“Hi, Dad,” Billy called contentedly.
“Hello, son,” Hewitt replied. He went into the house and found Liz examining that week’s menu display on their meal dispenser. Her short black hair was combed to the smoothness of an enamelled helmet and she was still wearing the traditional white of the dentist’s surgery.
“Oh, you’re home early,” she said, with a note of disappointment. “Why are you home early?”
“What a greeting!” Hewitt slung his jacket over a chair. “Do you want me to go back to the office?”
“Of course not. It’s just that the menu isn’t too interesting this week and I thought I might prepare the meal myself.” Liz gave him a lingering kiss.
“There’s no need to go to all that trouble – I’ll find something I like in the machine.”
“But I’ll soon have forgotten how to cook,” Liz protested.
“That’s what you think,” Hewitt said triumphantly. “It’ll be quite a while before they have meal dispensers on Nimrod.”
Liz stepped back from him at once. “Do you mean…?”
Hewitt nodded. “I’ve got the Nimrod posting.”
“I’m glad for you,” Liz said slowly. She walked to the window and stood with her back to him, looking out to where Billy was sitting on the grass. “I know it’s what you wanted.”
“What I wanted? It’s a big thing for all of us, isn’t it?” Hewitt was disturbed by his wife’s reaction. “It’s equivalent to my getting about six promotions all at once.”
“That’s why I’m glad for you. I really am glad about it, Sam.” Liz walked to the meal dispenser. “I guess we’d better forget about a special meal for tonight – we’ll have to start cutting down right away.”
“What is this, Liz?” Hewitt caught her arm and turned her to face him. “Are you afraid of the Ferrari chamber?”
“I’m not afraid. I’ll go anywhere with you.”
“But you don’t seem … Don’t you want to see a brand-new world?”
“This one is still pretty fresh after only eight years.” Liz gave him a wise, patient smile. “Let’s be honest about that side of it, Sam – the only reason Nimrod has been chosen is that it’s exactly like this world, and exactly like all the others we’re colonizing. There’ll be no difference.”
“Except that I’ll be going in with the rank of Project Leader,” Hewitt said heatedly. “Or doesn’t that count for anything?”
“It counts for a great deal. That’s why I’m glad for you.”
Hewitt began to feel desperate. “Don’t keep saying that. Liz, if you didn’t want to leave here, why didn’t you let me know earlier?”
“Who said I didn’t want to leave?”
“You don’t need to say it. It’s obvious, for God’s sake.”
She looked up at him and spoke with the honesty he had always treasured. “I didn’t say anything because everybody was so certain you wouldn’t be picked. And the reason I don’t want to go is that I believe it would be better for Billy to grow up in one place. The last move upset him, and I think it’s too soon for another.”
Hewitt shook his head. “The Company psychologists advise on that sort of thing.”
“I know. The Company psychologists.”
“They wouldn’t …”
“I’m his mother, Sam, and I know what I’m talking about – but I’m not going to fight you on this thing, because I know Billy will come through it, and I know you’ll do everything you can to help him come through it.”
“Of course I will,” Hewitt said, relieved. “The three of us …”
“There’s just one condition.”
“Anything you say, Liz. What is it?”
“You have to tell him about Bramble.”
“What is there to tell?” Hewitt gave an uncertain laugh. “Do you mean you want me to tell him the dog can’t go?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I don’t mind doing that. Billy’s old enough to understand the position.”
Liz went to the door and opened it. “Go out and tell him now.”
“What’s the hurry?” Hewitt said reasonably.
“Sam, go out and tell him now.” Liz spoke in a faint, cold voice.
“All right! All right!” Hewitt went out to the back of the house, approached his son and knelt in the short grass beside him. “I’ve got a big new job, Billy – so we’re all moving to Nimrod.”
Billy looked all around – taking in the now-familiar view of white-painted dwellings among trees, grasslands sloping down to the river, the valley’s palisade of slate-blue mountains – then lowered his head without speaking. The dog stared up at Hewitt from its nest in Billy’s lap.
“Did you hear me, Billy? I said we’re all going to Nimrod.”
Billy met Hewitt’s gaze directly and his round face was momentarily overprinted with an image of the adult he would one day become. “Dad, I’ll do without pocket money for the rest of my life if you don’t kill Bramble.”
Hewitt’s jaw almost sagged. “What’s all this about killing him? You can’t kill a machine, Billy.”
“Don’t take him back to the store when we go.”
“But we couldn’t leave him running around here. It would be …’ Hewitt stopped abruptly, having almost defeated his own case by speaking of cruelty. If one could not kill a machine, it was equally impossible to be cruel to it.
“Why shouldn’t I take him … it back to the store?”
“Because they would do something to his head and he wouldn’t know us any more. He’d be in a box.”
“It’s all for the …”
“Dad, let me leave Bramble with somebody, somebody from school, and then someday I could come back and get him. He’s got a good memory. He’s got the best memory you ever saw! He wouldn’t forget …”
“Billy!” Hewitt was surprised by the force of his anger. “There’s a four hundred monit trade-in on that machine, and we’re not going to walk off and leave it. Now try to grow up!”
He jumped to his feet and was striding back to the house when Bramble came scampering and growling around his ankles. Hewitt gave an irritated flick of his right foot which caught Bramble squarely on the ribcage. The little rodog yelped as it rolled over, then dashed back to Billy. Hewitt slammed the kitchen door behind him and stood there, breathing unevenly, staring at his wife.
“Don’t forget,” she said, turning away from him, “you’ve still to decide what we’re having for dinner.”
Prior to their departure, Hewitt and his wife were awarded three full days of leave from work. The break was officially supposed to give them the chance to make final arrangements, but in fact it was a time of mental preparation for a little death. People who underwent the Ferrari Transfer simply walked away from all their material possessions, leaving one life as naked as they had entered it, being born into another in exactly the same condition. The only assets they took with them were their personal attributes and skills, plus – by the grace of the Company – their credit ratings.
Hewitt had originally intended to let Billy keep the rodog until the last day, but the boy had stopped eating and spent most of his time in his room with Bramble in his arms. Sometimes when Hewitt was passing the bedroom door he heard Billy whispering to the pet, at others there was a silence broken by painful sobs, and he decided it would be better not to prolong an unhealthy situation.