Grumpily, he went on waiting.
Arriving at the Ginsberg’s rapitrans terminal was like being one dose of a drug administered orally in capsule form. Rapitrans trains were segmented, tapeworm fashinto compartments each seating one person; they could be separated, shuffled, connected and disconto follow-according to the operating authority’s publicity-just under ten million different routes, dicby the electronically active tickets the travelers had to insert into a slot in the arm-rest of each seat Once launched into the tunnels, they were hurtled along by forces as unquestionable as gravity. There were no windows to reveal whether there was another compartahead or behind, because at the speeds these things traveled some people suffered from horizontigo-the same as vertigo but at right angles-and the concomitant nausea made a filthy mess of the seating.
Tickets for the rapitrans had come as part of the down payment on the contract Dan had signed with the Ginsmanagement. Doubtless they wanted to ensure that the cost of skimmer rental-which was very steep these days-wasn’t added to the bill for incidental exBut after the next-to-last stop Lyla’s ride seemed to go on and on and on. Clinging for comfort to the recorder they employed to fix the cryptic oracles she uttered during trance, she wondered if she were really plunging alone into nowhere.
Qty. 1 Mark XIX oversuit, insulated, with integral boots and gauntlets
Qty. 1 Helmask with integral respirator and aerapack
Qty. 1 350-watt laser-gun with 50-shot accumulator rechargeable from domestic current
Qty. 1 Projectile side-arm caliber 9 mm., automatic
Qty. 3 Spare magazines for foregoing
Qty. 6 Untimed self-fragmenting glass emetic gas-gre
Qty. 1 Baldric for grenades with attached pouch for magazines, etc.
Qty. 1 Sheath-knife with 18-cm. blade
Qty. 1 First-aid kit
The children were away in boarding-school and Nora was out calling on a neighbor so Lionel Prior collected his equipment and went to join his citidef group for their afternoon exercise.
At long last a human voice emerged from the speaker adjacent to the exit of the skimmer-park. The compatiof the automatic voices was as good as any Flamen had ever heard, but his nervous sensitivity to subtleties of this order was among the talents which had kept him afloat, albeit precariously, in the world of vu-transmislong after his former rivals had capsized. In fact he had once broken open a major bribery scandal through recognizing that a custom-tailored automatic was ancalls for a man who ought not to have been able to afford such equipment.
“Dr. Spoelstra here, Mr. Flamen-what can I do for you?”
“You can let me see my wife,” Flamen snapped. Someto his surprise, he realized as he uttered the words that he really did want to see Celia, very much indeed. Their marriage had worn threadbare long before her actual breakdown, but in spite of falling out of love with her he had gone on liking her as a person. She could never, for example, have become boring, even though towards the end the way she stimulated him had nardown to one single channel: a gift for making him angry.
Better that, he told himself, than the land of drab pretense at respectability which Lionel Prior and his wife Nora maintained. And-more cynically-if it turned out that he really had mortally offended Prior this mornhe wouldn’t want to be wholly without allies and confidants.
“You should have warned us to expect you today,” Dr. Spoelstra responded equally curtly. “A comweb meshas been sent to your home informing you of the good news that your wife has gone to green, as we put it-in other words, she’s been upgraded to the status enjoyed by patients approaching the temporary dispoint-and in consequence she’s been invited to be among the audience this afternoon at a performance by the well-known pythoness Miss Lyla Clay. I’m-”
“So that takes precedence over seeing her own hus
Stiffly: “There’s no compulsion about it, Mr. Flamen! I was merely about to say that I’m sure she would be disappointed to have to miss this unique occasion. Howif you insist.”
“No, of course I don’t insist,” Flamen assured her hastily. Apart from other considerations, he couldn’t afto; Celia was in the Ginsberg on a monthly contract which ceded his legal guardianship of her to Dr. Mogand the swingeing penalty clause for premature discharge was matched by one for premature reclamaof responsibility.