was finished. He tensed again, though, when Hop whispered in his ear, "Somebody may be trying to kill you. Don't leave the crowds."
"Hop, I don't even want to see the damned crowds."
"No one'd dare try anything in the crowds. We'll talk in a minute."
Hop led Jazz to the railing and showed him off to the cheering fans. Their roar of approval was quite stirring. Hop felt quite stirred.
"Hop, what the hell is going on?" Jazz asked.
"I don't know," Hop said. "Bow for the bastards, Jason, give them their money's worth."
Jazz looked at Hop in surprise. "You don't mean the government's letting you charge admission again?"
"No, no, figure of speech, little figure of speech, you know."
"I just want to go home and go to bed, Hop. Don't give me any trouble about it or I'll fire you."
Hop shrugged. "If you get killed, I'll be out of a job anyway."
Jazz sighed and listened as Hop told him about the note.
"I especially like your hiding place," Jazz commented as they walked down the winding ramp.
"It's my body's only built - in pocket."
"How are we doing?"
"Financially? Latest audit was five years ago, and it said about seventeen billion."
"I left about forty years ago. What would it have been worth then?"
"Eleven billion. Inflation's getting worse."
"That note. Are you sure you weren't just playing a joke?"
"On myself? Ha ha, what a riot."
Jazz set his lips tightly. "Why would anyone want to kill me?"
"One of the other captains?" Hop suggested, lightly.
"We're all friends. We all like each other."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
Hop shrugged. "One of their managers then. Out to wipe out the competition."
"Do you believe that?"
"Hell no. It sounds more like treason. Must be something involved with the government, or how could the information have reached me in the Sleeproom? Somebody thinks your death would help or hurt some faction in the government. I wish you'd stay out of politics."
The ramp seemed to go on forever. The roar of the stardrive test grew softer; the roar of the crowd grew louder. "Are you sure," Jazz asked, "that you didn't already know the information, and put it together after you were taped?"
"I've been racking my brains. Nothing. I didn't know anything about any threat on anybody's life. I don't know anybody with a motive. I was told, after the taping."
"Damn."
"How are the loops from this trip?"
"Oh, some good stuff. My fleet got caught in an ambush near Kapittuck and we fought our way out without losses. Very dramatic. Some good close - ups, too, you'll be in gravy for the next five or ten wakings."
"So will you," Hop said.
"Sure," Jazz answered. "And I have so much time on Capitol to enjoy it."
(Don't complain, you bastard. When I started working for you three centuries ago we were both in our teens, subjectively speaking, and now count my gray hairs. I wake up every five years, while you coast through life waking only three or four times a century, staying young forever - )
"You look great, Hop," Jazz said.
"You, too, Jazz old man," Hop said, using the obscenity freely.
They reached the bottom of the ramp, where police were struggling to hold the crowd back from charging up to meet them. "Here are the lions," Jazz said, and then they waded into the crowd of outreaching hands and hungering eyes.
They went to a party that night - after all, wakings were short and all the pleasure had to be crammed into only a few short days and weeks. Besides, eleven actresses doing lifeloops were there, and all of them had paid a tidy sum to get Hop to promise that Jazz Worthing would not only attend, but also spend at least three minutes talking to them. Jazz took care of the duty calls right away, and then proceeded to win a small fortune (a drop in the bucket) at pinochle, losing his preoccupied look for a few hours. The hostess, Arran Handully, a former actress who had now
"retired" - which meant she only made guest appearances in other women's lifeloops - was forever fluttering around Jazz and Hop, bringing them drinks, making charming conversation: obviously Jazz was her prize for the evening. Hop fleetingly wondered if she had arranged her waking just to coincide with his coming. That would be flattery indeed.
After the party had been going for about four hours or so, Arran Handully called for silence, which after a few minutes was grudgingly granted to her.
"One of the reasons for this