Through his illness Molinari had escaped. But only temporarily.
Nevertheless, that was something. That was enough. The million and a half Terrans, demanded by Lilistar for its factories, would not be rounded up … Eric glanced at Teagarden, exchanged a brief flash of agreement and comprehension. Meanwhile, the borer went about its task, unaided, whining on.
A psychosomatic, hypochrondiacal illness had protected the lives of a great many people and it made Eric rethink, already, the value of medicine, the effect of bringing about a ‘cure’ for Molinari’s condition.
It seemed to him as he listened to the borer at work that he was now beginning to understand the situation – and what was really required of him by the ailing U N Secretary who lay against the conference table, neither seeing nor hearing, in a state where the problems of the discussion with Minister Freneksy did not exist.
Later, in his well-guarded bedroom, Gino Molinari sat propped up on pillows, weakly contemplating the homeopape the New York Times, which had been placed at his disposal.
‘It’s okay to read, isn’t it, doctor?’ he murmured faintly.
‘I think so,’ Eric said. The operation had been totally successful; the elevated blood pressure had been restored to a normal plateau, commensurate with the patient’s age and general condition.
‘Look at what the papes are able to get wind of.’ Molinari passed the first section to Eric.
POLICY MEET CALLED OFF ABRUPTLY DUE TO
SECRETARY’S ILLNESS. ‘STAR DELEGATION
HEADED BY FRENEKSY IN SECLUSION.
‘How do they find those things out?’ Molinari complained peevishly. ‘God, it makes me look bad; makes it obvious I finked out at a crucial time.’ He glared at Eric. ‘If I had any guts I’d have stood up to Freneksy on that labor-force conscription demand.’ He shut his eyes wearily. ‘I knew the demand was coming. Knew it last week, even.’
‘Don’t blame yourself,’ Eric said. How much of the physiological fugal dynamism was comprehensible to Molinari? None of it, evidently; Molinari not only did not grasp the purpose of his illness – he did not even approve of it. And so it continued to function at an unconscious level.
But how long can this go on? Eric wondered. With such a powerful dichotomy between conscious aspiration and unconscious will to escape … perhaps, finally, an illness would be produced from which the Secretary would never emerge; it would not only be fatal, it would be final.
The door to the next room opened; there stood Mary Reineke.
Taking her by the arm, Eric led her back out into the hall, shutting the door after them. ‘Can’t I see him?’ she demanded indignantly.
‘In a minute.’ He studied her, still unable to determine just how well she understood the situation. ‘I want to ask you something. Has Molinari undergone any psychiatric therapy or analysis that you know of?’ No mention existed in the file ; but he had a hunch.
‘Why should he?’ Mary toyed with the zipper of her skirt. ‘He’s not crazy.’
That certainly was true; he nodded. ‘But his physical—’
‘Gino has had back luck. That’s why he’s always getting sick. You know no psychiatrist is going to change his luck.’ Mary Reineke added with reluctance, ‘Yes, he did consult an analyst once, last year, a few times. But that’s a top secret; if the homeopapes got hold of it—’
‘Give me the analyst’s name.’
‘The hell I will.’ Her black eyes snapped with hostile triumph; she glared at him unwinkingly. ‘I won’t even tell Dr Teagarden, and him I like.’
‘After watching Gino’s illness in action I feel I—’
‘The analyst,’ Mary broke in, ‘is dead. Gino had him killed.’
Eric stared at her.
‘Guess why.’ She smiled with the random malice of a teen-age girl, the purposeless, delicious cruelty which took him back in a flash to his own boyhood. To the agonies such girls had caused him before. ‘It was something the analyst said. About Gino’s illness. I don’t know what it was but I assume he was on the right track … as you think you are. So do you really want to be so clever?’
‘You remind me,’ he said, ‘of Minister Freneksy.’
She pushed by him, toward Gino’s door. ‘I want to go on in; good-by.’
‘Did you know that Gino died there in that conference room today?’
‘Yes, he had to. Just for a few moments, of course; not long enough to muddle his brain cells. And of course you and Teagarden cooled him right down; I know about that, too. Why do I remind you of Freneksy, that crulp!’ She came back toward him, studying him intently. ‘I’m not like him at all. You’re just trying to make me sore so I’ll tell you something.’
Eric said, ‘What do you think I want you to tell me?’
‘About Gino’s suicide impulses.’ She spoke matter-of-factly. ‘He has them; everybody knows that. That’s why I was brought here by his relatives, to make sure somebody spent every night with him, snuggled right up against him in bed every hour or watching him while he paces around when he can’t sleep. He can’t be alone at night; he’s got to have me to talk to. And I can talk sense to him – you know, restore his perspective at four o’clock in the morning. That’s hard to do but I do it.’ She smiled. ‘See? Do you have somebody to do that for you, doctor? At your four a.m. moments?’
Presently he shook his head no.
‘A shame. You need it. Too bad I can’t do it for you, too, but one’s enough. Anyhow you’re not my type. But good luck – maybe someday you’ll find someone like me.’ Opening the door, she disappeared. He stood alone in the corridor, feeling futile. And, all at once, extremely lonely.
I wonder what became of the analyst’s files? he thought mechanically, turning his mind back to his job. No doubt Gino had them destroyed, so as not to fall into ‘Star hands.
That’s right, he thought. It is about four a.m. when it hits hardest. But there’s no one else like you, he thought. So that’s that.
‘Dr Sweetscent?’
He glanced up. A Secret Service man had approached him. ‘Yes.’
‘Doctor, there’s a woman outside who says she’s your wife; she wants to be admitted to the building.’
‘It can’t be,’ Eric said, with fear.
‘You want to come with me and see if you can identify her, please?’
Automatically he fell in beside the Secret Service man. Tell her to go away,’ he said. No, he thought, that won’t do; you don’t handle your problems like that, like a child waving a wand. ‘I have no doubt it’s Kathy,’ he said. ‘Followed me here after all. In the name of God – what dreadful luck. Did you ever feel this way?’ he asked the Secret Service man. ‘Did you ever find yourself unable to live with someone you had to live with?’
‘Nope,’ the Secret Service man said unfeelingly, leading the way.
TEN
His wife stood in a corner of the outside compound which was the White House receiving room, reading a homeopape, the New York Times; she wore a dark coat and a good deal of make-up. Her skin, however, looked pale and her eyes seemed enormous, filled with anguish.
As he entered the compound she glanced up and said, ‘I’m reading about you; it seems you operated on Molinari and saved his life. Congratulations.’ She smiled at him but it was a bleak, trembling smile. ‘Take me somewhere and buy me a cup of coffee; I have a lot to tell you.’
‘You’ve got nothing to tell me,’ he said, unable to keep his stunned dismay out of his voice.
‘I had a major insight after you left,’ Kathy said.
‘So did I. It was that we’d done the right thing by splitting up.’
‘That’s strange, because my insight was just the opposite,’ she said.
‘I see that. Obviously. You’re here. Listen: by law I don’t have to live with you. All I’m required to do—’
‘You ought to listen to what I have to say,’ Kathy said steadily. ‘It wouldn’t be morally right for you just to walk off; that’s too easy.’
He sighed. Useful philosophy by which to achieve one’s goals. But nevertheless he was snared. ‘Okay,’ he agreed. ‘I can’t do that, just as I couldn’t honestly deny you’re my wife. So let’s have the coffee.’ He felt fatalistic. Perhaps it was an attenuated form of his self-destructive instinct. In any case he had given in; taking her arm, he guided her along the passage, past the White House guards, toward the nearest cafeteria. ‘You look bad,’ he said. ‘Your color. And you’re too tense.’
‘I’ve had a bad time,’ she admitted, ‘since you left. I guess I’m really dependent on you.’
‘Symbiosis,’ he said. ‘Unhealthy.’
‘It’s not that!’
‘Sure it is. This proves it. No, I’m not going to go back with you on the old basis.’ He felt – at least for the moment — determined; he was prepared to fight it out, here and now. Eyeing her, he said, ‘Kathy, you look quite sick.’