“I knew that he was an idealist.”
“Why’d you even pick on him?”
“He was the only one who was willing to hire me to run a Senate campaign,” Oscar said.
Huey grunted. “Well! Okay then! Now it’s makin’ sense to me. I mighta known it was you all along, because you’re a boy who’s got some starch and fiber. But why the hell did you wind him up and send him after me? Who are you, anyhow? What the hell are you doin’ inside my favorite science lab? You don’t even know what they’re up to in there. You don’t even know what they’re worth!”
“I have my suspicions,” Oscar said. “They’ve got something cru-cially important to you here, and it’s worth plenty.”
“Look, I need that lab. I need those people. Sure, they’ve got something very special going on. I wouldn’t fuss so much, otherwise. I was gonna demonstrate the app for y’all. It would have changed everything.”
“Governor, don’t try to mystify me. I already know what you were planning for us. Greta and I would have vanished into some offshore salt mine, where you and your industrial spies have been developing neural technology. It’s a big neural breakthrough that’s got you so anxious, and it has something to do with mind control. It’s just like the animals in here. We would have turned into well-mannered zombies. We’d have become your de-feralized pets, and we would have agreed to anything you said. That’s your ultimate network attack: subverting the human nervous system.”
Huey barked with astonished laughter. “What? Who do you take me for, Mao Zedong? I don’t need any brainwashed robots! I need smart people, all the smart people I can get! You just don’t understand!”
“So what am I missing, exactly?”
“You’re missing me, boy, me! I love my state! I love my people! Sure, you despise Louisiana, Mr. Harvard Business Boy — it’s corrupt, it’s too hot, it’s half under water, it’s dirt poor, it’s poisoned with years of pesticides and pollution, it’s all outta gas and oil for you Yankees to burn in the winter. Half its people speak the wrong goddamn lan-guage, but goddamn you, people are still real here! My people got soul, they’ve got spirit, they’re authentic real-live people! We’re not like the rest of the USA, where people are too sick and shocked and tired and spied-on even to fight for a decent future.”
Huey coughed loudly and resumed bellowing into the phone.
“They call me a ‘rogue Governor’ — well, what else can I be? All them ‘Emergency committees’ — they’re totally illegal, oppressive, and un-constitutional! Look at this new President! He’s a trigger-happy killer — and that’s the very best man you got! That man wants me driven out of my own statehouse — hell, the President would like to kill me! I’m under constant threats to my life now! I watch the skies every minute so’s I don’t get fried like a fritter by goddamn X-ray lasers! And you — you think that I wanna lobotomize Nobel Prize win-ners! Are you as nuts as your boss? My God Almighty, why would I do that? Where is that supposed to get me?”
“Governor, if you’d told me these things earlier, I think we could have come to an understanding.”
“Why the hell am I supposed to tell you a damn thing? You don’t rank! You don’t count! Am I supposed to drop my pants to every pipsqueak Senate staffer in America? You are a political nightmare, kid — a player with no history and no power base, who comes totally out of left field! If it weren’t for you, everything would have been perfect! The air base would have gone broke. The science lab would have gone broke. All the people would have left nice and peaceable. I woulda picked ’em all up for a song.”
Kevin arrived in the laboratory. He was wearing an ill-fitting cop’s uniform, and he looked as if his feet ached badly. “Just a moment, Governor,” Oscar said. He put his hand over the mouth-piece. “Kevin, how’d you find me in here?”
“There are location trackers in those phones.”
Oscar throttled the phone with his fist. “You never told me that. ”
“You didn’t need to know.” Kevin frowned. “Oscar, pay atten-tion, man. We have to go to the media center, right away. The Presi-dent of the United States is on the line.”
“Oh.” Oscar removed his hand from the phone’s mouthpiece.
“Excuse me, Governor. I can’t continue our discussion now — I have to field a call from the President.”
“Now?” Huey yelled. “Doesn’t anybody sleep anymore?”
“Good-bye, Governor. I appreciate your call.”
“Wait! Wait. Before you do something stupid, I want you to know that you can still come and talk to me. Before everything gets out of hand… next time, let’s talk it out first.”
“It’s good to know that we have that option, Your Excellency.”
“Kid, listen! One last thing! As Governor of Louisiana, I strongly favor genetic industries. I got no problem at all with your personal background problem!”
Oscar hung up. His nerves were buzzing like a shattered electrical transformer. His eyes burned and the bare walls seemed to pitch. He threw an arm over Kevin’s shoulder. “How are your feet, Kevin?”
“You sure you’re all right?”
“I’m really dizzy.” He snorted. His heart was pounding.
“Must be allergies,” Kevin said. “Everybody gets allergies when they work in the Hot Zone. Kind of an occupational hazard.”
Kevin’s blather was light-years away. “Uh, why do you say that, Kevin?”
“Understanding workplace hazards is a basic mandate for the se-curity professional, man.”
The event affecting Oscar didn’t feel like allergy. It felt like an undiagnosed concussion. Maybe some evil side effect of military knockout gas. Maybe an oncoming case of bad flu. It was bad. Very bad. He wondered if he was going to survive it. His heart gave a sudden lurch and began beating fast and lightly in his rib cage, like a trapped moth. He stumbled and almost fell.
“I think I need a doctor.”
“Sure, man, later. Just as soon as you talk to the President.” Oscar blinked repeatedly. His eyes were swimming with tears. “I can’t even see.”
“Take some antihistamines. Listen, man — you can’t blow it now, because this is the President! Get it? This is the big casino. If you don’t chill him out about this Sabine River shootout, I’m done for. I’ll be doing a bad-whitey terrorist rap, right next to my dad. And you, you personally, and Dr. Penninger too, you’re both gonna go down in major flames. Okay? You have got to handle this.”
“Right,” Oscar said, straightening his back. Kevin was absolutely correct. This moment was the crux of his career. The President was waiting. Failure at this point was unthinkable. And he was having a heart fibrillation.
Kevin led him through the Hot Zone airlock. Then he pulled a monster beltphone and called a cab, and a fleet of twelve empty cabs arrived at once. Kevin picked one, and it took them to the media center. Up an elevator. Kevin led him to the green room, where Oscar scrubbed his head in the sink. He was coming apart. There were scarlet hives on his chest and throat. His hands were palsied. His skin was taut and prickly. But still, somehow, a gush of cold water on the nape of his neck brought him to snakelike alertness.
“Is there a comb?” Oscar asked.
“You won’t need a comb,” Kevin said. “The President’s calling on a head-mounted display.”
“What?” Oscar said. “Virtual reality? You’re kidding! That stuff never works.”