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BlinAI
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Testo

Dataset card Data Studio Files
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"Well, congratulations. And feel free to risk my life again-and Opal's-whenever it's convenient for you."
Downing kept his voice calm. "Like it or not, we were right. There were counter-operatives at Sounion, we did eliminate them, and Parthenon did come to a succ...
"Sure, you were right, but that just reinforces your assumptions that you can always outthink everyone else-which you can't-and that your ends justify your me...
Tarasenko looked out the window of his office and scratched his ear. "Mr. Riordan, you speak as eloquently as anyone I've ever heard. But I wonder: do you rea...
Caine snorted a laugh. "How could I not suspect that? You covered up my disappearance on Luna. The Pavirus was clearly your hoax. You staked me out as a Judas...
Tarasenko continued to smile; they waited.
After five seconds, Downing noticed that Tarasenko hadn't looked away from the point in space at which he had been staring. Nor had he blinked. As Caine rose ...
The next thirty seconds were utter, hushed chaos. Once they had Tarasenko on the floor, CPR produced no results, and Downing noted the encroachment of the sam...
After thirty seconds, Caine jumped up, abandoning the chest compressions, grabbed for the phone.
"No," said Downing.
Receiver in his hand, Caine froze. "What do you mean, 'no?' He needs-"
"No," repeated Downing, leaning back from Tarasenko's body. "We need to control this."
"Control this? How?"
"We have to think how this will look, how the media will begin to probe us if we call this in right now, without any prior-"
But Caine had dropped the phone just a sharply as the stunned expression had dropped off his face: he was moving toward the door.
"Where are you going?"
"To tell Tarasenko's assistant that his boss needs medical help-now."
"Caine, I can't let you do that. Don't make me order you-"
"Richard, now it's your memory that's faulty: I've stopped taking your orders. Remember?" He opened the door.
Downing was surprised by a sudden, dizzying panic so intense that his vision blurred. "But you can't leave-"
"Oh no? Why?"
Downing reached for an answer, had none. "I'm in this alone, now."
"Richard, you always have been. Nolan, Tarasenko, you-each trapped in your own private bubble of secrets and uncertainties. Maybe that's the nature of organiz...
CIRCE
The tall man leaned away from the binoculars and breathed again. Robin Astor-Smath wondered what would happen next.
The man removed his two fingers from the small black cube, used his other hand to replace his sunglasses.
"Well?" Robin said in a higher pitch than he had intended.
"Well what?"
"What happens now? When do you-?"
"It is over; it is done."
Astor-Smath blinked. "Over? How?"
"That does not concern you." The man backed away from the window, which was half-filled with the bright white fazade of the northern side of the Capitol Build...
Astor-Smath looked at the box: what was it? A communication device? A remote control for some weapon planted in the Capitol Building? If so, its appearance wa...
The man shook the two fingers that he had placed in the box-much as if he had scalded them-and closed the container, none too gently.
"Naturally, we take your word for the successful completion of-"
"You will have independent verification soon enough." The man picked up the box and put it in his pocket. "I believe I hear sirens."
If he did, then either his ears were extraordinary, or Astor-Smath's were in need of retesting. "Excellent, most excellent. However, this is hardly what I-we-...
"Are my concern alone. You requested an accommodation; it has been provided."
Astor-Smath cleared his throat-and heard, faintly, a single approaching siren. "Well, regardless of your methods, you have done us a great service today." The...
"How gratifying. I would welcome another dish of olives."
Then the tall man sat down in the shadowed corner. He did not speak again.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
CALYPSO
Opal saw Caine emerge from the Capitol's West Face at a brisk walk that carried him straight to the descending flight of stairs at the southern end of the porti...
Caine fast-foot-shuffled down the second, lower flight of stairs, headed straight toward Opal but didn't show any sign of stopping near her. She took her cue,...
He smiled-too brightly and cinematically for comfort-and said nothing, only looked past her at the taxis on First Street, scanning from one to the next.
What the hell is he looking for? His favorite brand? "Caine-"
He peered down to where First Street emerged from the Maryland Avenue traffic circle. He snapped straighter, flung up a hand: "Taxi!"
A cab-one of the few driven by a human-swerved to the curb. Caine scanned its interior-and driver-quickly: What the hell is he looking for? It seemed an odd c...