As the light rail car came to a halt and the doors opened, Alvin Kotzwinkle turned up the collar on his top coat and pulled it tighter around him. The blast of winter air was bitter, almost as bitter as his resentment. He'd been at work the day before, slaving away over the charts and tables at his uncle's accounting firm when the phone rang.
"Kotzwinkle."
"Yes, Mr. Kotzwinkle. My name is Alondra Beard and I'm from the Agency for Domestic Tranquility. We've scheduled an appointment for you at nine thirty Wednesday morning."
"What? What do I need an appointment with the ADT for? I'm happy enough."
"Mr. Kotzwinkle, everything is not about
your
happiness. As I'm sure you are aware the Supreme Court has upheld the agency's enabling legislation and compliance is your civic duty. Please be prompt."
Ms. Beard had peremptorily hung up leaving Alvin offended. He'd called the office assistant and told her to deal with the problem only to have Sooki look him in the eye and state coolly, "Mr. Kotzwinkle, one does not 'deal with' the Agency for Domestic Tranquility. They want you to go to an appointment? You go. End of discussion." And she'd turned on her heel and walked away.
Muttering under his breath on the appointed day, Alvin trudged down the snowy sidewalk. Working for his uncle wasn't particularly exciting but it paid well and kept his mind busy. Most important, it was indoors and warm. In time Alvin would inherit the company and when he did, the young man was determined to move the headquarters to Miami or San Diego. Any place where snow was nothing but an ugly rumor or decoration on a wall calendar would do but he did dream of sandy beaches and girls in bikinis. He was unsure why but attracting female attention from anyone younger than his silver-haired aunts was proving difficult.
Maybe it's my name
, he thought.
I'll bet even an accountant wouldn't be lonely if his name were Sean McCloud.
Arriving at the Agency for Domestic Tranquility at the stroke of half past nine, he glowered at the unoffending receptionist and muttered gruffly, "Alvin Kotzwinkle. I've been told I have an appointment?"
The dark-skinned girl smiled in response and looked at her monitor. "Ah, yes, Mr. Kotzwinkle. You are to see Ms. Beard in room 301. Just take the elevator up to the third floor and turn right. It will be right there. And Mr. Kotzwinkle—smile. It's good for you."
Opening the door in Room 301 Alvin received another smile from a young man in a white coat over a shirt and tie. "Ah, Mr. Kotzwinkle, Ms. Beard is expecting you. Come this way, please, and let me take your topcoat."
Ushered through the next door Alvin found himself facing an imposingly tall woman wearing her auburn hair in a tight bun and garbed in a severe blouse and pencil skirt. She stood and gestured to one of the club chairs in front of her desk, smiled faintly, sat back down and keyed up a file on her computer monitor. The corners of her mouth again twitched upwards.
"Mr. Kotzwinkle, I am pleased to reveal that you have an exceptionally clean genetic record and . . ."
"What? What are you doing looking at my genetic record? That's my private information."
Ms. Beard sighed in resignation, as though she had heard this only too often. "Mr. Kotzwinkle, as required by law all good citizens donate blood quarterly, just as they are all obligated for jury duty and organ donation in the event of untimely death. When you donate blood, that pint becomes the property of the Agency to do with as we see fit. Naturally one of the things we do with it is run a complete DNA screen. Please be assured the records are secure within the Agency. We've become very good at detecting any attempts to hack into them and at transporting the offenders to maximum security confinement on Luna base.
Now as I was saying, nearly everyone has some defect hidden in their chromosomes just waiting to jump out and disable a poor fetus. You, remarkably, have none and that makes you a prime candidate for sperm donation to those couples who need one. Straight couples where the man has a low count, couples with incompatible charts or lesbian couples. Therefore . . ."
Kotzwinkle leapt to his feet in a fit in indignation. "What? You want me to—absolutely not! This is ridiculous. I'm leaving! The government has no right . . ."
"Sit down, Mr. Kotzwinkle!" Alondra's voice cut like a knife. "If you attempt to leave I will alert Security and you won't get to the front door. By the time they drag you back here I will have a faxed court order sitting on my desk ordering you to comply and authorizing me to take whatever steps are necessary to see that you do."
Stunned, Alvin lowered himself back into the chair. "You—you can?"
Ms. Beard leaned back in her chair and sighed. Her face relaxed from its previous stern, prim expression as she replied, "Oh yes. I can and I will if I must. But really, I'd rather not."
The tall woman rose from her chair and came around to the front of her desk. She seated herself in the chair next to Alvin, an almost winsome smile on her face. "Mr. Kotz—may I call you Alvin? Oh, thank-you. Alvin, when you look in the mirror what do you see? Do you see a small business man struggling to make his way in a complex and overbearing world? I'll tell you what I see. I see a handsome young man in a very dapper three-piece suit who looks like someone well on the way to being a captain of industry or merchant prince. I see the kind of man that if I met him in a bar and he offered to buy me a drink, I'd certainly accept and spend some time finding out if he was a nice as he was attractive. But what the Agency sees is a renewable natural resource, a very important resource and one that it would be—sinful to let go to waste."
Alvin found himself staring at wide-mesh stockings that extended out the tops of a pair of burgundy riding boots and then disappeared into the darkness beneath the grey flannel skirt—a skirt that clung tantalizingly to the woman's thighs giving lie to its formality. He blinked a few times in confusion and before he could come up with a response she bent forward and gently laid her hand on his knee.