‘I'm real,' she said, and felt sad. A lot of people were in Kongrosian's position, trying desperately to maintain their view of her undamaged, unaltered from that which they were accustomed to. And yet -- was this enough? How many people, like Kongrosian, could break with the reality principle? Believe in something they knew intellectually was an illusion? Few people, after all, were as sick as Richard Kongrosian.
To stay in power she would have to rule a nation of the mentally ill. And the idea did not very much appeal to her.
The door opened and Janet Raimer stood there, small, wrinkled and businesslike. ‘Nicole, please come along with me.' Her voice was dry and faint. But authoritative.
Nicole rose. The council wanted her. As was customary with them they were operating through Janet Raimer, their spokesman.
‘All right,' Nicole said. To Kongrosian and Garth McRae she said, ‘I'm sorry; you'll have to excuse me. Garth, I want you to act temporarily as NP Commissioner; Wilder Pembroke has been busted -I did that just now before you came in. I trust you.' She passed by them, then, and followed after Janet Raimer, out of the office and up the corridor. Janet moved briskly and she had to hurry to keep up.
Flapping his arms miserably, Kongrosian called after her, ‘If you don't exist I'm going to become invisible again oreven worse!'
She continued on.
‘I'm afraid,' Kongrosian shouted, ‘of what I might do! I don't want it to happen!' He came a few steps out into the corridor after her. ‘Please help me! Before it's too late!'
There was nothing she could do. She did not even look back.
Janet led her to an elevator. ‘This time they're waiting two levels down,' Janet said. ‘They've assembled, all nine of them. Because of the gravity of the situation this time they'll talk to you face to face.'
The elevator slowly descended.
She stepped out, following Janet, in what had been in the previous century the H-bomb shelter for the White House.
Its lights were on and she saw, seated at a long oak table, six men and three women. All but one of them were strangers to her, blank and totally unfamiliar faces. But in the centre she made out to her disbelief a man whom she knew. He appeared, from the seating, to be the chairman of the council.
And his manner was a trifle more imposing, a little more confirmed than that of the others.
The man was Bertold Goltz.
Nicole said, ‘You. The street brawler. I never would have anticipated this.' She felt weary and frightened; across from the nine members of the council she hesitantly seated herself in a wooden straight-backed chair.
Frowning at her, Goltz said, ‘But you knew I had access to von Lessinger equipment. And all time-travel equipment constitutes a monopoly of the government. So obviously I had some form of contact at a very high level. However, that doesn't matter now; we have more urgent business to discuss.'
Janet Raimer said, ‘I'll go back upstairs again.'
‘Thank you,' Goltz said, nodding. To Nicole he said sombrely, ‘You're a rather inept young woman, Kate. However, we'll try to pick up and go on with what we have. The von Lessinger apparatus shows one highly distinct alternative future in which Police Commissioner Pembroke rules as an absolute dictator. This leads us to infer that Wilder Pembroke is involved with the Karps in their effort to unseat you. I think you should have him taken out immediately and shot.'
‘He's lost his post,' Nicole said. ‘Not more than ten minutes ago I relieved him of his duties.'
‘And let him go?' one of the female members of the council asked.
‘Yes,' Nicole admitted reluctantly.
Goltz said, ‘So now it's probably too late to take him into custody. However, let's continue. Nicole, your first action must be against the two monster-cartels, Karp and A.G. Chemie. Anton and Felix Karp are particularly dangerous; we've previewed several alternative futures in which they manage to destroy you and hold power -- at least for a decade or so. We've got to prevent that, regardless of what else we do or do not do.'
‘All right,' Nicole said, nodding reasonably. It seemed a good idea to her. She would have acted against the Karps anyhow, without advice from these individuals.
‘You look,' Goltz said, ‘as if you're thinking that you don't need us to tell you what to do. But actually you need us very badly. We're going to tell you how to save your life, physically, literally, and secondarily your public office. Without us you're dead right now. Please believe me; we've used the von Lessinger equipment and we know.'
‘It's just that I can't get used to the idea of it being you,' Nicole said to Bertold Goltz.
‘But it's always been me,' Goltz said. ‘Even though you didn't know it. Nothing has changed except you've found out, and that's really very little in all this, Kate. Now, do you want to stay alive? Do you want to take instructions from us? Or do you want to be stood up against a wall somewhere by Wilder Pembroke and the Karps and be executed?' His tone was harsh.
Nicole said, ‘Of course. I'll co-operate.'
‘Good enough.' Goltz nodded and glanced around at his colleagues. ‘The first order you give -- naturally through Rudi Kalbfleisch -- is that Karp und Sohnen Werke throughout the USEA has been nationalized. All Karp assets now are the property of the USEA government. Instruct the military this way: it's their task to seize the Karps' various branches; it'll have to be done with armed units and possibly heavy mobile equipment. It should be done right away, possibly before tonight.'
‘All right,' Nicole said.
‘A number of army generals, three or four at least, should be sent to the main Karp installations in Berlin; they should arrest the Karp family personally. Have the Karps taken to the nearest military base, have them tried by a military tribunal and executed immediately, also before tonight. Now, as to Pembroke. I think it would be better if the Sons of Job sent commando assassins to get Pembroke; we'll leave the military out of this aspect of the situation.' Goltz's tone changed. ‘Why that expression on your face, Kate?'
‘I have a headache,' Nicole said. ‘And don't call me "Kate." As long as I'm in power you should continue to call me Nicole.'
‘All this distresses you, doesn't it?'
‘Yes,' she said. ‘I don't want to murder anybody, even Pembroke and the Karps. The Reichsmarschall was enough -- more than enough. I didn't murder those two jug-players who brought that papoola into the White House so it could bite me, those two underlings of Loony Luke. I let them emigrate to Mars.'
‘It can't all be handled that way.'
‘Evidently not,' Nicole agreed.
Behind Nicole the door of the shelter opened. She turned, expecting to see Janet Raimer.
Wilder Pembroke, with a group of NP men, stood in the doorway, pistol in hand. ‘You're all under arrest,' Pembroke said. ‘The lot of you.'
Leaping to his feet, Goltz groped inside his coat.
With a single shot Pembroke killed him. Goltz toppled backward, plucking at his chair; the chair slammed back as it overturned and Goltz lay on his side beyond the oak table.
No one else moved.
To Nicole, Pembroke said, ‘You're coming upstairs; you're going to make a TV appearance. Right away.' He waved the barrel of his gun shakily at her. ‘Hurry up! The TV-cast begins in ten minutes.' From his pocket he managed to bring forth a much-folded sheet of paper. ‘Here's what you'll say.' He added, grimacing in what seemed almost a tic, ‘It's your resignation from office, or rather so-called office. And in it you admit that both news stories are true, the one about der Alte and the one about yourself.'