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and, now and then, his mouth.
I'll go with you, the cardinal said. Only first I will call the port and cancel your passage.
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Don't do that, Carmody said. He returned to the bedroom, picked up his suitcase, and, glancing
at the other suitcases, one closed and one open, walked out of the bedroom. The cardinal was staring at
him.
Carmody said, I must go.
You're not in shape to do so.
I know. But I will be.
The doorbell rang. Doctor Apollonios entered, bag in hand. He said, I'm sorry, Father. Here, this
will help you. He reached into his blouse pocket and brought out a pill.
Carmody shook his head. I can make it all right. Who called you?
I did, Faskins said. I think you ought to take it.
Your authority doesn't extend to medical matters, Carmody answered. A soft tocsin note pealed
through the room. He put down his suitcase and went to the wall. Opening a small cover, he removed a
small, thin cylinder.
The mail, he said to no one in particular. He looked into the cubicle to see if any other mail was
being recorded. The little red light was out. He closed the door and returned to his suitcase, tucking the
letter into his beltbag.
On the way to the police morgue, the cardinal said, I didn't have the heart to ask you to go to
Kareen, John. But since you yourself volunteered, I won't object. Anna. . .
. . .Is only one human being, and the destiny of billions of others depends upon me, Carmody
finished for him. Yes, I know.
The cardinal said he would not leave this afternoon as he had planned. Despite the most pressing
urgency to return to Rome, he would stay here and conduct Anna's funeral. He would make all
arrangements, including the police investigation. After Carmody got to Kareen, he could expect to
receive news, by letter or courier, about the results of the investigation.
The police, Carmody said listlessly. I wonder who could have hated me enough to kill Anna. She
had no enemies. But won't the police delay me with their questions so I'll miss the ship?
Leave that to me, Faskins said.
Afterward, Carmody was unclear about much that happened. He lifted the sheet without any
apprehension or agony and gazed for a moment at the blackened, open-mouthed face. He repeated to
the police captain what he had told the cardinal. No, he had no idea who could have planted the bomb.
Somebody had returned from a past Carmody had hoped would be forever obliterated and had killed
Anna.
The two priests started toward the port in a taxi. They passed the headquarters of the Order of
St. Jairus on Wildenwooly. Twenty-three years ago, the building had been on the outer edge of a small
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town. Now it was in the heart of the large capital city of the planet. Where there had been no buildings
more than two stories high, dozens now reached above twenty stories. Where a man once could have
walked from the center of town to its borders in twenty minutes, he would now have to walk from dawn
to dusk. All the streets were paved, and most of the highways out into the farmlands were covered with
griegite. When John Carmody had first come here as a lay brother of the order, he had muddied his
sandals the moment he had stepped from the exit of the spaceport. And the buildings of the town had
been logs and mortar. . .
Anna. If he had not married her, he would now be sitting behind the huge shiny desk in the main
office. He would be supervising the ecclesiastical affairs of his Church on a planet as large as Earth. True,
Wildenwooly had a population of only fifty million, but this was fifty times what it had been when
Carmody had first set foot here. It was a paradise of elbow room. Earth was jammed with people raw
from rubbing against each other's skins.
Anna. If she had not married him, she would be alive today. But when he had told her that he
was not sure he was doing the right thing by marrying her, she had told him she would go into a convent if
she could not have him. He had laughed then and told her that she was being romantic and unrealistic.
She needed a man. And if she could not have him, she would eventually find another.
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