"I think you'll find, as you establish strong bonds of friendship with planetary politicians—nothing but friendship, mind—" said Bleys, "if they're such good friends that they want to loan you or give you funds or anything like that, that's fine. I know you were exposed to the rule we never ask for anything. But I predict once you've formed strong bonds of friendship with a majority of those in power on this planet, the rest will come quickly to you, on their own."
"You think so?" said Hammer.
"I do," answered Bleys, "once you have the whole planet firmly in your grasp, you can begin being open about your superiority; and the superiority of our organization, over anything else locally. But that's still going to be a ways off yet. It'll take a few years, even if things move fairly fast for all of us, to get individual organizations into that sort of position of control."
"Oh, I understand perfectly," said Hammer. "Now, how much of this should I clear with Dahno, or you, before we do it?"
"Try clearing it with me, first," said Bleys. "You know, Dahno has his hands full managing Association himself and our organization there. If I can deal with it, then we've saved him that much of a drain on his time and attention. If not, I can always pass it on to him."
"Excellent," said Hammer. "Then I'll address all information dealing with this to you, first."
Bleys looked at his wrist monitor. It was almost time for him to leave. They had covered everything that he had wanted to cover, and he had done successfully all he had set out to do. He
let Hammer drive him to the spaceport, making general talk about Freiland and the diversity he had noticed, of its peoples, even with common customs. Hammer endorsed the comments and even threw in a few of his own.
An hour and a half later Bleys was in space, in the lounge of the ship that would carry him to Cassida; and watching the starscape, while his mind processed everything of the past week to set it in context with his continually growing picture of the human race and what he must do, when the time came.
Chapter 24
"Ah, Bleys Ahrens! Honored to meet you! Honored!" said a voice rather closer to the floor of the Cassidan terminal than Bleys had expected, as he felt his hand grasped by the hand of a short, slightly rotund man, with his round face wreathed in smiles. "I'm Himandi Messer. You were expecting me to be here, I think?"
"More or less, yes," said Bleys as Himandi pressed his hand warmly and came very close to pumping it up and down in a way that had been customary centuries ago.
He had indeed been expecting Himandi, who was the leader of the local Others association. Bleys looked down now at a man who was clearly in his forties.
Bleys, who had had some contact by letter with Himandi before his coming, had looked for clues in the letter to Himandi's background, but it had been impossible for him to say what kind of a cross-breed he was, and which Splinter Cultures had come together to produce him—usually a situation that indicated the man did not know who his parents were. He had tested out as pure Exotic.
Bleys would have guessed a certain amount of Exotic parentage, but that was as far as supposition could take him. In any case, he was undeniably capable.
"But you came direct from Freiland!" said Himandi, finally releasing his hand. "I rather thought you'd stop at Newton first?"
"Why? asked Bleys.
Himandi chuckled deeply.
"Oh," he said, "it's just that I thought as long as you were this far you might want to spend some time looking at Newton. It's a remarkable place—" His voice trailed off. At the moment he even looked almost uncomfortable.
"No," said Bleys, "as I've been telling people along the way, this isn't in any sense a recreational trip. I'm making these visits purely for business reasons."
"Oh, I see. Well, certainly ..." Himandi babbled on as he drew Bleys deeper into the terminal. Bleys understood what was behind that question of his about Newton. It was very nearly a reflex in most Cassidans.
Cassida was a technological world, where technicians were taught, put to work and exported when profitable to other planets like Association for difficult projects like putting in a Core Tap.
It was a world that had an almost symbiotic relationship with Newton; and Newton was a world primarily of research scientists, who were supported in this labor of pure research by the occasional licensing of some discovery that was useful and marketable to the technicians on Cassida.
Cassida had the people and the facilities to turn such things into concrete realities that could be sold on other worlds, including even Old Earth.
The relationship, however, extended even to the social areas of both planets. In spite of several hundred years of association there was still a covert tendency on the part of the Newtonian scientists to look down their nose slightly at Cassidans—and a sneaking tendency on the part of the Cassidans, which they would never admit but which showed itself in questions like the one Himandi had asked just now—to look up to and imitate Newton.
It was an influence which reached into every branch of Cassidan life. It even affected their governmental structure. Newton was ruled by a twelve-man Board of Governors. Beneath that Board there was a large unwieldy body that consisted of scientists of enough seniority and repute to qualify as members of it—like top members of a teaching staff at a college or university—but of whom there were so many that it was difficult to find a place to get them all gathered together for any kind of lawmaking.
The result was that the lower body, which called itself the House of Representatives, could actually meet only once a year in a large underground stadium. Except in some very rare instances, it simply went through the motions of rubber-stamping the decisions that had already been made by the Board of Governors during that year.
All this information, Bleys had absorbed in the process of studying these two worlds before his trip here. The awkward type of government set up on Newton had inevitably had its effect, if on a more practical level, on Cassida. Here, they also had upper and lower houses of government. The lower one had only about double the numbers of the upper, however, so that the law-making process could go on most of the year around.
Also, on Cassida the lower house was much more ready on occasion to override the upper house. This would all be something that Bleys would have to take into account—this business of Newton's influence—when he came to seeing what kind of work the local organization was doing. His own conclusion from studying the matter back on Association was that in spite of everything, Cassida's upper house was still the one with the power. Theoretically, the organization should have concentrated its attention quite strongly on that.
Aside from that, Cassida was a business-oriented world and they should also have their connections and their influence reaching out into the area of business and commerce.
He had been listening to, without hearing, Himandi Messer. But now the other man, almost trotting beside him as they went
toward the front of the terminal, was asking him questions which required some answer.
"... What would you like first, now?" Himandi was saying, "a chance to rest? A meal? Or should we just go someplace and sit where we can have some light refreshment, while you tell me in more detail what your plans are for the days you're here?"
"The last, I think," said Bleys.
"Fine, fine!" said Himandi, coding away at his wrist monitor, "I've sent your luggage to the Elysium. I think you'll like it. It's the best hotel we've got here. Now, the place we'll be going to is right close to the hotel. Come along with me."
Bleys continued with him to the basement parking area where an auto-call had already brought Himandi's magnetic car into the waiting line of those already summoned by people who were leaving the terminal. It was actually the first time he had ridden in a magnetic car, which instead of riding on an air cushion like Dahno's hovercar, rode on magnets that worked against the ones in the road bed to keep the vehicle floating above the ground. Dahno, Bleys knew, could easily have had one of these, rather than his lesser, uni
mpressive hovercar that traveled on its air cushion, but he was far too wise to attract attention in that way.
Bleys wondered how wise Himandi was to drive what he did.
However, once out on the highways, Bleys noticed Himandi's type of car was far in the majority of the vehicles he saw. Cassida was, of course, a much more wealthy planet than Association; perhaps Himandi's car was unremarkable here.
The lounge Himandi took Bleys to seemed to be part of a hotel that was not the Elysium, to which his baggage had already been sent. Nonetheless, the room they sat down in was a very pleasant room with a number of little conversational circles and padded floats within them. About half the seating areas were occupied by groups; but Bleys noticed as they walked past these that even within a few feet it was impossible to hear any sound of voices from the people talking less than a few feet away. Apparently some invisible sound-blocks were in place.
It was not to be wondered at on a technologically-oriented planet like this.
Once seated, they ordered drinks to which Himandi added a small order of hors d'oeuvre—like finger food. Fruit juice varied in taste from planet to planet, even when it was the juice of the same fruit, because of differences in soil and environment. Therefore, Bleys stayed away from the fruit juices and instead settled for a dry ginger ale, that was a common and uniform thing on all the spaceships and all the worlds, being specifically made for travelers like himself who might have trouble with a change in food tastes every couple of weeks. Himandi ordered some kind of alcoholic drink, and drank it with as much gusto as Dahno, although not with Dahno's gargantuan capacity.
"Now tell me," said Himandi,"what would you like first? You probably want to rest the rest of today. But this evening or tomorrow we could have a general meal at which all the original members of the organization here could be present and you could meet them. Or would you rather look over the city first?"
"I think I might as well start at the top," said Bleys. "I'd like to see your offices, both the general office and your own private office and anything connected with it in the way of a file room."
"Certainly! Certainly!" said Himandi. "And you'll want to go through the files. Very good. Very good, indeed. And of course you'll want to see the secret files too?"
An alarm bell went off in the back of Bleys' head. It was just barely possible that news of the fact that he had insisted on seeing Hammer's secret files could have reached Himandi here before him. It might barely have been arranged by mailing a letter ahead on a ship that made a connection to Cassida, before Bleys' direct flight had left Freiland. There were two or three days lead time that might have made this possible.
But besides being unlikely, it would require that Hammer had written directly to Himandi himself. That was hardly to be considered. There was no reason for the heads of the Other separate world organizations to be secretly in correspondence. A more likely possibility—unless the offer had been completely innocent—was that the free offering of secret files was an attempt to divert Bleys' attention from something that might be hidden somewhere else in the organization.
"I'll want to see everything, of course," said Bleys pleasantly. "And I'm not at all tired from my trip. After we finish here, why don't we simply go straight to your office?"
"Yes! Absolutely!" said Himandi.
Himandi's outer office, with two people—men in this instance—working busily at a couple of desks with piles of messages in code, had no essential difference from the outer office of Hammer—or Dahno's, for that matter. Himandi introduced Bleys to the two men working there; and then led the way into his own office, which was almost spartan by comparison with Hammer's and Dahno's, but at the same time had a touch of elegance about it that was almost oriental.
Without hesitation, Himandi led the way further into a file room opening off this inner office, and.settled Bleys in a float-chair before a large screen.
"Where would you like to start first?" Himandi asked.
"I generally go alphabetically," murmured Bleys. "I'll work through your files that way. These are the secret files or the general files?"
"The general files!" said Himandi."I thought you'd like to see those first."
"Quite right, I would," answered Bleys. He activated the screen, the controls of which were the same—in fact all such controls were universal on most of the Younger Worlds—and began examining the files.
"I'll be getting some work of my own done in my personal office," said Himandi, "—unless, that is, you want me here with you?"
"It's not necessary," said Bleys. "By all means do what you want; but stay close in case I have questions for you."
"Oh, of course," said Himandi, and went out, gently closing the door of the file room behind him.
Bleys went through the considerable number of open files he could find. They were similar enough to the ones that Hammer and Dahno kept, so that he could go through these even more swiftly than he had gone through Hammer's. Essentially, he was looking for references that left question marks in his mind.
It was at times like this that he felt a small, pleasurable feeling of excitement. It was one of the few opportunities that came to him to open himself up, so to speak, and put his whole ability to a job, even as simple a job as this one. It was like being in a low-flying airship, racing at low altitude at top speed, over a terrain with which he was fully familiar, his vision keyed to pick up anything unusual or different.
In this particular case, the one thing that struck him most strongly, was that the contacts of all the Other members of the Cassida organization were almost completely with members of the lower house. He could find no reason in the rest of the information on file as to why they should be restricting themselves unduly. He tucked the information away for future consideration.
Less than two hours after he had begun he went back to the outer office, where Himandi was at work at his desk. The other looked up, then jumped to his feet as he recognized Bleys.
"Yes?" Himandi said. "There's something I can help you with?"
"Not directly," said Bleys. "I've simply finished going through the general files. I'm ready to look at those secret ones of yours now."
Himandi stared at him in disbelief.
"You've finished with the general files?" he asked.
"Yes," said Bleys, "as I just said, I'm ready for the secret files now."
"But—" Himandi almost stammered, "you couldn't go through all those files in just this much time. I was assuming it'd take you days—maybe a week—to do anything like that."
"As I told Hammer Martin, who heads the organization for us on Freiland," said Bleys, "I'm a fast reader. Now about those secret files—"
"Why, right away. Right away," said Himandi. But his face was darkened by a puzzled frown as he went past Bleys into the file room and sat down himself before the screen.
As Bleys stood and watched him Himandi carefully set up a code on the screen, which dissolved- into a picture of large letters saying: top secret, available only to those with clearance.
He put in another code, the screen cleared and the word ready appeared. Himandi reached into his pocket for a bunch of keys, selected one and stuck it in the slot beside the control pad. The screen cleared again and once more the words top secret appeared on the screen.
Bleys watched with interest. Everything that Himandi had done, except use the key, was sheer flummery. No code input to a machine like this could keep out those who knew and understood such devices.
Himandi got up from the seat before the screen, his smile back on him and apparently all puzzlement and surprise forgotten.
"Just punch the open key for A, and you can go through these files, just like you did the others. They're much shorter."
"Thanks," Bleys sat down before the screen, "in that case, it shouldn't take long."
He did not turn his head, but he heard the file room door click softly closed again behind him as Himandi went back out.
He began to go through the secret files.
They seemed to consist mainly of dossiers; those on a number of governmental and business and even some militia people, but also complete dossiers on all the members of the Others group in the Cassida organization. It seemed that a good deal of work had been put into compiling as much information as necessary about the people working under Himandi.
But that was not what riveted Bleys' attention particularly. It was the fact that a great many of the political figures, on whom there were files, were from the upper house. There seemed only one conclusion; and that was that Himandi was personally almost exclusively in contact with those known friends and associates of the organization in the more powerful branch of the government. That meant his subordinate classmates handled the less important people.
Bleys reached the end of the secret files, and switched off the screen. He sat for a few seconds, thinking, then got up and went back out into Himandi's office. The other man was once more at his desk and at work. Just as before, however, he jumped to his feet and came around the desk, leaving the work behind at the sight of Bleys.
"You're really through with the secret files, too?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes," said Bleys. "Now I think I'd better go to my hotel and sleep on what I've read. Perhaps you could set up passes for me tomorrow to the visitors' gallery of both the government houses."
"Oh, absolutely!" said Himandi, leading the way to the door to the outer office.
In his suite at the Elysium Hotel, which was a good deal larger than Bleys needed and luxurious to the point of ostentation, Bleys ordered up a light dinner. Himandi had already left. Outside, the day was beginning to fade into the planet's early twilight. It was his intention to do exactly what he had told Himandi he would do—sleep on the material he had scanned this afternoon. It was one thing to put the information into his mind, another thing to fully consider it. He had discovered that this was best done during sleep hours.