She came over and kissed his fever-parched mouth. "If you can joke while feeling like this, you might make a good husband."
She picked up her bag and went into the lab. Not all the bottles were smashed. Her clue was the fact that pyretigen raised a fever by conserving excess heat in the body resulting from increased cell metabolism. Its action was doublefold. It oxidized sugar, breaking it down into carbon dioxide and water. Though the burning of glucose was a normal function in the body, pyretigen accelerated it. At the same tune, it excited that part of the sympathetic nervous system which controlled the capillaries of the skin, thereby contracting them and lessening time blood-flow through them. The result was that excess heat was not radiated at the body"s surface.
The fever-inducer, normally burned up in the blood, maintained itself in Ogtate"s blood. Killison, recalling the asps" maintenance of their numbers, reasoned that they were the underlying cause for the steady level of pyretigen. Somehow, they "locked" onto the fever-stimulants and, as fast as the substance burned, produced more.
The rhythm of reproduction of the asps was followed by the pyretigen. Killison wanted to know if the ,pyretigen had a similar enough molecular structure, positively charged, to fasten itself onto the negative tag-ends of the asp.
Books were scattered on the floor. She searched among them and was thrilled to find the one she sought. Some pages were torn out, but among the ones left she found her information. The semivirus pyretigen did have an asp-like molecular structure.
A calculated dose of a recently developed anti-virus in his bloodstream might close down the little double factories. The serum, though it started in the vascular system, could diffuse through other tissues. It was itself as dangerous as the foes it was designed to fight. But a sample of blood would show exactly the proportions needed. The numbered hosts would tramp up and down the highways and alleys of the body, and wherever they met the enemy, they would attack. They couldn"t refuse to fight, for their negative charge drew them irresistibly to their brother virus. Civil war would rage. Antivirus would meet the pyretigen, would close with it, would explode. Touching one would discharge the field of both. Literally burned, they would then disintegrate.
Ogtate"s body would be a funeral pyre. It would become warm, but the ultimate effect would be cool.
As a matter of course, the discharged pyretigens would become unlocked from the asps. There would be no more fabrications by fabrications. And Barbara Killison would see to it that Bill ate no more tampered-with food.
She searched in the huge lab and found what she wanted. Her hopes were high, for there was almost every kind of substance needed. Ogtate had by no means destroyed all of the containers. Having located a tube, she returned to the big room at the end of the hall.
"Bill!" she called. "We"ll fix you . . ." Rigid, she stopped short and gasped.
9.
Ogtate said, "I"m sorry, Barbara. Smitty just walked in. I was telling him to wait in the library until I prepared you. I"m really sorry."
Smitty removed his cigar with the prehensile end of his trunk and said, "Believe me, Madame, if I hadn"t known you were here, and I"d walked around the corner into you, I"d have been just as startled and horrified."
She recovered a little and said, "Thank you."
"Bill," Barbara said, "I"m going to pour a bunch of little thunderstorms in you. This stuff wasn"t designed for the particular kind of work it"s being called to do, but it should handle your trouble."
He didn"t watch the needle but looked at the Priami. "Sit down, Smitty. I"m going to give you my decision now."
Smith trumpeted an undecipherable emotion. Barbara jumped and pushed the needle in hard. Bill said, "Ouch!"
"That"s what I meant," said Smith. Smoking, he sat back, seemingly at ease with the world. Bill could see the abnormal pulsing of veins and, perhaps, the heart hammering under the unorthodox ribcage. The latter, he thought, must be his imagination.
"There are four things I can do," intoned Ogtate. "One, keep the Belos to myself. Two, give it to Earth. Three, extend it to Mars. Four, allow both factions to possess it. If I do the first, I go crazy from indecision. More important, I"ll spend eight years without the one woman I know I can learn to love. If you want the truth, I"m afraid to face those years without her. If I do the second, I will, I"m sure, start Earth on a downward spiral of conquest and arrogance. Earth people are not the stuff of warriors just now, but until two hundred years ago they were, and they can be again. And Smitty risked his life to sneak here and convince me the Priami aren"t the all-black carnivorous monsters they"re painted to be. As is evident, you can see through him. He has nothing to hide."
Ogtate sat up a little straighter. Killison asked him if he felt better, and he replied that he did.
"If I give it to the Priami alone, then the war-mongers there will do to us as we"d do to them. Although I am bitter, I don"t, contrary to report, hate man as a whole. I loathe some individuals and am indifferent to others. But wiping out a world because of what a small, vicious gang did to me, isn"t in my character at all." He smiled apologetically at the woman. "In fact I held the Belos over Earth"s head because I knew that once I gave it away, I"d no longer be valuable. Yewliss was kind enough to point that that out to me during a visor-interview, and Smitty here confirmed it. I rejected that idea, because it made me look so terribly selfish. But Barbara"s appearance tonight, as Smitty said, was a catalyst. The truth of my unconscious possessiveness. .h.i.t me.
"If I do the fourth, give the Belos to both planets . . . As for the traitor-stigma I"ll gain, the Government can make no official actions because of the law of free will. By giving the Belos to the Priami, I"m not personally hurting anybody. Earth ships don"t have to penetrate the Priami field. If they want to, let them do it safely, by arranging peace. There"ll be social ostracism, yes. What a laugh! And eight years hence, I"m sure, events will prove me right. Chances are, I"ll be in the limelight again, this time as a social lion-instead of a skunk. No matter. I don"t care about their adulation.
"As for the accusation that I"ll be setting up another status quo, I plead guilty. The two foes will stagnate because they"ll be afraid to use interplanetary travel. They"ll slide back to their former conditions of d.i.n.ky one-globe states. That is, unless they achieve peace. They"ll have to, because population and prosperity depend on trade between worlds. Cut off EPB transmitters and you have chaos."
Smith rose, trumpeted again and dropped his cigar. The light behind him gleamed dully through him and showed a blackish pump working accelerando in the grille of his chest. "I have your word?"
Ogtate straightened some more. He looked proud. This was his greatest moment. He was the unofficial emperor of the solar system; he was dispensing the fate of many billions. "The papers are on the table by your chair. They were within handreach for the last six months. I just couldn"t make up my mind to tell you what they were."
As if he would at all costs keep his dignity, Smith turned slowly. When he picked up the thick packet, he almost dropped it. His proboscis blew a suspicious note. "Bill," he said.
He stopped, interrupted by a hysterical, tiny gonging from the woman"s wristbox. She flicked the toggle and said, "Major Killison talking."
"Barbara!" tinned Yewliss" voice. "Drop everything and come on home. Good news! Lord, but it"s good news! For all of us. For Earth and for you and for me."
"What is it?"
"The Belos field has been discovered independently by our scientists. We don"t need to toady to Ogtate any more. You can forget about your sacrifice and cone home to me."
Bill jumped up and screamed, "What?" and he swayed.
Barbara seemed stunned, too. Yewliss demanded several times that she answer.
"All right, Yew. I"ll contact you later."
"Later, nothing!" exploded the wristbox. "I"m flying now to get you."
"You stay right there until I tell you to come. There are some problems yet to solve."
"Babs, you don"t have to go through with that silly act. Lord, now I think back on it, I don"t see how I could have let you go ahead."
"But you did, Yew," she replied, tonelessly. "You know me well enough to realize I mean what I say. Don"t come until I call you."
"Major Killison, this is General Yewliss speaking!"
"Man Yewliss, this is woman Killison talking. So long." She snapped the little lever.
Ogtate said, "1 don"t know what to say, Barbara."
Smith stepped forward and seized the man"s left hand in his webbed fingers. His trunk caressed Bill"s forehead with a gesture of affection. It hinted, also, of sadness and farewell.
The woman, watching him, was aware of an irrelevant thought. She had wondered in the back of her mind why he wasn"t affected by the bite. Now the answer came from the dark of forgotten facts. His metabolism was based on a fluorine-carbon chain. The drifting semiviruses couldn"t attach themselves to his poisonous proteins.
The Priami seemed to know Ogtate was in no mood for lengthy ceremonies. He said, "I thank you for all you"ve clone. I respect you, Bill, and I know you respect me. I hope to see you again, and I wish you good fortune with your female. Whether that means getting or losing her, I can"t say. But I wish you fortune."
Bill said in a tight voice, "Sorry you must go, Smitty. But your people will want to hear your news."
Smitty trumpeted. "I wouldn"t be surprised if, when I arrived, I found my people, too, had discovered the Belos. And I will be ignored, the ignominious hero who was too late."
He faced Barbara. "I hope to visit you some day, Major. Openly."
She murmured a suitable reply.
He walked away, swinging long thin arms, then stopped and said, hesitantly, "Bill, would you do me a favor?"
"Sure."
The Priami picked up a box of cigars. "I"d like to take these home. It"ll be hard getting a good smoke on Mars."
Ogtate burst out laughing and sat down. "Go ahead, Smitty. Take a dozen boxes, all I have. Compliments of the Earth Government!"
"The opening wedges in the door of peace." He was gone.
10.
Barbara put the thermodial in his mouth and felt his pulse. When she looked at the gauge, she said, "Almost normal. How do you feel?"
"Rotten. But not from the fever. I feel like the world"s biggest fool."
"At least you"re not a nonent.i.ty."
"I"m that, too."
For want of anything better to say, thinking she must take his mind off his sudden plunge into humiliation, she commented, "Well, you"ll have no more fever, anyway."
When he wanted to know what she meant, she decided n.o.body would be hurt by the information. The maneuvering was over.
He cursed. "Yewliss, again! I could sue him for interference of free will!"
"You won"t. Your index shows you dislike legal procedures."
He poured two double shots of brandy and gave her one. "Well, here"s to the Old Fox and you. May you bear him many cubs."
"Your index also shows you often leap to conclusions."
The dark liquor sloshed over the tiny gla.s.s. "If you go back to Yewliss," he said, "I"ll have nothing." "Turn on the visor," she said.
They watched the wild celebrations of the crowds that had quickly gathered all over the world. Bill flicked the screen off.
"Poor devils, they remind me of us. They work on one problem, and halfway through the solution of the first, a second one forms."
"Life is like that," she said. Her hand touched his for the first time since he kissed her, and she didn"t take it back.
"True," he said, "but I don"t feel like philosophising. Barbara, what are you going to do?"
"I don"t know. That"s funny, too, because I"m usually quick at deciding."
"Then you"re not just going to walk out on me?"
She shook her head. "No. This is no longer a military mission. It"s entirely personal. Actually, it was personal from the beginning."
"What do you mean?"
"You won"t hate me? Promise?"
"Why should I? I mean, why should I hate you?"
"Bill, one of the reasons I came to you the main one, in fact-is that I felt guilty about you. I"ve had that feeling for a long time. I told myself it was ridiculous that what happened to you wasn"t my fault."
"Barbara, get to the point!"
"Very well. I came here because . . . I was responsible for your being inoculated with the Asp. You see, I was one of those who created it. I couldn"t help that it was used as a political weapon. When we wade it, it was for experiments with laboratory animals. None of us had the slightest idea that someone would steal the virus and inject you with it."
He shut his eyes for a second. Opening them, he said, "I know. But it was a shock. I"ve cursed the asp inventors so many times, even when I knew they weren"t guilty. And now to have you ..."
"You can see why I came?"
He nodded, and then, as if inspired, his face grew twisted, unrecognizable and frightening. He rose, took her hand and lead her to the broad staircase that curved like a ram"s horn to the second floor.
She said, "What do you think you"re doing?"
"We might as well find out if we really like each other."
She jerked her hand from his.
"Is that what you mean by really liking? Do you still think I"m just one of those women provided by the Government for your pleasure?"
He sensed he had lost her. "Forgive me, Barbara. No, it"s just that we have to act in some fashion."
"But that"s not my idea of using your brain to solve a problem. Or using your heart, either."
They sat down again. Hesitantly, he picked up her hand. When she did not refuse it, he put his arm around her and kissed her.
"But will you ever decide? You"re sure you"re not trying to let me down easy?"
"After I just confessed my guilt? Quit asking foolish questions, will you?"
She closed her eyes and leaned back. He, like an automaton obeying preset stimuli, leaned over and kissed her. This time, though he had expected she would, she did not protest. She shifted a little and did not turn her head away.
At last she whispered, "Oh, if you must, Bill. If you think that"s the only way. But, I think it"s ...
Despite what she said, she held hint as tightly as he held her. Her nails dug into his arms as if she were loneliness and fear trying to clutch love and courage. He pondered: what, besides his flesh, did he have to give to her? He pondered only briefly.
11.
It was a bright day when Ogtate awoke. General Yewliss arrived. At the moment that Ogtate first saw bin, he was not intent upon them. His fierce black eyes were fixed upon his wrist.w.a.tch.