Day After Tomorrow

V

She was saying, “Because people get conditioned, like, to words. Like revolution. Everybody is against the word because they all think of killing and everything, and Daddy says that there doesn’t have to be any shooting or killing or anything like that at all. It just means a fundamental change in society. And, Daddy says, take the word propaganda. Everybody’s got to thinking that it automatically means lies, but it doesn’t at all. It just means, like, the arguments you use to convince people that what you stand for is right and it might be lies or not. And, Daddy says, take the word socialism. So many people have the wrong idea of what it means that the socialists ought to scrap the word and start using something else to mean what they stand for.”

Larry said gently, “Your father is a socialist?”

“Oh, no.”

He nodded in understanding. “Oh, a Communist, eh?”

Susan Self was indignant. “Daddy thinks the Communists are strictly awful, really weird.”

Steve Hackett came back into the office, obviously less than happy. He said to Larry, “I sent a couple of the boys out to pick him up in a jet-helio.”

Susan was on her feet, a hand to mouth. “You mean my father! You’re going to arrest him!”

Larry said soothingly. “Sit down, Zusanette. There’s a lot of things about this that I’m sure your father can explain.” He said to Steve, “She tells me that the money belonged to a Movement. A revolutionary Movement which doesn’t use the term revolutionary because people react unfavorably to that word. It’s not Commie.”

Susan said indignantly, “It’s American, not anything foreign!”

Steve growled. “Let’s get back to the money. What’s this movement doing with a lot of counterfeit bills and where did you find them?”

She evidently figured she’d gone too far now to make a stand. “It’s not Daddy’s fault,” she told them. “He took me to headquarters twice.”

“Where’s headquarters?” Larry said, trying to keep his voice soothing. They were going to wind this up and he could get back to his vacation before the day was out.

She frowned. “Well, I don’t know, really. Daddy was awfully silly about it. He tied his handkerchief around my eyes near the end. But the others complained about me anyway, and Daddy got awfully mad and said something about the young people of the country participating in their emancipation and all, but the others got mad too and said there wasn’t any kind of help I could do around headquarters anyway, and I’d be better off in school. Everybody got awfully mad, but after the second time Daddy promised not to take me to headquarters any more.”

“And where did you find the money, Zusanette?” Larry said.

“At headquarters. There’s tons and tons of it there.”

Larry cleared his throat and said, “When you say tons and tons, you mean a great deal of it, eh?”

She was proudly defiant. “I mean tons and tons. A ton is two thousand pounds.”

“Now look, Zusanette,” Larry said reasonably. “I don’t know exactly how much money weighs, not exactly, but let’s say a pound would be, say, a thousand bills.” He took a pencil up from the desk and scribbled on a pad before him. “A pound of fifties would be $50,000. Then if you multiplied that by 2,000 pounds to make a ton, you’d have $100,000,000. And you say there’s tons and tons?”

“And that’s just the fifties,” Susan said triumphantly. “So you can see the two little packages I picked up aren’t really important at all. It’s just like I found them.”

“I don’t think there’d be anything like a thousand bills in a pound,” Steve said weakly.

Larry said, “How much other money is there? I mean besides the fifties?”

“Oh, piles. Whole rooms. Rooms after rooms. And hundred dollar bills, and twenties, and fives and tens.”

Larry said, “Look Zusanette, everything makes it obvious that you are in no position to be telling us whoppers. This whole story doesn’t make sense, does it?”

Her mouth tightened. “I’m not going to say anything more until Daddy gets here anyway,” she said.

Which was when the phone rang.

The screen lit up and LaVerne Polk said, “There’s a call for Steve Hackett, Larry.”

Larry pushed the phone screen around so that Steve could look into it. LaVerne was faded off and was replaced by a stranger in uniform. Steve said, “Yeah?”

“Flown the coop, sir. Must have got out just minutes before we arrived. Couldn’t have taken more than a suitcase. Few papers scattered around the room he used for an office. By the looks of things he was ready to take off just any time at all.”

Susan gasped. “You mean Daddy?”

Steve Hackett rubbed a hand over his flattened nose. “Holy smokes,” he said. He thanked the cop and flicked off.

Larry said, “Look Zusanette, everything’s going to be all right. Nothing is going to happen to you. You say you managed to pick up two packets of all this money they have at headquarters. Okay. So you thought it wouldn’t be missed and you thought it was real money, and you’ve always wanted to spend money the way you see the stars do on Tri-Di and in the movies.”

She looked at him, taken aback. “How did you know?”

Larry said dryly, “I’ve always wanted to myself. But I would like to know one more thing. The Movement. What was it going to do with all this money?”

That evidently puzzled her. “The Professor says they were going to spend it on chorus girls. I guess… I guess he was joking or something. But Daddy and I’d just been up to New York and we saw those famous precision dancers at the New Roxy Theatre and all and then when we got back the Professor and Daddy were talking and I heard him say it.”

Steve said carefully, “Professor who?”

Susan said, “Just the Professor. That’s all we ever call him.” Her chin went to trembling again.