Authors: Geoffrey Household
Hostage (26 page)
What a record of futility! The preservation of the future herd led me to Magma; the preservation of the present herd led me to oppose rather than destroy. Can one be called intellect and the other conscience? If so, there is such irreconcilable conflict between them that the only winner can be the Unknown Purpose.
To that I appeal in the only way left to me. The sentence I give myself is death. I am the killer who slit up Vladimir, who would not even give Clotilde time to come down from the ladder. And Jim Ridge down there, waiting to be found? Well, we had no hope if he had lived so that can be justified. Mallant? Perhaps I might have left him to the dubious condemnation of this diary. But that is hypocrisy. I wanted revenge for Sir Frederick, and by God I had it!
‘Come out, Despard!’ they repeat. ‘We’ve got you.’
You haven’t. Either you have got something which has no existence or you are about to release it to a more perfect knowledge of that Paxos evening three and a half months ago.
I told them to wait till I had finished writing. Now I have. I must come out firing or they will not kill me. Never mind, you who reaches for me first! You will be shot through the shoulder with the last round in poor Clotilde’s automatic and you’ll get a medal for it. All I ask of you, unknown friend, or of you next to him, unknown friend of a friend, is to be angry and to shoot mercifully to kill.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1977 by Geoffrey Household
Cover design by Drew Padrutt
978-1-4532-9375-1
This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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New York, NY 10014
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