WORLDS of SCIENCE FICTION APRIL 1954 All Stories New and Complete Editor: JAMES L. QUINN Assistant Editors: THOR L. KROGH EVE P. WULFF

COVel' by Ken Fagg: A SPace Nation Composed of Independent City Planets

~III1IlIlIlIlIllIlUtIIllIllJllIIIIJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIJIJIIIIIIIUIIIIIUllllrIIlIlIllIlIlIlIllIlIIUIlI1Il1l1l1l1nl1l11ll11l11lll1l1l11ll11l11UIIIIIIIIIIII~llIIllIli 5 5 ==1__ NOVELETTES 4 -_=; _ THE GOLDEN MAN by Phillip K. Dick _ ;ii CARRIER by Robert Sheckley 50 ;E i SHORT STORIES 29 I ~ BREEDER REACTION by Winston Marks ii ; WAY OF A REBEL by Walter Miller, Jr. 39 ! ALL IN THE MIND by Gene L. Henderson 849 9 =_1 el PROBABILITY by Louis Trimble I THE LAST CONQUEROR by Morton Kloss 107! = E i ~ ~ FEATURES ~ E E ~ . A CHAT WITH THE EDITOR 2 5 5 = ~ "IT'S ABOUT TIME •••" ~ § (Fact Article) by R. S. Richardson 77 § g i ~ . OUT OF THIS WORLD 83 ~ ! SCIENCE BRIEFS 119 i " COVER PICTORIAL: Homes of the Future e I By Ed Valigursky I

=itllollllllllllllllllllU1l1l11l1l1lln'UllllnnuIIIIIUIIIIIIIIRlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIJIIIIIIIIIIIlIfIIllIlIllIlIlIlI1II11I1UIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUlllllllIlIllIlIlUlIIIIIIIU~ = IF is published monthly by Qumn Publishing Company, Inc. Volume 3, No.2. Copyright 1954 by Quinn Publishing Co., Inc. Office of publication, 8. Lord Street, Buffalo New York. Entered a. Second Class Matter at Post Office, BulIalo, New York. Subscription $3.50 for 12 issues in U.S. and Possessions; Canada $4 for 12 issues; elsewhere $4.50. Allow four weeks for change of address. All stories appear­ ing in this magazine are fiction; any similarity to actual persons is coincidental. Not responsible for unsolicited artwork or manuscripts. 35c a copy. Printed in U.S.A. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES, KINGSTON, NEW YORK Next issue on sale March 10th

The powers of earth had finally exterminated the last of the horrible tribes of mutant freaks spawned by atomic war. Menace to homo sapien supremacy was about ended-but not quite. For out of the countryside came a great golden, godlike youth whose extraordinary mutant powers, combining the world's oldest and newest methods of survival, promised a new and superior type of mankind • .•

The GOLDEN MAN

By Phillip K. Dick

Illustrated by Kelly Freas

s IT AI. WAYS hot like this?" bean soup and rolls. A lean, weath­ I the salesman demanded. He ad­ ered farmer. An elderly business­ dressed everybody at the lunch man in a blue-serge suit, vest and counter and in the shabby booths pocket watch. A dark rat-faced cab against the wall. A middle-aged fat driver drinking coffee. A tired man with a good-natured smile, woman who had come in to get off rumpled gray suit, sweat-stained her feet and put down her bundles. white shirt, a drooping bowtie, and The salesman got out a package a panaMa hat. of cigarettes. He glanced curiously "Only in the summer," the wait­ around the dingy cafe, lit up, ress answered. leaned his arms on the counter, None of the others stirred. The and said to the man next to him : teen-age boy and girl in one of the ''What's ·the name of this town?" booths, eyes fixed intently on each The man grunted. "Walnut other. Two workmen, sleeves rolle-l. Creek." up, arms dark and hairy, eating The salesman sipped at his coke 5 6 PHILLIP K. DICK for awhile, his cigarette held loose­ brushed it off. Carefully, almost ly between his plump white fingers. tenderly, he restored it to his wal­ Presently he reached in his coat let. The waitress' eyes flickered as and brought out a leather wallet. she caught a glimpse of it. For a long time he leafed thought­ "Damn nice," the salesman ob­ fully through cards and papers, served, with a wink. "Wouldn't bits of notes, ticket stubs, endless you say so?" odds and ends, soiled fragments­ The waitress shrugged indiffer­ and finally a photograph. ently. "I don't know. I saw a lot He grinned at the photograph, of them around Denver. A whole and then began to chuckle, a low colony." moist rasp. "Look at this," he said "That's where this was taken. to the man beside him. Denver DCA Camp." The man went on reading his "Any still alive?" the farmer newspaper. asked. "Hey, look at this." The sales­ The salesman laughed harshly. man nudged him with his elbow "You kidding?" He made a short, and pushed the photograph at him. sharp swipe with his hand. "Not "How's that strike you?" any more." Annoyed, the man glanced brief­ ly at the photograph.. It showed a nude woman, from the waist up. HEY WERE all listening. Even Perhaps thirty-five years old. Face T the high school kids in the turned away. Body white and flab­ booth had stopped holding hands by. With eight breasts. and were sitting up straight, eyes "Ever seen anything like that?" wide with fascination. the salesman chuckled, his little "Saw a funny kind down near red eyes dancing. His face broke San DiegO'," the farmer said. "Last into lewd smiles and again he year, some time. Had wings like a nudged the man. bat. Skin, not feathers. Skin and "I've seen that before." Disgust­ bone wings." ed, the man resumed reading his The rat-eyed taxi driver chimed newspaper. in. "That's nothing. There was a The salesman noticed the lean two-headed one in Detroit. I saw old farmer was looking at the pic­ it on exhibit." ture. He passed it genially over to "Was it alive?" the waitress him. "How's that strike you, pop? asked. Pretty good stuff, eh?" . "No. They'd already euthed it." The farmer examined the picture "In sociology," the high school solemnly. He turned it over, stud­ boy spoke up, "we saw tapes of a ied the creased back, took a sec­ whole lot of them. The winged kind ond look at the front, then tossed from down south, the big-headed it to the salesman. It slid from the one they found in Germany, an counter, turned over a couple of awful-looking one with sort of times, and fell to the floor face up. cones, like an insect. And-" The salesman picked it up and "The worst of all," the elderly THE GOLDEN MAN 7 businessman stated, "are those Eng­ a year. They thought it was over, lish ones. That hid out in the coal around here." mines. The ones they didn't find "It's been dwindling," the taxi until last year." He shook his head. driver said. "Frisco wasn't too bad "Forty years, down there in the hit. Not like some. Not like De­ mines, breeding and developing. AI­ troit." mo~t a hundred of them. Survivors "They still get ten or fifteen a from a group that went under­ year in Detroit," the high school ground during the War." boy said. "All around there. Lots "They just found a new kind in of pools still left. People go into Sweden," the waitress said. "I was them, in spite of the robot signs." reading about it. Controls minds at "What kind was this one?" the a distance, they said. Only a cou­ salesman asked. "The one · they ple of them. The DCA got there found in San Francisco." plenty fast." The waitress gestured. "Common "That's a variation of the New . type. The kind with no toes. Bent­ Zealand type," one of the work­ over. Big eyes." men said. "It reads minds." "The nocturnal type," the sales­ "Reading and controlling are two man said. different things," the businessman "The mother had hid it. They said. "When I hear something like say it was three years old. She got that I'm plenty glad there's the the doctor to forge the DCA chit. DCA." Old friend of the family." "There was a type they found The salesman had finished his right after the War," the farmer coke. He sat playing idly with his said. "In Siberia. Had the ability cigarette, listening to the hum of to control objects. Psychokinetic talk he had set into motion. The ability. The Soviet DCA got it high school boy was leaning excit­ right away. Nobody remembers that edly toward the girl across from any more." him, impressing her with his fund "I remember that," the business­ of knowledge. The lean fanner and man said. "I was just a kid, then. the businessman were huddled to­ I remember because that was the gether, remembering the old days, first deeve I ever heard of. My the last years of the War, before the father called me into the living­ first Ten-Year Reconstruction Plan. room and told me and my brothers The taxi driver and the two work­ and sisters. We were still rebuilding men were swapping yams about the house. That was in the days their own experiences. when the DCA inspected everyone The salesman caught the wait­ and stamped their anns." He held ress' attention. "I guess," he said up his thin, gnarled wrist. "I was thoughtfully, "that one in Frisco stamped there, sixfy years ago." caused quite a stir. Something like "Now they just have the birth that happening so close." inspection," the waitress said. She "Yeah," the waitress murmured. shivered. "There was one in San "This side of the Bay wasn't Francisco·this month. First in over really hit," the salesman continued. 8 PHILLIP K. DICK "You never get any of them over CARLET-FACED, the boy here." S sagged in his seat. His voice "No." The waitress moved wavered and broke off. He peered abruptly. "None in this area. Ever." hastily down at his hands and swal­ She scooped up dirty dishes from lowed unhappily. the counter and headed toward the The salesman paid the waitress back. for his coke. "What's the quickest "Never?" the salesman asked, road to Frisco?" he began. But the surprised. "You've never had any waitress had already turned her deeves on this side of the Bay?" back. "No. None." She disappeared in­ The people at the counter were to the back, where the fry cook immersed in their food. None of stood by his burners, white apron them looked up. They ate in frozen and tattooed wrists. Her voice was silence. Hostile, unfriendly faces, in­ a little too loud, a little too harsh tent on their food. and strained. It made the farmer The salesman picked up his pause suddenly and glance up. bulging briefcase, pushed open the Silence dropped like a curtain. screen door, and stepped out into All sound cut off instantly. They the blazing sunlight. He moved were all gazing down at their food, toward his battered 1978 Buick, suddenly tense and ominous. parked a few meters up. A blue­ "None around here," the taxi shirted traffic cop was standing in driver said, loudly and clearly, to the shade of an awning, talking no one in particular. "None ever." languidly to a young woman in "Sure," the salesman agreed gen­ a yellow silk dress that clung moist­ ially. "I was only-" ly to her slim body. "Make sure you get that The salesman paused a moment straight," one of the workmen said. before he got into his car. He The salesman blinked. "Sure, waved his hand and hailed the buddy. Sure." He fumbled nervous­ policeman. "Say, you know this ly in his pocket. A quarter and a town pretty good?" dime jangled to the floor and he The policeman eyed the sales­ hurriedly scooped them up. "No man's rumpled gray suit, bowtie, offense." his sweat-stained shirt. The out-of­ For a moment there was silence. state license. "What do you want?" Then the high school boy spoke up, "I'm looking for the Johnson aware for the first time that nobody farm," the salesman said. "Here was saying anything. "I heard to see him about some litigation." something," he began eagerly, He moved toward the policeman, voice full importance. "Somebody a small white card between his said they saw something up by the fingers. "I'm nis attorney-from Johnson farm that looked like it the New York Guild~ Can you tell was one of those-" me how to get out there? I haven't "Shut up," the businessman said, been through here in a couple of WilhlJut turning his head. years." THE GOLDEN MAN 9 Nat Johnson gazed up at the swelled with pride as the girl's noonday sun and saw that it was glistening, healthy body took aim good. He sat sprawled out on the and again threw. Two powerful, bottom step of the porch, a pipe handsome children, almost ripe, on between his yellowed teeth, a lithe, the verge of adulthood. Playing to­ wiry man in red-checkered shirt gether in the hot sun. and canvas jeans, powerful hands, And there was Cris. iron-gray hair that was still thick Cris stood by the porch, arms despite sixty-five years of active folded. He wasn't playing. He was life. watching. He had stood there since He was watching the children Dave and Jean had begun playing, play. Jean rushed laughing in front the same half-intent, half-remote of him, bosom heaving under her expression on his fineiy-cut face. sweat shirt, black hair streaming As if he were seeing past them, be­ behind her. She was sixteen, bright­ yond the two of them. Beyond the eyed, legs strong and straight, slim field, the barn, the creek bed, the young body bent slightly forward rows of cedars. with the weight of the two horse­ "Come on, Cris!,' Jean taIled, as shoes. After her scampered Dave, she and Dave moved across the fourteen, white teeth and black field to collect their horseshoes. hair, a handsome boy, a son to be "Don't you want to play?" proud of. Dave caught up with his No, Cris didn't want to play. He sister, passed her, and reached the never played. He was off in a far peg. He stood waiting, legs world of his own, a world into apart, hands on his hips, his two which none of them could come. horseshoes gripped easily. Gasping, He never joined in anything, games Jean hurried toward him. or chores or family activities. He "Go ahead!" Dave shouted. was by himself always. Remote, "You shoot first. I'm waiting for detached, aloof. Seeing past every­ you." one and everything-that is, until "So you can knock them away?" all at once something clicked and "So I can knock them closer." he momentarily rephased, reen­ Jean tossed down one horseshoe tered their world briefly. and gripped the other with both hands, eyes on the distant peg. Her lithe body bent, one leg slid AT JOHNSON reached out back, her spine arched. She took Nand knocked his pipe against careful aim, closed one eye, and the step. He refilled it from his then expertly tossed the shoe. With leather tobacco pouch, his eyes on a clang the shoe struck the distant his eldest son. Cris was now mov­ peg, circled briefly around it, then ing into life. Heading out onto the bounced off again and rolled to one field. He walked slowly, ~rms fold­ side. A cloud of dust rolled up. ed calmly, as if he had, for the "Not bad," Nat Johnson admit­ moment descended from his own ted, from his step. "Too hard, world into theirs. Jean didn't see though. Take it easy." His chest him; she had turned her back and 10 PHILLIP K. DICK was getting ready to pitch. scenery. "Hey," Dave said, startled. "What was it this time?" Jean "Here's Cris." asked wearily. She came over to Cris reached his sister, stopped, her father and threw herself down and held out his hand. A great in the shade. Sweat glowed on her dignified figure, calm and imp as· smooth neck and upperlip; her sive. Uncertainly, Jean gave him sweat shirt was streaked and damp. one of the horseshoes. "You want "What did he see?" this? You want to play?" "He was after something," Dave Cris said nothing. He bent slight­ stated, coming up. ly, a supple arc of his incredibly Nat grunted. "Maybe. There's no graceful body, then moved his arm telling." in a blur of speed. The shoe sailed, "I guess I better tell mom not struck the far peg, and dizzily spun set a place for him," Jean said. "He around it. Ringer. probably won't be back." The corners of Dave's mouth Anger and futility descended turned down. "What a lousy darn over Nat Johnson. No, he wouldn't thing." be back. Not for dinner and proba­ "Cris," Jean reproved. "You bly not the next day-or the one don't play fair." after that. He'd be gone God only No, Cris didn't play fair. He knew how long. Or where. Or why. had watched half an hour-then Off by himself, alone some place. come out and thrown once. One "If I thought there was ap.y use," perfect toss, one dead ringer. Nat began, "I'd send you two after "He never makes a mistake," him. But there's no-" Dave complained. He broke off. A car was coming Cris stood, face blank. A golden up the dirt road toward the farm­ statue in the mid-day sun. Golden house. A dusty, battered old Buick. hair, skin, a light down of gold Behind the wheel sat a plump red­ fuzz on his bare arms and legs- faced man in a gray suit, who Abruptly he stiffened. Nat sat up, waved cheerfully at them as the startled. "What is it?" he barked. car sputtered to a stop and the Cris turned in a quick circle, motor died into silence. magnificent body alert. "Cris!" Jean demanded. "What-" Cris shot forward. Like a re­ FTERNOON," the man nod­ leased energy beam he bounded Aded, as he climbed out of the across the field, over the .fence, in­ car. He tipped his hat pleasantly. to the barn and out the other side. He was middle-aged, genial-look­ His flying figure seemed to skim ing, perspiring freely as he crossed over the dry grass as he descended the dry ground toward the porch. into the barren creek-bed, between "Maybe you folks can help me." the cedars. A momentary flash of "What do you want?" Nat John­ gold-and he was gone. Vanished. son demanded hoarsely. He was ThlTC was no sound. No motion. frightened. He watched the creek He had utterly melted into the bed out of the corner of his eye, THE GOLDEN MAN 11 praying silently. God, if only he nose. "Don't get the wrong idea­ stayed away. Jean was breathing I'm not putting up any tracts quickly, sharp little gasps. She was around here. This is strictly for my­ terrified. Dave's face was expres­ self. An old farm house, tvvcnty sionless, but all color had drained acres, a pump and a few oak from it. "Who are you?" Nat de­ trees-" manded. "Let me see the deed." Johnson "Name's Baines. George Baines." grabbed the sheaf of papers, and The man held out his hand but while Baines blinked in astonish­ Johnson ignored it. "Maybe you've ment, he leafed rapidly through heard of me. I own the Pacifica them. His face hardened and he Development Corporation. We handed them back. "What are you built all those little bomb-proof up to? This deed is for a parcel houses just outside town. Those fifty miles from here." little round ones you see as you "Fifty miles!" Baines was dumb­ come up the main highway from founded. "No kidding? But the Lafayette." clerk told me-" . "What do you want?" Johnson Johnson was on his feet. He held his hands steady with an ef­ towered over the fat man. He was fort. He'd never heard of the man, in top-notch physical shape-and although he'd noticed the housing he was plenty damn suspicious. tract. It couldn't be missed-a "Clerk, hell. You get back into great ant-heap of ugly pill-boxes your car and drive out of here. I straddling the highway. Baines don't know what you're after, or looked like the kind of man who'd what you're here for, but I want own them. But what did he want you off my land." here? In Johnson's massive fist some­ "I've bought some land up this thing sparkled. A metal tube that way," Baines was explaining. He gleamed ominously in the mid-day rattled a sheaf of crisp papers. sunlight. Baines saw it-and "This is the deed, but I'll be gulped. "No offense, mister." He damned if I can find it." He backed nervously away. "You folks grinned good-naturedly. "I know sure are touchy. Take it easy, will it's around this way, someplace, this you?" side of the State road. According Johnson said nothing. He to the clerk at the County Record­ gripped the lash-tube tighter and er's Office, a mile or so this side waited for the fat man to leave. of that hill over there. But I'm But Baines lingered. "Look, bud­ no damn good at reading maps." dy. I've been driving around this "It isn't around here," Dave furnace five hours, looking for my broke in. "There's only farms damn place. Any objection to my around here. Nothing for sale." using your-facilities?" "This 'is a farm, son," Baines Johnson eyed him with suspicion. said genially. "I bought it for my­ Gradually the suspicion turned to self and my missus. So we could disgust. He shrugged. "Dave, show settle down." He wrinkled his pug him where the bathroom is." 12 PHILLIP K. DICK

"Thanks." Baines grinned thank­ the mother, gray-haired, small, fully. "And if it wouldn't be too moving toward the sink with a much trouble, maybe a glass of glass, face withered and drawn, water. I'd be glad to pay you for without expression. it." He chuckled knowingly. "Never Then Baines hurried from the let the city people get away with room, down a hall. He passed anything, eh?" through a bedroom, pulled a door "Christ." Johnson turned away open, found himself facing a closet. in revulsion as the fat man lum.. He turned and raced back, through bered after his son, into the house. the living room; into a dining room, "Dad," Jean whispered. As soon then another bedroom. In a brief as Baines was inside she hurried up instant he had gone through the onto the porch, eyes wide with whole house. fear. "Dad, do you think he-" He peered out a window. The Johnson put his arm around her. back yard. Remains of a rusting "Just hold on tight. He'll be gone, truck. Entrance of an underground soon." bomb shelter. Tin cans. Chickens The girl's dark eyes flashed with scratching around. A dog, asleep mute terror. "Every time the man under a shed. A couple of old auto from the water company, or the tires. tax collector, some tramp, children, He found a door leading out. anybody come around, I get a ter­ Soundlessly, he tore the door open rible stab of pain-here." She and stepped outside. No one was clutched at her heart, hand against in sight. There was a barn, a lean­ her breasts. "It's been that way ing, ancient wood structure. Cedar thirteen years. How much longer trees beyond, a creek of some kind. can we keep it going? How long?" What had once been an outhouse.

HE MAN named Baines AINES moved cautiously T emerged gratefully from the B around the side of the house. bathroom. Dave Johnson stood si­ He had perhaps thirty seconds. He lently by the door, body rigid, had left the door of the bathroom youthful face stony. closed; the boy would think he had "Thanks, son," Baines sighed. gone back in there. Baines looked "Now where can I get a glass of into the house through a window. cold water?" He smacked his thick A large closet, filled with old clo.th­ lips in anticipation. "After you've ing, boxes and bundles of maga­ been driving around the sticks look­ zines. ing for a dump some red-hot real He turned and started back. He ('state agent stuck you with-"· reached the corner of the house ))ave headed into the kitchen. and started around it. ":-'\Ol1l. this man wants a drink of Nat Johnson's gauAt shape w.ller. Dad said he could have it." loomed up and blocked his way. I lave had turned his back. "All right, Baines. You asked for B.lilles caught a brief glimpse of it." THE GOLDEN MAN 13 A pink flash blossomed. It shut swarmed out, in the dark gray­ out the sunlight in a single blind­ green of the Government Civil ing burst. Baines leaped back and Police. In the sky swarms of black clawed at his coat pocket. The dots were descending, clouds of edge of the flash caught him and ugly flies that darkened the sun he half-fell, stunned by the force. as they spilled out men and equip­ His suit-shield sucked in the energy ment. The men drifted slowly and discharged it, but the power down. rattled his teeth and for a moment "He's not here," Baines said, as he jerked like a puppet on a string. the first man reached him. "He got Darkness ebbed around him. He away. Inform Wisdom back at the could feel the mesh of the shield lab." glow white, as it absorbed the "We've got this section blocked energy and fought to control it. off." His own tube came out-and Baines turned to Nat Johnson, Johnson had no shield. "You're who stood in dazed silence, uncom­ under arrest," Baines muttered prehending, his son and daughter grimly. "Put down your tube and beside him. "How did he know we your hands up. And call your were coming?" Baines demanded. family." He made a motion with "I don't know," Johnson mut- the tube. "Come on, Johnson. tered. "He just-knew." Make it snappy." "A telepath?" The lash-tube wavered and then "I don't know." slipped from Johnson's fingers. Baines shrugged. "We'll know, "You're still alive." Dawning hor­ soon. A clamp is out, all around ror crept across his face. "Then here. He can't get past, no matter you must be-" what the hell he can do. Unless Dave and Jean appeared. "Dad!" he can dematerialize himself." "Come over here," Baines or­ "What'll you ' do with him when dered. "Where's your mother?" you-if you catch him?" Jean Dave jerked his head numbly. asked huskily. "Inside." "Study him." "Get her and bring her here." "And then kill him?" "You're DCA," Nat Johnson "That depends on the lab evalu­ whispered. ation. If you could give me mot.e Baines didn't answer. He was to work on, I could predict bet­ doing something with his neck, ter." pulling at the flabby flesh. The "We can't tell you anything. We wiring of a contact mike glittered don't know anytlling more." The as he slipped it from a fold between girl's voice rose with desperation. two chins and into his pocket. "He doesn't talk." From the dirt road came the sound Baines jumped. "What?" of motors, sleek purrs that rapidly "He doesn't talk. He never grew louder. Two teardrops of talked to us. Ever." black metal came gliding up and "Howald is he?" parked beside the house. Men "Eighteen." 14 PHILLIP K. DICK

"No communication." Baines "He gave himself up," the police­ was sweating. "In eighteen years man answered, voice full of awe. there hasn't been any semantic "He came to us voluntarily. Look bridge between you? Does he have at him. He's like a metal statue. (lny contact? Signs? Codes?" Like some sort of-god." , "He-ignores us. He eats here, The golden figure halted for a stays with us. Sometimes he plays moment beside Jean. Then it when we play. Or sits with us. turned slowly, calmly, to face He's gone days on end. We've nev­ Baines. er been able to find out what he's "Cris!" Jean shrieked. "Why did doing-or where. He sleeps in the you come back?" barn-by himself." The same thought was eating at "Is he really gold-colored?'! Baines, too. He shoved it aside­ "Yes." for the time being. "Is the jet out "Skin, as well as hair?" front?" he demanded quickly. "Skin, eyes, hair, nails. Every­ "Ready to go," one 6f the CP thing." answered. "And he's large? Well-formed?" "Fine." Baines strode past them, It was a moment before the girl down the steps and onto the dirt answered. A strange emotion stirred field. "Let's go. I want him taken her drawn features, a momentary directly to the lab." For a moment glow. "He's incredibly beautiful. A he studied the massive figure who god. A god come down to earth." stood calmly between the two Civil Her lips twisted. "You won't find Policemen. Beside him, they seemed him. He can do things. Things you to have shrunk, become ungainly have no comprehension of. Powers and repellent, Like dwarves. • • so far beyond your limited-" What had Jean said? A god come "You don't think we'll get him?" to earth. Baines broke angrily away. Baines frowned. "More teams are "Come on," he muttered brusquely. landing all the time. You've never "This one may be tough; we've seen an Agency clamp in opera­ never run up against one like it tion. We've had sixty years to work hefore. We don't know what the out all the bugs. If he gets away hell it can do." it'll be the first time-" Baines broke off abruptly. Three men were quickly approaching the HE CHAMBER was empty, porch. Two green-clad Civil Police. T except for the seated figure. And a third man betweeR them. A Four bare walls, floor and ceiling. man who moved silently, lithely, a A steady glare of white light re­ faintly luminous shape that towered lentlessly etched every corner of above them. the chamber. Near the top of the "Cris!" Jean screamed. far wall ran a narrow slot, the "We got him," one of the police view windows through which the said. interior of the chamber was Baines fingered his lash-tube un­ scanned. easily. "Where? How?" The seated figure was quiet. He THE GOLDEN MAN 15 hadn't moved since the chamber' the analysis room? You had a locks had slid into place, since the wave-shot taken, of course." heavy bolts had fallen from out­ "His brain pattern has been fully side and the rows of bright-faced scanned. But it takes time for them technicians had taken their places to plot it out. We're all running at the view windows. He gazed around like lunatics while he just down at the floor, bent forward, sits there!" Wisdom poked a stubby bands clasped together, face calm, finger at the window. "We caught almost expressionless. In four hours him easily enough. He can't have he hadn't moved a muscle. much, can he? But I'd like to "Well?" Baines said. "What have know what it is. Before we euth you learned?" him." Wisdom grunted sourly. "Not "Maybe we should keep him much. If we don't have him doped alive until we know." out in forty-eight hours we'll go "Euth in forty-eight hours," ahead with the euth. We can't Wisdom repeated stubbornly. take any chances." "Whether we know or not. I don't "You're thinking about theTunis like him. He gives me the creeps." type," Baines said. He was, too. Wisdom stood chewing nervously They had found ten of them, liv­ on his cigar, a red-haired, beefy­ ing in the ruins of the abandoned faced man, thick and heavy-set, North African town. Their sur­ with a barrel chest and cold, vival method was simple. They shrewd eyes deep-set in his hard killed and absorbed other life face. Ed Wisdom was Director of forms, then imitated them and took DCA's North American Branch. their places. Chameleons, they were But right now he was worried. His called. It had cost sixty lives, be­ tiny eyes darted back and forth, fore the last one was destroyed. alarmed flickers of gray in his Sixty top-level experts, highly brutal, massive face. trained DCA men. "You think," Baines said slowly, "Any clues?" Baines asked. "this is it?" "He's different as hell. This is "I always think so," Wisdom going to be tough." Wisdom snapped. "I have to think so." thumbed a pile of tape-spools. "I mean-" "This is the complete report, all "I know what you mean." Wis­ the material we got from Johnson dom paced back and forth, among and his family. We pumped them the study tables, technicians at their with the psych-wash, then let them benches, equipment and humming go home. Eighteen years-and no computers. Buzzing tape-slots and semantic bridge, Yet, he looks fully research hookups. "This thing lived developed. Mature at thirteen-a eighteen years with his family and shorter, faster life-cycle than ours. they don't understand it. They But why the mane? All the gold don't know what it has. They know fuzz? Like a Roman monument what it does, but not how." that's been gilded." "What does it do?" "Has the report come in from "It knows things." 16 PHILLIP K. DICK "What kind of things?" over. "Get a construction team up Wisdom grabbed his lash-tube here. On the double." He grabbed from his belt and tossed it on a paper and pen and began sketch­ table. "Here." ing. "What?" "Here." Wisdom signalled, and a view window was slid back an HILE construction was going inch. "Shoot him." W on, Baines met his fiancee Baines blinked. "You said forty­ in the lobby outside the lab, the eight hours." great central lounge of the DCA With a curse, Wisdom snatched Building. up the tube, aimed it through the "How's it coming?" she asked. window directly at the seated Anita Ferris was tall and blonde, figure's back, and squeezed the blue eyes and a mature, carefully trigger. cultivated figure. An attractive, A blinding flash of pink. A cloud competent-looking woman in her of energy blossomed in the center late twenties. She wore a metal foil of the chamber. It sparkled, then dress and cape-with a red and died into dark ash. black stripe on the sleeve, the em­ "Good God!" Baines gasped. blem of the A-Class. Anita was You-" Director of the Semantics Agency,' He broke off. The figure was no a top-level Government Coordi­ longer sitting. As Wisdom fired, it nator. "Anything of interest, this had moved in a blur of speed, time?" away from the blast, to the corner "Plenty." Baines guided her from of the chamber. Now it was slowly the lobby, into the dim recess of coming back, face blank, still ab­ the bar. Music played softly in the sorbed in thought. background, a shifting variety of "Fifth time," Wisdom said, as he patterns formed mathematically. put his tube away. "Last time Jami­ Dim shapes moved expertly son and I fired together. Missed. through the gloom, from table to He knew exactly when the bolts table. Silent, efficient robot waiters. would hit. And where." As Anita sipped her Tom Col­ Baines and Wisdom looked at lins, Baines outlined what they had each other. Both of them were found. thinking the same thing. "But even "What are the chances," Anita reading minds wouldn't tell him asked slowly, "that he's built up where they were going. to hit," some kind of deflection-cone? Baines said. "When, maybe. But There was one kind that warped not where. Could you have called their environment by direct mental your own shots?" effort. No tools. Direct mind to "Not mine," Wisdom answered matter." flatly. "I fired fast, damn near at "Psychokinetics?" Baines drum­ random." He frowned. «Random. med restlessly on the table top. "1 \\,,·'11 have to make a test of this." doubt it. The thing has ability to II.· waved a group of technicians predict, not to control. He can't THE GOLDEN MAN 17 stop the beams, but he can sure as sake. Don't think for a moment hell get out of the way." we can put padlocks on them and "Does he jump between the expect them to serve us. If they're molecules?" really superior to homo sapiens, Baines wasn't amused. "This is they'll win out in even competition. serious. We've handled these things To survive, we've got to cold-deck sixty years-longer than you and I them right from the start." have been around added together. "In other words, we'll know Eighty-seven types of deviants homo superior when he comes­ have shown up, real mutants that by definition. He'll be the one we could reproduce themselves, not won't be able to euth." " mere freaks. This is the eighty­ "That's about it," Baines an­ eighth. We've been able to handle swered. "Assuming there is a homo each of them in turn. But this-" superior. Maybe there's just homo "Why are you so worried about peculiar. Homo with an improved this one?" line." "First, it's eighteen years old. "The Neanderthal probably That in itself is incredible. Its thought the Cro-Magnon man had family managed to hide it that merely an improved line. A little long." more advanced ability to conjure "Those women around Denver up symbols and shape flint. From were older than that. Those ones your description, this thing is more with-" radical than a mere improvement." "They were in a Government "This thing," Baines said slowly, camp. Somebody high up was toy­ "has an ability to predict. So far, ing with the idea of allowing them it's been able to stay alive. It's been to breed. Some sort of industrial able to cope with situations better use. We withheld euth for years. than you or I could. How long do But Oris Johnson stayed alive out­ you think we'd stay alive in that side our control. Those things at chamber, with energy beams blaz­ Denver were under constant scru­ ing down at us? In a sense it's got tiny." the ultimate survival ability. If it "Maybe he's harmless. You al­ can always be accurate-" ways assume a deeve is a menace. A wall-speaker sounded. "Baines, He might even be beneficial. Some­ you're wanted in the lab. Get the body thought those women might hell out of the bar and upramp." work in. Maybe this thing has Baines pushed back his chair and something that would advance the got to his feet. "Come along. You race." may be interested in seeing what "Which race? Not the human Wisdom has got dreamed up." race. It's the old 'the operation was a success but the patient died' routine. If we introduce a mutant TIGHT GROUP of top-level to keep us going it'll be mutants, A DCA officials stood around not us, who'll inherit the earth. It'll in a circle, middle-aged, gray­ be mutants surviving for their own haired, listening to a skinny youth 18 PHILLIP K. DICK in a white shirt and rolled-up bowed, arms folded, legs tucked sleeves explaining an elaborate cube under him. In the stark glare of of metal and plastic that filled the the overhead lights his powerful center of the view-platform. From body glowed and rippled, a shim­ it jutted an ugly array of tube mering figure of downy gold. snouts, gleaming muzzles that dis­ "Pretty, isn't he?" Wisdom mut­ appeared into an intricate maze tered. "All right. Start it going." of wiring. "You're going to kill him?" Anita "This," the youth was saying demanded. briskly, "is the first real test. It fires "We're going to try." at random-as nearly random as "But he's-" She broke off un­ we can make it, at least. Weighted certainly. "He's not a monster. He's balIs are thrown up in an air not like those others, those hideous stream, then dropped free to fall things with two heads, or those back and cut relays. They can fall insects. Or those awful things from in almost any pattern. The thing Tunis." fires according to their pattern. "What is he, then?" Baines Each drop produces a new con­ asked. figuration of timing and position. "I don't know. But you can't Ten tubes, in all. Each will be in just kill him. It's terrible!" constant motion." The cube clicked into life. The "And nobody knows how they'll muzzles jerked, silently altered fire?" Anita asked. position. Three retracted, disap­ "Nobody." Wisdom rubbed his peared into the body of the cube. thick hands together. "Mind-read­ Others came out. Quickly, effi­ ing won't help him, not with this ciently, they moved into position­ thing." and abruptly, without warning, Anita moved over to the view opened fire. windows, as the cube was rolled in­ A staggering burst of energy to place. She gasped. "Is that fanned out, a complex pattern that him?" altered each moment, different "What's wrong?" Baines asked. angles, different velocities, a bewil­ Anita's cheeks were flushed. dering blur that cracked from the "Why, I expected a-a thing. My windows down into the chamber. God, he's beautiful! Like a golden The golden figure moved. He statue. Like a deity!" dodged back and forth, expertly Baines laughed. "He's eighteen avoiding the bursts of energy that years old, Anita. Too young for seared around him on all sides. you." Rolling clouds of ash obscured him; The woman was still peering he was lost in a mist of crackling through the view window. "Look fire and ash. at him. Eighteen? I don't believe "Stop it!" Anita shouted. "For it." God's sake, you'll destroy him!" Cris Johnson sat in the center The chamber was an inferno of (,I' the chamber, on the floor. A energy. The figure had completely pI"lure of contemplation, head disappeared. Wisdom waited a mo- THE GOLDEN MAN 19 ment, then nodded to the tech· "He couldn't have got through nicians operating the cube. They the clamp. So he came back." Wis­ touched guide buttons and the dom grinned wryly. "The clamp muzzles slowed and died. Some must actually have been perfect. It sank back into the cube. All be­ was supposed to be." came silent. The works of the "If there had been a single hole," cube ceased humming. Baines murmured, "he would have Cris Johnson was still alive. He known it-gone through." emerged from the settling clouds Wisdom ordered a group of of ash, blackened and singed. But armed guards over. "Get him out unhurt. He had avoided each of there. To the euth stage." beam. He had weaved between Anita shrieked. "Wisdom, you them and among them as they can't-" came, a dancer leaping over glitter­ "He's too far ahead of us. We ing sword-points of pink fire. He can't compete with him." Wisdom's had survived. eyes were bleak. "We can only "No," Wisdom murmured, shaken guess what's going to happen. He and grim. "Not a telepath. Those knows. For him, it's a sure thing. were at random. No prearranged I don't think it'll help him at euth, pattern." though. The whole stage is flooded simultaneously. Instantaneous gas, released throughout." He signalled HE THREE of them looked at impatiently to the guards. "Get go­ T each other, dazed and fright­ ing. Take him down right away. ened. Anita was trembling. Her Don't waste any time." face was pale and her blue eyes "Can we?" Baines murmured were wide. "What, then?" She thoughtfully. whispered. "What is it? What does The guards took up positions by he have?" one of the chamber locks. Cau­ "He's a good guesser," Wisdom tiously, the tower control slid the suggested. lock back. The first two guards "He's not guessing," Baines an­ stepped cautiously in, lash-tubes swered. "Don't kid yourself. That's ready. the whole point." Cris stood in the center of the "No, he's not guessing." Wisdom chamber. His back was to them as nodded slowly. "He knew. He pre­ they crept toward him. For a mo­ dicted each strike. I wonder. . . ment he was silent, utterly unmov­ Can he err? Can he make a mis­ ing. The guards fanned out, as take?" more of them entered the chamber. "We caught him," Baines Then- pointed out. Anita screamed. Wisdom cursed. "You said he came back volun­ The golden figure spun and leaped tarily." There was a strange look forward, in a flashing blur of speed. on Wisdom's face. "Did he come Past the triple line of guards, back after the clamp was up?" through the lock and into the cor­ Baines jumped. "Yes, after." ridor. 20 PHILLIP K. DICK "Get him!" Baines shouted. His hands were shaking. "Maybe Guards milled everywhere. we can figure out its blind spot. It Flashes of energy lit up the cor· may be able to out think us, but ridor, as the figure raced among that doesn't mean it's invulnerable. them, up the ramp. It only predicts the future-it can't "No use," Wisdom said calmly. change it. If there's · only death "We can't hit him." He touched a ahead, its ability won't... " button, then another. "But maybe Wisdom's voice faded into si­ this will help." lence. After a moment he passed "What-" Baines began. But the the tape to Baines. . leaping figure shot abruptly at him, "I'll be down in the bar," Wis­ straight at him, and he dropped to dom said. "Getting a good stiff one side. The figure flashed past. drink." His face had turned lead­ It ran effortlessly, face without ex­ gray. "All I can say is I hope to hell pression, dodging and jumping as this isn't the race to come:' the energy beams seared around it. "What's the analysis?" Anita de­ For an instant the golden face manded impatiently, peering over loomed up before Baines. It passed Baines' shoulder. "How does it and disappeared down a side cor­ think?" ridor. Guards rushed after it, kneel· "It doesn't," Baines said, as he ing and firing, shouting orders ex­ handed the- tape back to his boss. citedly. In the bowels of the build­ "It doesn't think at all. Virtually ing, heavy guns were rumbling up. no frontal lobe. It's not a human Locks slid into place as escape cor­ being-it doesn't use symbols. It's ridors were systematically sealed nothing but an animal." off. "An animal," Wisdom said. "Good God,"Baincs gasped, as "With a single highly-developed he got to his feet. "Can't he do facuIty. Not a superior man. Not anything but run?" a man at all." "I gave orders," Wisdom said, "to have the building isolated. There's no way out. Nobody comes P AND DOWN the corridors and nobody goes. He's loose here Uof the DCA Building, guards in the building-but he won't get and equipment clanged. Loads of out." Civil Police were pouring into the "If there's one exit overlooked, building and taking up positions he'll know it," Anita pointed out beside the guards. One by one, shakily. . the corridors and rooms were be­ "We won't overlook any exit. We ing inspected and sealed off. Sooner got him once; we'll get him again." or later the golden figure of Cris A messenger robot had come in. Johnson would be located and Now it presented its message re­ cornered. spectf ully to Wisdom. "From analy. "We were always afraid a mu­ sis, sir." tant with superior intellectual Wisdom tore the tape open. powers would come along," Baines "Now we'll know how it thinks." said .reflectively. "A deeve who THE GOLDEN MAN 21 would be to us what we are to the have a paralyzing effect. But this great apes. Something with a bulg­ thing-" ing cranium, telepathic ability, a "This thing's faculty works bet­ perfect semantic system, ultimate ter than ours ever did. We can re­ powers of symbolization and cal­ call past experiences, keep them culation. A development along our in mind, learn from them. At best, own path. A better human being." we can make shrewd guesses about "He acts by reflex," Anita said the future, from our memory of wonderingly. She had the analysis what's happened in the past. But and was sitting at one of the desks we can't be certain. We have to studying it intently. "Reflex-like speak of probabilities. Grays. Not a lion. A golden lion." She pushed blacks and whites. We're only the tape aside, a strange expression guessing." on her face. "The lion god." "Cris Johnson isn't guessing," "Beast," Wisdom corrected tart­ Anita added. ly. "Blond beast, you mean." "He can look ahead. See what's "He runs fast," Baines said, "and coming. He can-prethink. Let's that's all. No tools. He doesn't build call it that. He can see into the anything or utilize anything out­ future. Probably he doesn't per­ side himself. He just stands and ceive it as the future." waits for the right opportunity and "No," Anita said thoughtfully. then he runs like hell." "It would seem like the present. "This is worse than anything He has a broader present. But his we've anticipated," Wisdom said. present lies ahead, not back. Our His beefy face was lead-gray. He present is related to the past. Only sagged like an old man, his blunt the past is certain, to us. To him, the hands trembling and uncertain. future is certain. And he probably "To be replaced by an animal! doesn't remember the past, any Something that runs and hides. more than any animal remembers Something without a language!" what's happened." He spat savagely. "That's why they "As he develops," Baines said, weren't able to communicate with "as his race evolves, it'll probably it. We wondered what kind of expand its ability to prethink. In­ semantic system it had. It hasn't stead of ten minutes, thirty minutes. got any! No more ability to talk Then an hour. A day. A year. and think than a-dog." Eventually they'll be able to keep "That means intelligence has ahead a whole lifetime. Each one failed," Baines went on huskily. of them will live in a solid, un~ "We're the last of our line-like changing world. There'll be no the dinosaur. We've carried intel­ variables, no uncertainty. No mo­ ligence as far as it'll go. Too far, tionl They won't have anything to maybe. We've already got to the fear. Their world will be perfectly point where we know so much­ static, a solid block of matter. think so much-we can't act." "And when death comes," Anita "Men of thought," Anita said. said, "they'll accept it. There won't "Not men of action. It's begun to be any struggle; to them, it'll al- 22 PHILLIP K. DICK ready have happened." a frenzy of hysteria. "Keep it "Already have happened," Baines penned up in the zoo? Christ no! repeated. "To Cris, our shots had It's got to be killed!" already been fired." He laughed harshly. "Superior survival doesn't mean superior man. If there were OR A LONG time the great another world-wide flood, only fish F gleaming shape crouched in would survive. If there were anoth­ the darkness. He was in a store er ice age, maybe nothing but polar room. Boxes and cartons stretched bears would be left. When we out on all sides, heaped up in opened the lock, he had already orderly rows, all neatly counted seen the men, seen exactly where and marked. Silent and deserted. they were standing and what they'd But in a few moments people do. A neat faculty-but not a de­ burst in and search the room. He velopment of mind. A pure physical could see this. He saw them in all sense." parts of the room, clear and dis­ "But if every exit is covered," tinct, men with lash-tubes, grim­ Wisdom repeated, "he'll see he faced, stalking with murder in their can't get out. He gave himself up eyes. before-he'll give himself up The sight was one of many. One again." He shook his head. "An of a multitude of clearly-etched animal. Without language. With­ scenes lying tangent to his own. out tools." And to each was attached a further "With his new sense," Baines multitude of interlocking scenes, said, "he doesn't need anything that finally grew hazier and dwin­ else." He examined his watch. "It's dled away. A progressive vague­ after two. Is the building com­ ness, each syndrome less distinct. pletely sealed off?" But the immediate one, the "You can't leave," Wisdom scene that lay closest to him, was stated. "You'll have to stay here all clearly visible. He could easily night-or until we catch the bas­ make out the sight of the armed tard." men. Therefore it was necessary "I meant her." Baines indicated to be out of the room before they Anita. "She's supposed to be back appeared. at Semantics by seven in the morn­ The golden figure got calmly to ing." its feet and moved to the door. The Wisdom shrugged. "I have no corridor was empty; he could see control over her. If she wants, himself already outside, in the va­ she can check out." cant, drumming hall of metal and "I'll stay," Anita decided. "I recessed lights. He pushed the door want to be here when he-when boldly open and stepped out. he's destroyed. I'll sleep here." She A lift blinked across the hall. He hesitated. "Wisdom, isn't there walked to the lift and entered it. sOllle other way? If he's just an In five minutes a group of guards alli lIlal couldn't we-" would come running along and "A zoo?" Wisdom's voice rose in leap into the lift. By that time he THE GOLDEN MAN 23 would have left it and. sent it back intricate complexity. down. Now he pressed a button He concentrated on a scene ten and rose to the next floor. minutes away. It showed, like a He stepped out into a deserted three dimensional still, a heavy gun passage. Noone was in sight. That at the end of the corridor, trained didn't surprise him. He couldn't all the way to the far end. Men be surprised. The element didn't moved cautiously from door to exist for him. The positions of door, checking each room again, as things, the space relationships of they had done repeatedly. At the all matter in the immediate future, end of the half hour they had were as certain for him as his own reached the supply closet. A scene body. The only thing that was un­ showed them looking inside. By that known was that which had already time he was gone, of course. He passed out of being. In a vague, wasn't in that scene. He had passed dim fashion, he had occasionally on to another. wondered where things went after The next scene showed an exit. he had passed them. Guards stood in a solid line; No He carne to a small supply closet. way out. He was in that scene. Off It had just been searched. It would to one side, in a niche just inside be a half an hour before anyone the door. The street outside was opened it again. He had that long; visible, stars, lights, outlines of pass­ he could see that far ahead. And ing cars and people. then- In the next tableau he had gone And then he would be able to see back, away from the exit. There another area, a region farther be­ was no way out. In another tab­ yond. He was always moving, ad­ leau he saw himself at other exits, vancing into new regions he had a legion of golden figures, dupli­ never seen before. A constantly un­ cated again and again, as he ex­ folding panorama of sights and plored regions ahead, one after scenes, frozen landscapes spread out another. But each exit was covered. ahead. All objects .were fixed. In one dim scene he saw himself Pieces on a vast chess board lying charred and dead; he had through which he moved, arms tried to run through the line, out folded, face calm. A detached ob­ the exit. server who saw objects that lay But that scene was vague. One ahead of him as clearly as those wavering, indistinct still out of under foot. many. The inflexible path along Right now, as he crouched in the which he moved would not deviate small supply closet, he saw an un­ in that direction. It would not turn usually varied multitude of scenes him that way. The golden figure for the next half hour. Much lay in that scene, the miniature doll ahead. The half hour was divided in that room, was only distantly re­ into an incredibly complex pattern lated to him. It was himself, but a of separate configurations. He had far-away self. A self he would reached a critical region; he was never meet. He forgot it and went about to move through worlds of on to examine the other tableau. 24 PHILLIP K. DICK The myriad of tableaux that sur­ Anita snatched up her lash-tube rounded him were an elaborate from the dressing table. Her hand maze, a web which he now con­ shook; her whole body was trem­ sidered bit by bit. He was looking bling. "What do you want?" she down into a doll's house of in­ demanded. Her fingers tightened finite rooms, rooms without num­ convulsively around the tube. "I'll ber, each with its furniture, its kill you." dolls, all rigid and unmoving. The The figure regarded her silently, same dolls and furniture were re­ arms folded. It was the first time peated in many. He, himself, ap­ she had seen Cris Johnson closely. peared often. The two men on the The great dignified face, hand­ platform. The woman. Again and some and impassive. Broad shoul­ again the same combinations ders. The golden mane of hair, turned up; the play was redone golden skin, pelt of radiant fuzz- frequently, the same actors and "Why?" she demanded breath­ props moved around in all possible lessly. Her heart was pounding ways. wildly. "What do you want?" Before it was time to leave the She could kill him easily. But supply closet, Cris Johnson had ex­ the lash-tube wavered. Cris John­ amined each of the rooms tangent son stood without fear; he wasn't to the one he now occupied. He at all afraid. Why not? Didn't he had consulted each, considered its understand what it was? What the contents thoroughly. small metal tube could do to him? He pushed the door open and "0£ course," she said suddenly, stepped calmly out into the hall. in a choked whisper. "You can He knew exactly where he was go­ see ahead. You know I'm not go­ ing. And what he had to do. ing to kill you. Or you wouldn't Crouched in the stuffy closet, he have come here." . had quietly and expertly examined She flushed, terrified-and em­ each miniature of himself, observed barrassed. He knew exactly what which clearly-etched configuration she was going to do; he could see lay along his inflexible path, the it as easily as she saw the walls of one room of the doll house, the the room, the wall-bed with its one set out of legions, toward covers folded neatly back, her which he was moving. clothes hanging in the closet, her purse and small things on the dressing table. NITA slipped out of h·er metal­ "All right." Anita backed away, A foil dress, hung it over a then abruptly put the tube down hanger, then unfastened her shoes on the dressing table. "I won't kill and kicked them under the bed. you. Why should I?" she fumbled She was just starting to unclip her in her purse and got out her cigar­ bra when the door opened. ettes. Shakily, she lit up, her pulse She gasped. Soundlessly, calmly, racing. She was scared. And tI", !~n·at golden shape closed the strangely fascinated. "Do you ex­ Uuur and bolted it after him. pect to stay here? It won't do any THE GOLDEN MAN 25 good. They've come through the toward her, an impassive god ad­ dorm twice, already. They'll be vancing to take her. "Get away!" back." She groped for the lash-tube, try­ Could he understand her? She ing to get it up. But the tube saw nothing on his face, only blank slipped from her fingers and rolled dignity. God, he was huge! It onto the floor. wasn't possible he was only eight­ Cris bent down and picked it up. een, a boy, a child. He looked He held it out to her, in the open more like some great golden god, palm of his hand. come down to earth. "Good God," Anita whispered. She shook the thought off savage­ Shakily, she accepted the tube, ly. He wasn't a god. He was a beast. gripped it hesitantly, then put it The blond beast, come to take the down again on the dressing table. place of man ~ To drive man from In the half-light of the room, the earth. the great golden figure seemed to Anita snatched up the lash-tube. glow and shimmer, outlined against "Get out of here! You're an ani­ the darkness. A god-no, not a mal! A big stupid animal! You god. An animal. A great' golden can't even understand what I'm beast, without a soul. She was saying-you don't even have a confused. Which was he-or was. language. You're not human." he both? She shook her head, be­ Cris Johnson remained silent. As wildered. It was late, almost four. if he were waiting. Waiting for She was exhausted and confused. what? He showed no sign of fear Cris took her in his arms. Gently, or impatience, even though the cor­ kindly, he lifted her face and kissed ridor outside rang with the sound her. His powerful hands held her of men searching, metal against tight. She couldn't breathe. Dark­ metal, guns and energy tubes be­ ness, mixed with the shimmering ing dragged around, .shouts and golden haze, swept around her. dim rumbles as section after section Around and around it spiralled, of the building was searched and carrying her senses away. She sank sealed off. down into it gratefully. The dark­ "They'll get you," Anita said. ness covered her and dissolved her "You'll be trapped here. They'll be in a swelling torrent of sheer force searching this wing any moment." that mounted in intensity each mo­ She savagely stubbed out her ciga­ ment, until the roar of it beat rette out. "For God's sake, what do against her and at last blotted out you expect me to do?" everything. Cris moved toward her. Anita shrank back. His powerful hands caught hold of her and she gasped NITA blinked. She sat up and in sudden terror. For a moment A automatically pushed her hair she struggled blindly, desperately. into place. Cris was standing be. "Let go!" She broke away and fore the closet. He was reaching reaped back from him. His face up, getting something down. was expressionless. Calmly, he carne_ He turned toward her and tossed 26 PHILLIP K. DICK something on the bed. Her heavy number of exits to choose from. metal foil traveling cape. , My car is parked outside, in the lot Anita gazed down at the cape at the side of the building. We can without comprehension. "What do get to my place in an hour. I have you want?" a winter home in Argentina. If Cris stood by the bed, waiting. worst comes to worst we can fly She picked up the cape uncer­ there. It's in the back country, tainly. Cold creepers of feat away from the cities. Jungle and plucked at her. "You want me to swamps. Cut-off from almost every­ get you out of here," she sa.id thing." Eagerly, she started to open softly. "Past the guards and the the door. CP." Cris reached out and stopped Cris said nothing. her. Gently, patiently, he moved "They'll kill you instantly." She in front of her. got unsteadily to her feet. "You He waited a long time, body can't run past them. Good God, rigid. Then he turned the knob don't you do anything but run? and stepped boldly out into the There must be a better way. May­ corridor. be I can appeal to Wisdom. I'm The corridor was empty. No one Class A-Director Class. I can go was in sight. Anita caught a faint directly to the Full Directorate. I glimpse, the back of a guard hur­ ought to be able to hold them off, rying off. If they had come out keep back the euth indefinitely. a second earlier- The odds are a billion to one Cris started down the corridor. against us if we try to break She ran after him. He moved past-" rapidly, effortlessly. The girl had She broke off. trouble keeping up with him. He "But you don't gamble," she con­ seemed to know exactly where to tinued slowly. "You don't go by go. Off to the right, down a side odds. You know what's coming. hall, a supply passage. Onto an You've seen the cards already." ascent freight-lift. They rose, then She studied his face intently. "No, abruptly halted. you can't be cold-decked. It Cris waited again. Presently he wouldn't be possible." slid the door back and moved out For a moment she stood deep in of the lift. Anita followed nervous­ thought. Then with a quick, de­ ly. She could hear sounds: guns cisive motion, she snatched up the and men, very close. cloak and slipped it arQund her They were near an exit. A double bare shoulders. She fastened the line of guards stood directly ahead. heavy belt, bent down and got her Twenty men, a solid wall-and a shoes from under the bed, snatched massive heavy-duty robot gun in up her purse, and hurried to the the center. The men were alert, door. faces strained and tense. Watching "Come on," she said .She was wide-eyed, guns gripped tight. A breathing quickly, cheeks flushed. Civil Police officer was in charge. "Let's go. While there are still a "We'll never get past," Anita THE GOLDEN MAN 27 gasped. "We wouldn't get ten feet." her voice with a harsh crispness. She pulled back. "They'll-" "Get out of the way. I'm taking eris took her by the arm and him to the Semantics Agency." continued calmly forward. Blind For a moment nothing happened. terror leaped inside her. She fought There was no reactien. Then slow­ wildly to get away, but his fingers ly, uncertainly, one guard stepped were like steel. She couldn't pry aside. them loose. Quietly, irresistibly, the eris moved. A blur of speed, great golden creature drew her away from Anita, past the con­ along beside him, toward the fused guards, through the breach double line of guards. in the line, out the exit, and onto "There he is!" Guns went up. the street. Bursts of energy flashed Men leaped into action. The barrel wildly after him. Shouting guards of the robot cannon swung around. milled out. Anita was left behind, "Get him!" forgotten. The guards, the heavy­ Anita was paralyzed. She sagged duty gun, were pouring out into against the powerful body beside the early morning darkness. Sirens her, tugged along helplessly by his wailed. Patrol cars roared into life. inflexible grasp. The lines of guards Anita stood dazed, confused, came nearer, a sheer wall of guns. leaning against the wall, trying to Anita fought to control her terror. get her breath. She stumbled, half-fell. Cris sup­ He was gone. He had left her. ported her effortlessly. She scratch­ Good God-what had she done? ed, fought at him, struggled to get She shook her head, bewildered, loose- her face buried in her hands. She "Don't shoot!" she screamed. had been hypnotized. She had lost Guns wavered uncertainly. "Who her will, her common sense. H~r is she?" The guards were moving reason! The animal, the great around, trying to get a sight on golden beast, had tricked her. Cris without including her. "Who's Taken advantage of her. And now he got there?" he was gone, escaped into the One of them saw the stripe on night. her sleeve. Red and black. Director Miserable, agonized tears. trickled Class. Top-level. through her clenched fingers. She "She's Class A." Shocked, the rubbed at them futilely; but they guards retreated. "Miss, get out of kept on coming. the way!" Anita found her voice. "Don't shoot. He'S'-in my custody. You E'S GONE," Baines said. "We'll understand? I'm taking him out." H never get him, now. He's prob­ The wall of guards moved back ably a million miles from here." nervously. "No one's supposed to Anita sat huddled in the cor­ pass. Director Wisdom gave or- ner, her face to the wall. A little ders-" < bent heap, broken and wretched. "I'm not subject to Wisdom's Wisdom paced back and forth. authority." She managed to edge "But where can he go? Where 28 PHILLIP K. DICK

can he hide? Nobody'll hide him! teredo "I've had the Government Everybody knows the law about declare an emergency. Military and dceves!" Civil Police will be looking for "He's lived out in the woods him. Armies of men-a whole most of his life. He'll hunt-that's planet of experts, the most ad­ what he's always done. They won­ vanced machines and equipment. dered what he was up to, off by We'll flush him, sooner or later." himself. He was catching game and "By that time it won't make any sleeping under trees." Baines difference," Baines said. He put his laughed harshly. "And the first hand on Anita's shoulder and woman he meets will be glad to patted her ironically. "You'll have hide him-as she was." He indi­ company, sweetheart. You won't be cated Anita with a jerk of his the only one. You're just the first thumb. of a long procession." "So all that gold, that mane, that "Thanks," Anita grated. god-like stance, was for something. "The oldest survival method and Not just ornament." Wisdom's the newest. Combined to form one thick lips twisted. "He doesn't have perfectly adapted animal. How the just one faculty-he has two. One hell are we going to stop him? We is new, the newest thing in sur­ can put you through a sterilization vival methods. The other is as old tank-but we can't pick them all as life." He stopped pacing to up, all the women he meets along glare at the huddled shape in the the way. And if we miss one we're corner. "Plumage. Bright feathers, finished." combs for the roosters swans, "We'll have to keep trying," birds, bright scales for the fish. Wisdom said. "Round up as many Gleaming pelts and manes for the as we can. Before they can spawn." animals. An animal isn't necessarily Faint hope glinted in his tired, bestial. Lions aren't bestial. Or sagging face. "Maybe his charac­ tigers. Or any of the big cats. teristics are recessive. Maybe ours They're anything but bestial." will cancel his out." "He'll never have to worry," "I wouldn't lay any money on Baines said. "He'll get by-as long that," Baines said. "I think I know as human women exist to take care already which of the two strains is of him. And since he can see ahead, going to turn up dominant." He into the future, he already knows grinned wryly. "I mean, I'm mak­ he's sexually irresistible to human ing a good guess. It won't be us." females." . "We'll get him," Wisdom mut--.. •• • THE END