voice.
'Ah, but the boss doesn't approve,' Dog said. He flopped down in the overstuffed chair beside the computer table, grinning at her.
'Then the boss can go fuck himself, or he can give me something to do. Something besides interviewing dewy young things with more sex appeal than brains.' She took another toke, then, raising one eyebrow, offered the roach to him.
Dog waved it away. 'Not my failing, old girl.'
'No'—she indicated the computer—'your failings would seem to involve aim, for example.'
He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the back of the chair. 'I blew his fucking brains out. There weren't enough of
'em left inside his head to fill an eggcup.'
'Then who the hell is reading this report?' she asked.
'Hell if I know. But I like the way he thinks.'
Balewitch grunted in agreement and, narrowing her eyes at the screen, resumed typing.
'He can always tell when you're smoking, you know,' Dog teased.
Balewitch glared at him. 'Haven't you got anything better to do?'
He rolled his head back and forth on the chair back.
'Nah-uh.' He watched her type for another moment or two. 'So, what've ya got planned for that luscious little poppet, eh?'
Balewitch gestured at the screen. 'That's up to the ghost of Ron Labane, not me.'
Dog snickered. 'I like your sense of humor.'
'I don't have one,' Balewitch said.
Dog pulled down the corners of his mouth and closed his eyes again. 'That kid has potential,' he said at last.
Balewitch thoughtfully blew out a cloud of fragrant smoke and gave a slow nod. 'She might. Being brought up the way she was, there are certain security measures that probably come second nature to her. She talked her head off to me, though.'
'Yeah,' Dog agreed. He waggled a finger at her. 'But that's one of your more unexpected talents. You can get
Balewitch smiled. 'Something I had to grow into,' she agreed smugly. 'As to the kid, she knows how to live hard and make sacrifices. She seems emotionally self-sufficient. She could be useful. It all depends on how the others evaluate her. I think she's worth taking a chance on.'
'Time's running out,' Dog said.
Balewitch looked at him. 'What makes you say that?'
He patted his slim middle. 'Gut feeling. That Skynet thing, that's the catalyst. 01' Ron's hopping mad about it, in case you haven't been reading your mail.'
'Yeah,' Balewitch said softly, almost dreamily. 'That's the ticket all right. Maybe that's why he's had us step up recruiting.'
Dog nodded agreement. Recruiting, supply gathering, weapons training, not to mention intensive study of Nazi methods of dealing with unwanted civilians. The group had no fewer than ten extermination depots prepared in the lower U.S.
already.
The plan was to round people up, put 'em to work producing weapons, producing food, clothing, whatever was needed to win the war. Work 'em to death actually; there were always plenty more where those came from. Little by little there would be fewer and fewer people until there weren't any left at all. Then the world could be at peace and the cycle of life could continue as it was meant to. And for a little while the favored few, him and Balewitch and the others, would get to enjoy it as reward for their hard work.
He grinned. He could hardly wait for the hard work to begin.
Balewitch grunted in agreement at the sight of that smile as though she'd been privy to his thoughts. Then she went back to writing her report.
* * *
SKYNET
The Balewitch subject had been self-medicating again. It was obvious from her keystrokes and word choice, as well as the deterioration of her spelling. Ron Labane had become very distressed when Balewitch indulged in drugs.
But from what Skynet had found in the records of Susie Jayne Gaynor a.k.a. Balewitch, the urge to take drugs with a calming effect, such as marijuana, was a rare sign of intelligent discipline. Left to her own devices, she was violent and unpredictable and apparently addicted to excitement.
But she was able to restrain herself if the promised payoff was attractive enough. In this case, the payoff was the power of life and death over any of her fellow humans that she chose. With the exception of Skynet/Labane's top echelon. Or to Skynet's discretion.
The report she was composing confirmed Skynet's estimation of Ninel Petrikoff—intelligent, emotionally stable, independent, and capable. Balewitch wanted to confirm her dedication to the cause, but Skynet had no doubts in that regard.
While it had no more understanding of emotions than most humans did, it knew that within certain parameters they were predictable, even quantifiable to a degree. Generally humans loved their parents, for example, but they loved them less than they did their own children.
Therefore, a threat to a human's children would probably produce a different result than a threat to the same human's parents. Threats were one type of manipulation, but there were other methods available. Some of those methods could undermine the human's emotional attachment to even their children.
Skynet had found that when a human was alienated from his or her family then they would seek out a similar relationship elsewhere. Some found this with friends, others with causes, often developing a worshipful mind-set toward a group leader, not unlike that of a young child for its parent. Humans could easily be manipulated through this bond.
In its estimation, Ninel Petrikoff's commitment to the Luddite movement was 85 percent. Not as high as that of Balewitch or the other six members of her cell, but enough to depend on.
Especially during the early days, when other humans would be hailing the Luddites as heroes. The Luddites would maintain their positive image as long as only those with a higher rating were allowed near the extermination camps and as long as security could be maintained there. Then, gradually, the less useful troops would find their way to the camps and their own elimination.
