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that they were as strong as he. That made sense, he thought. Doubles were doubles. Joe II
had to be Joe's match, and Frank II had to be at least as well conditioned as Frank, who
was in top shape.
Meanwhile, the guard shoved Iola into the chair in which Joe had been sitting. He
strapped her in, and Boshevsky stepped forward. Once again he flexed his huge hands
and cracked his knuckles. Then with the serious look of a craftsman at work, he reached
out with one hand and grasped one of Iola's earlobes, giving it a sharp twist. Iola
screamed.
Joe felt his knees turn to water and his blood turn to ice.
Boshevsky was reaching for Iola's other earlobe when the speaker said, "That's enough
for the moment. Joe has had a hint of what will
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happen to Iola if he does not cooperate. Believe me, Joe, what you have just seen cannot
compare with Boshevsky's ingenuity and enthusiasm in inflicting pain when he really
goes to work. But perhaps you don't believe me. Perhaps you want to see more."
"No, no more," said Joe. He kept his eyes on Iola and avoided looking at Frank. He
didn't want to see how Frank would react to surrender, because Joe was about to give in.
He would do anything rather than hear Iola scream like that again. "You win. I'll tell you
what you-"
"Not so fast Joe. Think for a second," said Frank, before Joe could continue. "How do
you know this is the real Iola? Remember, these guys specialize in creating doubles."
"But her clothes, her voice," said Joe.
"The clothes would be easy," said Frank. "And clearly they can program voices. That
would be no trick with a computer to analyze and reproduce voice prints. They could
have tapped our phone to get our voices, and as for Iola, remember how she liked to send
tapes instead of letters to her friends? They simply got their hands on one of those tapes."
Joe wavered. He looked first at Iola, then at Frank. Whom should he believe His
brother, or his own eyes and ears?
"Very good thinking, Frank," said the speaker. "We were told you had a fine deductive
mind, and indeed you have. Unfortunately, even the
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best of minds can be wrong. And fortunately, it will be easy to prove it in this case. Joe,
ask Iola anything ,you want, no matter how personal it is. If she is not able to tell you
things that only you and she could know, you are free to believe that this lovely girl is not
the girl you love. Do you have any objection to that, Frank?"
Frank was silent a moment. He bit his lip, thinking hard. Finally he reluctantly
admitted, "I guess not."
"But I do," said Joe. "The stuff I ask Iola isn't' anything I want anybody else to hear,
especially your goon squad here. I'm not going to have Iola perform in this human zoo."
"You want to spare your true love from embarrassment as well as pain. How very
touching," said the speaker mockingly. "But I will agree to your request. You may speak
with Iola alone in a room. But I warn you against trying to escape. It would be quick
death for both of you."
The speaker needn't have issued his warning. The room into which Joe and Iola were
led made thoughts of escape impossible. Like the cell Joe had been in before, it was
without windows, and the locked door was made of steel.
As soon as the door slammed shut, Joe and Iola turned to face each other. They would
have liked to touch each other, too, but their hands were cuffed behind them.
"A man yanked me away from the car just before it exploded," Iola said desperately.
"Then
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I was blindfolded, and I wound up here. I've been kept prisoner ever since. It seems like
forever."
"It wasn't so long ago," said Joe, looking into Iola's eyes. "It seems like just yesterday
we were together. Maybe that's why, deep down, I wasn't surprised you're alive. I mean,
in my heart, I never really believed you were gone. It's so great to find out I was right. It's
so great to find you. One thing's for sure. I'm never going to lose you again, not if I can
help it."
He could see no answering spark of joy in Iola's eyes, though. It was clear why. Iola
was still reliving her ordeal.
"I didn't know what they wanted to do with me," she said, her voice filled with
remembered hurt. "Then, a couple of days ago, they told me you and Frank were camping
nearby. They ordered me to lure you two into a trap. They threatened to let Boshevsky
loose on me if I refused. But when I saw you in the woods, I couldn't do it. I turned and
ran."
Iola shook her head at the memory. "I was praying you wouldn't be able to follow me
here. But you did. I guess I knew you would. You and Frank make quite a team. But this
time you were too good for your own good."
Iola was obviously in agony over their plight. Joe ached to take her into his arms to
comfort her. It hurt him that he couldn't. And what he had to do next hurt him even
more...
"Look, I don't want to ask you a bunch of
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questions to prove who you are but I have to," he said. "I mean, I know you're you. No
other girl has ever made me feel the way I feel now. That kind of thing can't be faked. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]