Stranger in a Strange Land

Mike phoned us. And the next day Stinky told the university that we were taking a sabbatical for field work-or his resignation, if they wished. So here we are."
                "Doing what?"
                "Working. Working harder than you ever made me work, Boss-my husband is a slave driver."
                "Doing what?"
                "They're writing a Martian dictionary," Patty told him.
                "Martian to English? That must be difficult."
                "Oh, no, no, no!" Miriam looked almost shocked. "That wouldn't be difficult, that would be impossible. A Martian dictionary in Martian. There's never been one before; the Martians don't need such things. Uh, my part of it is just clerical; I type what they do. Mike and Stinky-mostly Stinky-worked out a phonetic script for Martian, eighty-one characters. So we had an I.B.M. typer worked over for those characters, using both upper and lower case-Boss darling, I'm ruined as a secretary; I type touch system in Martian now. Will you love me anyhow? When you shout 'Front!' and I'm not good for anything? I can still cook . . . and I'm told that I have other talents."
                "I'll learn to dictate in Martian."
                "You will, before Mike and Stinky get through with you. I grok. Eh, Patty?"
                "You speak rightly, my brother."
                They returned to the living room, Caxton joined them and suggested finding a quieter place, away from the giant babble box, led Jubal down a passage and into another living room. "You seem to have most of this floor"
                "All of it," agreed Ben. "Four suites-the Secretarial; the Presidential, the Royal, and Owner's Cabin, opened into one and not accessible other than by our own landing fiat . except through a foyer that is not very healthy withOut help. You were warned about that?"
                "Yes."
                "We don't need so much room right now... but we may: people are ~~ck~ng in."
                "Ben, how can you hide from the cops as openiy as this? The hotel staff alone will give you away."
                "Oh, there are ways- The staff doesn't come up here. You see, Mike owns the hotel."
                "So much the worse, I would think-"
                "So much the better ... unless our doughty police chief has Mr. Douglas on his payroll, which I doubt. Mike bought it through about four links of dummies_and Douglas doesn't snoop into why Mike wants things done. Douglas doesn't despise me quite as much since Os Kilgallen took over my column, I think, but nevertheless he doesn't want to surrender control to me-he does what Mike wants. The hotel is a sound investment; it makes money_but the owner of record is one of our clandestine Ninth Circle. So the owner decides he wants this floor for the season and the manager can't and doesn't and wouldn't want to inquire into why, or how many guests of his own the owner has coming or going -- he likes his job; Mike is paying him more than he's worth. It's a pretty good hide-out, for the time being. 'Till Mike groks where we will go next."
                "Sounds like Mike had anticipated a need for a hide~out."
                "Oh, I'm sure he did. Almost two weeks ago Mike cleared out the nestlings' nest except for Maryam and her baby; Maryam is needed for the job she's on. Mike sent the parents with children to other cities-places he means to open temples~ I think-and when the time came, there were just about a dozen 0f us to move. No sweat."
                "As it was, you barely got out with your lives, I take it." Jubal wondered how they had even managed to grab clothes in view of how they probably were not dressed. "You lost all the contents of the Nest? All your personal possessions?"
                "Oh, no, not anything we really wanted. Stuff like Stinky's language tapes and a trick typer that Maryam uses; even that horrible Madame Tussaud picture of you. And Mike grabbed our clothes and some cash that was on hand."
                Jubal objected, "You say Mike did this? But I thought Mike was in jail when the fire broke out."
                "Uh, he was and he wasn't. His body was in jail ... curled up in withdrawat But he was actually with us. You understand?"
                "Uh, I don't grok."