Part 13 (2/2)
”I'll take my chances. Mars is driving me crazy. All I do is think of Earth and Stephanie.”
”Then come.”
”Where are we going?”
”A long, long way off. It is unthinkably remote, this place called Nowhere.”
Temple felt suddenly like a kid playing hookey from school. ”Lead on,”
he said, almost jauntily. He knew he was leaving Stephanie still further behind, but had he been in prison on the next street to hers, he might as well have been a million miles away.
As for Arkalion--the thought suddenly struck Temple--Arkalion wasn't necessarily leaving his world further behind. Perhaps Arkalion was going home....
Stephanie picked up the phone eagerly. In the weeks since her first meeting with Mrs. Draper of the C.E.L., the older woman had been a fountain of information and of hope for her. Stephanie for her part had taken over Mrs. Draper's job in her own section of Center City: she was busy contacting the two hundred mothers and fifty sweethearts of the Nowhere Journey which had taken Kit from her. And now Mrs.
Draper had called with information.
”We've successfully combined forces with some of the less militant elements in both houses of Congress,” Mrs. Draper told her over the phone. ”Do you realize, my dear, this marks the first time the C.E.L.
has managed to put something constructive through Congress? Until now we've been content merely to block legislation, such as an increase in the Nowhere contingent from....”
”Yes, Mrs. Draper. I know all that. But what about this constructive thing you've done.”
”Well, my dear, don't count your chickens. But we _have_ pa.s.sed the bill, and we expect the President won't veto it. You see, the President has two nephews who....”
”I know. I know. What bill did you pa.s.s?”
”Unfortunately, it's somewhat vague. Ultimately, the Nowhere Commission must do the deciding, but it does pave the way.”
”For what, Mrs. Draper?”
”Hold onto your hat, my dear. The bill authorizes the Nowhere Commission to make as much of a study as it can of conditions--wherever our boys are sent.”
”Oh.” Stephanie was disappointed. ”That won't get them back to us.”
”No. You're right, it won't get them back to us. That isn't the idea at all, for there is more than one way to skin a cat, my dear. The Nowhere Commission will be studying conditions--”
[Ill.u.s.tration]
”How can they? I thought everything was so hush-hush, not even Congress knew anything about it.”
”That was the first big hurdle we have apparently overcome. Anyway, they will be studying conditions with a view of determining if one girl--just one, mind you--can embark on the Nowhere Journey as a pilot study and--”
”But I thought they could make the journey only once every seven-hundred-eighty days.”
”Get Congress aroused and you can move mountains. It seems the expense entailed in a trip at any but those times is generally prohibitive, but when something special comes up--”
”It can be done! Mrs. Draper, how I love to talk with you!”
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