Might as well get it over with, he told himself grimly. Now that it’s out in the open, there’s no sense in beating around the bush.
“That’s just about it, senator,” said Scott.
“That’s exactly it,” said Gibbs.
The senator heaved his great body from the chair, picked up the whiskey bottle, filled their glasses and his own.
“You delivered the death sentence very deftly,” he told them. “It deserves a drink.”
He wondered what they had thought that he would do. Plead with them, perhaps. Or storm around the office. Or denounce the party.
Puppets, he thought. Errand boys. Poor, scared errand boys.
They drank, their eyes on him, and silent laughter shook inside him from knowing that the liquor tasted very bitter in their mouths.
* * *
Chairman Leonard: You are agreed then, Mr. Chapman, with the other witnesses, that no person should be allowed to seek continuation of life for himself, that it should be granted only upon application by someone else, that—
Mr. Chapman: It should be a gift of society to those persons who are in the unique position of being able to materially benefit the human race.
Chairman Leonard: That is very aptly stated, sir.
* * *
The senator settled himself carefully and comfortably into a chair in the reception room of the Life Continuation Institute and unfolded his copy of the North American Tribune.
Column one said that system trade was normal, according to a report by the World Secretary of Commerce.