Part 16 (1/2)
Then the big man, working deftly despite his heavy gloves, lifted the girl's locket and cut its chain with a heavy angle-nose cutter. He then twitched the band from her head, tied the locket to the band with the chain, and threw the bundle, in a high are, out and away. When it came down there was a flare of greenish brilliance brighter than the sun, the white glare of a small pool of incandescent lava, and after a few seconds, the odor of volatilized rock.
”So?” the girl asked, quietly. ”So there goes a bit of Company power. But you... Oh!” She broke off sharply as she saw the smaller man touching the aircar here and there with the looped end of a heavy wire held in one gloved hand. ”Oh? High resistance? How high?”
”One point two five megohms,” the big man said. ”We have no intention whatever of doing you-any harm whatever.”
”You know, some way or other, I've rather gathered that?” and she extended a beautifully-shaped bare arm for the wire's touch. A minute later, while both men were shedding their insulation, she spoke again. ”You're going to give me some explanation of all this, I suppose?”
”We are indeed, Miss Acey Bee-ay, as soon as we get to where we're going and your friend joins us. It's altogether too long and too deep and too involved to go into twice for the two of you. We'll take off now.”
The aircar went straight up to twelve thousand feet, then hurtled north northeast at its top speed. It held course and speed for over three hours. It crossed mountain ranges, lakes, forests, and rivers. Finally, however, it slanted sharply downward, slowed, stopped, and descended vertically into a canyon-a creva.s.se, rather but little wider than the car was long and half a mile deep.
It landed near a man wearing a greenish-gray uniform, who had a sidearm in a holster at his hip. This guard saluted crisply and put his hand against a slight projection of the rock, whereupon a section of the canyon's wall swung inward, revealing a long, straight, brightly lighted tunnel. The three got out of the car and the guard stepped aside, drawing his weapon as he did so. ”As usual,” the big man told the guard. ”It's harmless and its transmitters have been cut. You won't need the artillery.” He glanced quizzically at the girl. ”Will he'?” ”No,” she said, flatly. ”I know that you can handle me alone. You know as much judo as I do and you're a lot bigger.”
”Excellent) In, then. It's about a mile. We walk.”
The three walked into and along the tunnel; with the girl, under no restraint, between the two men.
After walking the indicated mile they came to what looked like-and in fact was-the entrance to a thoroughly modern building. They went in and the big man, after dismissing his smaller companion, ushered the girl into a small, plainly-furnished office.
”They aren't here yet, I see. Take a chair, please.” He sat down behind the desk. ”We'll wait here; it won't be very long.”
Nor was it. In about fifteen minutes the door opened and three gray-uniformed men, one of them pus.h.i.+ng a wheeled chair, entered the office. Beedy, without headband or locket, was chained to the chair. His uniform was tom off, both eyes would soon be black-and-blue ”s.h.i.+ners,” and his flesh was puffy and bruised, but he was still full of fight. When he saw the girl, however, he stopped struggling instantly and stopped her with a word as she leaped to her feet, screamed, and ran toward him.
”If you'd used your brain, meathead,” he said, glaring between swollen lids at the man behind the desk, ”and told your gorillas to tell me you had her here, it would've saved all five of us some lumps.”
”Well, I can't think of everything,” the big man admitted. ”I did tell her we had you, come to think of it, which perhaps accounts for her cooperation.” He studied his three men. The smallest one of them was of B D's size, but each of the three bore more marks of battle than did the captive. ”I was not informed that you are such an expert at unarmed combat. Free him, you, and get out. With the chair.”
”Free him?” one of the captors protested. ”Why, he'll...” and one of the others broke, in: ”But he d.a.m.n near killed Big Pietr, boss-they're taking him up to sick-bay now, and...”
”You heard me,” the boss said, without raising his voice a fraction of a decibel, and the three obeyed.
As the door closed, the two went into each other's arms, the girl moaning over her lover's wounds.
”It's all right, now that I know you aren't hurt. You aren't, are you?”
No, not the least bit, in any way,” she a.s.sured him. ”But they hurt you, and if you think...”
”Hush, sweetheart, listen. I got more of them than they did of me, so, with you here safe, if they won't carry a grudge I won't.” He c.o.c.ked a blood-clotted eyebrow-with a slight wince-at the man behind the desk. ”No grudge, I take it?”
”Splendid? No grudge at all.”
B D turned to B A. ”Wasn't this in your hunch?” he asked.
”Your getting all beat up certainly wasn't, but the rest of it... well, I guess it could fit the pattern... but don't try to tell me it was that clear in yours, either!”
”I won't; but it does fit the pattern.”
”You two are far and away the best we've found yet,” the man at the desk said then. ”Since I'm going to be your instructor, you may as well start calling me Basil.” ”Bay-sill? That doesn't make sense,” the girl said.
”It's my name. We don't use symbols-I'll go into that later. You are beginning to realize that your knowledge and experience have left you almost entirely ignorant of man, of nature, and of the cosmos. Exposure to that knowledge will be such a shock to your minds that you will feel much better together than apart. To that end, would you like to be married-'mate,' is your word for it-immediately?”
”But we can't,” the girl said. ”Not for half a year yet” ”Sure we can, and we will,” B D said. ”My hunch is that the Company is getting the flame...” He hesitated slightly and s.h.i.+vered, but went on doggedly, ”and that you have already captured at least twelve other Company Agents without getting flamed yourselves. Is that right, Bay-sill?”
”Very pleasingly right. Twenty, so far, have been able to withstand the impact of the truth and remain sane... but none of them are anything like in your cla.s.s... you must both be mals.”
He glanced at them questioningly, but neither made any response and he went on. ”If so, I hope to persuade you to help us look for others like you. Now, before I take you upstairs to the sick-bay and thence to your suite, where you will find clothing and so on, I am going to give you some of the basic elements of the truth. I shall give them to you brutally straight. You will be shocked as you have never believed it possible to be shocked. You will not be able to understand any part of it at first, but you must not ask me any questions until tomorrow morning, when I will begin instructing you in detail. By that time you will have given the matter sufficient thought so that you will be able to ask intelligent questions. You wish to marry each other, you said?”
”We certainly do!”
”Splendid! You can make decisions, as well as think. I have very high hopes indeed of you two. After the short visits I mentioned I will arrange for your wedding. Then, if you wish, you may dine and retire to your suite until eight hours tomorrow.
”Now for your first introduction to the truth. This world is not the only world in existence and you people -you upper echelons are just as much people as those you call People-are not the only people. There are thousands of millions of other worlds, more or less like this one, throughout an immensity of s.p.a.ce so vast as to be beyond imagining. There are thousands of millions of human beings-members of the human race, to which both you and we belong inhabiting many of those worlds. One such world, my native planet Earth, has a population of almost seven thousand million people. ”Your concept of the Company is completely false. There are hundreds of thousands of companies, each a self-perpetuating group of men. Not supermen in any sense, but ordinary men like me. Your company was and is only one of the mult.i.tude of companies of Earth. It was founded by and is still operated by a group of greedy, utterly callous capitalists-money men-of Earth. It was founded and is being operated specifically as a world of slave labor. Every person born on this world is a slave; a slave without freedom, liberty, or personal rights of any kind.
”We, on the other hand, represent a society of worlds of freedom-loving people. We have come here to liberate all the inhabitants of this world from slavery; to enable you to take your rightful place-and that place is yours by right-in the fellows.h.i.+p of all the civilized worlds. Our creed, the creed of all free peoples everywhere, is this: ”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
”These things I have told you, young friends, are fundamental. They are basic. They are absolutely necessary prerequisites for any learning of the truth; so think them over very carefully until tomorrow morning.
”When your instruction is complete, I am sure that you will be glad to work side by side with us to unite your world with our society-The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”
Chapter 19 DOUBLE AGENT.
Back on Earth, affairs political and financial moved so fast and in such quant.i.ty that Upton Maynard had more work on his hands than any one man could possibly do. He had to sleep five or six hours almost every night. Also, he could handle those Tellurian affairs much better if he were there in person-especially if he could drop GalMet entirely for a while-and why not? Young Smith had plenty of jets... wherefore he called Smith and Miss Champion into his inner office.
”Miss Champion, take notes, please. Mr. Eldon Jay Smith I believe, the Executive Vice-President of Galactic Metals, Incorporated?”
”That is precisely what I have the honor and privilege of being, sir.” Smith put his right hand over his heart and bowed. ”As of the present moment, sir; that is, sir, I mean, sir.”
”You'll start executing as of the present moment, sir,” and Maynard told him what he had in mind, concluding, ”So sit on the throne, hub, 'til I get back-and don't let the block line drop down through the bottom of the chart.”
”Drop? You kidding? Now we can get something done -it'll zoom right up through the top. How about it, Dorry?” He winked at Miss Champion, who, always the perfect First Secretary-always, that is, in Maynard's presence-did not wink back. She merely smiled.
”But suppose I take her along?”
”Go ahead. Do that. Wreck the outfit. I've been wanting to quit and go fis.h.i.+ng, anyway.”
”Yeah. I know. I know just what I'd be wrecking anyway, I'd bet on the fish. 'Bye, Don; 'bye, Doris,” and Maynard strode blithely out.
The girl gave Smith a long, level look. ”You're the only human being alive with the sublime nerve to give him the needle that way. Just suppose he climbs your frame for it some day?”
”He set the pace, didn't he? Anyway, I'd get along.” ”Pfooie! n.o.body could blast you out of here with an atomic bomb and everybody knows it. You really know him don't you? I've always thought I was the only one who did.”
”I know he's the universe's best-and that these d.a.m.ned yes-men and toadies around here make him just as sicka da bel' as they do me-and that's a great G.o.d's plenty.”
”That's what I meant, Don... and you're not too bad a stinker yourself, in some ways.” For weeks, ever since they had become psionic, a current of something-like electricity plus-had been flowing between these two, and it was getting stronger all the time.
”Thanks for them kind words, Dorry. You're slipping. First thing you know you'll...”