Elvissey (24 page)

"It's my skin-"

"The color becomes you," he said. "Be thankful it did.
We're undertaking study of your reports, and the surviving
materials you brought back. The discoveries and inferences
pertaining to that world overwhelm. They aren't as we are,
Isabel."

"Known," I said. "I was there. That phrase of his, `the
anointed.' What's meant?"

Leverett frowned, appearing thoughtful. "Some subcultural reference, mayhap. I hoped you'd know; it's not the
first time he's used it. Take this," he said, handing me a thin
yellow folder embossed with our company's grin. "Initial
conclusions and inferrals regarding the shadow world's recent history as per the text you obtained. Deconstruction of
his Bible is proceeding-"

"His magazines told of Dero."

"They crumble, under touch, as does the newsheet. The
transferral process adverses woodpulp paper. We're seeking
archival matches presently."

"It's essential I meet Madam, Leverett," I said. "Excuse
me-

"With your help, Isabel, we'll cream this skim milk nicely.
I'll schedule you for daily visits to our boy. Return this afternoon. Visit again. One on one him."

"Schedule-?"

"I'll have it by day's end. Mindful, Isabel, it's shortterm. I
swear it."

"This wasn't contracted," I said, reminding him. As he loosed himself from me, he sidled down the hall, keeping his
back wallways.

"The capable adapt, Isabel. The rest-" He shrugged,
and walked away.

Judy and I met in her office for lunch; neither of us ate. I'd
not seen her since our return, although she'd phoned several times. Her suite's redecoration was complete: drapes
cloaked sunlight, chairs gathered dust, cameras onscreened
visitors and monitored hallways, every bibelot was placed
and forgotten. Her assistant's office, secluded beyond the
reception area, held only an empty desk and its accoutrements; I wanted nothing more than to sit there and work.

"Iz," Judy called out through her open door. "Come
here."

I walked into her office; she sat there staring at a chart
unrolled across her desk, held down at one end with a brass
paperweight. She rose as I approached and embraced me
for several minutes, rocking with me forthback as we stood
there. "It's good that you're back, it's so good," she said. "I
feared you wouldn't return, however I assured us."

"I'm here," I said, releasing myself from her grip.

"Did what I give you assist?" she asked, lowvoicing.

"That's what returned us," I said. "Otherwise-"

"As told. Here, Iz. Eye this."

"Eye what?" I asked, looking down at the map on her
desk. Isobaric lines overlay an unspecified area's geographics. "A weather map?"

"From the twenty-first," she said, tugging one edge of the
chart, unfurling it further. "On the twenty-second, a Bowl
reclamation facility was to be dedicated here, in Illinois. An
environad was to be created overhead to suitably sendoff.
Study the lines. Hot air mass atop the region, cold front
coming. TV weatherpeople could forecast this likelihood.
Our manipulations only intensified the effect. The resulting tornado killed or injured all present and caused ten million
dollars damages to the new facility." As she released her
hold on the map, it snapped up as might an old windowshade. "Leverett's decision to go-ahead."

"You can't oversee all," I said. "We've headrammed that
timeover."

"When all others guide what's run groundways, it's essential that someone tries. He's irrepressible, and since you
returned successed, Seamus deafens to all concerns save
Leverett's E project. All else is waysided. That's why you're
not here, now. Leverett sent word he still needed you, and
my needs were overruled."

"How's he wording Mister O'Malley-?"

"He can write Ambient, if not speak it," she said. "He
sends it direct sans blockage by Alice. So, until his project
croppers-

"What if it works?" I asked.

Judy downcast her look; then, eyed me as if my having had
the notion was a betrayal. "You're set in either instance,
don't you think?"

"Working here's what's wanted," I said. "I'm being bound
with E against reason and desire."

"Is he still so stable as I'm told?"

"You've not seen him direct?"

"I've seen the invisible man, bedded atop Montefiore.
Aren't appearances supposed to deceive?" she asked. "I
know my eyes well enough not to trust them."

"All signs contrary Leverett's opinions, whatever he's
told," I said. "E's looned. All this is only worsening him."

"I'll lunch with you often enough to hear truth, so long as
you'll tell it."

"Why wouldn't l?"

Rather than answer me she sat back down in her chair,
and studied the fogged skyline as it showed through her
window. I took a seat on her desk's far side. "This project
rolls with its own momentum now," she said. "Momentum carries off all before it, however all might wish to stay placed.
You may be wishing, but you're as well in its way. I know you,
Iz, you'll not be crushed." When she turned to face me I
untensed, seeing her features soften. "Until he fumbles
there's naught to be done," she continued. "Is the ruling
against your husband impacting your judgment?"

"It's concerning me."

"I gather he's miseried at present?"

"Dangerously so."

"He is your husband, so I did as I could," she said. "Mayhap he's most dangerous to himself at present. But if he
seeks other targets, ready yourself to jump."

"His medication ineffected," I said. "Otherwise-"

"He's uncontrollable in any circumstance," she said. "It's
as he was trained, so why surprise inheres, I couldn't say. It
was recommended that he be termed for his actions there,
you know."

"By whom?"

"Leverett. You didn't know?" I shook my head. "The need
to conspire overwhelms even the need to conspire against.
It's plaintruth."

"He says you're mindlost and you say he lies," I said.

"And who truths?" she asked; shrugged. "Both or neither,
depending on what's initially believed. If something's not
seen that doesn't mean it's not there. You know your eyes.
Should you believe me any more than I believe you?"

The longer we talked the more we seemed to doubt each
other; I drew away, thinking of what she'd said, listening to
jingling bells. I circled round in my chair to consider their
source. Centered on a side table within the AC's currents
was a fetal art sculpture; I recognized the style as Tanya's.
The skeleton held no pronounced deformities; it dangled
from a weightbent black metal rod rooted in stone. Miniature bells hung from toes and fingertips, musicking the air.
The slender bones were aqua, matching the walls; it uncer tained whether the room was toned to fit the art, or if the art
was dyed to suit the room.

"When did you discover them?" I asked. "It's a surreptitious field."

"Their work fascinates. It's so uncooptable by men."

"It's Tanya's work?" Judy nodded. "We met briefly at a
showing, predeparture. Barely a word had chance to pass-"

"I've supplied her with studio space in Riverdale this
year," she said. "You should meet her, and talk, if Leverett's
scheduling allows you a spare minute."

"I'd like that," I said.

"He'll have you on twenty-four-hour call once he's rolling. I'll give you her number. Contact her. Slip my name,
she'll host you well."

"Gracias," I said; quieted for a moment, wondering if I
should leave. "You've known me thirty years, Judy. I'm so
untrustworthy now?"

"No," she said. "Anger displaces in bad situations. He has
me raging, Iz, and some spills over. Forgive, por fav. Time
tells truth."

"I've something else to tell," I said. "Before coming here
I stopped at the clinic and received additional test results-"

"What's discovered?"

"I'm pregnant."

For a moment or two I feared the news left her reactionless, and regretted bringing it up; then her eyes widened,
and she opened her mouth as if to speak. "You're not," she
finally said. "Wasn't he clipped?"

"I'm told it happens," I said. "We loved before leaving,
and it took."

"I'm muted. You're assured you're babied with his?"

"Who else's?"

"Your husband reported you were raped," she said. "Inferred that if you denied, it was because you'd blanked it. I
doubted, Iz, but-"

"John's errored," I said. "That's what so unleashed him. Misunderstanding, nothing more, but I couldn't convince
otherwise in time. I thought I had, since-"

"The beast didn't assault you?"

"He touched me, and suffered for it," I said. "But it's
undesired, being around him. The baby's John's, none other
save mine."

"Then you'll abort?" My moment to silence came, and I
did. "You don't mean you'll carry it?"

"They'll track its growth," I said. "It's miracled that I
conceived, Judy. Miracled that John could plant. As circumstanced, I might birth proper-"

"None do, nowadays," she said. "And his as well. Iz, reconsider. You've so hardened your life, don't worsen it
now."

"I'll chance it," I said. "My decision's made. It's our saving
grace, mayhap. Nothing else will hold us as one."

"That's what's wanted?"

I nodded. She came around her desk and hugged me,
warming my body with her feel. We held each other, secure
against all others. She stroked my back as she had years
before, on nights when we sheltered offstreet, secluded from
horror; I'd allow her to comfort and pleasure, and she promised to look after me always, however many years we had left.
"I'll certify your care, Iz," she said. "I can't certify John's."

"Do what's possibled," I said. "If he stables he'll see he
can bring life so well as death-"

"If he wants to see," she said as we sat on her deskedge.
I stared at her earrings' holoed inserts; two small corporate
spheres smirked back at me. "You've much to discuss with
Tanya, then, if otherwise evented."

Before I could consider what she'd said a buzzing startled
me; Judy touched her intercom. "Identify," she said.

"Delivery, Madam," a man's voice answered.

"Delivery's unexpected. Identify further."

"Martin," he said. "Presently stationed in general HQ Security. Assigned to Miss O'Malley prior to regooding,
Madam."

"Of course," Judy said. "Recalled. Prepare to enter."
Reaching back, stretching her arm across her desktop, she
flipped several switches. "Iz, close in. Your feet."

"Excuse?" I said, drawing up my legs. As I did the floor
yawned around the desk; transparent baffles lifted, surrounding us. As they rose they curved inward, closing round
until they met at the top, sealing us up as if we were within
an oversized bell jar.

"My suggestion," she said, pressing another button.
"Your desk is supplied, too. Enter, Martin."

No more than half the guards were ever recognizable to
me by sight. His single-breasted suit was in standard, unbesmirched, corporate blue. He'd knotted his necktie in an
impeccable four-in-hand. The man stared at us with doll's
eyes, glassy and wobbling. "What's delivered?" Judy asked.

"Goodbyes," he said. As he began racing across the room
toward us, before he slid his weapon from beneath his
jacket, Judy engaged another switch and the back of the sofa
facing her desk returned fire. His Krylar underlay held as he
flew floorways, skidding back. When he rerose, his intention
cleared; aiming his weapon at Judy's window he let fly,
breaking the glass. Leaping up, he threw himself through,
hanging on the edge of the air as they do in cartoons; then
gravity intruded and he plummeted, wordlessly traveling
one hundred and six floors. The wind rushing in blew printout off her desk; a pigeon fluttered in between the shards
and landed on the roof of the dome above our heads.
Alarms rang buildingwide, and cover-smoke poured down
from the roofs vents.

"They'll regood when I will, Iz," Judy said, starting to cry
until I thought she neared breakdown. "It's too much."

I sat alone with E in his room when I returned, late that
afternoon. "That guy's really your boss?" he asked me; I sat
far enough away to be unreachable, his condition notwithstanding, mindful of the monitors forever reading whatever
actioned within.

"For now he's overseeing me," I said. "I work elsewhere,
regularly."

"He acts like a boss. Old know-it-all." E studied the drainage tube as it emerged from beneath his hand's gauze. "He
ever talk straight about anything?"

"I'm told he does."

"Don't believe everything you're told," he said. "That's
what my mamma always said to me. Don't know what you
Dero get told."

"You truthfully think that's what we are?" I asked. He
shook his head; his eyes were unreadable, shadowed by the
bandages. The lower half of his face was visible now, as it
hadn't been that morning; I saw no sign of scars, and his skin
was so clear that his complexion no longer suggested that he
lived solely on paste.