Philip Dick - Counter Clock World

"Just a moment, Mr. Gantrix," Sebastian said, ignoring the proffered hand. To Ann he said, "You understand the agreement?" He fixed his gaze on her, trying to read her face; it was impossible to guess what was going on in her mind: he couldn't gauge her response.

"I can see I'm interrupting," Gantrix said, jovially. "I'll go take a seat--" He strode toward one of the chairs. "--and read, until you're finished." He glanced at his wristwatch. "But I do have to meet His Mightiness, Ray Roberts, in an hour."

Ann said, "No one has 'physical possession' of anyone else."

"Words," Sebastian said. "You use them sadistically; you know what I mean. I just want her back, here, not somewhere else like a motel or the Library, but here in the vitarium."

"Is the Anarch Peak on the premises?" Gantrix spoke up. "Could I tiptoe in and have a look at him while you good people carry on your discussion?"

"He's not on the premises," Sebastian said. "We were forced to move him. For purposes of safety."

"But you do have actual and legal custody," Gantrix said.

"Yes," Sebastian said. "I guarantee it."

Ann said, "What makes you think I can deliver Lotta back to you? She left of her own free will. I have no idea where she is, except that somewhere in San--"

"But you will find the motel," he said. "Eventually. You phoned the Library and told the Erads to keep working until they located her."

The girl's face blanched.

"I know the content of both calls," Sebastian said. "To the Library and to your husband."

"Those were strictly private," Ann said sulkily and with indignation--but also, he noticed, with fear. For the first time she had lost control; she was afraid of him. And with reason. Having knowledge of the calls, of her real intentions, had changed him; he felt the newness in him, and Ann evidently could see it. "I was just griped," she said. "Nobody's going to kill Joe Tinbane; that was just talk. You upset me terribly when you hit me; no man has ever hit me in my entire life. And what I said about sticking with you--" She chose her words scrupulously. He could sense her sorting among the possibilities. "Frankly, I want to stay with you because I'm attracted to you. I had to give my husband an excuse; I had to tell him _something_."

"Get the bomb," he said.

"Hmm," she said reflectively, again folding her arms. "I wonder if I ought to do that." She seemed less frightened, now.

His attention captured, Carl Gantrix again spoke up. "Bomb? What bomb?" He stood up nervously.

"Turn the Anarch over to us," Ann said, "and I'll defuse the bomb."

Impasse.

To Carl Gantrix, Ann said, "I brought the bomb in here when the Anarch was here. To kill him."

Staring at her, with horror, Gantrix said,, "W-why?"

"I'm from the Library," Ann said. Puzzled by his reaction, she said, "Doesn't Ray Roberts want the Anarch killed?"

"_Oh my god no!_" Gantrix said.

Both Sebastian and Ann Fisher stared at him, now.

"We revere the Anarch," Gantrix said, stammering in his vehemence, his disclaim. "He's our _saint_--the only one we've got. We've waited decades for his return; the Anarch will have all the ultimate wisdom of the afterlife; that's the entire purpose of Roberts' pilg: this is a holy journey, for the purpose of sitting at the feet of the Anarch and hearing his good news." He walked toward Ann Fisher, now, his fingers clutching; she ducked away, avoiding him. "The _news_," Gantrix said. "The glorious news of the fusion in eternity of all souls. _Nothing else matters but this news_."

Ann said faintly, "The Library--"

"You Erads," Gantrix said; his voice was harsh, bleak with disdain. "Tyrants. Petty rulers of this earth. What business is it of yours? You intend to eradicate the news which he has bro ught back?" He turned to Sebastian. "The Anarch, you say, is physically safe, now?"

"Yes," Sebastian said. "They tried to get him; in fact they almost did." Had he been wrong about Roberts? Was this true? He had a strange, eerie feeling of unreality, as if Carl Gantrix was not actually here, not genuinely saying anything; it was like a dream, Gantrix's words, his dismay and outrage, his avowed dislike of the Library. But if it were true, he thought, then we can do business; we can go ahead and purvey the Anarch to him. Everything is changed.

To Sebastian, Carl Gantrix said, "Does she have the detonator of the bomb on her?"

"The Library can detonate the bomb," Ann said huskily.

"No," Sebastian said. "It's on her." To Ann he said, "That's what you said in your vidcall to the Library."

"Do you think she would let herself be killed by it?" Gantrix asked him.

"No," Sebastian said. "I'm positive; she meant to get out of here first."

Gantrix said, "Then we can proceed this way: I'll hold her arms while you search for the detonator." He gripped the girl, then, in an iron-rigid hold. Too rigid, Sebastian thought; he noted that. And then he understood his sense of unreality about Gantrix; it was a robot, operating on remote.

No wonder "Gantrix" was not frightened by the bomb, now that he--or rather his operator--knew that the Anarch was away and safe. It's only me, Sebastian realized, who'll be killed: me and Ann Fisher McGuire.

"I suggest," the roby said, "that you search her as quickly as you can." Its voice was firm with authority.

Sebastian said, "Annie, don't detonate it. For your own sake. It won't accomplish anything; this isn't a man--it's only a robot. The Uditi won't seek blood because of the destruction of a robot."

"Is that true?" she asked "Gantrix."

"Yes," it said. "I am Carl Junior. Please, Mr. Hermes; get the triggering device away from her. We have business to conduct and I have less than an hour."

He found the mechanism in her purse. After a fifteen minute search. Thanks to the robot's tight grip on the girl she had no chance of reaching it; they had never genuinely been in danger.

"You have that, now," Ann said, with stilted composure, "but my instructions to the Library still stand. About Joe Tinbane and about your wife." She faced him defiantly, now, as the robot released her.

"And about me, too?" Sebastian asked. "Sticking to me, staying with me, to--"

"Yes, yes, yes," she said, massaging her arms. She brushed her hair back, smoothed it, shook her head vigorously. "I think he's lying," she said, making a quick, furtive gesture at Carl Junior. "If you turn the Anarch over to him you'll get nothing but worthless F.N.M. poscreds and then they'll announce in a few weeks that the Anarch is ailing, and then he'll disappear. He'll be dead. A little while ago, before it came, you offered me a quid pro quo. I'll now accept; you'll get Lotta back--as you specified, physically here at the vitarium. And we receive the Anarch." She studied him, waiting for his answer.

He said, "But if Udi gets the Anarch--"

"Oh, you conceivably might see Lotta again anyhow. I'm not threatening you; I'm offering you an absolute guarantee." Once again Ann seemed poised, in control of yerself. "We'll put the resources of the Library behind persuading her to leave Joe Tinbane and returning to you; it won't be coercion; it'll be nothing more than making her appreciate how much you care for her. How much you've given up for her sake. You gave up forty-five billion poscreds to get her back; she'll understand that

... some of the Erads are very good at making intricate issues clear."

"I'll take you elsewhere," Sebastian said to the robot Carl Junior. "Where we can work the sale out." He seized Ann Fisher by the arm, led her in one swift motion from the store and out onto the sidewalk. The robot Carl Junior silently followed.

As he locked up the vitarium, Ann said, "You stupid foodhead. You stupid, stupid foodhead." Her voice rang sharply, as he and Carl Junior started toward the rickety outside stairs which led to the roof and his parked car.