Master of Life and Death

III

Roy Walton watched his brother’s head and shoulders take form out of the swirl of colors on the screen. Fred Walton was more compact, built closer to the ground than his rangy brother; he was a squat five-seven, next to Roy’s lean six-two. Fred had always threatened to “get even” with his older brother as soon as they were the same size, but to Fred’s great dismay he had never managed to catch up with Roy in height.

Even on the screen, Fred’s neck and shoulders gave an impression of tremendous solidity and force. Walton waited for his brother’s image to take shape, and when the time lag was over he said, “Well, Fred? What goes?”

His brother’s eyes flickered sleepily. “They tell me you were down here a little while ago, Roy. How come I didn’t rate a visit?”

“I wasn’t in your section. It was official business, anyway. I didn’t have time.”

Walton fixed his eyes sharply on the caduceus emblem gleaming on Fred’s lapel, and refused to look anywhere else.

Fred said slowly, “You had time to tinker with our computer, though.”

“Official business!”

“Really, Roy?” His brother’s tone was venomous. “I happened to be using the computer shortly after you this morning. I was curious—unpardonably so, dear brother. I requested a transcript of your conversation with the machine.”

Sparksseemed to flow from the screen. Walton sat back, feeling numb. He managed to pull his sagging mouth back into a stiff hard line and say, “That’s a criminal offense, Fred. Any use I make of a Popeek computer outlet is confidential.”

“Criminal offense? Maybe so… but that makes two of us, then. Eh, Roy?”

“How much do you know?”

“You wouldn’t want me to recite it over a public communications system, would you? Your friend FitzMaugham might be listening to every word of this, and I have too much fraternal feeling for that. Ole Doc Walton doesn’t want to get his bigwig big brother in trouble—oh, no!”

“Thanks for small blessings,” Roy said acidly.

“You got me this job. You can take it away. Let’s call it even for now, shall we?”

“Anything you like,” Walton said. He was drenched in sweat, though the ingenious executive filter in the sending apparatus of the screen cloaked that fact and presented him as neat and fresh. “I have some work to do now.” His voice was barely audible.

“I won’t keep you any longer, then,” Fred said.

The screen went dead.

Walton killed the contact at his end, got up, walked to the window. He nudged the opaquer control and the frosty white haze over the glass cleared away, revealing the fantastic beehive of the city outside.

Idiot!he thought. Fool!

He had risked everything to save one baby, one child probably doomed to an early death anyway. And FitzMaugham knew—the old man could see through Walton with ease—and Fred knew, too. His brother, and his father-substitute.

FitzMaugham might well choose to conceal Roy’s defection this time, but would surely place less trust in him in the future. And as for Fred…

There was no telling what Fred might do. They had never been particularly close as brothers; they had lived with their parents (now almost totally forgotten) until Roy was nine and Fred seven. Their parents had gone down offMaracaibo in a jet crash; Roy and Fred had been sent to the public creche.

After that it had been separate paths for the brothers. For Roy, an education in the law, a short spell as Senator FitzMaugham’s private secretary, followed last month by his sudden elevation to assistant administrator of the newly-created Popeek Bureau. For Fred, medicine, unsuccessful private practice, finally a job in the Happysleep section of Popeek, thanks to Roy.

And now he has the upper hand for the first time, Walton thought. I hope he’s not thirsting for my scalp.

He was being ground in a vise; he saw now the gulf between the toughness needed for a Popeek man and the very real streak of softness that was part of his character. Walton suddenly realized that he had never merited his office. His only honorable move would be to offer his resignation to FitzMaugham at once.

He thought back, thought of the Senator saying, This is a job for a man with no heart. Popeek is the crudest organization ever legislated by man. You think you can handle it, Roy?

I think so, sir. I hope so.

He remembered going on to declare some fuzzy phrases about the need for equalization, the immediate necessity for dealing with Earth’s population problem.

Temporary cruelty is the price of eternal happiness, FitzMaugham had said.

Walton remembered the day when the United Nations had finally agreed, had turned the Population Equalization Bureau loose on a stunned world. There had been the sharp flare of flash guns, the clatter of reporters feeding the story to the world, the momentary high-mindedness, the sense of the nobility of Popeek… And then the six weeks of gathering hatred. No one liked Popeek. No one liked to put antiseptic on wounds, either, but it had to be done.

Walton shook his head sorrowfully. He had made a serious mistake by saving Philip Prior. But resigning his post was no way to atone for it.

He opaqued the window again and returned to his desk. It was time to go through the mail.

The first letter on the stack was addressed to him by hand; he slit it open and scanned it.

Walton shrugged and opened the next letter, typed in a crisp voicewrite script on crinkly watermarked paper.

With a sickly cough Walton put the letter down. Most of them were just this sort: intelligent, rational, bigoted letters. There had been the educated Alabaman, disturbed that Popeek did not plan to eliminate all forms of second-class citizens; there had been the Michigan minister, anxious that no left-wing relativistic atheists escape the gas chamber.

And, of course, there was the other kind—the barely literate letters from bereaved parents or relatives, accusing Popeek of nameless crimes against humanity.

Well, it was only to be expected, Walton thought. He scribbled his initials on both the letters and dropped them into the chute that led to files, where they would be put on microfilm and scrupulously stored away. FitzMaugham insisted that every letter received be read and so filed.

Some day soon, Walton thought, population equalization would be unnecessary. Oh, sure, euthanasia would stick; it was a sane and, in the long run, merciful process. But this business of uprooting a few thousand Belgians and shipping them to the open spaces in Patagonia would cease.

Lang and his experimenters were struggling to transform Venus into a livable world. If it worked, the terraforming engineers could go on to convert Mars, the bigger moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and perhaps even distant Pluto, provided some form of heating could be developed.

There would be another transition then. Earth’s multitudes would be shipped wholesale to the new worlds. Perhaps there would be riots; none but a few adventurers would go willingly. But some would go, and that would be a partial solution.

And then, the stars. The faster-than-light project was top secret, so top secret that in Popeek only FitzMaugham knew what was being done on it. But if it came through…

Walton shrugged and turned back to his work. Reports had to be read, filed, expedited.

The thought of Fred and what Fred knew bothered him. If only there were some way to relive this morning, to let the Prior baby go to the chamber as it deserved…

Tension pounded in him. He slipped a hand into his desk, fumbled, found the green, diamond-shaped pellet he was searching for, and swallowed the benzolurethrin almost unthinkingly. The tranquilizer was only partly successful in relaxing him, but he was able to work steadily, without a break, until noon.

He was about to dial for lunch when the private screen he and FitzMaugham used between their offices glowed into life.

“Roy?”

The director’s face looked impossibly tranquil.

“Sir?”

“I’m going to have a visitor at 1300. Ludwig. He wants to know how things are going.”

Walton nodded. Ludwig was the head American delegate to the United Nations, a stubborn, dedicated man who had fought Popeek for years; then he had seen the light and had fought just as strenuously for its adoption. “Do you want me to prepare a report for him?” Walton asked.

“No, Roy. I want you to be here. I don’t want to face him alone.”

“Sir?”

“Some of the UN people feel I’m running Popeek as a one-man show,” FitzMaugham explained. “Of course, that’s not so, as that mountain of work on your desk testifies. But I want you there as evidence of the truth. I want him to see how much I have to rely on my assistants.”

“I get it. Very good, Mr. FitzMaugham.”

“And another thing,” the director went on. “It’ll help appearances if I show myself surrounded with loyal young lieutenants of impeccable character. Like you, Roy.”

“Thank you, sir,” Walton said weakly.

“Thank you. See you at 1300 sharp, then?”

“Of course, sir.”

The screen went dead. Walton stared at it blankly. He wondered if this were some elaborate charade of the old man’s; FitzMaugham was devious enough. That last remark, about loyal young lieutenants of impeccable character… it had seemed to be in good faith, but was it? Was FitzMaugham staging an intricate pretense before deposing his faithless protege?

Maybe Fred had something to do with it, Walton thought. He decided to have another session with the computer after his conference with FitzMaugham and Ludwig. Perhaps it still wasn’t too late to erase the damning data and cover his mistake.

Then it would be just his word against Fred’s. He might yet be able to brazen through, he thought dully.

He ordered lunch with quivering fingers, and munched drearily on the tasteless synthetics for a while before dumping them down the disposal chute.