“Yes, this past couple of weeks. I’m sorry, I should have left word where I could be reached, but I never thought there’d be an emergency like this.”
“Sure,” he said, quite sincerely. “You couldn’t of known. You needed a vacation bad, you did. We noticed how tired you was gettin’.”
Not really, she thought. At least, not in the flesh. Still, it’s true, administration and treasury and accounting and counseling and—everything I do for us, mostly by myself because we can’t afford a proper staff—it does wear me down. No matter how much the Unity means to me, I cannot make it my whole life. I don’t have the spirit, the goodness, for that. From time to time I’ve go! to get away, take what I’ve saved out of my little paychecks and go elsewhere under a different name, enjoy a bit of luxury, glamour, fun, have an affair if I meet somebody attractive. (And mostly, these past several years, that’s been a man, not a woman; the Unity has washed away a lot of bitterness and started many sores healing.) Why am I talking to myself like this? To push away guilt, that I was absent? “How is Gus?”
“He’ll be all right. Healer Jules fixed him up neat as any regular doctor could have, and they’re takin’ care of him at his place.”
“You didn’t notify the police, then?”
“What use? Just put ourselves to a lot o’ trouble.”
“Listen,” Aliyat rapped, “how often must Mama-lo and I explain, the police are not our enemies? The criminals are.” I’m only half a hypocrite, she thought. Mostly, I guess, the cops mean well. But they’re saddled with laws that breed crime worse than Prohibition ever did.
“Well, if nothin’ else, they’re stretched too thin,” Castle said defensively. “They can’t post a round-the-clock watch for us, can they? And Gus told us those scumbags promised worse if we don’t clear out. Maybe firebombing, even. We decided we’d strengthen night-time security. That ought to discourage ‘em. It’s why me and some other men are stayin’ here.”
Chill crept along Aliyat’s backbone. The street outside was bare and quiet. So quiet. Had word gone around that something was hi the works?
What could she do? Nothing, unless later. “Do be careful,” she begged. “None of this is worth losing a single life.” You might have fifty or sixty years left you, Randy, dear.
“Um, you too, Missus-lo. Don’t you risk comin’ here again after dark. Not till we got the quarter cleaned up.” He sat straight, quickly eager. “What you want? How can we help you?”
That wakened the thrill that had coursed through when she spoke with Corinne upon her return today. It flamed the sordid surroundings out of her. She couldn’t sit still, she sprang to her feet. “I have to take a long drive, up into New Hampshire. I’ll be needing a driver and-let’s hope not, but maybe a bodyguard. Someone strong and completely reliable, including able to keep his mouth shut. I thought right away of you. Are you willing?”
He likewise had risen, to loom above her and exult: “At your service, Missus-lo, an’ thank you!”
“You probably needn’t lose time from work. Now that I know I can count on you, I’ll write ahead and tell them to expect me.” She didn’t really think mail would be intercepted, but she’d use a private express service to be safe, and to make sure of overnight delivery. Tannahilt could reply in the same fashion. “We’ll leave early Saturday morning. If everything goes well, we can return Sunday evening.
Or I might stay a while and you come back alone.” If I decide I dare trust them there.
“Sure.” He grew troubled. “You mentioned a bodyguard. Could it turn dangerous? I wouldn’t feel right about takin’ you into danger.”
“No, I don’t expect any physical threats.” Is that absolutely true? she wondered. With a grin: “It might help my errand if you’re in the background being huge. My purpose will be to convey a message and then, I think, confer.”
The message being that Corinne has learned Kenneth Tannahill is under close surveillance, apparently on behalf of a United States senator. She had just about decided to mail him the warning when I arrived. I told her that if I deliver it in person, that ought to rock him back enough that I can grab the initiative and—and what? Take his measure?