The Stainless Steel Rat eBook Collection by Harry Harrison Page A

Bolivar diGriz and I was born a little over seventeen years ago in this very city in the Mother Machree Maternity Hospital for Unemployed Porcuswineherds. The terminal I see before you must access official files at every level. Bring up mine! See for yourself if what I have told you is not the truth.’
    I settled back into thechair while he tapped commands on the keyboard. I did nothing to distract him nor draw his attention while he read. I was still nervous but worked to affect a surface calm.
    Then he was done. He leaned back and looked at me calmly. I didn’t see his hands move – but the gun vanished from sight. Drawn game! But the pieces were still on the board and a new game was beginning.
    ‘I believe you, Jim,and thank you for the kind words. But I work alone with no disciples. I was prepared to kill you to preserve the secret of my identity. Now I do not think that will be necessary. I will take your word that you will not look for me again – or use my identity for any more crimes.’
    ‘I grant your requests instantly. I only became The Bishop to draw your attention. But reconsider, I beg of you, myapplication for membership in your academy of advanced crime!’
    ‘There is no such institution,’ he said, hauling himself to his feet. ‘Applications are closed.’
    ‘Then let me rephrase my request,’ I said hurriedly, knowingmy remaining time was brief. ‘Let me be personal, if I can, and forgive any distress I may cause. I am young, not yet twenty, and you have been on this planet for over eightyyears. I have been only a few years at my chosen work. And, in this brief time, I have discovered that I am truly alone. What I do I must do for myself and by myself. There is no comradeship of crime because all of the criminals I have seen are incompetents. Therefore I must go it alone. If I am lonely – then dare I even guess at the loneliness of your life?’
    He stood stock still, one hand restingon the desk, staring at the blank wall, as through a window, at something I could not see. Then he sighed, and with the sound, as though it had released some power that kept him erect, he slumped back into the chair.
    ‘You speak the truth, my boy, and only the truth. I do not wish to discuss the matter, but your barb has been driven well home. Nevertheless what is, will be. I am too old a dogto change my ways. I bid you farewell, and thank you for a most interesting week. Been a bit like old times.’
    ‘Reconsider, please!’
    ‘I cannot.’
    ‘Give me your address – I must send you the money.’
    ‘Keep it, you earned it. Though in the future earn it under a different identity. Let The Bishop enjoy his retirement. I will add only one thing, a bit of advice. Reconsider your career ambitions.Put your great talents to work in a more sociably acceptable manner. In that way you will avoid the vast loneliness you have already noted.’
    ‘Never!’ I cried aloud. ‘Never. I would rather rot in jail for the rest of my life than accept a role in the society I have so overwhelmingly rejected.’
    ‘You may change your mind.’
    ‘There is no chance of that,’ I said to the empty room. The door had closedbehind him and he was gone.

CHAPTER TEN

    Well that was that. There is nothing like an overwhelming depression to bring one down from the heights of elation. I had done exactly what I had set out to do. My complex plan had worked perfectly. I had unearthed The Bishop from his secret lair and had made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
    Except he had. Even the pleasure of having pulled off the successful robbery meant nothing.The bucks were like ashes in my hand. I sat in my room at the hotel and looked into the future and could see only a vast vacuity. I counted the money over and over until the sums were meaningless. In making my plans I had considered all of the possibilities but one – that The Bishop would turn me down. It was kind of hard to take.
    By the time I got back to Billville the next day I was