I WILL FEAR NO EVIL by Robert A. Heinlein – Library. Read online. Free books read online. Read books without registering

I WILL FEAR NO EVIL by Robert A. Heinlein

Note: The National Rare Blood Club (mentioned herein) is a nonprofit organization having its national headquarters at 164 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010, telephone (212) Chelsea 3-8037. R.A.H.

This Berkley book contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition.

It has been completely reset in a type face designed for easy reading, and was printed from new film.

I WILL FEAR NO EVIL

A Berkley Book, published by arrangement with

G. P. Putnam’s Sons

PRINTING HISTORY

G. P. Putnam’s Sons edition published 1970

Berkley edition / November 1971

Thirty-third printing I December 1981

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission.

For information address: G. P. Putnam’s Sons,

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ISBN: 0-425-05613-9

A BERKLEY BOOK ® TM 757,375

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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To Rex and Kathleen

The room was old-fashioned, 1980 baroque, but it was wide, long, high, and luxurious. Near simulated view windows stood an automated hospital bed. It looked out of place but was largely concealed by a magnificent Chinese screen. Forty feet from it a boardroom table also failed to match the decor. At the head of this table was a life-support wheelchair; wires and tubings ran from it to the bed.

Near the wheelchair, at a mobile stenodesk crowded with directional mikes, voice typewriter, clock-calendar, controls, and the usual ancillaries, a young woman sat. She was beautiful.

Her manner was that of the perfect unobtrusive secretary but she was dressed in a current exotic mode. “Half & Half”—right shoulder and breast and arm concealed in jet-black knit, left leg sheathed in a scarlet tight, panty-ruffle in both colors joining them, black sandal on the scarlet side, red sandal on her bare right foot. Her skin paint was patterned in the same scarlet and black.

On the other side of the wheelchair was an older woman garbed in a nurse’s conventional white pantyhose and smock. She ignored everything but her dials and a patient in the chair. Seated around the table were a dozen-odd men, most of them in spectator-sports style affected by older executives.

Cradled in the life-support chair was a very old man. Except for restless eyes, he looked like a poor job of embalming. No cosmetic help had been used to soften the brutal fact of his decrepitude.

“Ghoul,” he was saying softly to a man halfway down the table. “You’re a slavering ghoul, Parky me boy. Didn’t your father teach you that it is polite to wait for a man to stop kicking before you bury him? Or did you have a father? Erase that last, Eunice. Gentlemen, Mr. Parkinson has moved that I be invited to resign as chairman of the board. Do I hear a second?”

He waited, looking from face to face, then said, “Oh, come now! Who is letting you down, Parky? You,

George?”

“I had nothing to do with it.”

“But you would love to vote ‘Aye.’ Motion fails for want of a second.”

“I withdraw my motion.”

“Too late, Parkinson. Erasures are made only by unanimous consent, implied or overt. One objection is enough—and I, Johann Sebastian Bach Smith, do so object… and that rule controls because 1 wrote it before you learned to read.

“But”—Smith looked around at the others—”I do have news. As you heard from Mr. Teal, all our divisions are in satisfactory shape; Sea Ranches and General Textbooks are more than satisfactory—so this is a good time for me to retire.”

Smith waited, then said, “You can close your mouths. Don’t look smug, Parky; I have more news for you. I stay on as chairman of the board but will no longer be chief executive. Our chief counsel, Mr. Jake Salomon, becomes deputy chairman and—”

“Hold it, Johann. I am not going to manage this five-ring circus.”

“Nobody said you would, Jake. But you can preside at board meetings when I’m not available. Is that too much to ask?”