Fractions Read Online Free PDF Page B

hands on before. Only the privileged had access to hard currency; for anything outside of business, Jordan had to make do with shekels, BC ’s crummy funny money.
    Guangzhou was busy. Try again.
    He sold a Filipino a thousand gowns and let the remittance hover. Just borrowing, really. Not theft. No real conscience. Only following rules. Suppose it’s a trap? A little provocateur program to sniff out embezzlement and dangerous disloyalty? He could always say…A long, rambling, stammering defence spooled through his mind, shaming him. Intellectually he understood perfectly what the problem was: guilt and doubt, the waste products of innocence and faith, inhibited him and filled him with self-loathing even at his own weakness in trying to be free of them.
    Born in sin and shapen in iniquity.
    Guangzhou had a line. He made the purchase, transferred it instantly to the account as specified. And it paid him. It was as if the money had never been away. He put it in the proper account and took the correct fee. No harm done. The time was 11.08.
    Someone tapped his shoulder. He turned, his features reflexively composed.
    Mrs Lawson smiled down at him.
    â€˜Take ten?’
    A small, bustling middle-aged woman in black and white, no make-up, no guile or allure. She worked for Audit. Smart as a snake, like the man said, and no way harmless as a pigeon. Jordan had a momentary vision of head-butting her and making a dash for it. A dash for where?
    He nodded and logged off, followed as her hem swept a path to her office. An audit trail.
    â€˜Coffee?’
    â€˜Yes, please.’
    He sat awkwardly in the chair in the corner of the tiny office. The upright reclined so he couldn’t sit back without sprawling, and sitting on the edge made it difficult to look relaxed. Mrs Lawson had a swivel chair behind a pine desk. Stacks of printout. Monitor screens like the eyes of lizards. Cacti in pots along the window.
    She steepled her fingers. ‘I’ve been keeping an eye on you, Jordan.’ She giggled. ‘Not in a way that would worry my husband! You’re a sharp lad, you know…No, don’t look so bashful. It’s not pride to be aware of your strengths. You do have an instinct, a feel for the way the markets move. I hope you’ll move up a bit yourself, perhaps consider joining one of the larger businesses. However, I’m not going to offer you a job.’
    Another giggle. Jordan’s back crawled.
    â€˜Except…in a way, I suppose I am. Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary in the system recently?’
    This is it, he thought. Maybe there is a God after all, who leads you into temptation, then delivers you to evil.
    â€˜Yes, I have,’ Jordan said. ‘Only this morning, a Black Planner made me an offer—’
    Mrs Lawson laughed, almost spilling her coffee.
    â€˜Of course, of course. And in my desk I have a piece of the authentic Turing Shroud! No, seriously, Jordan, I’m talking about any kind of pattern you may have noticed in things like, oh, subsystem crashes, transaction delays, severe degradation of response-time unrelated to major obvious activity? Anything that seems like interventions, where none of the central banks are involved? To be honest, we can’t find any evidence from the Exchange Commissions of’ – she waved her hands – ‘anything suspicious, but several of the smaller communities have a theory that something is loose in the system, using it for ulterior noncommercial purposes in a way that shows up only at the, uh, glass roots level.’
    â€˜What you might call “outsider dealing”?’
    Mrs Lawson looked startled.
    â€˜That’s exactly what we do call it. Unfortunately it’s led to rumours, very unhealthy rumours, of – you know. A word to the wise, Jordan. I wouldn’t repeat that little joke of yours if I were you.’
    Jordan nodded vigorously, making wiping motions with his