Read Paycheck (2003) for Free Online Page B

stop all the Intercity flights and check through the passengers.’
    ‘They have no reason to assume I’d be coming into the city.’
    ‘I didn’t think of that.’ Kelly sat down across from him. ‘Now, what comes next? Now that you have got away with the material, what are you going to do?’
    ‘Next I meet Rethrick and spring the news on him. The news that the person who escaped from the Plant was myself. He knows that someone got away, but he doesn’t know who it was. Undoubtedly, he assumes it was an SP man.’
    ‘Couldn’t he use the time mirror to find out?’
    A shadow crossed Jennings’ face. ‘That’s so. I didn’t think of that.’ He rubbed his jaw, frowning. ‘In any case, I have the material. Or, you have the material.’
    Kelly nodded.
    ‘All right. We’ll go ahead with our plans. Tomorrow we’ll see Rethrick. We’ll see him here, in New York. Can you get him down to the Office? Will he come if you send for him?’
    ‘Yes. We have a code. If I ask him to come, he’ll come.’
    ‘Fine. I’ll meet him there. When he realizes that we have the picture and schematics he’ll have to agree to my demands. He’ll have to let me into Rethrick Construction, on my own terms. It’s either that, or face the possibility of having the material turned over to the Security Police.’
    ‘And once you’re in? Once Rethrick agrees to your demands?’
    ‘I saw enough at the Plant to convince me that Rethrick is far bigger than I had realized. How big, I don’t know. No wonder
he
was so interested!’
    ‘You’re going to demand equal control of the Company?’
    Jennings nodded.
    ‘You would never be satisfied to go back as a mechanic, would you? The way you were before.’
    ‘No. To get booted out again?’ Jennings smiled. ‘Anyhow, I know
he
intended better things than that.
He
laid careful plans. The trinkets. He must have planned everything long in advance. No, I’m not going back as a mechanic. I saw a lot there, level after level of machines and men. They’re doing something. And I want to be in on it.’
    Kelly was silent.
    ‘See?’ Jennings said.
    ‘I see.’
    He left the apartment, hurrying along the dark street. He had stayed there too long. If the SP found the two of them together it would be all up with Rethrick Construction. He could take no chances, with the end almost in sight.
    He looked at his watch. It was past midnight. He would meet Rethrick this morning, and present him with the proposition. His spirits rose as he walked. He would be safe. More than safe. Rethrick Construction was aiming at something far larger than mere industrial power. What he had seen had convinced him that a revolution was brewing. Down in the many levels below the ground, down under the fortress of concrete, guarded by guns and armed men, Rethrick was planning a war. Machines were being turned out. The time scoop and the mirror were hard at work, watching, dipping, extracting.
    No wonder
he
had worked out such careful plans.
He
had seen all this and understood, begun to ponder. The problem of the mind cleaning. His memory would be gone when he was released. Destruction of all the plans. Destruction? There was the alternate clause in the contract. Others had seen it, used it. But not the way
he
intended!
    He
was after much more than anyone who had come before.
He
was the first to understand, to plan. The seven trinkets were a bridge to something beyond anything that—
    At the end of the block an SP cruiser pulled up to the curb. Its doors slid open.
    Jennings stopped, his heart constricting. The night patrol, roaming through the city. It was after eleven, after curfew. He looked quickly around. Everything was dark. The stores and houses were shut up tight, locked for the night. Silent apartment houses, buildings. Even the bars were dark.
    He looked back the way he had come. Behind him, a second SP cruiser had stopped. Two SP officers had stepped out onto the curb. They had seen him. They were coming