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STARTLING STORIES
“Nothing illegal, anyway. As an Adminis-trator, you had every right to alter files—you had given yourself that permission. It does mean that what I’m looking for isn’t there.”
“I am sorry,” he said. “Or I’m pretending to be, anyway.”
I felt sympathy, and wondered if I had ever felt that way toward a hologram before. Probably not. “Your death appears to have been an accident, or natural causes. I just wondered why you were living the way you were.”
“Oh, well,” he said, smiling slightly. “I know he—I—came to hate the world. The long fight against decay and corruption. I came to think that it would all end badly. Funny, now that I’m here I’m no longer so sure of that. Perhaps I have had a change of heart.”
* * * *
“Hey, you a cop?”
I was heading back to my car w
