Flatlander - Larry Niven [44]
“Well, it’s worth a try. We’ve been looking into the other side of it, too. If organleggers are trying to block the second Freezer Bill, they might well try to intimidate or kill off anyone who backs the second Freezer Bill. Follow me?”
“I suppose.”
“So we have to know who to protect. It’s strictly business, of course. The ARM isn’t supposed to get involved in politics.”
Garner reached sideways to tap one-handed at the computer keyboard in his desk. His bulky floating chair wouldn’t fit under the keyboard. Tape slid from the slot, two feet of it. He handed it to me.
“Mostly lawyers,” he said. “A number of sociologists and humanities professors. Religious leaders pushing their own brand of immortality; we’ve got religious factions on both sides of the question. These are the people who publicly back the second Freezer Bill. I’d guess they’re the ones who started using the word corpsicle.”
“Thanks.”
“Cute word, isn’t it? A joke. If you said frozen sleep, someone might take you seriously. Someone might even wonder if they were really dead. Which is the key question, isn’t it? The corpsicles they want are the ones who were healthiest, the ones who have the best chance of being brought back to life some day. These are the people they want revived a piece at a time. By me that’s lousy.”
“Me, too.” I glanced down at the list. “I presume you haven’t actually warned any of these people.”
“No, you idiot. They’d go straight to a newscaster and tell him that all their opponents are organleggers.”
I nodded. “Thanks for the help. If anything comes of this—”
“Sit down. Run your eyes down those names. See if you spot anything.”
I didn’t know most of them, of course, not even in the Americas. There were a few prominent defense lawyers, and at least one federal judge, and Raymond Sinclair the physicist, and a string of newscast stations, and— “Clark and Nash? The advertising firm?”
“A number of advertising firms in a number of countries. Most of these people are probably sincere enough, and they’ll talk to anyone, but the coverage has to come from somewhere. It’s coming from these firms. That word corpsicle has to be an advertising stunt. The publicity on the corpsicle heirs: they may have had a hand in that, too. You know about the corpsicle heirs?”
“Not a lot.”
“NBA Broadcasting has been running down the heirs to the richest members of Group II, the ones who were committed to the freezer vaults for reasons that don’t harm their value as—stuff.” Garner spat the word. It was organlegger slang. “The paupers all went into the organ banks on the first Freezer Law, of course, so Group II boasts some considerable wealth. NBA found a few heirs who would never have turned up otherwise. I imagine a lot of them will be voting for the second Freezer Bill—”
“Yah.”
“Only the top dozen have been getting the publicity. But it’s still a powerful argument, isn’t it? If the corpsicles are in frozen sleep, that’s one thing. If they’re dead, then people are being denied their rightful inheritance.”
I asked the obvious question. “Who’s paying for the advertising?”
“Now, we wondered about that. The firms wouldn’t say. We dug a little farther.”
“And?”
“They don’t know, either.” Garner grinned like Satan. “They were hired by firms that aren’t listed anywhere. A number of firms, whose representatives only appeared once. They paid their fees in lump sums.”
“It sounds like—no. They’re on the wrong side.”
“Right. Why would an organlegger be pushing the second Freezer Bill?”
I thought it over. “How about this? A number of old, sickly, wealthy men and women set up a fund to see to it that the public supply of spare parts isn’t threatened. It’s legal, at least, which dealing with an organlegger isn’t. With enough of them it might even be cheaper.”
“We thought of that. We’re running a program on it. I’ve been asking some subtle questions around the Struldbrugs’ Club, just because I’m a member. It had to be subtle. Legal it may be, but they wouldn’t want publicity.”
“No.”
“And then I got your report this morning. Anubis