I Will Fear No Evil by Robert Heinlein Read Free Book Online Page B

my guards will deliver you like crown jewels. But I need the car tonight. Starting tomorrow you’ll have Johann’s car and guards, and you will always use them for shopping. And everything.”
    “Yes, sir,” she said meekly.
    “But you are mistaken about Johann not having long to live. His problem is that he has too long to live.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “He’s trapped, dear. He’s fallen into the clutches of the medical profession and they won’t let him die. Once he allowed them to harness him into that life-support gear he lost his last chance. Have you noticed that his meals are served without a knife? Nor even a fork? Just a plastic spoon.”
    “But his hands tremble so. I sometimes feed him as he hates to have nurses ‘messing around’ as he calls it.”
    “Think about it, dear. They have made it impossible for him to do anything but stay alive. A machine. A weary machine that hurts all the time. Eunice, this brain transplant is just a way for Johann to outsmart his doctors. A fancy way to commit suicide.”
    “No!”
    “Yes. They’ve taken the simple ways away from him, so he’s had to think up a fancy one. You and I are going to help him do it, exactly the way he wants it done. We seem to have arrived. Don’t cry, damn it; your husband will want to know why and you must not tell him. Do you feel like kissing me good-bye?”
    “Oh, please do!”
    “Stop the tears and turn up your pretty face. they’ll be unlocking us in a moment or two.”
    Presently she whispered, “That was as good a kiss as the very first one, Jake . . . and I no longer feel like crying. But I heard them unlock us.”
    “They’ll wait until I unlock from inside. May I go up the lift with you and see you to your door?”
    “Nnn . . . I can explain your guards but would have trouble explaining why the firm’s chief counsel bothers to do so. Joe isn’t jealous of Boss—but might be of you. I don’t want him to be . . . especially when I came so close to giving him reason to be.”
    “We could correct that near miss.”
    “Could be, dear Jake. My Iowa-farm-girl morals don’t seem very strong today—I think I’ve been corrupted by a million dollars and a Rolls-Royce . . . and a city slicker. Let me go, dear.”

3
    The guards escorted her up and to her door in respectful silence. Mrs. Branca looked with new interest at “Charlie,” the Shotgun—wondered how a mousy, fatherly little man could be as vicious as Jake seemed to know that he was.
    They “stood sideboy” as she spoke to her door’s lock, then waited until her husband unbolted it. As the door opened Rockford saluted and said, “Oh-nine-forty, Miss—we’ll be waiting right here.”
    “Thank you, Rockford. Good night. Good night, Charlie.”
    Joe Branca waited until he had thrown the bolts and reset the alarm before he spoke. “What t‘hell happen? An’ where you trap uniform apes?”
    “Don’t I get a kiss first? Surely I’m not all that late? It’s not yet eighteen.”
    “Talk, woman. Other ape shows back two hours with your jitterbuggy—tha’s okay; your boss’s butler phoned.” He took off her cloak and kissed her. “So where you been, dizzy baggage? Missed you.”
    “That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard all day. That you’ve missed me.”
    “Walking the ceiling! What happen?”
    “Were you worried? Oh, dear!”
    “Not worried, Smith’s door flunky said you been sent on errand an ’ud come home in a Brink’s. So knew you safe. Just torched it took so long when call made spec you’d short it. Rozzer?”
    “Roz. Simple, though. Boss sent me with his Best Boy—Jake Salomon, you know.”
    “Fixer. Roz.”
    “Mr. Salomon took me in his car to his office to work on things Boss wanted at once—you know how right-now Boss is and worse since he’s been wired down.”
    “Poor old muck should take the Big One. Pitiful.”
    “Don’t say that, dear. I cry when I think about it.”
    “You’re a slob, Sis. But me,