Silence is Deadly Read Online Free Page B

and pondered the three poems that filled the screen.
The night was cloudless
and shimmering with moon shadows
I reached for its beauty
and Death’s talons clutched my hand.
A keeper of secrets
knows my death date
She sculpts my future
with sinewy hands
intertwining happiness and longevity
but while she speaks
the whip is pointed
and I feel unseen vibrations.
Vibrant Death
unwanted
uninvited
scrupulously keeps the appointment
that no one made.
    The screen went blank. Darzek searched the residence thoroughly, but he found no clues—not even the evidence of a hasty departure.
    He returned to his own residence and filed an official request. A few minutes later he had a visitor: Kom Rmmon, now flustered with excitement because he had just received a direct command from Supreme. To a governmental bureaucrat on Primores, this was the equivalent of a message from God. He faced Darzek with consternation, and his naturally bluish complexion had taken on a purplish tint.
    Darzek got him seated. He said sternly, “It is the command of Supreme and of Supreme’s First Councilor, myself, that you answer. Where is the director of your department?”
    Kom Rmmon gazed at Darzek woodenly.
    “Answer! You cannot refuse a command from Supreme and from Supreme’s First Councilor. Where is the director?”
    “Not here,” Kom Rmmon muttered.
    “We know that he is not here. Where is he?”
    “I can’t speak here. Come.”
    He dashed to the entrance hall, punched a destination on Darzek’s transmitter, and stepped through. Darzek paused to look at the setting before he followed him, frowning perplexedly.
    He emerged in a public park. Kom Rmmon already was twenty strides from Darzek and hurrying away. Darzek matched his pace and followed him.
    The world of Primores was beautiful as only an artificial world could be, crafted to perfection in each of its parts and with each small perfection skillfully fitted into the harmonious whole. At one time it had been an airless world, and the tinted domes that enclosed each of its public parks were a reminder of that sterile antiquity. Now the world’s rainbow atmosphere provided a shimmering halo above the domes. Kom Rmmon wound his way through the lush, multicolored vegetation until he reached the edge of the park. Only then did he look back, and when he had assured himself that Darzek was following, he opened a door in the base of the dome and stepped through.
    Darzek stepped through after him and followed, maintaining the twenty-pace distance.
    The transmitter, which permitted whole world populations to move instantly between the blind oases that were windowless buildings and homes and enclosed parks, had transformed many worlds to unseen wastelands; but on Primores, the carefully kept landscape outside the dome was as park-like as that within. Kom Rmmon marched straight ahead for a hundred meters or more, finally coming to a stop at a low building that looked like a massive block of concrete.
    He punched an indentification code, opened a heavy door, and stood waiting for Darzek, who had turned to look back at the park. There was no suggestion of a path worn through the closely cropped vegetation. Whatever the structure was used for, it was not used frequently.
    Darzek entered, and Kom Rmmon followed and closed the door firmly behind them and secured it. They were in a small, tastefully furnished conference room.
    Kom Rmmon dropped into a chair with an attitude of immense relief. “Now we can talk without being overheard,” he said.
    Darzek looked at him incredulously. “Who could have overheard us in the residence of the First Councilor?” he demanded.
    “Supreme,” Kom Rmmon said.
    Darzek backed up to a chair and sat down heavily. He continued to stare at Kom Rmmon. “The director is engaged in an activity that must be kept secret from Supreme?”
    “Yes.”
    “And—this room was built solely to have a place for conferences where Supreme can’t listen?”
    “Yes. The director