The First Science Fiction Novel by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, sci-fi, pulp, adventure, cats
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2016-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

When I entered my office on Monday morning, the genteel receptionist informed me with some austerity that Mr. Roscommon was waiting for me.

“Okay, send him in,” I directed, bracing myself for what would probably be a stormy interview. If Roscommon was as well-informed as he claimed to be, he must know that I had already reported him to the F.B.I.

“Smart work, Tompkins!” he beamed, giving my hand a vise-like squeeze. “Working as I do with the highest echelons, I’m afraid I sometimes forget the value of naiveté. You couldn’t have invented anything better calculated to slow down the Bureau than to report me as a Nazi agent. Even the Director was impressed, though he’ll see through your ruse after a couple of days.”

“Is that what you wanted to tell me?” I inquired, “because your visit will certainly arouse new suspicions. I assume I’m still under F.B.I. observation.”

Axel Roscommon smiled. “Nothing to worry about, old boy, I assure you. Naturally you’ll have to go to Washington sooner or later and explain things there. I suggest that you go next week, when the whole Administration will be in a state of maximum confusion.”

I asked him whether that would be any change.

“Absolutely, old boy. The war’s been managed quite impressively well up to now. After this week, with Roosevelt out of the way, things will begin to fall apart and there will be plenty of pickings but the war is already won, so that won’t hurt.”

Roosevelt, I observed, was down in Georgia, according to the papers, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t keep in touch with things in Washington.

Roscommon stood close against my desk and leaned forward on his hands, facing me. “Listen carefully, old boy,” he said, “and keep this to yourself. Roosevelt will be dead before the week’s out—on Friday the thirteenth if there’s any symmetry to be expected in this crazy world. It’s the same stuff they gave Woodrow Wilson over at Paris in the spring of 1919. You may remember that chap Yardley wrote a book, ‘The American Black Chamber,’ and told how the American Intelligence got word of a plot to poison Wilson by one of America’s allies. Not long after, Wilson had a slight illness and a few months later had a stroke, as they called it. You see your American Constitution—marvelous document, that!—makes absolutely no bloody provision for the illness of a President, and Wilson’s paralysis paralyzed your government for nearly two years, while America’s allies cleaned up on the peace-arrangements.

“Roosevelt is tougher than Wilson was. They slipped him the first dose at Teheran early last year. When he came back that spring he had a slight illness—they called it influenza—and he was never quite the same. Except for a few trusted social associates, close friends and members of the family, he was kept in strict seclusion. Then, with his amazing vitality, he began to throw off the stuff and staged a magnificent political campaign last fall. So they had to try again at Yalta early this year.

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