"Did you give your fellow seniors a break? What if one had slipped on the peel?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. Look, officer, I've got a lot on my mind. I got a sick child and a wife that drinks, and I been late a couple of times without a good excuse-so they said. What do they know? My mind was on my troubles. You got troubles, ain't you? Maybe you don't, being an organic and all that. But I got them. Everybody got them. Give me a break. I won't do it again."

Caird spoke into the front section of the box, asking for the file department. A complete update on Rootenbeak flashed on the screen. This included the fact that Rootenbeak had used the same excuses to other officers as he had to Caird. Also, Rootenbeak had no children, and his wife had left him three weeks ago.

"I'm going to be late again if you don't let me go now. I can't afford another credit cut. I ain't making enough now. We just barely get by."

The state guaranteed that n.o.body just barely got by. Rootenbeak knew that Caird had checked out his story, yet he was lying. And he knew that being caught in a lie would cost him at least another credit.

Caird sighed. What made them do it?

He should know. He was a far bigger criminal than Rootenbeak, who was, actually, a committer of misdemeanors, not of felonies. But Caird believed, at least he told himself that he believed, that there was a difference between him and other criminals. A qualitative difference. Also, if he let Rootenbeak go because of a misplaced sense of empathy, he would put himself in danger. Moreover, the discarded peel, besides being offensive, was dangerous.

And I'm not hurting anyone.

No, not yet. But if I were caught, many would be hurt.

He took a camera from the bag, held it between two fingers, sighting with one eye through the tiny magnifying gla.s.s in the center, and squeezed. A second later a photograph slid out. He inserted that into another slot in the R-T box. The screen displayed that the photograph had been transmitted and was recorded in the files. It also confirmed that the culprit was indeed Rootenbeak. Caird read the ticket for Rootenbeak into the box. A few seconds later, the screen flashed that the charges had been recorded at files and on the culprit's ID disc.

Caird handed the disc to Rootenbeak. "I'll give you a break," he said. "You won't have to appear immediately at court. You can go after work. Put that peel where it belongs and get going."

Rootenbeak's face matched his whine. It was long and narrow with a thin drooping nose, close-set small watery blue eyes, a short jaw, and a chin that had failed to bud in the womb. His shoulders were slumped, his hair was uncombed, and his robe was torn. Caird expected only servility from the slob. He certainly did not expect what happened next.

Rootenbeak put the chain of his ID badge around his neck and started to walk off, his eyes downcast. Suddenly he wheeled, screaming, the ferret face changed into a wildcat's, and pushed an old woman who had just come between him and Caird. Propelled by the woman, Caird fell back into the bicycle, knocked it over, and fell down on it. He yelled with pain as the end of the pedal drove against his spine. Before Caird could get up, Rootenbeak had jumped into the air and come down with both sandaled feet on Caird's chest. The air oofed out of his lungs, making it impossible for him to yell with pain as the pedal drove again into his back.

Rootenbeak grabbed the bars, yanked the bicycle up and ran it toward the edge of the path. He stopped and let it go over into the ca.n.a.l. Caird's R-T box and the bag went with the vehicle.

Caird had his breath and his strength back. He roared with anger, rose, and charged. Rootenbeak turned as if to run, then dropped to one knee, spun, and grabbed Caird2s outstretched hand. Rootenbeak fell backward, his foot came up, planted itself in Caird's stomach, and Caird went over and into the water. He missed striking the edge of a rowboat by an inch.

When he came up spluttering, more from rage than from swallowed water, he saw Rootenbeak's jeering face above.

"How do you like that, pig!"

Other faces were lined up along the edge of the path. Caird yelled at them to hold Rootenbeak for him. The faces disappeared.

"You're ignoring your organic duty!" Caird roared, but there was no one to hear him except the two grinning men in the rowboat. They helped him in and took him to the steps below the West Twenty-third Street bridge. By the time he got to the path, Rootenbeak was gone. Caird phoned in to the precinct via his wrist.w.a.tch and arranged for divers to recover his vehicle, bag, and R-T box. He walked the rest ~of the way to work.

The precinct station on East Twenty-third Street and Wornanway occupied one-fourth of the six-story building that formed the whole block. Dripping and scowling, Caird strode down the entrance walk lined on both sides by the uniformed and stoned bodies of officers who had died in the line of duty. All were in upright, lifelike poses, though some had not been very upright in life. The one closest to the entrance, standing on a six-foot granite pedestal, was Abel "Bloodhound" Ortega, Caird's mentor and ex-partner. Caird usually said good morning to him, a ritual which some of his fellow officers thought morbid. Now he strode past Ortega's body without a glance or a word.

Caird walked by the desk sergeant without acknowledging his greeting. The sergeant called after him, "Hey, Inspector, I didn't know it was raining! Haw, haw!"

Ignoring the stares, Caird left the big admittance lobby and went down a hall. Near the end, he turned right into the locker room. After opening a locker, he chose one of a dozen robes, took it out, and hung the wet robe on a hook.

He rode an elevator to the third floor and entered his office. The screen on his desk told him what he already knew. He was to call Major Ricardo Wallenquist at once. Instead, he made his verbal report to the computer and then had the Rootenbeak file displayed. The culprit's last known address was an apartment at 100 King Street. Caird called two foot-patrolmen in that area and asked them to check out the apartment. He was told that had been done five minutes ago. Rootenbeak had not come home nor had he gone to work.

Which meant that he probably was not going to do so. Having a.s.saulted an officer, his first known felony, he was probably headed for the "minnie" district near Hudson Park. People living on the minimum guaranteed income, those who for some unfathomable reason disdained work, tended to congregate there. They were also inclined to take in criminals and hide them. Now and then the organics raided the area and swept up a few of the wanted. It was time for another search.

Caird had coffee brought in. While sipping the hot liquid, he cooled off. Finally, envisioning his dunking, he began laughing. There was something funny about the scene even if he was the one humiliated. If he had seen the incident in a movie, he would have thought it laugh-provoking. And he had to admire Rootenbeak to some degree. Who would have expected a whiner, a sniveler, a nothing, to erupt like that?

Tracking him down was a routine better left to the patrolmen. He switched off the display and started to tell the strip to call Wallenquist's office. Then he remembered that he was to apply for a reproduction license. Just as he was going to code in the propagation department of the Population Bureau, the face of Ricardo "Big d.i.c.k" Wallenquist appeared on a wall strip.

"Good morning, Jeffi"

Wallenquist's fat red face beamed. "Morning, Major."

"You saw my message?"

"Yes, sir. I had some prior duty. I was just going to . .

"Come up to my office, Jeff. Now. I've got something interesting. No run of the mill, no distilled-water bootlegger. I'd rather be face to face."

Caird stood up. "Right away, Major."

Wallenquist made a big thing of the personal touch. He deplored communication through electronics. It was too impersonal, too aloof. "Barriers go up then, man! Wires, waves, screens! You can't really know a person or like him or get him to know you and like you if you're talking through machines. You're just ghosts then. What we need is flesh and blood, man. Touch and smell. Electricity can't transmit nuances or soul. Can't send you the proper signals. Only face to face, nose to nose can do that. G.o.d knows we've lost too much humanity. We must preserve it. Flesh to flesh, eye to eye. Touch and smell."

All very fine, Caird thought as he went up on the elevator. The trouble was that Wallenquist was an onion-fiend. Ate them for breakfast, lunch, and supper. And he insisted on getting as close as possible to the person he was talking to.

Wallenquist's office was twice as big as Caird's, which was the way it should be. The major, however, was only one-fourth larger than his lieutenant. Six feet and seven inches tall, he weighed two hundred and eighty-seven pounds. Ninety of that had to be excess fat. The Health Department was after him, of course, but he had enough connections to keep its attention from being more than a minor nuisance. No subordinate bureaucrat was going to tackle an organic major head-on, and the Health Department supervisors were rather lax about getting rid of their own lard. It was the person without power, the little guy, who had to toe the mark in this officially cla.s.sless society. Thus it had been and would be.

The major rose from his huge padded chair when Caird entered, and he shook hands with himself. Caird shook his own hands.

"Sit down, Jeff."

Caird took a chair. Wallenquist came around the crescenttopped desk and sat on its edge. He leaned far forward until he seemed to be in danger of toppling off. Like Humpty-Dumpty, Caird thought. But that big egg did not eat onions.

Grinning, Wallenquist said, "How's the wife, Jeff?" For a second, Caird felt sick. Had Ozma done something unlawful?

"Fine."

"Still painting those insects?"

''Still."

Wallenquist boomed laughter and slapped Caird's shoulder.

"Isn't that something! I don't know if it's art, but it's sure good publicity. Everybody knows about her. I heard about the party given in her honor."

Caird relaxed. The major was just going through his warming-up routine. Nose to nose, eye to eye, flesh to flesh.

"How's the daughter? Arid . . . uh . . . Mauser, isn't it?" "Fine. Still teaching at East Harlem University?" Wallenquist nodded; his jowls flapped like sails. "Good, good. Party, heh? Anyone I know?" "Perhaps. It's one of those arty events. The host is Malcolm Chang Kant, the curator of the Twentieth-Century Museum." "I've heard of him, of course. But I don't move in those circles. It's good that you do. An organic should know people outside his field."

You'd be surprised how many I know, Caird thought. He continued the ritual by asking about the major's health and that of his wife, two children, and three grandchildren.

"Fine, couldn't be better."

Wallenquist paused. Caird had turned his head away until he was looking at the major from the corners of his eyes. He moved his head then to look directly into his eyes and received the full blast.

"I got a make-your-ears-p.r.i.c.k-up case," the major said. "A daybrealcer! Ah, I thought so! That woke you up, heh?"

He punched Caird lightly on the arm. "I'll supervise, of course, but I'm letting you have all the fun. You're a d.a.m.ned good man, by G.o.d, and what's more, I like you!"

"Thanks," Caird said. "I ... get along fine with you, too."

"I know my people. If I do say so myself, I got a knack for bringing out the best in the best. You're a real bloodhound, Jeff."

The major got off the desk, much to Caird's relief, went behind it, sat down, and activated a wall strip behind and to one side of him. Wallenquist spun his chair to look at it.

"This isn't any run-of-the-mill daybreaker."

Three views of a clothed adult male from head to toes and at different angles appeared. Below these came three views of the same man unclothed. The two stared, fascinated, at the circ.u.mcised organ. Caird had never seen one in the flesh and had viewed few photographs of them. It was exotic but ugly and Old Stone Ageish.

The head and shoulders, full-face, of the same subject followed. His red hair was long, and he wore a green skullcap. The bushy red beard underlined a strong broad face with small green eyes, a broad and short nose with flaring nostrils, and very thin lips.

YANKEV GAD GRIL.

MONDAY SENIOR.

His code-identification flashed. It moved up and was succeeded by codes of his earprints, eyeprints, fingerprints, footprints, voiceprints, normal skin-odorprints, bloodtype, skull and skeleton X-ray and sonograms, brain topography and waveprints, hormone balance, kiair and blood and genetic prints, exterior dimensions, intelligence quotient, psychic quotient, social quotient, and gait cla.s.sification.

Wallenquist told the strip to roll the file more slowly. After a few seconds, Caird said, "Hold it! Allergic to sh.e.l.lfish? Orthodox Jews don't cat sh.e.l.lfish!"

"Aba!" the major said, his tone indicating that he had just seen a great light. "This Jew does! Did, I mean. Just once. See he got dizzy and broke out in hives. See there. He said it was a judgment of G.o.d on him!"

"n.o.body's perfect," Caird said.

"Ah, but, by G.o.d, humankind will be perfect!"

Yes, Caird thought. Next year we meet in Jerusalem. The second coming of Christ occurs any moment now. The proletariat will govern, and the state will eventually wither away.

"As you can see," Wallenquist said, "he seemed to be an exemplary citizen, aside from being religious. Then, poof!" Wallenquist threw his hands up. "Houdinied! Didn't come out of his stoner yesterday. His colleagues at Yeshiva investigated, of course-he has no family-and his stoner was empty. No messages, nothing to indicate what had happened."

Wallenquist bent down close to Caird. "That means that he's in Tuesday. Right now!"

Caird got up from the chair and began pacing back and forth. "Yankev Gril," he said. "I know the man."

"You know him? But . .

"You didn't read all the file. He played chess with other days via recordings. I was one of his opponents. I knew his name only, and, of course, this is the first time I've seen him. But I'm the champion chessplayer of Manhattan; I got seventh place in the Tuesday World Champion Matches and twelfth in the AllDays matches. Gril was eleventh in the All-Days."

"Really?" Wallenquist said. "I don't go for the game myself.

When I think that you could go fishing instead ... Anyway, I'm proud of you because you're a champion, even if it's just in chess. The whole department's proud of you."

He came up close to Caird, but Caird wheeled and walked away. When he was as far away from the major as he could get, he turned and stopped. "You're not thinking of giving me a temporal pa.s.sport?"

Wallenquist approached him. "Oh, no. That's not necessary. Besides, it takes too much red tape to get one. Since you know something about him, have played chess with him, you're the one who should chase him today. Devote most of your time to his case."

"Well, either he's just moved to this day or he's breaking all the days. Why? Find the motive, find the man."

"Excellent," the major said, rubbing his hands together. "I know how to pick them."

Caird slipped by Wallenquist, who had come nose to nose. "Can I get permission to voice-interview his Monday colleagues?"

"I'll put in an application, but it'll take some time to get a yes or a no."

"Application" reminded Caird of Ozma's demand.

"I'll get right on it, Major," he said, heading for the door. "Unless you've got something else for me."

"d.a.m.n it, man, I don't like talking to the back of your head!"

Caird stopped, turned, and smiled. "Sorry, Major. Overeager, I guess."

"Quite all right, my boy. Always happy to see my men full of zeal. Not too much of that nowadays."

"Anything else, sir?"

Wallenquist waved his hand. "Just keep me informed. Oh, yes, I saw on your schedule . .. you're lunching with the commissioner-general?"

Envy? Indignation?

"Yes, sir. The commissioner and I grew up. together in the same neighborhood, went to the same schools. We like to get together now and then to talk about old times. Besides, we're related. My first wife was her cousin."

"Oh, well. I wasn't prying."

The major looked at two strips that had lit up at the same time. "Busy, busy. Run along. Have a good time at lunch. Be sure to give my best regards to the commissioner. Only, report on what you've found out about Gril-what the h.e.l.l kind of a name is that, anyway?-report before lunch."

Jeff gave the major a salute, which wasn't noticed. Wallenquist was looking back and forth at the strips, unable to decide which was the most important. Caird went back to his office and asked a strip for Gril's latest move.

The chessboard, sixty-four alternating green and red squares, eight horizontal lines of eight squares each, and the eight green and eight red pieces, appeared on the strip. The game had begun with Green, Yankev Gril, making the first move: 1 BLWC-4. That is, the first move took Green's World Councillor's Block Leader to the fourth vertical square from World Councillor's position. Red, Jeff Caird, had made his first move by putting his World Councillor's Block Leader to his World Councillor's Four square.

Green's second move was BL-WC SG. Or 03. That is, he had moved his Organic Officer to World Councillor's State Governor's third square out.

Caird remembered that, when he had made this move, he was thinking that an early twenty-first-century chessplayer would not have been puzzled long if he had been watching this game. He would have caught on quickly that the white and black squares had been changed to green and red. The Kings had become World Councillors; the Queens, Superorganic Directors; the Rooks, Intraorganic Coordinators; the Bishops, State Governors; the Knights, Organic Officers; the p.a.w.ns, Block Leaders. If the hypothetical early chessplayer had any knowledge of present government setups, he would have surmised that the changes in the game were for political reasons and that they were superficial.

Caird studied the board for five minutes, though he was nagged by the feeling that he was neglecting duty for pleasure. Also, he could not keep from wondering where Gril had been when he had made his last move.

He told the strip to make a BL-WC or 04 move. He did not know if the refugee Gril would ever see the latest development. He hoped that he would. They were playing a dangerous but stimulating contest of simultaneous attack and defense. Both their World Councillors were open to, as a master had once put it, "flailing blows from all directions."

That was also true of their real-life situations.

Caird had several matters to deal with before he could get to the Gril case. There was a raid planned for next Tuesday on the Tao Towers, an apartment building on West Eleventh. According to an informant, some tenants there were not only smoking tobacco but selling it. There were always people who desired harmful things even after seven generations of education and conditioning.