After a pause Dr Superb said, ‘Now that I know who the patient is that I’m waiting for. You lied about the failing. I’m not supposed to fail. In fact I’m needed vitally. And the patient is quite sane.’
Pembroke regarded him intently but said nothing.
‘You’re the patient. And you were totally aware of it, all along. Through you I’ve been misled. From the beginning.’
After a time Pembroke nodded.
‘And this is not government business,’ Superb said. ‘This is an arrangement of your own. It has nothing to do with Nicole.’ At least not directly, he thought.
‘Be careful.’ Pembroke said. He got out his service pistol and held it loosely in his lap, but with his hand close to it.
‘I can’t tell you how to control Kongrosian. I can’t control him myself; you’ve seen that.’
‘But you would know,’ Pembroke said, ‘assuming anyone would, if I can work with him; you know that much about him.’ He stared at Superb, his eyes clear and unwinking. Waiting.
‘You’d have to tell me what you intend to propose to him.’
Pembroke, picking up his gun and holding it pointed directly at Dr Superb, said, ‘Tell me how he feels about Nicole.’
‘She’s a Magna Mater figure to him. As she is to all of us.’
‘ “Magna Mater.” ‘ Pembroke leaned forward intently.
‘What’s that?’
‘The great primordial mother.’
‘So in other words he idolizes her. She’s like a goddess to him, not mortal. How would he react — ‘ Pembroke hesitated. ‘Suppose Kongrosian suddenly became a Ge, a real one, possessing one of the most carefully-guarded government secrets. That Nicole died years ago, that this so-called “Nicole” is an actress. A girl named Kate Rupert.’
Superb’s ears buzzed. He studied Pembroke, and knew one thing, knew it for the absolute reality it was. When this interchange was over, Pembroke would kill him.
‘Because,’ Pembroke said, ‘that’s the truth.’ He shoved his gun back into its holster, then, Would he lose his awe of her, then? Would he be able to — co-operate?’
After a time Superb said, ‘Yes. He would. Definitely so.’
Visibly, Pembroke relaxed. He ceased to tremble and some colour returned to his thin, flat face. ‘Good. And I hope you’re disbursing the truth, doctor, because if you aren’t I’ll make my way back here, no matter what happens, and destroy you.’ All at once he rose to his feet. ‘Goodbye.’
Superb said, ‘Am I now out of business?’
‘Of course. Why not?’ Pembroke smiled composedly.
‘What good are you to anybody? You know that doctor. Your hour has passed. An amusing pun, in that you — ‘
‘Suppose I tell you what you just now told me.’
‘Oh, please do. It’ll make my job much easier. You see, doctor, I intend to make public that particular Geheimis to the Bes. And, simultaneously, Karp und Sohnen Werke will reveal the other.’
‘What other?’
‘You’ll have to wait,’ Pembroke said. ‘Until Anton and Felix Karp feel themselves ready.’ He opened the office door. ‘I’ll see you again soon, doctor. Thanks for the assistance.’ The door closed behind him.
I have learned, Dr Superb realized, the ultimate secret of the state. I am now at the top rung of Ge society.
And it doesn’t matter. Because there is no way I can use this information as an instrument by which to retain my career. And that is all that counts. As far as I’m concerned.
My career and nothing else. God damn it, nothing!
He felt overwhelming, vicious, raw hatred for Pembroke.
If I could kill him, Superb realized, I would. Right now. Follow after him. ‘Doctor,’ Amanda’s voice sounded from the intercom.
‘Mr Pembroke says that we must close up.’ Her voice wavered. ‘Is that true? I thought they were going to let you go on for a while.’
‘He’s right,’ Superb admitted. ‘It’s all over. You better phone my patients, everyone I have an appointment with, and tell them the story.’
‘Yes, doctor.’ Tearfully, Amanda rang off.
Damn him, Superb said to himself. And there’s nothing I can do about it. Nothing at all.
The intercom came on once again as Amanda said hesitantly, ‘And he also said something else. I wasn’t going to say — but it was about me. I knew it’d make you angry.’
‘What did he say?’
‘He said — maybe he could use me. He didn’t say how but whatever it is I felt — ‘ She was silent a moment. ‘I felt sick,’ she finished. ‘In a way I never did before. No matter who was looking at me or talking to me. No matter what anybody said. This — was different.’
Rising Superb walked to the office door, opened it. Pembroke had left, of course; he saw only Amanda Conners in the outer office, at her desk, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. Superb walked to the front door of the building, opened it and descended the stairs.
He unlocked the trunk of his parked wheel, got out the jack handle. With it, he started down the sidewalk. The shaft of steel felt slippery and cold within his grip as he searched for Commissioner Pembroke.
Far off he saw a shrunken figure. Altered perspective, Dr Superb realized. Makes him look little. But he’s not. Dr Superb walked towards the NP man, holding the jack handle up. The figure of Pembroke grew.
Pembroke was paying no attention to him; he did not see Superb coming. Immobile, with a group of other persons, passers-by, Pembroke was gazing fixedly at the headlines displayed by a peripatetic news machine.
The headlines were huge and ominous and black. As he approached, Dr Superb saw them, made out the words. He slowed, lowered the jack handle, until at last he stood like the others.
‘Karp discloses vast government secret!’ the news machine screeched to everyone within hearing distance. ‘Der Alte a simulacrum! New one already being built!’
The news machine began to wheel off in search of other customers. No one was buying here. Everyone had become frozen. It was dream-like to Dr Superb; he shut his eyes, thinking to himself, I have difficulty believing this. Terrible difficulty.
‘Karp employee steals entire plans for next der Alte simulacrum!’ the news machine, now half a block away, shrilled.
The sound of it echoed. ‘Makes plans public!’
All these years, Dr Superb thought. We’ve worshipped a dummy. A being inert and devoid of life.
Opening his eyes, he saw Wilder Pembroke, bent grotesquely as he strained to hear the departing racket of the news machine; Pembroke took a few steps after it, as if hypnotized by it.
Pembroke, as he departed, dwindled as before. I’ve got to go after him, Dr Superb realized. Make him full-sized, real again so I can do to him what I have to. The jack handle became more slippery, so drenched that he could hardly hold on to it.
‘Pembroke!’ he called.
The figure halted, bleakly smiling. ‘So now you know both of them. You’re uniquely informed, Superb.’ Pembroke walked back up the sidewalk towards him. ‘I have some advice. I suggest that you call a reporting machine and give it your news, too. Are you afraid to?’
Superb managed to say, ‘It’s — too much, all at once. I have to think.’ Confused, he listened to the yammer of the news machine; it’s voice was still audible.
‘But you will tell,’ Pembroke said. ‘Eventually.’ Still smiling, he brought out his service pistol and aimed it, expertly, at Superb’s temple. ‘I order you to, doctor.’ He walked slowly along the sidewalk, up to Dr Superb. ‘There’s no time left, now, because Karp und Sohnen has made its move. This is the moment, doctor, the Augenblick — as our German friends say. Don’t you agree?’
‘I’ll — call a reporting machine,’ Superb said.
‘Don’t give your source, doctor. I’ll come back inside with you, I think.’ Pembroke urged Dr Superb back up the steps of the building, to the front door of his office. ‘Just say that one of your patients, a Ge, revealed it to you in confidence, but you feel it’s too important to be kept quiet.’
‘All right,’ Superb said, Nodding.
‘And don’t worry about the psychological effect on the nation,’ Pembroke said. ‘On the masses of Bes. I think they’ll be able to withstand it, once the initial shock has worn off. There will be a reaction, of course; I expect it to demolish the system of government. Wouldn’t you agree? By that I mean there will be no further der Altes and no more so-called “Nicole,” and no more division into Ge and Be. Because we’ll all be Ges, now. Correct?’
‘Yes,’ Superb said, as step by step he walked through the outer office, past Amanda Conners who stared speechlessly at him and Pembroke.
Half to himself Pembroke murmured, ‘All I’m worried about is Bertold Goltz’s reaction. Everything else seems to be in order but that’s the one factor I can’t quite seem to anticipate.’