He gathered up his tools and, humming to himself, left.
I had stolen one of his test meters. I went and got a helmet. I got a real Part B of the switch. I took it out of the lead box. I put it under the helmet. I turned the helmet on.
The meter was DEAD!
Hurray! Oh, was I the right one now!
Shortly I would be in a position to seduce any girl, make my whole staff bow down on sight, maybe even get somebody to rob a bank for me. I could untrain Silva But above all I could order Utanc to love me and get into my bed!
But there was one more thing to do.
I wrote a hasty note. I stamped it so it would look official.
I got out a Colt .45 and made sure it was loaded just in case I ran into Silva—which I surely didn't intend to do.
With flying and jubilant feet, I raced down the passageway to Faht Bey's office.
He wasn't there, I was happy to note. I got on his phone and called the taxi driver. I had trouble finding him but after three calls around town, made it. He was in a bar, gambling. He said he was losing a bit and wanted to get even first. I was very tolerant. He said he'd be along shortly.
Faht Bey's wife came in, saw me and went out hurriedly.
Faht Bey finally came in. I didn't want to see him. He didn't want to see me. I could tell. He sat down. He looked at me.
"Those heroin thefts are continuing," he said.
"Why tell me?"
"Are you sure you don't know?" And I could tell from the way he looked at me that he thought I was taking it!
"You better be more respectful," I said with a steely tone. Oh, would I get him. He was going to be an early candidate on those hypnohelmets.
"We're pretty broke," he said. "That hospital is costing the planet! The Lebanese banker is very upset."
"Why tell me?" I said.
"You're the Inspector General Overlord," said Faht.
"Yes, I am. And don't you forget it," I said.
"We owe I. G. Barben for the last shipment of speed," he said. "The one that went on the Blixo."
"To Hells with the Blixo," I said and meant it.
"The Lebanese will have to borrow money from the bank to buy the current poppy crop. Interest is 30 percent."
Oh, Gods, was he ever a candidate for a hypnohelmet!
"We were solvent until you came," he said.
Two hypnohelmets a day! I'd show him!
Finally the taxi driver came. It was ten o'clock. I looked around carefully for Silva before I went outside.
"I lost my roll," the taxi driver said. "Could you lend me a few bucks?"
Angrily, I told him to drive me to the hospital. He was going to get a hypnohelmet, too!
We got to the hospital. I told him to wait and keep his eye open for a swarthy Sicilian.
I went inside. It was deserted except for an old woman doing night duty at the counter. I pushed right on by her. I crashed open the door to Prahd's bedroom.
Two heads popped up.
"My father!" cried Nurse Bildirjin.
"Has my pay started yet?" said Prahd.
Evidently they had been halfway through something.
They seemed to be under a strain.
"Get up out of that bed!" I ordered. Here were two more candidates for hypnohelmets for sure. No respect. Her father is a fat slob.
They knew menace when they heard it. Nurse Bildirjin got out of bed. She didn't have much in the way of breasts, being maybe only fifteen. She got into her professional nurse's uniform. She seemed to be swearing under her breath.
Prahd got up. This time he was smart. He put on his shoes first.
I hauled him into his office. I showed him the official-looking forgery. "Here is an order I just received. It must be complied with instantly."
It said:
BY ORDERS. You are to be bugged instantly. If you were ever put in one of those cells in the basement or in some grave, we would never be able to find you unless you had a responding bug in your skull. This is secret, official and anybody mentioning it will never get his pay started.
The Powers Above
I took the order back. I handed him the Part B lead box. He opened it and squinted to see it. "This is a bug?" "A mini-micro responder," I said. "It buzzes back when a searching beam is scattered around." "Oh, yes," he said. "One of those." "Right. I want it implanted in the top of my skull in such a way nobody will know it is there. That's the order."
"And then does my pay start?"
"We'll see," I said.
He sort of looked at me strangely. But he yelled for Nurse Bildirjin. She raced up. She was muttering under her breath. "Get the operating room ready," he said.
She raced away. She was still muttering. We followed her at a more leisurely pace. He had set up the operating room. Lights glared. A table with straps was in the middle of the room.
"Is it for him?" said Nurse Bildirjin.
"Yes," said Prahd.
She promptly grabbed me by the arm and threw me down on the operating table. I was amazed at her strength.
She got me laid out and began to buckle straps. She encased my feet, she encased my stomach, she put big heavy straps across my chest and arms. Then she took one final strap and fastened it across my throat. It was too tight. I was having trouble breathing.
She was muttering under her breath. Sort of savagely.
"Wait!" I said. The way these two were looking at me, I didn't want to go unconscious. I might wake up with the lancet sticking out of the wrong place. "No general anesthetic!! Just a local. It's not much of a job."
"There is no Novocaine," said Nurse Bildirjin.
I turned my head. "That's a bottle with Novocaine written on it right there!"
She picked it up and put it in her pocket. "It's empty. And there are no pharmacies open at this time of night."
"That's true," said Prahd.
She went over to a drawer and got something. She came back and said, "Open your mouth wide."
I did, expecting her to look at my teeth. She jammed a huge roll of bandage into it and gave it a final shove.
She got up on my chest with both knees. As she was young and a bit bony, they were quite sharp. She pulled up her skirt, leaving her thighs naked. She braced her elbows and took my face in her hands. The fingernails were quite sharp, too. She held my head as though it was in a vice.
"Go ahead, doc," she said. "And I hope those tools are dull! Young girls have tender feelings."
I realized that she had an Elektra complex. A fixation on her father. I tried to open my mouth and tell her that I wasn't her father but the bandage roll was in the way.
Nurse Bildirjin's knees were digging in so hard I didn't feel the first slice. I felt the second!
Prahd—I could roll my eyes enough to see—was using a Zanco electric knife. He had a pan catching some blood. He had opened my scalp! I didn't need to see to know that! It stung like mad!
Nurse Bildirjin held my head very steady with her fingernails. "Maybe it's not a good idea to go around interrupting things right in the middle," she said. "Maybe doing it once was okay but when it happens twice, it starts looking intentional. Young girls have tender feelings!"
Prahd was putting some blood in a test tube and warming up a catalyzer. Things buzzed and metal pans clattered. Burners were hissing.
He came back over. He had a little spade sort of instrument. I couldn't see.
FLASH! Pain went through me like a javelin. Worse!
He backed up. He had taken a little piece of skull!
He put it in a test tube. He put the test tube in the catalyzer. Burners sizzled. So did my skull!
"Did you ever do it halfway?" said Nurse Bildirjin. "Did you ever do it halfway and then have to stop?"
I couldn't feel her fingernails. My skull hurt too much.
Prahd now had a drill. He started it up.