Elvissey (23 page)

"I was me," he said. "You've not glimpsed before."

"No," I said. "You did as trained, John."

"Trained no longer," he said. "I'm redundant. They're
unphasing me."

"Tomorrow I'll be conferring with Judy," I said. "I'll make
your plea, I know she'll hear."

"I'm maddening, housebound."

"You're not imprisoned," I said. "Come and go as willed
in my absence."

"I can't, Iz," he said. "It's impossibled-"

"You're fearful going alone, nothing more."

"More," he said. "I'm tongue-tied, trying to tell. It's-"

"It's temp," I said, fearful that it would be longer; lying to
him came easier to me now, came almost so easy as breathing. "Once he's healed you'll be returned to the fold. Till
then we're together. Mayhap we can vacation, at last-"

"Vacation's done," he said. "What if I am redeemed? It's
obvioused they can't change me, whatever we do. We'll all be
gone, once all's regooded." He stopped; mouthed soundlessly as if he was stroked, holding his hands out before him,
waving them as if to swim. "It's halflife here, Iz. The feel's
unbearable."

"John," I said, entwining my fingers with his; shuddered,
feeling his grip clamp as if onto a trapped animal. "Ours is
full life if you allow it. Please allow." Seating myself in his lap
I embraced him, feeling once again the chill he'd had before
we left, the icy distance; no sooner did he begin to warm
than the phone rang. Sighing, I switched on the remote. "4370," I said, spilling our number and no more across the
room and into the speaker.

"Isabel," Leverett said, bellowing his voice through our
quarters. "Recovery's complete, I'm informed."

"Not entirely." I stood, although he couldn't see us; we'd
disabled the screen the day the phone was installed. "Any
answers yet?"

"At any moment," he said. "All's being processed. Your
success has doubled my workload, I've been end-overend-"

"What's wanted, then?" I asked.

"Meet me at Montefiore at morningside," he said.
"There'll be a car for you."

"I meet Madam at ten," I said. "My return day's tomorrow. "

"She's been awared of our needs, Isabel," he said. "It
essentials. Ten-thirty-"

"I was claimed our assignment's done-"

"Your assignment continues shortterm. Details tomorrow. Tally-H."

As he clicked off I heard behind me a splintering sound,
as of a falling limb. My husband stared at the wedge of
table-top he held in his hand. Dropping it he stood and
walked out, his face unmasked, if emotionless. I laid aside
my disc-player, and gazed windowways, skywatching for
shooters plummeting earthward.

Only after my discharge was I told of E's state: his splintered
ribs and collarbone, his back's torn muscles, his wounded
hand's suppuration. John had so remodeled him as to leave
his head little more than a skull with flesh bagging over its
bone, and following his initial repairs the specialists began
plasticking a new look for him. Our air poisoned him, as
feared; he soaked in its bugs as if he were a sponge. His cold
drained into flu, and then into pneumonia; allergies swelled his face prior to its restructuring, appearing it-I was toldas a red, featureless balloon.

E's room was on our Montefiore wing's highest, sealed
floor. When I arrived the next morning Leverett stood outside, conferring with whitegowned figures who must have
been medicis; I marveled, seeing them semblanced in
human form. "Isabel," he said; the others scurried off when
they saw me, as if light startled them. "You're aglow with
health."

"Why am I so essentialled here, Leverett? Matters need
discussion-"

"We'll have the time to talk en momento," he said, smiling and sweeping a shock of gray from his forehead. "The
situation demands your presence, Isabel. You're uniquely
positioned to assist as the E project progresses."

"What's meant?"

"He's disconcerted, now that he's on recovery road. He
deafens himself to our words and shrivels at our touch. Your
name liptrips from him hourly. In dreams he begs for
you-

"He'll beg on," I said. "He tried rape and pillage on me.
Berated and degraded and caused my husband to mindlose."

"You're our icebreaker, Isabel. He demonstrates a fondness for you the docs perceive as curative. A short confer, no
more. The human touch essentials."

"Leverett, I'm to return to Madam this morning, to my
standard position-"

"Would that our jobs ended at five," he said. "See this as
an aspect of your ongoing special task. An unexpected aspect, yes, but the able goflow when called."

"The special task's completed, I was led to understand-"

"Your safety's secured," Leverett said. "A brief meet to
comfort, no more. It may not essential again, not immediately. What's replied?"

"Is he comprehending his surroundings yet?" I asked, refusing to respond. "I confabulated all that I told him, and
John-"

`John's tales plainfaced the subject, as it were," Leverett
said, regarding me with dying-calf eyes. "Regrettable,
truly-"

"Something contraindicated his treatment," I said. "He
reacted as trained. You've been awared, and naught's been
done. These investigations-"

"Are ongoing. Mind, Isabel, I'm faultless in this. Moreso,
I assured his continuing salary. Defended his actions, even as
circumstanced. Some insisted he be ..." Leverett paused,
allowing his pridebeam to outshine anger or remorse. "It
would surprise you, what was said by some. Who said what
would surprise you more. But I deflected all. Later, I'll detail-"

"Do," I said. "What of E? Is he recovering? Truth me-"

"It's iffed. He's incohering. Beset by deliriums and fever
dreams, muttering senselessness full of thunder. Your name
solely softens his roar." Leverett paused; eyed E's door.
"What are Dero?"

"People who live in caves and in the pits of elevators," I
said. "Once we seized him-"

"After John beat him," he said, interrupting.

"He believed us Dero," I continued. "Thought we'd come
for him."

"You had," Leverett said, nodding to himself. "Usable,
perhaps. Communication's been impossible since he
cleared. Mayhap he thinks we're all Dero. How'd he so notion such a concept?"

"He reads science fiction."

"Contributes nothing to the image," Leverett said, his
eyebrows lifting. "Another untoward habit to break. Still,
it'll ease your explanations if you employ that. Put fact in
fiction's terms."

"My explanations?" I replayed. "I'm to explain his state to
him-?"

"Isabel," he said, taking my arm. "Let's visit."

Fingertapping the door, Leverett awared it of our pres-

ence, so that it might slide away. Within a small antechamber were two guards, unweaponed and plainclothed; their
unemotioned features revealed their provenance. The inner
door opened; I blinked at the brightness within the windowless room. E lay bedded and bottlefed, bulwarked by machines, netted with wires. Bandages swathed all of his face
but for his eyes; his neck was collared, placing his bones as
he healed.

"You've a visitor," Leverett said, seating himself across the
room as I approached E's bedside. "As promised."

"Isabel," he said. "They told me you were comin' but I
figured they lied."

"That's unfigurable," I said. "Here I am."

"Where you got me?" he asked. "One a your caves?"

"You're hospitaled," I said. "It's not evident?"

He shifted his head on his pillow; stared at me from
beneath his wraps. "How can I know for sure it's you?"

"What proofs required?" I asked, thinking it unconscionable, how I wished that he'd died in the wreck. "I'm not Dero
and I'm not gaming with you, Elvis. I'm as you see me.
Content?"

"Your eyes're different." I'd not replaced my lenses, and
no longer colored my hair. During each daily appointment
the clinic dosed me with Melaway, though I'd tossed my own
pills away the day I went home; I suspected Leverett of being
the one insistent on my remaining unhued, and reminded
myself to find out why. "Turn a little to the right." I did,
presenting my profile. "It's you all right. I'm glad t' see you."

"You're recovering?" I asked.

"I hear nurses but don't see 'em," E said. "Where're they
hidin'?"

"They're shielded for your protection," Leverett said, interjecting. "Assuring rest-"

"Who's he? Sonofabitch's been in here ever day, bullshittin'. He's your leader?"

"Call him Dero dad," I said, stonefaced. "We're people,
Elvis. Different people, that's all." From my jacket I removed
my wallet; opened it to reveal family pics and ID. "Look.
That's John and me ten years ago," I said, pointing out a
shot of us standing before the razorwire surrounding our
old apartment house, in the Upper East Zone. "My sister-inlaw's daughter. We're people like you, truly-"

"I wanta go home."

"You're home now," Leverett said, interrupting again.
"You're familied here traditionally and spiritually-"

"What the hell's he talkin' about?" E asked me. "This
supposed t' be torture or somethin'?"

"Not deliberately."

"Not at all-" said Leverett.

"Excuse me a moment," I said, turning around. "Leverett. A word without, please."

"Talk, talk. We're secretless here," he said; after a moment, reconsidered and stood. "Of course, Isabel. Pardon
us, Elvis."

The door closed behind us as we stepped back into the
antechamber. The guards stared on as if they'd not noticed
that any neared, offering threat solely by their presence.
"Quit thieving my lines," I told Leverett. "You're acting as
if I'm not even there."

"I can assist in guiding the dialogue-"

"I'll guide or I'll go," I said, lowvoicing so much as I
could. "Agreed?" He nodded, lifting his hands as if to protect himself from my charge. "Now level. Has he any awareness of why he's here or what's being done to him?"

"Not as such," Leverett said. "Mind, Isabel, he's only been
online since yesterday. We've concentrated on assuring viability, not information."

"So that I could inform," I said. "Let's go back. Keep
tightlipped."

One of the guards sat leaning forward, handclasping; as
we turned to reenter E's room I noticed a spittle-thread
hanging from the guard's lower lip, and wondered if at
intervals maintenants came round to dust them.

"We're back-" I said, returning to E's bedside.

"Y'all gonna talk about me, you best do it to my face."

"Our talk concerned unrelated matters," I said. "You're
not all we talk about."

"How come those niggers're sittin' out in the hall?" he
asked. "You all catch 'em and bring 'em down from up
above?"

"Hear me," I said, leaning across him; if I was to teach, I'd
discipline as well. "That word's unusable here. Never say it
again. Understand?"

"What's with you?" he asked. "I was just wonderin' why
they were out there, that's all. Damn, Isabel-"

"They're certifying your safety."

"Safety from what?" E asked. "The anointed never fear."

"Excuse?" I asked; as expected, he didn't clarify.

"You say you're not Dero. You told me you were in the
music business."

"That's one of our many fields."

"Remember what you were tellin' me? When do I get
outta here and start livin' the high life like you were talkin'
about?"

"All'll occur in time."

"Dero always lie," he said. "That's a fact. I'm not gonna
listen to you." E shifted so much as he could, resting his
wrapped face against his pillow. "I'm tired, Isabel. Leave me
alone awhile."

"As you wish-"

"Fine, fine," Leverett said, rising. "As much alonetime
during recovery as desired. Come, Isabel. She'll be back,
don't fear."

"Get outta here."

I looked at him lying there as Leverett drew me away; he'd placed his free arm over his eyes, appearing to see us no
more than I wished to see him. We passed the guards, and
stepped back into the outer hall.

"Discussion now," I said to Leverett, catching him before
he could rush away.

"Of course, Isabel. What's troubling?"

"Him, for one," I said. "He's flipping. I'd not give him
half a month."

"That's why your assistance is demanded," he said.
"You're a preventative, it seems. He hears, when you speak.
The project needs you, more than before-"

"Our assignment was to end upon our return," I said.
"My job with Madam awaits. My work-"

"Your job there'll await you still, once we're done," he
said. "You've proved your potential, now live up to it. A
shortterm responsibility, nothing more-"

"What's timeframed for project completion?" I asked.

"No more than a few days, if lucked," Leverett said.
"Week, possibly two. Time enough to ground him. Not overlong."

"If I agree," I said, "will that reinstate my husband any
sooner?"

"Sans doubt," he said. "Dependent upon final decisions,
of course. Isabel, mind his behavior. Interaction was to be
minimalized, and in that regard he not only slipped but
plunged-"

"He preserved us all by plunging," I said.

"There's no excusing what he did to our subject, his suspicions notwithstanding," Leverett said. "I'll word well all the
same. The means are almost justified. If you'll assist freewilled I'll certify his clearance, topspeeded."

"Agreed," I said, and lifted my arm to his eyelevel. "What
of this? The clinic tells that I'm to stay white until they're
instructed otherwise. Why's it essential I stay bleached?"

"Isabel," he said, lowering his voice, "you heard him word
as he did toward the guards. The mindset's plain. Imagine if he was to see you as you are right now. Imaginable, isn't
it-?"

"Understood, but undesired," I said. "He'll have to know,
Leverett. I want off it, I'm awared there's an addictive factor
and my sicknesses linger-"

"Only for a short time longer. Allow him regooding time.
For all of us? Please? You lull him so well, Isabel, and he'll
be traumaed otherwise."