Westervelt crept inside and moved around until he could see the face
pouting on the screen of Smith's phone. The man now had heavy shadows
under his eyes, although he had mopped off the perspiration that had
bathed him when Westervelt had spoken with him.
"Well, perhaps we have slightly different problems," Smith told the
manager.
"Problems!" exclaimed the latter. His effort to contain his emotions
was clearly visible. "Well ... of course ... if it is really serious,
perhaps we can get the police to send up an emergency rescue squad--"
"_No!_" Smith interrupted violently. "No rescue squad! We do not in any
way need to be rescued. Not at all!"
The manager eyed him with dark suspicion.
"Is someone ill?" he demanded. "We cannot be responsible for any
lawsuits due to your refusal to let us call competent authorities."
"Aren't you a competent authority?" demanded Smith. "Just get the
elevator working, will you? We'll wait until then."
"There is no way of knowing when power will be restored," said the
manager. "You must have a TV set around the office somewhere, so you
can hear the news bulletins on the situation as soon as I can." He
paused to pop a lozenge into his mouth, sighed, and added, "Sooner, I
dare say."
Smith had leaned back in his chair, a stricken look on his face. He saw
Westervelt, and began to wave frantically toward the hall.
"I never thought of that," exclaimed the youth.
He burst into the hall from Smith's private entrance, realized he
would have to pass the library to reach Joe Rosenkrantz with an order
for censorship, and circled back to the main entrance.
He went in, saw Simonetta still at her desk, and opened the door to
Pauline's cubicle. When he got inside with the little blonde, her
swivel chair, and her switchboard, there was just about room enough to
breathe.
"Pauline!" he panted. "Punch the com room number and lend me your
headset!"
"This is cosy!" she giggled, but did as he asked.
Joe answered promptly.
"Joe, this is Willie. It just so happens that Charlie Colborn was
changing transistors in all the personal sets you have down there, so
you can't pick up a newscast right now--right?"
There was a pregnant pause before one answered.
"Right. That's the way it goes. Can you talk? I don't see any image."
"I'm with Pauline. It's okay. I mean, it was just a thought, in
case...."
"Sure," said Rosenkrantz. "Should have thought of it myself. Everything
else all right?"
Westervelt told him that it was, agreed that he hoped it would
continue. Then he surrendered the headset to Pauline, who tickled his
ribs as he squirmed around to leave the cubicle.
"Don't you dare!" she giggled when he turned on her. "I'll talk!"
"Please, no, Pauline," he sighed. "Anything but that!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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