Gene Wolfe - There Are Doors

“You’re blowing town?”

He nodded. “I’m going to Marea.”

“That’s good. I mean, things don’t seem to be working out so good for you here.”

“Will you drop me there?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you.” He hesitated. “I probably shouldn’t mention this, but do you know the name of the man I was staying with?”

“I don’t pay attention to that kind of thing.”

“Yesterday morning we ate breakfast together in the coffee shop, but you weren’t our waitress.”

“You probably got Maisie, or maybe Edith. See, they kept three of us on, and we were supposed to work two days and off one, Maisie and Edith yesterday, me and Maisie today.”

He told her, “The other man in my room was using the name Campbell, but he was really William T. North.”

She did not answer.

He said, “You know people in the Iron Boot. You know who William T. North is.”

“And you want me to put you on a train for Marea.”

“That’s right.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “But I was going to do that anyway—no, you’re right, I wasn’t. I was going to try to get you to come home with me. Do you need money? I can give you a little; I don’t have a whole lot.”

“No,” he said. “I need to talk to Klamm before I go.”

There was a long silence. Their road joined a larger one, a highway with four lanes. She watched the traffic and steered. With the accelerator all the way to the floorboards, her little car would do fifty-four miles an hour on the flat. He recalled that the brown Mink had been a bit better: nearly sixty.

At last she said, “Then you’ll have to come home with me.”

“You could drop me off at a hotel.”

She shook her head. “Who’ve you told? North?”

“Nobody.” He tried to think of a way to explain. “I wasn’t North’s friend; I don’t think he has friends. I might be Klamm’s friend, if I knew what you and Klamm are up to.”

“You were with North at the Adrian.”

“That’s right. You saw us? Or did they tell you?”

“I saw you. I was in the audience. They—Klamm—thought they had everything closed, everything tight. The whole block was sealed off. But North’s got more lives than a tomcat, and they wanted me to see him just in case. As it turned out they were right.”

“North escaped? I was afraid of that.”

“That’s the way it looks. Several people died in the fire, but we’ve identified all of them now.”

He thought for a moment. “Dr. Applewood—I know you must know about him. Dr. Applewood didn’t seem to have much trouble getting out.”

“Of course not. We let him out. We let all of them out, except for one who got killed by accident.”

“Why?”

“What do you care?” She sounded contemptuous.

“Because I was one of them.”

“That’s right, you were. You’re willing to turn against North?”

“I’ve never been for him. I was a sort of prisoner—his slave, if you want to put it like that.”

“And you couldn’t get away?”

“I did.” He told her what had taken place in the basement. “That is, I got away from North. What I want to know is why you let me get away, and Dr. Applewood and the rest.”

“Because you were all just low-level people. When you’ve identified low-level people, you don’t arrest them. You don’t want to. You watch them like we watched the play before North showed up. You let them lead you to the ringleaders.”

He said, “That was what you did with me, wasn’t it? I had my hotel key in my pocket, and this morning before I ate I went to Dr. Applewood to get this bandage and some salve for my hand. After breakfast, when I came down again to buy some clothes, the light was off in his office. I suppose the blonde in the beauty shop saw me the first time and came to listen outside the door.”

Fanny shrugged. “I suppose.”

“You don’t know?”

She glanced at him, irritated. “You think she tells me everything she does? She’s my boss, a lieutenant.”

“I’m sorry,” he said.

When she was silent he added, “It’s just that this morning in the coffee shop I thought you liked me. When they shut the hotel and nobody would pay any attention to me until you came by to pick me up, I knew I’d been supposed to find that paper about you, and you were just playing a part … .” He let the thought trail away.

“Nature made women to play parts. When we stop, the show’s over.” She drew a deep breath, then let it out with a puff. “I did like you, and I still do. But as long as we know each other I’ll always be playing a part, every few minutes and sometimes for hours. I can’t help it. Anything else you want to know?”

“Yes. Last night at the theater—who was the woman in the box with Klamm?”

“His stepdaughter.”

“What?” He realized his mouth was open, and closed it.

“That’s his stepdaughter. Klamm used to be married, though obviously they never—you know.”

He did not, but he nodded.

“Then his wife found a man who would. She and Klamm were divorced, naturally, but they’re still friends—she’s supposed to have been his favorite student when he was at the university, and I imagine their love was always a lot more intellectual than anything else.”

The highway had become a boulevard. Fanny turned off it onto a city street lined with stores. “All this is just what I’ve heard, you understand—I don’t know Klamm or his ex-wife personally. Anyway, he’s been like an uncle to her children. That’s what they say, but that one’s the only one you ever see with him in public. I suppose she looks a lot like her mother did when she was younger; it happens sometimes.” Fanny smiled bitterly.

“And her name’s Klamm?”

“Certainly not. Her name’s Nomos. Laura Nomos.”

“Laura Nomos,” he repeated. He had heard the name, he felt sure. At the theater? In the hospital? He could not place it. Had Joe mentioned it? He found he associated it with Joe.

“This morning in the coffee shop I thought you really liked me.” Fanny was parodying what he had said a few moments before. “When I found out it was really Klamm’s stepdaughter, I was just devastated. I mean I am.” She sighed theatrically. “She’s a lawyer, I hear. You could look her up in the Bar Association’s guide—see how much you learn by hanging out with a cop?”

The little car turned right, and though they were not going fast, the turn was so abrupt that its rear wheels skidded.

“Any more questions?”

“Are you taking me to see Klamm?”

She laughed. “I’m taking you to my place—maybe in a week you’ll get to see Klamm. How old do you think I am?”

He hesitated, fearful of insulting her. “I’m not very good at this. Twenty?”

“Thanks. I’m twenty-two, and if I was a grade lower I’d be in uniform. My lieutenant reports to a captain who reports to a person who reports to a woman who reports to Klamm. We have to go up the chain of command, and we’ll have to have something to say that will make Klamm think you’re worth his time. Is there anything else?”

“Who is Kay?”

Her eyes left the road to stare at him, their expression a mixture of surprise and skepticism.

He explained, “Once I talked to Klamm on the phone, and he thought I was somebody called Kay. I’ve known women named Kay, but this was a man, I think. He heard my voice, and he called me ‘Herr Kay.’ That’s a man, isn’t it?”

“I suppose it is. But I haven’t the least idea what man. Except …”

“Yes?”

“Sometimes Klamm himself is called Herr K. in the papers, from his initial and because he was born in the German Empire. But I don’t see how it could be that if you were really on the phone with Klamm.”