The Sterkarm Handshake Read Online Free Page A

out some of their poor relations. They like to keep family ties strong.”
    Windsor went behind his desk and sat in his big black chair, leaving Bryce to choose one of the low soft chairs in front of the desk. Windsor had a coffee corner where people could loll in comfortable chairs and talk things over on equal terms, but he wasn’t in the mood to use it. “I’ll put a stop to their fun. Why do they all have such stupid names? Gobbysson! And they all seem to have half a dozen names each. I can’t keep track of them.”
    â€œThey’re all named Sterkarm,” Bryce said. “And then they’re all named after each other. Toorkild’s named after his father, and he names his son after his brother; and his brother names his eldest son after Toorkild, and Toorkild’s a common name anyway. So you’ve got dozens of Toorkild Sterkarms, and they all have to have nicknames to tell ’em apart.”
    â€œBloody stupid people,” Windsor said. “How many of our lot are over there right now?”
    â€œNo teams,” Bryce said. “We’ve only been sending one team at a time through since the last time the Sterkarms got outrageous. But there’s young Andrea, of course.”
    â€œAndrea?”
    â€œAndrea Mitchell. But she’s safe.”
    Windsor squinted as he thought. “Isn’t she that big fat girl we’ve got living with them? And you say she’s safe?”
    Bryce, who rather liked Andrea, was slightly offended on her behalf. “James, remember, the Sterkarms haven’t actually hurt anyone with their fun and games. They’ve ripped us off, they’ve shaken people up—and I agree it’d be good to put a stop to it—but they haven’t hurt anyone. They could have done that if they’d wanted to. And Andrea is their guest. They won’t hurt a guest. Anyway, they like her. She’s very good at her job. Most of what I’ve learned about ’em comes through her. Do you read her reports?”
    â€œI have a hell of a lot to do.”
    â€œShe walks down from the tower to hand them in at the Tube regularly. Handwritten. I get a secretary to run up a few copies, and send one back for Andrea. She’s planning to write a book, y’know. Bright girl.”
    â€œFascinating!” Windsor said.
    â€œWhat I’m saying is, Andrea isn’t at risk, and we’ve pulled everybody else out for the moment.”
    â€œGod,” said Windsor. “Everything at a standstill again.” No teams going through, no mapping, no surveying being done. A billion pounds, and then some, of technology standing idle because some pig-thick sixteenth-century yobs made an agreement and wouldn’t stick to it.
    Bryce said, “We’d be better off going back further. I mean way back, to when there weren’t any people. No problems then, and the coal and oil and gold would still be there, wouldn’t it?”
    â€œTo the best of my belief,” Windsor said, “at the time when there weren’t any people, Britain was under the sea.
    â€œOh. Well. Build platforms. Anyway, we could still go back to a time before the Sterkarms. If we could just get rid of them, we’d have fewer problems.”
    â€œFeel free to go and tell the physicists their jobs, anytime,” Windsor said. “I bet they’ll be thrilled to have your input. They’ve already pushed the temporal span to the limit, while keeping dimensional penetration as slim as possible—and that’s what’s giving us the spatial shortfall.”
    Bryce shook his head. “Now you’ve lost me.”
    Windsor didn’t bother to hide his contemptuous expression. “A few more years of research might iron out all the bugs, but what’s going to pay for the research? The company’s put the GNP of about fifty countries into it already, to bring it this far. It’s come down from above that they