Read Online The Fracas Factor by Mack Reynolds - Free Book Online Page B

of their minds. If every Tom, Dick and… Joe can become a member of the Upper caste, why have castes at all?”
    “Oh, come off it, Balt,” Nadine said, heading for the bar. “Joe is my guest. He didn’t come here to be insulted.”
    Joe said evenly, “Good afternoon, Baron Haer.”
    Balt ignored him and said to Nadine, “What did he come here for? I’ve wondered about the truth behind’ his expedition to Budapest, which resulted in his being bounced two full castes.”
    “I’m afraid that’s a state secret, Baron,” Joe said. He had no intention of allowing the other to irritate him.
    “There’s something unusual about the whole thing,” the other said, his nostrils flaring. “With no background in diplomacy whatsoever, you are named a member of our embassy in Budapest, you go over there, and you kill a Hungarian officer in a duel, then come scurrying back after being declared! persona non grata.”
    “I was a military attaché,” Joe said mildly.
    The fact of the matter was, both Joe and Nadine knew, that he had been sent to the Sov-world by Hodgson and Holland to contact the Sov underground. They wanted to be sure of what might happen if the United States of the Americas was temporarily in a state of confusion during a change in socioeconomic systems To their relief, Joe had discovered that there was an equivalent organization in the Sov-world which wished to overthrow the Communist Party, which had become as hereditary and worthless as the Uppers in the West-world.
    Nadine came back with two cognacs and handed one of them to Joe. She said politely, “Drink, Balt?”
    “Certainly not” he snapped. “I don’t drink with my inferiors. I came here to discuss some legal matters with you, Nadine.”
    She said coldly, “Who are your inferiors, Balt? Take up the legal problems with my lawyers. I know what you are trying to do and will fight you all the way down the line. You threw away your own inheritance, and now you want to get your hands on mine.”
    He was infuriated and glared from her to Joe. Joe calmly sipped at the brandy.
    Balt Haer said, “I refuse to discuss this in front of a stranger.” He headed for the door.
    When he was gone, Joe said, “I thought your brother lived here.”
    “No longer,” Nadine said. “He’s moved to one of his clubs. I got the feeling that he didn’t want me around to overhear some of his Nathan Hale Society meetings. He knows very well that I’m connected with what he calls a subversive organization.”
    She sat down with her drink, and he took a chair across from her. He looked down into his snifter glass.
    “You know,” he said thoughtfully, slowly. “I’m beginning to wonder about that attack on me in Mexico.
    “How do you mean, darling?”
    “What rank does your brother hold in it?”
    “Why, he’s the head man in Greater Washington, the National Headquarters, and a member of the National Committee.”
    “And he knows that you belong to a radical organization? Even if he didn’t hate my guts, he’d probably suspect that I, too, belong. That outfit maintains a squad of goons, doesn’t it?”
    “Yes,” she said in undisguised disgust. “They’re terrible. If someone makes a public statement even mildly opposed to some aspect of People’s Capitalism, they’ll go around and beat him up. It’s suspect that they have actually assassinated some of the more vocal opponents of the Ultra-Welfare State.”
    “So one of Balt’s goons might have planted a directional bug in my car, and several of them might have followed me down to Mexico and waited for me to get off the beaten trail, where they could finish me off.”
    She pressed her elbows tightly against her sides in a gesture of feminine rejection. She said in protest, “But he’s my brother, darling.”
    “And one of the most reactionary funkers I’ve ever met.”
    “But surely he must realize that I love you,” she said. “Surely it shows.”
    “And he’d rather you be married to a