The Dictator
Page 2
quietly. "If he accepted what wetold him, he'd go around talking about it naively. This way, heunderstands the necessity for secrecy."
"He doesn't understand--"
"Well, then he realizes it. Let him get some sleep, will you?Tomorrow's going to be a good day for us, a big day for him. Goodnight, Ellaby. If you want anything, Sinclair will get it for you."
Ellaby assured them he would want nothing except a simple meal ofwhatever most people in the Capitol ate on Wednesdays. It turned outto be pork chops, which Ellaby neither particularly liked nordisliked. He chewed his food with the proper lack of enthusiasm andretired early.
* * * * *
The next morning, Ellaby took his I. Q. test at the Capitol personnelbureau. He was slightly above average in space perception but slightlybelow average in comparisons. He hoped his anxiety didn't show on hisface. If anyone asked him why he had come to the Capitol he was readyto blurt out the reason and have done with it. He wondered what SamMulden would have thought if he knew. The Sinclair woman would havebeen furious.
No one asked Ellaby. You came to the Capitol because you wanted towork there. According to the mode, a man desired to change hislocation every 3.7 years. Ellaby had been 6.3 years tardy, but HighFalls was an ideally modal community in which people tended to linger.
"I. Q., point seven under the mode," the personnel clerk told Ellaby.The slight variation--due to his anxiety--was not enough to matter,Ellaby realized with a faint sense of triumph. "Proceed to physicaltesting," the girl told Ellaby.
Obediently, Ellaby followed the green arrow to the gymnasium. He wasgiven a locker, a towel, a pair of athletic shorts and a first-aidkit. He stripped off his clothing, placing the tunic, underwear andsandals in the locker, then climbed into his athletic shorts and fellinto line with the other men and women carrying their towels andfirst-aid kits into the gymnasium.
The ten-over-mode male wrestling tester pinned Ellaby in less than twominutes, a fact which was duly noted on his employment blank. He wasgiven fifteen minutes of rest, then squared off on the mat with askinny, five-under-mode male. Ellaby bested him in four minutes flat,took another fifteen minute break, mopping the sweat from his bodywith an already sodden towel, then defeated the ten-under-mode femalewrestler in two minutes and some seconds. It developed into a knockdown, drag out fight with the two-over-mode female, who finally forcedEllaby's shoulders to the mat for the necessary five seconds afterhalf an hour.
Ellaby showered, ate a hot Thursday lunch and took his employmentblank to the emotion lab. His electroencephalogram revealed nine alphacycles to the second, but too much theta.
"Are you nervous?" the technician asked Ellaby. "You're thetaing allover the place."
"I guess so. Yes, I'm nervous."
"Then let's try it again."
They did, the technician rubbing the greasy electrode salve onEllaby's forehead before the electrodes were fastened there for thesecond time. The result was the same. "More than modal theta," saidthe technician, writing something in code on his employment blank."See the personnel advisor, please."
For Ellaby, it came as a distinct shock. His heart pounded against histemples, in his ears. He was emotionally unstable. Had the ten yearsbeen for nothing?
* * * * *
"Sit down, Ellaby," the personnel advisor said. He was a man of middleage, irritatingly careless about his appearance. He had dyed hisgraying hair, of course, but if you looked close you could see gray atthe roots. He wore a green Thursday tunic which was poorly starched.Having had a full week to get it ready, that was naturallyinexcusable.
"You have a splendid record, Ellaby," the sloppy personnel clerk said."Mentally, within tenths of the mode. Physically, even closer.Unfortunately your emotional--"
"That never happened to me before, not in High Falls, it didn't,"Ellaby interrupted.
"This is not High Falls. Every community, you must realize, has itsown security testing center. And the capitol requires the tightestsecurity of all."
"I know but I was nervous. You're going to tell me my theta was toohigh, aren't you?"
"That's correct. You needn't feel so bad about it. You're going to becleared for secret work. You're damn close to modal, Ellaby. You're agood security risk. Incidentally, just why were you nervous?"
"Because I wanted top secret clearance. Because I wanted to work closeto the Dictator. You see--" Abruptly, Ellaby stopped talking, claspinga hand over his mouth in sudden confusion. He wasn't supposed to talkabout this. Lying, of course, was as far from Ellaby's nature as itwas from anyone else's, assuming he were reasonably close to the mode.But Ellaby hadn't been asked for all that information directly. "Whatkind of job will I get?" he asked, trying desperately to change thesubject.
It was too late. The personnel clerk asked, "Just why did you want towork close to the Dictator?"
Ellaby felt a single drop of sweat fall from his armpit under theloose tunic and roll, itching, down the side of his body. He wantedwith all his soul to be back in High Falls. Anyplace but here.
"Why, Ellaby?"
"I can't answer that question. A man isn't forced to answer a questionunless he wants to."
"Certainly not," said the personnel advisor, staring blandly atEllaby. "This is a democratic country."
"Then--"
"But you've never known a man to refuse answering a question asked ofhim officially, have you?"
"I'm not sure I understand, sir."
"You don't have to be so obsequious, Ellaby. I'm less modal than youare, but I make the best of my divergencies. What I meant was this:did you ever hear of a criminal _not_ confessing to his crime?"
"Well, no."
"I'll ask you the question again, Ellaby. Why did you want to worknear the Dictator?"
The man leaned close, peered at Ellaby. The room was small, almost acubicle, the bare walls seeming to close in on all four sides. Ellabystifled a wild impulse to scream and run out of there, run any placeas long as he could leave the room and the personnel advisor behindhim. "I'm sorry, but I can't answer that question," he said finally.
"Tell me, Ellaby, did you ever hear your own voice?"
What a strange question. "Why, certainly. All the time, when I speak."
"No, I mean your voice reproduced artificially. Your radio voice?"
"No, I never heard it."
"Well, you're about to."
While the personnel advisor busied himself setting up the radioequipment, Ellaby had a few seconds in which to think. He could stillmake a clean breast of the whole thing. They had chosen him--Mulden,the Sinclair woman and the others in High Falls--for his modality.Very well, he could use that modality to get out from under. He didn'tunderstand. He didn't know what they were leading him to, slowly, overa period of ten years. _He_ didn't want to assassinate the Dictator.What in the world would he want to do that for? He would gladly nameall the names he knew if the personnel advisor would only let himforget the whole mad experience and return to High Falls. He couldattend Adjustment Academy if they thought he needed it. Anything.Anything....
"Please slip these earphones over your head, over your ears. There. Isthe microphone close enough to your lips? I think so."
* * * * *
A metal band running over the top of Ellaby's cranium held theearphones in place. Another metal band curved around the side of hischeek and chin, leading to a small microphone before his lips.
"Place your hands on the arms of your chair, please."
Ellaby did as he was told. _Click! Click!_ A pair of manacles sprangup from the chair arms trapping Ellaby's wrists. Ellaby looked at thepersonnel tester in unpokered alarm. "What did you do that for?" heasked timidly.
"So you won't remove the earphones. Now, are we ready?" The personneladvisor pressed a button on his desk. Ellaby thought he heard a fainthum of power in the microphone. "I will ask you once more, Ellaby. Whydid you want to work near the Dictator?"
Ellaby sh
rugged. He was going to say, "I'm sorry, but I don't have toanswer that question." He said, and heard through the earphones: "I'msorry (I'm) but I (sorry don't have (but) to ans (I) wer that (don't)question) (have to answer that question)."
"Again, please. I didn't hear you," the personnel tester said.
It was his own voice Ellaby had heard through the earphones. Playback,with a fraction of a second lapse. Oddly, it un-nerved him. Thereproduced voice had no right lagging. He shouted, "I'm sorry (I'm)but I (sorry) don't have (but) to ans (I) wer that (don't