Alien Tongues Read Online Free PDF Page B

messages of criminal gangs.  It's been featured in a number of news articles.  So my taking the job here at the Labs may have made some paranoid local criminals imagine I'm going after them."
    Alice dropped him at the facility.  Apart from the guard on the gate, there was a single security officer in the otherwise-empty buildings at that time.  Séamus used his electronic device to go through two doorways which admitted him to the corridor leading to his room.  He made himself a pot of tea, selected some cookies from the cupboard, then slumped in an armchair with a novel he had been intending to read by a new Irish writer.  As he would sometimes explain it to friends, just then he needed to get in touch with his Gaelic side.  He wasn't sure why, but he understood the need well enough.  Maybe he was constantly afraid of it slipping away.

3.     The Girls
     
    At eleven o'clock the next morning Séamus entered Professor Wilkie's office at the facility.  It had a desk to one side, but the center of the room was dominated by four large leather settees, worn and comfortable looking, surrounding a Persian carpet on which stood an elaborately inlaid, marble coffee table.  Views on two sides of the room were of surrounding fields, and the sun streamed in through its high windows.  Wilkie was pouring coffee from a Middle-Eastern-looking pot into two small cups for Alice and himself.  He was wearing a pale green suit with a yellow bow-tie.  Alice, back in her lab coat, smiled when she saw him but Wilkie said without looking up, "Sugar or not? It's Turkish."
    "Then yes please, sugar."  Séamus took the third settee as the cup was put in front of him.  It would be ready to drink in about three minutes.
    "I'm so pleased you two got to meet yesterday.  I always believe in forming an impression without the burden of a biography.  Séamus, I can now tell you that Alice here is my favorite maths doctor.  She's a brilliant young woman who doesn't let her outstanding mathematical mind obscure her scientific sensibilities, particularly in my area.  Without her, I doubt this project would have ever got off the ground."
    "A gross exaggeration," Alice said, smiling.
    "My Dear, not even a mild overstatement.  By the way, Séamus, I have debriefed Alice on you.  Of course I don't know you except for your Agency records and test results, but they are thorough enough for me."  He offered a plate of powdered, dark jellies.  " Lokum , anyone?  No?"  He ate one himself.  "Alice told me about the leak you discovered last night," he continued.  "I'm very sorry about that, but we have perhaps twenty local folks working here and there's always someone whose loyalties to some bigwig exceed their honesty when they signed their confidentiality agreement.  Fortunately, none of these locals knows the details of the project itself, including how the lab is constructed and who our volunteers are.  I will make doubly sure that situation continues."
    He stretched, relaxed and smiled at each of his young companions. Over the following twenty minutes he gave Séamus a briefing about what to expect that day.  He then said, "OK, two of the girls have already arrived and the two others will be here later this afternoon.  The first one you're going to meet is Japanese.  We're going to call her Jenny.  The second girl is Chinese, and we're calling her Chrissy.  This afternoon you'll meet a Thai girl, who we'll call Tina, then finally a Filipina who we'll call – guess what? – Phyllis.  Crude, I know, but it helps my terrible memory."  The Professor swigged back his coffee.  "Are we ready for Jenny?" His companions nodded. "Séamus, would you fetch her from Room J?"
    Séamus went back upstairs and walked past his room to the one marked "J" on the door.  He used his electronic device to cause the deadbolt to slide back, then knocked.  A girl's voice invited him to come in.  He opened the door to see an Asian girl sitting upright on