The Security Police sergeant looked emptily after them as they
progressed down the corridor.
Together, Watson and Reif motioned aside the two Tulan soldiers who
stood before the door of their destination, and pushed inward without
knocking.
Joe Chessman looked up wearily from his map and dispatch laden desk. For
a moment his hand went to the heavy military revolver at his right but
when he realized the identity of his callers, it fell away.
"What's up now?" he said, his voice on the verge of cracking.
Watson acted as spokesman. "It's everywhere the same. The communes are
on the fine edge of revolt. They've been pushed too far; they've got to
the point where they just don't give a damn. A spark and all Texcoco
goes up in flames."
Reif said coldly, "We need immediate reforms. They've got to be
pacified. An immediate announcement of more consumer goods, fewer State
taxes, above all a relaxation of Security Police pressures. Given
immediate promise of these, we might maintain ourselves."
Joe Chessman's sullen face was twitching at the right corner of his
mouth. Young Taller made no attempt to disguise his contempt at the
other's weakness in time of stress.
Chessman's eyes went around the half circle of them. "This is the only
alternative? It'll slow up our heavy industry program. We might not
catch up with Genoa as quickly as planned."
Watson gestured with a hand in quick irritation. "Look here, Chessman,
don't we get through to you? Whether or not we build up a steel capacity
as large as Amschel Mayer's isn't important now. Everything's at stake."
"Don't talk to me that way, Barry," Chessman growled truculently. "I'll
make the decisions. I'll do the thinking." He said to Reif, "How much of
the Tulan army is loyal?"
The aging Tulan looked at Watson before turning back to Joe Chessman.
"All of the Tulan army is loyal--to me."
"Good!" Chessman pushed some of the dispatches on his desk aside, letting
them flutter to the floor. He bared a field map. "If we crush half a
dozen of the local communes ... crush them hard! Then the others ..."
Watson said very slowly and so low as hardly to be heard, "You didn't
bother to listen, Chessman. We told you, all that's needed is a spark."
Joe Chessman sat back in his chair, looked at them all again, one by
one. Re-evaluating. For a moment the facial tic stopped and his eyes
held the old alertness.
"I see," he said. "And you all recommend capitulation to their demands?"
"It's our only chance," Hawkins said. "We don't even know it'll work.
There's always the chance if we throw them a few crumbs they'll want the
whole loaf. You've got to remember that some of them have been living
for twenty-five years or more under this pressure. The valve is about to
blow."
"I see," Chessman grunted. "And what else? I can see in your faces
there's something else."
The three Earthmen didn't answer. Their eyes shifted.