Kraft took up his cue. “Are we delaying you, Doc? I know how important your work is. We just came up to find out if any of your people had seen Mr. Peruge’s friends.”
“I’ll certainly inquire about that,” Hellstrom said. “Why don’t you come back and take lunch with us tomorrow, Mr. Peruge? Maybe I’ll have something to report by then.”
“I’d like to do that,” Peruge said. “What time?”
“Would eleven be all right?”
“That’d be fine. Maybe some of your people would like to hear about my company then, too. We do have an intense interest in metallurgy and new inventions.”
There he goes again! Hellstrom thought. He said, “If you get here by eleven, that’ll give you about an hour before lunch. I’ll have some one show you around-editing, wardrobe, the insects.” He smiled pleasantly.
Will my guide be Fancy? Peruge wondered, feeling his heartbeat quicken. “I’ll be looking forward to that. In the meantime, I hope you won’t mind if I call in some help and have a look around the area myself?”
Hellstrom noted how Kraft’s muscles tightened, and he spoke quickly. “Not right here on the farm, I hope, Mr. Peruge. We’re getting ready to shoot some outside footage as long as this weather holds. It doesn’t help much when people stumble over our setups and delay us. I hope you understand how costly such delays can be.”
“Oh, yes, I understand,” Peruge said. “I was thinking only of having a look at some of the range area around your farm. Carlos’s letter made it clear that he was in this area. I thought we might see if we could turn up something.”
Aware of Hellstrom’s mounting alarm, Kraft said, “We don’t want you interfering with the official investigation, Mr. Peruge. Amateurs can completely destroy evidence without—”
“Oh, I’ll have only the best professional help,” Peruge said. “You can count on that. They won’t interfere one bit with the official investigation. And I’ll make sure they don’t bother Mr. Hellstrom at his movie making. You’ll have nothing but admiration for the quality of professional help I’m calling in, Mr. Kraft.”
“Guess you don’t care how much money you spend,” Kraft muttered.
“Expense is no object,” Peruge agreed. He was enjoying this suddenly. This pair was on the hook. They knew it, too. “We’re going to find out what happened to our people.”
That challenge is plain enough, Hellstrom thought. “Of course, we sympathize with your concern. Our own immediate problems tend to dominate our attention. We can be pretty single-minded when our schedule is threatened.”
Peruge felt himself beginning to come down from the lift Fancy had given him and, now, alarm and anger began to take over. They’d tried to catch him with a little pussy! He said, “I understand how things are, Hellstrom. I’m going to tell my home office to employ all the professional manpower we can spare.”
Kraft stared at Hellstrom, seeking a cue.
Hellstrom spoke evenly, though. “We understand each other, I think, Mr. Peruge.” He glanced at Kraft. “You just keep intruders from interfering with us, eh, Linc?”
Kraft nodded. What did Nils mean? How could he stop an army of investigators? This Peruge was going to call in the FBI. The bastard had done everything but use their name!
“Until tomorrow, then,” Peruge said.
“Linc knows the way out,” Hellstrom said. “I hope you will forgive me if I don’t see you out. I really must get on with my work.”
“Of course,” Peruge said. “I’ve already noticed how well Deputy Kraft knows his way around your farm.”
Hellstrom’s eyes glittered as he shot a restraining signal at Kraft. “‘Local officials have never been barred from our land,” Hellstrom said. “We will see you tomorrow, Mr. Peruge.”
“You certainly will.”
Peruge moved ahead of Kraft to the door, opened it, and stepped out into a full collision with Fancy, who appeared to be returning. He caught an arm around her to keep her from falling. There was no doubt that she wore nothing under the smock. She ground into him as he jerked his arm away in shock.
Kraft pulled her away. “You all right, Fancy?”
“I’m fine,” she said, grinning at Peruge.
“That was clumsy of me,” Peruge said. “I’m sorry.”
“You needn’t be,” she said.
Hellstrom spoke from behind them. “We’ve had enough commotion out here, Linc. Would you see Mr. Peruge out?”
They left hurriedly, Peruge in considerable confusion. He’d received the unmistakable impression that Fancy had been ready to flop him down and screw him right then and there!
Hellstrom waited until the outer door closed behind Kraft and Peruge, then turned an inquiring stare on Fancy.
“He’s in the bag,” she said.
“Fancy, what are you doing?”
“I’m doing my homework.”
Hellstrom suddenly noted the thickening of Fancy’s cheeks, the way her upper arms stretched the fabric of the smock. He said, “Fancy, do you see yourself as a brood mother?”
“We haven’t had one since Trova,” she said.
“And you know why!”
“All that nonsense about a brood mother exciting the swarming drive!”
“It’s not nonsense and you know it!”
“Some of us think it is. We think the Hive may swarm without a brood mother and that might be disastrous.”
“Fancy, don’t you think we know our jobs? The Hive will have to produce at least ten thousand more workers before swarming pressures become apparent.”
“They’re apparent right now,” she said. She rubbed her arms. “Some of us can feel them.”
Comment on the current film.
The film sequence shows an insect cell, the development of the egg, and, finally, the caterpillar emerging. How striking is this metaphor. We emerge from the parent body, those wild creatures who call themselves humankind. The message of this metaphor goes much deeper, however. It says we must prepare for our emergence. We are immature at this stage, our needs dominated by preparations for adulthood. When we emerge, it will be to take dominion over the surface of the earth. When we have achieved our adult form, we will eat to live rather than to grow.
Peruge heard the telephone ringing for a long time before the Chief answered. Peruge had been sitting on the edge of his motel bed after returning from lunch with Hellstrom. It had been an extremely disappointing lunch: no sign of Fancy, everything very formal and shallow in the dining room of the old farmhouse, and absolutely no rise to his bait about new inventions. The Chief was not going to like this report.
The Chief’s voice came on the phone presently, alert and responsive despite the long delay in answering. The old man had not been asleep, then, but doing something he refused to interrupt even to answer what he often referred to as “that instrument from hell.”
“I told you I’d call as soon as I got back,” Peruge said.
“Where are you calling from?” the Chief asked.
“The motel, why?”
“Are you sure that phone’s clean?”
“It’s clean. I checked.”
“Let’s scramble anyway.”
Peruge sighed, got out his equipment. Presently, he had the Chiefs voice in his ear with that distant flatness the scrambler imposed.
“Now, tell me what you found out,” the Chief ordered.
“They refuse to respond to any overture about metallurgy or new inventions.”
“Did you quote an offer?”
“I said I knew someone who’d pay up to a million for a promising new invention in that field.”
“That didn’t tip them?”
“Nothing.”
“The board is beginning to pressure me,” the Chief said. “We’re going to have to act soon, one way or another.”