The Shield of Time

X

She stood silent for a little while. The sun, not yet visible, touched the heights of the Center with rose and gold and filled the street with light. Traffic had not increased much; the residents of an area like this seldom needed to get up early. Here there was no gut-growl of megalopolis, like that which never ended in the slums. Rather, the city sounds were like a gentle great breathing. Against that background, Vivienne made him think of a dark angel prowling just beyond the walls of that paradise which had cast her out.

“Where?” she asked. “Upstate, Zigger’s place?”

“God, I don’t know. I hate to…do nothing but run away. We need help.”

Her laugh was sarcastic. “Who’s going to give it?” She caught his hand. “Come on, Pete! MS’ll trace that call. They’ll have somebody here inside of minutes.”

“I told them I was going to them.”

“They’ll check here on principle. Come on!”

Light flared off a window in the immense building opposite. Koskinen blinked. It was as if the sun itself had flashed him a signal. “Yes!” he almost shouted.

“What?” Wide eyes, gold-flecked brown, searched his face. “You thought of something?”

“Uh-huh.” He started walking rapidly toward the taxi stand.

The cabs were new and shiny here, the drivers unarmed. “That line doesn’t enter the slums,” Vivienne warned.

“We’re not going to the slums.”

“Hacks can be dangerous, Pete. They receive all public announcements. As soon as MS broadcasts an alarm for us, the cabbies will see it. Ours might very well remember us—”

“We haven’t much choice, I’m afraid. The tubeways are too slow, if MS should decide to go directly after us. And they can be stopped, can’t they? I don’t want to sit trapped in a tunnel, waiting for a squad to investigate my coach.”

Her mind sprang ahead of him. “We want to go somewhere top-level, right?” she asked. He nodded. “Okay,” she said, “I’ll take a chance that you know what you’re doing, because there isn’t tune to argue. But let’s act typical rather than unusual. We can pretty well conceal our faces, too. Then I don’t think we will be remembered. Here, give me that generator.” She took it easily in one hand. “I’d likelier carry a piece of apparatus than you. I’m a girl you picked up while slumming, you see, just after I’d gotten off work. Lord knows I look it, in this outfit. And you still look fairly respectable; that dark suit you’re wearing doesn’t show how dirty you really are.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, bewildered.

The sky was now so bright that he could see her flush. But she said in an impersonal hurry, “We’ve been touring the low-level taverns tonight.” At his continued gaping: “Look, you fool, you’re the wastrel son of a multi-billionaire. There are enough of that breed around! Play the part…oh, hell, you poor bumbling innocent, follow my lead.”

They neared the taxis. Koskinen’s mind boggled when Vivienne’s free hand traveled up his back, ruffled his hair, and pulled his mouth down to hers. But it made clear what her idea was.

Still nuzzling each other—even at that instant he could admire the skill with which she confronted the cabman with the back of her own head and the mere top of his—they halted. The driver chuckled and pressed the door button.

The woman shoved the generator into the rear and climbed after it. “Really, Tom, I’ve got to get back to work,” she whined. “The boss’ll skin me alive as is, because I didn’t deliver this test rig to his place yesterday like I was supposed to.”

Koskinen couldn’t think of any response. Her fingers pinched him savagely. “Oh!” He entered behind her. “Uh, don’t, don’t worry about that, uh, sweetheart. I’ll see to it that he’s, uh, satisfied.”

“Gee, it must be nice to have money,” she purred. The door closed behind him. The driver punched for top speed, uppermost Controlled level, and the surge pressed his passengers yet closer together.

He gave her a clumsy bear hug. “Oof,” she whispered. “Easy, there, bruiser.” His nostrils filled with the warm odors of her, hair that smelled like sunshine and skin like—he had no comparisons. The heart racketed in him and he must force breath past the fullness hi his throat.

From the corner of an eye, without much interest, Koskinen glimpsed the rising sun. In that light megalopolis became a romantic, tower-pierced mist-land, where the two rivers and Long Island Sound lay like molten silver. There were not many other cars to be seen. The taxi fled eastward, faster than he wished. Before long the city gave way to gardenscape rolling back from wide beaches, only an occasional Center breaking its serenity. When this area was rebuilt, none but the wealthiest could afford to live there, and they did not let industry return.

The bulk of Centralia marched over the horizon. “What flange, sir?” asked the driver. He had to repeat himself twice before Koskinen heard, checked his memory, and stammered, “T-T twenty-third. West side, that is.”

“Very good, sir.” The driver called ahead for permission from the chief of guard. It was granted without fuss; taxis came here often enough. He slanted his vehicle downward, touched wheels to flexiplast, and let the machine proceed under ground guidance to a disembarkation ramp.

Vivienne had already slipped money into Koskinen’s pocket. “Give him a fat tip,” she breathed tenderly in his ear. Still dazed, aware mostly of her, he nodded. “Oh, my,” she laughed, “I must look like a perfect mutie.”

“You look beautiful,” he faltered.

She took the generator and went out. He paid off the cabman, who winked and muttered, “You’re a lucky one today, aren’t you?” his eyes on Vivienne’s provocatively retreating back rather than Koskinen’s undistinguished face. The taxi threaded its way among the several private cars parked on the flange, bounced aloft, and headed toward Manhattan.

Koskinen followed the woman up the ramp to a terrace. There brooklets tinkled through beds of moss and banks of rosebushes, wet with dew. Vivienne had paused beneath the pale red fire of a flowering plum tree. She was looking across the gardens below, to the dazzling beach and breakers, water that glittered green and gulls that wheeled snow-colored in the wind.

He ventured to lay an arm around her waist. She sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I’d almost forgotten how lovely Earth can be,” she murmured.

“I’ve just started to learn…from you,” he surprised himself by answering.

She chuckled. “You learn pretty quick, Pete, I must say.”

A footfall scrunched on gravel. They turned, instantly alert. There had been no attendants on the landing flange, but the man in the control tower had evidently noticed strangers getting off and suggested that the guards check on them. The man who neared wore no uniform—in this stratum of society there was no need for ostentation—and he walked leisurely, with a smile on his mouth. But Koskinen recognized trained muscles when he saw them in motion; and there was a minicom on the wrist.

“Good morning, sir,” he hailed. “Can I be of service?”

“Yes,” Koskinen said. “I’d like to see Mr. Abrams.”

“Sir?” The guard raised skeptical brows.

“My name is Koskinen. I was a shipmate of David Abrams, and I’ve got some news that will interest his father.”

Professional calm broke in an oath not quite suppressed. “Of course, Mr. Koskinen! Right away! He’s still asleep, I think, but—Follow me, please.”

Koskinen took the generator from Vivienne and slung it on his shoulder by one strap. She tugged at his hand, holding him back, as the guard started away. He saw the tension in her, and realized with a sudden hollowness that she had stopped thinking about the taxi ride.

“What’s going on, Pete?” she whispered unsteadily. “I’ve heard of Nathan Abrams. Isn’t he a big man in General Atomics? What are you coming to him for?”

“Don’t you remember that MS has got his son incommunicado? I think he’ll be more than glad to help us. We have a common cause.”

“You idiot!” she exploded under her breath. “Don’t you think MS knows that too?”

“Oh, yes. Doubtless they’ve had him under surveillance. It was a risk coming here. But not too big a risk. They can’t watch everything, especially right now when their hands must be full cleaning out the Chinese organization that tipped its hand at the Crater. Because we did escape, you see, and so the Chinese couldn’t have made a fast getaway of their own, they must have lost time searching that warren for us, and that would have given MS time to learn about the affair and intervene. Only MS would’ve had to pull in every local agent, I should think, on such short notice. I’m quite sure there’s no stakeout here at the moment.”

“Unless MS has agents in the household.”

“I doubt that too. Dave often told me that his father had spent years building up a staff loyal to nun personally. All the big executives do. It’s necessary, in this wolf kennel world we’ve got.”

“M-m…well…the fact that we haven’t yet been nabbed does seem to bear out your reasoning.” She looked at him so searchingly that his own eyes must drop. “Good work. A professional couldn’t have thought faster on his feet. You know, kid, you catch on to things so quickly that it scares me. But come on, the guard’s waiting for us.”

They were conducted through a sliding vitryl door into the building. A fountain splashed twenty feet high in the middle of the solarium beyond. Koskinen saw that its starkly beautiful basin had been fashioned from a spaceship’s meteorite baffle. The pouring water, the brilliant morning light, the smell of lilies growing in beds on the flagged floor, brought the whole great room alive. But his attention focused on the man who hurried to meet them.

It was not the elder Abrams, but a stocky, grizzled person, dressed in a plain blue zipsuit, whom the guard addressed deferentially. After a moment’s conference, the newcomer dismissed the other man and approached. His face was older than his athletic gait, with skin drawn tight over broad cheekbones and beaky nose but deeply lined around mouth and eyes. Koskinen had seldom met so intense a gaze. The handclasp was hard. He introduced himself and Vivienne.

“I’m Jan Trembecki, Mr. Abrams’s confidential secretary. He’ll be along in a few minutes. Won’t you sit down?” The English was fluent but accented.

“Thanks.” Koskinen began to realize how tired he was. He nearly fell into a lounger and let it mold itself to hips and ribs. Vivienne lowered herself more gracefully, but shivering with exhaustion. Trembecki considered them. “How about some breakfast?” he asked, punched an intercom button and spoke an order.

Returning, he offered cigarettes. Vivienne accepted, drawing the smoke far into her lungs and letting it out as if reluctantly. Trembecki sat on the edge of a lounger and puffed his own cigarette in short ferocious drags.

“I take it you escaped from MS,” he said. When Koskinen nodded; “Well, we may be able to hide you—or we may not—but let’s be blunt. Why should we? We’ve got troubles enough.”

“I may have help for you,” Koskinen answered. He pointed to the generator. “That’s the reason for this whole mess.”

“Ah, so.” Trembecki grew altogether expressionless. “We’ve had some inklings of that, from our own efforts to investigate.”

“Do you think Dave is…all right?”

“I don’t expect anything permanently damaging has been done to him. Doubtless he’s been Pl’d, but if he doesn’t have any special knowledge—does he?” The question spat like a bullet. Koskinen started before he shook his head. “Good. In that case, Dave is mainly a sort of hostage. Therefore he has to be preserved intact. To be sure, that ties our own hands quite a bit.”

“What have you been trying to do? Couldn’t you—Mr. Abrams should be able to, oh, even get the President’s ear.”

“He will, in due course. That takes time, though, no matter how prominent one is. Especially since the President’s staff can find ways to stall if they’re put to it. And they no doubt have been. Every government employee is terrified of MS; a bad report can cost you your job, or worse, in Washington.”

“But the President himself—”

“Yes, we’re lucky there. He’s a libertarian by conviction. However, he’s responsible for the security of the United States, which nowadays means the stability of the Protectorate. MS is indispensable to that. So Marcus can get away with almost anything.”

“But the President can fire Marcus!”

“Things aren’t that simple, my friend. You have to respect the integrity of a government organization, or you’ll soon have no government whatsoever. Furthermore, every leader has to make compromises; otherwise he’d set everybody against him and get nothing accomplished. Read some history. Consider how Lincoln had to put up with all the foolishness in his Cabinet, not to mention a fantastic series of leatherheaded commanding generals. Or the uneasy balance between Stalinists and anti-Stalinists in the old Soviet Union. Or—never mind. It boils down to the fact that the President can’t fire Marcus unless extreme wrongdoing can be proven, and can’t countermand any orders given MS unless he and Congress are convinced the orders were utterly mistaken.”

“Maybe we can convince him,” Koskinen said.

“Maybe. Hard to do through legal, public channels, though. And if we commit illegalities ourselves—like sheltering a fugitive from, shall we say, justice—we compromise our case rather badly.”

Koskinen let his muscles slump. For a while only the fountain spoke.

“Ah, refreshments.”

Koskinen opened his eyes with a shocked realization that he had been asleep. A servitor halted and uncovered its table. Koskinen looked at coffee, orange juice, French rolls, butter, cheese, caviar, an iced bottle of Vodka. Trembecki handed nun and Vivienne a couple of stimpills. “Better take these first,” he suggested. “You’ll enjoy the food more.”

“Also,” Vivienne said grimly, “we’ll need our brains in good shape.”

They had hardly begun when two figures appeared in the inner entrance. Trembecki rose. “Sorry to postpone your breakfast,” he said, “but here’s the boss.”