Empire

The Rolan said in a monotone response, "Answer will be analyzed, interrogation report will be forwarded. End interrogation." The Rolan turned and walked towards another journalist who had entered the building.

Jan turned back to Danbry's door and found himself waiting, Jung-Freud repeating over and over in his mind. Had he negotiated with himself to, this one time, ignore the personal penance, he would have found a strong argument with his Socratic Education. He gave in and repeated the scripture until something in him told him to stop.

Danbry raised his head into the smoky air of the room. The smoke hung four feet off the ground and turned everything above into a gray film that was difficult to see through. "Christopherson, wait." He held a phone receiver in a limp wrist and closed his eyes. "Our dirigible has fourteen PPLs left." He waited, "I know, I .." Danbry lowered his head without opening his eyes. "He's on it .." He motioned Jan over to him and pushed an envelope across his desk.

Jan picked it up and turned the heavy paper over in his hand. The entire envelope was covered with engine symbols and codes. Across the top was an official engine seal. Jan wondered if any human eyes had seen the contents of the envelope at all.

"Yes, compliance, I comply, damnit." Danbry hung up the phone and looked through sleepy, gaunt eyes up at Jan. "You have to open that in private."

"Who was that on the phone? A Rolan?" Jan had never heard of the engines calling anyone.

"No, it was Zepher. It's responsible for announcing Hermephres results. It called all the papers who will be covering the event to give us the time, place, what to where, and what to bring."

Jan gaped, "where else can it be besides the engine tower? And I didn't know the engines were on the phone lines."

Danbry leveled his eyes, "They've always been on them. They listen to everything said. Cripes, boy, don't you pay attention to anything?" Danbry coughed and picked up a smoldering cigar butt, crunching the end while he talked. "I didn't decide to put you on this one, kid. One of these events is enough for a lifetime. Nobody should have to go there twice, especially with all the catatonics there. Makes you sick. But Zepher wants the same crew as last year for some reason."

Jan shook his head, "this is wrong, Mr. Danbry. Why is Zepher controlling this? Hermephres monitors the weather and pollution, it should report it, not Zepher."

Danbry went on as if he hadn't heard Jan, "look. All the other papers are giving their crew the day before the event off. I'm going to give you three days. Lena is going to shoot it, you will report it and handle any trouble from the Rolan, Timmy is going to go as back up if the Rolan ties you up. Three days Jan."

Jan moved around uncomfortably in the stale, pungent air. "Why three, Mr. Danbry."

"Zepher suggested time off to review your Jung-Freud and Socratic texts. But Ron, our Rolan engineer, is getting flaky about something and I think that Zepher's hiding something." Danbry stubbed out the cigar.