Barris said, "Not much left."
"They knew what they were doing." Dill spoke almost to himself; then, with a great effort, he roused himself. "I heard one of them in the corridor. I even saw it. The eyes gleaming. It was hanging around. I thought it was only a bat or an owl. I went on out."
Squatting down, Barris picked up a handful of smashed wiring and relays. "Has an attempt been made to reconstruct any of this?"
"Vulcan 2?" Dill murmured. "As I've said, destruction was so complete and on such a scale-"
"The components," Barris said. He lifted a complex plastic tube carefully. "This, for instance. This wheeling valve. The envelope is gone, of course, but the elements look intact."
Dill eyed him doubtfully. "You're advancing the idea that there might be parts of it still alive?"
"Mechanically intact," Barris said. "Portions which can be made to function within some other frame. It seems to me we can't really proceed until we can establish what Vulcan 2 had determined about Vulcan 3. We can make good guesses on our own, but that might not be the same."
"I'll have a repair crew make a survey on the basis which you propose," Dill said. "We'll see what can be done. It would take time, of course. What do you suggest in the meanwhile? In your opinion, should I continue the policy already laid down?"
Barris said, "Feed Vulcan 3 some data that you've been holding back. I'd like to see its reaction to a couple of pieces of news."
"Such as?"
"The news about Vulcan 2's destruction."
Floundering, Dill said, "That would be too risky. We're not sure enough of our ground. Suppose we were wrong."
I doubt if we are, Barris thought. There seems less doubt of it all the time. But maybe we should at least wait until we've tried to rebuild the destroyed computer. "There's a good deal of risk," he said aloud. "To us, to Unity." To everyone, he realized.
Nodding, Jason Dill again reached up and plucked at his ear.
"What do you have there?" Barris said. Now that the man had stopped carrying his two tape-reels he had evidently found something else to fall back on, some replacement symbol of security.
"N-nothing," Dill stammered, flushing. "A nervous tic, I suppose. From the tension." He held out his hand. "Give me those parts you picked up. We'll need them for the reconstruction. I'll see that you're notified as soon as there's anything to look at."
"No," Barris said. He decided on the spot, and, having done so, pushed on with as much force as he could muster. "I'd prefer not to have the work done here. I want it done in North America."
Dill stared at him in bewilderment. Then, gradually, his face darkened. "In your region. By your crews."
"That's right," Barris said. "What you've told me may all be a fraud. These reels of tape could easily be fakes. All I can be sure of is this: my original notion about you is correct, the notion that brought me here." He made his voice unyielding, without any doubt in it. "Your withholding of information from Vulcan 3 constitutes a crime against Unity. I'd be willing to fight you in the Unity courts any time, as an act of duty on my part. Possibly the rationalizations you've given are true, but until I can get some verification from these bits and pieces ..." He swept up a handful of relays, switches, wiring.
For a long, long time Dill was silent. He stood, as before, with his hand pressed against his right ear. Then at last he sighed. "Okay, Director. I'm just too tired to fight with you. Take the stuff. Bring your crew in here and load it, if you want; cart it out and take it to New York. Play around with it until you're satisfied." Turning, he walked away, out of the chamber and up the dim, echoing corridor.
Barris, his hands full of the pieces of Vulcan 2, watched him go. When the man had disappeared out of sight, Barris once more began to breathe. It's over, he realized. I've won. There won't be any charge against me; I came to Geneva and confronted him-and I got away with it.
His hands shaking with relief, he began sorting among the ruins, taking his time, beginning a thorough, methodical job.
By eight o'clock the next morning the remains of Vulcan 2 had been crated and loaded onto a commercial transport. By eight-thirty Barris' engineers had been able to get the last of the original wiring diagrams pertaining to Vulcan 2. And at nine, when transport finally took off for New York, Barris breathed a sigh of relief. Once the ship was off the ground, Jason Dill ceased to have authority over it.
Barris himself followed in the ten o'clock passenger flight, the swift little luxurious ship provided for tourists and businessmen traveling between New York and Geneva. It gave him a chance to bathe and shave and change his clothes; he had been hard at work all night.
In the first-class lounge he relaxed in one of the deep chairs, enjoying himself for the first time in weeks. The buzz of voices around him lulled him into a semi-doze; he lay back, passively watching the smartly dressed women going up the aisles, listening to snatches of conversation, mostly social, going on around him.
"A drink, sir?" the robot attendant asked, coming up by him.
He ordered a good dark German beer and with it the cheese hor d'oeuvres for which the flight was famous.
While he sat eating a wedge of port de salut, he caught sight of the headlines of the London Times which the man across from him was reading. At once he was on his feet, searching for the newspaper-vending robot; he found it, bought his own copy of the paper, and hurried back to his seat.
DIRECTORS TAUBMANN AND HENDERSON
CHARGE AUTHORITY IN ILLINOIS HEALERS
VICTORY. DEMAND INVESTIGATION
Stunned, he read on to discover that a carefully planned mass uprising of the Movement in Illinois rural towns had been co-ordinated with a revolt of the Chicago working class; together, the two groups had put an end-at least temporarily-to Unity control of most of the state.
One further item, very small, also chilled him.
NORTH AMERICAN DIRECTOR BARRIS UNAVAILABLE. NOT IN NEW YORK
They had been active during his absence; they had made good use of it. And not just the Movement, he realized grimly. Taubmann, also. And Henderson, the Director of Asia Minor. The two had teamed up more than once in the past.
The investigation, of course, would be a function of Jason Dill's office. Barris thought, I barely managed to handle Dill before this; all he needs is a little support from Taubmann, and the ground will be cut from under my feet. Even now, while I'm stuck here in mid-flight....ossibly Dill himself Instigated this; they may already have joined forces, Dill and Taubmann-ganging up on me.
His mind spun on, and then he managed to get hold of himself. I am in a good position, he decided. I have the remains of Vulcan 2 in my possession, and, most important of all, I forced Dill to admit to me what he has been doing. No one else knows! He would never dare take action against me, now that I have that knowledge. If I made it public...
I still hold the winning hand, he decided. In spite of this cleverly timed demand for an investigation of my handling of the Movement in my area.
That damn Fields, he thought. Sitting there in the hotel room, complimenting me as the "one decent Director," and then doing his best to discredit me while I was away from my region.
Hailing one of the robot attendants, he ordered, "Bring me a vidsender. One on a closed-circuit line to New York Unity."