Gordon R Dickson, page 27
Behind him, the doorchime rang; and the two cover-suited men outside identified themselves as the night repair crew sent up to work on the wall. He let them in; and then went to the phone in the far end of the living room.
“I’ve changed my mind,” he told the desk. “You can move me to another suite, after all.”
Within ten minutes a uniformed attendant was there to move his luggage and guide him to new quarters.
Once settled in his new suite, he went to bed and—after a while—slept soundly.
He was up, dressed and ready to have breakfast sent up, when his phone rang and Himandi’s voice spoke in his ear when he keyed it in.
“I thought you might like to have breakfast with me,” said Himandi.
“Fine,” said Bleys.
They broke the connection and Bleys went down to the breakfast room of the hotel, where he found Himandi already at a table, waiting for him. Bleys sat down, and they ordered.
“I understand you had a small accident with one of the walls of your suite last night,” said Himandi, after the morning greetings had been exchanged.
“Yes,” replied Bleys in a perfectly level voice, “I had a small accident with one of the walls in my suite.”
His eyes were directly upon Himandi’s as he spoke; and he continued to hold them there after he finished speaking. Himandi looked away.
“Well, of course,” he said, “the local organization wants you comfortable while you’re here. If you have any problems, just get in touch with me.”
“I don’t expect problems,” answered Bleys.
Himandi fished in his pockets and came up with two self-adhering badges, which he passed over the table to Bleys.
“One for the lower house, one for the upper,” he said. “The minute you step in the front door of the building that encloses both of them, directories will show you the way to either one of the visitors’ galleries.”
“Thank you,” said Bleys.
He put the badges away in his own pocket. They talked about the weather and various minor matters. Once or twice Himandi ventured to veer in the direction of the business part of Bleys’ visit. But Bleys was apparently deaf to any such things. He went on talking of inconsequential subjects.
Himandi finally saw him off in an autocar which took him directly to the Government building.
As Himandi had said, once he reached the building that held the two parts of the legislature, Bleys had no trouble finding his way to both the visitors’ galleries. The building was open, pleasant and well lit; and directions were frequent and explicit, on plaques on the wall.
He spent a relatively small amount of time in the gallery of the lower house, which was perhaps a quarter filled, with a debate of some kind going on. In the visitors’ gallery of the upper house he spent a little bit more time. This particular chamber was almost empty. Only four or five people occupied seats at the individual desks on its floor, listening to one man on his feet, who was making a speech; apparently as much for the record as for those listening. After a while, Bleys left this gallery too and went out to find a phone.
He called Himandi, and found him at his office.
“I’d like to talk to Director Albert Chin,” Bleys said. “He’s one of your clients. Can you arrange for me to see him for perhaps fifteen minutes, right now?”
“If he’s in his office,” said Himandi, “I can try. Do you want to call me back in about half an hour? There’s a very good restaurant on the ground floor. You might want to go down there and put in the time having something to drink.”
“Yes,” said Bleys. “Call me there. I’ll leave word when I go in that I’m expecting a phone call.”
He broke the connection and went down to find the restaurant. As Himandi had said it was both a pleasant and a comfortable restaurant. He ordered the same ginger ale he had ordered after getting off the spaceship from Freiland, and sat with it, examining what the back of his mind had picked out of the wealth of material he had absorbed yesterday that seemed worthy of attention.
He had counted over forty Directors, as members of the upper house were known—probably in imitation of the Newton Board of Directors—who had been in the files as consulting with Himandi at one time or another.
That was very close to being two-thirds of the total membership of the upper house. He had picked Chin’s name at random from the rest; simply because his appointment with Himandi had been only three weeks before, according to the secret file on Chin. This was time enough for whatever he had consulted about to show some results; and also time enough to raise a further question about the relationship between Chin and Himandi.
The meeting had been briefly labeled “a discussion of investments” and this enigmatic subject had also caught at Bleys’ interest.
He had been sitting there sometime longer than half an hour, perhaps as much as forty-five minutes, when a speaker on his table came to life.
“Bleys Ahrens?” said the voice from the table speaker. “There’s a call for you. You can take it at your table if you like, if you’ll just punch the outside phone stud. Bleys Ahrens, have you received this message?”
“I hear you,” said Bleys. He pressed the outside phone stud and spoke into the voice grille of the table.
“This is Bleys Ahrens. Did you want to reach me?”
“Bleys Ahrens,” came back a female voice, “Director Chin will see you right away. Are you in the building?”
“Yes, down in the restaurant,” said Bleys.
“If you’ll come up right away then,” said the voice at the other end.
“I’ll be there immediately,” Bleys said.
Director Albert Chin was indeed close. He turned out to be only several floors up and a short walk down a corridor. Three secretaries, two women and a man, were in his outer office. It was one of the women, in something more like a dark green robe than a dress, but which however fitted her dark hair and aquiline face, who let him into the inner office.
“Bleys Ahrens!” the Director said, rising from behind his desk. He was a tall man, almost as tall as Bleys, and had been good-looking in his own way at one time. But a certain amount of extra weight had softened the line of his jaw and produced a slight potbelly. He was possibly in his mid-forties.
“Yes indeed, Director,” said Bleys, coming up to the desk. They clasped hands and the Director immediately sat down, motioning Bleys to an armchair float opposite.
“I understand you’re something of a traveling inspector for your organization,” said Albert Chin. “Himandi mentioned you’d probably only want a word or two with me.”
“That’s right,” said Bleys. “Himandi’s Vice-Chairman of the branch of the organization here, as you know. I’m Senior Vice-Chairman for all our organization. I wanted to talk to one of his clients, simply to round out the picture before I leave.”
“You’re leaving so soon then?” asked Chin.
“Yes, at the end of the week,” said Bleys. “I go next to Ste. Marie.”
“I see,” said Chin. “Now, what can I tell you?”
“First I wanted your confirmation that you’re one of the personal clients of Himandi,” Bleys said.
“Yes,” said Chin. He smiled a little, “as a matter of fact I wouldn’t feel satisfied, dealing with anyone but the top member of your organization. You understand. After all, R.H.I.P. Rank Has Its Privileges, Bleys Ahrens. As you undoubtedly know.” Bleys nodded.
“I take it you’re quite happy with him, then?” said Bleys.
“Absolutely. In fact,” said Chin, “Himandi’s become something of an old friend. I’d be tempted to stick with him, even if for some reason he ceased to be the ranking member of your organization, here.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” said Bleys. “That’s the sort of thing I’ll be reporting on to our Chairman when I get back to our headquarters. Let’s see now, you see Himandi fairly frequently then?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say frequently,” answered Chin. “Several times a year.”
“And I think the last time the two of you talked was the twenty-fourth of last month?”
“Was it? I don’t always remember these things offhand,” said Chin, “I could have one of the secretaries look it up—oh yes, I remember—it was just when we were passing Bill K410 of this season.”
“And you haven’t seen him since?”
“Since?” There was surprise and a little touch of defensiveness in Chin’s voice. But then he smiled and his voice was easy again. “No. No, I’m sure about that.”
Bleys stood up. Behind the desk Chin rose also.
“Well, I’m happy to have had a chance to talk to you on such short notice,” said Bleys. “It was very good of you to make time for me.”
“Not at all, not at all,” said Chin. “Your organization—well, that is, Himandi, at least—certainly fills a useful purpose as far as I’m concerned.”
They clasped hands again and Bleys went out; Chin reseating himself behind Bleys before he had completely left the room and becoming engrossed in some papers on his desk.
Bleys closed the door to Chin’s private office behind him and nodded at the secretaries as he left. He went downstairs again and called for an autocar. As he stepped into it, he phoned Himandi’s office. Himandi himself answered the phone.
“I had a very pleasant talk with Director Albert Chin,” Bleys said into his phone as the cab was taking him toward Himandi’s office. “I’m on my way over to see you now.”
“Now? Right now?” said Himandi.
“Yes. Why?” asked Bleys. “Is there any reason I can’t talk to you now?”
“No, no, not at all,” said Himandi, “in fact why don’t I meet you at the door and we’ll take your autocar on to someplace where we can have lunch?”
“Excellent,” said Bleys, and broke the connection.
They ended up at a two-person table in a small, but very comfortable, restaurant that reminded Bleys of the ones that Dahno had used to take him to on Bleys’ visits to Ecumeny. Bleys opened the conversation.
“I don’t suppose,” he said to Himandi, once their drinks had been placed before them, “you’ve ever thought of doing a survey to find out how many Others there are on Cassida?”
Himandi looked startled.
“There aren’t any Others outside of those in our organization,” he said.
“No, no, you’ve got to think beyond that,” said Bleys gently. “Where do you draw your local trainees from?”
“Why, from the local mixed-breeds—” Himandi’s eyes had just narrowed. “You mean I should consider anyone who’s a genetic mix from Splinter Cultures, from the Dorsai, the Exotics or the Friendlies—as an Other?”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” said Bleys. “You have to look into the future of the organization. I suggest you do a survey and note any mixed-breeds currently on Cassida who fill the qualifications. In the general sense they’re all Others. They just aren’t part of the organization yet.”
“Yet?” Himandi stared at him.
“Yes,” said Bleys, “you’ve got to see that with an organization like ours, we either go up or go down. Either we gain more and more influence; or we reach a point of stasis, from which the only way is down in importance and influence. That way, eventually we disappear. We have to look beyond our present lifetimes, you and I, Himandi.”
“But—” Himandi shrugged, staring. “Why should we look beyond our lifetimes? The upcoming members of the organization can take care of themselves when the time comes. Also, just how far do you expect an organization like we have here on Cassida to grow? How far do you expect all our branches, on all the worlds, to grow?”
“Until they control all the Worlds,” said Bleys.
His eyes were fastened on Himandi; but it was not those that were emphasizing what he was saying. It was his deep-toned, trained voice, which had Himandi focused completely now; and within that focus Bleys thought he should now be able to handle the other man.
“Would you want to stop at less?” he asked. “If you look at it closely, we’re as different from the ordinary run of mankind as another species of Homo sapiens. Potentially—at least. It isn’t a question of our being able to gain control eventually, it’s an inevitability; unless some of us fall by the wayside and don’t keep pushing in that direction. In which case, as I said, we dwindle and disappear.”
“But you’re talking about thousands of mixed-breeds,” said Himandi. “I can’t give you the population of Cassida, offhand, but perhaps as much as half of one per cent of it, maybe even a bit more, could be Others under that definition.”
“Are Others,” Bleys corrected. “Stop and think, Himandi. We’ve gone from where we had no influence to where we are now. Here on Cassida you and your classmates have gone from a handful of unknown men and women to a position of relative influence and authority.”
He paused.
“Otherwise, would you have taken it so easily, having to pay for the repair of a wall in a hotel room? If you can come from zero to this point, why not continue?”
He paused again. He had Himandi’s whole attention now. For the other man the dining room around him had ceased to exist.
“Think of it for a moment, Himandi. The possibility wasn’t mentioned in the early days to trainees; or even to organization heads like yourself on other planets, once you were set up and thriving. But the time’s come now to recognize a goal. We’re inevitably going to end up leading the rest of the human race, as an elite. We’ve been bound from the start to rise to the top, as cream rises in milk. And now it’s time for at least our senior members to see and understand this. You can see and understand it, now that I’ve mentioned it, can’t you?”
He stopped and waited.
Himandi sat where he was, not moving, not even picking up his glass. Finally he sighed.
“You’re right,” he said, “it’s been inevitable from the start.”
“Exactly,” said Bleys. “Now that you use it you’ve got to begin to operate on it, as a basis, starting with a survey and census of the Others on this world; who don’t yet recognize themselves as Others, except for perhaps feeling alone and apart from the general run of humanity. You do follow me?”
Himandi picked up his glass and drank deeply of it.
“Yes. Yes,” he said, “I see it now, very clearly.”
“It’ll mean a change in the organization itself, to handle and employ many more individuals; and to do that there’ll have to be changes in the organization structure. I won’t give you any suggestions or directions about what you might do here, outside of taking that survey, but you ought to be thinking of how you’d handle an organization of thousands.”
“I will,” said Himandi, “beginning now.”
“Good,” said Bleys, “that’s why I’m going to see if I can plead your case with Dahno, to let you stay in charge, here.”
CHAPTER
26
IT TOOK A moment for the shock of what Bleys had just said to bring Himandi out of the state of light hypnosis into which Bleys had led him; and make him realize what Bleys’ words had implied.
“I—don’t understand,” he said.
“You’re an excellent manager,” said Bleys, “and as far as I can see you’ve done many things right here, considering the conditions with which you had to work. I thought at first that you might have some personal ambition or interest in corralling all the Directors of the upper house as your personal clients—”
“No, no,” began Himandi. “You don’t understand how it is—”
Bleys smiled and held up a hand to stop him.
“Then I found out today,” he went on, “that as the situation exists, the members of that group would almost require to be handled by the head of our organization with his or her personal attention. On the other hand, you’ve made some classic mistakes. However, I’m beginning to think that I’ll find these same mistakes made by nearly all the heads of all our out-world suborganizations. It’s possible to tell a lot from the files you made accessible to me, cross-connecting information from one file to another and from one situation to another. For one thing, when was the last time you had a meeting with Albert Chin?”
“Why—I don’t know offhand,” Himandi said. “It’ll be in the files—”
“What’s in the files is the date of the twenty-fourth of last month. You haven’t met with him at least once since then?”
“What gives you the idea I might have?” asked Himandi, “I’m sure—”
“Himandi,” interrupted Bleys gently, “remember what I was just talking about? I’ll do what I can to persuade Dahno to keep you here in your present position; but beginning right now you’ll have to tell me the truth. Also, make available to me the things you’ve had hidden. Now, again—when was the last time you saw Albert Chin?”
“A week ago, Wednesday,” said Himandi, looking down at his plate.
“Exactly,” said Bleys. “I’m glad you decided against any more evasions and false answers. Now, that last meeting didn’t happen to have to do with some kind of payment to you personally, did it? Let’s say, some kind of gift to you personally?”
“It was in the way of a…retainer,” said Himandi, still looking down at his plate. “I get it quarterly from everyone in the upper house who’s a client.”
“I thought so,” said Bleys. “It brought up the immediate question of whether you were merely trying to line your pockets, or what kind of use you had for this income. However, after studying the available files, I’m sure that you weren’t thinking of making yourself rich. What you wanted was to set up a fund that nobody would know about; against any sudden emergency, such as finding yourself cut off permanently from Dahno and with the ultimate control of the organization in your hands only. Am I right?”
Himandi looked at him, lifting his eyes from the plate and the table with a surprised look on his face.
“How did you guess that?” he asked.
“I didn’t guess it,” said Bleys. “For someone who’s able to study and understand the files you let me see, it was obvious your heart and soul were in the organization here. But you were operating it defensively; and that’s not the way it’ll need to be handled from now on.”
