Part 6 (1/2)
”We have lish to tellbut bastard Matthews and tra la la? At that rate, your machine will reduce our enius, iibberish!+”
”Precisely,” answered Prandtl ”Gibberish The arts, literature, what is their true purpose? Diversion!”
”Diversion from what?”
”You don't know?”
”No”
”You should”
I was silent
”A cracked code remains a code An expert can peel away layer after layer It's inexhaustible One digs ever deeper into more and more inaccessible strata That journey has no end”
”How can this be? What about 'There will be no answer” -- didn't you say that was the final result?”
”No It was only a stage Real enough, within the frae nonetheless Give it soht; you'll come to the same conclusion”
”I don't understand”
”You will, in good tie”
”Couldn't you help me a little?”
”You're on your own, as everyone is It's tough, to be sure -- but you've been singled out, you know the score We're out of time now In the future I'll do what I can for you In the line of duty, of course”
”But howI still don't know --” I said in alarm ”Weren't you supposed to brief me on the codes for the Mission?”
”Mission?”
”Yes”
”Specify it”
”II don't have the details, I assume it's all spelled out in my instructions Here they are, in this folder Of course, I'm not allowed to show you -- hold on, where's my folder?”
I juone! The fat officer, bloated and gaping like a dead fish, snored heavily on his seat
”Where's my folder?!” I shouted in his ear
”Easy,” Prandtl said behind ets lost here Kruuh! Kruuh!!” he scolded ”Give it back! Do you hear, give it back!”
The fat officer shi+fted his weight and sorabbed it, checked to see if it was still full
Had he been sitting on it, then? If he swiped it right from under my nose, he was more dexterous than he looked I was about to open the folder when I remembered that I couldn't read my instructions properly without the key, and Prandtl couldn't give me the key unless he knehat they were about A vicious circle I explained it to hiht on Major Erms's part,” I concluded
”Who knows?” he said
”I'll check it out!” I said, challenging hio to hi your hands of the whole affair, you are sabotaging ned by the Coht,” he said, then added with a shade of hesitation: ”Butare you sure you know the proper procedure?”
”The same procedure that has me leave here elasses His face, as if suddenly unmasked, assumed a look of weary helplessness I sensed that he wanted to tell , but couldn't -- or wasn't allowed The hostility which had been an to feel sy under orders?” he asked in such a small voice that I could hardly hear hiuess”
”I am too”
He opened the door and stood there like a statue, waiting for me to leave As I passed him, his lips parted, but the word rehed, stepped back and slaain I foundmy folder But if ht the desired results -- that is, to tellof my Mission -- at least this ti I repeated the number to myself: 9129 I would ask Major Erood pretext
I passed several white doors before I remembered the folder If my instructions (I had to assume they existed) continued in the vein of the excerpts I had read in Major Erms's office, then they would trace all ht, that And yet wherever I went there were indications that others knew s from room to room than I myself Could it be that the folder really held a co what lay in store for me at its conclusion? The few lines I already read certainly suggested that possibility; even hts had been accurately recorded
I decided to open the folder, wondering only why I hadn't done that before If I indeed held my fate in my oo hands, why not take a peek?
5
The row of doors on ht ca roo I found a corridor which led to a bathroom The door was open, so I peeked in: the coast was clear I locked e of the tub, then noticed a sht razor placed invitingly on a clean hand towel It bothered me for solea roo myself to open the folder here I left the bathroom and took the elevator to the level below, to the saht before
This one was empty too and exactly as I had left it, except that the toere new I sat on the edge of the tub, untied the folder and pulled out a thick stack of paper
The pages were blank, all of theh the pipes, the sort of noise that acco of a tap on another floor It led and faded as it traveled out in the cast-iron intestines of the Building My hands trembled as I turned the white sheets over, one by one; I counted them mechanically, pointlessly It was Prandtl -- no, it was that fat officer! I'd beat that swollen swine to a pulp, so help er passed as quickly as it had co had been planned, carefully planned But why steal ive them tohere, hidden between all these blank pages -- a layout of the Building, with a , and attached to this, sewn on hite thread, a twelve-point plan, ”Operation Shovel” Of course, I would have to turn this over to the authorities, explain how it came into my possession But would they believe me? How could I prove I hadn't familiarized myself with this classified 's location to hteenfor that matter, or the position of Headquarters for the Chiefs of Staff? No, I hadn't a prayer Now I began to see a pattern to the events of the past four days: all those accidental, unrelated incidents had actually been weaving an intricate net to pull me ever deeper, ever closer to thisdocuments to shreds and flush them down the toilet forever! But I re happened here by chance! Every word, every move of the head, the least expression, the n, part of an enormous machine that was obviously bent on my destruction! I felt as if I were surrounded by aeyes If only there were soe, if only I could vanish into air, cease to existThe razor! Is that why it was there? They kneould want to be alone, they placed it there on purpose
Automatically, I put the papers back in the folder one by one As the folder gradually filled, so radually emptied of its ideas, it hopes to find soem, soe of , sweaty face of a condemned man I was defeated, destroyed -- what ed from the multitude of my wild desperate sche to accept the thorny crown of a martyr, an index card slipped out and dropped at ible -- 3883 -- and now I saw that someone had printed in ”Rm” before the nue clear Or was it an order?
So be it! I picked up my folder and took a last look around There was h a dark and brokenBroken because of the flaws in the glass, or was I seeing h the prism of fear? We observed one another, ly face, bathed in sweat and twisted in fear, would soon cease to exist The thought was al that it would co to savor in this bowing to the inevitableBut wait, what if I were to , not even a Mission, not even iant conspiracy, ground in the gears of so forces? If that were indeed the case, soht yet intercede on my behalf
Room 3883, I decided, would be the last resort In the meantime there was Prandtl Whatever the true situation was, he did sigh in hed -- he was on my side True, he had distracted me while the fat officer stoleunder orders
The corridor was e see me back When I entered the office at last, no one was in There were two cups on the table Mine was the one with the metal flies in the saucer: they lay there like two pits The desk near the as cluttered with various docuh theht have found their way there I did find a yellow folder, but it contained only the payroll, a list of curious specialties: Infernalist, Counterinformant First Class, Top Envelope Macerator, Undercover Perjurer, Master Cre with an urgency that made me jump I lifted the receiver