The Long Twilight (33 page)

"Maybe you'd better fill me in just a little, Senator," I said. "I wouldn't want to make any unnecessary mistakes."

"You know the political situation in the city," he said. "Anarchy, riots, lawless mobs roaming the streets . . ." He waited for me to confirm that.

"The disorder is not so spontaneous as it may appear. The crowd is being manipulated for a purpose—the purpose being treason."

I got out one of my weeds and rolled it between my fingers.

"That's a pretty heavy word, Senator," I said. "You don't hear it much nowadays."

"No doubt Van Wouk spoke of the approaching elections, the dangers of political chaos, economic collapse, planetary disaster."

"He mentioned them."

"There's another thing which perhaps he failed to mention. Our planet has been invaded."

I lit up my cigarette, snorted the stink of it out of my nostrils.

"It must have slipped his mind. Who's doing the invading?"

"The world has been under a single government for twenty years; obviously, there is no domestic enemy to launch an attack . . ."

"So what does that leave? The little green men from Andromeda?"

"Not men," he said gravely. "As for Andromeda—I don't know."

"Funny," I said. "I haven't noticed them around."

"You don't believe me."

"Why should I?" I put it to him flatly.

He laughed a little. "Why, indeed?" The faint smile faded. "But suppose I give you proof."

"Go ahead."

"As you might have expected, I don't have it here; nothing that would convince you."

I nodded, watching him. He didn't look wild-eyed; but lots of them don't.

"I realize that what I'm telling you seems to lend credence to Van Wouk's story," he said calmly. "I took that risk. It's important that I be utterly candid with you."

"Sure."

"Let me make myself perfectly clear. You came here as Van Wouk's agent. I'm asking you to forget him and the council; to give me your personal loyalty."

"I was hired to bodyguard you, Senator," I said. "I intend to do my job. But you're not making it any easier. You tell me things that seem to call for the boys with the butterfly nets; you know I don't believe you; and then you ask me to back your play and I don't even know what your play is."

"I also told you things that Van Wouk didn't know I knew. The fact is, I maneuvered him, Florin." He looked strong, confident, sane, determined—except for a little hint of nerves around the eyes.

"I wanted you here, beside me," he said. "Van Wouk can think what he likes. I got you here, that's what counts. Score that one for me."

"All right, I'm here. Now what?"

"They've been in communication with the enemy—Van Wouk and his crowd. They intend to collaborate. They hope for special rewards under an alien regime; God knows what they've been promised. I intend to stop them."

"How?"

"I have a certain personal following, a small cadre of loyal men of ability. Van Wouk knows that; that's why he's determined on my death."

"What's he waiting for?"

"Raw murder would make a martyr of me. He prefers to discredit me first. The insanity story is the first step. With your help he hoped to drive me into actions that would both cause and justify my death."

"He sent me here to help you escape," I reminded him.

"Via a route leaked to me by his hireling. But I have resources of which he's unaware. That's how I learned of the invasion—and of the other escape route."

"Why didn't you leave sooner?"

"I waited for you."

"What makes me that important?"

"I know my chances alone, Florin. I need a man like you with me—a man who won't quail in the face of danger."

"Don't let them kid you, Senator," I said. "I go down two collar sizes just at the idea of a manicure."

He twitched a little smile into position and let it drop. "You shame me, Florin. But of course you're famous for your sardonic humor. Forgive me if I seem less than appreciative. But quite frankly—I'm afraid. I'm not like you—the man of steel. My flesh is vulnerable. I shrink from the thought of death—particularly death by violence."

"Don't build me up into something I'm not, Senator. I'm human, don't ever doubt it. I like living, in spite of its drawbacks. If I've stuck my neck out a few times it was because that was less uncomfortable than the other choices."

"Then why are you here?"

"Curiosity, maybe."

He gave me the shadow smile. "Don't you want to find out if I'm really as crazy as Van Wouk says? Aren't you interested in seeing what I'll offer you as proof that we've been invaded by nonhumans?"

"It's a point."

He looked me in the eye. "I want you with me as my ally, faithful unto death. That—or nothing."

"You'd get that—or nothing."

"I know."

"You're aware that you'll be in deadly danger from the moment we deviate from Van Wouk's prepared script," he said.

"The thought had occurred to me."

"Good," he said, curt again. "Let's get on with it." He went to a closet and got out a trench coat that showed signs of heavy wear and pulled it on. It took a little of the shine off the distinguished look, but not enough. While he was busy with that, I took a look in the open wall safe. There was a bundle of official-looking documents wrapped with purple ribbon, letters, a thick sheaf of what looked like money except that it was printed in purple ink and had a picture of a lion on it and the words
Legal Tender of the Lastrian Concord For All Debts Public and Private
. There was also a flat handgun of a type I'd never seen.

"What's the Lastrian Concord, Senator?" I said.

"A trade organization in which I hold shares," he said after a hesitation. "Their currency is almost valueless now. I keep it as a souvenir of my bad financial judgment."

He wasn't watching me; I slid the play gun into my side pocket; the Senator was at the window, running his fingers along the gray metal frame.

"It's a long way down," I said. "But I suppose you've got a rope ladder in your sock."

"Better than that, Florin." There was a soft
snick!
and the sash swung into the room like a gate. No blustery night air blew in; there was a featureless gray wall eighteen inches away.

"A repeater panel in the wall," he said. "The house has a number of features Van Wouk would be surprised to know about."

"What was the other route, Senator?" I said. "The one Van Wouk expected you to use?"

"It's an official emergency exit; a panel at the back of the closet leads down to the garages. A guard is supposed to be bribed to supply a car. This way is somewhat less luxurious but considerably more private."

He stepped in ahead of me, slid away out of sight to the left. As I was about to follow, a cricket chirped behind my ear.

"
Good work
," a tiny voice whispered. "
Everything is proceeding nicely. Stay with him
."

I took a last look around the room and followed the Senator into his secret passage.

We came out onto the grounds in the shelter of a giant kapok tree that had cost somebody a lot of money to transplant alive. The Senator led the way without any dramatic dashes through an ornamental garden to a row of imported poplars, along that to the fence. From somewhere inside his coat he produced a set of snippers and some jumper wires. He cut a hole for us and we went through and were in a cornfield under the stars. The Senator had turned to me and started to say something when the alarm went off.

There were no jangling bells, no sirens; just the floodlights blossoming all across the grounds. I grabbed the Senator's arms as he started to look back.

"Don't look at the lights," I said. "Or is this part of your plan?"

"Come on—this way!" He set off at a run toward the wooded rise beyond the field. There was plenty of light leaking through the poplars to cast long shadows that scrambled ahead of us. I felt as conspicuous as a cockroach in a cocktail glass, but if there was an alternative course of action I couldn't think of it right then. There was another fence to get through; on the other side we were in light woods that got denser as the ground got steeper. We pulled up for a breather a quarter of a mile above the house, which floated peacefully in its pooled light down below. There were no armed men swarming across the lawn, no engines gunning down the drive, no copters whiffling into the air, no PA systems blaring.

"It's too easy," I said.

"What do you mean?" The Senator was breathing hard, but no harder than I was. He was in shape, a point for our side.

"They didn't switch those floods on just to light our way—or did they?"

"There's a rather elaborate system of electronic surveillance devices," he said, and I saw he was grinning. "Some time ago I took the precaution of tampering with the master panel in a small way."

"You think of everything, Senator. What comes next?"

"Radial 180 passes a mile to the west. However . . ." He waved a hand toward the ridge above us. "Secondary 96 skirts the foothills, about seven miles from here. It's difficult country, but I know the route. We can be at the road in two hours, in time to catch a produce flat dead-heading for the coast."

"Why the coast?"

"I have a standing rendezvous arrangement with a man named Eridani. He has the contacts I need."

"For a man under house arrest, you do pretty well, Senator."

"I told you I have extraordinary methods of communication."

"So you did."

Down below, there was some activity now. A personnel carrier had cranked up and was taking on uniformed men. A squad was on its way down the drive on foot. You could hear a few shouts, but nobody seemed very excited—at least not from fifteen hundred yards away.

"Van Wouk's plans covered every eventuality except this one," the Senator said. "By slipping out of the net at this point, we sidestep his entire apparatus."

"Not if we sit here too long talking about it."

"If you've caught your breath, let's get started."

Visibility wasn't too bad, once my eyes had adapted to the starlight. The Senator was a competent climber and seemed to know exactly where he was going. We topped the ridge and he pointed out a faint glow in the north that he said was Homeport, forty miles away. A copter went over, raking searchlights across the treetops half a mile away. IR gear might have found us at closer range; but there was an awful lot of virgin-forested hill country for us to be lost in.

The hike took ten minutes over the Senator's estimates, with no breaks. We came sliding down the angle of a steep cut onto a narrow pike that sliced through the rough country like a sabre wound. We moved on a few hundred yards north to a spot beside a gorge that offered better cover if we needed to get out of sight in a hurry. The Senator handed me a small silver flask and a square pill.

"Brandy," he said. "And a metabolic booster."

I tasted the brandy; it was the real stuff. "I get it," I said. "This is the deluxe prison break, American plan."

He laughed. "I've had plenty of time to prepare. It was obvious to me as much as three months ago that Van Wouk and the Council were up to something. I waited until I was sure."

"Are you sure you're sure? Maybe they know things you don't know they know."

"What are you getting at?"

"Maybe the route through the closet was a dummy. Maybe they're watching you right now."

"I could have decided to go south just as easily, to the capital."

"But you had reasons for coming this way. Maybe they know the reasons."

"Are you just talking at random, Florin? Or . . .?"

"If it was 'or,' I wouldn't be talking."

He laughed again, not a loud or merry laugh, but still a laugh. "Where does that line of reasoning end, Florin? Everything is something other than what it seems, or what it seems to seem. You have to draw the line somewhere. I prefer to believe I'm thinking my own thoughts, and that they're as good as or better than anything Van

Wouk has planned."

"What happens after you meet your pal Eridani?"

"He has access to broadcast facilities. A surprise Trideo appearance by me, informing the public of the situation, will tie their hands."

"Or play into them."

"Meaning?"

"Suppose you dreamed these aliens?"

"But I didn't. I told you I have proof of their presence, Florin."

"If you can imagine aliens, you can imagine proof."

"If you doubt my sanity, why are you here?"

"I agreed to help you, Senator, not believe all your ideas."

"Indeed? And your idea of helping me might be to lead me docilely to Van Wouk."

"You sent for me, Senator; it wasn't my idea."

"But you agreed to ally yourself with me."

"That's right."

"Then don't attempt to interfere with my plans."

"I'm just making conversation, Senator. People do have illusions, you know. And they believe in them. What makes
you
immune?"

He started to snap off a sharp answer, but instead he shook his head and smiled. "I decline to tackle a paradox at this time of night." He broke off and cocked his head. I heard it too: turbines howling on a grade to the south, not far away.

"Here's our ride," I said. "Just as you predicted, Senator."

"It's common knowledge that this is a cargo artery; don't try to read anything mystical into it."

"I guess Van Wouk knows that, too."

"Hide in the ditch if you like. I'm flagging it."

"You hide: I'm the one with the bulletproof vest."

"What the hell," the Senator said abruptly, sounding a little out of character. "A man has to trust somebody." He strode into the center of the road and planted himself and waved the flat down as it came in view. We climbed on the back and settled down comfortably among some empty chicken crates.

The driver dropped us in the warehouse district a block from the waterfront, on a cracked sidewalk where a cold, gusty wind that smelled like dead fish and tarred hemp pushed grit and old newspapers ahead of it. Weak, morgue-colored light from a pole-lamp at the corner shone on storefronts with shaded windows like blinded eyes above them. There were a few people in sight, men in felt hats and women in cloches and bare legs and fur boots, bucking the wind. A boxy taxicab rolled past, splattering muddy water from the gutter.