Elvissey (31 page)

"Or we might have not returned," I said. "Will Leverett
suffer for this?"

"Your husband's actions demanded punishment, however
situationed," she said. "Leverett's accomplished at smoothing trails. If direct correlation is made between his knowledge of Melaway's dangers, if any, and his approval of your
treatment, I'll have him. Otherwise, his deniability holds."
"You can't intercede-?"

"He forwards data through Alice every morning," she
said. "She passes his tales on to Seamus sans footnote or
critique. Leverett's predecessor oversaw Alice's programming, and he evidently awared Leverett of data entry methods that circumvent all guards, ours or hers. Seamus, of
course, deafens to me still regarding this. I closet a hope that
she's logicked the plan through and presently strings Leveret' along with so much rope that he'll eventually hang."

"He's addling," I told her. "The eyes show it. He's adhocking as he goes-"

"From the start Leverett's earplayed this one step ahead
of the game and no further," she said. "He'll trip, soon.
Then he'll be had." She paused; shook her head, and eyed
me. "Unless his footing holds. He is an accomplished
dancer. It racks me to think of what this company could be,
if half my time wasn't spent thwarting others' schemes. The
structure inheres such, I suppose." She spoke with the voice
of one suffering thirty years' additional wear to what she
truly held. That morning she evidenced a sense that, having
worked lifelong to terraform a world, she'd discovered on
the seventh day that the wrong world had been redone. "I'll
truth you, Iz. He's rounded me leftright." She stared at the
Drydens, backgrounded by bells. "He's secreting what he
tells Seamus, and Seamus isn't saying. Seamus claims I'm
obsessing when I bring the matter up, and then speaks to me
only of lost days. He shares his anecdotage with me, but no
more."

"Leverett's feigning strength," I said. "He has to be-"

"What of his homunculus? Is he approaching a terminal
state?"

"All signs are there save collapse," I said. "Soon now, I
think."

She extended her arm, alongsiding it near mine, contrasting my darkness with hers; again, I was no longer lighter
than she was. "You've turned considerable this week. Have
you seen him since the op?"

"No," I said. "This afternoon I do. He's one of his world,
Judy. I'll show as animal in his eyes hereafter, and Leverett'll
lose control-"

"For you he'll bestialize, Iz," she said. "Bet me."

"There's no love there."

"There's something, I gather," she said. "Should I have
stayed with Seamus after I no longer had to? How much did you once have in common with your husband that you no
longer do?"

"I've not looked," I said, lying; our differences of late
didn't trouble me so much as our similarities. "Even once
we're split we'll stay joined so long as our baby lives-"

"Your baby's what's shattered you, I'd say," she said. "Yet
you've convinced yourself otherwise. Your Elvis will overlook
much as well, however you show. Nothing's twisted so easily
as reality so long as you've reason to bend it."

"We'll see . . .

"We will. That's this project's downfall, it can't contain the
realities drawn for it. Regooding's downfall as well, I believe."

"Regooding's your plan, I thought," I said. "You doubt its
success-?"

"It was Leverett's plan," she said. "His initial proposal to
Seamus. There are merits inherent, certainly. Our guards
always seemed too anxious to slip into praetorian skin so
long as the tailoring favored them. Leverett convinced me of
the need for doing with our guards as we have. Doing away
with them, I should say."

"They're people, Judy," I said. "My husband-"

"Those with whom they dealt were people." she said.
"Seamus and me are people, too. But when the moment
came, we struck. Where would we be, were that to happen
now? You'd be here, mayhap, in the driver's seat, landing as
I landed. Your husband was in prime position once, you
know, had he keened to act."

"He's honorable," I said. "He-"

"We were honorable. It's mooted, in any event. There is
an idea I've had, however. Would you care to give ear?"

"What is it?"

She pressed one of the buttons on her desk; headcocked
as if to hear whispers in another room, and then switched off
the control. "All's clear. It evidences to me that your husband's treatment seems not to have taken even prior to Leverett's fudging. Now that he's reinstated he'll be fully
accessed once more-"

"That's so," I said, lowering my voice as she did. "Detail."

"Praetorians, too, had their place," she said. "I shouldn't
think he's overfond of Leverett."

"You're suggesting-?"

"Nada," she said. "I've let you read my mind, nothing
more. Once he's repositioned, if he's uncontrolled-"

"He'd suffer consequences if such occurred," I said.

She nodded. "Settling both our problems."

"I'll not participate," I said. `John's not the same as he
was, he's not-"

"Old habits don't die, Iz," she said. "They settle mudways
until rain flushes them out again. The bottle cries for its
alkie. The needle beseeches its junkie. The razor beckons its
slasher. All are as before, in time. But mayhap you know him
best. And as noted before, your course serves you, whichever
way it turns."

"It's my old job I want," I said. "Nothing more-"

"And you'll have it again, once I'm in charge and Leverett's not," she said. "Our earplay ongoes." She patted my
back; only rarely since childhood had Judy worked me in
such manner as to make me feel as a conspirator, however
guiltless I may have been. "I'm sure you're telling me all you
hear."

There was no meeting that morning; Leverett was alone in
his office. Guards slouched against the hallwalls outside,
picking at their skin, nodding as I passed, their presence
awaring me that E was somewhere near. Leverett's look
melted when he saw me; his smile downturned and he lowered his eyes. "I've questions, Leverett. Answer me."

"Isabel," he said, "you're black."

"Sans doubt," I said, sitting on one of his office's hard
chairs. "That's all you can say?"

"Did those wigs arrive?" he asked. "He's not doing well
today, Isabel, when he sees you as you are that could tip it-"

"Did you know?" He pushed himself further away from
me, rolling back, bumping against the wall behind his desk.
"You're awared of where I've been, I take it."

"We prayed for you," Leverett said. "Recovery's assured in
these cases, I'm informed. Problems are at more immediate
hand, Isabel, we have to-"

"I'm not gened for cancer," I said. "Does Melaway tumor?
You'd know, even if you've not told. Does it?"

"Please excuse me, Isabel, I'm so preoccupied at present.
Your look will send him spiraling, do you know that?"

Rising, I spat in his face; as he sat there, openmouthed
and dripping, I got up and walked around his desk, gripped
his chair-arms and slammed him back against the wall as he
sat there. He appeared more frightened than affronted,
swiping himself dry with his handkerchief as I stood over
him. His room's cameras recorded all; I didn't care what
they saw.

"Does Melaway tumor?" I replayed. "Answer, please."

"You perceive a connection?"

"You don't?"

"If I were the sort who perceived connections, I might,"
he said. "Ours is a carcinogenic age, Isabel. I've been cancered three times, everyone gets it. Thank Godness yours was
treatable-"

"Do you know?" I asked. "Did you?"

"You're hystericked, Isabel," he said, his smile returning.
"Inhale slow and steady. Calm yourself. Calm-"

"You knew what Melaway would do to me before I started
taking it, didn't you?"

"What's your context?" he asked. "Please, Isabel, communication's impossible when one's irrational-"

"Contexted in that I took what was given to me and now
I'm cancered," I said. "You assured my safety."

"The doctors assured me," he said. "If they misinform,
where's truth to come from?"

"What of the pills you gave John? You had to know what
was in those. You doubledealed us, Leverett." Mayhap he
believed he mimed benevolence as he shadowed his face
with concern, eyeing me as I'd seen him eye Judy, looking
my way as if observing, from a distant room, a particularly
difficult patient. "You assured their safety, and then suspended John for actions taken while influenced by what
you'd given him-"

"We took every option to guarantee your safety before you
left," he said, his voice so even as an announcer's once again.
"A week prior to your departure our experts statisticked me.
Predicted your odds of returning at more than fifty to one."

"And you sent us anyway?" I said. "Two to one, we were
told."

"I was informed that were John to be allowed reentry into
his pre-regooded state for the duration, that was what the
readjusted odds would become. So did I have a choice?
These decisions aren't overnighters, Isabel. My concern for
you led him astray, Isabel. I apologize for that."

"What about what I was given-?"

"Isabel, please. If Melaway produced the tumor, and that
remains unproven, then I regret it and all that remains to be
said is, it's treated. We have to move on."

There was neither reason to believe nor disbelieve what he
told me; his tales readapted themselves to circumstance the
moment they left his mouth. Once, during our trip's preparation, I was awared of a particular theory regarding parallel
worlds, one holding that whenever a person made any decision, or performed any chosen action, the immediate result
was to create at that moment a new, literal world in which all
thereafter occurred differently than it would have, had any
other choice been made. The concept of such ongoing frac-
talization of existence befuddled me, but the notion that
Leverett made for himself and all around him a fresh reality with his every passing thought homed the theory as nothing
else could.

"As for John," he continued, "his suspension will end
once I've convinced Madam to agree. It was at her insistence,
you know. She feels so strongly about regooding she's not
always ..." He tapped the side of his head with his finger.
"I'll handle. Don't worry."

"I won't," I said, conscious of my husband's reinstatement
tucked inside my bag, secluded amid wallet and mirrors and
the compact Judy had given me; I estimated I'd lipstill, to
wait and see how Leverett might develop this fantasy he
proffered. "Where's E? Let's let him see me."

"We have him secured," he said. "It essentialled. Since
you've been hospitaled he's lost all control. Sabotaging our
program. Insisting upon singing as he wishes, appearing as
he wants. His role's a given but he refuses to take it."

"He can't be presented as he is?"

"There're complications," Leverett said. "And even
though he's facialed right, and his voice matches if not
betters, he and the image aren't coinciding."

"To your mind, mayhap. Elvii might believe differently.
You yourself said they'd see him as they want-"

"But they need to see him as we want," he said. "He's
nonresponsive to that. You're needed, Isabel. You can keep
him online." Leverett sighed as he eyed me updown again,
frowning at my rehued features, my short black hair. "You
could before, at any rate. You should reconsider, Isabel-"

"Reconsider what? Even if I wanted to I wouldn't take
Melaway again-"

"No connection is proven," he said. "Reapplication of the
treatment shouldn't be ruled out so hastily-"

"It is," I said. "Where is he?"

"Two doors down. Come on. Let's hope he's glad to see
you."

Leverett preceded me as we hailed ourselves. I thought it
odd that I'd not noticed before that he was shorter than me; then, studying his stance, I realized that his slump had greatened in the months since the project underwayed. While his
face remained stained with youth, his body showed every day
of his years. We asided the guards, gently pushing them back
until they came to rest against the walls alongsiding the
door. "Alone, Leverett," I said. "I want to see him alone.
Don't come in until I say."

"Agreed," he said, rapping knuckles against the door.
"Elvis? Someone's here to see-"

"Let me outta here!" E shouted back. "I've had it with
this. I've had it-"

"What's being done to him?" I asked. "Leverett-"

"Seclusion, nothing more," he said. "Allowing him time
to think."

"Get me out!" E cried again. "I can't stand-"

Leverett stepped away, that I might enter; laying his hand
on the nearby panel, he pressed the door's opener, and it
slid away. The windowless room they had him in lacked
furniture, save one chair. The moment I heard the topvolumed soundtrack issuing from the ceiling's speakers I
realized what was being done to E. During Elvis's final years,
in his Old Pretender phase, an album was released that
contained nothing but stage remarks offhandedly muttered
between songs in concert, tossed out to his audiences while
he tried, seemingly, to remember where he was and what he
was supposed to be doing. No preserved text of the King was
so beloved by most sects of the C of E, save the most fundamental, as these mumbles; no other album in his oeuvre was
so torturous for the nonbeliever to hear.

"Well," Elvis was saying, sixty years earlier. "Well well well
well well."

The jumpsuit they had E wearing was Dryco yellow, of
shining fabric fused and cut along trad lines. The outfit's
padding thickened his waist until he appeared thirty kilos
heavier; his belt looked to weigh so much as I did, and
fastened with a buckle guised with the look of our logo. His suit's pantslegs widened so below his knees as to hide his
shoes, the collar rose so high as his crown; E appeared to be
badly waterproofed, and beginning to shrink. Not even Elvis
had ever looked so ridiculous.