here — and disarmed all police. Partly to keep 'em busy … and partly because Mike purely despises locking a man up for any reason. He groks it great wrongness.»
«That fits,» Jubal agreed. «Mike is gentle. It would hurt him to have anybody locked up. I agree.»
Ben shook his head. «Mike isn't gentle, Jubal. Killing a man wouldn't worry him. But he's the ultimate anarchist — locking a man up is a wrongness. Freedom of self — and utter personal responsibility for self. Thou art God.»
«Wherein lies the conflict, sir? Killing a man may be necessary. But confining him is an offense against his integrity — and your own.»
Ben looked at him. «Mike is right. You do grok in fullness — his way. I don't quite … I'm still learning.» He added, «How are they taking it, Dawn?»
She giggled slightly. «Like stirred-up hornets. The mayor is frothing. He's demanded help from the state and from the Federation — and getting it; we've seen lots of troop carriers landing. But as they climb out, Mike is stripping them — not just weapons, even their shoes — and as soon as a carrier is empty, it goes, too.»
Ben said, «I grok he'll stay withdrawn until they give up. Handling that many details he would almost have to stay on eternal time.»
Dawn looked thoughtful. «I don't think so, Ben. I would have to, to handle even a tenth. But I grok Michael could do it riding a bicycle standing on his head.»
«Mmm … I wouldn't know, I'm still making mud pies.» Ben stood up. «Sometimes you miracle workers give me a slight pain, honey child. I'm going to watch the tank.» He stopped to kiss her. «You entertain old Pappy Jubal; he likes little girls.» Caxton left and a package of cigarettes followed him, placed itself in one of his pockets.
Jubal said, «Did you do that? Or Ben?»
«Ben. He's always forgetting his cigarettes; they chase him all over the Nest.»
«Hmm … fair-sized mud pies he makes.»
«Ben is advancing much faster than he admits. He's a very holy person.»
«Umph. Dawn, you
«Oh, you remember!» She looked as if he had handed her a lollipop.
«Of course. But you've changed. You seem much more beautiful.»
«That because I am,» she said simply. «You mistook me for Gillian. And she is more beautiful, too.»
«Where is that child? I expected to see her at once.»
«She's working.» Dawn paused. «But I told her and she's coming in.» She paused again. «I am to take her place. If you will excuse me.»
«Run along, child.» She got up and left as Dr. Mahmoud sat down.
Jubal looked at him sourly. «You might have had the courtesy to let me know that you were in this country instead of letting me meet my goddaughter through the good offices of a snake.»
«Oh, Jubal, you're always in a bloody hurry.»
«Sir, when one is of — » Jubal was interrupted by hands placed over his eyes. A voice demanded:
«Guess who?»
«Beelzebub?»
«Try again.»
«Lady Macbeth?»
«Closer. Third guess, or forfeit.»
«Gillian, stop that, come around, and sit beside me.»
«Yes, Father.» She obeyed.
«And knock off calling me “Father” anywhere but home. Sir, I was saying that when one is of my age, one is necessarily in a hurry about some things. Each sunrise is a precious jewel … for it may never be followed by its sunset.»
Mahmoud smiled. «Jubal, are you under the impression that if you stop cranking, the world stops going around?»
«Most certainly, sir — from my viewpoint.» Miriam joined them silently, sat down on Jubal's free side; he put an arm around her. «While I might not yearn to see your ugly face again … nor even the somewhat more acceptable one of my former secretary — »
Miriam whispered, «Boss, are you honing for a kick in the stomach? I'm exquisitely beautiful; I have it on highest authority.»
«Quiet. — new goddaughters are another category. Through your failure to drop me a postcard, I might have missed seeing Fatima Michele. In which case I would have returned to haunt you.»
«In which case,» Miriam pointed out, «you could look at Micky at the same time … rubbing strained carrots in her hair. A disgusting sight.»
«I was speaking metaphorically.»
«I wasn't. She's a sloppy trencherman.»
«Why,» asked Jill quietly, «were you speaking metaphorically, Boss?»
«Eh? “Ghost” is a concept I feel no need for, other than as a figure of speech.»
«It's more than that,» insisted Jill.
«Uh, as may be. I prefer to meet baby girls in the flesh, including my own.»
Dr. Mahmoud said, «But that is what I was saying, Jubal. You aren't about to die. Mike has grokked you. He says you have many years ahead.»
Jubal shook his head. «I set a limit of three figures years ago.»
«Which three figures, Boss?» Miriam inquired innocently. «The three Methuselah used?»
He shook her shoulders. «Don't be obscene!»
«Stinky says women should be obscene but not heard.»
«Your husband speaks rightly. The day my clock first shows three figures I discorporate, whether Martian style or my own crude methods. You can't take that away from me. Going to the showers is the best part of the game.» «I grok you speak rightly, Jubal,» Jill said slowly, «about its being the best part of the game. But don't count on it any time soon. Your fullness is not yet. Allie cast your horoscope just last week.»
«A horoscope? Oh, my God! Who is “Allie”? How dare she! Show her to me! Swelp me, I'll turn her into the Better Business Bureau.»
«I'm afraid you can't, Jubal,» Mahmoud put in, «as she is working on our dictionary. As to who she is, she's Madame Alexandra Vesant.»
Jubal looked delighted. «Becky? Is she in this nut house, too?»
«Yes, Becky. We call her “Allie” because we've got another Becky. Don't scoff at her horoscopes, Jubal; she has the Sight.»
«Oh, balderdash, Stinky. Astrology is nonsense and you know it.»
«Oh, certainly. Even Allie knows it. And most astrologers are clumsy frauds. Nevertheless Allie practices it even more assiduously than she used to, using Martian arithmetic and Martian astronomy — much fuller than ours. It's her device for grokking. It could be a pool of water, or a crystal ball, or the entrails of a chicken. The means do not matter. Mike has advised her to go on using the symbols she is used to. The point is: she has the Sight.»
«What the hell do you mean by “the Sight”, Stinky?»
«The ability to grok more of the universe than that piece near you. Mike has it from years of Martian discipline; Allie was an untrained semi-adept. That she used as meaningless a symbol as astrology is beside the point. A rosary is meaningless, too — a Muslim rosary, I'm not criticizing our competitors.» Mahmoud reached into his pocket, got out one, started fingering it. «If it helps to turn your hat around during a poker game — then it helps. It is irrelevant that the hat has no magic powers.»
Jubal looked at the Islamic device and ventured a question. «You are still one of the Faithful? I thought perhaps you had joined Mike's church all the way.»
Mahmoud put away the beads. «I have done both.»
«Huh? Stinky, they're incompatible.»
«Only on the surface. You could say that Maryam took my religion and I took hers. But, Jubal my beloved brother, I am still God's slave, submissive to His will … and nevertheless can say: “Thou art God, I am God, all that groks is God.” The Prophet never asserted that he was the last of all prophets nor did he claim to have said all
