“Why did he go after you, though?” Watchman asked. “Does he plan to approach every alpha in the world, one by one, looking for support?”
“I told you. He wants you to sign up. He knows I’m close with you, and he thinks that if he can persuade me, I’ll be able to persuade you. He said so in that many words. And onceyou’re in his camp, everyone else will follow.” Lilith drew herself up stiffly. “’If Alpha Watchman comes over to our side, Alpha Meson, he’ll bring scores of influential alphas with him. It could be the turning point of our entire movement. Alpha Watchman may hold the future of every android in his grasp’ How do you feel about that, Alpha Watchman?”
“Deeply moved, Alpha Meson. I can’t begin to describe the awe that stirs in me at the idea. How did you manage to get rid of him?”
“By trying to seduce him.”
“What?”
“Am I being bitchy, Thor? I won’t talk about it if you’d rather I didn’t.”
“I was not programmed to feel jealousy,” Watchman said stolidly. “Teasing will get you nowhere with me. And I’m not in a mood to play stupid games.”
“Very well. I’m sorry I said anything.”
“Go on. You tried to seduce him. You didn’t succeed?”
“No,” Lilith said. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I said to myself, Fileclerk is so stuffy that this will probably drive him away screaming. And if he takes the bait instead, well, it might be fun. So I stripped and then I — what’s the idiom, the old word? — began to make overtures to him. To make overtures. Come on, I said, let’s curl up together, Siggie. Siggie. I put my hands on him. I was very lewd. I jiggled and wiggled. I worked very hard, Thor, even harder than I had to work to seduce you. He wasn’t having any. He asked me to stop.”
“Of course,” Watchman said. “It’s as I was trying to explain. Male alphas don’t really have much interest in sex. It’s irrelevant to their life-pattern.”
“Don’t be so smug about that. Fileclerk wanted me. He was pale. He was shaking.”
“Then why didn’t he go to bed with you? Afraid to compromise himself politically?”
“No,” Lilith said. “It’s because he’s still in mourning.”
“Mourning.”
“For his wife. Cassandra Nucleus. His wife, Thor. The AEP is advocating android marriage. He was married to Alpha Nucleus three years ago. He’s observing a six-month mourning period, during which he doesn’t intend to let wanton young alphas lure him into their arms. He explained it to me and then he left fast. As if he was afraid he might give in if he stayed.”
“His wife,” Watchman muttered.
“The AEP plans to add a clause about android marriage to its petition before Congress. Fileclerk also said that if you and I wanted to get married, Thor, he’d be able to arrange it the day we join the party.”
Watchman laughed harshly. “He talks like a child! What good is marriage? Do we have children who need legally constituted homes? If I wanted to live with you, I’d live with you, Lilith. Or you with me. Should someone say words over us first? Give us a piece of paper?”
“Its the idea, Thor. Of a permanent union between man and woman, the way it is among humans. It’s quite touching. He reallyloved her, Thor.”
“I’m sure he did. I saw him weeping when Spaulding killed her. But did he love her more because they were married? If marriage is so wonderful, why is Manuel Krug here every week? Shouldn’t he be home having a permanent union with Mrs. Krug?”
“There are good marriages and bad marriages,” Lilith said. “And who you sleep with isn’t necessarily what determines how good your marriage is. In any case, Fileclerk’s marriage was a good one, and I don’t see how it could hurt us to adopt the custom, if we truly believe in our equality.”
“All right,” Watchman snapped. “Do you want to marry me?”
“I was speaking in general terms about adopting the custom.”
“I’m speaking in particular terms. We don’t have to join the AEP to get married. I get hold of Alpha Constructor and Alpha Dispatcher and we’ll write marriage ceremonies into the communion, and we’ll get married at the chapel tonight. All right?”
“Be serious, Thor.”
“I am!”
“You’re angry, and you don’t know what you’re saying. You told me two minutes ago that you think marriage among androids is absurd. Now you’re willing to write it into the communion. You can’t mean it, Thor.”
“You don’t want to marry me? Don’t worry, I wouldn’t interfere with your affair with Manuel. I’m not programmed for possessiveness, either. But we could live together, we could—”
“Stop it, Thor.”
“Why?”
“Whatever exists between us can exist without a marriage. You know that. I know that. I wasn’t looking for a proposal. I was just trying to tell you something about Siegfried Fileclerk, about the nature of his emotions, the complexity of his feelings toward Alpha Nucleus, as well as the position of the AEP on—”
“Enough. Enough.” Watchman put his hands over his ears and closed his eyes. “End of conversation. I’m fascinated that you couldn’t seduce Siggie Fileclerk and astounded that the AEP is going in for marrying, and that’s the end. Yes?”
“You’re in foul spirits today, Thor.”
“I am.”
“Why? Can I do anything to help?”
“Leon Spaulding told me something today, Lilith. He says that when the AEP delegation finally gets its turn to address Congress, Krug is going to release a statement denouncing the entire android equality movement and insisting that he never would have created us in the first place if he knew we’d demand civil rights.”
Lilith gasped. Tears in her eyes, she made a Krug-preserve-us sign four times in succession.
“It isn’t possible,” she whispered.
“Spaulding said that Krug told him this about a week ago, at the Nemo Club, in the presence of Speaker Salah al-Din, Senator Fearon, and a couple of other people. You realize that Leon was merely making conversation when he passed the remark along to me, of course. A friendly chat between ectogene and android. He knows I’m anti-AEP; he thought I’d be amused. The bastard!”
“Can it be true?”
“Of course it can. Krug’s never made any sort of statement on what he thinks the android’s role ought to be. I’ve got no idea of his real position myself. I’ve always assumed he was sympathetic, but I might have been only projecting my own hopes. The question isn’t can it be true but is it true.”
“Do you dare ask him?”
“I don’t dare,” Thor said. “I believe that this entire story originated inside Leon Spaulding’s malicious mind, that Krug doesn’t plan to break his no-politics rule, and that if he ever did make a statement, Krug would make the statement that we all hope and pray for. But it frightens me to think that I’m wrong. I’m terrified, Lilith. An anti-equality statement from Krug would undermine every belief we have. Dump us into outer darkness. You see what I’ve been living with all day?”
“Should you rely just on what Spaulding said? Can’t you check with Senator Fearon or the Speaker? Find out what was really said?”
“Ask them for confidential details of Krug’s table talk, you mean? They’d report me to Krug right away.”
“Then what will you do?”
“Force Krug’s hand,” Watchman said. “I want you to take Manuel to a chapel.”