Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven [51]
"Do you know Colonel Baker?"
"No. Wish I did. Love to meet him. But I saw the pictures of him fixing Skylab. Now that was construction work. And when he got back down, he sure gave those NASA bastards hell, didn't he? Hey, I got to be moving. We got work to do." He waved and moved off. Mark chased him with a release form.
"Sir? Moment of your time?"
The young man walked with his head down, lost in thought. He was not bad-looking, but his face was curiously wooden. He showed a flash of anger when Randall interrupted his thoughts. "Yes?"
"We're talking with people about Hamner-Brown Comet. May I have your name?"
"Fred Lauren."
"Have you any thoughts on the comet?"
"No." Almost reluctantly he added, "I watched your program." Muscles knotted at Fred Lauren's jaws, in a manner that Harvey recognized. Some men go through life perpetually angry. The muscles that clamp their jaws and grind their teeth are very prominent.
Harvey wondered if he had found a mental patient. Still … "Have you heard there's a chance the head of the comet might hit the Earth?"
"Hit the Earth?" The man seemed stunned. Abruptly he turned and walked away striding rapidly, much faster than he'd approached.
"What was that all about?" Tim Hamner asked.
"Don't know," Harvey said. Man on his way to do murder? The violently insane are constantly released back to the public. Not enough hospitals. Was Lauren one of those, or just a man who'd had a nonfight with his boss? "We'll never know. If you can't stand not knowing, you're in the wrong game."
Fred had not been watching Randall's previous program. He had been watching Colleen watch a program about a comet … but some of what he had heard began to surface. The Earth was in the comet's path. If the comet hit, civilization would end in fire.
The end of the world. I'll be dead. We'll all be dead. He gave up all thought of going back to work. There was a magazine stand down the street and he walked rapidly toward it.
There were other interviews. Housewives who'd never heard of the comet. A starlet who recognized Tim Hamner from the "Tonight Show" and wanted to be filmed kissing him. Housewives who knew as much about the comet as Harvey Randall did. A Boy Scout taking a merit badge in astronomy.
There were few trends that Harvey could spot. One wasn't surprising: There was a lot of space industry in Burbank, and people there overwhelmingly approved of the coming Apollo shot. Still, the near unanimity was unusual, even for this area. People, Harvey suspected, wanted another manned shot and more looks at their heroes, the astronauts, and the comet was a good excuse. There were mutters about costs, but, like Rich Gollantz, most thought they paid more for worse entertainment every month.
They were about to pack it in when Harvey spotted a remarkably pretty girl. Never hurts to have a few feet of beauty, Harvey thought. She seemed preoccupied, and scurried along the sidewalk, her face abstracted with weighty matters and lean with efficiency.
Her smile was sudden and very nice. "I don't watch much television," she said. "And I'm afraid I never heard of your comet. Things have been hectic at the office—"
"It will be a very big comet," Harvey said. "Look for it this summer. There's also a space mission to study it. Would you approve?"
She didn't answer immediately. "Will we learn a lot from it?" When Harvey nodded, she said, "Then I'm for it. If it doesn't cost too much. And if the government can pay for it. Which seems doubtful."
Harvey said something about the comet study costing less than football tickets.
"Sure. But the government doesn't have the money. And they won't cut back on anything. So they'll have to print the money. Bigger deficit. More inflation. Of course we'll get more inflation no matter what, so we might as well learn about comets for our money."
Harvey made encouraging noises. The girl had turned very serious. Her smile faded into a pensive look that turned to anger. "What difference does it make