Planet in Peril (5 page)

“Well see about the gyro replacement. But stay where you are. Contact will have to drop in on you.”

“I could make an appointment for them and still have time-”

“Stay where you are. You have work to do. Well see about the gyro replacement—the other replacement, too.”

“The other replacement” could only refer to Sara, Charles said, with a rising of anger: “
Won’t
you at least say: ‘But we hope it won’t be necessary?' ”

Mettrill
continued to stare at him. “Two-thirds of the direct route between your place and Berkeley is over the ocean. I don't see any point whatsoever in making your suggested addition to my original remark. Stay on hand, Official
Grayner
. Contact will be seeing you.”

Mettrill's
hand came forward to break, and then stopped. “And don't get in touch with anyone else about this. Telecom, for instance.”

Charles tightened his lips. “The first call I made after hearing from Professor Cohn was to Telecom, to see if she had been picked up.”

Mettrill
leaned back and clasped his hands behind his balding head. For a moment he was silent. Then he said: “When I was a young man, I did one thing thoroughly. I learned the regulations. It was the most useful thing I ever did, and I suggest it’s not too late for you to do the same. Under 29 you will find a stipulation—no one— Supervisor, Official, Manager or Director—will communicate anything concerning managerial personnel to any outside source until after the matter has been referred to the next higher authority within the managerial. Words to that effect
.
There's always a reason for the regulations.”

“This might have been a matter of life and death.”
Mettrill
glanced away. “I'll note that as your excuse. What did you get at Telecom—Recovery?”

“Yes.” He didn't give a damn, at that moment, about anything except savaging
Mettrill
. “They had Assistant
Koupal's
record-film. I
gathered they were putting it
through to TV. I informed them this place was restricted. They were going to contact you.”

“Official
Grayner
,”
Mettrill
said, “you’re an incompetent fool. I’m breaking off. Stay where you are.”

Charles put his
callscreen
on alarm before he went out. He went to the laboratory first. Luke and Tony were on some routine work Sara had put in hand. He told them what had happened. Then, not able to concentrate on the work he himself was supposed to be doing, he went outside. It was a gray sullen day, with a sharp damp wind coming in off the sea. He walked slowly down the path to the shore. Although remaining within earshot of the
callscreen
alarm, he was out of the noise range of the generators. It was very quiet. There was no sound but that of the sea, washing without haste against the rocks.

A hectic three days later Charles
Grayner
, waiting in Professor
Koupal’s
Berkeley apartment, received permission to see his former manager, Ledbetter. Permission had been granted by
Caston
and
Stenner
, the two officials from Contact Section who had been assigned to investigate Sara’s disappearance. As far as those two worthies were concerned, they had constructed a closed case for suicide on Sara’s part; they had theorized she had never recovered from
Humayan’s
death—she had never really been persuaded that he had not been murdered. Sara’s father, whom Charles never got to see in the flesh, had also, according to
Caston
and
Stenner
, committed suicide—having left a note indicating he intended to do so, feeling that there was nothing left for him to live for after he presumed that his daughter had taken her own life. Charles, however, was unconvinced. Not only had the bodies not been found, though every means had been taken to locate them, without an iota of success, but there had been a curious something left by Sara which had not been satisfactorily explained— before she had disappeared, she had put in her finger-watch to be re-charged. But
Charles was not sure that he
was going to underline this fact to Ledbetter. He did intend, he thought, to stand by his conviction that
Koupal
and his daughter had been kidnaped.

Charles took the Detroit
stratoliner
, and was there by eleven. He took a gyro-taxi direct to the UC building, and made himself known at Inquiries. The girl looked at her record board.

“Official
Grayner
? For the Manager. You’re to go down right away.”

Ledbetter rose to meet him as he entered the room, waved
him
to a chair, and said: “Well, for such a short stay, you’ve managed to run into plenty of trouble.”

“A certain amount of death and
vanishment
.” Ledbetter looked startled. “What? Oh, I see. No, I wasn’t thinking of that” He held up a couple of reports. “I meant these. ‘Failure to comply with Regulations twenty-nine (iii) and forty-two (vii). Breach of Regulation twenty-nine (ix). Unnecessary invocation of Regulation one hundred and twelve (
i
).’ Shall I translate? You notified the fact of your assistant being missing to an outside source before getting in touch with
Mettrill
, after previously giving her the use of your gyro, again without higher confirmation. You left your lab without getting in touch with
Mettrill
. And you insisted on bypassing
Mettrill
to give me your views on the situation, a course which is only justifiable in Regulations when a real suspicion of victimization can be established.” Ledbetter put down the reports and looked at Charles across the desk. His face was expressionless.

“There’s another report from Contact which refers to your mental attitude; I gather that at least some of this has already been explained to you.”

Ledbetter paused; there was an obvious implication that Charles should launch into some kind of explanation or defense. He refused the chance, and remained silent. Ledbetter gave him a little longer, while he tossed the reports back into his file tray. Then his blank expression broke, and he grinned.

“I told you
you
would like
Mettrill
. No reason why you two shouldn't have got on together, except that a minor crisis blew up.
Mettrill
isn't good in a crisis. You did the right thing in coming to me. I can sort this lot out fairly easily."

Ledbetter leaned back and looked at his cigarette. “It's the future we have to consider. I’m not promising anything, but there's a chance I may be able to swing something useful there."

Charles said: “Useful?"

“It's a little out of the ordinary, but there's a chance I may be able to acquire extraterritorial rights in your Pacific Coast place. That would make you directly answerable to me for admin—reports would go through to Nikko-
Tsi
, of course, as before." Ledbetter grinned again. “There's an incidental advantage—I could use that tie-up for the odd trip to see you out there, and get a little yachting in. Well? How does it strike you?"

Charles said: “Favorably. You're being very helpful. But it wasn't precisely my future that I came to talk about—my future in that sense, anyway.”

“No?" Ledbetter said. “All right. I've had
Stenner's
report. I’ve got some of it. You might as well let me have the rest."

Charles went through it for him, carefully and slowly, detailing Sara's original dissatisfaction with the result of the inquiry on
Humayun's
supposed death, and his own growing awareness that something was wrong with the superficial appearances of Sara's own disappearance and her father's suicide. When he had finished, Ledbetter commented: “That's all?"

“That's all."

“Now I've heard your interpretation of the facts. Will you take me as impartial?"

Charles said warily: “I’ve no reason to suspect you of not being impartial."

“I've thought a good deal about this. I had
Stenner's
report in last night; as you may guess, he mentions your theory only to damn it. That's a thing that always gets my back up. I began with a prejudice in favor of your views. The case you have just stated would have confirmed that.”

Charles caught at a phrase. “Would have confirmed it?”

Ledbetter nodded. “There are some inconsistencies in your theory. I imagine
Stenner
has pointed them out already. The odd time intervals between the ‘kidnappings’, especially in relation to the
Koupal
girl and her father. The failure to take
Humayun
and the girl at the same time, presuming they were both wanted/ But those are mechanical objections, and I don't propose making them.

“No, it’s the picture as a whole that I’m inclined to accept or reject, and I find it very difficult to accept it You say that your predecessor, your assistant and her father have been abducted by Contact Section or some other managerial. My automatic reaction is to look for motive. If it were true it would represent a large-scale measure in any
managerial’s
terms. Then, why? What reason could there be that would justify the risks involved?”

Charles studied Ledbetter closely. His lanky form was stretched back now in his chair, and he looked entirely and genuinely curious as to the answer to his question.

Charles said: “When I was here before, you seemed very uncertain as to the kind of work I would be called on to do at the new place. Are you still as uncertain?”

“It’s interesting you should say that. Naturally the report from
Stenner
made me curious about the set-up. I sent a flip to Nikko-
Tsi
. I explained the situation briefly, and put a question to him: could I be told what work it was
Humayun
had been doing and which you were to continue—or if the information was top restricted, could I pass you on to Graz for their handling as I did not feel I would be competent to handle things myself. I had the reply printed. Would you care to see it?”

Charles nodded. Ledbetter brought out a sheet of paper, and passed it across the desk. Charles took it. It ran:

REFERENCE LABORATORY 719, SAN MIGUEL. ESTABLISHMENT ENGAGED ON ROUTINE WORK INTO POSSIBILITY OF NEW POWER SOURCE CONNECTED WITH IRRADIATED DIAMOND. RESTRICTED ON BASIS OF INITIAL REPORTS FROM HUMAYUN. SUBSEQUENT REPORTS HAVE NOT DEVELOPED PROMISE OF FIRST. QUESTION OF CONTINUANCE OR RE-ROUTING OF THIS RESEARCH WILL COME UP AT NEXT APPROPRIATE COUNCIL MEETING. GRAYNER TO BE RETURNED TO POST PENDING FULL CONSIDERATION OF POSITION. YOUR DISCRETION TO HANDLE. NIKKO-TSI FOR PRESTON.

Charles read the message through two or three times, while he collected his thoughts. “Subsequent reports have not developed promise of first.” Something was wrong; badly wrong. There we
re three possibilities. That
Hu
mayun
had somehow, for some reason, not submitted correct reports to Graz. That Graz was engaged in some tortuous course of deceit which involved putting one of their own Managers off the scent. Or that the flip from Nikko-
Tsi
was a private forgery of Ledbetter’s. The second possibility seemed much the most likely. In any case, since two out of the three possibilities involved trickery within United Chemicals, the obvious thing for him to do was to watch his step. He pushed the message back to Ledbetter.

Ledbetter said: "Well?”

And something else was wrong. Ledbetter was too amiable, too anxious
not
to embarrass him. He tried fitting himself into Ledbetter’s position, an imaginative exercise more difficult for him than it would have been for many others, because so infrequently practiced. Ledbetter had wondered whether there might not be some truth in his suspicions, and had got in touch with Graz— with the clear
intention of ducking the problem should it offer any major difficulties. Having got this kind of reply it was reasonable enough that he should have rejected Charles’ theory, but surely there was another implication to be drawn as well? Immediately before 41

Ledbetter showed him the message from Graz, Charles had referred to the work of the laboratory in veiled but portentous terms. Ledbetter had known—on the basis of his information—that there could be nothing in such a claim. His obvious move should be to put a disaffected and self-important subordinate in his place. Instead, he was watching Charles with friendly sympathy.

Charles said, striving to be noncommittal: “The flip seems clear enough. Your view then is—”

Ledbetter shrugged. “You’ve seen something of one of the missing three, so you’re at an advantage there. But in my experience human beings can be very deceptive in that respect. I prefer to stick to the big picture. And that takes me back to the original question—what reason could there be to justify the kind of thing you have suggested? I’m not blinking the fact that there are several
managerials
who would stick at very little if they thought there really was something that would give them the advantage. I haven’t forgotten the little shot Atomics had at—shall we say, centralization?—a few years ago. Or the Hydroponics—Agriculture combination in the ’Thirty-six famine. But what is there in this for anyone? Can you see anything?”