Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein Page B

friend Smith will be in shape to stand the strain of public appearances, at which time they will trot him Out. But I doubt it like hell!"
                "Why?"
                "Use your pretty curly head. The Honorable Joe Douglas has already made one attempt to squeeze out of Smith what he wants . . . and failed miserably. But Douglas can't afford to fail. So I think he will bury Smith deeper than ever . . . and that is the last we will ever see of the true Man from Mars."
                "Kill him?" Jill said slowly.
                "Why be rough about it? Lock him in a private nursing home and never let him learn anything. He may already have been removed from Bethesda Center."
                "Oh, dear! Ben, what are we going to do?"
                Caxton scowled and thought. "I don't have a good plan. They own both the bat and the ball and are making the rules. But what I am going to do is this~ I'm going to walk into that hospital with a Fair Witness on one side and a tough lawyer on the other and demand to see Smith. Maybe I can force them to drag it out into the open."
                "I'll be right behind you!"
                "Like mischief you will. You stay Out of this. As you pointed Out, it would ruin you professionally."
                "But you need me to identify him."
                "Not so. I flatter myself that I can tell a man who was raised by nonhumans from an actor pretending to be such a man in the course of a very short interview. But if anything goes wrong, you are my ace in the hole-a person who knows that they are pulling hanky-panky concerning the Man from Mars and who has access to the inside of Bethesda Center. Honey, if you don't hear from me, you are on your own."
                "Ben, they wouldn't hurt you?"
                "I'm fighting Out of my weight, youngster. There is no telling."
                "Uh ... oh, Ben, I don't like this. Look, if you do get in to see him, what are you going to do?"
                "I'm going to ask him if he wants to leave the hospital. If he says he does, I'm going to invite him to come along with me. In the presence of a Fair Witness they won't dare stop him. A hospital isn't a prison; they don't have any legal right to hold him."
                "Uh ... then what? He really does need medical attention, Ben; he's not able to take care of himself. I know."
                Caxton scowled again. "I've been thinking of that. I can't nurse him. You could, of course, if you had the facilities. We could put him in my flat-"
                "-and I could nurse him. We'll do it, Ben!"
                "Slow down. I thought of that. Douglas would pull some legal rabbit out of his hat, a deputation in force would call, and Smith would go right back to pokey. And so would both of us, maybe." He wrinkled his brow. "But I know one man who could give him shelter and possibly get away with it."
                "Ever heard of Jubal Harshaw?"
                "Huh? Who hasn't?"
                "That's one of his advantages; everybody knows who he is. It makes him hard to shove around. Being both a doctor of medicine and a lawyer he is three times as hard to shove around. But most important he is so rugged an individualist that he would fight the whole Federation Departtflent of Security with just a potato knife if it suited his fancy-and that makes him eight times as hard to shove around. But the point is that I got well acquainted with him during the disaffection trials; he is a friend I can count on in a pinch. If I can get Smith out of Bethesda, I'll take him to Harshaw's place over in the Poconos-and then just let those jerks try to hide him under a rug again! Between my column and Harshaw's love for a fight we'll give 'em a bad time."

    VII

                DESPITE A LATE EVENING Jill was ready