A Creed for the Third Millennium by Colleen McCullough Read Free Book Online Page B

spread poised to strike across
the uppermost of a bundle of files in front of her.
    'Dr Abraham, Dr Hemingway, Dr Chasen. Are
you ready?'
    Each nodded seriously.
    'Then let's begin with Dr Abraham. If you
please, Sam?'
    He needed glasses to read, so he put them
on, only the slight tremor in his fingers betraying his high degree of
excitement. He adored Dr Carriol, was intensely grateful for the chance to
participate in an exercise of this scope, and did not look
forward to the day when he must return to more mundane activities.
    'My caseload numbered 33,368 when I
began, and I have followed the prescribed regimen in whittling them down to my
final three choices. My chief researcher selected the same three persons
absolutely independently of me. I shall concentrate on each candidate equally in
my presentation, but I will discuss them in my order of preference.' He cleared
his throat and opened the top file of the three which lay on the table at his
right hand.
    There was a rustle as the other four
people in the room also opened a file and perused its contents while Dr Abraham
spoke.
    'My number-one choice is Maestro Benjamin
Steinfeld. He is a fourth-generation American of Polish Jewish stock on both
sides. Aged thirty-eight. Married, one child, a boy now aged fourteen, in
school, straight A's. His marital and parental statuses rate ten on the
ten-scale. A previous marriage contracted when in his nineteenth year ended in a
divorce two years later, the divorce action being brought by his then wife. A
graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, he is currently the director of the
Winter Festival in Tucson, Arizona, and he is single-handedly responsible for
the series of concerts and allied musical activities which CBS has televised
nationwide for the past three years to an ever-increasing audience. On Sundays,
as you probably know, he hosts a television forum on CBS devoted to airing
current problems, but presented with such tact and restraint that he does not
exacerbate people's pain or stir up people's emotions. It is the highest-rated
programme in the United States. I am sure you must all have watched it at some
time or another, especially given our task in hand, so I do not intend to go
into detail about Maestro Steinfeld's personality or ability to speak or
possible charisma.'
    Dr Carriol had been following this
summary from the top file in the stack in front of her; frowning, she held an
eight-by-ten matt colour photograph of a man's face to the light, studying it as
mercilessly as if she had never seen it before, though it was, as Dr Abraham
said, a very familiar face indeed. She noted its striking bone structure, the
firm well-cut lips, the large dark shining eyes and the unruly quiff of
light-brown hair that fell across the high wide forehead. It was a conductor's
face, true enough; why did they always seem to have masses of floppy
hair?
    'Objections?' she asked, looking towards
Dr Chasen and Dr Hemingway.
    'The previous marriage, Sam. Did you
investigate the reason why Maestro Steinfeld's first wife severed her alliance
with him?' asked Dr Hemingway, her intelligent little dog's face looking as if
she was enjoying every moment of this long-awaited reporting session.
    Dr Abraham looked shocked. 'Naturally!
There was no enmity involved, nor does the matter reflect badly on the Maestro
in any way. His first wife discovered in herself a preference for her own sex.
She told Maestro Steinfeld about her feelings, he understood completely, and as
a matter of fact he was her staunchest support during a rather troubled first
few years in lesbian relationships. He asked for a divorce so he could remarry,
but he permitted her to initiate proceedings because at the time she was in a
very ticklish work situation.'
    'Thank you, Dr Abraham. Any other
objections? No? All right, then, please give us your second choice,' said Dr
Carriol, clipping the photograph back inside the front cover