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The Multiplex Man


HE HAD A STRANGER'S FACE—AND A DEAD MAN'S MEMORIES!

Richard Jarrow was a mild and unassuming teacher who was sure that the government knew best, with its strong environmental controls on industry and its equally stringent control of education and the media. He knew that the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, who now claimed to have more freedom than the United States, as well as booming economies fueled by their exploitation of the resources of space, were only spreading ridiculous propaganda, and they either would soon collapse, starved by their diminishing natural resources and choked in their own pollution - or else they would attempt to steal the resources of the rest of the world, and have to be destroyed. Didn't the government say that was so?

And then his world went mad...

Cover Art by Patrick Turner


ORDER Paperback
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, July 1999

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 92-215964

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-0-671-57819-0
ISBN-10: 0-671-57819-7

Copyright 2006 by James P. Hogan

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.baen.com

Typeset by Brilliant Press

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webscription.net


To Henry Palka

With thanks for being a lot of help

with a lot of things

I'M NOT WHO I THINK I AM

Jarrow reached over to the keypad and entered the Chicago number he'd found in the pad in the hotel room. The legend call ringing appeared on the screen, then was replaced by a head-and--shoulders view of a woman. He recognized her as the redhead in the dream he had awoken to that morning. But that was crazy. He didn't know anyone in Chicago, or a woman who looked like that, anywhere.

And the even crazier part was that, from the way her expression changed, she evidently knew him.

"I wondered when you'd call," she said as Jarrow stared speechlessly. "You just vanished into thin air."

Jarrow swallowed and found himself shaking. "You recognize me?" he whispered. "You know who I am?"

The narrowing of her brows signaled she was worried, but with a hint that she had been prepared for something like this. She nodded. "You're Tony Demiro," the woman said.

Jarrow slumped back in his chair and stared at her numbly. "Who's Tony Demiro?"

"Warrant Officer Demiro? Of the Army?" She intoned the phrases like questions, as if trying to coax his memory. She paused, reading his expression of total bemusement. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"I'm sorry. No, I don't. And you're certain that I—this person you're talking to now . . . what did you say that name was?"

"Tony Demiro." Her voice caught. She bit her lip and brushed a hand quickly across her mouth.

"What is it?" Jarrow asked. "What's the matter?"

Rita swallowed audibly, and he could see her brace herself. "Tony Demiro was killed five months ago," she said.

By James P. Hogan

Inherit the Stars
The Genesis Machine
The Gentle Giants of Ganymede
The Two Faces of Tomorrow
Thrice Upon a Time
Giants' Star
Voyage From Yesteryear
Code of the Lifemaker
The Proteus Operation
Endgame Enigma
The Mirror Maze
The Infinity Gambit
Entoverse
The Multiplex Man
Realtime Interrupt
Minds, Machines & Evolution
The Immortality Option
Paths to Otherwhere
Bug Park
Star Child
Rockets, Redheads & Revolution

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