James Blish by The Quincunx Of Time

Author:The Quincunx Of Time
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-08-12T16:57:59+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT: The Courtship of Posi and Nega

If Dana Lje had any idea of what she was in for -- and considering the fact that she was "J. Shelby Stevens" it had to be assumed that she did -- the knowledge seemed not to make her at all fearful. She sat as composedly as ever before Weinbaum's desk, smoking her eternal cigarette, and waited, one dimpled knee pointed directly at the bridge of the officer's nose. The knee was a courtesy; that was the year of the frontless skirt.

"Dana," Weinbaum said, "this time we're going to get all the answers, and we're not going to be gentle about it. Just in case you're not aware of the fact, there are certain laws relating to giving false information to a security officer, under which we could heave you in prison for a minimum of fifteen years. By application of the statutes about using communications to defraud, plus various local laws against transvestitism with intent to deceive, pseudonymity ditto, and so on, we could probably pile up enough additional short sentences to keep you in Fort Butner until you really do grow a beard. So I'd advise you most earnestly to open up."

"I have every intention of opening up," Dana said. "I know, practically word for word, how this interview is going to proceed, what information I'm going to give you, just when I'm going to give it to you -- and what you're going to pay me for it. I knew all that many months ago. So there would be no point in my holding out on you."

"What you're saying, Miss Lje," Thor Wald said in a resigned voice, "is that the future is fixed, and that you can read it, in every essential detail."

"Quite right, Doctor Wald. Both those things are true, with certain qualifications. I couldn't have predicted that you'd get to the heart of the matter so quickly -- I gather that you have had intensive philosophical as well as scientific training -- but as you'll see in due course, that won't turn out to be what either of us regard as 'an essential detail.' "

There was a brief silence.

"All right," Weinbaum said grimly. "Talk."

"All right, Captain Weinbaum, pay me," Dana said calmly.

Weinbaum snorted.

"But I'm quite serious," she said. "You still don't know what I know about the Dirac communicator. I won't be forced to tell it, by threat of prison, or by any other threat. You see, I know for a fact that you aren't going to send me to prison, or give me drugs, or do anything else of that kind. I know for a fact, instead, that you are going to pay me -- so I'd be very foolish to say a word until you do. After all, it's quite a secret you're buying. Once I tell you what it is, you and the entire bureau will be able to read the future just as I do, and then the information will be valueless to me.

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