What was happening down on the Promenade, and in the courtyards and plazas? What were people thinking, now that Eagles was in the hands of slaves? What plans and adjust, merits were being made; who was alive and who dead? What did it feel like -- how was it shaping up? Dick felt an impatience to be down there, moving, taking part, on any terms.
Now: The Old Man knew who Elaine was, and it was not hard to guess that he meant to make some political use of her. Furthermore, whatever it was, it was obvious that it-had something to do with Dick. There would be a role for him to play; and an important one, or the Old Man would not have been at such pains to change his opinions ... Dick's heart began to beat faster. He thought he saw the pattern forming.
After a while the door opened again and the Old Man's heavy outline appeared. He paused to speak to the Frankies in the doorway, then the door closed behind him. He came forward and sat down.
"Have you thaght it over?" he asked.
Dick nodded. "Yes."
"And?"
"I'm willing to listen," said Dick.
The Old Man leaned back. "Awl right. You remember I said the only way is for us all to learn to live together peacefully, as equals. I say now that is the only way out for Eagles, not only on moral grounds but as a practical matter. We can't hope to survive in any other way. But on a larger scale it is also the only way out for the human race. If we lose, here, there will be another slave uprising somewhere else, some other time, and another if necessary, and eventually one of them will win."
Dick said, "I don't know -- we did all right for over a century."
"But you see how unstable it was," the Old Man said earnestly. "This is the point: the slavery system breaks down into freedom. The freedom system, if it's properly established, never will break down into slavery again. It'll be too strong. Now in the abstract, I know you appreciate the desirability of something stable, something that will last."
Dick grinned. "Maybe, in the abstract."
"Just so. Now, coming a little nearer, do you agree with me that a mixed society could be stable, could work here in Eagles?"
Dick hesitated. "Yes."
"You understand that would mean former freemen working closely, sharing responsibilities with former slaves?"
"Yes."
"That would be repugnant to you?"
" ... Certainly."
"But you would do it, under certain circumstances?"
They looked at each other. Dick said, "Tell me plainly what you mean."
The Old Man answered, "You and Miss Elaine would be married. I think that would not be repugnant to either of you." Dick glanced at the girl; she flushed, smiling; and looked down. "Your family connections would make it very hard for any hotheads to raise a punitive force against Eagles. The fact that she is a dupe would make her acceptable to my people. It would be an ideal union for our purposes. You would serve as head of the internal governing committee, represent us in dealing with other heads of houses, and so on."
Dick was tense with suppressed excitement. "But you'd be behind the scenes."
The Old Man inclined his head. "For a while. Later on there are going to be elections, and if you want another office than the one I give you, you can run for it. But nobody is going to have absolute power." He added, "I can honestly say that you will have more power than you were ever likely to get under the old system."
Dick nodded slowly.
"You accept?"
Dick said, "Let me talk to my father at Buckhill."
"And?"
"If he agrees, I'll accept."
The Old Man nodded. He got up and went to the door, spoke to the Frankies outside. "This will take a little time," he said. "We have to get through to Buckhill, and then of course we will want to monitor. I'll have the set brought in when it's ready." He went out.
There was a silence.
Elaine said, "Dick -- when he said I was a dupe: was that true?"
"It was true. This is 2149. Oliver was the grandson of the man who duped you -- Crawford, the first Boss of Eagles."
She looked out the window, her face composed, hands together in her lap. "I suppose I knew it," she said. "But I wouldn't admit it to myself. I don't feel like a dupe -- it's strange -- "
"I know," he said. "It doesn't make any difference."
"Doesn't it?" She turned to look into his face. Her color was high, her eyes bright. "Not to you?"
"No," said Dick, and found that he meant it.
He moved next to her, took her in his arms. There was a pulse beating at the base of her long, pale throat. Her green eyes looked at him from behind their screens of lashes: strange, beautiful and strange.
He kissed her. She lay relaxed and warm in his embrace; after a moment she leaned back and said a little breathlessly: "And you want to marry me?"
19
After all, what was wrong with it?
He remembered the discussions of just this possibility at the Philosophers' Club, Melker's cover group. That seemed a long time ago, and the reality was very different. Still, some of the old arguments had stayed with him. A society that used unjust methods to suppress some of its members (the catch was that you had to call slaves members of the society) was building up forces that would have to burst free sooner or later. Then, too, a society that put more emphasis on birth than ability was likely to breed ability out of its ruling class. It all came to the same thing; it was logical; and in any case, it had happened.
Run with the pack.
The corridors of Eagles were full of color and movement again: rustling, quick movement, streams of people going quickly and quietly, talking very little and that mostly in whispers. It gave a curious, tense feeling: you kept listening for the sounds that should be there.
The debris had all been cleared out of the Grand Promenade, but no repair work was being done. Nobody was riding in chairs, everyone was on foot except a few people, Frankies usually, on motor scooters. Not a uniform was in sight. Everywhere you looked there were servants walking quietly in the crowd, heads up, with an expression on their faces that you did not like to meet. Some of them were dressed in freemen's costumes: you saw the clothing, and then, with a shock, the wrong, face. All weapons had supposedly been confiscated; no one was supposed to go armed except the Frankies; but Dick saw more than one ex-servant with a stick or a hand-gun, and the Frankies did not interfere.
There had been some difficulty in getting a scrambler relay to Buckhill; meanwhile they had been going ahead with talks on a tentative basis. Dick and Elaine had already had a meeting with the prospective members of the Old Man's governing committee, and now they were on their way to a run-through of the wedding ceremony which was scheduled for day after tomorrow.
Elaine, walking at his side, was pale and ethereally beautiful in a dress of green silk, duped an hour ago from a prote that had been lying unused for twenty-odd years. Her eyes were bright, and a flush burned on each cheek. He could feel the warmth of her hand, tucked under his arm: she was feverish with excitement. On either side, the armed Frankies went with eyes straight ahead, their gargoyle faces immobile, in a strange new dignity.
Things were quieting down as fast as you could reasonably expect. There had been a little disturbance earlier, when the body of the Boss had been brought down from his sanctum; some ex-slaves had thrown themselves at the corpse like wild animals, and the Frankies had had to hustle it away out of sight.