Death in Florence

by George Alec Effinger

  "I'm flattered," she said, honestly impressed.

  "I'm happy," said Moore. "And for later I have a nice selection of champagnes. All warm, unfortunately."

  "When I get to be queen, I'll reinstitute ice."

  Moore looked up. "Are you going to be queen?"

  "Sure," said Brant. "Haven't you been listening to Staefler? He even has Waters convinced."

  "But what about-"

  "My condition? The baby? Are you worried about how it will look to the world?"

  "No," said Moore, "that's not what I meant. I mean, what if—"

  "You want to know if you're the father."

  Moore took a deep breath. "No," he said. "I don't need to know about that, either. Never mind. Forget I brought it up. Eat your lunch."

  "Yes, Norman," said Brant mildly.

  Later that day they walked through the gardens and sat in a shaded grotto. They had found a message on two posters from Sandor Courane, and Moore had pulled them down from the palace wall. "There's been an awful lot of these lately," said Brant.

  "That figures," said Moore. He spread the posters out on the grass. "I don't like this at all."

  "I thought you knew all about it. I mean, you're one of the personal bodyguards or something, aren't you?"

  Moore frowned. "I really don't know what I am. This uniform was waiting for me at the Utopia 3 office in Prague. I had to take it or I would have been kicked out of the project altogether. These posters finally let me know why." He read through the message again.

  This is Sandor Courane. I don't have time for the usual greetings. I want to get right down to the matter at hand.

  The expansion of Utopia 3 is set for the first of the year. That's less than three months away. You know that Utopia 3 is going to be much larger. That's obvious. Less obvious are the reasons Dr. Bertram Waters had for choosing the new boundaries. I believe I have discovered some of these reasons.

  First, the new boundaries push Utopia 3 north, so far north that the demarcation line passes above Gdynia and Gdansk, and includes an important area of the Baltic Sea. The two cities are extremely valuable ports.

  FOR THE FIRST TIME, DR. BERTRAM WATERS HAS ACCESS TO THE BALTIC SEA. HE HAS AN OUTLET AT THE NORTH END OF UTOPIA 3.

  The southern boundary will include Corsica and most of Sardinia, as well as the greater part of Italy. Utopia 3 will command the Adriatic on both shores. The western boundary will be protected by rivers and mountains.

  DR. WATERS HAS SEEN TO IT THAT AN INVASION OF UTOPIA 3 WILL BE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO MOUNT.

  The eastern boundary will have a small area excluded, a portion of the Soviet Union which Dr. Waters has returned to that nation. I believe that as payment for this area, the Soviet Union is guaranteeing protection along the entire eastern front.

  Does this sound frightening to you? I surely hope so. It scares me. What it means is that Dr. Bertram Waters has an empire larger than Nazi Germany, that he has defended himself at the outset against any kind of attack, that his cover story is so convincing that it will take a massive effort to mobilize the world against him, and that the shrewd choice of boundaries makes it clear that he is plotting a gigantic act of aggression sometime in the near future.

  HE MUST BE STOPPED.

  Within the vast area of Utopia 3 there is an army, a private army more fanatical than the world has ever seen. This army will destroy itself if it has to, sacrifice its uncountable lives for the glory of Dr. Bertram Waters, Utopia 3, and what it believes to be the cause of world peace. Hitler and Hirohito never had so loyal a following. Not only wealth was left in Utopia 3. Remember: the arms, supplies, air forces, navies, and armored vehicles of many nations have been left for Dr. Waters's personal use.

  How long do you think France will hold out? Dr. Waters has a tremendous advantage over Hitler. No one suspects that he is coming. France was aware of Hitler's actions. But today Dr. Waters is scheming in secret. When the expansion occurs, he will own Paris. He will own almost half of France without firing a shot. He will be able to start his blitzkrieg from a point fifty miles from the English Channel. He can be there in an hour. His bombers can be over London by lunchtime, without resistance from the RAF. And these aren't Hitler's airplanes. These are the best supersonic bombers and fighter planes that NATO has to offer. The remainder of France will fall more quickly than a house of cards. He will own the Mediterranean. There will be no D-Day. There will be no England. Spain and Portugal will fall. Scandinavia will fall. The Balkans will fall. I am ignorant of what Dr. Waters plans to do with Russia; perhaps they will achieve an accommodation. Whatever happens, it will not be pleasant.

  There. I'm sorry to have taken up so much of your time. I just thought you'd like to know. What can we do about it? Frankly, I don't know. No one in Utopia 3 has the power to stop him, and no one outside Utopia 3 has the knowledge. All we can do is pray, I guess.

  You know, I'm very worried.

  Best wishes to you all,

  Sandor Courane

  "Is he right about this?" asked Brant.

  "God, I hope not," said Moore. He looked down at his green uniform.

  "How'd you get suckered into this in the first place?"

  Moore looked embarrassed. "It was terrible. You know that I sold Dr. Waters my options. Well, after I did that everything was fine. I was getting these great things to eat. I'd go in to the office every day and they'd have stuff for me. Turkeys and chocolate milk and fresh eggs. They even gave me ice. Then one day when I went in, they told me that Dr. Waters would be happy if I would sell him my option on another part of Utopia 3. I said that I'd have to think it over, and they wouldn't give me my food. So I sold another option. The same thing happened again, a couple of weeks later. I could see that he was boxing me into an area around Prague."

  "He's a maniac," said Brant.

  "No doubt. Anyway, this uniform and a handshake were waiting for me, and just like that I'm part of Dr. Bertram Waters's elite corps."

  "I'll bet your mother's proud."

  "Sure," said Moore, scowling.

  "What are you going to do now?" she asked.

  "I'm going to stay where I am. In a way I'm glad Dr. Waters is doing what he is. He's fighting communism. I realized that when I read More's Utopia. A genuine Utopia can look an awful lot like communism. Communism is, uh, it's a system without classes, where everybody together owns the means of production. Well, here in Utopia 3 there aren't classes, right?"

  "Right," said Brant.

  "And everybody owns the means of production, right?"

  "What production?"

  "Exactly. So Utopia 3 is a communist society, whatever the rest of the world thinks. And Dr. Waters is secretly planning to overthrow the communist government."

  Brant frowned. "He's going to replace it with a fascist dictatorship."

  Moore shrugged. "Could it make things worse?" he asked.

  "Yes," said Brant.

  * * *

  Moore was getting ready to leave Florence. He tried to persuade Brant to go with him. "Let's go to Austria," he said. "Vienna is a very Libra city. It would be better for the baby. It would do you good to get away for a while."

  "No, thanks," said Brant. "I appreciate your concern, but I'll stay in Florence for a little while. I have duties and responsibilities."

  "What duties?"

  Brant didn't know how to tell Moore about her majesty. She was afraid that he'd laugh and spoil her dream. "Oh," she said, "I have to protect this city from Dr. Waters."

  Moore chewed his lip. "I see," he said, obviously disappointed. "I wish you'd come with me. I feel so much better when you're with me."

  "Then stay in Florence."

  "I can't. I have duties, too. I have to report back to Prague. Dr. Waters wants me to do something. I have to be ready to mobilize."

  "Has he given you a rifle?"

  Moore smiled sadly. "No," he said. "A tank."

  "You keep it parked outside the house?"

  He nodded.

/>   "Go home, Norman. You're a fool."

  "My mother-"

  Brant raised a hand and cut him off. "I don't want to hear about your mother," she said.

  * * *

  Without a sound, the sun abandoned Libra for the colder sign of Scorpio. Brant's pregnancy moved into its eighth month. Her worry gave her little rest. She was beginning to panic. She felt very alone. At last, unable to stand the anxiety any longer, she went to see Buddy and Claire at the Utopia 3 office.

  "Why, look who it is!" said Buddy.

  "Hello," said Brant.

  "Giving up?"

  "Not altogether. I want to find out if Dr. Waters could send me a doctor. I'm not ready to handle this by myself."

  "It's too late, I think," said Claire. She sounded genuinely concerned.

  "That's right," said Buddy. "If you had come in a couple of months ago, he would have taken care of everything. Now, though, I think he wants to make an example of you. He wants to show the others what happens when someone goes against the guiding precepts and fine sentiments of Utopia 3."

  "What did I do that was so wrong?" cried Brant.

  "You ignored the wishes of Dr. Waters and Myra Waldecott. They know better than you what is best for everyone, for Utopia 3. You obstructed the progress of the entire project. You cost millions of people around the world their opportunity to enjoy peace and brotherhood. You are a criminal against the world."

  "Aw, Buddy," said Claire, "don't be so hard on her. She has enough problems."

  "Listen," said Brant, "did you ever have a baby? Have you ever watched a baby being born? What do you do? I don't know what to do."

  "Don't worry," said Claire. "It will all come naturally."

  "Hell," said Brant. "When and how do you cut the cord?"

  "I don't know," said Buddy.

  "I don't know," said Claire.

  Buddy turned away. Claire shook her head. Brant stared for a moment. She turned and left the office.

  On the way back to her palace, she felt very depressed. She felt definitely unmajestic. She wondered what a real queen would do in her position. A real queen would have a team of ob-gyn doctors watching her day and night. Brant wondered if her baby would kill her, or if she would kill her baby. Brant cried for a long time.

  * * *

  Brant had a dream about her baby. She napped and dreamed that she had given birth to a god. The god started out to be Zeus, but changed. It was very difficult being the mother of Zeus. She realized in her dream that she couldn't discipline him very well. Toilet-training was a disaster. When Zeus didn't want to go to school, there was nothing Brant could do about it. When he did go to school, his kindergarten teacher would call up and complain about how he behaved with the other children. It was impossible to get Zeus to attend Sunday school. He wouldn't do chores around the house. By the end of the dream he had grown up and seduced Brant. She woke up feeling terrible.

  Brant had found a battery-operated radio. She listened to music during the day, while she lay in bed. She read and wrote letters which she would never mail. The music soothed her. She tried to eat well, for her baby's sake. Even Zeus would need calcium for good strong teeth and bones.

  One evening she listened to a program which let people from all over the world broadcast their feelings to the inhabitants of Utopia 3. "They're talking to me," thought Brant in wonder. "People from foreign countries are interested in me." One man from America, whom Brant judged to be an elderly black man, named Rev. Cleon Monroe, spoke of his wish that Utopia 3 would unite people of every race.

  "I approve wholeheartedly of the Reverend Dr. Bertram Waters, and his powerful works. Maybe someday we'll all share in the glory and splendor of a worldwide Utopia 4. Maybe I won't live to see it, but I can rest happy to know that my children, or my grandchildren, will surely live to walk in a world that is wide and free. Today, a person's community stretches only a matter of a few streets, or the limits of a farming village. In the glory days to come, the whole world will be home."

  "The Reverend Dr. Waters?" thought Brant.

  "Hello," said another voice. "My name is Jim Westfahl, and I'm an athletic coach. I was thinking how wonderful it would be if Utopia 3 could send a team to next year's Olympic Games. That would be a meaningful and symbolic thing. In the future, when Utopia 3 has spread to include the whole world, there will be only one nation at the Olympics, the Utopia 3 nation. There will be only one flag saluted, there will be only one anthem played for the gold medal winners. It will be our flag and our anthem, and they will be our winners. Doesn't that sound fine?"

  "Maybe they'll have Olympic miniature golf," thought Brant.

  "Am I on the air?" said a woman. "I am? Oh. Well, my name is Gretchen Kaemmer, and I forgot to bring my photo album with me. It isn't worth anything, but it has pictures of my dog in it, and my dog is dead now and I'd really like to have the pictures. The album is in the town of Greusching. The address is 309 Hanson-strasse. I think I left it in the closet in the bedroom. Would somebody go and get it and leave it off at one of the Utopia 3 offices? Thank you. I really mean it."

  "Who are these people?" thought Brant. "I wish I weren't pregnant."

  * * *

  Brant was asleep in Pilessio, in a house formerly owned by a Signore Diogini Sebastiano. She was dreaming of her baby again. This time her baby was Athena, bursting out through her forehead, fully dressed and armed. It was painful. Brant's forehead was in labor for only a few minutes, but it was an intense few minutes. When it was all over she had a daughter she could talk to and go shopping with. Brant and Athena went out to dinner and took in a movie. They had plans to attend a lecture and a concert the next day. Just as she was kissing Athena good night and tucking her in, Brant woke up. "Good grief," thought Brant. She felt her forehead, but it didn't seem to be any larger than normal.

  There was a knock on the door. Brant put on a robe and went into the parlor. She opened the door and saw Carlo Mazzatti. He didn't have a box of flowers this time. He had a medium-sized box wrapped in birthday paper, with a red ribbon and bow. "Hello," he said.

  "Do you have people following me?" she asked.

  "Yes," said Mazzatti. "Or rather, Dr. Waters does."

  "I thought so. Come on in."

  He went by her and sat on a davenport in the parlor. "I've brought you a present," he said.

  "So I see. Is it from you or from Dr. Waters?"

  "Don't be angry with me, Eileen. You know that I love you, but I'm still a part of Utopia 3."

  Brant took the present from him and started undoing the ribbon. "Do you know about Courane's message? Where he hints that your Dr. Waters is going to be the new Hitler? What do you think about that?"

  "It's true," he said, "that Dr. Waters has the potential to do these things. He could, if he wanted, field a large and supremely equipped army. He has at his command a huge number of conventional air weapons, nuclear missiles, and sophisticated weaponry we know nothing about. For his navy he has now an outlet into the Baltic. The new boundaries will provide him with resources, oil fields, food-producing lands. All these things are potentially true. But I do not choose to assume, as does Sandor Courane, that these are Dr. Waters's genuine ambitions. Courane is an alarmist and a troublemaker."

  Brant had opened the box and taken out a bar of soap on a rope, two Cannon bath towels, a face towel, a washrag, and a gold-colored plastic donkey filled with lavendar bath salts. She looked at Mazzatti but said nothing.

  "I do not have access to the wealth of Utopia 3," he said apologetically. "I may not enter homes and shops as you can. I have to pay for everything, and I have volunteered my services to Utopia 3.1 receive no salary."

  "Oh, Carlo," said Brant. She didn't know what else to say.

  "Some of us believe," he said. "Some of us really believe."

  "Oh, Carlo," she said.

  * * *

  Bo Staefler arrived in Pilessio the next morning. "I like this town," he said. "I can see why you come here to get away from it all." />
  "I'm not getting away from anything anymore," she said.

  "I'm sorry. I guess I'm intruding."

  "That's okay," she said. "After the baby I'll just find another village like this. There are plenty of them around. How's your golf course coming?"

  Staefler smiled, pleased that she had shown interest. "Wonderful," he said. "I'm working hard, and the Arab kid has finally figured out what I want him to do, so it's getting finished right on schedule. It's going to be a country club for the common man. It's going to be there for everyone in Utopia 3, for the people who can't go out on the real golf courses, the ones that are now so overgrown with weeds and underbrush that they're unplayable."

  Brant felt a spasm of pain. "Uh," she said. She closed her eyes tight until the pain went away.

  "Can I do anything?" said Staefler.

  "Yes," she said. "Have my baby for me."

  "Can't Dr. Waters do anything to help?"

  Brant took a deep breath. The pain had gone away. "It's too late for that," she said. "I know. I've tried."

  "It's cold, Eileen. It's November. You can't go out and get firewood in this weather, it isn't good for you. You can't go out looking for food. You can't hunt for clean water. Why don't you come back to Venice with me? I'll take care of you."