‘I have an appointment,' she said to Janet. ‘Excuse me,' she rose, left the Camellia Room; two NP men fell in behind her as she made her way down the corridor to the Easter Lily Alcove where Garth McRae waited.
In the alcove Garth sat with another man whom she recognized -- by his uniform -- as a top official of the higher police. She did not know him. Evidently he had arrived with Garth; the two of them were consulting in low tones, unaware of her arrival.
‘Have you informed Karp und Sohnen?' she asked Garth.
At once both men were on their feet, respectful and attentive. ‘Oh yes, Mrs Thibodeaux,' Garth answered. ‘At least,' he added quickly, ‘I informed Anton Karp that the Rudi Kalbfleisch simulacrum is going to be discontinued soon. I -- haven't informed them that the next simulacrum will be obtained through other channels.'
‘Why not?' Nicole asked.
Glancing at his companion, Garth said, ‘Mrs Thibodeaux, this man is Wilder Pembroke, new Commissioner of the NP. He's warned me that Karp und Sohnen have held a closed, secret meeting of their top executive personnel and have discussed the possibility that the contract for the next der Alte will be let somewhere else.' Garth explained, ‘The NP of course has a number of individuals employed at Karp -- needless to say.'
Nicole said to the police official, ‘What will Karp do?'
‘The Werke will make public the fact that the der Altes are constructs, that the last living der Alte held office fifty years ago.' Pembroke cleared his throat noisily: he appeared singularly ill at ease. ‘This is a clear violation of basic law, of course. Such knowledge constitutes a state secret and cannot be brought before the Bes. Both Anton Karp and his father Felix Karp are perfectly aware of that; they discussed these legal aspects at their conference. They know that they -- and anyone else at policy level at the Werke -- would be instantly liable to prosecution.'
‘And yet they'd go ahead,' Nicole said, and thought to herself, So we're correct; the Karp people are already too strong. Already possess far too much autonomy. And they won't abandon this without a fight.'
‘Individuals high in cartel circles are peculiarly stiffnecked,' Pembroke said. ‘The last of the true Prussians, perhaps. The Attorney General has asked that you contact him before going ahead in this matter; he will be glad to outline the direction of the state's litigation against the Werke, and he's anxious to discuss several sensitive aspects with you. By and large, however, the Attorney General is prepared to move in at any time. As soon as he receives notification. However -- ‘ Pembroke glanced at her sideways.
‘I wonder. It's the summation of all data reaching me that the cartel system as a whole is simply too enormous, too sturdily constructed and interlocked, to be brought down. That, instead of direct action against it, some sort of quid pro quo should be brought about. Such appears to me to be much more desirable. And feasible.'
Nicole said, ‘But that's up to me.'
Both Garth McRae and Pembroke nodded in unison.
‘I will discuss this with Maxwell Jamison,' she said finally.
‘Max will have a relatively clear idea as to how this information about the der Alte will be received by the Bes, by the uniformed public. I have no idea how they would react. Would they riot? Would they find it amusing? Personally I find it amusing. I'm sure it would appear that way to me if I were, say, a rather minor employee of some cartel or government agency. Do you agree?'
Neither man smiled; both remained tense and sombre.
‘In my opinion, if I may say so,' Pembroke said, ‘release of this information will topple the entire structure of our society.'
‘But it is amusing,' Nicole persisted. ‘Isn't it? Rudi is a dummy, an ersatz creation of the cartel system, and yet he's the highest elected official in the USEA. These people voted for him and for the der Alte before him and so on back for fifty years -- I'm sorry, but it has to be funny; there's no other way to look at it.' She was laughing now; the idea of not knowing this Geheimnis, this state secret and suddenly finding it out, was too much for her. ‘I think I'll go ahead,' she told Garth. ‘Yes, I've made up my mind; contact the Karp Werke tomorrow morning. Talk directly with both Anton and Felix. Tell them, among other things, that we will arrest them instantly if they try to betray us to the Bes. Tell them that the NP is ready to move on them.'
‘Yes, Mrs Thibodeaux,' Garth said, with gloom.
‘And don't take it so hard,' Nicole said. ‘If the Karps do go ahead and release the Geheimnis, we'll still survive -- I think you're wrong: it won't mean the end of our status quo at all.'
Garth said, ‘Mrs Thibodeaux, if the Karps release this information, no matter how the Bes react, there can never be another der Alte. And legally speaking, you hold your position of authority only because you're the wife. It's hard to keep that in mind, because -- ‘ Garth hesitated.
‘Say it,' Nicole said.
‘Because it's clear to everyone, Bes and Ges alike, that you are the ultimate authority in the establishment. And it's essential to maintain the myth that somehow, indirectly at least, you were placed here by the people, by mass public vote.'
There was silence.
Pembroke said finally, ‘Perhaps the NP should move in on the Karps before they can put out their white paper. Thereby we'd cut them off from the organs of communication.'
‘Even under arrest,' Nicole said, ‘the Karps would manage to gain access to at least one of the media. Better face that fact.'
‘But their reputation, if they're under arrest -- ‘
‘The only solution,' Nicole said thoughtfully, half to herself, ‘would be to assassinate those officers of the Werke who attended the policy meeting. In other words, all the Ges of the cartel, no matter how many there are. Even if the numbers ran up into the hundreds.' In other words, she said to herself, a purge. Such as one generally only witnessed in times of revolution.
She shrank from the idea.
‘Nacht und Nebel,'
Pembroke murmured.
‘What?' Nicole said.
‘The Nazi term for the invisible agents of the government who deal in murder.' He faced Nicole calmly. ‘Night and fog. They were the Einsatzgruppen. Monsters. Of course our police, the NP has nothing like that. I'm sorry; you'll have to act through the military. Not through us.'
‘I was joking,' Nicole said.
Both men studied her.
‘There are no more purges,' Nicole said. ‘There haven't been any since World War Three. You know that. We're too modern, too civilized, for massacres now.'
Pembroke, frowning, his lips twitching nervously, said, ‘Mrs Thibodeaux, when the technicians from the von Lessinger Institute bring Goering to our period, perhaps you can arrange for an Einsatzgruppe to be brought, too. It could assume responsibility vis-à-vis the Karps and then return to the Age of Barbarism.'