Free Black Easter by James Blish Page B

looking back at him.
    Ware himself, however, did not emerge officially, to be talked to, until his predicted fourteenth day. Then, to Jack’s several-sides disquietude, the first person he called into his office was Jack Ginsberg.
    Jack wanted to talk to Ware only slightly more than he wanted to talk to the barefooted, silently courteous Father Domenico; and the effect upon Baines of Ware’s singling Jack out for the first post-conjuration interview, though underordinary circumstances it could have been discounted as minor, could not even be conjectured in Baines’s present odd state of mind. After a troubled hour, Jack took the problem to Baines, not even sure any more of his own delicacy in juggling such an egg.
    ‘Go ahead,’ was all Baines said. He continued to give Jack the impression of a man whose mind was not to be turned more than momentarily from some all-important thought. That was alarming, too, but there seemed to be nothing to be done about it. Setting his face into its business mould of pleasant attentiveness, over slightly clenched teeth, Jack marched up to Ware’s office.
    The sunlight there was just as bright and innocent as ever, pouring directly in from the sea-sky on top of the cliff. Jack felt slightly more in contact with what he had used to think of as real life. In some hope of taking the initiative away from Ware and keeping it, he asked the magician, even before sitting down, ‘Is there some news already?’
    ‘None at all,’ Ware said. ‘Sitdown, please. Dr Stockhausen is a tough patient, as I warned you all at the beginning. It’s possible that he won’t fall at all, in which case a far more strenuous endeavour will be required. But in the meantime I’m assuming that he will, and that I therefore ought to be preparing for Dr Baines’s next commission. That’s why I wanted to see you first.’
    ‘I haven’t any idea what Dr Baines’s next commission is,’ Jack said, ‘and if I did I wouldn’t tell you before he did.’
    ‘You have a remorselessly literal mind, Mr Ginsberg. I’m not trying to pump you. I already know, and it’s enough for the time being, that Mr Baines’s next commission will be something major – perhaps even a unique experiment in the history of the Art. Father Domenico’s continued presence here suggests the same sort of thing. Very well, if I’m to tackle such a project, I’ll need assistants – and I have no remaining apprentices. They become ambitious very early and either make stupid technical mistakes or have to be dismissed for disobedience. Laymen, even sympathetic laymen, are equally mischancy, simply because of their eagerness and ignorance. but if they’re highly intelligent, it’s sometimes safe to usethem. Sometimes. Given those disclaimers, that explains why I allowed you
and
Dr Hess to watch the Christmas Eve affair, not just Dr Hess, whom Dr Baines had asked for, and why I want to talk to you now.’
    ‘I see,’ Jack said. ‘I suppose I should be flattered.’
    Ware sat back in his chair and raised his hands as if exasperated. ‘Not at all. I see that I’d better be blunt. I was quite satisfied with Dr Hess’s potentialities and so don’t need to talk to him any more, except to instruct him. But I am none too happy with yours. You strike me as a weak reed.’
    ‘I’m no magician,’ Jack said, holding on to his temper. ‘If there’s some hostility between us, it’s only fair to recognize that I’m not its sole cause. You went out of your way to insult me at our very first interview, only because I was normally suspicious of your pretensions, as I was supposed to be, on behalf of my job. I’m not easily offended, Dr Ware, but I’m more cooperative if people are reasonably polite to me.’
    ‘Stercor,’
Ware said. The word meant nothing to Jack. ‘You keeping thinking I’m talking about public relations, and getting along with people, and all that goose grease. Far from it. A little hatred never hurts the Art, and