Delicate Ape (14 page)

The first secretary was a rarer edition of the girl at the desk save that her hair was cobalt and her mouth a deeper crimson. She sat in a chair beside Piers. “Mr. Hunt?” She held an envelope. “Mr. Gordon had to leave for Washington. The President summoned him. We tried to locate you but you’d left the hotel. Mr. Gordon asked me to give you this note.” She offered the envelope.

He broke it open and read,

“My dear Piers—

The President sent for me this morning. He also wants to see you. Will you get down here as soon as possible? I’ve asked Miss Maybrick to see about a plane for you. Sorry not to wait but he was urgent and the hotel didn’t know what time you’d return.”

The President must have got on to something. And Gordon was there first. Piers’ eye met Miss Maybrick’s. She might have been reading the note over his shoulder. She said, “I’ve already ordered the plane to stand ready. One of our cars is waiting to take you to the port. Is that satisfactory?”

He put the note back into her hand. “Orders are orders.” He didn’t like flying with an unknown pilot, entering a prepared car, but there was nothing else to do. Gordon had had the head start.

“What time did Mr. Gordon take off?”

“About ten. It was nine-thirty when the President phoned. We called your hotel but your room didn’t answer.”

It was nearing one now. It would be mid-afternoon before he could reach Washington. By then it might be too late. If Gordon had known he was breakfasting with Evanhurst—he didn’t know. He’d left the suite last night before the engagement was made. Cursing fate didn’t change her megrims.

“I’m ready.”

Miss Maybrick said, “Beulah, will you ring the car, please?” Beulah was the creation at the desk. She was frankly puzzled now. “Mr. Hunt will be down at once.”

It couldn’t be that the phony von Eynar letters had been discovered, that this was a plan to get him out of the way; not with Miss Maybrick and Beulah and all the New York branch of the Peace office in on it. He was the only one in the elevator. He asked, “What time does Nick Pulaski come on duty?”

“Six o’clock.” The boy asked after two floors, “Nick a friend of yours?”

They reached the first floor lobby. “I am a friend of his,” Piers said. He paused at the cigar counter, bought two bars of chocolate and a pack of cigarettes, the early editions of the afternoon papers. It would be better not to think on the two-hour run to Washington; certainly it would be discretion to refrain from unnecessary speech with Gordon’s man. It didn’t look as if he’d get any lunch. Lord Evanhurst’s breakfast had fortunately been British-hearty.

The car thrummed at the curb, the International Peace insignia on the door, a small identifying round. Piers asked, “Airport?”

“Yes, sir.” The chauffeur hadn’t a face, only a chauffeur’s mask, but he drove neatly and without time waste to LaGuardia Field. Not until the car stopped did Piers realize how tightly he’d held himself on the drive and how foolish were his fears at this time. Nothing was going to happen to him when he’d been summoned by the President of the United States. The Germans wouldn’t be that hapless.

The pilot of the small cabin plane was American as Cape Cod. Piers settled himself with the papers, peeled a chocolate bar, and was lifted into the sky. The newssheets were on to Fabian at last. There was a photo of him from the first Conclave, dressed in his scarlet robes of state, the towering headgear reducing his face to a small dark blob. The great Fabian, the lines ran, man of mystery, leader of Equatorial Africa, has arrived by private plane from his homeland. There was no mention of where he was putting up.

There was no mention anywhere at all of Anstruther. That in itself was a warning. The State Department and the President must have learned something to substantiate rumor. The men who gave out Peace information to the papers had been muted. There was a bland interview with Brecklein quoting statistical figures of Germany’s production, and the Fatherland’s hope for increased productivity in the “golden era of the coming years.” A Ward and Dunley photo went with the interview. Brecklein’s pictured face was solid, prosperous, safe. No one would take notice of the thin lips, no one who had not faced the stone eyes above that mouth.

Piers put away the papers and ate his second chocolate bar. He remembered Cassidy all at once, half glanced over his shoulder amusedly for sight of a plane pursuing. Certainly Cassidy wouldn’t be expected to follow to the White House doors. An interview with the President of the United States couldn’t be suspect.

Piers didn’t know the President. He’d seen the face and gestures in an occasional newsreel, heard the voice on screen and radio. The man was somewhat younger than Anstruther and Evanhurst’s generation; he’d been coming up in politics during the Last War, too old to be caught in it, he’d done nothing controversial either then or in the peace decade. He was considered a good president, neither too precious nor too common for the people at large, some kind of farm background, westerly; he liked golf, fried chicken, fishing as a matter of course, and piloting his own plane. He’d strictly kept his hands off Anstruther and the Peace policies.

The pilot in his separate cubicle had had nothing to say on the flight. Realizing it suddenly, the cold sledge of suspicion struck at Piers’ stomach. This could have been a ruse. He looked out the window; green country lay quilted below. He lifted the communication, asked, “About there?”

“Yeah.”

Piers waited but the pilot had nothing more to say. Piers replaced the phone. It was ridiculous to fear. The Germans couldn’t have infiltrated the Peace office. Gordon wasn’t a traitor, no matter what his commitments. He had no reason to do away with Piers; he was an Anstruther man even as was Piers. And the President waited. One misadventure by plane could be swallowed but two would indubitably stick in the gullet. Whatever the President was not, he was more intelligent than that.

The communication sounded and he lifted it. “We’re coming in now,” the pilot said. “Look out and you’ll see Washington monument. Looks like a lead pencil from here.”

“Thanks.” He looked out. They were circling Washington’s marble whiteness and rich green. The plane landed quietly at the airport. There were two secret service men waiting. “Piers Hunt? The car’s over this way.”

“How did you know me without the carnation?” Piers asked.

The one on his right said, “You came down in Gordon’s plane, didn’t you?” It was Gordon who was known, the personalizing of the department.

The car was reassuring with its White House markings. There wasn’t anything off color about this appointment then; the President had summoned him. And Gordon. Gordon who had got here first. Piers scowled a little and he lit a cigarette.

The secret service passed him into the White House by way of the porte-cochere. “The President is waiting for you in his private office.” He followed them along the passageway to an unmarked door. One man entered; the other waited outside with him. Piers said, “Hot, isn’t it?” The words were inane but less so than standing here silent like a political criminal.

The man wiped his neck.

The other returned. He held the door open. “Go right in, Mr. Hunt.” Piers was inside then, without his escort, in the comfortable, historic study of the President of the United States. The President was standing behind his desk, his hand outstretched. “Delighted you could make it, Mr. Hunt.” His handclasp was practicedly strong. “Draw up a chair. They’re more comfortable than they look. We haven’t streamlined the White House yet. Somehow one grows attached to the old things.”

Piers felt as if he’d known the man for years, he was that like his newsreel and radio self. Gordon had risen from another of the chairs of old leather. Gordon, handsome, smiling, his dark suit fresh from a tailor’s, his shoes glossy, his pores untouched by human sweat. Piers’ summer-weight grays were more than crumpled; they smelled of Cassidy and the precinct house. His face needed a sponge.

Gordon said, “Thank God, you received the message, Piers. I tried to reach you early—”

“So your secretary told me.” He was easy. “I was breakfasting with Lord Evanhurst.”

Gordon wondered and the President said, “I understand you’re an old friend of my friend, Lord Evanhurst. Cigarette?” But his social grace went from him when they were seated again. He said, “You know, of course, that Secretary Anstruther is missing?”

“Yes.” Piers nodded. “Gordon told me Tuesday that he was overdue.”

The President’s face was sober. “I’m still too shocked over the news to know what to do. I only learned last night—”

Gordon spoke quickly. “I didn’t want to tell you, sir. You have so many problems. I wanted to withhold it until we knew something definite, but—”

“I understand.” His smile and Gordon’s met, accepted each other. The President continued, “It’s hard to have it happen at this time. So much depends on our present Conclave.”

“Yes,” Piers agreed.

“I’ve named Gordon Secretary pro tem.” He said it as casually, with as little import as if he had named a village postmaster.

Because of the casualness it was a moment before Piers realized what had been said. His eyes leaped to Gordon and he gripped the arms of the chair to keep himself from rising. Gordon had the right expression, an acceptance of condition, enough humbleness, the will to do his best. The licking tongues of triumph were sublimated beneath that well-bred, well-barbered face. And Piers was silenced. He could not protest. He couldn’t demand that he be named. Gordon was the logical man to succeed in so far as the President Ape knew. Certainly the sweating, soiled fellow who called himself Piers Hunt couldn’t be selected to preside over the most important conclave of the decade.

Gordon had won this set. And Piers, knowing the smugness, certain of the decision beneath the superb facade, was forced to express “Congratulations” as if the word were not lye on his tongue. He knew then that had Gordon communicated with him this morning, he would have created delay for Piers in New York. He would have made certain that Piers did not accompany him to Washington. He had planned this well, informing the President last night, stepping into the wanted shoes this morning. Gordon said with that disarming smile, “I’m still hoping that I won’t have a chance to accept the position, Mr. President.” And he included Piers in the smile. “I’ll hope until Sunday afternoon that Anstruther will return.”

“You understand,” the President’s voice was troubled, “we are not releasing the fact that Secretary Anstruther is missing until after the Conclave.” He frowned. “Some of the newspapermen will speculate—they have already—but we will say nothing until the opening on Sunday. At that time a small notice that due to illness—illness, you understand—Secretary Anstruther cannot as yet be present, that Secretary Gordon will preside pro tem in his place.”

Piers said, “I won’t divulge any further information.”

The President nodded his approval. Gordon caught the undertone. It was in the faint drawing together of his brows.

“I understand the importance of secrecy.” Piers’ voice was a silken thread. That Gordon knew there was to be enmity was good. There was no other way to play it. Piers couldn’t stab in the back.

The President’s eyes gleamed. “Gordon tells me you were the last man to see Anstruther.”

No stab in the back, not even if the other man had no such compunctions. “I saw him off in Alexandria, sir.”

“Tell me about it.”

He could have told it the same under scopolamin. But he welcomed the opportunity to put on high official record what must be recorded. The President was not accessible normally to such as he. He had learned that in Washington on Thursday when he had no congressman or senator or Gordon to act as inductor. He said simply, “I phoned the secretary in Berne. There had been another touch of border trouble—you’ve heard of the so-called incidents?”

The President nodded. Gordon opened his mouth but Piers didn’t allow him sound. “They aren’t important although certain nations for their own benefits and to the detriment of Equatorial Africa have tried to blow them up as such.” He smiled at Gordon, imitating the man’s open, winning facial contortion. It was a poor imitation but Gordon was uneasy. “I knew that if Anstruther could go over my reports, talk with the Africans whom I had, he would know this.”

“You talked with Fabian?” Gordon suggested.

“No.” It had been a deliberate attempt to discredit. Piers turned to the desk. “You may know, Mr. President, that it is difficult to have audience with Fabian, more so than with you for instance.”

The President said, “I am always available at any time.”

“I tried to see you Tuesday.” He dropped it in passing. “It isn’t that Fabian remains closeted in dignity; he is among his people except for state occasions. He believes this to be the wiser way of governing. He is leader of Equatorial Africa as well as Secretary of Peace, you know.”

“A benevolent dictator,” Gordon stated.

“No.” Piers was sharp. That phrase had been in the Hugo letters,
a dictator, although benevolent
. “He decrees no law. All laws are made by the people.” There must not be open conflict in this room. He turned back to the President. “Fabian, however, was available at any time to Anstruther. If Anstruther had felt the need of seeing Fabian, he could have done so. Anstruther is one of the few men in the world who actually has spoken with Fabian.”

“Yes.” The President’s interest was titillated. “Secretary Anstruther has told me. He believes Fabian to be a great man.”

“Yes.” And Fabian had sent David with a gun. To take at gunpoint what the Germans too would take by force. “They are friends as well as leaders.” He put a fresh cigarette in his mouth. “I’ll make this brief, sir. I went into Africa when the first spot of trouble appeared. I saw with my own eyes what was causing it. The secretary and I went over my findings and he agreed with me that whereas the incidents themselves were doubtless unimportant, farm squabbles—Fabian had not even considered them worthy of international investigation—undeniably they were German-fomented.”

Gordon’s control was good. The President had disbelief unflexing his mouth. “Did you say German-fomented?”