Jezebel's Ladder Read Online Free Page A

native language. Illiterates get pictures. Down’s subject 075 saw comic-book
panels. Very little of the message is the physical text people read. The
important stuff doesn’t Xerox.”
    The amount of information was
dizzying. Jez grabbed for Benny’s water bottle and took a swig. She seemed
desperate to stall, unsure why.
    Benny was very gentle. “What are
you afraid of?”
    Jez sighed. “Some things can’t be
unheard, but I’m in the family now. Give it to me.”
    Benny continued, holding her hand. “Data
is fed through skin contact or the optic nerve in more subtle ways. Chemical,
DNA radio, we don’t know for certain. When you read this language, you dream
about the text; though, everyone processes in different ways and varying
speeds. What does that tell you?”
    She rubbed the back of her
butterfly pendant like a rabbit’s foot. She had done this so often, the jewelry
was now a paler color in the center. Very deliberately, Jez said, “This page was
not made by human beings.”
    “Exactly.”
    “Then who? Aliens, angels?”
    Benny shrugged. “No idea. One
theory claims that all pages are blank; they just stimulate us to come up with
the ideas ourselves. This is known as the bootstrap hypothesis.”
    “Ideas?” echoed Jez.
    “Each page represents one idea that
our society does not have, a rung on a ladder to a higher form of civilization.
Any one page could revolutionize an industry and dominate it for decades to
come. That’s why certain members of the petroleum, pharmaceutical, and
fertilizer industries would kill for even one of these pages. Governments would
also kill before they let theirs escape.”
    “The Fossils,” Jez said,
remembering the pejorative term Daniel used for the opposition.
    “But the true power is the synergy
that happens when you combine these ideas. Do you see why we can’t afford to
let the others bury or destroy them? We need all the rungs to complete the
ladder.”
    Jez struggled to hold the concept. “Some
of this sounds more like a curse or trap than a blessing. How do we know the
aliens, or whatever, are benevolent? Where does the ladder lead?”
    “You don’t have the clearance for
that yet. We’ll talk further if you ever get to level two.”

Chapter 4 – Secretary for Eye Corps
     
    Next, the limousine took Jezebel to her new apartment:
company-owned, fully furnished, and stocked with basic bathroom and food
supplies. Daniel rode over with her. “Congratulations! Work doesn’t start till
about eight each night. The rest of the day, if we’re not traveling, you’re
free to do as you please.”
    Daniel handed her a platinum credit
card and said, “Take a guard along shopping and buy as much as you can fit into
two airline-sized suitcases. While you’re at it, you should get suitcases, too.
Buy whatever you need to keep from getting bored on the bus or in a hotel room.
We travel a lot.”
    “Your last name’s Sorenson?” she
read.
    “Well, technically it’s Fortune;
Dirt Bag adopted me, but I use my real dad’s name on anything I want to keep
under the radar.”
    She was still stunned by the whole
alien thing. “Okay, what’s my limit?”
    He scratched his head; his hair had
been washed and neatly combed for the meeting with his boss and grand-boss.
Even the t-shirt was clean, though just as drab. The boy seemed to favor dark
blues, greens, browns, and grays, nothing that drew attention. Was this
spy-craft, or natural shyness? “I’ve never hit the max. I think my record was
nine thousand plus the airfare to Indonesia.”
    Jez blinked. She had been eating
macaroni and soup for a month. “Wow. No limit. Got it. But why would anybody
let me use your credit card?”
    “We have some good friends in the
hacking community. I authorized you yesterday as my sister. We look enough
alike that it’s a good cover identity. You’ll get your own corporate card and
passport in another few weeks.”
    Jez was touched by the gesture. “How
did you know I’d