Chapter 19

PETER eagerly looked forward to the results of his reform. There weren’t any. None of the things happened that Adams had predicted. On the other hand, none of the consequences followed that Peter had hoped for. There was simply an intensification of the kind of criticism that had already been going on.

Chapter 20

PETER and Adams were in Stalenin’s office, holding their regular four o’clock conference.

The intercom buzzed. It was Sergei’s voice: “Bolshekov’s secretary is on the telephone, Your Highness. He says that No. 2 would like No. 13 to come to his office.”

Peter made a grimace at Adams. This was what he had feared and expected. This was now his biggest hurdle.

“You can’t blame him,” said Adams. “After all, he does outrank you, and it’s protocol for the lower number to come to see the higher—when and if invited.”

Chapter 21

ADAMS was nearly a full hour late for the daily conference with Peter.

He arrived pale and shaken. “Some of Bolshekov’s men just tried to assassinate me!” He was breathing hard.

“Where? How?”

“A few minutes after I left the offices”—he paused to catch his breath—“of the Central Planning Board to come here.... I was in my car.... Another limousine whisked by.... A man in the rear machine gunned my car.... aiming at me.... I crouched on the floor. My chauffeur was killed.... The car plunged up on the sidewalk and crashed into a building.”

Chapter 22

PETER stood before the full-length mirror and admired his brilliant new Air Force uniform.

Chapter 23

SO far as I can gather, chief,” began Adams, “it seems that people under capitalism were allowed to exchange commodities with each other—you can imagine the chaos!—and the question that puzzled Marx was what determined the ratio in which these commodities were exchanged? So he goes about it this way—”

He opened his master copy of Das Kapital at a bookmark he had slipped in it. “Here’s the passage:

Chapter 24

COME in!” He had learned to recognize the timid little knock of the waitress bringing his tray.

Chapter 25

AN hour before Bolshekov’s parade was due to start, Peter, acting on Adams’ advice, went on the radio on a worldwide hookup. The loud speakers were turned on full blast in every street. Peter declared on the radio that he had instructed Bolshekov to order and review this parade (this was Adams’ fabrication) in order to signalize and mark the day on which he, Peter Uldanov, acting in the name of Stalenin, was announcing one of the greatest economic reforms put into effect in the history of Wonworld.

Chapter 26

LIENA BOLSHEKOV is here, Your Highness.” “Show her in, Sergei.”

She had called for the appointment a few days before. What could she want of him? Peter had never met her to speak to, and his mind went back to his first night in Moscow when he had seen her at the opera. Her black hair and lovely legs were still vivid in his memory.

Chapter 27

HE learned that the waitress and the cook had been taking turns in supplementing their meager rations by eating the leftovers from his meals. That night had been the cook’s turn, but the waitress had been tempted by hunger and the untouched ice cream.

When Peter reported the incident the following morning, Adams seemed cold-blooded.

“Remember the day Bolshekov’s men tried to machinegun me? I told you your turn would come next. Well, it came. We have both had miraculous escapes. It would be too much for either of us to expect to repeat the miracle.”

Chapter 28

I’M afraid I can’t explain my ideas in ordinary language, Your Highness,” said Baronio, “but only in mathematical symbols. So I brought along this paper.” He was a small, eagerlooking Italian. Peter took the paper. At least half of it seemed to consist of mathematical equations, with sparse explanatory matter in between. It involved a great deal of algebra and calculus. Peter riffled through the more than fifty pages. His eye picked out a passage at random: