The Astral Mirror Read Online Free PDF Page B

industry! We’ll be able to publish books for a fraction of what they cost now, and sell them directly to the readers! Our sales volume is projected to triple, the first year we’re on the market, and our profit margin...”
    “Fifty-four forty or fight!” cackled the CEO.
    “What?” Lipton blurted.
    The bodyguard’s smile seemed knowing, cynical. “We’ve seen your projections. But they’re all based on the assumption that you’ll have the electronic books on the market next year. We don’t believe you can do that, not at the rate you’re going now.”
    “As I said, we’ve had some problems here and there.” Lipton was starting to feel desperate. “We contracted with Moribundic’s electronics division, at first, to make the damned things, but they flubbed the job completely. They produced a monstrosity that weighed seventeen pounds and didn’t work half the time.”
    The CEO shook his wizened head. “My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country.”
    Suppressing an urge to run screaming out of the room, Lipton slogged forward. “The company we’re working with now is based in Silicon Valley, in California. At least they’ve got the electronics right. But they’ve got problems with their supply of parts. Seems there’s a trucker’s strike in Texas, where the chips are being manufactured. This has caused a delay.”
    “And in the meantime, Hubris’ sales are sinking out of sight.”
    “The whole book industry is in a bad way...”
    The bodyguard raised his dark eyebrows half an inch, as if acknowledging the point. “But we’re hearing complaints about poor morale in the office. Not just down in the pits, but among your own executive board.”
    Lipton growled, “Those dimwitted idiots can’t see any farther than their own paychecks! They’re afraid that the electronic book is going to take away their jobs.”
    “Your profit-and-loss projections are based, in part, on eliminating most of their jobs, aren’t they?”
    “Well, yes, of course. We won’t need them anymore.” The CEO’s frail voice became mournful. “It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work...” His voice sank to an unintelligible mumble, then rose again to conclude, “that these dead shall not have died in vain.”
    As if the CEO were not in the room with them, or at least not in the same plane of reality, the bodyguard launched into a detailed analysis of Lipton’s electronic books project. He referred to it specifically as Lipton’s project. Hubris Books’ president felt sweat trickling down his ribs. His hands shook and his feet hurt as he stood there defending every dollar he had spent on the idea.
    Finally, the bodyguard turned to the CEO, who had sat unmoving and silent for the past hour.
    “Well, sir,” he said, “that brings us up to date on the project. The potential for great profits is there, but at the rate we’re going, the cost will drag the entire corporation’s P-and-L statement down into the red ink.”
    The CEO said nothing; he merely sat hunched in his oversized chair, watery eyes blinking slowly.
    “On the other hand,” the bodyguard went on, “our tax situation should be vastly improved by all these losses. If we continue with the electronic book project, we won’t have to worry about the IRS for the next three years, at least.”
    Lipton wanted to protest, to shout to them that the electronic book was more than a tax dodge. But his voice was frozen in his throat.
    “What’s your decision, sir?” the bodyguard asked.
    The CEO lifted one frail hand from his desktop and slowly clenched it into a fist. “Damn the torpedoes! Full steam ahead!”

The Result
     
    Mitsui Minimata held his breath. Never in his happiest dreams had he entertained the idea that he would someday meet the Emperor face to face, in the Imperial Palace. Yet here he was, kneeling on a silken carpet, close enough to the Divine Presence to touch him.
    Arrayed around