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BlinAI
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Testo

Dataset card Data Studio Files
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The room was not entirely black: but then this room was not that room-or had that been a tent?
No time to think about it now. Something was wrong in this new room: only dim red emergency lights, nobody around. Just a row-and-column array of long, dark b...
Okay, some form of medical life support. A phalanx of similar cells stretched away before her, into the dark, all closed. Definitely not a hospital; more like...
She became aware of a growing ache at the midpoint of the right side of her back, then of distant noises: faint chaotic cries, stifled by fainter stutterings-...
MENTOR
Downing wasn't sure whether he was mostly indignant or stunned. "Nolan, just how are we going to get a woman to furnish long-term, twenty-four/seven undercover ...
Nolan twirled the compupad stylus slowly between his fingers. "No, his partner."
For a long moment, Downing did not comprehend. Then: "You're not serious."
"I am-dead serious."
"Nolan, this is immoral-compelling people to become intimate."
Nolan put down his glass. "Rich, you and I have given orders that got other people-innocents as well as enemies-killed. Quite frankly, I have far greater mora...
"We had no choice in those cases; it was-either overtly or covertly-war."
"We don't have any choice in this case, either. No one else fits the bill-or do you think Riordan will tolerate us assigning him an overt, round-the-clock bod...
Downing didn't bother to answer with the obvious "no." "So we protect him by procuring a romantic involvement with a woman who also happens to be-unbeknownst ...
"Then we'll invent a love potion. Hell, Rich; I don't know. But here's what I think will happen: we take two healthy, attractive, intelligent people who have-...
Downing nodded, thinking. "If we could add an intense, shared crisis of some kind, that intimacy might easily become romantic, sexual. But once they get over-...
Nolan sighed. "Then nature will take whatever course it's determined to take. But by then, with any luck, Riordan won't need round-the-clock protection anymor...
"And what of the woman? What becomes of her?"
"She will have had a relatively gentle-and well-funded-reintroduction into the world."
Downing sighed. "So should we be optimistic when we assign her a code name?"
Nolan frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well, if we were being optimistic, and if we stick with your pattern of Homeric sobriquets, we should assign her the code name 'Penelope.'"
"And if we're not so optimistic?"
"'Calypso,' of course."
Nolan's eyes seemed very tired, then he turned away. "We name her Calypso. Of course."
CALYPSO
She tore out the tubes and the catheter, tried vaulting the side of the cell: she half fell, half collapsed onto the floor. Damn: legs wobbly as a boiled chicke...
More shouting, again abruptly terminated by the weapons fire: closer now. Tactical training kicked in: since the hallway beyond the open door was as dark as t...
But how? Frozen, weak, apparently still wounded, and lost in the dark of an unfamiliar facility, she was as good as already dead.
But not if they couldn't see her: that was the key tactical variable. Night vision-how could she defeat that? And then she knew.
Using the rim of the cell to hoist herself up, she hastily inspected its exterior. Yes, as expected: hard-copy status reports clipped to its side. Would have ...
She tore off the sheets, rolled them into a long, composite taper, scanned the room for heating vents. She found one, scuttled feebly over to it, fumbled for ...
She bloodied her fingers getting the cover off the vent, discovered the dim reddish glow she had expected to find: battery-driven electric backup heaters that...
A wisp of smoke, a glowing ember, and then a sudden yellow flare: they were burning. She crawled back to her tanning cell, holding the paper upright to extend...
Her muscles were obviously reawakening, because hoisting herself into the cell was not as difficult a task as she anticipated. But evidently her nervous syste...
Can't yell, can't even gasp: they're too close. And it's going to get worse-right now. She doubled her legs under her so that she was crouched and then stood ...
She might have blacked out for an instant-from the persistent dizziness or the crushing pain, she wasn't sure. But there was no time to wonder. As she lifted ...
The sudden downpour of water blinded her, soaked her, re-froze her-but it meant a fighting chance. Neither infrared nor light-amplification goggles liked prec...
Chapter Thirteen
ODYSSEUS
The knob turned; the door swung inward. Caine was surprised by the casual confidence of the intruder: no low dodge to either side of the door. He came straight ...
As he had hoped, this good soldier reflexively hung on to his gun-which brought him spinning around the corner, blind. Caine planted his left leg across the i...
That he never completed. Strong fingers locked around Caine's right wrist, one of them digging expertly into the nerve cluster just south of the base of his t...
"It's him," said a voice behind Caine. "Livelier than we were told. Mr. Riordan, don't give us any more trouble: we're here to help you."
Caine's first response was flat disbelief-it's just a ploy-but then he reconsidered: if they had wanted him dead, they wouldn't be talking with him now. And i...
"Fair enough," said the voice as the knee came out of the small of Caine's back and the hand came away from his wrist. Rolling over, Caine found the same hand...
"Yeah, well, I was. Now what the hell is-?"
"No time for questions. We're here to get you out. Put on these goggles: they'll help you see in the dark. Stay between us and follow our orders exactly. Meye...
Caine adjusted the goggles-light amplification augmented by thermal imaging-and let the larger one lead him out into the corridor after he had given it a quic...