The Metallic Muse by Jr. Lloyd Biggle Read Free Book Online Page A

reserved for the next two months. After that we’ll be setting aside a limited number of reservations for visitors from distant places. Jet over and see us! ”You’ll find something different at Lankey’s. There is no visiscope screen. Maybe you’ve heard about that. We have attractive young ladies to sing for you. I play the multichord. We know you’ll enjoy our music. We know you’ll enjoy it because you’ll hear no Coms at Lankey’s. Remember that—no Coms at Lankey’s. No soap with your soup. No air cars with your steaks. No shirts with your desserts. No Coms! Just good food, with good music played exclusively for your enjoyment—like this.“ He brought his hands down onto the keyboard. Immediately he knew that something was wrong. He’d always had a throng of faces to watch, he’d paced his playing according to their reactions. Now he had only Miss Manning and the visiscope engineers, and he was suddenly apprehensive that his success had been wholly due to his audiences. People were listening throughout the Western Hemisphere. Would they clap and stomp, would they think awesomely, ”So that’s how music sounds without words, without Coms!“ Or would they turn away in boredom? Baque caught a glimpse of Marigold’s pale face, of the engineers watching with mouths agape, and thought perhaps everything was all right. He lost himself in the music and played fervently. He continued to play even after the pilot screen went blank. Miss Manning leaped to her feet and hurried toward him, and the engineers were moving about confusedly. Finally Baque brought his playing to a halt. ”We were cut off,“ Miss Manning said tearfully. ”Who would do such a thing to me? Never, never, in all the time I’ve been on visiscope—George, who cut us off?“ ”Orders.“ ”Whose orders?“ ”My orders!“ James Denton strode toward them, lips tight, face pale, eyes gleaming violence and sudden death. He spat words at Baque. ”I don’t know how you worked that trick, but no man fools James Denton more than once. Now you’ve made yourself a nuisance that has to be eliminated.“ ”Jimmy!“ Miss Manning wailed. ”My program—cut off. How could you?“ ”Shut up, damn it! I just passed the word, Baque. Lankey’s doesn’t open tonight. Not that it’ll make any difference to you.“ Baque smiled gently. ”I think you’ve lost, Denton. I think enough music got through to beat you. By tomorrow you’ll have a million complaints. So will the government, and then you’ll find out who really runs Visiscope International.“ ”I run Visiscope International.“ ”No, Denton. It belongs to the people. They’ve let things slide for a long time, and they’ve taken anything you’d give them. But if they know what they want, they’ll get it. I gave them at least three minutes of what they want. That was more than I’d hoped for.“ ”How’d you work that trick in my office?“ ”That wasn’t my trick, Denton—it was yours. You transmitted the music on a voice intercom. It didn’t carry the overtones, the upper frequencies, so the multichord sounded dead to the men in the other room. Visiscope has the full frequency range of live sound.“ Denton nodded. ”I’ll have the heads of some scientists for that. I’ll also have your head, though I regret the waste. If you’d played square with me I’d have made you a live billionaire. The only alternative is a dead musician.“ He stalked away, and as the automatic door closed behind him, Marigold Manning clutched Baque’s arm. ”Quick! Follow me!“ Baque hesitated, and she hissed, ”Don’t stand there like an idiot! He’s going to have you killed!“ She led him through a control room and out into a small corridor. They raced the length of it, darted through a reception room and passed a startled secretary without a word, and burst through a rear door into another corridor. She jerked Baque after her into an anti-grav lift, and they shot upward. At the top