Category Phoenix

by Boyd Ellanby

permanently immune to Blue Martian, and the antibodies it formed inyour cells simply protected you against this new invasion of the virus.It never occurred to me that the immunity would last so long. But don'tworry, I'll find a way."

  She looked suspicious. "What do you mean?"

  "I mean that there's no reason why Blue Martian should be the onlyvehicle for giving you the SDE. There must be other viruses that willwork equally well. It's only a question of finding one."

  "And how long will that take you?"

  "How long does anything take in Research? Maybe a week, maybe a year."

  "And maybe ten! I can't wait, Dr. Wong. I'm thirty-five now; I'm growingolder. What good will a long life do me, if it only preserves me as themiddle-aged woman I'll be by then? And all those years that I'll begetting older and older, there'll be Tanya, lively and pretty, to remindme that I was once like that, too. I can't face it!"

  "The watchguard will hear you!" Haggard-faced, he watched her shakingshoulders, hearing her muffled sobs.

  "You're a criminal, Dr. Wong! It was a crime, what you did to Tanya andme."

  "I didn't realize in the beginning or I'd never have touched the thing.I know it now, even better than you do, but what can I do?"

  She looked up and wiped her eyes, her mouth set hard. "I know what I cando. I can report you to the Leader."

  "What good will that do? You know how terrible you feel now about beingleft out--though I swear I never meant it to be like this. But just tryto imagine. If you report me so that Leader Marley gets the secret ofSDE, then thousands of people will be put in just the same situation youare in. You're only one person suffering. But then there'd be hundredsof thousands, millions! Surely you wouldn't want to have that on yourconscience?"

  "Do you think I'd care?"

  "You would when you felt calmer. You're wrought up, ill. Let me send youhome. Promise me you'll go home quietly, talk it over with Tanya, andnot say anything to anyone else. I'll think of a way out for you. Justbe patient."

  "Patient!"

  He thought of calling Karl Haslam. Karl would know best how to deal withher, how to bring her back to reason. He reached toward the intercom,then dropped his hand in despair. Karl was in the hospital, with Faureand Hudson, shivering with the cold of Blue Martian fever. But he had toget her away.

  He pressed the intercom dial. "Dr. Wong speaking. Miss Hachovnik is illand is being sent home. Please send an aircab for her at once."

  He helped Leah to her feet, and spoke pleadingly.

  "Promise you'll be good, Leah?"

  The fury in her eyes nearly knocked him down. Without a word, without agesture, she walked out.

  * * * * *

  David felt as though he'd been put through a wringer as he followedOfficer Magnun into the Leader's suite at State House. Several nights ofsleeplessness, the worries of planning for a refuge, and the scene withLeah had left him limp and spiritless. The girl was a danger, he knew,but she was only one of many.

  He nodded at Dr. Lanza, who was busy reading reports from BureauMed, andsaluted Leader Marley, who was talking with a watchguard.

  Marley looked up briefly. "Sit down, Wong."

  David folded himself into a chair, grateful for a few moments in whichto collect himself, while Marley gave the last of his orders.

  "Put them in the Vermont granite quarries, and keep them at work for thenext year."

  "As you say, Leader. With the usual secrecy, of course?"

  "No, you blockhead! These are a bunch of nobodies. Use all the publicityyou can get. Keep a punishment a secret and how can it have any effecton other people? No, I want full radio and news coverage and telecastshowings as they swing the first pick at the first rocks. People havegot to realize that the Leader knows best, that treason doesn't pay. Nomatter how clever they think they are, they'll always get caught.Understand?"

  "As you say, Leader."

  "Then get going." As the guard left the room, Leader Marley turned toDavid. "What fools people are!"

  He ran his beefy hands through a shock of black hair, blinked his eyes,and wrinkled the heavy black brows that met over his nose. Wonderingly,he shook his massive head as he drew his gleaming needler from hisbreast pocket and played with it, tossing it from hand to hand while hetalked.

  "I'm probably the most generous Leader the State has had since theAtomic Wars, Wong, and I never withhold a privilege from someone who hasdeserved it. But people mistake me when they think that I am weak andwill overlook treason."

  "Your generosity is a byword, Leader Marley," said Wong. "But somepeople are incapable of acting for their best interests even when youhave defined it for them. Who are these latest traitors?"

  "Oh, nobody really important, of course, except as they waste time whichthey owe to the State. Just attempts at illegal study. An OfficeCategory who had found a basement room in a deserted building and wasspending all his evening hours there practicing the violin. A Theaterman who was illegally trying to learn carpentry. And a teacher ofmathematics who had forged a key to the Linguistics library, and hadbeen getting in every night to study a dead language--Cuneiform, Latin,something like that, utterly without practical value. This last one isan old man, too, and ought to have known better. People must be made torealize that if they want the privilege of useless study, they will haveto earn it. And I am very broadminded in such cases."

  "Nobody has better reason to know that than I, Leader Marley, and I amalways grateful to you."

  Marley coughed and straightened the jacket over his bearlike chest as heput back his needler.

  "Now to business. Where's that memorandum, Lanza?"

  Dr. Lanza handed him the paper, then sat down beside the Leader.

  "First. When Dr. Lanza called on you last week, he found the door toyour office locked. What explanation do you have?"

  David smiled and spread his hands. "My explanation is the generosity ofLeader Marley. You have so many affairs to occupy your attention that itis not surprising that you do not remember rewarding me with a FreeChoice some years ago, for my work on Martian Blue. I chose, as I amsure you remember now, an occasional hour of Privacy."

  The Leader blinked. "That's right. I had forgotten. Well, the Leadernever goes back on his word. Though why in the name of Marley youfellows want a crazy thing like that is beyond me. What do you _do_,behind a locked door, that you don't want anyone to see?"

  "Do you doubt my loyalty, Leader Marley?"

  "I doubt everything. What do you _want_ with Privacy?"

  Lanza broke in amiably. "I'm afraid we just have to accept such wishesas one of the harmless abnormalities of the Research mind, Leader. SinceI grew up in that Category, I understand it to some extent."

  "You're right in calling it abnormal. I think perhaps I'd better removethat from the possible Choices in the future. It could easily bemisused, and it never did make any sense to me.

  "Well, second. It's been more than three years since you reported anyprogress with the problem of White Martian Fever, Wong. What is yourexplanation?"

  "Research is not always swift, Leader."

  "But I distinctly ordered you to find an immunizing agent within threeyears. Our colonies on Mars cannot wait forever. I've been patient withyou, but you've had more than enough time."

  "I am very sorry, Leader Marley. I have done my best and so have mycolleagues. But the problem is complex. If I may explain, we had to finda suitable culture medium for growing the virus, and then we had to workat the problem of coupling it with suitable haptens--"

  Impatiently, Marley waved his hand. "You know I don't understand yourjargon. That's not my business, what troubles you've had. I wantresults. You got results on Blue Martian quickly enough."

  "We were fortunate. But when we storm the citadel of knowledge, LeaderMarley, no one can predict how long it will take for the citadel tofall."

  "Nonsense! I'm warning you, Wong, you're failing in your duty to theState, and you can't escape the consequences with poetic double
talk. Iallow special privileges to you people in Research and I expect a properappreciation in return. When I order you to produce a protection forWhite Martian, I want results!"

  "But you can't get a thing like that just by asking for it. Such thingsare simply not under your control."

  "Watch yourself, Wong! Your remarks are dangerously close to treason!"

  "Is it treason to tell you a plain fact?"

  Stony-faced, David stared defiantly at Marley, trying to control thetrembling of his body. If he had had a needler at that instant, herealized incredulously, he would have shot the