Von Ritter said nothing. Smith Went on, “Will you stick?—and help keep Byram steady?”
“Uh…I’ll stick. As long as you behave yourself.” He turned to leave.
“Fair enough. Hans? Will you dance at my wake?”
Von Bitter looked back and grinned. “I’d be delighted!”
“Thought so. Thanks, Hans. G’bye.”
Smith said to Byram Teal, “Anything, son?”
“Assistant Attorney General coming from Washington tomorrow to talk to you about our Machine Tools Division buying control of Homecrafts, Ltd. I think—”
“To talk to you. If you can’t handle him, I picked the wrong man. What else?”
“At Sea Ranch number five we lost a man at the fifty-fathom line. Shark.”
“Married?”
“No, sir. Nor dependent parents.”
“Well, do the pretty thing, whatever it is. You have those videospools of me, the ones that actor fellow dubbed the sincere voice onto. When we lose one of our own, we can’t have the public thinking we don’t give a hoot.”
Jake Salomon added, “Especially when we don’t.” Smith clucked at him. “Jake, do you have a way to look into my heart? It’s our policy to be lavish with death benefits, plus the little things that mean so much.”
“—and look so good. Johann, you don’t, have a heart—just dials and machinery. Furthermore you never did have.”
Smith smiled. “Jake, for you we’ll make an exception. When you die, we’ll try not to notice. No flowers, not even the customary black-bordered page in our house organs.”
“You won’t have anything to say about it, Johann. I’ll outlive you twenty years.”
“Going to dance at my wake?”
“I don’t dance,” the lawyer answered, “but you tempt me to learn.”
“Don’t bother, I’ll outlive you. Want to bet? Say a million to your favorite tax deduction? No, I can’t bet; I need your help to stay alive. Byram, check with me tomorrow. Nurse, leave us; I want to talk with my lawyer.”
“No, sir. Dr. Garcia wants a close watch on you at all times.”
Smith looked thoughtful. “Miss Bedpan, I acquired my speech habits before the Supreme Court took up writing dirty words on sidewalks. But I will try to use words plain enough for you to understand. I am your employer. I pay your wages. This is my home. I told you to get out. That’s an order.”
The nurse looked stubborn, said nothing.
Smith sighed. “Jake, I’m getting old—I forget that they follow their own rules. Will you locate Dr. Garcia—somewhere in the house—and find out how you and I can have a private conference in spite of this too faithful watchdog?”
Shortly Dr. Garcia arrived, looked over dials and patient, conceded that telemetering would do for the time being. “Miss MacIntosh, shift to the remote displays.”
“Yes, Doctor. Will you send for a nurse to relieve me? I want to quit this assignment.”
“Now, Nurse—”
“Just a moment, Doctor,” Smith put in. “Miss MacIntosh, I apologize for calling you, ‘Miss Bedpan’ Childish of me, another sign of increasing senility. But, Doctor, if she must leave—I hope she won’t—bill me for a thousand-dollar bonus for her. Her attention to duty has been perfect…despite many instances of unreasonable behavior on my part.”
“Oh…see me outside, Nurse.”
When doctor and nurse had left Salomon said dryly, “Johann, you are senile only when it suits you.”
Smith chuckled. “I do take advantage of age and illness. What other weapons have I left?”
“Money.”
“Ah, yes. Without money I wouldn’t be alive. But I am childishly bad-tempered these days. You could chalk it up to the fact that a man who has always been active feels frustrated by being imprisoned. But it’s simpler to call it senility…since God and my doctor know that my body is senile.”
“I call it stinking bad temper, Johann, not senility—since you can control it when you want to. Don’t use it on me; I won’t stand for it.”
Smith chuckled. “Never, Jake; I need you. Even more than I need Eunice—though she’s ever so much prettier than you. How about it, Eunice? Has my behavior been bad lately?”
His secretary shrugged—producing complex secondary motions pleasant to see. “You’re pretty stinky at times, Boss. But I’ve learned to ignore it.”
“You see, Jake? If Eunice refused to put up with it—as you do—I’d be the sweetest boss in the land. As it is, I use her as a safety valve.”