A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe Page B

and told me to sit down. “I’ll get us somethin’. Chocolate if they got it. Just wait here. How about a san’wich?”
    I knew the rule, but I had not gotten much breakfast, and it hit me that this library’d probably be too chicken to punish another library’s reclone. So I said I would like one and thanks.
    â€œI’ll see what they got.”
    He came back with a little stack of sandwiches and two mugs of hot chocolate. He set a mug and a sandwich in front of me, looked around to see if anybody was watching, and pulled a flask from a pocket of his loose blue smock. “Swan-n-Sweetheart five star. Pretty good, too.” He decanted a healthy swallow into my chocolate and helped himself to one.
    My sandwich turned out to be tuna salad on rye.
    â€œListen. S’pose I could get you out of here. Would you play along?”
    I shook my head.
    â€œHey, I been nice to you, right?”
    I nodded.
    â€œI got you that san’wich you’re eatin’. I gave you a few ’backs. I even got you chocolate and gave you a shot of my dog. So why not?”
    â€œBecause another library’s reclones not on loan cannot be checked out. We would be violating the law. You would be prosecuted. I would probably be burned.” That last was really stretching it and might have popped into my head because of what I had told Arabella; I would sure as shit be punished somehow, though.
    â€œâ€™Spose I was to pull my friend on you. You know what I mean? My one-eye friend. These big pockets on this coat ain’t just for show. Get me?”
    â€œI do. But I wouldn’t come. First, because I like you. If you shoot me, you’ll be getting yourself into trouble. But if I were to go with you, I’d be getting you into trouble. I prefer not to do that.”
    â€œYeah, right. What’s the second one?”
    â€œThe doors here are alarmed. I know they must be, because they’re alarmed in all libraries. When someone borrows a disk, a card is inserted in the box. It gives the date on which the disk is to be returned, and it’s automatically scanned as the box passes through the door. If there’s no card, or the card is invalid, the alarm goes off. There is no security ’bot at some doors, but one is always nearby.”
    â€œYou ain’t no disk!”
    â€œCorrect. I am a human being, even if other human beings refuse to consider me human. Still, I’ve got a card.” I took it out and held it up. “My card, however, is for the library in Spice Grove, whose property I am. It would not permit me to go out the door here.”
    â€œYou can put that away.”
    I did.
    â€œWant another san’wich?”
    â€œYes, if you don’t mind.” I sipped kafe, wondering about the Swan-n-Sweetheart. Brandy or whiskey?”
    â€œOkay. I got ham and cheese. Or chicken salad. Up to you.”
    â€œHam and cheese, please.”
    He tossed it. “You won’t come, huh? That’s firm. Only maybe you would if you knew who sent me.”
    I shook my head, feeling sure he would say Colette and just as sure it would be a lie.
    â€œThe tall man. You know him, right?”
    â€œI don’t believe I do.”
    â€œGood-lookin’ guy, a lot taller than me. Wears a big hat.”
    I had a strong hunch, but I said, “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
    â€œWell, he knows you.” The blond man stood up. “So do I, now. See you ’round.”
    I wanted to thank him again for my hot chocolate and the food he had bought, but he was gone before I could get the first word out.
    Thinking hard, I finished my second sandwich. I did not want the third, but it seemed to me somebody might ask questions if I just walked away and left it. Two tables away, a fat girl was reading one of the broken novels some people like now. I went to her table, smiled, and offered her the remaining chicken salad sandwich. “My friend