“Why don’t you just pay your bills?” She looked at him and made a contemptuous splitch with her lips. She screwed up her nose and looked Krantz up and down. The baby was crying. She turned around and started downstairs. Krantz went to the door.
“Who are you?” she asked, looking him up and down.
“Krantz, Bob Krantz.”
“You a friend of Nance’s?”
“You might say so. I’m staying with him over the holidays.”
The baby looked up at Krantz. It made some infant sounds and balled a fist. She took out one of her breasts and began to feed the child, eyeing Krantz while doing so. She rocked the child. He was impressed with her breasts, which had the elegant curves of modern Italian furniture.
“Do you have a cigarette?” she asked. He got up and went over to a drawer in the kitchen where Nance kept cigarettes. He came back and gave her one. While she leaned over, she bent her head and took a light from him. Their eyes met.
“Nance helps me. I don’t have no old man. He went away a few weeks ago to the work-force project. Thought he’d send me some money by now. He’s been out of a job for three years.” Krantz knew all about the work-force project. Communities located outside of the cities, where unemployed male surps lived in barracks. The conditions were abominable. He was one of their architects. She wouldn’t be seeing her husband for a long time. He hated what he did for the Hatch administration, but he had a larger purpose in mind. Something that neither Hatch nor the Reverend Jones knew about. The baby kept crying.
Krantz was taken by her beauty. She had some serious lips and honest eyes. Her craftsman’s legs were the color of the dark wood in the Harvard Club. She wasn’t like some of the white women he met in Washington, who were as hungry for power as the men, and behaved like them.
“Have you eaten?”
“I had a Hershey bar a couple of hours ago,” she said.
“Look, I’ll go down to the Chinese take-out place and get some food,” he said.
“That would be nice,” she said, rocking the child who had fallen asleep. He put his coat on and started out of the door.
“Would you bring me some beer,” she said. “I haven’t had any beer in a long time.” He nodded. They smiled at each other. Outside, the snowstorm was so blinding that he could only see the lights from the street lamps. He turned the corner and almost walked into Joe Beowulf. As Beowulf grabbed him and shoved him into his hubba buggy, a Suzuki Samurai, all he could think of was how cold Beowulf must have been in his Viking clothes, the huge belt, the bear fur covering his crotch, and strapped by leather to his ankles and feet. But then he remembered, as they began their journey toward Washington, that the weather didn’t affect Joe.
30
“Lucy! How did you get in here?”
“It was easy. Everybody is downtown, awaiting Dean Clift’s return to the Capitol.”
“Yeah, that Nola Payne. She deserted me too. All of that junk about Saint Nicholas, and then James Way, and then all of those Congressmen. The whole capital is going nuts. Seeing things.”
“So where are you going?”
“I gotta get out of here. All of us will get the slammer. Clift’s going to want revenge. Then they’ll find out about that dumb Terrible Twos Operation. That Clift was telling the truth when he said that Nicholas told him we were involved in Operation Two Birds. We used that as an excuse to put him away, but now everybody is seeing this Saint. I’d like to get my hands on this Nicholas.”
“You’ll have your chance.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s on the way over here.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not surprised that you’d be talking about ghosts. That was your business until I closed you down. You were serving as a medium for Congressmen, cabinet members and their wives.”
“I can help you. You see, he can’t leave well enough alone. It’s not enough that he’s influenced the political destiny of the capital, he wants to change you, too. All we have to do is wait.”
“But why are you doing all of this?”
“I’ll tell you later. Let’s get rid of Nicholas first, and then we’ll take care of Clift.”
“But why are you helping me? I tried to banish you from Washington.”
“Saint Nicholas is threatening our operations. Besides, I have a score to settle with him. After we get rid of him, we can go back to our feuding. Besides, I’d like to get my hands on Nancy Reagan’s crystal ball. I hear it’s hidden somewhere here in the White House.”
“But how are you going to get rid of Clift?”
“I have friends in low places,” Lucy said.
31
Joe Beowulf was heading toward Washington, his prisoner, Bob Krantz, sitting next to him in handcuffs. He had come to and now was looking out at Pennsylvania farm country. He had a headache.
“Would you like a cigarette,” the thing asked. Krantz shook his head.
“Thought you could get away, huh? Nobody gets away from Joe Beowulf. I catches them all. See that? My brain is almost human. You’ve seen my movies. I catch them all in my movies. I turn over cars. I break down doors.”
“I’ve seen your movies.”
“What, you don’t like my movies?”
“I didn’t say that. They seem to be dependent upon a lot of action shots. Why don’t you do the classics? Golem. Frankenstein. There are plenty of roles that a robot can play. High-caliber roles.” They rode in silence. Passing through the countryside. Through small villages and towns. Once they were slowed by a horse and buggy driven by an Amish man.
“Wait till I get you back to the Reverend. You did a bad thing. They said in the newspapers that you did a bad thing. Reverend Jones talks about it all the time. You and that Admiral. He said that you were like a son to him, and that he saved your life, but after he took on the mighty responsibilities of the Presidency you and all of his friends abandoned him. He told Heinrich and me a lot. He said that we were his only friends. He said that if he’s around in the next administration he’s going to put the Jews and the blacks in adjoining barracks so that they can have bull sessions and debates all night. Ha ha ha. Reverend Jones is a man who thinks ahead. He wants me to stay around until then, and then I can go back to Hollywood, having helped my nation the way Superman and other heroes did.”
“You believe that? That you’re like Superman? Superman was Azhkenazi. He believed in truth and justice. You believe everything they say. Sure, they may make me take the fall for Operation Two Birds, send me away, have me killed, but they can do the same for you. And what did you get out of your role as Joe Beowulf? You couldn’t have received as much as Towers Bradhurst, the producer. He has a home in Santa Fe, Long Island, and a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park. He jokes to his friends that one day he’s going to convert you into twist-off caps for the soda company he owns.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re last year’s model. You can always be upgraded, with a more advanced piece of software. You’re nothing but a unit of plastic and aluminum. Why do you think that Bradhurst was so eager to lend you to the government for service? It’s because your movies are taking a dive at the box office, that’s why. He’s thinking about replacing you with a female superhero, Jane Beowulf. It’s been on the boards for two years.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Suit yourself.” They drove in silence for about five miles until they came upon a gas station. Beowulf slammed on the brakes.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to call Towers,” he said, twisting his head around to face Bob. “And if you’re lying to me, I’m going to break your neck. They won’t have to put on a show trial.” The creature whose response to every situation was force and violence headed toward the phone booth that was situated inside the gas station’s garage, while Krantz unlatched the door and fell out of the Suzuki Samurai and into the snow. He got up and started running toward the field of snow. He was weak and he staggered; the handcuffs made movement awkward. He walked and ran. He was breathing heavily, and was experiencing a shortness of breath. He saw a farmhouse in the distance. He kept running toward the house, which was surrounded by some black and crippled trees. It was getting dark. He reached the farmhouse door which was hanging off its hinges. It creaked as he opened it. Three mice scurried across the floor. The small farmhouse was abandoned. He went inside and sat down at an old table. He laid his head on the table and went to sleep.