第7节

brain and the central

nervous system of the Federation.

Anderssen pulled the box hood out of the casing around the tv, blocking

off the screen from her two battalion officers, now seated on either

side of the desk.

Pulling out her ID-card, she slipped it into the slot provided and

spoke to the machine. '5824 Anderssen.

Print-out please."

There was a brief pause as the network matched her voice print to the

one on file, then a new bottom line appeared on the screen.

It consisted of two letters, a four-digit serial number, then two more

letters: ST-3552-RX. Brief, but highly significant. 'ST' stood for

'Selective Treatment'; 'RX' for 'Refer to Executive'; the number merely

indicated Brickman's position on the 'ST' list.

Anderssen pressed the Card Eject button, causing the ST code to vanish

from the screen. She put her ID back into its protective wallet and

slid the box hood back into the casing. It had been a close call.

Fortunately, good old Deke had spotted that Level Nine entry before she

had gone any further. An 'RX' rating meant that no administrative

action affecting the subject was to be initiated without reference to

the White House at Houston/GC.

The First Family had plans for Steven Roosevelt Brickman.

CHAPTER TWO

COLUMBUS had been programmed to alert the White House to any enquiry

relating to personnel records carrying an 'RX' tag. As it sent the

data down the line to Pueblo, it simultaneously reported the fact to

Central Records Control - a unit under the direct supervision of

members of the First Family occupying twenty floors, each the size of a

football pitch, containing line after line of tv screens and keyboards

that were manned round the clock. Notification of the Triple-R - a

Restricted Record Request - was flashed on the screen of an operator in

the section dealing exclusively with the Selective Treatment List.

The White House was quick to confirm its continuing interest in 8902

Brickman, S.R. The Transmission of his voice-print data was followed by

a 'Your Eyes Only' videogram to Colonel Anderssen. Brickman was not,

repeat not, to be interrogated. No one from his home base was to be

allowed near him or to learn of his presence. Apart from the briefest

orders or instructions, no one else was to converse with him. Once

positively identified, he was to be examined by the way-station doctor

who was to report on his general state of health.

He was then to be held incommunicado until arrangements could be made

for his transfer. Until that time he was to be treated as a suspected

code-breaker with two exceptions: he was not to be 'boxed', and he was

not to be 'physically admonished'. To use a pre-Holocaust term,

Brickman was clearly a hot potato a vegetable that no one in the

Federation had tasted for nigh on a thousand years.

Anderssen was not, by nature, nervous but she knew she would not rest

easy until Brickman was off her hands. She had been right to dismiss

Harmer and Nolan at the first mention of imprisonment by the Mutes. If

the news got out, it could have an adverse effect on the morale of

combat units. It was, she supposed, only natural that Grand Central

would want to analyse all the implications first, but - goddammit - she

was a front-line way-station commander! Surely she should be allowed

to know what was going on out there?

Anderssen paced around her private quarters trying to control her

frustration. No wonder that mother Harmer had slammed the door. She

knew how he felt. She turned and slammed both fists down hard on the

long table at which she occasionally dined with her fellow officers.

It helped restore a measure of outward calm.

All in good time, she told herself. Grand Central would assess the

facts then FINTEL - Field Intelligence would circulate a report to all