Overload

The two documents replaced Georgos' original idea of getting hotel purchase orders, which had proved too difficult. Neither document would stand up to close scrutiny, Georgos and Birdsong realized, but might make the needed difference in a pinch. As far as Georgos could see, they had thought of everything. Only one thing, at this moment, vaguely troubled him and that was his woman, Yvette. Since the night, four months ago, when he executed the two security pigs on the hill above Millfield and afterward Yvette protested, he had never quite trusted her. Briefly, following Millfield, be considered eliminating her. It would not be difficult, as Davey Birdsong once pointed out, but Georgos decided to postpone action. The woman was useful. She cooked well; also she was cowenient when he chose to work off his sexual excitements, which had become more frequent lately as the prospect of killing more people's enemies loomed closer.

As a precaution, Georgos had kept secret from Yvette the plan to bomb the Christopher Columbus Hotel, even though she must realize something important was pending. Perhaps her exclusion was the reason she had been silent and moody these past few weeks. Well, no matter! At this moment he had more important concerns, but soon he would almost certainly have to dispose of Yvette, even at some inconenience to himself.

Remarkable! Even thinking about killing his woman was giving him an erection.

With growing excitement-in so many agreeable ways-Georgos returned to writing in his journal.

PART FOUR

1

In a twenty-fifth-floor suite of the Christopher Columbus Hotel, Leah looked up from an exercise book in which she was writing.

"Daddy," she said, "can I ask you something personal?"

Nim answered, "Yes, of course."

"Are things all right between you and Mommy now?"

It took Nim a second or two to grasp the import of his daughter's question.

Then he answered quietly, "Yes, they are."

"And you're not Leah's voice faltered. "You're not going to break up after all?"

"If you've been worrying about that," he told her, "you can stop worrying. That won't happen, I hope, ever."

"Oh, Daddy!” Leah ran toward him, her arms flung out. She embraced him tightly. "Oh, Daddy, I'm so glad." He felt her young face soft against his own and the wetness of her tears.

He held her, and gently stroked her hair.

The two of them were together because Ruth and Benjy had gone down to the lobby floor a few minutes ago-to sample the wares of an ice cream parlor for which the hotel was noted. Leah had chosen to stay with Nim, claiming she wanted to finish some schoolwork she had brought. Or was it, he wondered now, because she saw an opportunity to ask that crucial question?

What parent, Nim reflected, ever knew what went on in children's minds, or the hurts they suffered through parental selfishness or lack of thought? He remembered bow Leah had carefully avoided the subject of Ruth's absence while she and Benjy were staying with the Neubergers and they had talked on the telephone. What agony was Leah a sensitive and aware fourteen-year-old-going through then? the memory left him ashamed.

It also raised the question: When should both children be told the truth about Ruth's condition? Probably soon. True, it would create anxiety, just as it had-and continued to-with Nim. But better Leah and Benjy should know than have it sprung upon them suddenly in a crisis, as might happen. Nim decided he would discuss the subject with Ruth within the next few days.

As if Leah sensed part of his thinking, she said, "It's all right, Daddy. It's all right." then, with the adaptability of the young, she wriggled free and went back to what she had been doing.

He walked to the window of the suite living room, observing the panoramic, picture-postcard view; the historic city, its busy ship-filled harbor and the two world-famed bridges, all touched with gold by the late afternoon sun. "Hey," he said over his shoulder, "that's some fantastic scene."

Leah looked up, smiling. "Yeah. Sure is."

One thing was already clear: Bringing his family to the National Electric Institute convention, now in its first day, had been a great idea. Both children were excited when they all checked into the hotel this morning.

Leah and Benjy, while excused from school for four days, had been given class assignments, including one to write an essay on the convention itself; Benjy, planning his, expressed a wish to bear his father's speech tomorrow. It was unusual to admit a child to an NEI business session, but Nim managed to arrange it. There were other activities for families-a harbor cruise, museum visits, private movies-in which Ruth and the children would join.

After a while Ruth and Benjy returned to the suite, laughing happily, and reporting that it had been necessary to test two cones each before awarding the ice cream parlor a three-star rating.

* * *

The convention's second day.

It dawned bright and cloudless, sun streaming into the suite while Nim, Ruth and the children enjoyed the luxury of a room service breakfast.

Following breakfast, and for the last time before he would deliver it, Nim skimmed through his speech. It was on the program for 10 am A few minutes after nine he left the others and took an elevator to the lobby floor. He had a reason for going there first. From a window of the suite he had seen some kind of a demonstration taking place outside and was curious to know who was demonstrating, and why. As Nim emerged from the hotel's main doorway, he realized it was the same old crowd-power & light for people. About a hundred persons of varying ages were parading, chanting slogans. Didn't they ever get tired, he wondered, or see anything but their own narrow viewpoint?

The usual type placards were being waved.

2GSP & L

Cheats

Consumers

Let the People,

Not Fat Cat

Capitalists,

Own GSP & L

p & lfp Urges

Public Takeover of

The People's Utilities

Public Ownership

Would Ensure

Lower Electric Rates

What influence, Nim mused, did p & lfp expect to have on the National Electric Institute? He could tell them it would be nil. But of course, it was local attention they expected and, as usual, were receiving. He could see the ubiquitous TV cameras. Oh yes, and there was Davey Birdsong, looking cheerful and directing it all.

There appeared to be an attempt by the demonstrators to stop vehicular traffic from reaching the hotel. The front driveway was being blocked by a line of p & lfp-ers who had linked arms, preventing several waiting cars and taxis from moving in. Also cordoned off by a second contingent was an adjoining service entrance. Two trucks were held up there. One, Nim saw, was a milk delivery van, the other an open pickup with a load of fire extinguishers. The drivers of both trucks had got out of their vehicles and were protesting the delay.

Several city policemen now appeared. They moved among the demonstrators, cautioning them. A brief argument followed between police and demonstrators, in which Birdsong joined. Then the big, bearded man shrugged and motioned his supporters away from both entrances while the police, hastening the process, escorted the two trucks in, then the cars and taxis.

"Can you beat that for irresponsibility?" the speaker was another convention delegate, standing beside Nim and identifiable by his NEI lapel badge. "That dumb bunch would like to cut off the hotel's fire protection and milk. In God's name, why?"

Nim nodded. "Doesn't make a lot of sense."

Perhaps it didn't to the demonstrators either for they were now dispersing.

Nim returned inside the hotel and took an elevator to the mezzanine floor, the convention's headquarters.

Like any convention-that unique tribal ritual-the NEI gathering 2brought together several hundred businessmen, engineers and scientists, their purpose to chew over mutual problems, exchange news of developments, and mingle socially. The theory was that each delegate, afterward, would do his or her job better. It was hard to put a cash value on such occasions, though one existed.

In an anteroom outside the main convention ball, delegates were assembling for the informal coffee klatsch which preceded each day's business session.

Nim joined the earlier arrivals, meeting officials of other power companies, some of whom he knew, and some he didn't.

A good deal of the talk was about oil. An overnight news report revealed that the OPEC nations were standing firm in their demand that future payments for oil be in gold, not paper currencies whose value-particularly that of the dollar-diminished almost daily. Negotiations between the United States and OPEC were stalled, with the prospect of a new oil embargo becoming alarmingly real.