Orbit 2

“Cut!” Herb said. His voice was shaken. “Hire her,” he said. The man rose, glanced at the girl, sobbing now, and then quickly bent over and kissed her cheek. Her sobs increased. Her golden hair was down, framing her face; she looked like a child. John tore off the helmet. He was perspiring.

Herb got up, turned on the lights in the room, and the window blanked out, blending with the wall. He didn’t look at John. When he wiped his face, his hand was shaking. He rammed it in his pocket.

“When did you start auditions like that?” John asked, after a few moments of silence.

“Couple of months ago. I told you about it. Hell, we had to, Johnny. That’s the six hundred nineteenth girl we’ve tried out! Six hundred nineteen! All phonies but one! Dead from the neck up. Do you have any idea how long it was taking us to find that out? Hours for each one. Now it’s a matter of minutes.”

John Lewisohn sighed. He knew. He had suggested it, actually, when he had said, “Find a basic anxiety situation for the test.” He hadn’t wanted to know what Herb had come up with.

He said, “Okay, but she’s only a kid. What about her parents, legal rights, all that?”

“We’ll fix it. Don’t worry. What about Anne?”

“She’s called me five times since yesterday. The sharks were too much. She wants to see us, both of us, this afternoon.”

“You’re kidding! I can’t leave here now!”

“Nope. Kidding I’m not. She says no plug-up if we don’t show. She’ll take pills and sleep until we get there.” “Good Lord! She wouldn’t dare!”

“I’ve booked seats. We take off at twelve-thirty-five. They stared at one another silently for another moment, then Herb shrugged. He was a short man, not heavy but solid. John was over six feet, muscular, with a temper that he knew he had to control. Others suspected that when he did let it go, there would be bodies lying around afterward, but he controlled it.

Once it had been a physical act, an effort of body and will to master that temper; now it was done so automatically that he couldn’t recall occasions when it even threatened to flare anymore.

“Look, Johnny, when we see. Anne, let me handle it.

Right? I’ll make it short.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Give her an earful. If she’s going to start pulling temperament on me, I’ll slap her down so hard she’ll bounce a week.” He grinned. “She’s had it all her way up to now. She knew there wasn’t a replacement if she got bitchy. Let her try it now. Just let her try.” Herb was pacing back and forth with quick, jerky steps.

John realized with a shock that he hated the stocky, red-faced man. The feeling was new; it was almost as if he could taste the hatred he felt, and the taste was unfamiliar and pleasant.

Herb stopped pacing and stared at him for a moment. “Why’d she call you? Why does she want you down, too? She knows you’re not mixed up with this end of it.”

“She knows I’m a full partner, anyway,” John said. “Yeah, but that’s not it.” Herb’s face twisted in a grin.

“She thinks you’re still hot for her, doesn’t she? She knows you tumbled once, in the beginning, when you were working on her, getting the gimmick working right.” The grin reflected no humor then. “Is she right, Johnny, baby? Is that it?”

“We made a deal,” John said. “You run your end, I run mine. She wants me along because she doesn’t trust you, or believe anything you tell her anymore. She wants a witness.”

“Yeah, Johnny. But you be sure you remember our agreement.” Suddenly Herb laughed. “You know what it was like, Johnny, seeing you and her? Like a flame trying to snuggle up to an icicle.”

At three-thirty they were in Anne’s suite in the Skyline Hotel in Grand Bahama. Herb had a reservation to fly back to New York on the 6 p.m. flight. Anne would not be off until four, so they made themselves comfortable in her rooms and waited. Herb turned her screen on, offered a helmet to John, who shook his head, and they both seated themselves. John watched the screen for several minutes; then he, too, put on a helmet.

Anne was looking at the waves far out at sea where they were long, green, undulating; then she brought her gaze in closer, to the blue-green and quick seas, and finally in to where they stumbled on the sandbars, breaking into foam that looked solid enough to walk on. She was peaceful, swaying with the motion of the boat, the sun hot on her back, the fishing rod heavy in her hands. It was like being an indolent animal at peace with its world, at home in the world, being one with it. After a few seconds she put down the rod and turned, looking at a tall smiling man in swimming trunks. He held out his hand and she took it. They entered the cabin of the boat where drinks were waiting. Her mood of serenity and happiness ended abruptly, to be replaced by shocked disbelief, and a start of fear.

“What the hell. .?” John muttered, adjusting the audio. You seldom needed audio when Anne was on.

“. . Captain Brothers had to let them go. After all, < they’ve done nothing yet—” the man was saying soberly.

“But why do you think they’ll try to rob me?”

“Who else is here with a million dollars’ worth of jewels?”

John turned it off and said, “You’re a fool! You can’t get away with something like that!”

Herb stood up and crossed to the window wall that was open to the stretch of glistening blue ocean beyond the brilliant white beaches. “You know what every woman wants? To own something worth stealing.” He chuckled, a sound without mirth. “Among other things, that is. They want to be roughed up once or twice, and forced to kneel. . Our new psychologist is pretty good, you know? Hasn’t steered us wrong yet. Anne might kick some, but it’ll go over great.”

“She won’t stand for an actual robbery.” Louder, emphatically, he added, “I won’t stand for that.”

“We can dub it,” Herb said. “That’s all we need, Johnny, plant the idea, and then dub the rest.”

John stared at his back. He wanted to believe that. He needed to believe it. His voice was calm when he said, “It didn’t start like this, Herb. What happened?”

Herb turned then. His face was dark against the glare of light behind him. “Okay, Johnny, it didn’t start like this. Things accelerate, that’s all. You thought of a gimmick, and the way we planned it, it sounded great, but it didn’t last. We gave them the feeling of gambling, or learning to ski, of automobile racing, everything we could dream up, and it wasn’t enough. How many times can you take the first ski jump of your life? After a while you want new thrills, you know? For you it’s been great, hasn’t it? You bought yourself a shiny new lab and closed the door. You bought yourself time and equipment and when things didn’t go right, you could toss it out and start over, and nobody gave a damn.' Think of what it’s been like for me, kid! I gotta keep coming up with something new, something that’ll give Anne a jolt and through her all those nice little people who aren’t even alive unless they’re plugged in. You think it’s been easy? Anne was a green kid. For her everything was new and exciting, but it isn’t like that now, boy. You better believe it is not like that now. You know what she told me last month? She’s sick and tired of men. Our little hot-box Annie! Tired of men!”

John crossed to him and pulled him around toward the light. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why, Johnny? What would you have done that I didn’t do? I looked harder for the right guy. What would you do for a new thrill for her? I worked for them, kid. Right from the start you said for me to leave you alone. Okay. I left you alone. You ever read any of the memos I sent? You initialed them, kiddo. Everything that’s been done, we both signed. Don’t give me any of that why didn’t I tell you stuff, it won’t work!” His face was ugly red and a vein bulged in his neck. John wondered if he had high blood pressure, if he would die of a stroke during one of his flash rages.