“You what?” Gerard leaned forward, hands flat on top of his desk.
“Glass is afraid of a Sep uprising. He knows the Seps are organized as they’ve never been before and are all ready to move.”
A crease appeared on Gerard’s forehead above his nose. He passed a hand across his bald head. “He made some crazy charge about you being the leader of the Seps.”
Here it is, thought Movius. He said, “That was no crazy charge. I am just that.”
Gerard arose half out of his chair, sank bank. He put a hand in his pocket.
“What would happen if there was a Sep revolt in which The Coor was killed?”
In a cautious tone, Gerard asked, “The Coor, Addington and a few others?”
“That’s right. One man would not be enough.”
An eager note crept into Gerard’s voice. “There are about fifty who would have to be eliminated.”
“You know them all, of course?” asked Movius.
“I could give you a complete list, including their habits and the easiest way to get them.” Gerard’s voice grew cool. “How could such a revolt be arranged and still…”
“They will do what I say without question,” said Movius. “They were completely disorganized before I took over.”
Gerard leaned forward, toyed with a stylus. “What did you plan to do?” he asked, looking at the stylus.
Movius pressed his hands against his legs to steady them. “I hadn’t planned any farther ahead than killing Glass until I hooked up with you.”
Gerard’s eyes glittered. “Now you want to make me Coordinator? What’s to keep you from just taking the top spot yourself if you know the way?”
Movius breathed a silent prayer to Gerard’s belief in the loyalty index. “You saved my life. Besides, what do I know about the job? You’ve served two terms in it.”
“So I have.” Gerard seemed to bask in a memory, suddenly frowned. “But that was before Glass decided he could pass out the job as a payment for services.”
“I propose we low-opp Glass,” said Movius.
Gerard came to a decision. He reached down, jerked up the phone. “Get me Helmut Glass at Com-Burs.” He waited. “Helmut, this is Warren Gerard…. Yes, I’ve decided not to accept. Movius is too valuable to me… No, I’m not holding out for more… Sorry, I haven’t any price to name… I don’t think that would be advisable at all, Helmut… Certainly I realize you’re the head of the government, but you have to obey the opps just like the rest of us. Movius was legally opped to me by the Sorter. He’s a legal government employee working in my department. He’s… You’re a fatuous bastard yourself, Helmut!” Gerard slammed down the phone.
Movius wondered how long Gerard had been wanting to say that to Glass. The words had been spoken with such relish. He felt a tired aching in his hands, looked down and saw he had been clenching and unclenching his fists.
Gerard breathed deeply, eyes glazed with excitement. “What do you need, Dan? You name it. Anything in the organization.”
“We’ve a tough few days ahead of us,” said Movius. “We’re keyed to go the night before the Fall poll. That’s four days away. The word is that Glass will put a few preliminary questions to the opp on the seven o’clock that night in preparation for the following day’s heavy polling. We’ve a surprise waiting for him.”
“What do I provide?”
“Treble the guard on the apartment until tomorrow. My wife and I are going into hiding. Set up a few scattered power failures for tonight, tomorrow and the next day, a few unexplained explosions. Give them something to investigate and worry about.” Movius became thoughtful. “Bu-Trans services the relay ship. Now…”
“Only the movable machinery,” said Gerard. “We service it, but we don’t staff it except with a few technicians.”
“Could something happen to just the power transmission?” asked Movius.
Gerard tapped his teeth with the tip of the stylus. “I believe so. When would you want this to happen?”
“At seven o’clock the night before the Fall poll, the moment The Coor puts his first preliminary on the beam.”
“They have emergency power,” said Gerard. “You want that put out, too?”
“No, just the relay. Every moving vehicle in the city that depends on the transmitter should come to a stop. Let me have a turbo-copter for my own transportation. How many have you?”
“This is Bu-Trans,” said Gerard. “We control most of the world’s supply. There are about two thousand in the city here, perhaps twenty-five thousand more at sub-depots around the world.”
Movius was stunned. He’d been blind! “How could we contact them?”
“Over the routing teletype,” said Gerard. He bent his bald head toward Movius. “What’s on your mind?”
Movius slapped a hand onto the desk. “I’m going to send five girls up here with some lists of code names. You send out the orders to people you can trust. Those copters are to be put at the disposal of the people with these code names. This revolt is going to be fought from the air.”
He was almost to the new Sep headquarters before a sudden thought struck him: What if Gerard does an about face? He’d hold the key to the whole revolt. They could pick up the district leaders one by one as the men checked in for their copters. Well, it was too late to turn back now.
Chapter 23
“I shall kill him when he returns to his apartment tonight,” said Quilliam London. He paced to the windows where the pigeons were conducting their morning watch on the streets, strode back to the table, slammed a fist down on the wood. “He’s too dangerous! We’ll have to get along without him.”
“Don’t be hasty, Quilliam.” O’Brien rubbed at a greying temple. “I’ve been doing some re-evaluating of our records on Movius. The job he has done is little short of a miracle. In just two months he has eighteen million people so organized they’re ready to die for him.”
“Most of those district organizations already were in existence,” said London.
“But not unified. Not unified.” O’Brien lifted a sheaf of papers on the table, let them drop. “Reports, reports! You should see them. No wonder Glass was ready to make a deal with Gerard. No wonder Gerard is hypnotized by the man. Big thefts of arms. Whole warehouses. EMASI! scrawls all over. There were nine power failures in this city alone last night. They’ve never been this bold! Movius has inspired them and we have to control that unifying force!”
“High-Opp!” London’s voice took on a sour bitterness. “We lost control of Movius when he walked in here and started giving you orders.”
“But the diabolical cleverness of the man! Bypass the poll control, force The Coor into the open. Make him take off his mask.”
“What difference does it make with a revolution under our noses?” demanded London. “This man will blunder us into an open battle before we’re ready.”
“But…”
London cut him off. “You said yourself his idea would only work twice at the most and then Glass would move to smoke him out.”
“I see you miss the point,” said O’Brien. He tipped his head, worked a fingernail at the corner of his eye. “My work of re-evaluation includes a study of our position relative to Movius.” He found whatever it was in the corner of his eye, straightened his head. “We chose Movius for a number of reasons.” O’Brien ticked them off on his fingers. “Susceptibility to our methods of, shall we say, ignition? Brilliance of intellect, high achievement, ability to make correct decisions, ambition…”
“Don’t forget the loyalty index,” said London coldly. “You know damned well he’s out for number one now. And he’ll be cautious. He’s lost the essential boldness.”