'Secondly, I demand that all of the services of this city be restored, electricity and public utilities, and the food markets must be reopened. This will be done. I want to see people returning today, I want the normal life of this city to be as it was when we arrived, I want the deserters turned over to the military police. You will do this, and begin doing it now.'
He paused dramatically, then pointed his finger directly at the camera.
'You will do it because in one day from now I will shoot ten of the prisoners. I will shoot these first ten no matter what you do, as an object lesson that I mean what I say. I will shoot ten of them the next day and ten again the day after that if my orders are not obeyed. If my orders are obeyed the shooting will stop. But it will begin again whenever I feel that my desires are being thwarted.' That was it. That was all. And it certainly was enough. The screen went blank and I found myself staring at Morton with nothing at all to say.
'There are rare cases of insanity like that here,' Neebe said. 'Gene changes not caught in prenatal examination. He is insane, isn't he? These things that he says he will do - they are impossible. He won't, really have innocent people killed?'
I was too ashamed of the human race to look at her, to answer her questions. Morton did; he was angry.
'Yes, he will, that is the worst part. I grew up with his kind of people in charge of my life. Believe me, he will do it.'
'Then what can we do to stop him?'
'That is an almost unanswerable question,' I said. 'You can't force the deserters to undesert. Knowing IM you wouldn't even think of asking them. And I don't know what they will do voluntarily. If you had a government they could deal with Zennor, come up with some workable compromise perhaps. But he still hasn't realized that there is no central government to meet with. The future does not bear thinking about.'
'But we have to think about it,' Morton said, with a cold grimness I had never seen before. 'Zennor must be killed. There is no other way.'
'No!' Neebe said. 'That is a hideous suggestion. This problem is so strange, so awful, that it would take the wisdom of Mark Forer itself to solve it.'
'Maybe, maybe,' I muttered. 'But I feel that what is happening here is well beyond even the mighty capacities of that long-gone brain to solve.'
'Nothing was ever beyond Mark Forer,' she said with calm and unshakable belief. It angered me. It was like calling in the deity of your choice as you fell off the cliff, begging for aid. Praying for a heavenly hand that would never, never swoop down from the sky to save you.
'That is just an opinion, your opinion. And to me it sounds more like blind faith than intelligent thought. We have to work this out ourselves because Mark Forer is long gone, rusted away. It can't help us now.'
'Mark Forer could help us,' she said with calm unreason. 'But of course we could never ask. That is a basic tenet of IM. We must solve our problems for ourselves. Everything we need to know is in the writings that it gave us.'
'You are just jollying yourself along. You could ask, but you won't. That is a way out. You can't ask because it is not around to ask.'
'That is not true,' she said sweetly, smiling warmly upon my ill humor. 'Mark Forer is in Bellegarrique, where it always has been.'
I have known stoppers in my day. But this was the whopper topper stopper. I stared speechlessly at Morton. If I looked like he did then my jaw was hanging open, my eyes were popping and I was gurgling like an idiot, Neebe smiled warmly upon us and waited impatiently until we got reglued and were able to speak again. I sputtered first. 'Mark Forer… gone… thousands of years ago…'
'Why? Essentially an artificial intelligence must be immortal. I suppose bits and pieces get replaced as they wear out, but the intelligence will remain the same. Or grow. We have always been immensely pleased that Mark Forer saw fit to accompany us to this world. We sincerely hope that it watches and approves of the way we practice IM. But of course we would never consider asking it for aid.'
'Well I would,' I said, climbing to my feet. 'I certainly would ask for help without a moment's hesitation. Mark Four's social theories are about to get a lot of people shot dead. So that cold artificial intelligence had better have some answers how to arrange it so that they don't.'
'But you will have to go back to Bellegarrique to dig Mark Four out,' Morton said. I nodded grim agreement.
'I was hoping you wouldn't say that just yet. But, yes, Morton old friend. I've got to find where our great electronic leader lives and search it out. And there better be some ready answers.'
Chapter 28
'Do you know where Mark Forer plugs in?' I asked Neebe. She shook her head.
'Not physically. It is just known, understood, that Mark Forer came with us and aided in the design of the city of Bellegarrique. And never left it.'
'Well someone has to know.' I thought hard, then snapped my fingers. 'Our old friend, Stirner, he should have that vital bit of info. One of the top men in the world of electricity. And if he doesn't know he will surely know someone who does know. Do you have any idea of how I can contact him?'
'The telephone is over there.'
'Thanks, Neebe, but I don't have his number or the slightest idea where he is staying or anything.'
'But no one has a number. And it doesn't matter where he is staying. Just call CD and ask for him.'
'CD?'
'Central Directory. Here, I'll get it for you.' She tapped the keypad and the screen lit up with NAME, PLEASE? in large letters. Very polite. Very efficient. I tip my hat to the man or machine that wrote this software. I answered four questions and the screen changed to RINGING. The letters faded and Stirner's grim face appeared on the screen. He smiled faintly when he saw me, but he had obviously been watching the broadcast too.
'Ahh, good offplanet friend Jim. I hope that you are well. Can I do you a service?'
'You certainly can, good dynamo supervising friend Stirner, I would like to have a chat with your demigod, Mark Forer.'
'A strange choice of terms. I would certainly not refer to it as a demi…'
'Then forget the term. Do you know where Mark Forer is?'
'Of course.'
'Will you take me to it?'
'Ahh, now that is a question that needs some thought. Mark Forer's individualism has always been respected, for all the obvious reasons. I do remember reading in the historical records that after this city was founded it did make suggestions and was occasionally consulted. But not lately, not in, hundreds of years at least. I would not go to it myself, but, yes, I feel that I can take you. I respect your individualism just as I respect Mark Forer's. We must each make our own way in this world.'
'And I am going to make my way back into the city.'
'You must be careful. It will not be easy. The trains have stopped running and citizens are being forcefully stopped from leaving. At last report no one was returning.'
'I'll think of something. You are still in the city?'
'Yes.'
'Stay near the phone. I'll get there today. I must talk to Mark before Zennor's deadly deadline runs out tomorrow morning. '
I hung up and looked blankly into space. I could see no answers hanging out there. 'Any advice, Morton?'
'None that makes any sense. Like being a returned deserter.'
'Like you, that idea I considered and rejected. That would just get me back in jail and shot.'
'May I make a suggestion?' Neebe said.
'All aid greatly desired.'
'I will take you to the city. You will go as my father. We have a wonderful theatre group here in Ling and our makeup department is quite famous. You could be an old man, I could be your daughter and driver. It would be so
