A Fugitive Truth Read Online Free PDF

insist.”
    “Sorry Harry. I forgot.” With no real apology in his voice, Michael pulled up a chair and promptly settled in for a nap.
    I blinked and looked at Harry, who seemed perturbed. “Michael seems to forget a lot of our policies when it suits him. I asked him repeatedly to leave his coat in the locker, but he keeps ‘forgetting.’ I’m sure that he really does understand about security, but…well. He doesn’t seem to worry about it too much. We finally reached an agreement; he can keep it in the reference room, but not in the manuscript room. It was just…easier that way.”
    Harry then dropped the subject. He quickly ran through the standardized speech about using pencil or a computer only, how the catalogs worked, and how to fill out a call slip for the bound volumes and manuscripts.
    “You can help yourself to whatever reference books are out here,” he said, gesturing to the shelves, “but no one besides Sasha and me is allowed in the stacks, I’m afraid. We do ask that you limit yourself to one item at a time with the rare books,” he said firmly.
    There it was: the first hint of the librarian strain, a manifest urge to control the books. “No problem.” There was only one book I wanted to get my hands on, and I was only just managing to listen to his spiel politely.
    “This collection is important on a number of levels, and we all have to cooperate to preserve it for the future. Quite apart from the monetary value, which, I think is on the order of tens of millions—”
    “How on earth do you insure a library like this?” I asked, agog.
    “We can’t,” Harry said simply. “We can’t replace a lot of the things here, for starters, and for another thing, we’d never be able to get the security to the point where an insurance company would willingly take a risk on us.”
    I stared at him, dumbfounded.
    “Of course, if we loan something to another institution—a library or a museum, say—we insure the object for transport, but we make the other institution pay for it.” Harry resumed his spiel. “In any case, the intellectual and historical significance is utterly priceless, being one of a kind. So you understand why we need to take such care. Unfortunately, it’s not only a matter of conservation and protection issues but outright theft. There’s a rising market for rare books, manuscripts, and incunabula—”
    “Great word,” I said, more impressed with Harry every minute. “What’s it mean?”
    “In the library sense, books that were published before 1501,” he explained, “though of course, we only deal with books relating to the colonial period and later. The black market is huge. You may have heard about the thefts from the Van Helst Library in Philadelphia recently.”
    “I hadn’t,” I said. “I’m mostly tuned into the problems with the antiquities market, but I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise to find it extends to all sorts of rare, old things as well.”
    Harry nodded. “And it’s a problem we take seriously.” He paused thoughtfully, then suddenly changed the subject. “In terms of conservation, most of the volumes here are in good shape, but we’ll let you know if you need to wear gloves, to keep the damage from body oils and cosmetics down to a minimum. Actually, if you could refrain from using hand creams or perfumes, that would be a big help. There are a few very rare volumes that we will have to get out of the vault, and if you need one of those, you will have to use it in my office or Sasha’s, for security reasons.” He glanced over at me, and I thought I recognized tentative approval. “But you’ve done this sort of thing before, of course.”
    “Oh, yes.” I was relieved that Harry saw that I was a member of this club.
    “It’s nice not to have to explain why we can’t let you go romping through the stacks. Too many of our Fellows think that they should be allowed. But we have some terribly valuable things, and it’s just not