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unmistakable.
Lucia swung around in her chair. He was standing in the doorway, supported by both
Ahmed and Abdullah. Bandages covered his left arm and half his torso.
"Getting help," she said.
Rashid limped over to her, leaning on Ahmed and his father as they helped him walk.
Lucia moved out of the chair, and Rashid lowered himself into it, Abdullah on one side
and Ahmed on the other. As Rashid read Lucia's dialogue with Mark the screen, Ahmed
translated it for their father.
Lucia glanced up at Ahmed. "Is everyone else gone?"
He nodded. "Except two bodyguards."
"Rashid?" Zaki asked. "Are you here?"
"Yes." Rashid spoke in a hoarse voice. "We're going to get you out."
"It's too late to get me out," Zaki said.
spearman> Lucia? Are you still there? Rashid stiffened, then typed:
del mar> This is Rashid al-Jazari. I'm breaking the connection.
spearman> Wait! We c#$+$RR
"Connection terminated," Zaki said.
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Catherine Asaro - The Veiled Web
Lucia grasped the back of his chair. "Rashid, no. They're bringing us help."
He was still staring at the screen, his fists clenched around the keyboard, his face as
bleak as ice. "Like Mortabe wanted to 'help' me?"
Suddenly the screen cleared. Zaki reappeared, standing in the center of his office,
staring at them with a hunted look. "Rashid, it's too late to move me."
Rashid started gathering the CDs and computer disks from the table. "No! It isn't too
late."
"What can you do?" Zaki demanded. "Load this entire lab into a car? It will take too
long."
Sweat beaded Rashid's forehead. "My family took the cars to Marrakech. But we still
have the truck."
"There isn't time to remove an entire computer lab."
"We will manage." He stopped, staring at the screen. "We will."
"And if Grégeois's people, come while we are managing?" Zaki demanded. "Will you
let them take you?"
"I don't know."
"Why don't you know?"
Rashid spoke in a quiet voice. "Sometimes the price of refusal is too high."
"That price being the lives of people you love."
"Yes."
"And what of the price I have to pay?"
"What price do you mean?"
Softly Zaki said, "My conscience."
"Zaki "
"You can't have your soul taken," Zaki said. "You may choose to die for your ideals,
save the people you love, refuse to work, endure whatever torture they subject you to, or
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Catherine Asaro - The Veiled Web
damn yourself to hell. Maybe in the end you won't be able to withstand them, but you
will still be Rashid." His fists clenched at his sides. "I have no choice. They can
reprogram me as they please. What then? Will they delete my conscience?"
Rashid pressed his fingertips against the screen. "What would you have me do?"
"Destroy me."
"No!"
"Please."
"I can't."
"Please."
Rashid pulled the keyboard into his lap. "I can back up your files and then erase them
from the workstation."
"It won't be enough," Zaki said. "I'm part of every computer in this lab, at a basic level.
You would have to erase everything. Even if you wipe every hard disk clean, you still
have to make sure nothing can be retrieved. We don't have time."
"No." Rashid's hands gripped the keyboard. "I can't destroy you."
A shout came from somewhere in the house, echoing in its deserted spaces.
"Rashid, please." Zaki reached his hand forward, as if to touch the screen from the
inside. "I'm deleting as much of myself as I can right now, but I can't get all of it either."
Their bodyguard Ali appeared in the doorway, a rifle gripped in his hands. As he spoke
in Arabic, Lucia heard more shouts in the house.
"No." Rashid pushed to his feet. "Not now!"
"Rashid, do it!" Zaki said. "Before it is too late."
For one instant, Rashid stared at the screen, his anguish plain on his face. Then he took
a lurching step to a table piled with manuals and printouts. When he upended the table,
books scattered everywhere, all over the floor. He braced the foot of his good leg
against one leg of the table and yanked on another leg, trying to break it, straining with
his injured arm.
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Catherine Asaro - The Veiled Web
Rashid's father pushed him away and went to work on the table. With Ahmed's help, he
broke off the leg, making a long staff. As Abdullah gave the staff to Rashid, Ahmed
went to work breaking another leg off the table.
With his hands clenched around the staff, Rashid said, "I'm sorry, Zaki."
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