"Good. You know what I can do for you if you do me a favor? Money... New Job... Anything you want..."
"You can"t do nothin" for me, Mac. I already been adjusted at Kingston."
"Better. An honest man. Will you do me a favor for the love of G.o.d or anything you love?"
"Sure, Mac."
"Go into that building. Take a look at the man behind the telescope. A good look. Come back and describe him to me."
The driver departed, was gone five minutes, then returned.
"Well?"
"He"s just an ordinary guy, Mac. Sixtyish. Bald. Got lines in his face kinda deep. His ears stick out and he"s got what they call a weak chin. You know. It kinda backslides."
"It"s n.o.body... n.o.body," Reich muttered.
"What?"
"About those stars," Reich said. "You never heard of them? You never saw them? You don"t know what I"m talking about?"
"Nope."
"Oh G.o.d..." Reich moaned. "Sweet G.o.d..."
"Now don"t warp your orbit, Mac." The driver thumped him powerfully on the back. "Tell you something. They taught me plenty up at Kingston. One of them things was... Well, sometimes you get a crazy notion. It"s brand new, see? But you think you always had it. Like... oh... for instance, that people always had one eye and now all of a sudden they got two."
Reich stared at him.
"So you run around yellin": "For Chrissakes, where did they all of a sudden get two eyes everybody?" And they say: "They always got two eyes." And you say: "The h.e.l.l they did. I distinctly remember everybody got one eye." And by G.o.d you believe it. And they have a h.e.l.l of a time knockin" the notion outa you." The driver thumped him again. "Seems to me, Mac, like you"re on a one-eye kick."
"One eye," Reich muttered. "Two eyes. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun."
"What?"
"I don"t know. I don"t know. I"ve had a rough time the last month. Maybe... Maybe you"re right. But---"
"You want to go to Kingston?"
"No!"
"You want to stay here and mope about them stars?"
Abruptly, Reich shouted: "What the h.e.l.l do I care about the stars!" His fear turned to hot rage. Adrenalin flooded his system, bringing with it a surge of courage and high spirits. He leaped into the cab. "I"ve got the world. What do I care if a few delusions go with it?"
"That"s the way, Mac. Where to?"
"The RoyalPalace."
"The which?"
Reich laughed. "Monarch," he said, and roared with laughter all the flight through the dawn to Monarch"s soaring tower. But it was a semi-hysterical laughter.
The office ran around-the-clock shifts, and the night staff was in the last drowsy stages of the 12-8 shift when Reich bustled in. Although they had not seen much of him in the past month, the staff was accustomed to these visits, and shifted smoothly into high gear. As Reich went to his desk he was followed by secretaries and sub-secretaries carrying the urgent agenda of the day.
"Let all that wait," he snapped. "Call in the entire staff... all department heads and organizational supervisors. I"m going to make an announcement."
The flutter soothed him and recaptured his frame of reference. He was alive again, real again. All this was the only reality... the hustle, the bustle, the annunciator bells, the muted commands, the quick filling of his office with so many awed faces. All this was a preview of the future when bells would ring on planets and satellites and world supervisors would scuttle to his desk with awe on their faces.
"As you all know," Reich began, pacing slowly and darting piercing glances into the faces that watched him, "We of Monarch have been locked in a death-struggle with the D"Courtney Cartel. Craye D"Courtney was killed some time ago. There were complications that have just been ironed out. You"ll be pleased to hear that the road is open for us now. We can commence operation of Plan AA to take over the D"Courtney Cartel."
He paused, waiting for the excited murmur that should respond to his announcement. There was no response.
"Perhaps," he said, "some of you do not comprehend the size of the job and the importance of the job. Let me put it this way... in terms you"ll understand. Those of you that are city supervisors will become continental supervisors. Continental supervisors will become satellite chiefs. Present satellite chiefs will become planetary chiefs. From now on, Monarch will dominate the solar system. From now on all of us must think in terms of the solar system. From now on..."
Reich faltered, alarmed by the blank looks around him. He glanced around, then singled out the chief secretary. "What the h.e.l.l"s the matter?" he growled. "There been news I haven"t heard yet? Bad news?"
"N-No, Mr. Reich."
"Then what"s eating you? This is something we"ve all been waiting for. What"s wrong with it?"
The chief secretary stammered: "We... I... I"m s-sorry, sir. I d-don"t know what y-you"re talking about."
"I"m talking about the D"Courtney Cartel."
"I... I"ve n-never heard of the organization, Mr. Reich, sir. I... we..." The chief secretary turned around for support. Before Reich"s unbelieving eyes the entire staff shook their heads in mystification.
"D"Courtney on Mars!" Reich shouted.
"On where, sir?"
"Mars! Mars! M-A-R-S. One of the ten planets. Fourth from the sun." Gripped by the returning terror, Reich bellowed incoherently. "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars! Mars! Mars! A hundred and forty-one million miles from the sun, Mars!"
Again the staff shook their heads. There was a rustle and they backed away slightly from Reich. He darted at the secretaries and tore the sheafs of business papers from their hands. "You"ve got a hundred memos about D"Courtney on Mars there. You"ve got to. My G.o.d, we"ve been battling it out with D"Courtney for the last ten years. We---"
He clawed through the papers, throwing them wildly in all directions, filling the office with fluttering snow. There was not one reference to D"Courtney or Mars. There was neither any reference to Venus, Jupiter, the Moon, nor the other satellites.
"I"ve got memos in my desk," Reich shouted. Hundreds of them. You lousy liars! Look in my desk..."
He darted to the desk and yanked out drawers. There was a stunning explosion. The desk burst asunder. Fragments of flying fruit-wood slashed the staff, and Reich was hurled back against the window by the desk top which smacked him like a giant"s hand.
"The Man With No Face!" Reich cried. "Christ Almighty!" He shook his head feverishly, and clung to the paramount obsession. "Where are the files? I"ll show you in the files... D"Courtney and Mars and all the rest. And I"ll show him, too. The Man With No Face... Come on!"
He ran out of his office and burst into the file vaults. He tore out rack after rack; scattering papers, cl.u.s.ters of piezo crystals, ancient wire recordings, microfilm, molecular transcripts. There was no reference to D"Courtney or Mars. There was no reference to Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, the asteroids, the satellites.
And now indeed the office was alive with hustle and bustle, annunciator bells, strident commands. Now the office was stampeding, and three burly gentlemen from "Recreation" came trotting into the vaults directed by the bleeding secretary who urged: "You must! You must! I"ll take the responsibility!"
"Easy now, easy now, easy now, Mr. Reich," they said with the hissing noise with which hostlers soothe savage stallions. "Easy... easy...easy..."
"Get away from me, you sons of b.i.t.c.hes."
"Easy, sir. Easy. It"s all right, sir."
They deployed strategically while the hustle and the bustle increased and the bells sounded and voices far off called: "Who"s his doctor? Get his doctor. Somebody call Kingston. Did you notify the police? No, don"t. No scandal. Get the legal department, will you! Isn"t the Infirmary open yet?"
Reich"s breath came and went in snarls. He overturned files in the path of the burly gentlemen, put his head down and bulled straight through them. He raced through the office to the outside corridor and the Pneumatique. The door opened; he punched Science-city 57. He stepped into the air-shuttle and was shot over to Science where he stepped out.
He was on the laboratory floor. It was in darkness. Probably the staff imagined he had dropped to the street level. He would have time. Still breathing heavily, he trotted to the lab library, snapped on the lights and went to the reference alcove. A sheet of frosted crystal, c.o.c.ked like a draft-board, was set before a desk chair. There was a complicated panel of control b.u.t.tons alongside it.
Reich seated himself and punched READY. The sheet lit up and a canned voice spoke from an overhead speaker.
"Topic?"
Reich punched SCIENCE.
"Section?"
Reich punched ASTRONOMY.
"Question?"
"The universe."
Click-pause-click. "The term universe in its complete physical sense applies to all matter in existence."
"What matter is in existence?"
Click-pause-click. "Matter is gathered into aggregates ranging in size from the smallest atom to the largest collection of matter known to astronomers,"
"What is the largest collection of matter known to astronomers?" Reich punched DIAGRAM.
Click-pause-click. "The sun." The crystal plate displayed a dazzling picture of the sun in speed-up action.
"But what about the others? The stars?"
Click-pause-click. "There are no stars."
"The planets?"
Click-pause-click. "There is the earth." A picture or the revolving earth appeared.
"The other planets? Mars? Jupiter? Saturn..."
Click-pause-click. "There are no other planets."
"The moon?"
Click-pause-click. "There is no moon."
Reich took a deep trembling breath. "We"ll try it again. Go back to the sun."
The sun appeared again in the crystal. "The sun is the largest collection of matter known to astronomers," the canned voice began. Suddenly it stopped. Click-pause-click. The picture of the sun began to fade slowly. The voice spoke. "There is no sun."
The model disappeared, leaving behind it an afterimage that looked up at Reich... looming, silent, horrible... The Man With No Face.
Reich howled. He leaped to his feet, knocking the desk chair backward. He picked it up and smashed it down on that frightful image. He turned and blundered out of the library into the lab, and thence to the corridor. At the Vertical Pneumatique, he punched STREET. The door opened, he staggered in and was dropped 57 stories to the Main Hall of Monarch"s Science-city.
It was filled with early workers hurrying to their offices. As Reich pushed past them, he caught the astonished glances at his cut and bleeding face. Then he was aware of a dozen uniformed Monarch guards closing in on him. He ran down the hall and with a frantic burst of speed and dodged the guards. He slipped into the revolving doors and whirled through to the footway. There he jerked to a stop as though he had ran into white hot iron. There was no sun.
The street lights were lit; the skyways twinkled; Jumper eyes floated up and down; the shops were blazing... And overhead there was nothing... nothing but a deep, black, fathomless infinity.
"The sun!" Reich shouted. "The sun!"
He pointed upward. The office workers regarded him with suspicious eyes and hurried on. No one looked up.
"The sun! Where"s the sun? Don"t you understand, you fools? The sun!" Reich plucked at their arms, shaking his fist at the sky. Then the first of the guards came through the revolving door and he took to his heels.
He went down the footway, turned sharp to his right and sprinted through an arcade of brilliant, busy shops. Beyond the arcade was the entrance of a Vertical Pneumatique to the skyway. Reich leaped in. As the door closed behind him, he caught sight of the pursuing guards less than twenty yards off. Then he was lofted seventy stories and emerged on the skyway.
There was a small car-park alongside him, shelved onto the face of Monarch Tower, with a runway leading into the skyway. Reich ran in, flung credits to the attendant and got into a car. He pressed GO. The car went. At the foot of the runway he pressed LEFT. The car turned left and continued. That was all the control he had. Left, right; stop, go. The rest was automatic. Moreover, cars were strictly limited to the skyways. He might spend hours racing in circles high over the city, trapped like a dog in a revolving cage.
The car needed no attention. He glanced alternately over his shoulder and up at the sky. There was no sun... and they went about their business as though there had never been a sun. He shuddered. Was this more of the one-eye kick? Suddenly the car slowed and stopped; and he was marooned in the middle of the skyway, halfway between MonarchTower and the giant Visiphone & VisigraphBuilding.
Reich hammered on the control studs. There was no response. He leaped out and raised the tail hood to inspect the pick-up. Then he saw the guards far down the skyway, running toward him, and he understood. These cars were powered by broadcast energy. They"d cut the transmission off at the car-park and were coming after him. Reich turned tail and sprinted toward the V & VBuilding.
The skyway tunneled through the building and was lined with shops, restaurants, a theater---and there was a travel office! A sure out. He could grab a ticket, get into a one-man capsule and have himself slotted to any of the take-off fields. He needed a little time to reorganize... reorient... and he had a house in Paris. He leaped across the center island, dodged past cars and ran into the office.
It looked like a miniature bank. A short counter. A grilled window protected by burglar-proof plastic. Reich went to the window, pulling money from his pocket. He slapped credits down on the counter and shoved them under the grille.
"Ticket to Paris," he said. "Keep the change. Which way to the capsules? Jet, man! Jet!"
"Paris?" came the reply. "There is no Paris."
Reich stared through the cloudy plastic and saw... looking, looming, silent... The Man With No Face. He spun around twice, heart pounding, skull pounding, located the door and ran out. He ran blindly onto the skyway, shied feebly from an oncoming car, and was struck down into enveloping darkness--- ABOLISH.
DESTROY.
DELETE.
DISBAND.
(MINERALOGY, PETROLOGY, GEOLOGY, PHYSIOGRAPHY) DISPERSE.
(METEOROLOGY, HYDROLOGY, SEISMOLOGY) ERASE.
(XY d:s.p.a.ce/d:Time) EFFACE.
THE SUBJECT WILL BE--- "---will be what?"