Datasets:
BlinAI
/
Testo

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
 Community
1
text
stringlengths
0
4.23k
"What do you mean?"
Caine's voice was flat. "I'm out, Richard. No more IRIS."
Downing was too surprised to feel surprise, but clearly, Caine had come to the wrong place to make such a pronouncement: Tarasenko would never let it stand. "...
Tarasenko did something he rarely did: he interrupted: "He's right, Richard."
Downing felt his palms grow suddenly cold. "Right about what?"
Caine smiled. "I'm busted."
Tarasenko nodded. "He's contaminated goods."
It was moving too fast. "He's-?"
"Compromised by having direct contact with me, particularly so soon after Nolan's death. To any half-witted newsperson, his coming here will look like he was ...
"Thanks-but no thanks."
Downing discovered he had wandered over to the chair next to Caine's. He sat heavily. "I don't understand."
"You don't understand what? Why I'd leave? Or how I got in here without an appointment?"
Downing looked at Arvid. "How did he get in to see you without an appointment?"
"Same way he's probably going to get in just about any place he wants to for the next two or three years-twenty, if he stays in the spotlight: he just gave hi...
"And you let him in?"
"Jesu Kristos, Richard, why the hell wouldn't I? He shows up, unannounced, no appointment, Nolan's recently dead, IRIS is mute: what am I supposed to think? H...
"And now-"
Caine shrugged. "And now, because I've been observed to have immediate, on-demand access to Senator Tarasenko, the press will assume that I report to him. And...
"Which means that it still points to nothing: IRIS is still thoroughly secret despite its data leaks."
"Listen, Richard, my running straight home to Senator Tarasenko like his pet dog will start at least a few of the smarter investigative reporters down the sam...
"However, I've only come here once. So if I drop off the radar-and you leave me alone-then the news media just might overlook this, or deem the evidence too t...
"How kind-and condescending-of you to walk me through all the implications, Caine, but I quite understand what you've done. I just wonder if you understand-re...
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that Nolan and IRIS have been a force for good. Roll your eyes if you like, but you've said it yourself on occasion: if there are exosapients, then IR...
"Firstly, it's not broken-not yet. And it won't be, unless you force me back into it," Caine countered. "But more importantly, if you had only had the common ...
"Caine, Nolan and I tried to protect you-"
"Oh, you mean like at Sounion, at the overlook?"
"Nolan admitted that was a mistake and that he and I-"
"Are liars. The ambush at Sounion was not a mistake. That was a sting operation-your sting operation-to snare enemy agents, with me and Opal staked out as a p...
Downing felt his face grow very hot very quickly. Bloody hell: Caine caught us-well and good.
And he did not appear to be in a forgiving mood.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
MENTOR
Downing opened his mouth, hoping that a glib, convincing lie would cooperatively spring forth from it-but he remained mute. Tarasenko stared politely out his wi...
Downing let his lips close, looked down at his folded hands. Bugger all: nothing left but the truth, I suppose. "So you figured that out. About the overlook."...
"Oh yes, I figured it out." Caine's voice was as hard and level as a steel ruler. "Too much coincidence. And too happy an outcome. You sent us out there as ba...
"And that's how you figured it out? Because you retroactively conjectured how their attack might have been to our advantage?"
"No, what tipped me off was what happened to that thug you shot-or rather, the thug you didn't shoot." Caine shook his head. "So much went on that day, and th...
Downing tried to swallow, found his mouth too dry.
Caine's smile was cold. "I guess I'm just about the luckiest man alive, considering that there was a sniper-my own personal guardian angel-someplace higher up...
Tarasenko glanced back at Downing once, then out the window again.
"And once I realized that, then everything else started falling into place. It wasn't my landslide of PVC pipes which sent that second car over the embankment...
"I think what really kept me from suspecting a setup right away was that clever lie you told-so quickly, too-about the road worker at the detour being part of...
Tarasenko's head turned back from his sustained gaze out the window. "Which was?"
"Mr. Tarasenko, you're no stranger to special operations, so that question is pure theater. Richard needed to get the opposite side to risk their assets so th...
"From the moment you took out their operatives, the opposition was running out of time and options. They wait to hear from their assassins, don't, try to cont...
Richard leaned back in his chair. "So, if you understand all that, how can you fail to see that we did it for your own good?"
"Why was anyone looking to kill me in the first place? Who was responsible for putting me on a hit list to begin with-Richard?"
Downing tried to look Caine square in the eyes. "That ambush was the only option we had to secure your safety. Once you stepped off the VTOL in Greece, we kne...