“The boy seems to be fine,” the elder man said. “I’ll see you later, Ben. Laissez-faire.”
“One moment, Doctor. I’m not certain he did not receive a concussion. He seems confused.” Mr. Harper turned back to Elliot. “Now, what’s this about a conspiracy?”
“The Cadre, I mean,” answered Elliot. “It just seems that everyone I know or meet is mixed up with it in some way.” He paused. “Now that I think about it, Al and the tzigane are probably members, too.”
“Slow down,” said Mr. Harper, releasing Elliot from the harness. “I don’t know who you’re talking about, but if they’re Cadre allies, I don’t want to know.”
The two men helped Elliot out of the trunk. He stood dizzily for a moment, then examined his surroundings. He was not sure what he had expected—perhaps a rat-invested warehouse or a dimly lit cellar—but this was certainly not it. Instead, he found himself in a larger-than-living-room-sized hall that looked like a cross between an airport VIP lounge and a hospital emergency room. On the wall behind the trunk hung a white first-aid cabinet with a red cross painted on, near it a green oxygen tank with face mask, an examining table, a stand with an empty hook—
used to hold blood—and emergency heart resuscitation equip-98
Alongside Night
ment. Against the opposite wall were a liquor bar, tables and comfortable chairs, and facing the bar a video wallscreen. Though the room was carpeted, a Plexiglas runway was overlaid between the trunk and the room’s only door. There were no windows.
The room’s only decoration was a modified Gadsden flag draped on the wall adjoining the bar and medical areas (opposite the door), a golden field with “LAISSEZ-FAIRE!” in an upper left corner, a coiled rattlesnake facing left with its tongue out, and in the lower right, “DONT TREAD ON ME!”
Elliot decided this hall was quite used to receiving visitors. The doctor told Elliot to get onto the examining table and there examined him for concussion—testing his pupillary responses, checking his reflexes, asking Elliot if he had a stiff neck; Elliot answered that his neck was fine. Then he told Elliot, “Open your coat, jacket, and shirt.” Elliot did, pushing his holstered gun over to the side, and the doctor listened to his heart, removing the stethoscope to tell him,
“You’ll live to be much older than me.” He turned back to Harper. “And now, Ben, I’ll leave this youngster in your capable hands.”
With a “Good night, all,” he left.
“Seems in a hurry,” Elliot said as soon as the door closed.
“Dr. Taylor is probably anxious to return to his poker game,”
Harper replied.
Elliot buttoned up his shirt. “Sorry to take him away from it.”
“You did him a favor. He was losing.”
After jumping off the table, Elliot asked, “Mr. Harper, what are you doing here?”
Harper guided Elliot over to the bar. “Forget that name. Around here I’m Ben Goldman. Call me Ben.”
“All right …Ben. But what—”
“And it would be a good idea,” Harper interrupted, “for you Alongside Night
99
to use another name around here. Vreeland is far too sensitive at the moment.” Harper went behind the bar. “I’m drinking Jack Daniels on ice. What will you have?”
“You’re offering a student a drink?”
“Why not? Are you an alcoholic? Or a teetotaler?”
Elliot shook his head, sitting at the bar. “I just can’t imagine what Dr. Fischer would say. Jack Daniels will be fine—water, please.”
“You’re giving Dr. Fischer less credit than she deserves. She’s highly intelligent.” Harper handed Elliot his drink. “Skoal.”
For the next forty-five minutes, “Ben Goldman” gave Elliot a basic rundown of what was expected of him if he were to receive aid from the Revolutionary Agorist Cadre. “This room is Aurora Terminal,” Harper explained, “and is the only part of Aurora that anyone but an ally pledged to keep our secrets is permitted to see. The Cadre’s goal—a laissez-faire society—
precludes our use of what would be traditional revolutionary tactics; we are forced to rely mainly on stealth. And, as such, the main precondition for anyone to deal with us is a good deal of discretion. You must refrain from learning more about Cadre business than the part that directly concerns you, and never discuss Cadre business with anyone but another ally. The rest will follow easily enough if you keep just one rule: mind your own business.”
“I get you.”
“Fine. Now finish your drink and you’ll get the Grand Tour.”