[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

you for it."
I started to tell him what I thought of his humor in scathing green-room idiom,then recalled that there
was a lady present. My father had taught me that a woman will forgive any action, up to and including
assault with violence, but is easily insulted by language; the lovelier half of our race is
symbol-oriented-very strange, in view of their extreme practicality. In any case, I have never let a taboo
word pass my lips when it might offend the ears of a lady since the time 1 last received the back of my
father's hard hand full on my mouth. . . Father could have given Professor Pavlov pointers in reflex
conditioning.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
But Dak was speaking again. "Penny! You there, honey chile?"
"Yes, Captain," the young woman with me answered.
"Okay, start him on his homework. I'll be down when I have this firetrap settled in its groove."
"Very well, Captain." She turned her head toward me and said in a soft, husky, contralto voice, "Dr.
Capek wants you simply to relax and look at movies for several hours. I am here to answer questions as
necessary."
I sighed. "Thank goodness someone is at last going to answer questions!"
She did not answer, but raised anann with some difficulty and passed it over a switch. The lights in
the compartment died out and a sound and stereo image built up in front of my eyes. I recognized the
central figure-just as any of the billions of citizens of the Empire would have recognized him-and I realized
at last how thoroughly and mercilessly Dak Broadbent had tricked me.
It was Bonforte.
The Bonforte, I mean-the Right Honorable John Joseph Bonforte, former Supreme Minister, leader
of the loyal opposition, and head of the Expansionist coalition-the most loved (and the most hated!) man
in the entire Solar System.
My astonished mind made a standing broad jump and arrived at what seemed a logical certainty.
Bonforte had lived through at least three assassination attempts-or so the news reports would have us
believe. At least two of his escapes had seemed almost miraculous. Suppose they were not miraculous?
Suppose they had all been successful-but dear old Uncle Joe Bonforte had always been somewhere else
at the time?
You could use up a lot of actors that way.
Chapter 3
I had never meddled in politics. My father had warned against it. "Stay out of it, Larry," he had told
me solemnly. "The publicity you get that way is bad publicity. The peasants don't like it." I had never
voted-not even after the amendment of '98 made it easy for the floating population (which includes, of
course, most members of the profession) to exercise franchise.
However, insofar as I had political leanings of any sort, they certainly did not lean toward Bonforte. I
considered him a dangerous man and very possibly a traitor to the human race. The idea of standing up
and getting killed in his place was-how shall I put it?-distasteful to me.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
But-what a role!
I had once played the lead in L'Aiglon and I had played Caesar in the only two plays about him
worthy of the name. But to play such a role in life-well, it is enough to make one understand how a man
could go to the guillotine in another man's place-just for the chance to play, even for a few moments, the
ultimately exacting role, in order to create the supreme, the perfect,work of art.
I wondered who my colleagues had been who had been unable to resist that temptation on those
earlier occasions. They had beenartists, that was certain-though their very anonymity was the only tribute
to the success of their characterizations. I tried to remember just when the earlier attempts on Bonforte's
life had taken place and which colleagues who might have been capable of the role had died or dropped
out of sight at those times. But it was useless. Not only was I not too sure of the details of current
political history but also actors simplyfade out of view with depressing frequency; it is a chancy
profession even for the best of us.
I found that I had been studying closely the characterization. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]