Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein

“The Secretary will call the roll,” Weemsby intoned.

“Announce your votes by shares as owners, followed by votes as proxy. The Clerk will check serial numbers against the Great Record. Thor Rudbek . . . of Rudbek.”

Thorby voted all 45%-minus that he controlled, then sat down feeling very weary. But he got out a pocket calculator. There were 94,000 voting shares; he did not trust himself to keep tally in his head. The Secretary read on, the clerk droned his checks on the record. Thorby needed to pick up 5657 votes, to win by one vote.

He began slowly to pick up odd votes — 232, 906, 1917 — some of them directly, some through proxy. But Weemsby picked up votes also. Some shareholders answered, “Pass to proxy,” or failed to respond — as the names marched past and these missing votes did not appear, Thorby was forced to infer that Weemsby held those proxies himself. But still the additional votes for “Rudbek of Rudbek” mounted — 2205, 3036, 4309 . . . and there it stuck. The last few names passed.

Garsch leaned toward him. “Just the sunshine twins left.”

“I know.” Thorby put away his calculator, feeling sick — so Weemsby had won, after all.

The Secretary had evidently been instructed what names to read last. “The Honorable Curt Bruder!”

Bruder voted his one qualifying share for Weemsby. “Our Chairman, Mr. John Weemsby.”

Weemsby stood up and looked happy. “In my own person, I vote one share. By proxies delivered to me and now with the Secretary I vote –” Thorby did not listen; he was looking for his hat.

“The tally being complete, I declare –” the Secretary began.

“No!”

Leda was on her feet. “I’m here myself. This is my first meeting and I’m going to vote!”

Her stepfather said hastily, “That’s all right, Leda — mustn’t interrupt.” He turned to the Secretary. “It doesn’t affect the result.”

“But it does! I cast one thousand eight hundred and eighty votes for Thor, Rudbek of Rudbek!”

Weemsby stared. “Leda Weemsby!”

She retorted crisply, “My legal name is Leda Rudbek.”

Bruder was shouting, “Illegal! The vote has been recorded. It’s too –”

“Oh, nonsense!” shouted Leda. “I’m here and I’m voting. Anyhow, I cancelled that proxy — I registered it in the post office in this very building and saw it delivered and signed for at the ‘principal offices of this corporation’ — that’s the right phrase, isn’t it, Judge? — ten minutes before the meeting was called to order. If you don’t believe me, send down for it. But what of it? — I’m here. Touch me.” Then she turned and smiled at Thorby.

Thorby tried to smile back, and whispered savagely to Garsch, “Why did you keep this a secret?”

“And let ‘Honest John’ find out that he had to beg, borrow, or buy some more votes? He might have won. She kept him happy, just as I told her to. That’s quite a girl, Thorby. Better option her.”

Five minutes later Thorby, shaking and white, got up and took the gavel that Weemsby had dropped. He faced the crowd. “We will now elect the rest of the board,” he announced, his voice barely under control. The slate that Garsch and Thorby had worked out was passed by acclamation — with one addition: Leda.

Again she stood up. “Oh, no! You can’t do this to me.”

“Out of order. You’ve assumed responsibility, now accept it.”

She opened her mouth, closed it, sat down.

When the Secretary declared the result, Thorby turned to Weemsby. “You are General Manager also, are you not?”

“Yes.”

“You’re fired. Your one share reverts. Don’t try to go back to your former office; just get your hat and go.”

Bruder jumped up. Thorby turned to him. “You, too. Sergeant-at-Arms, escort them out of the building.”

Chapter 23

Thorby looked glumly at a high stack of papers, each item flagged “URGENT.” He picked up one, started to read — put it down and said, “Dolores, switch control of my screen to me. Then go home.”

“I can stay, sir.”

“I said, ‘Go home.’ How are you going to catch a husband with circles under your eyes?”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *