“You really think they’d let me see him?”
“No question about it,” he responded easily. “Not at first, of course; he’s their ace with you, and they know it. But if you went to a certain point and then said you were going to cut them off unless they let you see him-“He let it dangle there. The bait was out, a big sparkling lure dragged through the water. It was full of hooks and not good to eat anyway, but that was something else this tough little chick didn’t know.
She looked at him thoughtfully. No more was said about it. That day.
Now, about a week later, Rainbird abruptly reversed his field. He did this for no concrete reason, but his own intuition told him he could get no further by advocacy. It was time to beg, as Br'er Rabbit had begged Br'er Fox not to be thrown into that briar patch.
“You remember what we was talkin about?” He opened the conversation. He was waxing the kitchen floor. She was pretending to linger over her selection of a snack from the fridge. One clean, pink foot was cocked behind the other so he could see the sole-a pose that he found curiously evocative of mid-childhood. It was somehow pre-erotic, almost mystic. His heart went out to her again. Now she looked back over her shoulder at him doubtfully. Her hair, done up in a ponytail, lay over one shoulder.
“Yes,” she said, “I remember.”
“Well, I been thinkin, and I started to ask myself what makes me an expert on givin advice,” he said. “I can’t even float a thousand-dollar bank loan for a car.”,
“Oh, John, that doesn’t mean anything-”
“Yes it does. If I knew something, I’d be one of those guys like that Hockstetter. College-educated.” With great disdain she replied, “My daddy says any fool can buy a college education somewhere.” In his heart, he rejoiced.
2
Three days after that, the fish swallowed the lure.
Charlie told him that she had decided to let them make their tests. She would be careful, she said. And she would make them be careful, if they didn’t know how. Her face was thin and pinched and pale.
“Don’t you do it,” John said, “unless you’ve thought it all out.”
“I’ve tried,” she whispered.
“Are you doing it for them?”
“No!”
“Good! Are you doing it for you?”
“Yes. For me. And for my father.”
“All right,” he said. “And Charlie-make them play it your way. Understand me? You’ve shown them how tough you can be. Don’t let them see a weak streak now. If they see it, they’ll use it. Play tough. You know what I mean?”
“I… think so.”
“They get something, you get something. Every time. No freebies.” His shoulders slumped a bit. The fire went out of his eye. She hated to see him this way, looking depressed and defeated. “Don’t let them treat you like they treated me. I gave my country four years of my life and one eye. One of those years I spent in a hole in the ground eating bugs and running a fever and smelling my own shit all the time and picking lice out of my hair. And when I got out they said thanks a lot, John, and put a mop in my hand. They stole from me, Charlie. Get it? Don’t let them do that to you.”
“I get it,” she said solemnly. He brightened a little, then smiled. “So when’s the big day?” “I’m seeing Dr. Hockstetter tomorrow. I’ll tell him I’ve decided to cooperate,… a little. And I’ll… I’ll tell him what I want.” “Well, just don’t ask for too much at first. It’s just like the carny at the midway, Charlie.
You got to show em some flash before you take their cash.”
She nodded.
“But you show them who’s in the saddle, right? Show them who’s boss.”
“Right.”
He smiled more broadly. “Good kid!” he said.
3
Hockstetter was furious. “What the hell sort of game are you playing?” he shouted at Rainbird. They were in Cap’s office. He dared to shout, Rainbird thought, because Cap was here to play referee. Then he took a second look at Hockstetter’s hot blue eyes, his flushed cheeks, his white knuckles, and admitted that he was probably wrong. He had dared to make his way through the gates and into Hockstetter’s sacred garden of privilege. The shaking-out Rainbird had administered after the blackout ended was one thing; Hockstetter had lapsed dangerously and had known it. This was something else altogether. He thought.
Rainbird only stared at Hockstetter.
“You’ve carefully set it up around an impossibility! You know damned well she isn’t going to see her father! ‘They get something, you get something,'” Hockstetter mimicked furiously. “You fool!”
Rainbird continued to stare at Hockstetter. “Don’t call me a fool again,” he said in a perfectly neutral voice. Hockstetter flinched… but only a little.
“Please, gentlemen,” Cap said wearily. “Please.”
There was a tape recorder on his desk. They had just finished listening to the conversation Rainbird had had with Charlie that morning.
“Apparently Dr. Hockstetter had missed the point that he and his team are finally going to get something,” Rainbird said. “Which will improve their store of practical knowledge by one hundred percent, if my mathematics are correct.”
“As the result of a totally unforeseen accident,” Hockstetter said sullenly. “An accident you people were too shortsighted to manufacture for yourselves,” Rainbird countered. “Too busy playing with your rats, maybe.”
“Gentlemen, that’s enough!” Cap said. “We’re not here to indulge in a lot of recriminations; that is not the purpose of this meeting.” He looked at Hockstetter. “You’re going to get to play ball,” he said. “I must say you show remarkably little gratitude.” Hockstetter muttered.
Cap looked at Rainbird. “All the same, I also think you took your role of amicus curiae a little bit too far in the end.”
“Do you think so? Then you still don’t understand.” He looked from Cap to Hockstetter and then back to Cap again. “I think,'both of you have shown an almost paralyzing lack of understanding. You’ve got two child psychiatrists at your disposal, and if they are an accurate representation of the caliber of that field, there are a lot of disturbed kids out there who have got big-time trouble.”
“Easy to say,” Hockstetter said. “This-”
“You just don’t understand how smart she is,” Rainbird cut him off: “You don’t understand how… how adept she is at seeing the causes and effects of things. Working with her is like picking your way through a minefield. I pointed out the carrot-and stick idea to her because she would have thought of it herself. By thinking of it for her, I’ve shored up the trust she has in me… in effect, turned a disadvantage into an advantage.”
Hockstetter opened his mouth. Cap held up one hand and then turned to Rainbird. He spoke in a soft, placatory tone that he used with no one else… but then, no one else was John Rainbird. “That doesn’t alter the fact that you seem to have limited how far Hockstetter and his people can go. Sooner or later she’s going to understand that her ultimate request-to see her father-is not going to be granted. We’re all in agreement that to allow that might close off her usefulness to us forever.”