He selected a tape from his library. _Eine Kleine Nachtmusik_ lilted
joyously about him as he found a chair and sat down. Control hadn't
gotten around to making approved lists of music yet, though you'd
surely never hear Mozart in a public place. Lancaster got a cigar from
the humidor and collapsed his long gaunt body across chair and hassock.
Smoke, whiskey, good music--they washed his mind clean of worry and
frustration; he drifted off in a mist of unformed dreams. Yes, it wasn't
such a bad world.
* * * * *
The mail-tube went _ping!_ and he opened his eyes, swearing. For a
moment he was tempted to let the pneumo-roll lie where it fell, but
habit was too strong. He grumbled his way over to the basket and took it
out.
The stamp across it jerked his mind to wakefulness. _OfiSal, sEkret, fOr
adresE OnlE_--and a Security seal!
After a moment he swallowed his thumping heart. It couldn't be serious,
not as far as he personally was concerned anyway. If that had been the
case, a squad of monitors would have been at the door. Not this message
tube.... He broke the seal and unfolded the flimsy with elaborate care.
Slowly, he scanned it. Underneath the official letterhead, the words
were curt. "_Dis iz A matr uv urjensE and iz top sEkret. destrY Dis letr
and Du tUb kontAniN it._ tUmOrO, 15 jUn, at 2130 ourz, U wil gO tU Du
obzurvatOrE, A nIt klub at 5730 viktOrE strEt, and ask Du hedwAtr fOr A
mistr Berg. U wil asUm Dat hE iz an Old frend uv yOrz and Dat Dis iz A
sOSal EveniN. Du UZUal penaltEz ar invOkt fOr fAlUr tU komplI."
There was no signature. Lancaster stood for a moment, trying to imagine
what this might be. There was a brief chill of sweat on his skin. Then
he suppressed his emotions. He had nothing to fear. His record was clean
and he wasn't being arrested.
His mind wandered rebelliously off on something that had occurred to him
before. Admittedly the new phonetic orthography was more efficient than
the old, if less esthetic; but since little of the earlier literature
was being re-issued in modern spelling not too many books had actually
been condemned as subversive--only a few works on history, politics,
philosophy, and the like, together with some scientific texts restricted
for security reasons; but one by one, the great old writings were sent
to forgetfulness.
Well, these were critical times. There wasn't material and energy to
spare for irrelevant details. No doubt when complete peace was achieved
there would be a renaissance. Meanwhile he, Lancaster, had his
Euripides and Goethe and whatever else he liked, or knew where to borrow
it.
As for this message, they must want him for something big, maybe
something really interesting.
Nevertheless, his evening was ruined.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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