Master of Life and Death

VI

The late Director FitzMaugham’s files were spread over four floors of the building, but for Walton’s purposes the only ones that mattered were those to which access was gained through the director’s office alone.

A keyboard and screen were set into the wall to the left of the desk. Walton let his fingers rest lightly on the gleaming keys.

The main problem facing him, he thought, lay in not knowing where to begin. Despite his careful agenda, despite the necessary marshaling of his thoughts, he was still confused by the enormity of his job. The seven billion people of the world were in his hands. He could transfer fifty thousand New Yorkers to the bleaknorthern provinces of underpopulated Canada with the same quick ease that he had shifted five unsuspecting doctors half an hour before.

After a few moments of uneasy thought he pecked out the short message, Request complete data file on terraforming project.

On the screen appeared the words, Acknowledged and coded; prepare to receive.

The arrival bin thrummed with activity. Walton hastily scooped out a double handful of typed sheets to make room for more. He grinned in anguish as the paper kept on coming. FitzMaugham’s files on terraforming, no doubt, covered reams and reams.

Staggering, he carted it all over to his desk and began to skim through it. The data began thirty years earlier, in 2202, with a photostat of a letter from Dr. Herbert Lang to FitzMaugham, proposing a project whereby the inner planets of the solar system could be made habitable by human beings.

Appended to that was FitzMaugham’s skeptical, slightly mocking reply; the old man had kept everything, it seemed, even letters which showed him in a bad light.

After that came more letters from Lang, urging FitzMaugham to plead terraforming’s case before the United States Senate, and FitzMaugham’s increasingly more enthusiastic answers. Finally, in 2212, a notation that the Senate had voted a million-dollar appropriation to Lang— a minuscule amount, in terms of the overall need, but it was enough to cover preliminary research. Lang had been grateful.

Walton skimmed through more-or-less familiar documents on the nature of the terraforming project. He could study those in detail later, if time permitted. What he wanted now was information on the current status of the project; FitzMaugham had been remarkably silent about it, though the public impression had been created that a team of engineers headed by Lang was already at work on Venus.

He shoved whole handfuls of letters to one side, looking for those of recent date.

Here was one dated 1 Feb 2232, FitzMaugham to Lang: it informed the scientist that passage of the Equalization Act was imminent, and that Lang stood to get a substantial appropriation from the UN in that event. A jubilant reply from Lang was attached.

Following that came another, 10 May 2232, FitzMaugham to Lang: official authorization of Lang as an executive member of Popeek, and appropriation of— Walton’s eyes bugged—five billion dollars for terraforming research.

Note from Lang to FitzMaugham, 14 May: the terraforming crew was leaving for Venus immediately.

Note from FitzMaugham to Lang, 16 May: best wishes, and Lang was instructed to contact FitzMaugham without fail at weekly intervals.

Spacegram from Lang to FitzMaugham, 28 May; arrived at Venus safely, preparing operation as scheduled.

The file ended there. Walton rummaged through the huge heap, hoping to discover a later communique; by FitzMaugham’s own request, Lang should have contacted Popeek about four days ago with his first report.

Possibly it had gone astray in delivery, Walton thought. He spent twenty minutes digging through the assorted material before remembering that he could get a replacement within seconds from the filing computer.

He typed out a requisition for any and all correspondence between Director FitzMaugham and Dr. Herbert Lang that was dated after 28 May 2232.

The machine acknowledged, and a moment later replied, This material is not included in memory banks.

Walton frowned, gathered up most of his superfluous terraforming data, and deposited it in a file drawer. The status of the project, then, was uncertain: the terraformers were on Venus and presumably at work, but were yet to be heard from.

The next Popeek project to tack down would be the faster-than-light spaceship drive. But after the mass of data Walton had just absorbed, he found himself hesitant to wade through another collection so soon.

He realized that he was hungry for the sight of another human being. He had spent the whole morning alone, speaking to anonymous underlings via screen or annunciator, and requisitioning material from an even more impersonal computer. He wanted noise, life, people around him.

He snapped on the annunciator. “I’m calling an immediate meeting of the Popeek section chiefs,” he said. “In my office, in half an hour—at 1230 sharp. Tell them to drop whatever they’re doing and come.”

Just before they started to arrive, Walton felt a sudden sick wave of tension sweep dizzyingly over him. He pulled open the top drawer of his new desk and reached for his tranquilizer tablets. He suffered a moment of shock and disorientation before he realized that this was FitzMaugham’s desk, not his own, and that FitzMaugham forswore all forms of sedation.

Chuckling nervously, Walton drew out his wallet and extracted the extra benzolurethrin he carried for just such emergencies. He popped the lozenge into his mouth only a moment before the spare figure of Lee Percy, first of the section chiefs to arrive, appeared in the screener outside the door.

“Roy? It’s me—Percy.”

“I can see you. Come on in, Lee.”

Percy was in charge of public relations for Popeek. He was a tall, angular man with thick corrugated features.

After him came Teddy Schaunhaft, clinic coordinator; Pauline Medhurst, personnel director; Olaf Eglin, director of field agents; and Sue Llewellyn, Popeek’s comptroller.

These five had constituted the central council of Popeek. Walton, as assistant administrator, had served as their coordinator, as well as handling population transfer and serving as a funnel for red tape. Above them all had been FitzMaugham, brooding over his charges like an untroubled Wotan; FitzMaugham had reserved for himself, aside from the task of general supervision, the special duties attendant on handling the terraforming and faster-than-light wings of Popeek.

“I should have called you together much earlier than this,” Walton said when they were settled. “The shock, though, and the general confusion—”

“We understand, Roy,” said Sue Llewellyn sympathetically. She was a chubby little “woman in her fifties, whose private life was reported to be incredibly at variance with her pleasantly domestic appearance. ”It’s been rough on all of us, but you were so close to Mr. FitzMaugham…“

There was sympathetic clucking from various corners of the room. Walton said, “The period of mourning will have to be a brief one. What I’m suggesting is that business continue as usual, without a hitch.” He glanced at Eglin, the director of field agents. “Olaf, is there a man in your section capable of handling your job?”

Eglin looked astonished for a moment, then mastered himself. “There must be five, at least. Walters, Lassen, Dominic—”

“Skip the catalogue,” Walton told him. “Pick the man you think is best suited to replace you, and send his dossier up to me for approval.”

“And where do I go?”

“You take over my slot as assistant administrator. As director of field agents, you’re more familiar with the immediate problems of my old job than anyone else here.”

Eglin preened himself smugly. Walton wondered if he had made an unwise choice; Eglin was competent enough, and would give forth one hundred percent effort at all times—but probably never the one hundred two percent a really great administrator could put out when necessary.

Still, the post had to be filled at once, and Eglin could pick up the reins faster than any of the others,.

Walton looked around. “Otherwise, activities of Popeek will continue as under Mr. FitzMaugham, without a hitch. Any questions?”

Lee Percy raised an arm slowly. “Roy, I’ve got a problem I’d like to bring up here, as long as we’re all together. There’s a growing public sentiment that you and the late director were secretly Herschelites.” He chuckled apologetically. “I know it sounds silly, but I just report what I hear.”

“I’m familiar with the rumor,” Walton said. “And I don’t like it much, either. That’s the sort of stuff riots are made of.” The Herschelites were extremists who advocated wholesale sterilization of defectives, mandatory birth control, and half a dozen other stringent remedies for overpopulation.

“What steps are you taking to counteract it?” Walton asked.

“Well,” said Percy, “we’re preparing a memorial program for FitzMaugham which will intimate that he was murdered by the Hershelites, who hated him.”

“Good. What’s the slant?”

“That he was too easygoing, too humane. We build up the Herschelites as ultrareactionaries who intend to enforce their will on humanity if they get the chance, and imply FitzMaugham was fighting them tooth and nail. We close the show with some shots of you picking up the great man’s mantle, etcetera, etcetera. And a short speech from you affirming the basically humanitarian aims of Popeek.”

Walton smiled approvingly and said, “I like it. When do you want me to do the speech?”

“We won’t need you,” Percy told him. “We’ve got plenty of stock footage, and we can whip the speech out of some spare syllables you left around.”

Walton frowned. Too many of the public speeches of the day were synthetic, created by skilled engineers who split words into their component phonemes and reassembled them in any shape they pleased. “Let me check through my speech before you put it over, at least.”

“Will do. And we’ll squash this Herschelite thing right off the bat.”

Pauline Medhurst squirmed uneasily in her chair. Walton caught the hint and recognized her.

“Uh, Roy, I don’t know if this is the time or the place, but I got that transfer order of yours, the five doctors…”

“You did? Good,” Walton said hurriedly. “Have you notified them yet?”

“Yes. They seemed unhappy about it.”

“Refer them to FitzMaugham’s book. Tell them they’re cogs in a mighty machine, working to save humanity. We can’t let personal considerations interfere, Pauline.”

“If you could only explain why—”

“Yeah,” interjected Schaunhaft, the clinic coordinator suddenly. “You cleaned out my whole morning lab shift down there. I was wondering—”

Walton felt like a stag at bay. “Look,” he said firmly, cutting through the hubbub, “ I made the transfer. I had reasons for doing it. It’s your job to get the five men out where they’ve been assigned, and to get five new men in here at once. You’re not required to make explanations to them—nor I to you.”

Sudden silence fell over the office. Walton hoped he had not been too forceful, and cast suspicion on his actions by his stiffness.

“Whew!” Sue Llewellyn said. “You really mean business!”

“I said we were going to run Popeek without a hitch,” Walton replied. “Just because you know my first name, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be as strong a director as FitzMaugham was.”

Until the UN picks my successor, his mind added. Out loud he said, “Unless you have any further questions, I’ll ask you now to return to your respective sections.”

He sat slumped at his desk after they were gone, trying to draw on some inner reserve of energy for the strength to go on.

One day at the job, and he was tired, terribly tired. And it would be six weeks or more before the United Nations convened to choose the next director of Popeek.

He didn’t know who that man would be. He expected they would offer the job to him, provided he did competent work during the interim; but, wearily, he saw he would have to turn the offer down.

It was not only that his nerves couldn’t handle the grinding daily tension of the job; he saw now what Fred might be up to, and it stung.

What if his brother were to hold off exposing him until the moment the UN proffered its appointment…and then took that moment to reveal that the head of Popeek, far from being an iron-minded Herschelite, had actually been guilty of an irregularity that transgressed against one of Popeek’s own operations? He’d be finished. He’d be laughed out of public life for good—and probably prosecuted in the bargain—if Fred exposed him.

And Fred was perfectly capable of doing just that.

Walton saw himself spinning dizzily between conflicting alternatives. Keep the job and face his brother’s expose? Or resign, and vanish into anonymity? Neither choice seemed too appealing.

Shrugging, he dragged himself out of his chair, determined to shroud his conflict behind the mask of work. He typed a request to Files, requisitioning data on the faster-than-light project.

Moments later, the torrent began—rising from somewhere in the depths of the giant computer, rumbling upward through the conveyor system, moving onward toward the twenty-ninth floor and the office of Interim Director Walton.