Thomas thought about it. “I have one man in mind. Used to be a watchmaker.”
“A watchmaker! That’s swell!”
“I don’t know. He’s a little bit balmy; his whole family was wiped out.
A sad case, almost as sad as Frank Mitsui. Say, how. is Frank? Is he feeling any better?”
“Seems to be. Not down inside of course, but he seems happy enough at his work. He’s taken over the kitchen and the clerical work you used to do for me, both.”
“Give him my best.”
“I will. Now about this watchmaker — you don’t have to be as careful in recruiting personnel for the Citadel as you have to be in picking field workers, since once they are inside they can’t get out.”
“I know that, boss. I didn’t use any special tests when I sent you Estelle Devens. Of course I wouldn’t have sent her if she hadn’t been about to be shipped out as a pleasure girl.”
“You did all right. Estelle is a fine woman. She helps Frank in the kitchen, she helps Graham sew the robes, and Bob Wilkie is training her as a pararadio operator.” Ardmore chuckled. “Sex is rearing its interesting head. I think Bob is sweet on her.”
Thomas’s voice was suddenly grave. “How about that, boss? Is it likely to louse things up?”
“I don’t think so. Bob is a gentleman and Estelle is a nice girl if I ever saw one. If biology starts getting in the way of their work, I’ll just up and marry them, in my capacity as high priest of the supercolossal god Mota.”
“Bob won’t go for that. He’s a bit of a puritan, if you ask me.”
“All right then, in my capacity as chief magistrate of this thriving little village. Don’t be stuffy. Or send me up a real preacher.”
“How about sending up more women, Major? I sent Estelle on impulse, more or less, but there are many more young women just as badly in need of help as she was.”
There was a long wait before Ardmore replied, “Captain, that is a very difficult question. Most reluctantly I am forced to say that this is a military organization at war, not a personal rescue mission. Unless a female is being recruited for a military function to which she is adapted, you are not to recruit her, even to save her from the PanAsians’ pleasure cities.”
“Yes, sir. I will comply. I shouldn’t have sent Estelle. ”
“What’s done is done. She’s working out all right. Don’t hesitate to recruit suitable women. This is going to be a long war and I think we can maintain morale better with a mixed organization than with a strictly stag setup. Men without women go to pieces; they lose purpose.
But try to make the next one an older woman, something between a mother superior and a chaperone. An elderly trained nurse would be the type.
She could be lab assistant to Brooks and house mother to the babes, both.”
“I’ll see what I can find.”
“And send up that watchmaker. We really need him.”
“I’ll give him a hypo test tonight.”
“Is that necessary, Jeff? If the PanAsians killed his family you can be sure of his sentiments.”
“That’s his story. I’ll feel a lot safer if I hear him tell it when he’s doped. He might be a ringer you know.”
“O.K., you’re right, as usual. You run your show; I’ll run mine. When are you going to be able to turn the temple over to Alec, Jeff? I need you here.”
“Alec could take it now, just to run it. But as I understand it, my prime duty is to locate and recruit more ‘priests,’ ones capable of going out in the field and starting a new cell alone.”
“That’s true, but can’t Alec do that? After all, the final tests will be given here. We agreed that never, under any circumstances, would the true nature of what we are doing be revealed to anyone except after we got him inside the Citadel and under our thumbs. If Alec makes a mistake in picking a man it won’t be fatal.”
Jeff turned over in his mind what he wanted to say. “Look, boss, it may seem simple from where you sit; it doesn’t look simple from here. I — “