He was highly tempted just to leave at that point and hope for the best, but he knew that the best had a far greater chance of actually occurring if Harl did not discover that his Ident-i-Eeze was missing. He had somehow, surreptitiously, to return it.
They went to the express elevators.
`Hi,’ said the elevator they got into.
`Hi,’ said Ford.
`Where can I take you folks today?’ said the elevator.
`Floor 23,’ said Ford.
`Seems to be a popular floor today,’ said the elevator.
`Hmm,’ thought Ford, not liking the sound of that at all. The elevator lit up the twenty-third floor on its floor display and started to zoom upwards. Something about the floor display tweaked at Ford’s mind but he couldn’t catch what it was and forgot about it. He was more worried about the idea of the floor he was going to being a popular one. He hadn’t really thought through how he was going to deal with whatever it was that was happening up there because he had no idea what he was going to find. He would just have to busk it.
They were there.
The doors slid open.
Ominous quiet.
Empty corridor.
There was the door to Harl’s office, with a slight layer of dust around it. Ford knew that this dust consisted of billions of tiny molecular robots that had crawled out of the woodwork, built each other, rebuilt the door , disassembled each other and then crept back into the woodwork again and just waited for damage. Ford wondered what kind of life that was, but not for long because he was a lot more concerned about what his own life was like at that moment.
He took a deep breath and started his run.
9
Arthur felt at a bit of a loss. There was a whole Galaxy of stuff out there for him, and he wondered if it was churlish of him to complain to himself that it lacked just two things: the world he was born on and the woman he loved.
Damn it and blast it, he thought, and felt the need of some guidance and advice. He consulted the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He looked up `guidance’ and it said `See under ADVICE’. He looked up `advice’ and it said `see under GUIDANCE’. It had been doing a lot of that kind of stuff recently and he wondered if it was all it was cracked up to be.
He headed to the outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy where, it was said, wisdom and truth were to be found, most particularly on the planet Hawalius, which was a planet of oracles and seers and soothsayers and also take-away pizza shops, because most mystics were completely incapable of cooking for themselves.
However it appeared that some sort of calamity had befallen this planet. As Arthur wandered the streets of the village where the major prophets lived, it had something of a crestfallen air. He came across one prophet who was clearly shutting up shop in a despondent kind of way and asked him what was happening.
`No call for us any more,’ he said gruffly as he started to bang a nail into the plank he was holding across the window of his hovel.
`Oh? Why’s that?’
`Hold on to the other end of this and I’ll show you.’
Arthur held up the unnailed end of the plank and the old prophet scuttled into the recesses of his hovel, returning a moment or two later with a small Sub-Etha radio. He turned it on, fiddled with the dial for a moment and put the thing on the small wooden bench that he usually sat and prophesied on. He then took hold of the plank again and resumed hammering.
Arthur sat and listened to the radio.
`…be confirmed,’ said the radio.
`Tomorrow,’ it continued, `the Vice-President of Poffla Vigus, Roopy Ga Stip, will announce that he intends to run for Presi- dent. In a speech he will give tomorrow at…’
`Find another channel,’ said the prophet. Arthur pushed the preset button.
`…refused to Comment,’ said the radio. `Next week’s jobless totals in the Zabush sector, it continued, `will be the worst since records began. A report published next month says…’