Read Online Young Rissa by F.M. Busby - Free Book Online Page A

transfer point, you mean? Yes — it was. But your latest Intelligence report — it came while you were gone — says UET smells Escaped Ship activity there. By the time I arrived, those planets might be buttoned up tight.”  
    â€œAnd so?”  
    â€œThe report also mentions — and this part is from the Underground — Escaped Ships’ contact at Far Corner. And my goal is wherever those ships make their base — the Hidden Worlds.”  
    â€œIf the Hidden Worlds exist . . .”  
    â€œYou know they do! They must! ”  
    Erika chuckled. “Of course. Forgive an old woman’s jealousy. For me, at my age, they do not.” Then, “Far Corner, eh? I have an agent there — an Asian — former space pilot. He lost an arm and they left him at the first stop.”  
    Rissa nodded. “Osallin, you mean. I’ve seen his dossier. He has no love for UET.”  
    â€œDoes anyone? I doubt those scheisskopfs love themselves! Now, then — you’ll send word?”  
    â€œOf course I will, when I can. And you — ?”  
    The old woman shook her head. “By the time your first message could arrive, I’m not likely to be here. But Frieda will do as I would.”  
    Though Rissa was not as certain of Frieda as Erika was, she nodded and said, “Yes. Of course.”  
    â€œWell, then — do you want to see your brother before you go?”  
    â€œNo.” Erika’s psych-techs had freed Ivan from much of UET’s implanted compulsion, but his intelligence had only begun to recover, and slowly. “I know he’s safe here — but just in case, it’s as well that only you know me in this guise.”  
    â€œOf course.” Both women stood. Erika pulled the girl close and gave her cheek a dry kiss. “All right, Rissa — Lysse — I wish you did-n’t have to say good-bye in that whiny little voice, though I’m gratified that you maintain characterization so well.” She sighed. “Anyway — you’re as capable as I can manage, and more so than most I’ve trained. I hope you get — well, whatever it is you want. You’ve earned it.”  
    Rissa looked at the woman she had known only a year; the woman who had changed her from an ignorant child to an able, competent person skilled in ways that a year ago she could not have imagined — the woman she could never see again. She blinked away tears; the kiss she gave was neither dry nor perfunctory.  
    â€œEarned it? Not yet. Erika — but I intend to.” When she turned away, she did not look back.  
    A dirigible steamer took her to Mexico City, a suborbital SST to Tokyo Complex, and a hydrofoil to UET’s Hokkaido spaceport. She knew the hotels there, under whatever names, were UET-owned and subject to electronic surveillance; she took care not to breach her Lysse Harnain identity. Using stockholder’s privilege, she booked passage on the Mac-Namara at company discount, bypassing the usual waiting list and screening process. She stayed in her suite and dined from the automated room-service.  
    Newsfax was part of the service; she made a show of scanning everything concerning the Western Hemisphere and Europe, but paid heed only to the North American printouts, with special attention to that continent’s Midwest area.  
    A week before her scheduled departure she found the item she wanted. General Osbert Newhausen’s wives and co-husbands had filed unanimously to divorce him, and the general was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. Rissa gave no outward sign of her intense satisfaction. The New Mafia representative had told the truth; the mutated virus was effective, as described.  
    Although she pretended — for the sake of possible observers — to continue to read the printouts, she had no further interest in Earth’s affairs. During her