A feeling of power surged through him.
The ensuing days were a blur of activity for Madison. One part of his project overlapped with others and he was everywhere at once.
His very first action was to turn all six roustabouts loose on Crobe and bathe him and soak him and bathe him again and again until he smelled less bad. It was a terrible job.
Madison then got him tailored and provided with a wardrobe of respectable professional clothes, after which the director, with many curses and much sweat, began to get him into shape.
The four reporters that Madison had put on were clipping social notices and making a huge social calendar that covered a major wall.
He checked the wardrobe of the five circus girls, augmented it and turned them over to the director.
He delighted Chalber at Zippety-Zip by purchasing some air limousines.
He went and saw Teenie and, into her wide-eyed stare, gave her certain instructions and she, assured that it would wind up eventually with a captured Gris, fell to with a will.
Madison discovered the Apparatus Provocation Section and pried them loose from many false but seemingly valid identoplates.
He got the electronics man busy on the upper floors.
He even managed to get in, to keep him happy, another clip on Homeview of Lombar. With his own crew this time, using the occasion of a national holiday, Confederation Day of Delight, he had Lombar dedicating a new cemetery for the dead of the Calabar Revolt. It fitted the day, Madison explained to the dumbfounded manager of Homeview, because of the close-ups of delighted smiles of Lombar viewing the as yet unused grave markers in a truck. Lombar, however, thought it was great when Madison explained to him that he was building Lombar an image of "Don't trifle with Hisst, the most ruthless and relentless man in the Confederacy."
At the end of ten days, Madison, everything else going well, wanting to see Teenie, had to fly from Joy City to Relax Island. Flick had left Cun pointedly behind. They had a pass stamped by Teenie.
This time, being more experienced, they took no chances of flying over the top of the mountain and, coming in low, almost collided with the side of a five-thousand-foot cliff, coal black, that gave Madison quite a shock. But, rising up over it, they were rewarded by the stupendous scenery of the valleys and hills.
They landed in front of a much-changed palace. Evidently Too-Too's new kiss had worked like magic on Lord Endow. The whole vast front was stripped of moss and glowing in new gilt, the paths were trimmed and neat, the shrubbery pruned, not a single errant twig obstructed the terrace, and even the paving stones, firmly gripped in new cement, had ceased to teeter. Staff, and possibly some construction companies, had worked miracles.
Two stiffly standing guards, shimmering in silver uniforms, stood on either side of the door. A properly robed seneschal came out and bowed Madison in.
"Her Majesty is in the third music salon," he said. "Follow me, please."
Expecting to see Teenie being played to with soft airs suggested by the climate and beauty of the place, Madison was a little startled to find her stripped to the waist, wearing a pair of blue pants with red side-stripes and nothing else. She held a stinger in her hand.
"Madison," she said without preamble, "you just got no idea how dumb these (bleepards) are!"
Madison had no idea who she was talking about. They were the only ones in the room. There were mirrors on all the walls which cross-multiplied their images, and although there seemed to be several hundred Madisons and Teenies, that did not make them any less the only occupants of this large and ornate salon.
"Watch this," said Teenie. She barked out, "Hike!"
A woman, dressed in noble clothes, entered by a far door. With leisurely and cultured steps, idly gazing about her, she wandered toward a pedestal which must be a performer's platform. Madison recognized one of Teenie's Palace City maids.
"Let him go!" cried Teenie.
Instantly, from another door, a man in officer's uniform raced into the room. He spotted the woman. He made a beeline for her.
He tore the robe off her. He knocked her down. He hauled her over to the performer's platform. Keeping one foot on her so she couldn't escape, he half tore off his own clothes. He leaped on her and was just about to spread her legs when Teenie moved forward with a yell.
"No, no, NO!" cried Teenie and stabbed him in the butt with her stinger.
That didn't stop him. Not for a second. Teenie grabbed hold of the hair of his head and sought to pull him upward.
Two sergeants had rushed in and they backed up Teenie. They got the man out of and off the maid and held him there.
"Madison, that's the third God (bleeped) time he got it wrong! In a row!"
"Teenie, maybe he doesn't understand what he's supposed to do."
"Oh, he understands all right," she snarled, jabbing him in the belly with the stinger. "He is supposed to walk up to her and bow, then kneel and kiss her hand and request her company for a stroll in the park, AFTER which he is supposed to make an improper proposal. But they know (bleeped) well that after the proposal they just get sent back to barracks, so they use these lessons as a chance to get by me and tear off a piece before I can stop them."
"Well, Teenie," said Madison, looking at the wilted officer, "I wouldn't dare to advise you, but has it occurred to you that if you let him actually take a girl to a bedroom and do it, IF he did all the rest right, they might revert to protocol? It's called 'reward' in animal psychology. I know, I studied it in college."
"You got it all wrong," said Teenie. "That's the trouble with them. They're acting like a bunch of beasts! Five hundred God (bleeped) noblemen, my (bleep). They're just five hundred God (bleeped) animals!"
"I think even their fathers and grandfathers were led to the queen with an electric collar on them," said Madison. "I think maybe their protocol requires them to act that way."
Teenie became thoughtful. She sent for Governor Spurt. He came racing, all dressed up, now that the chests had been unlocked. He came to a halt with a clank of office badges and bowed low.
Teenie dragged him over to the side and had a low-voiced conversation with him.
She came back shortly. "By God, Madison, you're right. It wasn't animal psychology that was missing– who'd miss it-it was the standing Royal orders! Queen Hora wanted to be hit and stripped and raped!"
Governor Spurt soon returned accompanied by a clerk in black and three footmen carrying a table and other things. They set them down.
Teenie, with their help, drew up a document which altered former Royal orders. The clerk, with a flourish, handed her the Royal Seal of Flisten-a two-pound carved emerald-and she stamped and signed it.
"It won't do any good to do any more training until the heralds yell it all over the island to make it legal." She got up, a maid dropped a cloak over her shoulders and Madison followed her out onto the terrace.
Teenie sat down on a balustrade and stared out across the valley. A footman handed up a silver tray which held a piece of bubble gum, bowed and withdrew.
She chewed for a while and, when she could blow a bubble, did so. "This queening business is pretty tricky, Madison. You can get away with anything so long as you do it with the proper legal actions. But I'm learning."
"This certainly is a lovely place," said Madison. "Birds singing and the air is like perfume. They're really making progress fixing it up."
"Oh, the contractors are getting the panels and machinery working. I've got two air-coach trucks making daily runs now. I'm having trouble with the villages: they keep organizing dancing festivals of welcome. But the main holdup is in Commercial City: they never heard of some of these torture instruments and they're having to be handmade. How's it going with publicity?"