Robert Lennick leaned far back in his swivel chair, and sighed a deep
sigh at the ceiling, being careful it would not be heard by the party
on the other end of the wire.
"Now, listen, sweetheart," he said. "You are good. Got that? Good,
with a capital tremendous. But you don't click in urban dramas. You're
too--" He didn't want to say tall, or gigantic, though these words
were more readily at tongue-tip. "--too Junoesque for the parts
we're casting.... No, I mean it. You just--Well, you're just not the
housewife _type_, darling!"
The speaker crackled in his ear for another minute, and Lennick sat and
studied the piled-up scripts in his in-box with wearily narrowed eyes.
When his chance came again, he said, "No, not today. I'm sorry, Lona,
really I am.... It's impossible, that's why.... All right, if you have
to know--We're shooting Fredric Stanton, that's why--"
The speaker's reply to the phrase made some of the color wash out of
Lennick's smooth-shaven face, and this time he interrupted with a
snarl. "You better watch it, Lona, baby! A smartaleck pun like that can
get you sent to the hospital. You know damned well I mean we're going
to photograph him.... Okay, but simmer down, huh?!... Okay, baby, I
will.... Yes, as soon as _anything_, anything at _all_ in your line
comes by my desk.... Word of honor.... Sure thing.... Yeah, that'd be
lovely. We'll do it sometime.... Okay, Lona--Lona.... I said--....
O-_kay_, Lona!" He spat out the last words, and clamped the phone into
the cradle with vicious pleasure. "Dumb broad!" he mumbled, then got up
and opened the door to his anteroom.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Frank," he said to the tall, gangly youth
who rose from a chrome-and-plastic chair and came into the main office.
The man called Frank sank into a chair and fiddled idly with a button
on his shirt until Lennick had the door closed again. When the youthful
producer was once more back in his swivel chair, eyeing his visitor,
Frank lost his casual air and locked eyes with him, disconcertingly
steady blue eyes, and Lennick had to fight an impulse to wince.
"Trouble?" he said, after a moment.
Frank knitted his brows, and cupped his upper lip in the moist curve of
his lower before replying, without emotion, "Depends." He fiddled with
the button again, then gave it up and stood. He preferred pacing as he
talked. "It's--Well, it's about Andra, Bob."
Lennick stiffened. "They _got_ her...?" His relief was only a
conditional relaxation when the other man shook his head; he was keyed
to tighten up again without notice. "So where _is_ she? _How_ is she?"
"Fine, to answer your second question. I don't know the answer to the
first, though I could make some guesses. The thing is--We better get
the word out to the others not to try and contact her."
"_Not_ to--!?" said Lennick, stunned. "But she needs help, bad. She has
to hide until we can--!... Frank, what's the matter? You look so damned
funny!"
"Okay, I'll level with you, Bob." Frank stood at the front of the desk
and leaned his hands on the blotter, staring down at the anxious face
of his friend. "Last night, after her escape, Andra tried to hide in
the Temple, up on ninety-five. The Goons were right after her, Bob.
There wasn't even any Service because of her. Every person in that
Temple was checked--_one_ by _one_--for Voteplates. She _had_ one, Bob.
She got _out_."
"That's crazy!" Lennick gasped. "Where in hell--? Frank, I _saw_ them
collect her Voteplate after the accident. She couldn't have gotten
it back. And she couldn't have a _spare_, I know, so--?" He saw the
uneasiness still in the man Frank's features, and was quiet. "There's
_more_...?"
"After her escape," Frank said flatly, taking no joy in telling the
tale, "She met a man, outside the arcade, went with him for cocktails,
then up to his level. That's the last she was seen, Bob. It was the
Hundred-Level. None of us are authorized to go that high without
escort."
"But who the hell did _Andra_ know on the top?" Bob blurted. "She's
given autographs to a few higher-ups, but--"
"It was Lloyd Bodger, Junior, Bob. They acted like old friends. _Now_
do you see why I think it's unwise if she's contacted?"
* * * * *
Lennick suddenly surged from his chair and nearly tore the shirtfront
from his visitor in an angry fist, as he yanked the other's face close
to his own. "You can't mean that about Andra, Frank. You _know_ her!
You've worked with her--And I ... I know her better than anyone, Frank.
She's not a traitor. She wouldn't betray us."
"I wish," said Frank, calmly ignoring the enraged aspect of Lennick's
attitude, "you'd put your heart back where it belongs and think it over
just once with your brains...."
Bright beads of moisture suddenly appeared in Lennick's eyes, and he
released his grasp of the other man's shirt and sank down into his
chair, burying his face upon his arms. "There's an explanation," he
mumbled into the blotter. "I know there is. She wouldn't--" he lifted
his head, suddenly hopeful. "Frank, we're still _here_! If she told all
she knew, we'd be atomized by now, right?"
Frank looked uncertain. "Maybe. At least--It's a point in her favor.
I don't know. You've got _me_ shook, now." He sat back down and
pondered, shaking his head slowly back and forth. "If she _isn't_
hollering for the Goons--What's she doing with Junior? A guy like that
doesn't take perfect strangers up to his place, does he?"
"I don't believe that part at all," said Lennick. "She may've gotten
off before he did."
"The indicator went right on up without stopping. My witness'll swear
to it. Right to top level, just before Ultrablack."
"Maybe she's under arrest, going for questioning," Lennick parried
weakly. "It could be, you know."
"Why up there? Goons _carry_ Truth Serum. Besides, the witness further
states that they didn't look like anything but a couple of chummy
dates. Real chummy."
"How about if--Maybe he was _helping_ her? Andra's not a bad looker....
If she turned on the tears--"
"You've been reading your own scripts, friend," said Frank, not
unkindly. "This is reality we're dealing with, not never-never-land on
film. This Lloyd Bodger, Junior is _not_ the boy-most-likely when it
comes to helping anti-Hive people. Face it, Bob. Something's up."
"So why, I repeat, aren't we all on our way down the chute costumes,
cameras and all?"
"That's the only thing that doesn't make sense," Frank admitted. "And
the only thing that prevents me hiring a sniper to knock her off."
"You'd do that?" said Bob. "To Andra?"
"For the time being, we'll let it ride," Frank decided on the doorstep.
"It may be handing ourselves over on a silver salver, but--We'll let it
ride. Till we hear from her. And she'd better make it convincing."
"I know she'd tell me the truth--Whatever it is," said Bob, then
regretted his rhetorical lapse into doubt. But Frank let it pass, and
simply said, with a fleeting smile of compassion, "If I were you, I'd
take that Goon's advice, from yesterday when Andra was carted off: Get
engaged to somebody else."
"I want to talk to her," Bob insisted.
"If it was your neck, fine. Talk. But it's all our necks. I can't risk
it."
"_You_ could fix it, Frank. _You_ could find out where she is, a way to
get there. Come along, even, so I don't fumble the ball. Please, Frank?
I've got to know...."
"Bob, if you knew what you were asking--!" Then the taut, painful
set of his friend's features cracked away some of his veneer, and he
slumped wearily against the jamb, fiddling with that button again. "So
maybe insanity's catching, or something," he said after a pause.
"You'll help me?"
"I'm not absolutely sure I can, Bob. But--Tell you what.... Buzz me
about nine tonight. I might have an idea."
"Thanks," Bob said. "You're--You're a nice guy, Frank."
Frank turned and walked across the anteroom and out, without replying.
Robert Lennick settled back in the swivel chair again, this time not at
all relaxed.