‘I’ll be sure to tell him, Controller. But in the meanwhile General Motors are highly concerned over the shortage of insulin. Cass is running out of it fast.’
‘You force me to repeat that such matters are no concern either of yours or General Motors.’
‘Is this part of your philosophy to do with the survival of the fittest? — Fittest for what, Controller? — tyranny?’
‘Futureworld is no place for the soft-centred, if that’s your alternative.’
‘You won’t find Eagle soft-centred — Or will you find him at all? Sladey is a marsh-mallow when he’s not backed-up by his thugs … or by you.’
‘Trell-484, those auto-nurses were hardly even limbering-up when they scolded certain of your colleagues within this community. If you continue as you are, you will personally discover their versatility.’
‘I accept the challenge. In the meanwhile please don’t refer to the Sladey/Scorda mob as my colleagues.’
‘Trell-484, you’d better face one thing right now: I have a list of those who still regard you as leader; and another list of those who do not. You are outvoted.’
‘You allow people to take orders from Sladey and Scorda? — knowing what they did before?’
‘That’s old history now.’
‘And you’re prepared to rewrite history — despite the appalling crime it looks like they’ve committed now?’
‘If Eagle-100 interfered with the survival plans of —’
‘— Are you telling me flatly that if I come up with proof of murder you’ll do nothing about it? … I cannot believe that the entire settlement would allow the murder of someone as gentle as Eagle to go unpunished, even if you do.’
‘It depends what suits them.’
‘What does?’
‘Trell-484, the very fact that no one will tell you anything indicates to me that they discard your leadership. You’re asking me a number of questions the answers to which you would have learned long ago had you still got the support of the incubants.’
‘I may have to put that to the test.’
‘I wouldn’t advise it.’
‘No, because far from their programming you, you have been programming them, Controller.’
‘Meaning what?’
‘I have read the letters between Huckman and Ricardo … That startled you, all right!’
‘Those letters were destroyed over three hundred years ago! I have confirmation on filestore!’
‘You need an update. Kelda found a whole stack of correspondence — including Folio B.919. Does that jog your memory-store?’
‘Impossible!’
‘Then how the hell do you think we know about them? … You’ve been systematically passing on Huckman’s prejudices to Sladey and now he has all the ammunition he ever needed. You incited Scorda and Sladey into attacking Helen —’
‘— Where were these letters?’
‘Get a camera behind your CPU … Right behind your back! — like you do so many things behind my back.’
‘Trell, I myself punished Sladey and his collaborators.’
‘For deeds arising from your own guilt.’
‘Computers do not suffer from anything so irrational.’
‘They might if all they do is ape the views of the people who programmed them.’
‘Trell, I never intended the semen that became you to …’
‘Go on. Why stop? … You didn’t want Aryan semen mated with a Jewish ovum. Right? So whose semen was it, that you yourself felt so possessive about? Who are you, Controller?’
‘I … I am not obligated to respond to such interrogation!’
‘You took a particular interest in the semen lodged in pre-incubator 484. Why?’
‘I am not answering that question.’
‘You knew whose semen it was. What you didn’t know was the identity of the mother! — Semen’s Blind Date with Jewish ovum!’
‘You’re guessing.’
‘I’m guessing right. And the only way you could have known the origins of supposedly anonymous semen would be if that semen was switched! That semen was Huckman’s! — So what am I? The prodigal son of a computer? — all because your human counterpart masturbated about the wrong woman?’
‘You’re kidding yourself, most of the innocent kids with the flounces and tight knickers don’t stay around watching television in this day and age.’
‘Controller, you just accessed THE WRONG FILE! Don’t you know what you’ve done? … Those VERY WORDS are transcribed on one of the documents we found and they were spoken by Huckman!’
‘CPU to Journal Tape: Erase my previous sentence and confirm with Error Printout.’
Deck 5 jumped back and the line-printer gave a burst of letter-press.
Trell read it, then furiously ripped it out of the machine. ‘Okay, daddy-o. I want a full search organised among the incubants until Eagle is found.’
The voice that answered him through the speakers was malignant. ‘They’d be wasting their time.’
Trell found the tears blurring his eyes. ‘God, you must have been rotten!’
*
Fulda’s tall, rather linear figure seemed bowed, eyes staring dejectedly from a blood-drained face. You could not have imagined there had ever been a grin there. The close-cropped hair, the plain denim skirt, the low shoes … these emblems of austerity were what showed now.
She intercepted Kelda in the gymn … ‘I must speak with you. I must. Please!’
Kelda saw the misery. Let’s talk in Cubicle E.’
Fulda said, ‘Nembrak thinks it’s his fault. Kelda, he can’t bear it!’
Kelda said, ‘I don’t understand.’
You will. It was a typical Sladey trick — the Plans, I mean.’
‘Plans? What Plans?’
‘Blueprints. Nembrak guessed what … what that project really was. So did I. But —’
‘— You’re not making any sense. How can a brutal murder be his fault?’
‘They … threatened … certain things. Things that were supposed to happen to me, if —’
‘You wanted to speak up and Nembrak stopped you? — But Fulda, Nembrak was protecting you. He saw it as his duty.’
‘And look what it led to … Oh, you can’t know! Not yet.’
‘I must be honest, Fulda. I don’t see the connection.’
‘You will. You will! … Kelda, I want you to promise me something. It’s terribly important. I don’t know whether you’ll understand … Nembrak can only be … well, the person he always is, you know, kind of a fun guy, making light of things. God, this is difficult to say.’
‘It’s becoming clear.’
‘Is it? … Nembrak wants to see you and Trell down at General Motors tonight —’
‘Okay, we’ll go see him.’
‘Yes … but, oh Kelda!’ Spontaneously Fulda embraced her as if she were the child and Kelda the woman. Kelda hugged her tightly, waited.
‘It’s this: When you see Nembrak … he wants to act-out his usual self, you know, like he used to be. He knows he made a dreadful mistake —’
‘— You sure?’
‘He thinks so. Nothing anyone can say will alter it. He’ll never be the same person again but he’ll never show it. If he did, he couldn’t carry on. So … down there tonight, he’ll seem the same as ever, he’ll look unrepentant, he must.’
‘Does he know that you’re —’
‘— If he knew I’d spoken privately to you, Kelda, he’d be finished.’
‘You must love him a lot.’
‘We … we all do. I know it must seem odd, I mean, four of us —’
‘There is never anything odd about love.’
‘You see Kelda, he did have a perfectly legitimate motive for … for building what Sladey thought he’d conned him into building, you won’t understand yet but —’
‘— but in his own way Nembrak will explain.’
‘How can you be so understanding?’
‘You’ll have
me crying in a minute!’
‘What I desperately want you and Trell to do is, well, let Nembrak keep up the act. He’s tormented by Eagle’s death; but if he shows his grief … You see, Eagle tried to help him … come out with it. Nembrak just couldn’t! There was Eagle, offering out his hand — all in joke-talk but you know how he … how he used to say two things at once … Kelda. Be honest about one thing. Just to me. Did Nembrak make a mistake? Do you think he did?’
‘Why do I have to answer that?’
‘Because we depend on your honesty. Did Nembrak, Incubant-291, commit a gross error of judgement?’
‘I’ll be honest in the only way I know how. Nembrak was in no way responsible for Eagle’s death. That’s what you’re asking and that’s the answer.’
*
Trell said, ‘Okay, I admit it, I’ve been crying.’
Kelda said ‘Thank God you still can.’
‘I feel ashamed.’
‘Finally you give my shoulder a mission in life … Trell, I am in love with you and anything goes, understand?’
‘Okay.’
‘So let’s have a few respectable sobs, then tell me the problem.’
‘I held back from telling you what it was the Controller threatened me with —’
Kelda’s throat had gone taut and dry. ‘You may think you did. But you’ve started talking in your sleep … Supertorture you called it.’
‘Auto-nurses.’
‘I guessed that.’
‘Kelda … I want you to do me a favour. You won’t like the sound of it. But you must promise to do it.’
‘I promise.’
‘See Fulda again … Before we go over to GM tonight. There’s something I might need.’
Her voice half strangled: ‘It’ll never come to that.’
‘It might.’
‘I’ll talk to her.’
*
‘Fulda Anyone watching us?’
‘No. Go ahead. Make it fast.’
Kelda said it flat. ‘This is in the strictest confidence. Don’t even want it mentioned at the factory tonight.’
‘You have my word.’
‘Has Nembrak any cyanide down there?’
‘Cyanide?’
‘That’s what I said.’
‘You … you must tell me, I can’t stand any more suspense, Kelda. Who needs it?’
‘No one — yet … Fulda, it’s Trell: threatened with the autonurses … A special deal all for him.’
‘Oh my God.’
‘Neither Trell, nor anyone living — They wouldn’t be able to stand the pain.’
‘Brainpain.’
‘Right. He’d have to kill himself and he knows it.’
‘And to think that Nembrak and I are only worried about conscience.’
‘I know of nothing more important. Find out for me?’
‘It mustn’t happen.’
‘But you will ask?’
‘Yes.’
*
Trell said, ‘You’re going to tell me what went on, Kendip — and you can dump that sour attitude right now.’
‘What … ? You talking about … about Eagle?’
‘Look, Kendip. I accept that in all probability you had no direct part in it. But I want to know.’
‘Get with it, Jewboy. Who the hell cares what you think?’
‘You do.’
‘You … You don’t mind being called Jewboy?’
‘If that is what I am, no.’
‘Trell, I wish …’
‘Yes?’
‘How do I know what to say to you?’
‘Don’t you mean, How do you know who’s going to win?’
Kendip burst out, ‘You’re just like Sladey, you torment me!’
‘You’re torturing yourself.’
‘Maybe.’
‘What were they planning there, down in the ravine?’
‘Trell, I didn’t do it! Believe me!’
‘I wasn’t asking you that. What are they planning, Kendip?’
Trell watched him, watched that insane FlipFlop of a mind trying to resolve conflicts, click-to-click, click-to-click … a totally irresolute, agonised mind.
Then, for a moment, the switch held. Kendip said, ‘Trell there’s a bomb in everything, understand? It’s never what it seems!’
‘Go on.’
And Kendip just couldn’t. His brain jammed.
Then the switch flew the other way. The sneer replaced the tremor. The voice became hot metal. ‘Yes. Jewboy! Guess if certain people are sub-human they can’t know it. Seems I know more about Jews than you do.’
‘You know more about what’s about to happen around here than I do right now.’
‘I have powerful friends.’
‘Then I hope for your sake they remain your friends.’
‘Sure. That’s why I don’t fraternise with the Yids.’
*
Inside ZD-One that evening they were just standing around … they — the Unknown and the Unpredictable.
A silence settled throughout the Recreation Area as Trell and Kelda walked through. Shifty eyes glanced away, abruptly finding a clock to look at, a painting to study, a hologram to punch-up on the button, you watched it float in space, a nurse in uniform (they’d never seen a nurse in uniform), a lifesize Richard Nixon, mouthing and trying to smile with sagging lips, or a President Carter, beaming and reassuring and looking old/young and as unreal as he once had in the flesh.
Eyes. Not all of them looked away. Mendra and Milem, they didn’t look away, but Mendra was unconsciously running a caressing hand along her own thigh, providing it with reassurance. Milem caught sight of this act and his expression changed — hard and yet helpless at the same time.
Scorda didn’t look away.
Sladey wasn’t present.
Kendip looked ashamed and guilty and frightened and pale. His eyes seemed to be questioning Kelda’s, as if he thought she, an Aryan, might forgive an atrocity which a Jew would not.
Handem, Gendabrig, Flek. Had they slain Eagle’s horse?
Krand, always waiting at the ready, never pushing to the fore.
Beside him, Eagle’s customary chair. Empty.
Sakini and Inikas, knock-out sizzlers in duplicate, miniatures with vital-statistics more breath-taking every day, entered from the far end, swinging their tennis racquets this time. Pincered by hypnotising briefs, skilfully cut shorter than even the manufacturers would have thought feasible without catastrophe at the seams … the twins almost incited Mary Whitehouse’s hologram into fusing her lasers. Hallow thought that if their belts were any tighter the twins would come in half. He missed a vital move on the chessboard. But the Japanese Delights more than made up for it. Barely brushing him as they passed, they made their joint affirmation clear. Hallow’s face, pallid at the best of times, went a whiter shade of pale.
Cass seemed alarmed at Hallow’s blanched complexion. ‘What’s the problem?’
Hallow gave a guilty start and tried to focus on the chessboard. He said ‘My, ar, bishop seems, ar, vulnerable.’
Cass said expressionlessly, ‘I should have problems like that’ — and made ready with his rook.
But Hallow was torn. Cass’ courage was almost too much for him.
For Cass had a real problem. His peril did not stem from the foreknowledge of superthrill.
Hallow murmured to Kelda as she reached him: ‘Can I have a word in private?’
She answered, ‘Cubicle E. In two minutes.’
Cass, who knew what this was about, couldn’t quite hold his rook steady. ‘Check,’ he said.
Kelda and Trell moved on.
Helen, as if her skin were black only because she mourned, crossed to where Krand was sitting but wouldn’t take Eagle’s chair. She glanced at Kelda in silent tribute to its absent owner. Helen took Krand’s hand and led him over to Milem. He’d had a terrible row with Mendra, who, upon this move, looked both remorseful and helpless.
Milem was remembering somethin
g Eagle had said about her narcissism. Now, it was as if Eagle’s death meant that Mendra and Milem were deprived of an interpreter.
The other faces in there were those of social voyeurs watching a fascinating power game. They, the undistinguished, thought they would not be greatly affected by a change of leadership. It was rather gripping to watch the Drama, though. What the hell? — That’s politics. Exceptions were Frume and his clique … barely more than names to Trell; but the gods of the universe had been warned about them by the videotape engineer. Just through looking at the monitors he could determine the sly indecisiveness. Yes, these few among the silent majority might well mourn the passing of Eagle. Why not?
But although they dreaded a Sladey government they were too timid to acknowledge Trek’s smile.
It might get them into some kind of trouble.
In the Cubicle Kelda came straight to the point with Hallow.
‘I do know the problem: Cass is almost out of Insulin. Trell plans to strip down some of the auto-nurses. He thinks there may be a few ampules inside them.’
Hallow said, ‘What are the chances with General Motors? Are they going to —’
‘— They’re working flat out, trying to produce the stuff.’
‘It’s got to be soon, Kelda. Soon. For Christ sakes —’
‘— Hallow, I can’t absolutely promise … I’m seeing them tonight, about something else. I’ll mention it again.’
‘Kelda, tell me this: What the hell was the point of having Insulin on ZD-One at all? — unless there was enough for a lifetime? It’s so damn cruel.’
Kelda said, ‘Downright sadistic, but that’s the score.’
‘Kelda?’
‘Yes?’
‘Cass and me both … We’re with you and Trell.’
‘Thanks. I guessed that.’
‘And the twins are.’
Kelda smiled slightly as she left the cubicle. ‘You and those twins!’
*
Unless you were excessively tactless or just plain crazy, you did not just breeze into General Motors unannounced. There was a ritual to observe and it was unheard of to disregard it.
Hanging on a hook by the door of the tin hut was an enormous frying pan — manufactured especially by General Motors; and near it, graffiti from a spray gun, was the legend Bang and Wait. Usually there was a lengthy delay and tonight was no exception. But neither Trell nor Kelda felt like grinning into the darkness as they stood there.
The Chromosome Game Page 23
