"For 1300 hours," I filled in automatically, when she hesitated in one
last routine test. "I was in the building on another matter, however,
and came here after I had finished my other business."
"Yes, of course," she said. "Please take a seat. Senator Chambers is
ahead of you, but his business will not take long."
I fought back the sudden impulse to pivot and stare in the direction
her eyes were indicating. _Senator Carl Chambers._ My briefing on
him had been lengthy. For 60 Earth years, he had headed the un-Earth
Activities Committee. As General Spicer, I was supposed to have a
nodding acquaintance with him, but no more than that. During the
years, our rivalry had become legend. His unanticipated presence in
the waiting room could prove disastrous. Chambers would not be fooled
easily.
Turning slowly, I nodded stiffly and curtly in Chambers' direction and
then selected a chair across the room from him.
The senator's head merged directly into the shoulders of his grossly
rotund body. Small, round eyes stared unblinkingly at me from the red
pudginess of his face. They hesitated on the black swagger stick which
I held loosely in my right hand, moved on, and then returned to it. The
invisible scars, made by the electro-surgical knives in re-designing my
body, began to tense slowly. I shifted the swagger stick in my hand.
Then the redheaded secretary stood up. She said, "Secretary Bartlett
will see you now. Senator."
* * * * *
For a fraction of a time, I thought Senator Chambers had not heard her.
His expressionless eyes were still on me. Then, with a grunt, he lifted
himself to his feet and disappeared through the door behind her. A tiny
clicking noise indicated that it locked automatically.
I shifted my gaze and saw that the secretary was looking at me
intently. It was impossible to guess at what might be going on behind
those eyes. The tension began to build inside me again, but I kept my
own eyes as expressionless as hers.
The girl picked up a folded piece of paper out of a receptacle on her
desk and brought it over to me.
She said, "While you're waiting, General, you might like to read the
latest facsimile. Or have you already seen it?"