The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, #4)

by Dan Simmons

“No,” said Aenea. “Four,” I said, beginning to feel foolish with my little finger exercise, but angry enough to continue, “didn’t the Core admit to your father that it created him … created the John Keats cybrid of him … just as a trap for the—what did they call it?—the empathy component of the human Ultimate Intelligence that’s supposed to come into existence sometime in the future?” “That’s what they said,” agreed Aenea, sipping her tea. She looked almost amused. This made me angrier. “Five,” I said, folding the last finger back so that my right hand was a fist. “Wasn’t it the Core as well as the Pax—hell, the Core ordering the Pax—that tried to have you caught and killed on Hyperion, on Renaissance Vector, on God’s Grove … halfway across the spiral arm?” “Yes,” she said softly. “And wasn’t it the Core,” I continued angrily, forgetting my fingered checklist and the fact that we were talking about the old poet’s errors, “that created that female … thing … that arranged to have poor A. Bettik’s arm sliced off on God’s Grove