He didn't watch the needle but looked at the Priami. "Sit down, Smitty. I'm going to give you my decision now."
Smith trumpeted an undecipherable emotion. Barbara jumped and pushed the needle in hard. Bill said, "Ouch!"
"That's what I meant," said Smith. Smoking, he sat back, seemingly at ease with the world. Bill could see the abnormal pulsing of veins and, perhaps, the heart hammering under the unorthodox ribcage. The latter, he thought, must be his imagination.
"There are four things I can do," intoned Ogtate. "One, keep the Belos to myself. Two, give it to Earth. Three, extend it to Mars. Four, allow both factions to possess it. If I do the first, I go crazy from indecision. More important, I'll spend eight years without the one woman I know I can learn to love. If you want the truth, I'm afraid to face those years without her. If I do the second, I will, I'm sure, start Earth on a downward spiral of conquest and arrogance. Earth people are not the stuff of warriors just now, but until two hundred years ago they were, and they can be again. And Smitty risked his life to sneak here and convince me the Priami aren't the all-black carnivorous monsters they're painted to be. As is evident, you can see through him. He has nothing to hide."
Ogtate sat up a little straighter. Killison asked him if he felt better, and he replied that he did.
"If I give it to the Priami alone, then the war-mongers there will do to us as we'd do to them. Although I am bitter, I don't, contrary to report, hate man as a whole. I loathe some individuals and am indifferent to others. But wiping out a world because of what a small, vicious gang did to me, isn't in my character at all." He smiled apologetically at the woman. "In fact I held the Belos over Earth's head because I knew that once I gave it away, I'd no longer be valuable. Yewliss was kind enough to point that that out to me during a visor-interview, and Smitty here confirmed it. I rejected that idea, because it made me look so terribly selfish. But Barbara's appearance tonight, as Smitty said, was a catalyst. The truth of my unconscious possessiveness hit me.
"If I do the fourth, give the Belos to both planets ... As for the traitor-stigma I'll gain, the Government can make no official actions because of the law of free will. By giving the Belos to the Priami, I'm not personally hurting anybody. Earth ships don't have to penetrate the Priami field. If they want to, let them do it safely, by arranging peace. There'll be social ostracism, yes. What a laugh! And eight years hence, I'm sure, events will prove me right. Chances are, I'll be in the limelight again, this time as a social lion-instead of a skunk. No matter. I don't care about their adulation.
"As for the accusation that I'll be setting up another status quo, I plead guilty. The two foes will stagnate because they'll be afraid to use interplanetary travel. They'll slide back to their former conditions of dinky one-globe states. That is, unless they achieve peace. They'll have to, because population and prosperity depend on trade between worlds. Cut off EPB transmitters and you have chaos."
Smith rose, trumpeted again and dropped his cigar. The light behind him gleamed dully through him and showed a blackish pump working accelerando in the grille of his chest. "I have your word?"
Ogtate straightened some more. He looked proud. This was his greatest moment. He was the unofficial emperor of the solar system; he was dispensing the fate of many billions. "The papers are on the table by your chair. They were within handreach for the last six months. I just couldn't make up my mind to tell you what they were."
As if he would at all costs keep his dignity, Smith turned slowly. When he picked up the thick packet, he almost dropped it. His proboscis blew a suspicious note. "Bill," he said.
He stopped, interrupted by a hysterical, tiny gonging from the woman's wristbox. She flicked the toggle and said, "Major Killison talking."
"Barbara!" tinned Yewliss' voice. "Drop everything and come on home. Good news! Lord, but it's good news! For all of us. For Earth and for you and for me."
"What is it?"
"The Belos field has been discovered independently by our scientists. We don't need to toady to Ogtate any more. You can forget about your sacrifice and cone home to me."
Bill jumped up and screamed, "What?" and he swayed.
Barbara seemed stunned, too. Yewliss demanded several times that she answer.
"All right, Yew. I'll contact you later."
"Later, nothing!" exploded the wristbox. “I’m flying now to get you."
"You stay right there until I tell you to come. There are some problems yet to solve."
"Babs, you don't have to go through with that silly act. Lord, now I think back on it, I don't see how I could have let you go ahead."
"But you did, Yew," she replied, tonelessly. "You know me well enough to realize I mean what I say. Don't come until I call you."
"Major Killison, this is General Yewliss speaking!"
“Man Yewliss, this is woman Killison talking. So long." She snapped the little lever.
Ogtate said, "1 don't know what to say, Barbara."
Smith stepped forward and seized the man's left hand in his webbed fingers. His trunk caressed Bill's forehead with a gesture of affection. It hinted, also, of sadness and farewell.
The woman, watching him, was aware of an irrelevant thought. She had wondered in the back of her mind why he wasn't affected by the bite. Now the answer came from the dark of forgotten facts. His metabolism was based on a fluorine-carbon chain. The drifting semiviruses couldn't attach themselves to his poisonous proteins.
The Priami seemed to know Ogtate was in no mood for lengthy ceremonies. He said, "I thank you for all you've clone. I respect you, Bill, and I know you respect me. I hope to see you again, and I wish you good fortune with your female. Whether that means getting or losing her, I can't say. But I wish you fortune."
Bill said in a tight voice, "Sorry you must go, Smitty. But your people will want to hear your news."
Smitty trumpeted. "I wouldn't be surprised if, when I arrived, I found my people, too, had discovered the Belos. And I will be ignored, the ignominious hero who was too late."
He faced Barbara. "I hope to visit you some day, Major. Openly."
She murmured a suitable reply.
He walked away, swinging long thin arms, then stopped and said, hesitantly, "Bill, would you do me a favor?"
"Sure."
The Priami picked up a box of cigars. "I'd like to take these home. It'll be hard getting a good smoke on Mars."
Ogtate burst out laughing and sat down. "Go ahead, Smitty. Take a dozen boxes, all I have. Compliments of the Earth Government!"
"The opening wedges in the door of peace." He was gone.
10
Barbara put the thermodial in his mouth and felt his pulse. When she looked at the gauge, she said, "Almost normal. How do you feel?"
"Rotten. But not from the fever. I feel like the world's biggest fool."
"At least you're not a nonentity."
"I’m that, too."
For want of anything better to say, thinking she must take his mind off his sudden plunge into humiliation, she commented, "Well, you'll have no more fever, anyway."
When he wanted to know what she meant, she decided nobody would be hurt by the information. The maneuvering was over.