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. The horror of all this willsoon be over, Joy.Try to let it go, at least for a while.Then she pressed deep with her fingers into Joy s nerve stem at thebase of her skull and massaged a particular cluster of nerves and mus-cles.Joy s face soon cleared; Jill realized that she d also drawn on herown training to further relax herself and clear her emotions.Not even aminute went by before she stood straighter and looked at Jill with calmeyes. You ve got to teach me that, Joy said. Thanks. Then sheglanced at John. Well, what are you waiting for?As they climbed the stairs, Joy s limping was too much for John; hepicked her up and carried her to the third floor.There, red-faced andbreathing heavily from the exertion, he had to put her down.But he puthis arm around her so she could lean on him.Reset Never Again267 Hey, big boy, Joy whispered in his ear,  you need more exercise.From now on, you should always carry me up the stairs.As they walked slowly to his apartment John whispered back,  It snot me.It s all the rice you eat.It s all compressed in your stomach,making you fifty pounds overweight.Joy stuck out her tongue at him.Jill followed quietly, smiling broadly at the chance to witness the fa-mous banter that Hands had described so well in his biography of them.Inside the apartment, Joy shrugged loose of John s arm and hobbledto a piece of paper on the kitchen table.With her back to him, she slidit inside her sweatshirt, then invited Jill to sit down at the table.When they were all seated around the table, with her blue eyes shin-ing, Jill began. First, I want to apologize for misleading you all aboutmy identity.I came here for two reasons.One was to protect youagainst Hadad and Carla, whom I knew were out to kill you and createan Islamic-ruled world regardless of Hadad s proclaimed agnosti-cism, Carla would have prevailed, you know and to arrest and returnthem to my future for trial.I had to disguise myself so they wouldnever suspect someone from the future was after them.Otherwise, theymight have gone underground and waited years before suddenly attack-ing you on one of your missions.Hands Mission Humanity, hisbiography of you two, and your Remembrance, John, were explicitabout your interventions, and it would have been easy for them to am-bush you during one of them.John looked at Jill with raised eyebrows. My remembrance? Yes, you wrote one of Joy and your mission, and it and Hands bi-ography were leaked from the Banks Democratic Peace Institute thatHands and the others set up in your name. He wrote about our mission, did he? Joy said, a look of surprisegradually changing into an  I told you so smirk.Jill s smile lit up her face. Yes.She waited a moment as John looked down and pinched his lip be-tween thumb and forefinger.Then his face cleared and he looked atJoy.He reached for her hand and told her,  Baby, I m so proud of younow, and in the future I m sure I ll be so bursting with pride over yoursuccesses that I ll just have to share them with the world  Can it, John, Joy exclaimed, but she clearly couldn t help the grinas she looked from John to Jill and shook her head.Jill reached across the table and pressed her hand over theirs.Shefelt she was living a moment she would always treasure, one shewished would never end.R.J.Rummel268She mentally shook herself, knowing the local time was closing inon her.She withdrew her hand and clasped it with her other. Thataside, I felt that if I stayed under cover as close to you two as I could,then I would get them when they tried to attack you.Joy frowned and her smile disappeared. But did you have to leadHands on?Jill knitted her brows, and the corners of her mouth turned down.She felt her lower lip begin to tremble.Joy reached over and put her hand on Jill s arm. I m sorry, Jill, Ididn t mean it that way.Jill responded softly,  I am a woman; in my job, falling in love is arisk we take.Yes, initially, I had to use him, but then I found that he isa wonderful man, and I began falling in love with him in spite of thevast differences between us.His goodness, tenderness, and open heartmelt my insides, if you know what I mean, Joy.Joy nodded. Leaving him and you good people will not be easy.John interjected,  Does that mean you won t be my accountant afterall?Jill looked appreciatively at John. I m afraid not.As to Hands, youmay tell him this if you wish, for it will make no difference because ofwhat will soon happen: eventually he will meet a courageous and beau-tiful woman in Germany and marry her.They will make each othervery happy.She shook her head and her face cleared. Now I want to tell youone more thing that, more than anything else, you deserve to know.Since Carla has already told you, in effect, that you will succeed inyour mission, I can also tell you about yourselves.Once Hands biog-raphy and John s Remembrance were leaked to the public, really to apublisher, the editors thought no one would believe them.So they con-tracted a ghostwriter to turn them into science fiction tales.Oncepublished, they didn t get much attention, until actual records of theTor Import and Export Company and John s stock transactions wereuncovered.With that, researchers found records in many countries ofwhat you two did to prevent war and foster democracy. This became headline news.Because of the huge interest gener-ated, the supposedly science fiction tales which incidentally did notneed to have much fiction added became best-sellers.You becamethe most famous and beloved couple in history.I know that Carla toldyou how hated you were in her very small part of the world, but amongfree and democratic peoples, over ninety percent of the world in myReset Never Again269time, statues depicting you two standing arm in arm have been built inmany a public square; an infinite number of paintings illustrate one oranother of your interventions; streets have been named after you; andthe most popular names for children are Joy and John, even in China.In Russia, the city of Kazan was recently renamed Banksgrad.John s chest visibly inflated, and he could hardly sit still, he was soagitated with happiness.He looked at Joy, slid his chair closer to hers,and put his arm around her shoulders. Congratulations, baby.I toldyou how proud of you I would be.Joy reached back with her hand, drew John s head down to hers,and gave him a kiss.Her eyes were misty when she turned to Jill andasked,  Is there any way I can let my mother know we will ah, havesucceeded?Jill sat for a long moment, lips pursed, finger idly tracing the pic-ture of a white rose on the waxed tablecloth.She finally responded, Yes, I think I might be able to do something.Still flushed with happiness, John asked,  How can you cross overto another universe? I thought that was impossible. We cross over where the universes are connected [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]