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closer to the lobby he recognized the voice as Gorfmann's and ducked hastily
into a darkened doorway. Gorfmann was speaking under the canopy of the pay
phone in the alcove at the end of the passage.
Gorfmann must have heard him come in, Osternak was certain. Yes, he could see
Gorfmann's shadow form leaning out of the alcove to peer along the passageway
toward the back door. Osternak froze in the doorway, not daring to move a
muscle. And then, to his relief, Gorfmann moved back into the alcove again,
and his voice resumed, "I'm sorry, but it is important. . . . I wish to speak
to somebody there called Gorfmann. A Dr. Rudi Gorfmann." Osternak frowned to
himself in the darkness. He had guessed that Gorfmann must have made his call
from somewhere nearby. The time was right, but the call wasn't. Why was
Gorfmann calling himself? Was there a conspiracy being enacted between the two
Gorfmanns, which he had never suspected? A sinking feeling of impending
disaster came over him. From the alcove, Gorfmann's voice continued, "Just put
me through, please . . . Thank you . . . Just checking." Gorfmann sounded as
if he was trying not to laugh. Then, "It doesn't matter. Let's just say that,
as I know you'll be pleased to learn, you're even cleverer than you think."
There was a click as Gorfmann hung up.
Osternak agonized in the darkness along the passage, wondering what to do.
Then he realized that Gorfmann was making another call.
"Professor Osternak?" Gorfmann said, in a thick voice which the Osternak along
the passage recognized instantly as something he had heard before. "Sorry to
trouble, you, Professor, but this is Security at the main gate. . . . We've
just had a call from Dr. Hoetzer, in Innsbruck. . . . Yes. He says that he was
in a hurry to leave this evening, and . . ."
It was all still on track! He hadn't caused a disaster after all. Osternak
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drew a deep breath to recover his wind after his rush across the compound and
the tension he had experienced since, and then emerged from the doorway and
backed quietly away along the passage. From the front of the building, he
heard Gorfmann finish his call, leave the alcove, and go running up the front
stairs. Osternak paused again for breath at the bottom of the rear stairs. Oh
God, three flights.
When Osternak Two got to Hoetzer's office, Osternak One was already there,
searching frantically under the table by the graphics printer and along the
shelves above just as Osternak Two had realized he would be. But Osternak Two
was too breathless to explain, and besides there wasn't time. He opened the
bag containing the can and held it while the other dipped his hand, and then
waved weakly toward the door to send Osternak One on his way. Then he leaned
against the printer for a while to regain his breath and composure. Just as he
was coming back out onto the stairs, the sound of two shots in rapid
succession came up the stairway from below.
When he was halfway back across the compound, it came to him that there were
now not two, but three Gorfmanns loose: one at the banquet, one on Prandtl's
couch, and the one who had just shot the other Osternak. So even when one of
them made the transfer back through time, it would still leave two. The
situation wouldn't simplify itself in the way he had imagined. He shook his
head wearily, unable to grapple with any more of it and feeling like a piece
of flotsam being carried along on a tide of events that was long past any
ability of his to control. Resolved at least to complete what he had set out
to do, he went back into the transfer dome to finish setting up the camera.
* * *
Professor Osternak One waited until he was sure that Gorfmann had left, then
picked himself up slowly from the floor. His hip ached from the knock he had
taken from the chair when he went down. Osternak Two could have warned him
about that, he reflected huffily. Since he had no intention of lying there for
the rest of the night, it followed that Gorfmann would know anyway that the
murder attempt had failed, should he choose to come back to the office for any
reason. Therefore, Osternak reasoned, he might as well use some of the time he
had to tidy things up. But first, he went to his lab to collect the spare
shirt, tan sweater, and pants that he kept there in case of chemical spills
and other accidents the same clothes that Osternak Two had been wearing, he
had noticed with curiosity, but it now made sense and then proceeded to the
washroom to change, and to sponge the worst of the stains from the clothes he
had been wearing. Then he bundled up the wet clothes, returned to his office,
and stowed them in a cupboard for sending to the cleaners the next day. That
chore taken care of, he spent the next hour righting the furniture, returning
the books to their places, and picking up and sorting through the papers that
had been scattered all over the floor. It was a shame about the broken clock
and the figurine, he reflected ruefully as he put them back in their places.
Then he sat down and poured himself a brandy he had just been murdered, after
all. That deserved some compensation.
Only then did he remember that he was supposed to be keeping an eye on the
Gorfmann in Prandtl's room across the corridor. Muttering a reproach to
himself for his forgetfulness, he went out of the office, pushed open
Prandtl's door, and looked in. And his jaw dropped in shock and dismay.
The couch and the room were empty. There was no trace of Gorfmann to be seen.
White-faced, Osternak One ran back into his own office and called the
transfer-chamber room on an internal line. The ringing tone seemed to go on
interminably, while all the time he tried frantically to think of the most
likely places that Gorfmann might have gone. But with a madman, who could
tell? Then the ringing stopped and his own voice answered cautiously, "Yes?"
"I'm in our office. He's gone. Gorfmann has gone. He's loose somewhere."
"I was just coming back. I've finished on the camera here. I'll be over there
right away." Osternak Two hung up.
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The car! Gorfmann mustn't be allowed to get to his car in his state he could
cause a massacre. He usually parked it in the executive area in front of the
Keep, Osternak knew. The thing was to check if it was still there. He went
back into the corridor and along to the accounts office at the front of the
building, which overlooked the executive parking area. He turned on a light,
crossed the room to a window, and peered down, shielding his eyes with a hand.
Gorfmann's car was still down there. That was something at least. And then he
remembered that Gorfmann couldn't use the car anyway, because Osternak Two had
taken his keys when they put him in Prandtl's office. Silly of him to have
forgotten. Where, then Keys! Gorfmann kept a spare set of keys in his desk!
Osternak ran out of the accounts office and up the stairs to the corridor
where Gorfmann's office was situated. Sure enough, there was a shadowy figure [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]