Read Online The Credulity Nexus by Graham Storrs - Free Book Online

answered him. “I'm a ba,” it said,
sounding offended. “I like it.”
    “ Well, you look stupid.”
    “ It's something I found in the Egyptian
Book of the Dead. It represents the divine part of the human soul.
The ba can leave the deceased's body and fly to the netherworld, or
it can return to Earth. It inhabits a new body when it is
reincarnated. I thought it was a rather nice metaphor for what I
have become.”
    “ And what have you become,
Celestina?”
    The monster
raised one wing in a languorous, dramatic gesture, and morphed into
a beautiful woman. “The same as you, Martin: an unfettered
soul.”
    Lanham sighed.
“Some of us are more fettered than others. I need to know what's
going on. Your reports have been somewhat sketchy.”
    The woman
walked over to the chaise longue which had incongruously
materialised nearby. She sank into the couch, arranging her long
limbs. A light, warm breeze started, delicately lifting her hair
and stirring the chiffon dress she wore. When she was happy with
the effect, she smiled at Lanham. “Theft is an art-form, Martin,
not an exact science.”
    “ I don't need to tell you what is at stake.
Do you want a war with the humans?” He didn't move, yet he was
suddenly standing over her, angry and perhaps a little larger than
before.
    “ Oh, you worry too much. It will never come
to that.”
    Lanham gritted
his teeth and tried to control his temper. Celestina might look and
act like a silly, pampered air-head, but she was a dangerous and
powerful woman. Before her death she had been an organised crime
boss, a rich and cruel man who commanded armies of killers,
thieves, extortionists and thugs. Since her upload she had changed
her sex, and now spent her days in obscure and incomprehensible
fantasy worlds. Yet she still maintained her old business
interests, still ruled her old, dark empire. He needed her on his
side. There were forces Celestina controlled to which he otherwise
had no access.
    “ Just tell me why it is taking so long,
Celestina, and then I'll leave you to your...” He waved a hand at
the barren desert landscape, unable to find a word. The chaise
longue and its voluptuous occupant were the only splashes of colour
in the wide, rocky wilderness.
    Celestina
turned her big eyes towards Lanham and looked up at him from under
long lashes. “Cordell's wife had someone with her, a private dick.”
A display opened in the space beside them. It showed Rik's picture
and a potted biography. “He's a nobody,” she said. “Some ex-cop
loser Cordell hired as a courier. But he's been very lucky. He now
has the package, but he's been picked up by UK security services.
I'm taking steps to ensure that holding onto what we want will cost
him more than Cordell is able to pay.”
    Lanham scowled
at Rik's data sheet, not scrolling through the dismal facts of the
man's life, but looking at the face in the picture. He didn't like
what he saw.
    “ Is your agent down there up to the
job?”
    Celestina
smirked. “She's very highly motivated. I'm sure she'll be fine.” An
image of the woman appeared beside Rik's data sheet, a
three-dimensional model which rotated slowly in the air.
“Beautiful, isn't she?”
    Lanham
regarded the hairless robot body. The black skin had a carbon
sheen, and the long fingernails looked like steel talons.
High-breasted, wide hipped and with a face sculpted from onyx, she
could have been beautiful, if you liked your women to look like
sophisticated killing machines. Lanham's tastes were less
extreme.
    “ Keep me posted on progress,” he said, and
was gone.
    Celestina
continued to watch her model for a moment, then spoke to her.
    “ Hello, Rivers,” she said. “Do you have it
yet? I'm growing impatient, and you don't want that, do you dear?
I'm placing my trust in you. Please don't make me regret it. Call
me when you get this.”
    From Omega
Point's orbital position at the L4 Lagrangian point, the message
signal would take eight minutes and nineteen