"Barnes," the President repeated softly, as if he had heard nothing else. "Andrew, I had hoped to spare you this, but-" He broke off and flipped a key at his desk. "Get me stereo station WDES, Des Moines, the manager's office."
Shortly a screen lighted on his desk; he touched another switch and a solid display in the wall lighted up. We were looking into the room we had been in only a few hours before.
Looking into it past the shoulders of a man who filled most of the screen-Barnes.
Or his twin. When I kill a man, I expect him to stay dead. I was shaken but I still believed in myself-and my heater.
The man in the display said, "You asked for me, Mr. President?" He sounded as if he were dazzled by the honor.
"Yes, thank you. Mr. Barnes, do you recognize any of these people?"
He looked surprised. "I'm afraid not. Should I?"
The Old Man interrupted. "Tell him to call in his office force."
The President looked quizzical but did just that. "Barnes" looked puzzled but complied. They trooped in, girls mostly, and I recognized the secretary who sat outside the manager's door. One of them squealed, "Ooh-it's the President," and they all fell to buzzing.
None of them identified us-not surprising with the Old Man and me, but Mary's appearance was just as it had been in that same office, and I will bet that Mary's looks would be burned into the mind of any woman who had ever seen her.
But I noticed one thing about them-every single one of them was round-shouldered.
The President eased us out. He put a hand on the Old Man's shoulder. "Seriously, Andrew, take that vacation." He flashed the famous smile. "The Republic won't fall-I'll worry it through till you get back."
Ten minutes later we were standing in the wind on the Rock Creek platform. The Old Man seemed shrunken and, for the first time, old. "What now, boss?"
"Eh? For you two, nothing. You are both on leave until recalled."
"I'd like to take another look at Barnes's office."
"Don't go near the place. Stay out of Iowa. That's an order."
"Mmm-what are you going to do, if I may ask?"
"You heard the President, didn't you? I am going down to Florida and lie in the sun and wait for the world to go to hell. If you have any sense, you'll do the same. There's damned little time."
He squared his shoulders and stumped away. I turned to speak to Mary, but she was gone. His advice seemed awfully good, and it had suddenly occurred to me that waiting for the end of the world might not be too bad, with her help.
I looked around quickly but could not spot her. I trotted off and overtook the Old Man. "Excuse me, Boss. Where did Mary go?"
"Huh? On leave no doubt. Don't bother me."
I considered trying to relay to her through the Section circuit, when I remembered that I did not know her right name, nor her code, nor her I. D. number. I thought of trying to bull it through by describing her, but that was foolishness. Only Cosmetics Records knows the original appearance of an agent-and they won't talk. All I knew about her was that she had twice appeared as a redhead, at least once by choice-and that, for my taste, she was "why men fight". Try punching that into a phone!
Instead I found a room for the night. After I found it I wondered why I had not left the Capital and gone back to my own apartment. Then I wondered if the blonde were still in it. Then I wondered who the blonde was, anyway? Then I went to sleep.
Chapter 4
I woke up at dusk. The room I was in had a real window-the Section pays well and I could afford little luxuries. I looked out over the Capital as it came to life for the night. The river swept away in a wide bend past the Memorial; it was summer and they were adding fluorescine to the water above the District so the river stood out in curving sweeps of glowing rose and amber and emerald and shining fire. Little pleasure boats cut through the colors, each filled, I had no doubt, with couples up to no good and enjoying it.
On the land, here and there among the older buildings, the bubble domes were lighting up, giving the city a glowing fairyland look. Off to the east, where the Bomb had landed, there were no old buildings at all and the area was an Easter basket of color giant Easter eggs, lighted from within.
I've seen the Capital at night oftener than most, because of my business, and, while I like the place, I had not thought much about it. But tonight I had that "Last Ride Together" feeling. It was so beautiful it hurt but it was not its beauty that choked me up; it was knowing that down under those warm lights were people, alive and individual people, going about their lawful occasions, making love or having spats, whichever suited them . . . doing whatever they damn well pleased, each under his own vine and his own fig tree with nobody to make him afraid, as it says.
I thought about all those gentle, kindly people (with only an occasional heel) and I thought about them each with a gray slug clinging to the back of his neck, twitching his legs and arms, making his voice say what the slug wished, going where the slug wanted to go.
Hell's bells-life under the commissars couldn't be that bad. I know-I've been behind the Curtain.
I made myself a solemn promise: if the parasites won. I'd arrange to be dead before I would let one of those things ride me the way one had ridden Barnes. For an agent it would be simple; just bite my nails– or, if your hands happen to be off, there are a couple of other ways. The Old Man planned for all professional necessities.
But the Old Man had not planned such arrangements for such a purpose and I knew it. It was the Old Man's business-and mine-to keep those people down there safe, not to run out on them when the going got rough.
I turned away from the window. There was not a confounded thing I could do about it now; I decided that what I needed was company. The room contained the usual catalog of "escort bureaus" and "model agencies" that you'll find in almost any big hotel except maybe the Martha Washington. I thumbed through it, looking the girls over, then slammed it shut. I didn't want a whoopee girl; I wanted one particular girl-one who would as soon shoot as shake hands and would bite in the clinches. And I did not know where she had gone.
I always carry a tube of "tempus fugit" pills; most agents do, as one never knows when giving your reflexes a jolt will get you through a tight spot. Despite the scare propaganda, tempos pills are not habit-forming, not the way the original hashish is.
Nevertheless a purist would say I was addicted to them, for I had the habit of taking them occasionally to make a twenty-four hour leave seem like a week. I admit that I enjoyed the mild euphoria which the pills induced as a side effect. Primarily, though, they just stretch out your subjective time by a factor of ten or more, chop time into finer bits so that you live longer for the same amount of clock and calendar.
What's wrong with that? Sure, I know the horrible example story of the man who died of old age in a calendar month through taking the pills steadily, but I took them only once in a while.
Maybe he had the right idea. He lived a long and happy life-you can be sure it was happy-and died happy at the end. What matter that the sun rose only thirty times? Who is keeping score and what are the rules anyhow?
I sat there, staring at my tube of pills and thinking that I had enough to keep me hopped up and contented for what would be, to me, at least two "years". If I wanted to, I could crawl in my hole and pull it in after me.