The Mammoth Book of Golden Age SF (78 page)

I called Johnson in Hollywood. He was glad to hear from us. “Long time no see. What’s the pitch, Ed?”

“I want some lip-readers. And I want them yesterday, like you tell your boys.”

“Lip-readers? Are you nuts? What do you want with lip-readers?”

“Never mind why. I want lip-readers. Can you get them?”

“How should I know? What do you want them for?”

“I said, can you get them?”

He was doubtful. “I think you’ve been working too hard.”

“Look—”

“Now, I didn’t say I couldn’t. Cool off. When do you want them? And how many?”

“Better write this down. Ready? I want lip-readers for these languages: English, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Flemish, Dutch, and Spanish.”

“
Ed Lef ko, have you gone crazy
?”

I guess it didn’t sound very sensible, at that. “Maybe I have. But those languages are essential. If you run across any who can work in any other language, hang on to them. I might need them, too.” I could see him sitting in front of his telephone, wagging his head like mad. Crazy. The heat must have got Lefko, good old Ed.

“Did you hear what I said?”

“Yes, I heard you. If this is a rib—”

“No rib. Dead serious.”

He began to get mad. “Where you think I’m going to get lip-readers, out of my hat?”

“That’s your worry. I’d suggest you start with the local school for the deaf.” He was silent. “Now, get this into your head; this isn’t a rib, this is the real thing. I don’t care what you do, or where you go, or what you spend – I want those lip-readers in Hollywood when we get there or I want to know they’re on the way.”

“When are you going to get there?”

I said I wasn’t sure. “Probably a day or two. We’ve got a few loose ends to tie up.”

He swore a blue streak at the iniquities of fate. “You’d better have a good story when you do—” I hung up.

Mike met me at the studio. “Talk to Johnson?” I told him, and he laughed. “Does sound crazy, I suppose. But he’ll get them, if they exist and like money. He’s the Original Resourceful Man.”

I tossed my hat in a corner. “I’m glad this is about over. Your end caught up?”

“Set and ready to go. The films and the notes are on the way, the real estate company is ready to take over the lease, and the girls are paid up-to-date, with a little extra.”

I opened a bottle of beer for myself. Mike had one. “How about the office files? How about the bar, here?”

“The files go to the bank to be stored. The bar? Hadn’t thought about it.”

The beer was cold. “Have it crated and send it to Johnson.”

We grinned, together. “Johnson it is. He’ll need it.”

I nodded at the machine. “What about that?”

“That goes with us on the plane as air express.” He looked closely at me. “What’s the matter with you – jitters?”

“Nope. Willies. Same thing.”

“Me, too. Your clothes and mine left this morning.”

“Not even a clean shirt left?”

“Not even a clean shirt. Just like—”

I finished it. “—the first trip with Ruth. A little different, maybe.”

Mike said slowly, “A lot different.” I opened another beer. “Anything you want around here, anything else to be done?” I said no. “O.K. Let’s get this over with. We’ll put what we need in the car. We’ll stop at the Courville Bar before we hit the airport.”

I didn’t get it. “There’s still beer left—”

“But no champagne.”

I got it. “O.K. I’m dumb, at times. Let’s go.”

We loaded the machine into the car, and the bar, left the studio keys at the corner grocery for the real estate company, and headed for the airport by way of the Courville Bar. Ruth was in California, but Joe had champagne. We got to the airport late.

Marrs met us in Los Angeles. “What’s up? You’ve got Johnson running around in circles.”

“Did he tell you why?”

“Sounds crazy to me. Couple of reporters inside. Got anything for them?”

“Not right now. Let’s get going.”

In Johnson’s private office we got a chilly reception. “This better be good. Where do you expect to find someone to lipread in Chinese? Or Russian, for that matter?”

We all sat down. “What have you got so far?”

“Besides a headache?” He handed me a short list.

I scanned it. “How long before you can get them here?”

An explosion. “How long before I can get them here? Am I your errand boy?”

“For all practical purposes, you are. Quit the stalling. How about it?” Marrs snickered at the look on Johnson’s face.

“What are you smirking at, you moron?” Marrs gave in and laughed outright. I did, too. “Go ahead and laugh. This isn’t funny. When I called the state school for the deaf, they hung up. Thought I was some practical joker. We’ll skip that.

“There’s three women and a man on that list. They cover English, French, Spanish, and German. Two of them are working in the East, and I’m waiting for answers to telegrams I sent them. One lives in Pomona and one works for the Arizona School for the Deaf. That’s the best I could do.”

We thought that over. “Get on the phone. Talk to every state in the union if you have to, or overseas.”

Johnson kicked the desk. “And what are you going to do with them – if I’m that lucky?”

“You’ll find out. Get them on planes and fly them here, and we’ll talk turkey when they get here. I want a projection room, not yours, and a good bonded court reporter.”

He asked the world to appreciate what a life he led.

“Get in touch with us at the Commodore.” To Marrs: “Keep the reporters away for awhile. We’ll have something for them later.” Then we left.

Johnson never did find anyone who could lipread Greek. None, at least, who could speak English. The expert on Russian he dug out of Ambridge, in Pennsylvania, the Flemish and Holland Dutch expert came from Leyden, in the Netherlands, and at the last minute he stumbled on a Korean who worked in Seattle as an inspector for the Chinese government. Five women and two men. We signed them to an ironclad contract drawn by Samuels, who now handled all our legal work. I made a little speech before they signed.

“These contracts, as far as we’ve been able to make sure, are going to control your personal and business lives for the another year if we so desire. Let’s get this straight. You are to live in a place of your own, which we will provide. You will be supplied with all necessities by our buyers. Any attempt at unauthorized communication will result in abrogation of the contract. Is that clear?

“Good. Your work will not be difficult, but it will be tremendously important. You will, very likely, be finished in three months, but you will be ready to go any place at any time – at our discretion and, naturally, at our expense. Mr. Sorenson, as you are taking this down, you realize that this goes for you, too.” He nodded.

“Your references, your abilities, and your past work have been thoroughly checked, and you will continue under constant observation. You will be required to verify and notarize every page, perhaps every line, of your transcripts, which Mr. Sorenson here will supply. Any questions?”

No questions. Each was getting a fabulous salary, and each wanted to appear eager to earn it. They all signed.

The resourceful Johnson bought for us a small rooming house, and we paid an exorbitant fee to a detective agency to do the cooking and cleaning and chauffeuring required. We requested that the lip-readers refrain from discussing their work among themselves, especially in front of the house employees, and they followed the instructions very well.

One day, about a month later, we called a conference in the projection room of Johnson’s laboratory. We had a single reel of film.

“What’s that for?”

“That’s the reason for all the cloak-and-dagger secrecy. Never mind calling your projection man. This I’m going to run through myself. See what you think of it.”

They were all disgusted. “I’m getting tired of all this kid stuff,” said Kessler.

As I started for the projection booth I heard Mike say, “You’re no more tired of it than I am.”

From the booth I could see what was showing on the downstairs screen, but nothing else. I ran through the reel, rewound, and went back down.

I said, “One more thing, before we go any further, read this. It’s a certified and notarized transcript of what has been read from the lips of the characters you just saw. They weren’t, incidentally, ‘characters,’ in that sense of the word.” I handed the crackling sheets around, a copy for each. “Those ‘characters’ are real people. You’ve just seen a newsreel. This transcript will tell you what they were talking about. Read it. In the trunk of the car, Mike and I have something to show you. We’ll be back by the time you’ve read it.”

Mike helped me carry the machine from the car. We came to the door just in time to see Kessler throw the transcript as far as he could. He bounced to his feet as the sheets fluttered down.

He was furious. “What’s going on here?” We paid no attention to him, nor to the excited demands of the others until the machine had been plugged into the nearest outlet.

Mike looked at me. “Any ideas?”

I shook my head and told Johnson to shut up for a minute. Mike lifted the lid and hesitated momentarily before touching the dials. I pushed Johnson into his chair and turned off the lights myself. The room went black. Johnson, looking over my shoulder, gasped. I heard Bernstein swear softly, amazed.

I turned to see what Mike had shown them.

It was impressive, all right. He had started just over the roof of the laboratory and continued straight up in the air. Up, up, up, until the city of Los Angeles was a tiny dot on a great ball. On the horizon were the Rockies. Johnson squeezed my arm until it hurt.

“What’s that? What’s that? Stop it!” He was yelling. Mike turned off the machine.

You can guess what happened next. No one believed their eyes, nor Mike’s patient explanation. Twice he had to turn on the machine again, once going far back into Kessler’s past. Then the reaction set in.

Marss smoked one cigarette after another, Bernstein turned a gold pencil over in his nervous fingers. Johnson paced like a caged tiger, and burly Kessler stared at the machine, saying nothing at all. Johnson was muttering as he paced. Then he stopped and shook his fist under Mike’s nose.

“Man! Do you know what you’ve got there? Why waste time playing around here? Can’t you see you’ve got the world by the tail on a downhill pull? If I’d ever known this—”

Mike appealed to me. “Ed, talk to this wild man.”

I did. I can’t remember exactly what I said, and it isn’t important. But I did tell him how we’d started, how we’d plotted our course, and what we were going to do. I ended by telling him the idea behind the reel of film I’d run off a few minutes earlier.

He recoiled as though I were a snake. “You can’t get away with that! You’d be hung – if you weren’t lynched first!”

“Don’t you think we know that? Don’t you think we’re willing to take that chance?”

He tore his thinning hair. Marrs broke in. “Let me talk to him.” He came over and faced us squarely.

“Is this on the level? You going to make a picture like that and stick your neck out? You’re going to turn that . . . that thing over to the people of the world?”

I nodded. “Just that.”

“And toss over everything you’ve got?” He was dead serious, and so was I. He turned to the others. “He means it!”

Bernstein said, “Can’t be done!”

Words flew. I tried to convince them that we had followed the only possible path. “What kind of a world do you want to live in? Or don’t you want to live?”

Johnson grunted. “How long do you think we’d live if we ever made picture like that? You’re crazy! I’m not. I’m not going to put my head in a noose.”

“Why do you think we’ve been so insistent about credit and responsibility for direction and production? You’ll be doing only what we hired you for. Not that we want to twist your arm, but you’ve made a fortune, all of you, working for us. Now, when the going gets heavy, you want to back out!”

Marss gave in. “Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re wrong. Maybe you’re crazy, maybe I am. I always used to say I’d try anything once. Bernie, you?”

Bernstein was quietly cynical. “You saw what happened in the last war. This might help. I don’t know if it will. I don’t know – but I’d hate to think I didn’t try. Count me in!”

Kessler?

He swiveled his head. “Kid stuff! Who wants to live forever? Who wants to let a chance go by?”

Johnson threw up his hands. “Let’s hope we get a cell together. Let’s all go crazy.” And that was that.

We went to work in a blazing drive of mutual hope and understanding. In four months the lip-readers were through. There’s no point in detailing here their reactions to the dynamite they dictated to Sorenson every day. For their own good we kept them in the dark about our final purpose, and when they were through we sent them across the border into Mexico, to a small ranch Johnson had leased. We were going to need them later.