Read Online In the Beginning by Robert Silverberg - Free Book Online

turned to go. As I reached the door, something occurred to me, and I paused.
    “Say—I think I’ve found a hole in your theory. How come that charwoman didn’t disappear when she found the diamond?”
    He smiled. “Take another look at the list I gave you, Les. All the names on it are men’s names. Whatever this is, it doesn’t affect women at all.”
    “Hmm. Thought I had you there, for a minute.”
    “You ought to know better than that, Les.”
    ***
    Peg didn’t like the idea one little bit.
    I called her right after I left the Bureau office, and told her the chief had a new project for me. I didn’t tell her what it was, but from the tone of my voice she must have guessed it was something risky.
    I saw her face in the screen go tight, with the mouth pulled up in the little frown she’s so fond of making every time I get stuck into another of the Bureau’s weirdies.
    “Les, what is it this time?”
    “Can’t tell you over the phone,” I said, in mock accents of melodrama. “But it’s a doozie, that’s for sure.” I fingered the leaden box in my pocket nervously.
    “I’ll come over after work,” she said. “Les, don’t let that man get you doing impossible things again.”
    “Don’t worry, baby. This new business won’t take any time at all,” I lied. “And the Bureau pays its help well. See you later, doll.”
    “Right,” I broke the connection and watched her anxious face dissolve into a swirl of rainbow colors and trickle off the viewer, leaving the screen looking a dirty grey. I stared at the dead screen for a couple of minutes, and then got up.
    I was worried too. The Bureau—that’s its only name, just plain The Bureau—was formed a while back, specifically to handle screwball things like this one. In a world as overpopulated and complex as ours is, you need a force like the Bureau—silent, anonymous, out of the limelight. We take care of the oddball things, the things we’d prefer the populace didn’t get to hear shout.
    Like this one. Like this business of people fooshing off into thin air, leaving burnt-out diamonds behind. The only people on Earth who could have even a remote chance of worming some sanity out of that one were—us. More precisely, me.
    I stopped at a corner tavern and had a little fortification before going home. The barkeep was an inquisitive type, and I rambled on and on about some fictitious business problems of mine, inventing a whole sad story about a lumber warehouse and my shady partner. I didn’t dare talk about my real business, of course, but it felt good to be able to unload some kind of trouble, even phony trouble.
    Then I caught a quick copter and headed for home. I got out at the depot and walked, feeling the leaden box tapping ominously against my thigh every step of the way. Peg was there when I came in.
    “You made it pretty quick,” I said, surprised. “Seems to me you don’t get out of work till four, and it’s only three-thirty now.”
    “We got let off early today, Les. Holiday.” She looked up at me, with strain and worry evident on her face, and ran thin, nervous fingers through her close-cut red hair. “I came right over.”
    I went to the cabinet and poured two stiff ones, one for each of us.
    “Here’s to the Chief,” I said. “And to the Bureau.”
    She shook her head. “Don’t make jokes, Les. Drink to anyone else, but not to the Bureau. Why don’t you drink to us?”
    “What’s wrong, Peg? The Bureau is what’s going to keep us going, doll. The salary I get from them—”
    “—will be just adequate to get you the finest tombstone available, as soon as he gives you a ,job you can’t handle.” She stared up at me. Her eyes were cold and sharp from anger, but I could also see the beginnings of two tears in them. I kissed them away, and felt her relax. I sat down and pulled out the handful of burnt-out diamonds.
    “Here,” I said. “You can make earrings out of them.”
    “Les! Where did these—”
    I told