"What are you going to do, little father?"
"See Lanzerotti--Vincent Guidovich. He's the ambassador of the Council,
and he isn't going to let anything like this go on."
"It will do you no good. This has happened before. He has accepted the
will of all, and will not believe you until the law has been passed.
When the two new laws are passed and the foreign woman has married
Pitrim Androvich, then you will commit suicide, and he will say, 'Ah,
that is the reason he did it.'"
"You're so full of bright ideas you just slay me," said Heidekopfer
with a wry twist to his mouth. "But I don't think you'd be batting them
up unless you had something in mind. Come on, out with it."
Kazetzky said, "If you could leave Tolstoia and return where you came
from before the law was passed, I do not think you would be in danger.
There would be too many people around you with confused thoughts who do
not belong to the brotherhood of man."
"And leave Ann behind to marry that old goat? No, I think not."
Kazetzky said, "Then there is only one thing to do. That is to go to
the session of the Supreme Soviet and try to prevent the laws being
passed. You are a resistant, and it is possible you could make their
thinking confused enough."
Heidekopfer glanced at him sharply. "You want me to, don't you? What's
your interest in this?"
"I am a supporter of Alexei Ivanovich Dubrassov. He is a traditionalist
who does not believe happy Tolstoia should be extended as Pitrim
Androvich wishes. If the law of suicide is not passed and you report
against giving us the islands, there will be a law of suicide against
Pitrim Androvich, and Alexei Ivanovich will be Patriarch."
Heidekopfer laughed shortly. "I thought there'd be some
chestnut-pulling connected with this somewhere. How come that the will
of all the others to follow the Patriarch's plan didn't affect you and
Dubrassov, too?"
The man's face went sullen. "You have no right to ask me questions like
that," he said.
Heidekopfer reflected that the development of their mental integration
had not made the Tolstoians any the less Russian. "All right, let's
go," he said. "Is it far?"
"At the schoolhouse. I have a droshky which I took to bring Anna
Gulyevna the news. It is not good to let bad news delay until the will
of one becomes a resistance."
"Okay. Wait just a minute, will you, while I get my pocket radio. I've
got some friends coming who may be some help, and I might want to get
in touch with them."