"I know what the Professor would want me to do!" she said sharply. "So let's knock off the nonsense, Doc. The Professor always swore that you were the only sawbones fit to carve people; the rest were butchers. He never forgot that time in Elkton."
"Now, Becky, we won't bring that up. I was paid."
"You saved his life."
"I did no such thing. It was his rugged constitution and his will to fight back - and your nursing."
"Uh� Doc, we're wasting time. Just how hot are you?"
"They're throwing the book at me� and anybody near me is going to get splashed. There's a warrant out for me - a Federation warrant - and they know where I am and I can't run. It will be served any minute now� and Mr. Douglas is the only person who can stop it."
"You'll be sprung. I guarantee that."
"Becky, I'm sure you would. But it might take a few hours. It's that 'back room' I'm afraid of, Becky. I'm too old for a session in the back room."
"But- Oh, goodness! Doe, can't you give me some details? I really ought to cast a horoscope on you, then I'd know what to do. You're Mercury, of course, since you're a doctor. But if I knew what house to look in to find your trouble, I could do better."
"Girl, there isn't time for that. But thanks." Jubal thought rapidly. Whom to trust? And when? "Becky, just knowing could put you in as much trouble as I am in� unless I convince Mr. Douglas."
"Tell me, Doc. I've never taken a powder at a clem yet - and you know it."
"All right. So I'm 'Mercury.' But the trouble lies in Mars."
She looked at him sharply. "How?"
"You've seen the news. You know that the Man from Mars is supposed to be making a retreat some place high up in the Andes. Well, he's not. That's just to hoax the yokels."
Becky seemed startled but not quite as Jubal had expected her to be. "Just where do you figure in this, Doc?"
"Becky, there are people all over this sorry planet who want to lay hands on that boy. They want to use him, they want to make him geek for them, their way. But he's my client and I don't propose to hold still for it. If I can help it. But my only chance is to talk with Mr. Douglas himself, face to face."
"The Man from Mars is your client? You can turn him up?"
"Yes. But only to Mr. Douglas. You know how it is Becky - the mayor can be a good Joe, kind to children and dogs. But he doesn't necessarily know everything his town clowns are up to - especially if they haul a man in and take him into that back room."
She nodded. "I've had my troubles with cops. Cops!"
"So I need to dicker with Mr. Douglas before they haul me in."
"All you want is to talk to him on the telephone?"
"Yes. If you can swing it. Here, let me give you my number - and I'll be sitting right here, hoping for a call� until they pick me up. If you can't swing it� thanks anyway, Becky, thanks a lot. I'll know you tried."
"Don't switch off!" she said sharply.
"Eh?"
"Keep the circuit, Doc, while I see what I can do. If I have any luck, they can patch right through this phone and save time. So hold on." Madame Vesant left the screen without saying good-by, then called Agnes Douglas. She spoke with calm confidence, pointing out to Agnes that this was precisely the development foretold by the stars - and exactly on schedule. Now had come the critical instant when Agnes must guide and sustain her husband, using all her womanly wit and wisdom to see that he acted wisely and without delay. "Agnes dear, this configuration will not be repeated in a thousand years - Mars, Venus and Mercury in perfect trine, just as Venus reaches the meridian, making Venus dominant. Thus you see-"
"Allie, what do the Stars tell me to do? You know I don't understand the scientific part."
This was hardly surprising, since the described relationship did not obtain at the moment. Madame Vesant had not had time to compute a new horoscope and was improvising. But she was untroubled by it; she was speaking a "higher truth," giving good advice and helping her friends. To be able to help two friends at once made Becky Vesey especially happy. "Dear, you really do understand it, you have born talent for it. You are Venus, as always, and Mars is reinforced, being both your husband and that young man Smith for the duration of this crisis. Mercury is Dr. Harshaw. To offset the imbalance caused by the reinforcement of Mars, Venus must sustain Mercury until the crisis is past. But you have very little time for it; Venus waxes in influence until reaching meridian, only seven minutes from now - after that your influence will decline. You must act quickly."
"You should have warned me sooner."
"My dear, I have been waiting here by my phone all day, ready to act instantly. The Stars tell us the nature of each crisis; they never tell us the details. But there is still time. I have Dr. Harshaw waiting on the telephone here; all that is necessary is to bring them face to face - if possible before Venus reaches meridian."
"Well- All right, Allie. I've got to dig Joseph out of some silly conference but I'll get him. Keep this line open. Give me the number of the phone you have this Doctor Rackshaw on - or can you transfer the call there?"
"I can switch it over here. Just get Mr. Douglas. Hurry, dear."
"I will."
When Agnes Douglas' face left the screen, Becky went to still another phone. Her profession required ample phone service; it was her largest single business expense. Humming happily she called her broker.
XVII
As MADAME VESANT LEFT THE SCREEN Jubal Harshaw leaned back from his phone. "Front," he said.
"Okay, Boss," Miriam acknowledged.
"This is one for the 'Real-Experiences' group. Specify on the cover sheet that I want the narrator to have a sexy contralto voice-"
"Maybe I should try out for it."
"Not that sexy. Shut up. Dig out that list of null surnames we got from the Census Bureau, pick one and put an innocent, mammalian first name with it, for the pen name. A girl's name ending in 'a'-that always suggests a 'C' cup."
"Huh! And not one of us with a name ending in 'a.' Why, you louse!"
"Flat-chests bunch, aren't you? 'Angela.' Her name is 'Angela.' Title: 'I Married a Martian.' Start: All my life I had longed to become an astronaut. Paragraph. When I was just a tiny thing, with freckles on my nose and stars in my eyes, I saved box tops just as my brothers did - and cried when Mummy wouldn't let me wear my Space Cadet helmet to bed. Paragraph. In those carefree childhood days I did not dream to what strange, bittersweet fate my tomboy ambition would-"
"Boss!"
"Yes, Dorcas?"
"Here come two more loads."
Jubal got up from the telephone chair. "Hold for continuation. Miriam, sit down at the phone." He went to the window, saw the two air cars Dorcas had spotted, decided that they could be squad cars, and might be about to land on his property. "Larry, bolt the door to this room. Anne, put on your robe. Watch them but stand back from the window; I want them to think the house is empty. Jill, you stick close to Mike and don't let him make any hasty moves. Mike, you do what Jill tells you to."
"Yes, Jubal. I will do."
"Jill, don't turn him loose unless you have to. To keep one of us from being shot, I mean. If they bust down doors, let them - I rather hope they do. Jill, if it comes to scratch, I'd much rather he snatched just the guns and not the men."
"Yes, Jubal."
"Make sure he understands. This indiscriminate elimination of cops has got to stop."
"Telephone, Boss!"
"Coming." Jubal went unhurriedly back to the phone. "All of you stay out of pickup. Dorcas, you can take a nap. Miriam, note down another title for later: 'I Married a Human.' " He slid into the seat as Miriam vacated it and said, "Yes?"
A blandly handsome man looked back at him. "Doctor Harshaw?"
"Yes."
"Please hold on. The Secretary General will speak with you." The tone implied that a genuflection was in order.
"Okay."
The screen flickered, then rebuilt in the tousled image of His Excellency the Honorable Jo
seph Edgerton Douglas, Secretary General of the World Federation of Free Nations. "Dr. Harshaw? Understand you need to speak with me. Shoot."
"No, sir."
"Eh? But I understood-"
"Let me rephrase it precisely, Mr. Secretary. You need to speak with me."
Douglas looked surprised, then grinned. "Pretty sure of yourself, aren't you? Well, Doctor, you have just ten seconds to prove that. I have other things to do."
"Very well, sir. I am attorney for the Man from Mars."
Douglas suddenly stopped looking tousled. "Repeat that."
"I am attorney for Valentine Michael Smith, known as the Man from Mars. Attorney with full power. In fact, it may help to think of me as defacto Ambassador from Mars� in the spirit of the Larkin Decision, that is to say."
Douglas stared at him. "Man, you must be out of your mind!"
"I've often thought so, lately. Nevertheless I am acting for the Man from Mars. And he is prepared to negotiate."
"The Man from Mars is in Ecuador."
"Please, Mr. Secretary. This is a private conversation. He is not in Ecuador, as both of us know. Smith - the real Valentine Michael Smith, not the one who has appeared in the newscasts - escaped from confinement - and, I should add, illegal confinement - at Bethesda Medical Center on Thursday last, in company with Nurse Gillian Boardman. He kept his freedom and is now free - and he will continue to keep it. If any of your large staff of assistants has told you anything else, then someone has been lying to you� which is why I am speaking to you yourself. So that you can straighten it out."
Douglas looked very thoughtful. Someone apparently spoke to him from off screen, but no words came over the telephone. At last he said, "Even if what you said were true, Doctor, you can't be in a position to speak for young Smith. He's a ward of the State."
Jubal shook his head. "Impossible. The Larkin Decision."
"Now see here, as a lawyer myself, I assure you-"
"As a lawyer myself, I must follow my own opinion - and protect my client."
"You are a lawyer? I thought that you meant that you claimed to be attorney-in-fact, rather than counsellor."
"Both. You'll find that I am an attorney at law, in good standing, and admitted to practice before the High Court. I don't hang my shingle these days, but I am." Jubal heard a dull boom from below and glanced aside. Larry whispered, "The front door, I think. Boss- Shall I go look?"
Jubal shook his head in negation and spoke to the screen. "Mr. Secretary, while we quibble, time is running out. Even now your men - your S.S. hooligans - are breaking into my house. It is most distasteful to be under siege in my own home. Now, for the first and last time, will you abate this nuisance? So that we can negotiate peaceably and equitably? Or shall we fight it out in the High Court with all the stink and scandal that would ensue?"
Again the Secretary appeared to speak with someone off screen. He turned back, looking troubled. "Doctor, if the Special Service police are trying to arrest you, it is news to me. I do not see-"
"If you'll listen closely, you'll hear them tromping up my staircase, sir! Mike! Anne! Come here." Jubal shoved his chair back to allow the camera angle to include three people. "Mr. Secretary General Douglas - the Man from Mars!" He did not, of course, introduce Anne, but she and her white cloak of probity were fully in view.
Douglas stared at Smith; Smith looked back at him and seemed uneasy. "Jubal-"
"Just a moment, Mike. Well, Mr. Secretary? Your men have broken into my house - I hear them pounding on my study door this moment." Jubal turned his head. "Larry, unbolt the door. Let them in." He put a hand on Mike. "Don't get excited, lad, and don't do anything unless I tell you to."
"Yes, Jubal. That man. I have know him."
"And he knows you." Over his shoulder Jubal called out to the now open door, "Come in, Sergeant. Right over here."
The S.S. sergeant standing in the doorway, mob gun at the ready, did not come in. Instead he called out, "Major! Here they are!"
Douglas said, "Let me speak to the officer in charge of them, Doctor." Again he spoke off screen.
Jubal was relieved to see that the major for whom the sergeant had shouted showed up with his sidearm still in its holster; Mike's shoulder had been trembling under Jubal's hand ever since the sergeant's gun had come into view - and, while Jubal lavished no fraternal love on these troopers, he did not want Smith to display his powers� and cause awkward questions.
The major glanced around the room. "You're Jubal Harshaw?"
"Yes. Come over here. Your boss wants you."
"None of that. You come along. I'm also looking for-"
"Come here! The Secretary General himself wants a word with you - on this phone."
The S.S. major looked startled, then came on into the study, around Jubal's desk, and in sight of the screen - looked at it, suddenly came smartly to attention and saluted. Douglas nodded. "Name, rank, and duty."
"Sir, Major C. D. Bloch, Special Service Squadron Cheerio, Maryland Enclave Barracks."
"Now tell me what you are doing where you are, and why."
"Sir, that's rather complicated. I-"
"Then unravel it for me. Speak up, Major."
"Yes, sir. I came here pursuant to orders. You see-"
"I don't see."
"Well, sir, about an hour and a half ago a flying squad was sent here to make several arrests. They didn't report in when they should have and when we couldn't raise them by radio, I was sent with the reserve squad to find them and render assistance as needed."
"Whose orders?"
"Uh, the Commandant's, sir."
"And did you find them?"
"No, sir. Not a trace of them."
Douglas looked at Harshaw. "Counsellor, did you see anything of another squad, earlier?"
"It's no part of my duties to keep track of your servants, Mr. Secretary. Perhaps they got the wrong address. Or simply got lost."
"That is hardly an answer to my question."
"You are correct, sir. I am not being interrogated. Nor will I be, other than by due process. I am acting for my client; I am not nursemaid to these uniformed, uh, persons. But I suggest, from what I have seen of them, that they might not be able to find a pig in a bath tub."
"Mmm� possibly. Major, round up your men and return. I'll confirm that via channels."
"Yes, sir!" The major saluted.
"Just a moment!" Harshaw said sharply. "These men broke into my house. I demand to see their warrant."
"Oh. Major, show him your search warrant."
Major Bloch turned brick red. "Sir, the officer ahead of me had the warrants. Captain Heinrich. The one who's missing."
Douglas stared at him. "Young man� do you mean to stand there and tell me that you broke into a citizen's home without a warrant?"
"But- Sir, you don't understand! There was a warrant - there are warrants. I saw them. But, of course, Captain Heinrich took them with him. Sir."
Douglas just looked at him. "Get on back. Place yourself under arrest when you get there. I'll see you later."
"Yes, sir."
"Hold it," Harshaw demanded. "Under the circumstances I shan't let him leave. I exercise my right to make a citizen's arrest. I shall take him down and charge him in this township and have him placed in our local lockup. 'Armed breaking and entering.'"
Douglas blinked thoughtfully. "Is this necessary, sir?"
"I think it is. These fellows seem to be awfully hard to find when you want them - so I don't want to let this one leave our local jurisdiction. Why, aside from the serious criminal charges, I haven't even had opportunity to assess the damage to my property."
"You have my assurance, sir, that you will be fully compensated."
"Thank you, sir. But what is to prevent another uniformed joker from coming along twenty minutes from now, perhaps this time with a warrant? Why, he wouldn't even need to break down the door! My castle stands violated, open to any intruder. Mr. Secretary, only the few precious moments of delay
afforded by my once-stout door kept this scoundrel from dragging me away before I could reach you by telephone� and you heard him say that there was still another like him at large - with, so he says, warrants."
"Doctor, I assure you that I know nothing of any such warrant."
"Warrants, sir. He said 'warrants for several arrests.' Though perhaps a better term would be 'lettres de cachet.'"
"That's a serious imputation."
"This is a serious matter. You see what has already been done to me."
"Doctor, I know nothing of these warrants, if they exist. But I give you my personal assurance that I will look into it at once, find out why they were issued, and act as the merits of the matter may appear. Can I say more?"
"You can say a great deal more, sir. I can reconstruct exactly why those warrants were issued. Some one in your service, in an excess of zeal, caused a pliant judge to issue them� for the purpose of seizing the persons of myself and my guests in order to question us, safely out of your sight. Out of anyone's sight, sir! We will discuss all issues with you but we will not be questioned by such as this creature-" Jubal hooked a thumb at the S.S. major "-in some windowless back room! Sir, I hope for, and expect, justice at your hands� but if those warrants are not canceled at once, if I am not assured by you personally beyond any possibility of quibble that the Man from Mars, Nurse Boardman, and myself will be left undisturbed in our persons, free to come and go, then-" Jubal stopped and shrugged helplessly. "-I must seek a champion elsewhere. There are, as you know, persons and powers outside the administration who hold deep interest in the affairs of the Man from Mars."
"You threaten me."
"No, sir. I plead with you. I have come to you first. We wish to negotiate. But we cannot speak easily while we are being hounded. I beg of you, sir - call off your dogs!"
A Stranger in a Strange Land Page 24
