The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order by Stephen R. Donaldson

an antimutagen.
    To
demonstrate the efficacy of her drug, as well as to reinforce the impression
that he was bargaining in order to save his own life, he’d given Morn back to
the Amnion. With their connivance, he’d retrieved her again. After that, he’d
tricked his way aboard Trumpet , perhaps with Milos Taverner’s aid.
    Hashi’s
pulse pounded in his head; in his eyes. He rode a mad swirl of phosphenes and
alarm. His hypothesis was self-consistent. It fit the available data. It could
be true.
    If Nick
succeeded at putting her aboard the gap scout, Morn would survive to wreak
mutagenic ruin on the UMCP. And the knowledge that Sorus Chatelaine had
obtained an immunity drug would spread. It was spreading even now. Genetic
kazes were the stuff of nightmare — the worst horror visceral human DNA could
imagine. Driven by panic, humankind would offer her every kind and scale of
riches in self-defence.
    You
deserve her.
    Nick
had sent his message to Hashi as a taunt, trusting that no cop would be able to
guess the dark truth. Of course, his plan would fail if the UMCP themselves
made the drug available. But they could hardly do so when a genetic kaze had
gone off in their faces — when they were being torn apart by self-replicating
alien nucleotides.
    Shivering
in an ague of speculation, Hashi strove to fault his hypothesis.
    I
don’t care what happens to you.
    Was it
possible? That was the essential question: every other concern faded to vapour
by comparison. Could Joshua be tricked or manoeuvred into keeping Morn alive?
    He had
no orders to preserve her life. Quite the reverse. On the other hand, she was
UMCP personnel. Therefore he couldn’t kill her himself: his programming
protected all UMCP personnel from direct violence. What if she were forced on
him in some way? — for example, if her survival was the price he had to pay for
the success of his mission? What then?
    Under
those conditions, Hashi acknowledged feverishly, Joshua’s datacore would not
preclude her rescue.
    And the
information she carried within her was as destructive as any mutagen. Quite
apart from other possibilities, it could ruin Warden Dios and all his senior
personnel; perhaps end their lives; quite conceivably destroy the UMCP itself.
    Supposition
proved nothing. Nevertheless Hashi suddenly found it not only possible but
credible to think that Morn Hyland might still be alive.
    Lethal!
his covert mind shouted at him. Deadly! Such a development would be fatal — entirely fatal.
    You
need me, but you blew it.
    Perhaps
he’d misjudged the depth of Nick Succorso’s malice.
    Abruptly
he dropped his hands from his face to his board. Their pressure against his
eyeballs left his vision blurred; but he didn’t need clear sight to hit the
keys he wanted.
    Perhaps
he’d been more honest with Koina Hannish than he wished to admit when he’d
spoken of loyalty. Whatever the reason, he didn’t question his decision once it
was made. He’d been passive too long. Instead of hesitating further, he
prepared a new contract for Captain Scroyle and flared it out to the same
listening post which Free Lunch had used to contact him.
    It was
the richest contract he’d ever offered a mercenary; a king’s ransom in exchange
for Trumpet’s destruction and the death of everyone aboard.
    The
mere act of coding that message filled him with an inexpressible sense of
conscious alarm and intuitive relief. The risk he took was extreme.
Nevertheless, directly or indirectly, he’d created the threat Nick represented.
He’d hired Nick. More than once. He was responsible for the danger.
    As soon
as his transmission was on its way, Hashi Lebwohl left his office and went
looking for Warden Dios. The walk would allow him a chance to recover his
composure. And he wanted to report in person so that he could more easily give
his director an edited version of what he’d learned.
    What
followed then would enable him to refine his speculations. In addition, it
would reinforce