Immerman looked at Ohm over the rim of his teacup. "Not yourself. Who are you, then?"
"I'm having no problem with my identity."
"I hope not. There have been reports that you are showing signs of mental instability."
"Those are lies!" Ohm said. "Who reported that? The man who wanted to murder Snick?"
"It doesn't matter. I don't think you are mentally unstable. Not any more than most people. You are to be commended, by the way, on your handling of the Castor business. However..
Immerman sipped his tea. Ohm said, "Yes?" and lifted the cup to his lips. He was pleased that his hand was steady.
Immerman put the cup down and said, "The woman Snick ... has been taken care of."
Ohm hoped that the shudder running over the upper part of his body was slight enough to be unnoticed. Those blue eyes seemed to be looking for some sign of reaction to the news.
He forced a smile and said, "Snick. Already?"
"Early this morning. Her disappearance will eventually cause a hullabaloo, of course. But today's organics don't even know she's missing. She's a rather independent agent. She doesn't have to check in with the organics on any schedule. It may be that she'll not be missed until Sunday. She has to report in on her natal day, of course. But ..
"She hasn't been killed, has she?"
Immerman raised his eyebrows. "I was told that you objected to her being killed. I'm glad you have such humane feelings, grandson, but the family's welfare comes first. Always, first. I don't hold with killing unless it's absolutely necessary. So far, it never has been necessary. If Garchar had killed Snick, I would've made sure that he was punished."
"Garchar?"
"The man you ... No, not you. It was Dunski."
"Sure," Ohm said. "I know. Garchar. The man Dunski called 'Gaunt.'"
Immerman said, "If you know that, you must remember being Dunski."
"Just a few important things about him," Ohm said.
Immerman shook his head while he smiled. "You're a unique phenomenon. Someday ..
He sipped tea instead of finishing his thought. Then he looked suddenly at Ohm and said, "You aren't personally interested in the Snick woman, are you?"
"What makes you ask that?"
"Answer the question."
"No, of course I'm not. You're talking to Charlie Ohm now, grandfather. Tingle and Dunski are the only ones who've seen her, as far as I know. I don't know how they feel about her. I doubt they could be physically attracted to her, if that's what you mean. After all, she was dangerous to them."
He was not telling the exact truth. The unremitting pressure these last few days had pierced, though not broken, the walls of segregation of self from self. The memories &f Caird, Tingle, Dunski, and Repp were not his; they were secondhand memories. The most vivid of these were intertwined with the persons and events that most threatened all of them. Yet, he felt a trace, a ghost, of attraction to Snick, which could only be feelings that Tingle and Dunski somehow transmitted to him.
Ohm could not have explained just how he knew that Garchar was the man whom Dunski had called "Gaunt." Or that he would recognize Snick if he saw her.
Immerman said, "It's unfortunate that your Wyatt Repp identity has been exposed. We do have a new one to plug into the data bank and are ready to arrange all that goes with that. But would it be better if all seven of you just seemed to disappear and re-emerged with seven new IDs? I doubt it. Some organic Sherlock Holmes might run a massive and detailed data bank search and comparison. You would be found, would be interrogated with truth mist, and you would tell all because you couldn't help it. And then ..
Ohm looked Immerman straight in the eye. "Are you trying to convince me that logic demands one course of action? That I must be a sacrifice? I'm to be stoned and hidden away until some time later? Maybe much later? Or perhaps I won't be destoned ever?"
"Think about what you just said," Immerman said. He sipped some more tea, then refilled his cup.
"You're not going to do that," Ohm said. "If you were, you wouldn't have bothered to bring me here to explain all this. You would've just had me snatched and stoned and buried."
"Good! My children are not fools. Not all of them, anyway."
Charlie Ohm did not feel as if he were a child of Immerman. Looking at him, Charlie had the same emotions that he would have had at looking at a photograph of an unknown grandfather. He knew that he was his flesh and blood, but he had had none of the frequent contacts nor the loving and caring from his grandfather that made loving and caring grow in the grandson. He was awed by the founder, and he had a huge respect and admiration for him. But did he love him or feel that he was truly his grandfather? No.
"What must I do, then?"
"You will abandon all your roles, You will assume a new identity. That will be confined to one day. You will no longer be a daybreaker ... What's the matter?"
"We'll ... they'll ... die!" Charlie said.
"Good God, son, get hold of yourselfl You look as if you'd been told that your best friend had died."
Immerman paused while looking shrewdly at Charlie, then said, "I see. It's even worse."
He bit his lip and looked past Charlie as if he were trying to see into the future.
"I didn't know that you were ... that far gone. Perhaps ..
Charlie said, "Perhaps?"
Immerman sighed, and he said, "We don't have much time for this. I have hardly any at all. I can't personally supervise you, get you into your new persona. It will be'a persona, not just a role, won't it?"
"I'll be all right," Charlie said. "It was such a shock. Maybe I have thrown myself into each day's ID too deeply. But I'm not a halfway person. I do it right or not at all. I can handle this, though. After all, I am very adaptable. How many people you know could make the transition so smoothly from one persona to another? How many could handle seven with ease? An eighth person'll be no trouble. In fact, I'm looking forward to a new ID. I was getting tired of the others."
Had he gone too far in trying to convince Immerman that he could do it?
Voices were shouting in him. "I don't want to die!" They were so loud and desperate that it seemed to him that Immerman must surely hear them. That was nonsense, of course, but he felt as if the room should be ringing with their cries.
Immerman said, "You'll return to your job. As I said, afriend has made an excuse for your lateness at work. The friend called herself Amanda Thrush. Don't forget that. She said that you had hurt your back in a fall in the shower, but that you'd be in later. Got that? Good.
"I want you to think about your new identity and make sure it's a good one. You'll have to be an immigrant, and arrangements will have to be made to cover everything in the data bank. Mudge will see you early in the evening at your apartment; stay home after work. You'll tell him what and who you want to be. Then he'll do the necessary fixing up and leave a message for his Sunday colleague. The colleague will get in touch with you. You have one more day in your old character, Sunday's, unless something happens to prevent it."
Charlie expected to be dismissed then. His grandfather, however, sat staring past him and chewing his lip. Charlie waited. The Siamese was also staring at him, and he was purring loudly while Immerman gently stroked him. His grandfather was using his left hand. Charlie thought, I must have inherited my sinistrality from him. On both sides of my family.
Though apparently delighted with his master's petting, Ming suddenly stood up, stretched, and leaped off Immerman's lap. He walked slowly out of the room, heading for whatever mysterious goal cats went to when they departed. Immerman watched him fondly, then said, "Cats are like people. They're predictable in many respects, but just when you think you've got them completely analyzed, they do something you could never have anticipated. I like to think that that trait is free will."