Even by covering something up, it is possible to draw attention to it. Hanno has met Svoboda and is planning to investigate the Unity organization. He approaches his goal of contacting and bringing together all of the few immortals. He is so preoccupied with all of this serious business that his current mistress loses patience and they end their relationship - which he would have had to do soon in any case. She knows that he is involved in something major and that he refuses to divulge what it is. The most plausible explanation is a criminal or political conspiracy, maybe the latter because of:
"'...those Neanderthal politics of yours...'" (p. 410)
Nice one. That phrase tells us a little about her and is also ironic in the circumstances.
She is prepared to cover herself by telling the police the little that she knows if asked since she no longer feels any loyalty to Robert Caldwell, Hanno's current alias. That does concern him. His activities are not criminal but he certainly does not want them to be brought to light either. Poul Anderson shows us how difficult it can be to keep a really big secret.
8 comments:
There's an old saying: "Two men can keep a secret, as long as one of them is dead."
Kaor, Paul!
Well, "Neanderthal" is how many leftists call conservatives and libertarians in the US!
Besides what Stirling said it was getting harder for Hanno to cover his tracks. Record keeping was getting more and more thorough, making it harder to gloss over inconsistencies and oddities.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes. When everyone's DNA is on file, it would have become impossible.
From Sean M. Brooks:
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That was probably how the Eight Survivors were eventually unmasked.
Ad astra! Sean
Eventually, not only will everyone's DNA be recorded, but sensors will be able to detect and identify it from the sort of invisible biological debris you shed from your skin and exhale when you breath.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That will alarm many people! It makes me think of the KGB and Orwell's "Big Brother is watching you"!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: but much more effectively than through your TV set.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
An even more alarming prospect! The sooner mankind gets off this rock the better it will be. Because that opens up many options and makes it that much harder for an ideological dictatorship to freeze the entire human race into a totalitarian set up a la Anderson's "The High Ones."
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment