Atlas Shrugged [403]
There was a faint tone of astonishment in Eddie's voice as he answered, "I've never attempted to imply that I don't know where she is, Jim, I know it. But I won't tell you."
Taggart's scream rose to the shrill, impotent sound that confesses a miscalculation: "Do you realize what you're saying?"
"Why, yes, of course."
"Will you repeat it"-he waved at the room-"for these witnesses?"
Eddie raised his voice a little, more in precision and clarity than in volume: "I know where she is. But I will not tell you."
"You're confessing that you're an accomplice who's aiding and abetting a deserter?"
"If that's what you wish to call it."
"But it's a crime! It's a crime against the nation. Don't you know that?"
"No."
"It's against the law!"
"Yes."
"This is a national emergency! You have no right to any private secrets! You're withholding vital information! I'm the President of this railroad! I'm ordering you to tell me! You can't refuse to obey an order!
It's a penitentiary offense! Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Do you refuse?"
"I do."
Years of training had made Taggart able to watch any audience around him, without appearing to do so. He saw the tight, closed faces of the staff, faces that were not his allies. All had a look of despair, except the face of Eddie Willers. The "feudal serf" of Taggart Transcontinental was the only one who seemed untouched by the disaster. He looked at Taggart with the lifelessly conscientious glance of a scholar confronted by a field of knowledge he had never wanted to study.
"Do you realize that you're a traitor?" yelled Taggart.
Eddie asked quietly, 'To whom?"
"To the people! It's treason to shield a deserter! It's economic treason! Your duty to feed the people comes first, above anything else whatever! Every public authority has said so! Don't you know it?
Don't you know what they'll do to you?"
"Don't you see that I don't give a damn about that?"
"Oh, you don't? I'll quote that to the Unification Board! I have all these witnesses to prove that you said-"
"Don't bother about witnesses, Jim. Don't put them on the spot. I'll write down everything I said, I'll sign it, and you can take it to the Board."
The sudden explosion of Taggart's voice sounded as if he had been slapped: "Who are you to stand against the government? Who are you, you miserable little office rat, to judge national policies and hold opinions of your own? Do you think the country has time to bother about your opinions, your wishes or your precious little conscience?
You're going to learn a lesson-all of you!-all of you spoiled, self-indulgent, undisciplined little two-bit clerks, who strut as if that crap about your rights was serious! You're going to learn that these are not the days of Nat Taggart!"
Eddie said nothing. For an instant, they stood looking at each other across the desk. Taggart's face was distorted by terror, Eddie's remained sternly serene. James Taggart believed the existence of an Eddie Willers too well; Eddie Willers could not believe the existence of a James Taggart.
"Do you think the nation will bother about your wishes or hers?"
screamed Taggart. "It's her duty to come back! It's her duty to work!
What do we care whether she wants to work or not? We need her!"
"Do you, Jim?"
An impulse pertaining to self-preservation made Taggart back a step away from the sound of that particular tone, a very quiet tone, in the voice of Eddie Willers. But Eddie made no move to follow. He remained standing behind his desk, in a manner suggesting the civilized tradition of a business office.
"You won't find her," he said, "She won't be back. I'm glad she won't. You can starve, you can close the railroad, you can throw me in jail, you can have me shot-what does it matter? I won't tell you where she is. If I see the whole country crashing, I won't tell you. You won't find her. You-"
They whirled at the sound of the entrance door flung open. They saw Dagny standing on the threshold.