Project Pope (16 page)

Which, he told himself, was fine with him. It was the way he liked it. He felt regret at times that he had dealt with his neighbors as he had, but each time he thought this he became more and more convinced it was the only way he could have handled the situation. Better to be a man of mystery than what he might have been had he told his story. As it stood, he had given them something they could speculate upon, perhaps to their vast enjoyment, all these years.

Why back to your beginning? Whisperer had asked him. Why back to your beginning on this planet? And why, indeed? he now asked himself. A hunch, he thought. A hunch that more than likely had very little basis. And even had it a solid basis, what would he, or could he, do about it? Decker, he told himself, you're crazy—downright stark, staring crazy.

—Decker, that Tennyson I liked, Whisperer said. I liked him quite a lot.

—Yes, he was likable.

—He saw me, said Whisperer. I am sure he saw me. There are very few who see me. It takes an ability to see me.

—He saw you? How can you be sure? Why didn't you mention it before?

—I did not mention it because until now I could not be sure. But having thought of it for days, I now am sure. He saw me and he could not believe it, he could not believe what he had seen. He rubbed his eyes, thinking there was something wrong with them. You remember, don't you? You asked if he had something in his eye and he said only dust. Then you asked again. You asked if you could wipe out his eye, but he said he was all right.

—Yes, now that you mention it, I do recall the incident.

—And I, said Whisperer, I, as well, saw something, but only fleetingly. I don't know what I saw.

—You did not speak to him? You did not try to speak?

—No, I did not try to speak. But there is a strangeness in the man. I am sure of that.

—Oh, well, said Decker, we'll see him again, I'm sure. You may have another chance to plumb the strangeness you think you saw in him.

The Old One of the Woods had moved. He no longer was hiding in the clumps of trees below the boulder field. Decker no longer had any sense of him.

—Let's go down, he said to Whisperer, and see how the boat is getting on.

Chapter Twenty

Jill had left just half an hour before, returning to the library, when Ecuyer showed up. Tennyson was dawdling over a cup of coffee. Hubert, after letting Ecuyer in, went back to the kitchen and started making a clatter. Hubert didn't like people who lingered at the table.

“You're up and about early,” Tennyson said to Ecuyer. “Sit down and have a cup of coffee.”

“I believe I shall,” said Ecuyer, “although neither of us has too long.”

“I have all the time there is,” said Tennyson. “I'm not due at the clinic until—”

“This morning you haven't all the time there is. The two of us have been summoned.”

Tennyson stared at him, saying nothing.

“Summoned,” explained Ecuyer, “to an audience with His Holiness.”

“Oh?”

“Is that all you can say?”

“What did you expect me to do? Fall over dead? Be seized by a fit of trembling? Sink down upon my knees?”

“You could at least show some respect. It is a signal honor to be summoned by the Pope.”

“Sorry,” said Tennyson. “I would suppose it is. What is it all about?”

“I'm not sure. Perhaps the Heaven incident. Theodosius and Roberts will be with us.”

“The cardinals?”

“Yes, the cardinals.”

“I can understand why the Pope might want to see you. If it's about the Heaven incident, you're in it to your knees. But I—”

“Mary is your patient. He might have some medical questions about her. I'm not even sure it's about Heaven. It might be just to meet you. Ordinarily a new Vatican staff member will have an audience with the Pope. Certainly he would want to meet the new Vatican physician. I suspect he would have arranged it long before this, but it has been a busy time.”

“I have an impression it is always busy here,” said Tennyson.

“Well, yes. But sometimes more than others.”

They sat drinking their coffee. Hubert kept up his clatter in the kitchen.

“Hubert,” said Ecuyer, raising his voice.

“Yes, sir?”

“Cut it out,” said Ecuyer. “We have a right to sit here and drink our coffee.”

“Why, certainly,” said Hubert. The clatter subsided.

“He's spoiled,” said Ecuyer. “I spoiled him myself. I don't know what to do with him.”

“There's something I have been meaning to ask you.”

“Go ahead. Don't take too long.”

“I saw this cube—the one with all the equations and diagrams. I think I told you. Have you seen it too?”

“Well, yes, I guess I did. A long time ago. It was taped some years ago. Rather a long time ago.”

“You told me the Listener went back several times and could make nothing of it.”

“That's right,” said Ecuyer. “Are you hung up on it?”

Tennyson nodded. “There is something there. Something that I miss. Something that it seems to me I almost have and then it eludes me. I have a feeling that if I could stretch my mind just a little farther, I could come to grips with it.”

“Any idea of what it might be?”

“Not at all. That's the hell of it. I know there is something there, but no idea what it is. I find myself imagining all sorts of things, but I know it's none of them.”

“Don't worry about it,” counseled Ecuyer. “I can show you things even worse. I had expected you to do more digging into the files than you have done. You are welcome, you know. Anytime you wish, anything you wish.”

“There have been other things to do,” said Tennyson. “And, truth to tell, I might be even a little bit afraid of what I'd find. The equation world bothers me. The autumn world still haunts me. I'd like to go back and see the autumn world again, but something keeps me from it.”

Ecuyer finished off his coffee.

“Come,” he said. “Let us see the Pope.”

Chapter Twenty-one

The Pope was a cross-hatched human face—or the suggestion of a face, for to see it clearly required close attention and some imagination—imposed upon a dull metallic plate set into a bare stone wall. It reminded Tennyson of the photo of a sampler from the nineteenth century that he had seen in a book he'd found in a library years ago, and also, in a haphazard sort of way, of the children's game of tic-tac-toe. The face was not entirely and fully apparent at any time, although every now and then he managed to get a fairly comprehensive glimpse of it. No decorative effort was made to soften the bleak starkness of the face, nothing to impart to it any hint of power or glory. And perhaps, he thought, this studied attempt to achieve a dismal plainness made the face all the more impressive.

The small audience room in which they sat was plain as well, with no effort made to conceal the fact that it had been carved out of the granite mass that was the core of the ridge upon which Vatican buildings perched. Just four blank stone walls with a plate set in the center of one of the walls to display the Pope. To reach the room, they had descended a number of stairs, all carved from the solid rock, with galleries running off at the landings of each staircase, burrowing their way deep into the granite. There was no doubt that this computer-Pope was buried deep into the very structure of the hill.

More than likely, Tennyson told himself, there were many other Pope-faces in other audience rooms, some of them undoubtedly much larger than this one, for there must be times when the entire Vatican personnel would be gathered into one group for an audience with the Pope. A multi-Pope, he thought, a mechanism so large and so all-pervading that it could be many places at any given time, attending to any number of tasks at the self-same time.

The Pope spoke now and his voice was flat, while at the same time managing to be smooth and cold. An utterly unhuman voice, and likewise unrobotlike, for while robots did not speak with human intonation, there yet were times when they imparted some human warmth to the words they spoke. But this voice was empty of all emotion; it held no warmth. It was neither a human voice nor a robot voice, nor yet the harsh voice that one might imagine a machine to have. It pronounced its words in precise clarity and the thought behind the words was ruthless and relentless—machine thought, computer thought, naked electronic thought.

“Dr. Tennyson,” said the Pope, “tell me of the Listener, Mary. What is her mental condition?”

“I can be of little help, Your Holiness,” said Tennyson. “I can tell you of her physical condition; I would not know about her mind. I am not trained in mental illness.”

“Then what good are you?” asked the Pope. “If we had a robot physician, which has been discussed at times, it would know about her mind.”

“Then,” Tennyson said shortly, “build your robot physician.”

“You are aware, Holiness,” said Cardinal Theodosius, “that the humans of Vatican would have no trust in a robotic doctor. As you say, we have discussed it many times.…”

“All of this is beside the point,” said His Holiness. “You are using a chance remark of mine to evade my question. How about you, Ecuyer? Have you some insight into her mind?”

“No insight into her mind,” said Ecuyer. “Neither am I trained, Holiness, to evaluate a human mind. All that I would be able to do is describe her behavior. Up till now, all the time that she has been with us, she has been gentle and devoted to her job, but since she has found Heaven, or thinks she has found Heaven, her personality has changed. She has assumed a haughty importance that makes it difficult for us to work with her.”

“Does that not seem strange to you?” asked the Pope. “To me, it would appear inconsistent. If she really had found Heaven, as she claims, would you not think she might become more devout and humble? The haughtiness you talk of does not appear to be the behavior of one who has acquired evidence of Heaven. As a good Christian, you should know.”

“Your Holiness, I am not a good Christian,” said Ecuyer. “I'm not sure I'm a good anything at all. Holiness, certainly you know that I am not a Christian. You are baiting me.”

“And the Listener, Mary? Is she a Christian?”

“Holiness, I am sure she is. You must understand, however, that Search is not concerned with theological matters.”

“That is strange,” said the Pope. “I would have thought you would be.”

“Holiness, you are being deliberately difficult today,” Cardinal Theodosius chimed in, “and your attitude is not worthy of you. You underestimate our friend of the Search Program. Through the years he has performed outstanding services for us.”

“Eminence,” said Cardinal Roberts, speaking stiffly, “I think you presume too far.”

“I think not,” Theodosius said stubbornly. “In a deliberative council, such as this, due respect must be paid to every viewpoint raised. The issues must be solemnly and honestly discussed.”

“None of you as yet,” said the Pope, “has tried to discuss the issue. The finding of Heaven, or the presumed finding of Heaven, is getting out of hand. Are any of you aware that there is a growing sentiment to canonize the Listener Mary, to make a saint of her? We have never created a saint. We have canonized no one. And if we were about to do so, certainly we would want to wait until she was decently dead.”

“Your Holiness,” said Roberts, “all of us are aware of what you speak. With you, all of us realize the seriousness of it, the danger it could pose. The whole idea is impossible, of course, but at this point in the situation, we cannot step in and oppose it openly. We cannot lose sight of the fact that many—perhaps the most—of the minor members of Vatican, even after all these years, still are caught up in the simplicity and the promise of the Christian faith.”

“What promise, Cardinal?” asked the Pope. “Surely no robot, no matter how devout, can ever hope to be translated into Heaven. Nor, if he properly takes care of himself, would ever need to be.”

“The fault, perhaps, lies in ourselves,” said Theodosius. “Many of our people in the more humble posts—the farm workers, the gardeners, the woodsmen, the laboring brothers, even many of the monks—are very simple souls. With them the basic idea of Christianity, although somewhat faded, nevertheless is a rather powerful force. They don't understand Christianity, of course, but even back on Earth, a thousand years ago, many people who prided themselves on being Christian may have understood it even less. These people of ours do not know all that we have learned; we have not tried to explain any of it to them. We know that life and intelligence can come in many forms—biological, nonbiological, and that strange matrix of intelligence we find in those worlds beyond the space-time universe. We know there is at least a second universe and perhaps a third and fourth, although we cannot be certain. We have a hint, but no more than a hint, that there may be some sort of overriding Principle, more complex than the principle that would apply to a space–time universe alone. So we know that if there is a Heaven (if there could be a Heaven in this sort of multi-universe), it necessarily must be more than a simple Christian Heaven, or a Happy Hunting Ground, or an Island of the Blest, whatever you might choose to call it. It couldn't be so crude and simplistic as a broad golden staircase and winding trumpets and angels blithely flying—”

“That all is true,” said Roberts, “but this matter of sharing with our brothers the knowledge that we hold or glimpse has been under continuing review, and in every instance when it has been discussed, we have decided that it would not be advisable to inform the others fully. Can you imagine the kinds of interpretations that would be put upon certain segments of the knowledge? We have created an elite within Vatican; only the elite are aware of the knowledge we have gained. That may be wrong, but I think it is justified by the inherent danger of revealing all the facts. Revealing them, we would have been rent by a thousand heresies. No work would have been done because each robot would be convinced that he alone understood correctly and would have thought it incumbent upon himself to set his erring brothers straight. There would have been bickering and squabbling and animosities that could tear us apart. It was, we agreed in every instance, better that we continue to let the others cling to their residual Christianity, sterile as it might be.”