Paycheck (2003) (33 page)

‘But what can he do in exchange?’ the other union official asked.

‘Amuse it. He can tell it the story of his life, how he rose out of poverty and obscurity and educated himself by watching TV seven days a week until finally, guess what, he rose all the way to the top; he got the job—’ The official snickered. ‘Of stand-by President.’

Maximilian, flushing, said nothing; he stared woodenly out of the monorail window.

*

When they reached Washington, DC and the White House, Maximilian Fischer was shown a little room. It had belonged to Gus, and although the faded old motor magazines had been cleared out, a few prints remained tacked on the walls: a 1963 Volvo S-122, a 1957 Peugeot 403 and other antique classics of a bygone age. And, on a bookcase, Max saw a hand-carved plastic model of a 1950 Studebaker Starlight coupe, with each detail perfect.

‘He was making that when he croaked,’ one of the union officials said as he set down Max’s suitcase. ‘He could tell you any fact there is about those old preturbine cars - any useless bit of car knowledge.’

Max nodded.

‘You got any idea what you’re going to do?’ the official asked him.

‘Aw hell,’ Max said. ‘How could I decide so soon? Give me time.’ Moodily, he picked up the Studebaker Starlight coupe and examined its underside. The desire to smash the model car came to him; he put the car down, then, turning away.

‘Make a rubber band ball,’ the official said.

‘What?’ Max said.

‘The stand-by before Gus. Louis somebody-or-other … he collected rubber bands, made a huge ball, big as a house, by the time he died. I forget his name, but the rubber band ball is at the Smithsonian now.’

There was a stir in the hallway. A White House receptionist, a middle-aged woman severely dressed, put her head in the room and said, ‘Mr President, there’s a TV news clown here to interview you. Please try to finish with him as quickly as possible because we have quite a few tours passing through the building today and some may want to look at you.’

‘Okay,’ Max said. He turned to face the TV news clown. It was Jim-Jam Briskin, he saw, the ranking clown just now. ‘You want to see me?’ he asked Briskin haltingly. ‘I mean, you’re sure it’s
me
you want to interview?’ He could not imagine what Briskin could find of interest about him. Holding out his hand he added, ‘This is my room, but these model cars and pics aren’t mine; they were Gus’s. I can’t tell you nuthin’ about them.’

On Briskin’s head the familiar flaming-red clown wig glowed, giving him in real life the same bizarre cast that the TV cameras picked up so well. He was older, however, than the TV image indicated, but he had the friendly, natural smile that everyone looked for: it was his badge of informality, a really nice guy, even-tempered but with a caustic wit when occasion demanded. Briskin was the sort of man who …
well
, Max thought,
the sort of fella you’d like to see marry into your family
.

They shook hands. Briskin said, ‘You’re on camera, Mr Max Fischer. Or rather, Mr President, I should say. This is Jim-Jam talking. For our literally billions of viewers located in every niche and corner of this far-flung solar system of ours, let me ask you this. How does it feel, sir, to know that if Unicephalon 40-D should fail, even momentarily, you would be catapulted into the most important post that has ever fallen onto the shoulders of a human being, that of actual, not merely stand-by, President of the United States? Does it worry you at night?’ He smiled. Behind him the camera technicians swung their mobile lenses back and forth; lights burned Max’s eyes and he felt the heat beginning to make him sweat under his arms and on his neck and upper lip. ‘What emotions grip you at this instant?’ Briskin asked. ‘As you stand on the threshold of this new task for perhaps the balance of your life? What thoughts run through your mind, now that you’re actually here in the White House?’

After a pause, Max said, ‘It’s - a big responsibility.’ And then he realized, he saw, that Briskin was laughing at him, laughing silently as he stood there. Because it was all a gag Briskin was pulling. Out in the planets and moons his audience knew it, too; they knew Jim-Jam’s humor.

‘You’re a large man, Mr Fischer,’ Briskin said. ‘If I may say so, a stout man. Do you get much exercise? I ask this because with your new job you pretty well will be confined to this room, and I wondered what change in your life this would bring about.’

‘Well,’ Max said, ‘I feel of course that a Government employee should always be at his post. Yes, what you say is true; I have to be right here day and night, but that doesn’t bother me. I’m prepared for it.’

‘Tell me,’ Jim Briskin said, ‘do you—’ And then he ceased. Turning to the video technicians behind him he said in an odd voice, ‘We’re off the air.’

A man wearing headphones squeezed forward past the cameras. ‘On the monitor, listen.’ He hurriedly handed the headphones to Briskin. ‘We’ve been pre-empted by Unicephalon; it’s broadcasting a news bulletin.’

Briskin held the phones to his ear. His face writhed and he said, ‘Those ships at eight hundred AUs. They are hostile, it says.’ He glanced up sharply at his technicians, the red clown’s wig sliding askew. ‘They’ve begun to attack.’

Within the following twenty-four hours the aliens had managed not only to penetrate the Sol System but also to knock out Unicephalon 40-D.

News of this reached Maximilian Fischer in an indirect manner as he sat in the White House Cafeteria having his supper.

‘Mr Maximilian Fischer?’

‘Yeah,’ Max said, glancing up at the group of Secret Servicemen who had surrounded his table.

‘You’re President of the United States.’

‘Naw,’ Max said. ‘I’m the stand-by President; that’s different.’

The Secret Serviceman said, ‘Unicephalon 40-D is out of commission for perhaps as long as a month. So according to the amended Constitution, you’re President and also Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. We’re here to guard you.’ The Secret Serviceman grinned ludicrously. Max grinned back. ‘Do you understand?’ the Secret Serviceman asked. ‘I mean, does it penetrate?’

‘Sure,’ Max said. Now he understood the buzz of conversation he had overheard while waiting in the cafeteria line with his tray. It explained why White House personnel had looked at him strangely. He set down his coffee cup, wiped his mouth with his napkin, slowly and deliberately, pretended to be absorbed in solemn thought. But actually his mind was empty.

‘We’ve been told,’ the Secret Serviceman said, ‘that you’re needed at once at the National Security Council bunker. They want your participation in finalization of strategy deliberations.’

They walked from the cafeteria to the elevator.

‘Strategy policy,’ Max said, as they descended. ‘I got a few opinions about that. I guess it’s time to deal harshly with these alien ships, don’t you agree?’

The Secret Servicemen nodded.

‘Yes, we got to show we’re not afraid,’ Max said. ‘Sure, we’ll get finalization; we’ll blast the buggers.’

The Secret Servicemen laughed good-naturedly.

Pleased, Max nudged the leader of the group. ‘I think we’re pretty goddam strong; I mean, the USA has got teeth.’

‘You tell ‘em, Max,’ one of the Secret Servicemen said, and they all laughed aloud. Max included.

As they stepped from the elevator they were stopped by a tall, well-dressed man who said urgently, ‘Mr President, I’m Jonathan Kirk, White House press secretary; I think before you go in there to confer with the NSC people you should address the nation in this hour of gravest peril. The public wants to see what their new leader is like.’ He held out a paper. ‘Here’s a statement drawn up by the Political Advisory Board; it codifies your—’

‘Nuts,’ Max said, handing it back without looking at it. ‘I’m the President, not you. Kirk? Burke? Shirk? Never heard of you. Show me the microphone and I’ll make my own speech. Or get me Pat Noble; maybe he’s got some ideas.’ And then he remembered that Pat had sold him out in the first place; Pat had gotten him into this. ‘Not him either,’ Max said. ‘Just give me the microphone.’

‘This is a time of crisis,’ Kirk grated.

‘Sure,’ Max said, ‘so leave me alone; you keep out of my way and I’ll keep out of yours. Ain’t that right?’ He slapped Kirk good-naturedly on the back. ‘And we’ll both be better off.’

A group of people with portable TV cameras and lighting appeared, and among them Max saw Jim-Jam Briskin, in the middle, with his staff.

‘Hey, Jim-Jam,’ he yelled. ‘Look, I’m President now!’

Stolidly, Jim Briskin came toward him.

‘I’m not going to be winding no ball of string,’ Max said. ‘Or making model boats, nuthin’ like that.’ He shook hands warmly with Briskin. ‘I thank you,’ Max said. ‘For your congratulations.’

‘Congratulations,’ Briskin said, then, in a low voice.

‘Thanks,’ Max said, squeezing the man’s hand until the knuckles creaked. ‘Of course, sooner or later they’ll get that noise-box patched up and I’ll just be stand-by again. But—’ He grinned gleefully around at all of them; the corridor was full of people now, from TV to White House staff members to Army officers and Secret Servicemen.

Briskin said, ‘You have a big task, Mr Fischer.’

‘Yeah,’ Max agreed.

Something in Briskin’s eyes said:
And I wonder if you can handle it
.
I wonder if you’re the man to hold such power
.

‘Surely I can do it,’ Max declared, into Briskin’s microphone, for all the vast audience to hear.

‘Possibly you can,’ Jim Briskin said, and on his face was dubiousness.

‘Hey, you don’t like me any more,’ Max said. ‘How come?’

Briskin said nothing, but his eyes flickered.

‘Listen,’ Max said, ‘I’m President now; I can close down your silly network - I can send FBI men in any time I want. For your information I’m firing the Attorney General right now, whatever his name is, and putting in a man I know, a man I can trust.’

Briskin said, ‘I see.’ And now he looked less dubious; conviction, of a sort which Max could not fathom, began to appear instead. ‘Yes,’ Jim Briskin said, ‘you have the authority to order that, don’t you? If you’re really President …’

‘Watch out,’ Max said. ‘You’re nothing compared to me, Briskin, even if you do have that great big audience.’ Then, turning his back on the cameras, he strode through the open door, into the NSC bunker.

Hours later, in the early morning, down in the National Security Council subsurface bunker, Maximilian Fischer listened sleepily to the TV set in the background as it yammered out the latest news. By now, intelligence sources had plotted the arrival of thirty more alien ships in the Sol System. It was believed that seventy in all had entered. Each was being continually tracked.

But that was not enough, Max knew. Sooner or later he would have to give the order to attack the alien ships. He hesitated. After all, who were they? Nobody at CIA knew. How strong were they? Not known either. And - would the attack be successful?

And then there were domestic problems. Unicephalon had continually tinkered with the economy, priming it when necessary, cutting taxes, lowering interest rates … That had ceased with the problem-solver’s destruction.
Jeez
, Max thought dismally.
What do I know about unemployment? I mean
,
how can I tell what factories to reopen and where?

He turned to General Tompkins, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who sat beside him examining a report on the scrambling of the tactical defensive ships protecting Earth. ‘They got all them ships distributed right?’ he asked Tompkins.

‘Yes, Mr President,’ General Tompkins answered.

Max winced. But the general did not seem to have spoken ironically; his tone had been respectful. ‘Okay,’ Max murmured. ‘Glad to hear that. And you got all that missile cloud up so there’re no leaks, like you let in that ship to blast Unicephalon. I don’t want that to happen again.’

‘We’re under Defcon one,’ General Tompkins said. ‘Full war footing, as of six o’clock, our time.’

‘How about those strategic ships?’ That, he had learned, was the euphemism for their offensive strike-force.

‘We can mount an attack at any time,’ General Tompkins said, glancing down at the long table to obtain the assenting nods of his co-workers. ‘We can take care of each of the seventy invaders now within our system.’

With a groan, Max said, ‘Anybody got any bicarb?’ The whole business depressed him.
What a lot of work and sweat
, he thought.
All this goddam agitation
-
why don’t the buggers just leave our system? I mean, do we have to get into a war? No telling what their home system will do in retaliation; you never can tell about unhuman life forms
-
they’re unreliable
.

‘That’s what bothers me,’ he said aloud. ‘Retaliation.’ He sighed.

General Tompkins said, ‘Negotiation with them evidently is impossible.’

‘Go ahead, then,’ Max said. ‘Go give it to them.’ He looked about for the bicarb.

‘I think you’re making a wise choice,’ General Tompkins said, and, across the table, the civilian advisors nodded in agreement.

‘Here’s an odd piece of news,’ one of the advisors said to Max. He held out a teletype dispatch. ‘James Briskin has just filed a writ of
mandamus
against you in a Federal Court in California, claiming you’re not legally President because you didn’t run for office.’