"I didn't fill anything in," Pepper said.
"Dear sirs! What have we here? Pepper's got no papers."
"That doesn't matter. He's probably got a permit..."
"I haven't got a permit," said Pepper. "I haven't got anything. Only a suitcase and a raincoat... I didn't intend going into the forest, I wanted to get away altogether..."
"And the medical check? Inoculations?"
Pepper shook his head. The truck was already rolling down through the hairpins and Pepper took a detached look at the forest, at the level porous layers of it on the horizon, at its arrested storm-cloud seething, the clinging web of mist in the shade of the cliff.
"You can't get away with things like that," somebody said.
"Well now, there aren't any classified objects along the road."
"What about Hausbotcher?"
"Well what of him, if there's no classified objects?"
"Let's assume you don't know that. Nobody does. There now, last year Kandid flew out without documents and where's Kandid now, desperate lad?"
"In the first place it wasn't last year, it was long before that. Secondly, he was simply killed. At his post."
"Oh yes? Have you seen the directive?"
"That's true, there was no directive."
"So, there's nothing to argue about. Since they put him in the bunker at the checkpoint, he's been sitting filling in forms..."
"How did you not fill in the forms. Peppy? Maybe you've got a black mark against you?"
"One moment, gentlemen! This is a serious matter. I propose we investigate employee Pepper to be on the safe side. By democratic methods, so to speak. Who'll be secretary?"
"Hausbotcher for secretary!"
"Excellent suggestion. As honorary secretary we choose our much-respected Hausbotcher. I see by your faces - unanimous. And who will be the secretary's assistant?"
"Vanderbilt for secretary's assistant!"
"Vanderbilt? ... Well, why not... We have Vanderbilt proposed as secretary's assistant. Any other nominations? For? Against? Abstentions? Hm ... two abstainers. Why did you abstain?"
"Me?"
"Yes, yes, I mean you."
"I don't see the sense. Why torment a man? He's in a bad way as it is."
"All right. And you?"
"None of your damned business."
"As you wish... Secretary's assistant, note please, two abstentions. Let's begin. Who first? No takers? Then permit me. Employee Pepper answer the following question. What distances have we covered between years twenty-five and thirty; (a) on foot (b) by land transport (c) by air? Take your time, think. Here's paper and pencil."
Pepper took the paper and pencil obediently and set to work remembering. The truck shook. To start with everybody looked at him, but eventually they all got bored.
"I'm not afraid of overpopulation," mumbled somebody. "But have you seen how much hardware there is? On the empty lot behind the repair-shops - have you seen it? And what is it, d'you know? Of course it's in packing cases, nailed down. Nobody's got time to open it up and have a look. D'you know what I saw night before last over there? I'd stopped to have a smoke when I heard a sort of crash. I turn around and I see the side of one of the cases, the size of a house end, cracking open, and widening like a set of gates. Out of the case crawls a machine. I'm not going to describe it, you understand why. But what a sight... It stood there for a few seconds then threw up this long tube with a rotating thing on the end as if it were taking a look around, then it crawled back into the case and the lid shut. I felt bad then and couldn't believe what I'd seen. This morning I think: 'I'll have another look anyway.' I arrived and my skin crept, I can tell you. The packing case was perfectly all right, not a crack, but the side was nailed up from the inside! The nails stuck out as long as your finger, shiny and sharp. And now I'm thinking, why was it climbing out? Was it the only one? Maybe they come out every night and... have a look around. While we're getting over-populated they're organizing a Bartholomew massacre and our bones will go flying over the cliff - or what's left of them ... What? No thank you, friend, you tell the engineers if you want. After all I saw that machine and how do I know whether that's forbidden or not? There's no markings on the cases..." "All right, Pepper. You ready?" "No," Pepper said. "I can't remember anything. It was a long time ago."
"That's odd. I can remember perfectly, for example. Six thousand seven hundred and one kilometer by rail, seventeen thousand one hundred and fifty-three by air (out of that three thousand two hundred and fifteen for personal travel) and fifteen thousand and seven on foot. And I'm older than you. Strange, very strange, Pepper... W-e-ll all right. Let's try the next point. What toys were you specially fond of before you went to school?"
"Clockwork tanks," said Pepper, wiping sweat from his brow. "And armored cars."
