“Harry seemed to know what I meant without my exLyla said, glancing nervously at the knee. “But-ah-should we be talking about him as if he wasn’t in the room?”
“Harry seems to be committing the crime of silence,” Diablo said without humor. “We’ve been trying to get a straight yes or no out of him all afternoon; maybe if we annoy him sufficiently by talking about him this way we’ll provoke a few useful comments. Hey, Harry?”
Madison gave a very faint smile and still said nothing.
“If that’s how you want it.” Conroy said, “Well, apart from the actual oracle that turned into an echo-trap, and this confusing nonsense about a man with seven brains-”
“I remembered that!” Lyla sat bolt upright suddenly. “My God, how could I have forgotten again? While I was sitting there at Mikki Baxendale’s place, watching him, I was saying it over and over to myself: ‘I met a man with seven brains!'”
“A hell of a lot of things seem to be being rememReedeth said cynically. “Prophecies after the event never impressed me very much.”
“Maybe not,” Conroy said. “How about prophecies before the event, though? Jim, would a patient in the Ginsberg be allowed access to a vuset receiving knee-blank propaganda, like for instance one of Diablo’s shows relayed by a Chinese or Nigerian satellite?”
“No, of course not. Anything that disturbing to the personality, like having one’s guilt feelings played on, would be disastrous. It can be tolerated outside, where there are plenty of distractions, but in the enclosed environment of the hospital-no, definitely that couldn’t be allowed.”
“In other words-” Conroy began, to be cut short by an exclamation from Flamen as the latter turned away from his computer board.
“Jackpot! Christ, this is-this is enormous! Here, somepass me a carton of that beer if there’s any left.” The spoolpigeon was so excited he was almost claphis hands, “Pay dirt on absolutely every angle of the entire story! The Gottschalks are planning to opt out of the Iron Mountain data center in favor of new inof their own, and it looks as though the likely location is in Nevada where the younger pollies like Anthony and Vyacheslav have moved to get away from Marcantonio’s stamping-grounds here in the East-which means he may very well not approve of the idea. And there is a whole new line of weaponry scheduled for mass production shortly. It looks as though it’s been refrom the ground up, and I’ve even traced a code letter ‘C’ which appears to identify the series. Christ, if I have to spend the rest of the weekend here, if I have to use up the computer time the Feds are giving me on this one subject, I’m going to come up on Monday with the biggest goddamned story I ever handled! It’s a sen-saysh, just purely a sensaysh! Imagine being able to say what a struggle inside the cartel is about while it’s still going on!”
Abruptly it dawned on him that the faces turned to him wore uniformly dismayed expressions, and he broke off. “What’s the matter, Professor?” he challenged Con”You were telling me I should tackle the Gottschalks, weren’t you? But you don’t exactly look overjoyed!”
“Diablo!” Conroy kept his eyes on Flamen, not on the knee. “Your show about these new weapons-is it the only coverage of them up to now?”
“As far as I know,” Diablo confirmed.
“And the show’s only been canned? It hasn’t yet been on the beams?”
“Right.”
“And in any case patients in the Ginsberg aren’t alaccess to broadcasts from Blackbury or any other knee enclave.” Conroy drew a deep breath. “So how could Madison not only predict these prototype weapons, but even identify the code letter which refers to them?” I don’t understand,” Flamen said, looking in bewilfrom one to other of his companions.
That,” Conroy assured him, “makes you even with the rest of us.”
“Nothing?” Morton Lenigo inquired.
The man who had entered the room dropped wearily into a chair and shook his head, crowned with ostentanappy hair. “Fuck-all,” he said. “That goddamned fool-Mayor Black, I mean. No reply from this block of apts where they’re supposed to have installed Diablo-no reports from any of my X Patriot sympathizers I asked to try and spot him if he shows on the street-no reply from the offices of this company they fixed him a job with because the comweb is turned over to an anservice for the weekend. Might as well have taken him out and sunk him in the ocean with weights on his feet!”