24 (AUG. 14, THURS.)
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,Or but a wandering voice?
—Wordsworth
4:45 A.M. My head was no longer throbbing when I came to, but my jaw ached and my mouth tasted of old blood.
I was lying on the couch, my arms tied behind me and my feet fastened together at the ankles with my own belt.
I could hear Spookie and Joy talking in the tiny kitchen. It was dark outside, with just a tinge of dawn in the sky.
I wasn't gagged, so I said "Hey."
"Aha," Spookie said, looking around the doorway. "Our sleeper awakes. Who do you think you are now, Sam? Our old pal Kent or the King of the Outer Planets?"
"Damn you," I said. "Untie me."
"Maybe later. You're too much for us Earthlings to take chances with. You were really way out, little chum."
"I'm sorry," I said, beginning to remember.
"You'd better be," Joy said from around the corner. "You were absolutely outrageous. I'm making coffee. Want some?"
"Yes, please. How did Spookie get here? I thought he was still on Ultra."
"They've got a very efficient shuttle service," Spookie said. "They decided it'd be better to ship me back than to get themselves bad publicity by keeping me prisoner."
"Tell Sam how you threatened them," Joy said.
"With the undying wrath of the Spookie Masters Fan Club," Spookie said. "Three and a half million anti-Monolithians was more than they were willing to risk—especially teen-agers, who are inclined to be extreme."
"What an ego," I said. "Did Rod Harris come back with you?"
"He did. I left him at the AP, busting to file a story."
"How come they let him go?"
"My influence, I think," Spookie said. "You're sure full of questions for a reporter without a notebook."
"How did you get here? You didn't answer that one."
"I was anxious about Joy, naturally. I called her up and she told me she had a madman in her living room. Maidens in distress are my specialty."
"You did not call up," I said. "The phone never rang."
Joy answered that: "I happen to have another phone in my bedroom, with a private number. A good thing, too, the way you were carrying on. And if you want to know where Spookie got the number," she added defiantly, "I gave it to him. Any objections,MisterKent?"
"No," I mumbled, considerably deflated. "I'm sorry, Joy—about lots of things."
"Forget it," she said. "How about some scrambled eggs?"
"You'll have to feed me."
Spookie said, "No. I think we'll risk untying your arms and see whose side you're on."
5:30 A.M. We had eaten—I politely, free-armed, with no trouble to my captors—and the sun was peeping through the morning haze when WGMS interrupted its music with a news bulletin.
"More coffee?" Joy said.
"Shh," I said, and the radio said:
"Bulletin from our newsroom. President Allison has just issued the following statement. Uh—one moment, please. Is this on the lev—"
The announcer hadn't hit the cough button quite soon enough. He was back after a moment of dead air, saying:
"We have now verified that this statement is actually from the President. According to all three American wire services, he called them personally before dawn. Here is President Allison's statement, exactly as he dictated it:
"'My dear fellow citizens. During the next few days you may hear a number of rumors which I wish to nip in the bud right now.
"'I hasten to assure you now, before these vicious lies spread, that they are fabrications designed to split your loyalties.
"'You will hear it said that I have been kidnapped and that an impersonator has taken my place in the White House. You will be asked to believe that all Earth's leaders have been abducted and that Monolithian duplicates have been substituted for them.
"'Let me repeat that this will be pernicious propaganda, spread by your enemies and mine, designed to undermine confidence in the great interstellar alliance for peace we have lately forged on Ultra.
"'Later today I will record, on tape and film, a similar message to you, my fellow citizens, to banish any lingering doubts you may have. I have asked our great radio and television networks to broadcast my message hourly throughout the day, so that you will both see and hear me give the lie to this outrageous plot to delude you and undermine your faith in your government and your President, who remains sincerely and genuinely yours—Gouverneur "Gov" Allison.'"
6:47 A.M. Telephone. The one in the living room. Joy, yawning, answered it.
"Yes, this is Joy Linx.... Well, yes, sir—he does happen to be here...."
She said to me, "It's for you, Sam. I—I think it's the President."
"Or the man who sounds like him," Spookie said.
I took the phone. "Sam Kent speaking." I listened, rubbing one tingling leg against the other. I nodded. I said "Yes, sir" several times. I hung up.
"I've got to go to the White House," I said to Joy and Spookie. To Joy I said, "Sorry about—"
"Never mind. You go on."
To Spookie I said, "Any objections, muscles?"
"Go on," he said. "If you think you know what you're doing. But if you want my advice——"
"I don't." I got my jacket and went out. Joy came to the door.
"Will you be all right—with him?" I asked.
She said, "Sure. Don't worry. I'm not worried about them."
It wasn't till I was down in the street, looking for a cab, that I realized she'd said "them," not "him."
I didn't take the first cab that came along, nor the second. And when I hailed the third I said nothing about the White House. I told the driver to take me to a bus that would get me to Baltimore.
9 A.M. Railroad station, Baltimore. Television. Image of Gov: "My dear fellow citizens...."
1 P.M. Pennsylvania Station, New York. Loudspeaker: "My dear fellow citizens...."
1:15 P.M. IRT 7th Avenue Subway. Newspaper headlines.
Post: "GOV TELLS NATION: I'M ME; BEWARE RUMORS."
World-Telegram: "PRESIDENT SPIKES KIDNAP FEARS; HITS 'ENEMY LIES.'"
Journal-American: "WHO'S IN WHITE HOUSE? 'GOV' SAYS HE IS."
2:20 P.M. I got off the subway in Brooklyn, bypassed the St. George as being too well known, and registered at the Towers down the street as Edward Lang.
3:40 P.M. Hotel switchboard operator: "I'm sorry, sir, that number still doesn't answer. Shall I keep trying?"
"No, thanks. Get me room service, will you?"
4:45 P.M. Having eaten and sent my clothes to be pressed, I arranged to buy a white shirt and rent an electric shaver. I left a call for midnight and went to bed. The last voice I heard on the five o'clock news on WNBC was that of the man in the White House, whoever he was, saying "... the great interstellar alliance for peace we have lately forged on Ultra...."