Kronk

CHAPTER FIVE

The bed looked like a battlefield — as, in some respects, it had been. Gabriel, naked, lay back against the pillow with a smile of satisfaction on his lips and dark rings of exhaustion round his eyes. Camilla had not overstated when she claimed to be in the promiscuous phase.

The last couple of times he had not been able to make it — which was annoying, because he had wanted to.

Camilla, also naked, rested her chin on her hands and gazed through the window at treetops in the late morning sunlight. The energy of the child was astounding. Almost at dawn, when Gabriel was thinking sorrowfully in terms of knock-out drops and/or a blood transfusion, she had risen from the bed of frenzy to round up the animals which had been enjoying a brief interval of discreet freedom in the garden. She had locked them in the cellar, turned the autovac loose on the ground floor, made a life-saving pot of tea, and had then given herself and Gabriel their badly needed anti-hangover shots.

After that, there was more ecstasy. Now, Gabriel was utterly limp; but Camilla still looked fresh enough for another round or two. Fortunately, P 939 prevented her from being aggressive about it.

“I think I shall ask a God Machine,” she said.

Gabriel, whose thoughts — such as they were — had been in various elsewheres, looked at her in bewilderment. “A God Machine? What were we talking about?”

“We weren’t. I was thinking.”

“Then what were you thinking about?”

“P 939. Eustace. Us. The world. People. Responsibility. But mostly P 939.”

“Ah, yes. P 939.”

She grinned. “It’s a stone cold, cast iron, twenty-four carat certainty that you have it now, He frowned, shook his head, then smiled. “Yes, then there were two. You got it from Eustace, I suppose?”

“Not in that sense. Actually,” she giggled, “I received it by injection.”

“Is it exactly the same bug the animals have?”

“No, but a close relation. Eustace tailored a breed specially for humans.”

“I see.” Gabriel was silent for a while. “These MicroWar people that Eustace worked for -

surely they know all about it.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Eustace wouldn’t tell them. Palace politics, and all that excreta. Eustace said they’d given him an impossible project as a way of getting him out of the way. So, his sense of humour being what it was, he made a success of the project and wouldn’t tell anybody. He took himself off to the Sussex downs, got his little zoo and lab organized and — as far as MicroWar was concerned — he went into retreat.”

“I like your Eustace.”

“So did I. Sometimes.”

Gabriel thought for a while. He was very tired. Thinking was an effort. Eventually, he arrived at the obvious conclusion. “So it amounts to this: Eustace cooked it, you and I have it, and nobody else knows.”

“Sweetie, that is the state of play. Hence the God Machine. This thing is bigger than both of us.”

Gabriel pulled a face. “I wish my promiscuous phase was coming faster. What happens after that?”

“Eustace didn’t prove it with humans. That is what makes me think the Circle Line gambit was a bit odd. Surely, when he had shot me full of the bug, curiosity would have kept him alive… With lions and suchlike, the prommy phase lasts about ten days. Then comes phase two — compulsive eating. That lasts about a month. After that, hypersensitivity and splendid tranquillity.” She kissed him severally. “I hope you don’t regret the night’s work, darling.

Eustace didn’t say if it was a good thing for book sculpture.”

Gabriel did his best to ignore the kisses. “Are you religious, Camilla?”

“I don’t know. It isn’t something I have ever really paused to consider.”

“Then why the God Machine?”

“Well, one can’t just consult people, can one? An opinion survey wouldn’t work.” She giggled. “Scusa, madam. I represent a new venereal disease which inhibits aggression, and I would be very glad to have your reaction… No, Gabriel. Talk to a stranger about something like this, and pretty soon the procs waft you away on air. Then the grill — T-bone special. Then MicroWar; and in the end Insect Race will probably put you away for life.”

Gabriel considered the prospect gloomily. “I have a friend who says the God Machines are rigged.”

“Rigged for what?”

“Rigged to provide information to interested parties. Romaprot is the largest industrial concern in the western world. It has more data about more people than all the intelligence networks put together. Wouldn’t it be reasonable to sell information that was useful?”

Camilla smiled. “You are forgetting one thing. Millions and millions of people use the God Machines. It would take a vast army just to plough through all those boring secrets. And then it would take thousands of experts to decide what was useful and what wasn’t… No, Gabriel, it couldn’t be done.”

“It could — by computer.”

She was silent for a moment or two. Then she shook her head. “Not on. Too dangerous.

Romaprot’s prosperity is founded on the idea of complete privacy and complete impartiality.

People trust the God Machines. After all, that is how it is supposed to be between us and God.

If Romaprot lost that selling point, nobody would ever go to confession, would they?”

“I still don’t think we should say anything about P 939 to a God Machine.”

“Darling, they are only computers linked to other computers.”

“Then why consult one?”

“Because they know a lot more than we do. Because if you feed them the data, they can predict results that would never occur to us… Do you know if P 939 is basically a good thing or a bad thing?”

“No.”

“Neither do I. But a God Machine will. And then it will tell us what to do about the bug.”

“Let’s compromise. If you insist on consulting a God Machine, don’t give it any information by which we could be traced. Don’t mention MicroWar or research or anything. Just ask it general questions, like what would happen if there was a contagious disease that knocked out aggression.”

“All right, we’ll do it that way. Satisfied?”

“I suppose so… I wish I could think more clearly.”

“Don’t. There really isn’t any hurry about anything.” Camilla yawned and stretched. Then she turned towards Gabriel and began to caress his shoulders. Then she wriggled until she lay on top of him and began to nibble his ear.

Gabriel noted his own reaction with amazement and alarm. “Why don’t we calm down a little and go and have a bath?” he suggested without much hope.