same over here. Pressures are generating,in this world of ours. We'll either make changes peaceably or Zenknows what will happen. The Sovs haven't been exposed to religion forseveral generations, Joe. Probably the Party heads had forgotten it asa potential danger. Here in the West-world we do better. The Templeprovides us with a pressure valve in that particular area, but I stillwouldn't like to see our trank and Telly bemused morons subjected to asudden blast of revival-type religion."
Joe looked back at Holland. "I still don't get my going to Budapest.How, why, when?"
Holland glanced at a desk watch and became brisk. "I have anappointment with the President," he said. "We'll have to turn thisover to some of the other members of this group. They'll explaindetails, Joe. Nadine's going, too. In her case, as a medical attachein our Embassy, in Budapest. You'll go as a military observer, checkon potential violations of the Universal Disarmament Pact." A suddenthought struck him. "I imagine it would add to your prestige andpossibly open additional doors to you, if you carried more status." Helooked again at the telly-mike on his desk. "Miss Mikhail, in myoffice here is Joseph Mauser, now Mid-Middle in caste. Please take thenecessary steps to raise him to Low-Upper, immediately. I'll clearthis with Tom, and he'll authorize it as recommended through the WhiteHouse. It that clear?"
In a daze, Joe could hear the receptionist's voice. "Yes, sir. JosephMauser to be raised to Low-Upper caste immediately."
XV
Budapest, basically, had changed little over half a millennium.
The Danube, seldom blue except when seen through the eyes of a twosomebetween whom spark has recently been struck, still wandered its waydividing the old, old town of Pest from the still older town of Buda.Where the stream widens there is room for the one hundred and twelveacres of Margitsziget, or Margaret Island to the West-world. Downthrough the ages, through Celts and Romans, Slavs and Hungs, Turks andMagyars, none have been so gross as to use Margitsziget for other thana park.
Buda, lying to the west of the Danube, is of rolling hills and bluffsand of ancient towers, fortresses, castles and walls which havesuffered through a hundred wars, a score of revolutions. It dominatesthe younger, more dynamic, Pest which stretches out on the flat plainsto the east so that though you stand on the Harmashatarhegy hill ofBuda and strain your eyes, you are hard put to find the furtherestlimits of Pest.
The jetport was on the outskirts of Pest, and the craft carryingNadine Haer, Joseph Mauser and Max Mainz, settled in for a gentlelanding, the autopilot more delicate far than human eye served byhuman hand.
Max, his eyes glued to the window, said, "Well, gee, it don't lookmuch different than a lotta the other towns we passed over."
Nadine looked at him and laughed. She alone of the three of them hadever been outside the boundaries of the West-world having attendedseveral international medical conventions. Over the years, the FrigidFracas had laid its chill on tourism, so that now travel betweenWest-world and Sov-world was all but unknown, and even visiting theNeut-world was considered a bit far out and somewhat suspect of goingbeyond the old time way of doing things--even among the Uppers.Securing a passport for a Middle's trip, not to speak of a Lower's,involved such endless bureaucratic red tape as to be nonsensical.
Nadine said to Joe's batman, "What did you expect, Max?"
"Well, I don't know, Miss Haer. I mean, Dr. Haer. Kind of gloomier,like. Shucks, I've seen this here town on Telly a dozen times."
"And seeing is believing," Joe muttered cynically. "It looks as thoughwe have a reception committee." He looked at Nadine. "Are we supposedto know each other?"
She shrugged and made a moue. "It would be somewhat strange if wedidn't, seeing that we flew over in the same aircraft, and were theonly passengers to come this far."
He nodded and as the plane came to a halt, helped her from her chair,even as the plane's ladder slipped out and touched to the ground.
Joe grunted and said, as though to himself, "You realize that for allpractical purposes there hasn't been any improvement in aircraft for ageneration?"
Nadine looked at him from the side of her eyes, even as theydescended. "That's what I keep telling you, Joe. We've becomeossified. When a society, afraid of change, adopts a policy ofmaintaining the _status quo_ at any cost, progress is arrested.Progress _means_ change."
He grinned at her. "Sure, sure, sure. Please, no more lectures,teacher. Let what's already in my head stew a while."
* * * * *
On the ground, Nadine was met by one contingent from the Embassy andfrom the Sov-world authorities, and Joe and Max by another. Joe becameoccupied, hardly more than noticing that she had been whisked away ina hoverlimousine, ornately bedecked with official flags and stars.
Joe, no longer holding military rank, in spite of his mission, was inmufti, and restrained himself from returning the salute when greetedby two fresh young lieutenants from the Embassy and a be-medaledlieutenant colonel in Sov-world uniform, whose tight-waisted tunicreminded Joe of that worn by Colonel Lajos Arpad, the military attacheJoe had come across twice in West-world fracases, and who FrankHodgson had branded an espionage agent. Joe swore again, inwardly,that these Hungarian officers must wear girdles under their uniforms,and wondered vaguely if they did so in combat.
The lieutenants, who could have been twins, so alike were they insize, bright smiling faces, uniform and words of welcome, saluted Joe,shook hands, and then turned to introduce him to the Sov-worldofficer.
One of them said, "Major Mauser, may we present you to Lieutenant BelaKossuth of the Pink Army?"
They were, evidently using Joe's old title of rank, as if he wereretired rather than dismissed from the Category Military. It meantlittle to Joe Mauser. The Sov officer clicked his heels, bowed fromthe waist, extended his hand to be shaken. His waist might be pinchedin like that of a girl of the Nineteenth Century, but his hand was dryand firm.
"The fame of Joseph Mauser has penetrated to the ProletarianParadise," he said, his voice conveying sincerity.
Joe shook and said, "Pink Army? I thought you called it--"
The colonel was indicating a hoverlimousine with a sweeping gesturethat would have seemed overly graceful, had not Joe felt the grip ofthe man only a moment earlier. Kossuth interrupted him politely, "Theplane was a trifle late and the banquet we have prepared awaits us,major. A multitude of my fellow officers are anxious to meet the famedJoseph Mauser. Would it surprise you to know that I have replayed, ascore of times, your celebrated holding action on the LouisianaMilitary Reservation? Zut! Unbelievable. With but a single company ofmen!"
Joe was looking at him blankly. _Celebrated!_ Joe couldn't butremember the fracas the mincing Hungarian was talking about. When thefront had collapsed, Joe, then a captain, had held his position in theswamps while his superiors were supposedly reforming behind him,actually while they frantically tried to reach terms with the enemy.
One of the West-world lieutenants laughed at Joe's expression. "You'regoing to have to get used to the fact that there're as many fracasbuffs over here, sir, as there are back home."
The Sov colonel waggled a finger at him. "But, no, you misunderstandcompletely, Lieutenant Andersen. We _study_ the bloody fracases of theWest. Following the campaigns of such tacticians as your MarshalStonewall Cogswell goes far toward the training of our own Pink Armyin its, ah, fracases."
That brought up a dozen questions in Joe's mind, but first he turnedand indicated Max, who'd been standing behind, his eyes wide, andtaking in the luxurious airport, the vehicles about it, the buildings,the airport workers, few in number though they be, the road leading tothe city beyond.
Joe said, "Gentlemen, may I present Max Mainz?"
The faces of the lieutenants went blank, and one of them coughed asthough apologetically.
The Sov colonel looked from Joe to Max, and then back again, his faceassuming that expression so well known to Joe for so very long. Thearistocrat looking at one of lower class as though wondering what madethe fellow tick. Kossuth said
, "But surely this, ah, chap, is aservant, one of your, what do you call them, a _Lower_."
Max blinked unhappily and looked at Joe.
Joe Mauser said evenly, "I had heard the Sov-world was the Utopia ofthe proletariat. However, gentlemen, Max Mainz is my friend as well asmy ... assistant."
The three officers murmured some things stiffly to Max, who, a Lowerborn, was not overly nonplused by the situation. Zen, he knew thethree were Upper caste, what was Major Mauser getting into a tissyabout? He was given a seat in the front, where the chauffeur wouldhave once been, and the others took places in the rear, one of thelieutenants dialing the hovercar's destination.
* * * * *
Joe Mauser said,