The Current Issue of Fantastic

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«0 O' STORIES OF IMAGINATION to

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3 a 10 * 5 o o' 3

< o r z o N . HIDDEN TERROR

Grope into the dark recesses of your mind for clues. Find a small notebook

written in a secret script . . . strange

premonitions of danger . . . and an eerie and threatening enemy. Piece these together and search for A TRACE OF MEMORY. Keith Laumer's new novel takes you to a small American town, to a haunted crypt at Stonehenge, and finally to a spaceship from another galaxy.

• • • visit THE CHAMBER OF LIFE. .

where dream worlds turn into reality and. if you're not careful, reality crumbles into dreams.

Re sure* lo gel July AMAZING!

Now on sal«‘—Slill .’toe

FANTASTIC, Slories of Imagination, Vol. 11, No. 7, July, 1962, is published monthly by Ziff Davis Publishing Company, at 434 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago 5, Illinois. Subscrip, fion rates: One year United States and possessions S3. 50; Canada and Pan American Union Countries $4.00, all other foreign countries S4.50. Second Class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois and at additional mailing offices. JULY 1962 FANTASTIC Volume 11 Number 7 STORIES OF IMAGINATION

REG. U. S. PAT. Off NOVELET

ZIFF-DAVIS rUIiUSniXG COMPANY THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER (Fantasy Classic) By Nat Schachner 19 William B. Ziff, Chairman of the Board (104G-1953)

William ZilT, President SHORT STORIES W. Bradford Briggs, Executive Vice THE SINGING STATUES President By 1. G. Ballard 6 Hershel B. Sarbln, Vice President and General Manager A DRINK OF DARKNESS M. T. Birmingham, Jr., Vice President By Robert F. Young and Treasurer 52

Robert P. Breeding, Circulation Di- THE THINKING DISEASE rector By Albert Teichner 102 Charles Housman, Financial Vice President ONE LONG RIBBON

Stanley it. Greenfield, Vice President By Florence Engel Randall . . 112

SERIAL

Editorial Director SHIELD (Conclusion) NORMAN M. LOBSEN2 By Foul Anderson 66

Editor FEATURES CELE GOLDSMITH EDITORIAL 5 COMING NEXT MONTH 65 ACCORDING TO YOU 124 Ziff-Davis Publishin* Company Editorial and Executive Offices One Park Avenue Cover: EMSH New York 16. New York Illustrating The Singing Statues ORegoa 9-7200 AdYertlsins Manager, Martin Gluckman SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE: All subscription correspondence should be addressed to FANTASTIC, Cir- Midwestern and Circulation umce culation Department. 434 South Wabash Avenue. Chi- 434 South Wabash Avenue cago, Illinois. Please allow at least six weeks for Chicago Illinois 5. change of address. Include your old address, as well as WAbash 2-4911 new— enclosing if possible an address label from a recent Issue.

Western Office EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS must be accompanied Wllshire Boulevard 9025 by return postage and will be handled with reasonable Beverly Hills, California care; however publisher assumes no responsibility for CRcstview 4-0265 return or safety of art work, photographs or manuscripts.

3 IF YOU ARE... FASCINATED BY SPACE...... THE WONDERS OF SATELLITES, ROCKETS-THE MEN BEHIND THEM.,. SPACE WORLD is meant for you. Here, in a magazine edited by two great namei in the world of icience fiction, Willy Ley and Otto Binder, is the whole dynamic story of spacemen and

their spacecraft . . . from the tense moments during a countdown at Canaveral through the triumph of zooming into orbit around the earth, and on to the moon and the planets.

With Space World, you’re part of everything that happens. An Atlas streaks down the Atlantic Missile

Range . . . you're in the tracking station. Project

Saturn is completed . . . you're there for the test

shot. A soft landed load is placed on the moon . . . you’re at the receivers getting the first information that comes across the vastness of space. The first man crosses the threshold to explore hidden mys-

teries of other worlds . . . and you’re beside him .

Space World brings this all to you every month . . . under the expert guidance of Willy Ley and Otto Binder, who know how to tell this dramatic story in clear, simple, exciting terms that anyone can under-

YOUR SATISFACTION GUARANTEED ^SPACE WORLD Magazine fS 2 ( If for any reason you are not com- 250 Wart 57th Street, New York 19, N. V. . | satisfied with your very first pletely . Please eater ay eahetriyllea te SPACE IWIli

issue, will send you a complete we 1 jeer (12 leaese) $5.(14 tssusi If payment endeead) I

refund immediately. If, at any later * Payment Mcfesad Bill me time, you wish to stop your sub- ^ naiir scription to Space World, we will (Fhw print) | make a full refund of the unused . innftFKt _ _ portion of your subscription with ^ CfTY ZONE.. ..STATE no questions asked. mmm tmmm wmm m- r-

4 T AM becoming seriously concerned about the A decline in the stability of our values. Con- stants, for example, don’t seem to be constant any more. A Physics professor named Robert H. Dicke, who has for some time been lecturing on “Are the Physical Constants Constant?” theorized recently that gravity, which I had always considered one of the old stand-bys, may be growing weaker.

His theory rests on the assumption that as the universe grows older, far distant matter may have an increasing effect on the force of gravitation at any given point in the universe.

This is not primarily a matter of distance. It EDITORIAL

is more a matter, says Dr. Dicke, of time. As

the universe ages, there is more time during which gravitation can travel through space. This allows increasing amounts of distant matter to exert the influ- ence of their mass on gravitational force.

It is predicted that experiments may prove, within five years, whether gravity—like man—weakens as time passes. But meanwhile we can worry over the fallibility of other so-called constants. For instance, does a young man’s fancy always turn toward thoughts of

love in the springtime? As the equinoxes precess, and official Spring

eventually begins just about when the first snows fall, will young men continue to think of romance at the proper moment?

Will death and taxes continue to be the only inevitabilities ? Well, probably the answer is "yes” for taxes, and “no” for death, as we

approach the threshhold of quondam immortality via organ banks, etc.

I am taking no chances on gravity weakening. Magnetic heels go on my shoes this very night, and if any of you wish to join me in invest- ing in the Magnet Shoe Corporation, which I am forming shortly, just send me a few gold ingots. I’m afraid cash or checks might float up and away, —NL,

5 the ^tnffina

By J.J G. BALLARD

The Singing statues carried a message of love to

Lunora Goalen. For one man, the question toast

from whom does the message come?

GAIN last night, as the dusk heard fragments of .music com- A air began to move across the ing in on the thermal rollers, re- desert from Lagoon West, I mote and fleeting, echoes of the

6 love-song of Lunora Goalen. Walking out over the copper sand to the reefs where the sonic sculpture grow, I wandered through the darkness among the metal gardens, searching for Lunora’s voice. No one tends the sculptures now and most of them have gone to seed, but on an im- pulse I cut away a helix and carried it back to my villa, plant- ing it in the quartz bed below the balcony. All night it sang to me, telling me of Lunora and the strange music she played to herself. . . .

TT must be just over three years ago that I first saw Lunora Goalen, in Georg Nev- ers’ gallery on Beach Drive. Every summer at the height of the season at Vermilion Sands, Georg staged a special a rimless bicycle wheel, listening exhibition of sonic sculpture for to its arms vibrate and howl, the tourists. Shortly after we Nevers and I involuntarily opened one morning I was sit- steadied ourselves against the ting inside my large statue, Zero wing-piece of my sculpture. Orbit, plugging in the stereo am- plifiers, when Georg suddenly TN general it’s probably true that gasped into the skin mike and a -*• the most maligned species boom like a thunderclap nearly on Earth is the wealthy patron deafened me. of modern art. Laughed at by Head ringing like a gong, I the public, exploited by dealers, climbed out of the sculpture, even the artists regard them ready to crown Georg with a simply as meal tickets. Lunora nearby maquette. Putting an Goalen’s superb collection of elegant fingertip to his lips, he sonic sculpture on the roof of her gave me that look which between Venice palazzo, and the million artist and dealer signals one dollars’ worth of generous pur- thing: Rich client. chases spread around her apart- The sculptures in the gallery ments in Paris, London and New entrance had begun to hum as York, represented freedom and someone came in, but the sun- life to a score of sculptors, but light reflected off the bonnet of few felt any gratitude toward a white Rolls-Royce outside ob- Miss Goalen. scured the doorway. Nevers was hesitating, appar- Then I saw her, hovering over ently suffering from a sudden the stand of art journals, fol- intention tremor, so I nudged his lowed by her secretary, a tall elbow. purse-mouthed Frenchwoman al- “Come on,” I snarled softly. most as famous from the news- “This is the apocalypse. Let’s magazines as her mistress. go.” Lunora Goalen, I thought, can Nevers turned on me icily, no- all our dreams come true? She ticing, apparently for the first wore an ice-cool sliver of blue time, my rust-stained slacks and silk that shimmered as she three-day stubble. moved towards the first statue, a “Milton!" he snapped. “For toque hat of black violets and God’s sake, vanish! Sneak out bulky dark glasses that hid her through the freight exit.” He face and were a nightmare to jerked his head at my sculpture. cameramen. While she paused by “And switch that insane thing the statue, one of Arch Penko’s off! How did I ever let it in frenetic tangles that looked like here?”

8 FANTASTIC UNORA’S secretary, Mme. Of course I already knew ev- L Charcot, spotted us at the erything about Lunora Goalen. rear of the gallery. Georg shot A thousand magazine exposes out four inches of immaculate had catalogued ad nauseam her cuff and swayed forward, the strange flawed beauty, her fits of smile on his face as wide as a melancholy and compulsive rov- bulldozer. I backed away behind ing around the world’s capitals. my sculpture, with no intention Like Garbo’s in the ’40s and of leaving and letting Nevers cut ’50s, her exquisite haunted pro- my price just for the cachet of file flitted elusively through the making a sale to Lunora Goalen. gossip columns and society Georg was bowing all over the pages, in unending flight from gallery, oblivious of Mme. Char- self-imposed exile. No one felt cot’s contemptuous sneer. He led less sorry for her than me. Lunora over to one of the exhib- Her face was the clue. As she its and fumbled with the control took off her sunglasses I could panel, selecting the alto lift see the curious shadow that fell which would resonate most flat- across it, numbing the smooth teringly with her own body white skin. There was a dead tones. Unfortunately the statue glaze in her slate-blue eyes, was Sigismund Lubitsch’s Big an uneasy tension around the End, a squat bull-necked drum mouth. Altogether I had a vague like an enormous toad that at impression of something un- its sweetest emitted a rasping healthy, of a Venus with a secret grunt. An old-style railroad ty- vice. coon might have elicited a sym- Nevers was switching on pathetic chord from it, but its sculpture right and left like a response to Lunora was like a lunatic magician, and the noise bull’s to a butterfly. was a babel of competing senso- They moved on to another cells, some of the statues re- sculpture, and Mme. Charcot sponding to Lunora’s enigmatic gestured to the white-gloved presence, others to Nevers and chauffeur standing by the Rolls. the secretary. He climbed in and moved the car down the street, taking with it UNORA shook her head slow- the beach crowds beginning to L ly, mouth hardening as the gather outside the gallery. Able noise irritated her. "Yes, Mr. now to see Lunora clearly against Nevers,” she said in her slightly the hard white walls, I stepped husky voice, “it’s all very clever, into Orbit and watched her but a bit of a headache. I live closely through the helixes. with my sculpture, I want some-

THE SINGING STATUES 9 . — thin? intimate and personal.” statue began to emit a series of “Of course, Miss Goalen,” low rhythmic pulses as beat fre- Nevers agreed hurriedly, looking quencies piled up. around desperately. As he knew Seeing the statue respond to only too well, sonic sculpture her, Lunora came forward with was now nearing the apogee of interest. Nevers backed away its abstract phase, 12-tone blips discreetly, taking Mme. Charcot and zooms were all that most with him, leaving Lunora and I statues emitted. No purely repre- together, separated by a thin sentational sound, responding to metal skin and three feet of vi- Lunora, for example, with a Mo- brating air. Fumbling for some zart rondo or (better) a Webern way of widening the responses, I quartet, had been built for ten eased up the control slides that years. I guessed that her early lifted the volume. Neurophonics purchases were wearing out and has never been my strong suit that she was hunting the cheaper I regard myself, in an old-fash- galleries in tourist haunts like ioned way, as a sculptor, not an Vermilion Sands in the hope of electrician—and the statue was finding something designed for only equipped to play back a sim- middle-brow consumption* ple sequence of chord variations Lunora looked up pensively at on the sonic profile in focus. Zero Orbit, towering at the rear Knowing that Lunora would of the gallery next to Nevers’ soon realize that the statue’s desk, apparently unaware that I repertory was too limited for was hiding inside it. Suddenly her, I picked up the hand-mike realizing that the possibility of used for testing the circuits and selling the statue had miracu- on the spur of the moment began lously arisen, I crounched down to croon the refrain from Creole inside the trunk and started to Love Song. Reinterpreted by the breathe heavily, activating the sonic cores, and then relayed senso-circuits. through the loudspeakers, the Immediately the statue came lulling rise and fall was pleas- to life. About 12 feet high, it was antly soothing, the electronic shaped like an enormous metal overtones disguising my voice totem topped by two heraldic and amplifying the tremors of wings. The big body micro- emotion as I screwed up my phones in the wing-tips were courage (the statue was priced powerful enough to pick up at 500 dollars—even subtracting respiratory noises at a distance Nevers’ 90% commission left me of twenty feet. There were four with enough for the bus fare people well within focus, and the home)

10 FANTASTIC ”

TEPPING up to the statue, Lunora might be something S Lunora listened to it motion- more than a bored dilettante. lessly, eyes wide with astonish- Mme. Charcot glanced at her ment, apparently assuming that watch, a gold pea strung on her it was reflecting, like a mirror, scrawny wrist. "You will have it its subjective impressions of her- delivered today. By 3 o’clock self. Rapidly running out of sharp. Now, please, the price?” breath, my speeding pulse lifting Smoothly, Nevers said: “10,- the tempo, I repeated the refrain 000 dollars.” over and over again, varying the Choking, I pulled myself out base lift to simulate a climax. of the statue, unable to control Suddenly I saw Nevers black myself, spluttered helplessly at patent shoes through the hatch. Nevers. Pretending to slip his hand into Mme. Charcot regarded me the control panel, he rapped with astonishment, frowning at sharply on the statue and I my filthy togs. Nevers trod sav- switched off. agely on my foot. “Naturally, “Don’t, please!” Lunora cried Madamoiselle, our prices are as the sounds fell away. She modest, but as you can see, M. looked around uncertainly, Mme. Milton is an inexperienced art- Charcot stepping nearer with a ist.” curiously watchful expression, Mme. Charcot nodded sagely. then pulled herself together. “This is the sculptor? I am re- Nevers hesitated. “Of course, lieved. For a moment I feared Miss Goalen, it still requires that he lived in it.” tuning, you— "I'll take it,” Lunora said. She HEN she had gone Nevers quickly pushed on her sunglass- Wclosed the gallery for the es, then turned and hurried from day. He took off his jacket and the gallery, her face hidden. pulled a bottle of absinthe from Nevers watched her go. “What the desk. Sitting back in his silk happened, for heaven’s sake? Is waistcoat, he trembled slightly Miss Goalen all right?” with nervous exhaustion. Mme. Charcot took a check- “Tell me, Milton, how can you book out of her blue crocodile ever be sufficiently grateful to handbag. A sardonic smirk me?” played over her lips, and through I patted him on the back. the helix I had a brief but pene- “Georg, you were brilliant ! She’s trating glimpse into her rela- another Catherine the Great, you tionship with Lunora Goalen. It handled her like a diplomat. was then, I think, that I realized When you go to Paris you’ll be

THE SINGING STATUES 11 ”

a great success. Ten thousand monotonous booming the statue dollars !” I did a quick jig around emitted was most certainly not the statue. “That’s the sort of its natural response. Obviously a redistribution of wealth I like to circuit had been damaged in see. How about an advance on transit, the sculptor himself was

my cut?” driving out to correct it. Nevers examined me moodily. Taking the beach road around

He was already in the Rue de the lagoon, I looked across at the Rivoli, over-bidding for Leonar- Goalen mansion, an abstract dos with a languid flicker of a summer palace that reminded me pomaded eyebrow. He glanced at of a Frank Lloyd Wright design the statue and shuddered. “An for an experimental department extraordinary woman. Complete- store. Terraces jutted out at all ly without taste. Which reminds angles, and here and there were me, I see you rescored the mem- huge metal sculptures, Bran- ory drum. The aria from Tosco. cusi's and Calder mobiles, re- cued in beautifully. I didn’t real- volving in the crisp desert light. ize the statue contained that.” Occasionally one of the sonic “It doesn’t,” I told him, sitting statues hooted mournfully like a on the desk. “That was me. Not distant hoodoo. exactly Caruso, I admit, but then Mme. Charcot collected me in he wasn’t much of a sculptor— the vestibule, led me up a sweep- “What?” Nevers leapt out of ing glass stairway. The walls his chair. “Do you mean you were heavy with Dali and Picas- were using the hand micro- so, but my statue had been given phone? You fool!" the place of honor at the far end “What does it matter? She of the south terrace. The size of won’t know.” Nevers was groan- a tennis court, without rails (or ing against the wall, drumming safety net), this jutted out over his forehead on his list. “Relax, the lagoon against the skyline of you’ll hear nothing.” Vermilion Sands, long low furni- Promptly at 9-01 the next ture grouped in a square at its morning the telephone rang. center. Dropping the tool-bag, I made S I drove the pick-up out to a pretense of dismantling the A Lagoon West Nevers’— warn- control panel, played with the ings rang in my ears “. . . six amplifier so that the statue let international blacklists, sue me out a series of staccato blips. .” for misrepresentation . . He These put it into the same cate- apologized effusively to Mme. gory as the rest of Lunora Goa- Charcot, assured her that the len’s sculpture. A dozen pieces

12 FANTASTIC stood about on the terrace, most away, I used to go up onto the of them early period sonic dating roof and shout down at the top back to the ’70s, when sculptors of my voice, set off the most won- produced an incredible sequence derful echo trains. The whole of grunting, clanking, barking place would boom for hours, and twanging statues, and gal- drive the servants mad.” She leries and public squares all over laughed pleasantly to herself at the world echoed night and day the recollection, as if it had been with minatory booms and thuds. a long time ago. “Any luck?” “Try it now,” I suggested. “Or I turned to see Lunora Goalen. is Mme. Charcot mad already?” Unheard, she had crossed the Lunora put a green-tipped fin- terrace, now stood with hands on ger to her lips. “Careful, you’ll hips, watching me with interest. get me into trouble. Anyway, In her black slacks and shirt, Mme. Charcot is not my serv- blonde hair around her shoul- ant." ders, she looked more relaxed, “No? What is she then, your but sunglasses still masked her jailer ?” We spoke mockingly, but face. I put a curve on the question; “Just a loose valve. Won’t take something about the French- me a couple of minutes.” I gave woman had made me suspect her a big rugged smile and she that she might have more than a stretched out on the chaise small part in maintaining Lu- longue in front of the statue. nora's illusions about herself. Lurking by the french windows Reclining like a puma on the at the far end of the terrace was couch, she looked a lot less Mme. Charcot, eyeing us with haunted than the gossip maga- a beady smirk. Irritated, I zines had led me to believe the switched on the statue to full previous day. Was this a case of volume and coughed loudly into nature imitating art, had Lunora the hand-mike. become convinced that her beauty was marred in some way? As HE sound boomed across the far as I could judge now her Topen terrace like an artillery features were smooth and flaw- blank and the old crone backed less, her face a white oval, the away quickly. lips a full hot pink. Lunora smiled as the echoes I waited for her to reply, but rolled away over the desert, the she ignored me and began to statues on the lower terraces re- stare out across the lagoon. sponding with muted pulses. Within a few seconds her per- “Years ago, when Father was sonality had changed levels, once

THE SINGING STATUES 13 again she was the remote auto- she said. Without doubt she was cratic princess. gesturing me towards the door. Unobserved, I slipped my hand I hesitated, suddenly wonder- into the tool-bag, drew out a tape ing whether to tell her the truth, spool. Clipping it into the player my eyes searching her beautiful deck, I switched on the table. secret face. The statue vibrated slightly, and Then Mme. Charcot came be- a low melodious chant murmured tween us, smiling like a skull. out into the still air. Standing behind the statue, I "P\ID Lunora Goalen really be- watched Lunora respond to the U lieve that the sculpture was music. The sounds mounted, singing to her ? For a fortnight, steadily swelling as Lunora until the tape expired, it didn’t moved into the statue’s focus. matter. By then Nevers would Gradually its rhythms quick- have cashed the check and he ened, its mood urgent and plain- and I would be on our way to tive, unmistakably a lover’s pas- Paris. sion-song. A musicologist would Within two or three days, have quickly identified the though, I realized that I wanted sounds as a transcription of the to see Lunora again. Rationaliz- balcony duet from Romeo and ing, I told myself that the statue Juliet, but to Lunora its only needed to be checked, that Lu- source was the statue. I had re- nora might discover the fraud. corded the tape that morning, Twice during the next week I realizing it was the only method drove out to the summer house of saving the statue. Nevers’ on the pretext of tuning the confusion of Tosca and Creole sculpture, but Mme. Charcot Love Song reminded me that I held me off. Once I telephoned, had the whole of classical opera but again she intercepted me. in reserve. For ten thousand dol- When I saw Lunora she was lars I would gladly call once a driving at speed through Ver- day and feed in every aria from milion Sands in the Rolls-Royce, Figaro to Moses and Aaron. a dim glimmer of gold and jade Abruptly, the music fell away. in the deep back seat. Lunora had backed out of the Finally I searched through my statue’s focus, was standing record albums, selected Tosca- twenty feet from me. Behind nini conducting Tristan and her, in the doorway, was Mme. Isolde, in the scene where Tris- Charcot. tan mourns his parted lover, Lunora smiled briefly. “It then carefully transcribed an- seems to be in perfect order,” other tape.

14 FANTASTIC That night I drove down to Swinging up onto the terrace, Lagoon West, parked my car by I moved quickly among the dark the beach on the south shore statues, drawing low murmurs and walked out onto the surface from them as I passed. of the lake. In the moonlight the I crouched down inside Zero summer house half a mile away Orbit, unlocked the control panel looked like an abstract movie and inserted the fresh tape, set, a single light on the upper slightly raising the volume. terrace illuminating the outlines As I left I could see down onto of my statue. Stepping carefully the west terrace twenty feet be- across the fused silica, I made low, where Lunora lay asleep un- my way slowly towards it, frag- der the stars on an enormous ments of the statue’s song drift- velvet bed, like a lunar princess ing by on the low breeze. Two on a purple catafalque. Her face hundred yards from the house I shone in the starlight, her loose lay down on the warm sand, hair veiling her naked breasts. watching the lights of Vermilion Behind her a statue stood guard, Sands fade one by one like the intoning softly to itself as it melting jewels of a necklace. pulsed to the sounds of her Above, the statue sang into breathing. the blue night, its song never wavering. Lunora must have HREE times I visited Lu- been sitting only a few feet Tnora’s house after midnight, above it, the music enveloping taking with me another spool of her like an overflowing fountain. tape, another love-song from my Shortly after two o’clock it dies library. On the last visit I down and I saw her suddenly at watched her sleeping until dawn the rail, the white ermine wrap rose across the desert, then fled around her sun-burnt shoulders down the stairway and across stirring in the wind as she stared the sand, hiding among the cold out at the brilliant moon. pools of shadow whenever a car Half an hour later I climbed moved along the beach road. lake wall walked along All tele- the and . day I waited by the it to the spiral fire escape. The phone in my villa, hoping she bougainvilla wreathed through would call me. In the evening I the railings muffled the sounds walked out to the sand reefs, of my feet on the metal steps, climbed one of the spires and and I reached the upper terrace watched Lunora on the terrace unnoticed. Far below, in her quar- after dinner. She lay on a couch ters on the north side, Mme. Char- before the statue, and until long cot was asleep. after midnight it played to her,

THE SINGING STATUES 15 ”

endlessly singing. Its voice was ning. This time I would be pres-

now so strong that cars would ent when Lunora heard it. slow down several hundred yards Mme. Charcot was standing away, the drivers searching for by the wide glass doors. I parked the source of the melodies cross- in the blue gravel court by the ing the vivid evening air. Rolls, as I walked over to her, I At last I recorded the final noticed how eerie the house tape, for the first time in my own sounded. All over it the statues voice. Briefly I described the were muttering to themselves, whole sequence of imposture, emitting low snaps and clicks, then quietly asked Lunora if she like the disturbed occupants of a would sit for me and let me de- zoo settling down with difficulty sign a new sculpture to replace after a storm. Even Mme. Char- the fraud she had bought. cot looked worn and tense. I clenched the tape tightly in At the terrace she paused. my hand while I walked across “One moment, Mr. Milton, I will the lake, looking up at the rec- see if Miss Goalen is ready to re- tangular outline of the terrace. ceive you.” She walked quietly As I reached up to the wall, a towards the chaise lounge pulled black-suited figure suddenly put up against the statue at the end his head over the ledge and of the terrace. Lunora was looked down at me. It was Lu- stretched out awkwardly across

nora’s chauffeur. it, her hair disarrayed. She sat Startled, I moved away across up irritably as Mme. Charcot ap- the sand. In the moonlight the proached. chauffeur’s white face flickered “Is he here? Alice, whose car 7” bonily. Then he backed silently was that? Hasn’t he come into the shadows. “He is just preparing his equipment,” Mme. Charcot told HE next evening, as I knew her soothingly. “Miss— Lunora. Tit would, the telephone finally let me fix your hair

rang. “Alice, don’t fuss ! God, what’s “Mr. Milton, the statue has keeping him?” She sprang up broken down again.” Mme. Char- and paced over to the statue, cot’s voice sounded sharp and glowering silently out of the strained. “Miss Goalen is ex- darkness like an Assyrian deity. tremely upset. You must come While Mme. Charcot walked

and repair it. Immediately.” away Lunora suddenly sank on I waited an hour before leav- her knees before the statue, ing, playing through the tape I pressed her right cheek to its had recorded the previous eve- cold surface.

16 FANTASTIC Uncontrollably she began to A chuckle rasped briefly from sob, deep spasms shaking her Mme. Charcot’s throat. “Well, shoulders. put it in nonetheless, monsieur. “Wait, Mr. Milton!” Mme. She doesn’t care where it comes Charcot held tightly to my el- from. She is interested in the bow. "She will not want to see statue, not you.” you for a few minutes." She I hesitated, watching Lunora, added: “You are a great sculp- still hunched like a supplicant at tor, Mr. Milton. You have given the foot of the statue. that statue a remarkable voice. “You mean— ?” I started to It tells her all she needs to say incredulously. “Do you mean know.” she’s in love with the statue?” I broke away and ran through Mme. Charcot’s hooded rep- the darkness. tilian eyes summed up all my “Lunora !” naivete. She looked around, the hair “Not with the statue,” she over her face matted with tears. said darkly. “With herself.” She leaned limply against the For a moment I stood there dark trunk of the statue, and I among the murmurring sculp- knelt down and held her hands, ture, then dropped the spool on then tried to lift her to her feet. the floor and turned away. She wrenched away from me. ‘Fix it! Hurry, what are you HEY left Lagoon West the waiting for? Make the statue Tnext day. sing again!” For a week I remained at my villa, then drove along the beach WAS certain that she no long- road towards the summer house I er recognized me. I stepped one evening after Nevers told me back, the spool of tape in my that they had gone. hand. “What’s the matter with The house was closed, the her ?” I whispered to Mme. Char- statues standing motionless in cot. “The sounds don’t really the darkness. My footsteps come from the statue, surely she echoed away among the balconies realizes that?” and terraces, and the house Mme. Charcot’s head lifted. reared up into the sky like a “What do you mean—not from tomb. All the sculpture had been the statue?” switched off, and I realized how I showed her the tape. “This dead and monumental non-sonic isn’t a true sonic sculpture. The sculpture must have seemed. music is played off these mag- Zero Orbit had also gone. I as- netic tapes.” sumed that Lunora had taken it

THE SINGING STATUES 17 !

with her, so immersed in her ness, I heard a familiar phrase, self-love that she preferred a a garbled fragment of a human clouded mirror which had once voice. Startled, I ran on, feeling told her of her beauty to no mir- between the dark barbs and ror at all, and that as she sat on helixes. some penthouse veranda in Ven- Then, lying in a hollow below ice or Paris with the great statue the ridge, I found the source. towering into the dark sky like Half-buried under the sand like an extinct symbol she would hear the skeleton of a colossus, were again the lays it has sung. Per- twenty or thirty pieces of metal, haps sometimes she would play the dismembered trunk and over the last tape I had left her. wings of my statue. Many of the Six months later Nevers com- pieces had taken root again and missioned another statue from were emitting a thin haunted me, and I went out one dusk to sound, disconnected fragments the sand reefs where the sonic of the testament to Lunora Goa- sculpture grow. As I approached, len I had dropped on her terrace. they were creaking in the wind As I walked away down the whenever the thermal gradients slope, the white sand pouring cut through them. I walked up into my footprints like a succes- the long slopes, listening to them sion of occluding hour glasses, mewl and whine, searching for the sounds of my voice whined one that would serve as the sonic faintly through the metal gar- core fora new statue. dens like a forgotten lover whis- Somewhere ahead in the dark- pering over a dead harp.

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18 FANTASTIC Illustrator SUMMERS

REQUENTLY a writer will play a key role in the Frevitalization of a literary movement without claiming or receiving any credit for his achievement. Nat Schachner was such an author. A member of the bar, he teamed up with Arthur Leo Zaget to enter the science fiction field with the story Back to 20,000 A. D. in the March, 1931 issue of WONDER STORIES. This story, built around a future in which mankind tvas regimented in a super-nazi manner, was fright- eningly prophetic and well-received by the reader- ship.

Copyright 193± by Street and Smith Publication*. Inc.; copyright renewed. Reprinted by permission of the copyright owners. When science-fiction in maga- evaluations of Alexander Hamil- zine form faced extinction in ton and Thomas Jefferson have 1933, Nat Schachner was re- been termed by critics as “defini- cruited by F. Orlin Tremaine, tive" works on those men. new trouble-shooting editor of Among science fiction ivriters ASTOUNDING STORIES to shoot he was a doer as well as a dream- stimulating concepts into its ex- er, serving as the first secretary piring design. He wrote what of The American Interplanetary was termed the first “thought- Society, organized in 1930 for variant ” story in Ancestral the scientific promotion of rock- Voices, then followed with scores etry and other phases of space of short novels, novelets and travel. His report on research short stories characterized by concerning Equipment for an In- themes of such originality that terplanetary Expedition and they paced a gifted group of Methods of Steering appeared in ivriters that carried that maga- the March-April, 1931 BULLETIN zine to field leadership within a OF THE AMERICAN INTERPLANE- year. TARY SOCIETY. During the period when his As a prophet his reputation stories Redmask of the Outlands, stands firm on his story World He From Procyon, The 100th Gone Mad in the October, 1935 Generation, The Living Equa- issue of amazing where he pic- tion, The Great Thirst, The Ulti- tures two nations, each possess- mate Metal, Mind of the World, ing Intercontinental ballistic I Am Not God and The Isotope missiles with atomic warheads, Men appeared—1934- and 1935— trying to find ways of gaining a readers were inclined to attach military advantage in their the word “hack" to anyone who stalemated situation. was prolific. In retrospect we One of his most unusual and realize that Schachner was not off-trail science fiction stories. only a font of nexv ideas but a The Dragon of Iskander, ap- capable literary stylist as well. peared in the April, 1 931 issue of A series of successful historical top-notch, which in 1931 was novels early established this also edited by F. Orlin Tremaine. point in case anyone challenged The notion of a lost civilization it, but the best was yet to come. in a remote portion of the earth In the ’Forties Nat Schachner is not new, but Nat Schachner in scored with a series of masterful this engaging novelet adds not biographies on early great Amer- one, but three fascinating twists icans that catapulted him into to freshen up an always intrigu- the front rank of historians. His ing science fiction situation.

20 FANTASTIC THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER Owen Crawford sprang out of the deep sleep of exhaustion,

I. every sense alert. The camp was in an uproar. Camels grunted T was long past midnight. The and squealed and kicked at their I expedition lay encamped in a hobblings, dogs yelped in short, gigantic hollow of moving sand. excited barks ; the Chinese camel A blood-red moon drooped over drivers and pack porters wailed the mountains. The Kazak in unison. guards drowsed. “Bandits !” thought Crawford, Ambar Khan grunted, mut- and flung himself out of the tered fearfully to himself. He did tent, gun in hand. not like the Gobi. It was a place Behind him padded his per- bewitched. He paced steadily sonal servant, Aaron, man of back and forth, his rifle thudding Tientsin, fat and over forty. His softly before him. feet were bare, his breathing To the west stretched the fab- asthmatic, his walk a waddle, but ulous T’ien Shan, the Heavenly his heart was valiant, and the Mountains, the Snow Mountains, gun in his pudgy fingers did not the Ten-Thousand li East-by- waver. South Mountains, grim ramparts of Chinese Turkestan. The ex- UTSIDE, the blackness of piring moon impaled itself on O the night was hideous with a splintered peak. Something noise and movement. The sing- moved across its face swiftly. song wail of the Chinese clam- Ambar Khan groaned, called ored high above the deeper gut- on Allah, and stared again. The turals of the Kazaks. Crawford moon plunged into darkness, but raised his voice in a shout, tc the thing glowed by its own bring swift order, to organize light. Down from the mountains against the invisible enemy. it swooped, breathing fire and A tall figure loomed to one flame. Soft, roaring sounds sped side. “This is no attack,” said before the monster. Ambar Khan Andros Theramenes, Greek by caught a glimpse of lashing tail, race, assistant archaeologist. gigantic claws, and elongated Another figure rose to the left. neck and shrieked. He knew "Nay, it is worse,” Kang Chou. now what it was. A rifle shot Chinese governor of Turkestan, hushed the murmurings of the agreed. Gobi. The next instant Ambar “Then what—” Crawford be- Khan groveled in the sand, gan, and gasped into silence. He, blinded with terror. too, had seen it!

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 21 ! ”

The monster was dropping The camel drivers cried out fast. A bullet would have lagged together in one loud voice, “The behind. Down it came upon the Holy Dragon,” and rose trem- camp with a terrifying swoosh. blingly to care for the plunging, Crawford staggered back and snorting animals. swore involuntarily; his gun “Lights!” called Crawford. hung loose from nerveless fin- An electric torch was thrust gers. It was hideous, impossible, into his hand. He flicked it into a myth out of the fabulous past an oval of white radiance. Aaron, Down, down it came, a thing his servant, showed ghastly of sinuous, scaly body, with a ers to his ancestors; Therame- glittering metallic tail that nes, tall and reddish-haired like lashed the air into little whirl- the northern Greeks, betrayed no winds. The huge reptilian head change in his ordinarily reserved glared balefully out of two, and calm demeanor. Only his round, unwinking orbs; great eyes glittered strangely. claws, affixed to short, extended "It was your tent the Dragon legs, were like steel hooks ready struck at,” he said slowly. “Had to rend and slash. Fire vomited you not fortunately run out— forth from red-pitted nostrils, He stopped and shrugged his from yawning bloody mouth, shoulders suggestively, from leathern wings and tail. white, muttering inaudible pray- The frightful din of its passage "There would have been a new muted the clamor of the camp. leader to this expedition,” Craw- Then it struck. ford said grimly. He flashed the The great claws curved around torch suddenly full on the Chi- the canvas of the tent Crawford nese governor. “Kang Chou, had just quitted, swept it under what do you know about this?” the hideous bosom, and the beast The habitual mask of centu- was up again, a meteoric mon- ries overlaid the Oriental fea- ster of fire, homing for the tures, in which there was no Heavenly Mountains. trace of fright. “You have heard the camel drivers,” he remarked RAWFORD shot once, but the courteously. “It was the Holy C bullet was futile. Already Dragon, the guardian spirit of the winged anachronism was a the T’ien Shan. Beyond the rapidly diminishing swath in memory of our ancestors has it the blackness, hurtling over the dwelt in the inaccessible moun-

gloom-shrouded peaks. In sec- tains ; so runs the childish patter onds it was gone, quenched, as of the people. It swoops from its

though it had never been. nest on occasion ; its prey always

22 FANTASTIC a vigorous, comely woman, a fe- was dead. His arms were out- male child, a young camel, a stretched, his face hidden in the sheep. The natives worship it." sand. Crawford turned him over Crawford stared. “Never by and swore fiercely. The man’s chance a man or man child?” throat was slit neatly from ear “Never." to ear. The blood was not yet The American archaeologist congealed. He had been mur- looked at the bland governor dered. thoughtfully. It was passing strange; this untoward interest WEN CRAWFORD strode of the Chinese in his excava- O back and forth with quick,

tions ; the unheralded visit of the nervous strides in the narrow governor to his camp; the weird confines of Theramenes’ tent. visitation of the Dragon. What His lean, weathered jaw was out- connection what did the thrust, his gray eyes snapped was the ; fiery monster portend ? The blow, with belligerent fires past a bold as Theramenes had pointed out, aquiline nose. He talked rapidly had manifestly been struck at to the Greek archaeologist, while him. Aaron, placid once more, brewed “Andros,” he ordered, “keep fragrant tea over an alcohol an eye on the tents. I want to see lamp. what damage’s been done.” “The expedition must go on,” His assistant said quietly: “I Crawford declared. “Some one, shall watch in the proper places.” something, is trying to stop us. That meant he had understood. Poor Ambar Khan paid the pen- The Chinese governor and his alty for warning us in time.” retinue were to bear close super- Theramenes shrugged. “Why?’ vision. he asked in his perfect, yet slight- Crawford toured the encamp- ly slurred, English. “You have ment quickly, efficiently. Already permission from the Canton au- lanterns were bobbing back and thorities for your excavations. forth, throwing flickering yellow We’ve already found a buried blobs of light on the confusion. city on the edge of the desert, The damage, aside from the com- showing Hellenistic influences, plete loss of his tent, was not but the Chinese never bother great. Two camels had broken about relics alien to themselves.’’ their hobbles and were gone to Crawford spun around. “Ex- the desert. A man had fallen flat actly! That’s what makes Kang over a peg and broken a leg. But Chou’s interest the more strange. Ambar Khan, who had first seen There’s been a leak. He knows the Dragon and raised the alarm, my real plans.”

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 23 There was a slight sneer to you make of that Dragon?” he the Greek. “Still harping on asked. that theme? Alexander never Crawford’s face went sober. “I marched this far north. He never don’t know,” he admitted. “We saw the Heavenly Mountains.” saw it, all of us. It took my tent; “So say the history books. But that couldn’t have been dreamed. I’ve traced his passage step by A Dragon in the twentieth cen-

step. Somewhere in the T’ien tury ! It sounds impossible.” Shan I’ll find the evidence.” “It isn't.” There was a deadly Crawford paused, looked a mo- seriousness in the Greek’s voice ment curiously at his assistant. that the American had never “You are a Macedonian yourself, noted before. “There have been aren’t you ?” legends for centuries about that Theramenes’ laugh was a bit Dragon, about far more horrible forced. “Why, yes. Why do you things in the T’ien Shan. We've ask?” seen the one; let us credit the “No particular reason,” Craw- others. Let us turn back before ford answered. it is too late. Once in the Heav- He had never quite warmed up enly Mountains, we shall never to the Greek. All his plans had return.” been for a solo exploration, but “You are at liberty to resign wires had been pulled at the last from the expedition,” Crawford minute, and Theramenes was at- said coldly. “I intend going on.” tached to the expedition. It had His assistant’s eyes flashed been merely a polite request, of dangerously. They were not the course, but the request of the eyes of a coward. “Very well, American Museum had all the then. I do not intend to resign. force of a command. They footed You are the leader, and I obey.” the bills. Theramenes knew his Crawford said: “We start in work thoroughly, Crawford was an hour.” compelled to admit. His intuitive flashes concerning the early II. Greek civilization in Central Asia were sometimes little short of HE EVENING shadows were marvelous. But Crawford felt Tlengthening as the little party something was held back; some toiled over Dead Mongol Pass. queer, outlandish strain in the The snow lay many feet deep on man not attributable alone to the treacherous road. On the difference in race. other side was Chinese Turke- The Greek seemed anxious to stan, but Crawford was looking change the subject. “What do for a certain narrow gorge that

24 FANTASTIC led to the north, deeper into the make a fire of gnarled roots and Heavenly Mountains. No one had rotted boughs that the storms ever ventured far in that direc- had swept over the cliffs, and tion; Chinese and Kazaks both went to sleep. All night long the had frightful tales of what lay wind howled and bit with north- beyond. The Dragon had disap- ern fury; and ghosts gibbered peared to the north. and shrieked. The expedition was encamped In the morning they started at the foot of Dead Mongol Pass, again. Theramenes was even waiting for their return. With more silent than his wont, but Crawford on this last explora- his stride was tireless and his tion were Theramenes and swing that of a born mountain- Aaron; then another, an unwel- eer. Aaron struggled and puffed, comed, unbidden member, Kang and the fat loosened on him great Chous, governor of Turkestan, beads of sweat. Kang Chou had blandly announced his inten- walked easily, which was strange tion of proceeding with them. for a pampered Chinese lord, and Crawford fumed, and stormed, the bland smile never left his and gave in. The governor had face. All that day they went on powers; if he wished, he could and on, the gorge never widen- tear up the Canton documents. He ing, never narrowing, the high came alone; threats of death walls towering in shivering could not force his soldiers to gloom. accompany him into the dreaded Then, as the slanting rays mountains. across the narrow sky above Up to the very top of the bleak, proved evening almost at hand, windswept pass they toiled, with the gorge suddenly tightened. two weeks’ provisions on their Five feet, four, three, barely backs, and rifles on their shoul- room for a rotund body like

ders. There they found the little Aaron’s to squeeze through ; then gorge they had been told of. It closure and jagged granite to was but a rift in the rock, barely interminable heights. Pitchy six feet wide, and angling to the blackness slowly enfolded them; north. a mocking star beamed faintly Crawford plunged in without in the inverted depths above. hesitation. The path zigzagged, Theramenes broke the stunned but always to the north, and al- silence. They could not see his ways upward. Night found them face, but to Crawford’s super- still in its narrow confines, its sensitive ears there was faint walls a thousand feet high. Shiv- mockery, triumph, in the slurred ering with cold, they managed to accents.

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 25 “We have reached the end of a tact with the smooth, round cyl- mad venture. The gorge has no inder of the flash. His Angers outlet. Let us turn back.” closed convulsively, seeking the “Yes, master, now, at once!” trigger. cried Aaron. “The demons will The confusion increased, the be coming out soon.” cries redoubled. Some one caught at his hand, tried to bend it back. T^~ANG Chou’s voice floated Just at that moment the trigger “ suavely. Was there regret clicked, and the opposite rock in it? “I had thought—I was glowed into being. The invisible mistaken. It must be another hand abruptly let go. road. We must start again—from Aaron caught at the flash, Dead Mongol Pass.” turned it anxiously on his mas- Crawford bit his lips at the ter. collapse of his plans, looked up "You all right? A rock he al- at the black, forbidding mass. most kill you.” Had the dying Kazak lied, or Crawford’s gaze slid past the wandered in delirium? frightened fatness of his serv- “We will camp here,” he as- ant, saw both Kang and The- sented dully, “and go back in the ramenes bending over him with morning.” equal anxiety on their counte- "We would but waste time,” nances. said Kang Chou. “The road is “A close shave!” said the safe, and it is early. We can Greek. “Lucky it was a glancing

travel several li before making blow. The side of your head is camp.” bruised. A bit higher, and the “No,” said Crawford positive- rock would have hit square.” ly. “We stop here.” Kang Chou said: “Praise to

He tripped the trigger of the your ancestors ! A dislodged flash. As the white light sprang stone is a terrible thing in the forth, something thrust at him mountains.” violently. The torch clattered Crawford rose unsteadily to stonily to the ground, and a hard, his feet. He was a bit dizzy. He unyielding substance smashed felt his head. There was a lump against the side of his head. on his right temple; it was sore Crawford dropped, stunned to the touch, but there was no from the blow. There was a dull blood. roaring in his ears, and dim “I'm all right,” he said. It was echoes of shuffling feet and star- no rock that had grappled with tled cries. His hand flung out to him for the torch. What was be- protect himself, and came in con- hind all this ? Who was ready to

26 FANTASTIC —

commit murder to prevent him goes, I don’t know. The torch from continuing his search? will show that. Come on, you fel-

Kang Chou? Theramenes? Aar- lows; I’ll give you a hand.” on? Some one else, who had pre- Crawford played the flash ceded him, hidden in the clefts around. They were in a cavern; in waiting? the ceiling some dozen feet up, He took the flash from his the width not over twenty, but servant, swung its wide beam the long stream of the light did carefully over the ground. There not show any termination to the was dead silence behind him. corridor. Nothing showed, only the rubble- “We will explore it at dawn,” strewn floor of the gorge, the gi- said Theramenes. His voice was

gantic walls hemming him in on excited ; his usual calm was gone. three sides. Not a break in the “We’ll explore now,” Crawford rough, hewn surfaces, not a re- told him. "Daylight won’t make cess in which an assailant could any difference in here.” hide. "But—” "Come on,” said his chief. HE silence tensed. Some in- And the four of them moved Tstinct made Crawford swing cautiously forward, rifles ready the light upward. The white for instant action. The subter- radiance traveled up the block- ranean corridor wound on inter- ading cliff, jerked to a sudden minably, the questing beam dis- halt. The American sucked in his closing only dripping, icy walls. breath sharply. Some ten feet up Then suddenly it opened up the smooth surface, a black hole a vast, vaulted chamber in which yawned. the puny gleam lost itself in the “Stand against the rock, you immensities. Crawford called a fat crow,” he said to Aaron. halt. Which way now? The servant’s face was tragic, Theramenes pointed to the but he obeyed. The American left, Kang Chou was equally pos- vaulted lightly to his shoulders, itive the road was to the right, so swayed a moment, and caught at Crawford forged straight ahead. the lip of the recess. Theramenes There was no talk; each had an held the light steady. uneasy feeling of presences in Crawford pulled himself up the great chamber, of mocking and disappeared. They waited figures watching their slow prog- anxiously below. In some seconds ress. The thin light but accen- his head and shoulders appeared. tuated the threatening darkness. “It's a cave, all right!” he Aaron clutched at his master, shouted down. “How far back it uttering a little strangled cry.

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 27 a ;

“Look, look ahead ! The big devil “There is an opening between himself!” the legs,” remarked Kang Chou, unimpressed by the looming HE party came to a quick giant. He had other matters in Thalt. There, before them, was mind. the end of the vast cavern— It was narrow; barely room perpendicular straight wall of for a man of Aaron’s girth, and rock. But the steady beam dis- the stars shone dimly in the closed legs, gigantic Cyclopean depths. legs, straddled at a wide angle, Some urge made Aaron dart braced against the granite. Up forward. He thrust his head and went the light, and a huge torso shoulders through, drank in the sprang into view, massive, pow- cool night air. A whistle re- erfully muscular. Up and up, until sounded in the cavern, a peculiar at the extreme limits of illumina- shrill piping that sent echoes tion, a face stared down at the reverberating. startled explorers; calm, majes- “What is that?” Crawford tic in its majesty, a giant of an- asked, startled. cient times, amused at the puny There was no answer. The mortals who had dared penetrate next instant Aaron screamed his secrets. there was a muted roaring, and Crawford’s eager laugh broke his body was jerked violently the spell. “A statue!” he cried through the opening. out, half in relief, half in excite- ment. Awe crept into his voice as RAWFORD rushed forward, he examined the great figure. C too late. A quick lunge just “Theramenes, do you recognize missed the last disappearing it?" foot, and he caught at the jutting The Greek shook his head. He side only in time to save himself

was beyond words. from plunging . into tremendous “Man, it’s a replica of the depths. Far away, blazing a Colossus of Rhodes. Exact in cometary path through the black every detail, as the dimensions night, was the Holy Dragon. have come down to us. Now do Long streamers of fire trailed you believe my theory? Alexan- rearward. Then it was swallowed der and his troops were in this up, gone. Of Aaron there was no cavern, sculptured that form.” trace. Theramenes examined the Co- “What happened ?” Kang lossus. “You are right,” he said Chou’s soft unemotional voice at last. “It is authentic. Greeks sounded unpleasantly in the only could have done that.” American’s ears.

28 FANTASTIC ” ” :

Crawford did not answer. In- to duck, or switch off the steady stead his gaze shifted downward. flash in his hand. His body stiffened, an ejacula- Kang Chou glared at the two tion of surprise tore itself out of archaeologists, holding his arm. his throat. The two men crowded Then the mask slipped back into eagerly over his shoulder, but place. He bowed low. there was nothing to see. A “I was hasty,” he said suavely. white mist swirled and billowed “You have seen—nothing.” in great leaps, filling the great It was Theramenes who asked depression in the twinkling of an “What happened to Aaron? Did eye—a sea of smoke that dis- he fall?” closed nothing. Crawford grimaced with pain. Gone was Kang Chou’s Chi- The fat, asthmatic servant had nese impassivity. He literally been dear to him. “The Holy clawed at Crawford’s shoulder. Dragon took him.” “What was it you saw?” he The Greek made a gesture of screamed. “Tell me—tell me commiseration. “What now?” what—” “We wait until morning, and Theramenes glowered in si- then start— lence. His brow was black in the Sleep -was fitful in the black, electric flash, his lips com- damp cave. Watches were di- pressed. vided, but there was little slum- Crawford turned. His face ber. Once Crawford thought he was like granite, grimly hard. heard stealthy movement, but He shook off the grasping hand. quick illumination of the torch “I? I saw nothing, Kang Chou.” showed nothing except Therame- “You lie, foreign devil!” nes leaning on his rifle on guard, screeched the Chinese governor, and Kang, a little to one side, dancing in rage. “You saw, and snoring uneasily. After that, you think to keep the secret. Tell there was no further noise. me, or— An automatic appeared in the A T the first hint of dawn, the yellow hand, slipped out of the trio crowded between the ample sleeve. Theramenes moved great sculptured legs. They with silent speed. A wrist of looked out on a long, deep valley, steel grasped the well-fleshed hemmed in on all four sides by hand, wrenched. A howl of pain, towering, precipitous mountains, and the gun made a clangor on tumbling range on range as far the stony floor. as the eye could see. The Heaven- Crawford said, “Thanks !” and ly Mountains, the Ten-Thousand did not move. He had disdained li East-by-South Mountains, had

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 29 guarded their secret well. And path was steep, but negotiable. downward—it was the Greek The American spoke in low who grunted. For the heavy tones to his assistant. He did not clouds lay like a waveless ocean. want Kang to hear. The bottom of the valley was in- “This path is artificial. See visible. how smooth it is, how the stone Crawford wrinkled his brows. is hewn.”

There was black bitterness in his “I’ve already noticed it,” the heart. Aaron was dead, and must Greek answered quietly. be avenged. “We are going down,” he said. LOWLY, cautiously, they “How?” asked the governor. S edged their way downward. His eagerness was carefully re- Two thousand feet, and the white strained. No mention was made mist enveloped them. They were of his outburst of the night be- ghosts flitting noiselessly on in- fore. substantial air. Even their voices “There is a ledge,” Crawford sounded hollow. On and on—for explained. “It slants down into hours it seemed—edging their the mist. Room enough for one way along, grasping the solid wall man at a time, if we are careful.” for safety, avoiding the unseen “Shall we wait for the mist to outer edge. A world of smoke, of clear?” asked Theramenes. writhing forms, of lost souls. No “No. I know these valley sign of an ending, no sign of a clouds. They last for days at a break in the clammy clouds. time.” Down, and down, until to the be- Without further ado they pre- wildered explorers it seemed as pared for the perilous descent. if earth’s center itself should Packs were tightened, rifles have been reached. lashed to keep both hands free. Momentarily the mist parted, A mouthful of tinned food, a and closed as swiftly. Crawford swig of warmish water from swerved, but not fast enough. canteens, and they were ready to The cry of warning smothered in begin. his throat. A clinging heavy Crawford led the way, lower- cloth enveloped his head, sinewy ing himself carefully from the arms held him immovable. He orifice. It was less than five feet tried to struggle, but a cloying to the ledge. On one side was a exudence from the bag stole into perpendicular wall, lost in the his brain, drowsed him into immensities above; on the other numbing calm. Behind him he a sheer precipice, lost in the im- heard a choked-off yell and then mensities below. The slant of the white silence.

30 FANTASTIC [II. In her hands she held a tray of bronze, with heaped food and RAWFORD awoke with a a goblet of dark-red wine. But it C dark, furry taste in his was her face that held Craw- mouth and a drugged throbbing ford’s attention. Those classic in his head. For a moment he features, that straight, chiseled had difficulty in focusing his nose, the harmonious brow with thoughts—then he remembered. the thick plaits of warm brown The second vision he had had at hair low on the forehead, the the bottom of the valley, the firm, full lips—how strangely swift noiseless attack. He opened familiar! Where had he seen this his eyes. He was in a huge cham- girl, or some one like her, be- ber, hewn with infinite pains out fore? of solid rock. Damp dripped Then she smiled as she moved slimily from incrusted walls, and noiselessly forward, and the red a dim light filtered through from lips parted slightly. That was it a tiny opening high on one side. —he remembered now. A small, A dungeon, thought Crawford, Greek figurine of white marble, and tried to rise. Something re- representing Artemis the Hun- tarded his movements, made tress, that he had discovered metallic sounds. He looked down. near Antioch on a former ex- There were chains encircling his pedition. legs, holding him hobbled. He The girl placed the tray in examined them with interest. front of him, straightened, beck- The metal was bronze, exquisite- oned to him to eat, and was glid- ly worked, and chased in a run- ing away. Crawford came out of ning design that caused Craw- his semi-stupor to call quickly: ford to forget his predicament “Wait a minute! I want to in an involuntary whistle of as- talk to you." tonishment. She turned at the sound of his As if his low-pursed whistle voice. She shook her head with a were a signal, a door opened si- puzzled air and said nothing. lently at the farther end of the He tried again; this time in dungeon, and a girl entered. The Chinese. It worked no better. archaeologist forgot his chains Mongol, Kazak—to no effect. The in the greater astonishment. She girl was frowning now and

was dressed in pure white ; a sin- moved away again. gle garment caught at the waist In desperation, afraid almost with a bronze pin and falling in of its effect, knowing it to be im- graceful folds around small, san- possible, Crawford spoke rapidly daled feet. —in Greek. The girl paused ir-

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 31 resolutely, turned half a classic ing, that the effects of the drug profile in his direction. Her brow had not yet worn off. The at- was furrowed with perplexity. It tempt at Greek had been sheer was obvious that the sounds insanity, an intuitive, unreason- awoke some echo in her, and it ing flash. What was a girl, was also obvious that they were dressed in the ancient Greek cos- unintelligible. tume, and responding to the sound of the pure Greek tongue, RAWFORD fell back exhaust- doing in the T’ien Shan ram- C ed. He was almost glad she parts between Turkestan and the had not understood. It would Black Gobi ? What connection have been too bizarre, too fantas- did she have with the Holy

tic for a hard-working, practical Dragon ? Questions that clam- archaeologist of the sober twen- ored for immediate answer. tieth century. “You understand me?” he She was going now, the door queried haltingly. Hardly ever was open when the blinding had the Attic ; an- he used Greek for swer burst like a time bomb in speech. his mind. He shouted to catch She nodded, gazing at him her swift attention, in unaccus- with a queer compound of fear tomed syllables that resounded and curiosity. like the surge of the open ocean. “Why, then, do you not an- “Mistress, do not go. You must swer?” tell me where I am and who you She shook her head in a de- are.” cided negative. This time it was not modern “You are not permitted?” Greek, the clipped, degraded To that she smiled again. speech of a fallen race, but the Crawford considered. “Your pure, ancient tongue, briny with name at least," he implored. Attic salt, the speech of Homer The smile widened to a little and Sophocles, of Sappho and tinkling laugh. “Aspasia!” she Pindar. cried in a ripple of sound, and The effect was startling. The fled. girl whirled around, her eyes The door closed silently behind wide open, a little liquid cry in her, and the archaeologist was her throat. Her rounded bosom alone with his chains and his rose and fell with the vehemence food. of her feelings. She started to The meat was roast mutton, speak, and checked herself forci- prepared with spices; the bread bly. of a curious oaten compound; Crawford felt he was dream- there was a handful of fig3, and

32 FANTASTIC the wine was sweet and heady. with the butt ends on the ground. When he had eaten and drunk The fairer-haired of the two his fill, he threw himself back bent, over and placed a key in the against the straw-covered, stone lock of the American’s chains. A pallet to which he was chained. grinding noise, and the bands He must think this thing out. fell away. From the first appearance of the The darker warrior upended Holy Dragon, the glimpse of the his spear, pricked Crawford white temple withheld from his roughly with the point. The companions, to the appearance of archaeologist staggered to his Aspasia, each adventure seemed feet, irritation at the brutal more astounding, more incredi- treatment lost in the amazement ble than the preceding on. His of seeing two exact replicas of companions ! Poor Aaron was ancient hoplites in the flesh. dead, a victim to the terrible The fair man made pantomime Dragon; Theramenes and Kang for him to go forward; the dark Chou—what had happened to and crueller one urged him on them? Dead, perhaps, even as he with prods of the spear. Through would be soon. Crawford had no the open door they marched into

illusions about his fate ; whoever a long corridor, rockhewn, and it was wrho inhabited this incred- illuminated with a yellowish ible valley would never let him glow from no visible source. The return alive to inform the out- metal sandals of the guards clat- side world of what he had seen. tered as they walked. On either He examined his bonds. They side, Crawford could see solid, were strongly linked, and so timbered doors, leading to other skillfully wound it was impossi- chambers, no doubt. But the ble to wriggle out. A curiously guards urged him on. intricate lock held them fast to a At the end of the corridor was bronze ring imbedded in the rock. a door. The fair one opened it. Escape just now was out of the They stepped out into sunshine question. and warmth; from the position of the sun over the mile-high OURS passed. He must have mountain walls, it was not much H slept, for the tramp of past noon. metal-shod feet thudded down The archaeologist cast eager upon him unawares. Two men glances to right and left as he stood over him, tall, large- was pushed stumbling along. limbed men, sheathed in bronze There was no mist in the valley armor, helmeted, with spears now. At the farther end stood taller than themselves resting the temple he had first glimpsed

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 33 :

from the mouth of the cave be- abode of his imprisonment. Pure- fore the swirling mist hid it from ly Buddhist this. A rock settle- view. It was a noble structure, ment hewn out of living rock in in the Doric manner. White terraces on the almost-perpen- gleaming columns, unornament- dicular flank of the mountain. A ed, evenly spaced to uphold a flat ming-di or House of a Thousand marble roof. But there was more, Rooms. The other was a strange- far more. looking monster floating quietly The valley was approximately on the waters of the far-distant five miles long and three miles lake. wide. A stream meandered down Then he found himself walk- the middle, terminating in a lake ing through a forest of columns, at the opposite end from the past a great, sculptured figure, temple. In between were fertile bearded, majestic, that Crawford fields with waving corn, cattle immediately recognized as Jupi- peacefully grazing, and sheep. ter Ammon, and out into an open Hundreds of people were at work court, before a throne. in the fields; men, women, and -The guards raised their spears children. They straightened up high. As one they cried in ring- to stare curiously as Crawford ing Greek was marched past. “Hail, Alexander! Hail, Am- All were dressed in the flowing mon’s son!” graceful Greek garments; their features ranged from purest RAWFORD stood stock-still. classic Greek to a mongrel mix- C A man sat on the throne, a ture with slanted eyes and high man out of the past. Alexander yellowish cheek bones. Here and the Great himself, grown old, if there stood a woman, of unmixed the medaled representations did Mongol blood, still with the ter- not lie. The same commanding ror of her capture in her fathom- brow, the same stern expression less eyes. and chiseled nose, the flowing The archaeologist walked as in locks, snow-white by now, peep- ing of a dream ; it was too much to di- out a plume-surmounted gest at once. Their destination helmet; burnished armor on the was obviously the temple. As still brawny chest, a gem-tipped they clanged over the marble ap- spear grasped in the right hand. proach, he managed to cast a On either side were ranged hasty glance backward. soldiers, in full panoply of war. Two things caught his eye be- Macedonians, the front rank fore the dark guard turned him kneeling, spears extended, the roughly forward. One was the second rank standing, longer

34 FANTASTIC — spears bristling through. The from behind fhe throne. The ancient Macedonian phalanx! voice was English, the tones The great temple rang with amused, mocking: “You are an antiphonic response: “Hail, right as usual, Owen Crawford.

Alexander I Hail, Ammon’s son!” The man is an impostor, but his The figure on the throne spoke. power is great. The doctrine is

His voice was harsh, command- Pythagorean ; one Alexander ing: dies, his soul inhabits another.” “Know, stranger, I am Alex- Andros Theramenes, Greek ar- ander, he who conquered Tyre chaeologist, assistant to the ex- and Sidon, Darius and Porus. pedition of the American Muse- The world was at my feet, and um, stepped out into full view. shall be so again. Prostrate your- The storm had already burst self, stranger, for I am divine.” —a low growl from a hundred Silence crept through the mar- throats that sprang into a roar ble columns, yet Crawford re- of beating sound, mingled with mained erect. the clash of arms. Slowly he spoke, shattering the “Death! Death to the sacrile- quiet, fumbling for the Greek: gious animal!” “I know now what took place. The two guards held their Alexander led his troops to spears pointed at the American’s Samarkand. Thence he turned breast. Alexander had half risen south, but a phalanx, raiders or from his seat, the corded veins deserters, wandered northward knotting on his temples. The and were lost. Hostile tribes gem-tipped spear rose slowly. At hemmed them in. Day and night the peak of the arc, the spears of they fought, until they found the guards would lunge. refuge in this valley. With them Crawford held himself bal- were captive native women ; thus anced, ready to move with light- they lived and flourished through ning speed. His plan of action the ages, cut off from all man- was mapped. At the first draw- kind. You,” he pointed to the ing back of the spear held by the seated warrior, “are not Alexan- dark guard, he would lunge to der. He died in Babylon. You are one side, twist in a demi-volt, the son of an obscure captain of wrest it out of his hands, and be a phalanx.” through the entrance of the tem- For a moment there was a ple in a flash. After that stunned lull. Not in two thou- It was not to prove necessary, sand years had Alexander been however. Theramenes leaned fa- thus defied. miliarly over to the outraged A voice carried unexpectedly Alexander, said something in his

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 35 ear. The old Macedonian sank Once more Theramenes trans- back in his throne, lowered the lated. fateful spear. “I had heard rumors of your “Let the stranger wait,” he august, all-powerful presence in said. “We shall decide his des- the T’ien Shan," said the gover- tiny later. Ho! Bring in the man nor. "Your Holy Dragon is as a with the yellow face.” god to our folk in the outer land. Crawford relaxed, exhaling I come to pay honor and tribute with some effort. Death had to the divine Iskander, and to stared him in the face, and offer an alliance. I am Kang passed him by—for the present. Chou, governor and war lord of There was drama here, drama Turkestan. I, too, have many that required careful reading. soldiers and fear not the government of Canton.” His glittering IV. eyes roved over the sturdy Mace- donian warriors. “Together we LITTLE ripple of movement can go far.” A took place at the rear of the Alexander thrust back his throne, that widened as Kang head and laughed, a full-throated Chou was thrust forward, under laugh. guard. His silken jacket was “Ha! That is good! This yel- torn, but his impassive smile low man from the outside pro- was bland as ever. He stood be- poses alliance to me, Alexander, fore Alexander, betraying no as- son of Jupiter Ammon, con- tonishment at the strangeness of queror of the world!” His eye the scene. Nor did he betray by flashed with fanatic fires. “Know, a flicker his recognition of The- yellow face, Alexander spurns ramenes. all alliances; once more the “Speak, yellow face! It is the world will tremble at the rush of divine Alexander who commands his armies. The Macedonian you to speak. For what reason phalanx is ready; ready to con- did you dare penetrate our fast- quer as of old.” nesses? Fear you not the Holy To Crawford, almost forgotten Dragon?” in the new turn of events, it The Chinese governor moved seemed as if a flicker of annoy- not a muscle. He had not under- ance passed rapidly over The- stood. Theramenes, himself with ramenes’ countenance as he the slant eyes of an impure turned to translate. blood, hastened to translate. Kang Chou listened attentive- Kang Chou heard him out and ly. This time his speech was answered in his own tongue. vigorous, direct, without the

36 FANTASTIC ”

customary Oriental circumlocu- Theramenes swung around to tions. Crawford. His eyes mocked the “Tell the old fool," he said, American, his voice hinted at a "together we can conquer, if sneer. “This, divine Alexander, not the world, at least all China. is the stranger I warned you of.” It is the Holy Dragon that I need. “Ah, yes, the man from be- My plans are made. Without me yond the western gates of Her- he is helpless. Tell him if I do cules. He who had surmised our not return to Turfan, my gener- secret.” als have instructions. Five planes “Yes. I learned of his plans in will bomb this valley out of ex- time. I managed to join his fool- istence." hardy expedition. Not for noth- There was no perceptible pause ing have I made frequent jour- as Theramenes turned and be- neys into the outland on the gan his translation. Crawford back of the Holy Dragon. He sus- strained his ears suddenly; was pected nothing. Now he is de- he hearing aright? For he had livered into your hands.” overheard the Chinese, and this “You have done well, Theram- was the Greek. Theramenes was enes. Alexander is pleased. Aspa- saying smoothly: sia shall marry you; my com- "The yellow man professes mand will be sufficient.” himself overwhelmed at your A crafty look crept into the magnificence. He wishes to apolo- assistant’s face. gize for his presumption and Crawford judged it time to begs only that a humble place be intervene, before his mouth was made for him in your retinue so stopped forever. He had been si- he may serve divinity itself.” lently piecing the parts of the

"That is better!” Alexander puzzle together ; now the picture nodded with a self-satisfied air. was tolerably clear. “Perhaps we shall permit his “Beware, Alexander !” he worship. Take him out and see cried out suddenly in a loud that he is guarded well." voice. “This man Theramenes The pseudo-archaeologist meditates evil— turned rapidly to Kang. Fast as he was, the pseudo- “Obey in all respects,” he said archaeologist was even faster. in Chinese. “Myself shall come "Shut his sacrilegious mouth, to talk with you later.” guards!” he shouted in stento- rian tones. IS face a mask, as though he Brawny hands choked off fur- H had not heard, the governor ther utterance. Crawford did not was led out of the temple. struggle.

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 37 "Take him to his dungeon,” the bronze might wear through Theramenes ordered, “to await by rubbing back and forth. But the commands of the divine it meant days, and Crawford felt Alexander.” his fate would be decided within The American was whirled the day. roughly around, and dragged, rather than permitted to walk, UDDENLY his sharpened through the valley. Back into S senses heard something; the the rock cell, locked into the soft, slow opening of the dun- chains, and the final bolting of geon door. He crouched against the outer door, brought chilling the pallet, his chained legs drag- realization that Theramenes ging, determined to meet death would never now permit his free- fighting.

dom. That was all to obvious. The door swung wider, and a Crawford lay in the dim light figure glided in. Crawford barely on the moldy straw, cursing him- choked off an exclamation. It self for a thick-witted, blunder- was Aspasia, and her finger was ing fool. A few minutes of whole- to her lips in the ancient gesture hearted self-excoriation brought for silence. some measure of comfort, and he “Do not make a noise, if you sat up. If only he could unlock or wish to live,” she said in low,

saw through the chains ! He urgent tones. “I trust you, examined them once more, stared stranger, more than I do The- at the edge of the stone pallet. ramenes.” Her features dark- Given time and infinite patience ened. “My father commands me

38 FANTASTIC to marry him; I hate him; I fear who was alone permitted to spy his ways. The olive is not more the outlands over years; it is he bland, nor the serpent swifter to who has fed divine Alexander strike. I heard all in the audience with thoughts of conquest. The chamber; I heard your accusa- outlands, he reports, are weak tion. Tell me more.” and ripe for the thunder of the Crawford stared at the eager phalanx.” girl, her classic repose flushed Crawford laughed shortly. into warm tints. Something "Therein he lies,” he told the stirred queerly within him; girl. “Mighty as the Macedonians something more than the faint are, they are but a drop in the possibility of escape. ocean of humanity. There is “There is not much more to some other reason for his urging.” Aspasia flushed. “He is ambi- tious,” she said unwillingly. “Of- ten has he promised me a throne

were I but his mate.” “Find some way to loose my chains,” Crawford urged. “There is no time to be lost. Hurry.” “I brought a key with me,” the girl acknowledged, and bent over. So intent were they that the opening of the door roused no suspicion. “Hold!” commanded a cold voice. "Move once, and die.” tell,” he stated quietly. “The- Aspasia started to her feet

ramenes deliberately mistrans- with a little cry ; Crawford lated Kang Chou’s threats when jerked at his chains fruitlessly. the proffered alliance was re- Theramenes stood in the door- fused by your father; he whis- way, a spear poised for throwing. pered to the yellow man to wait Next him stood Kang Chou, the for his talk. I am certain he snout of a revolver steady in his meditates treachery.” yellow hand. Aspasia nodded vehemently. The pseudo-archaeologist “I am sure of it. He is high in smiled unpleasantly. “Your Ori- the councils of my father; there ental wisdom is most subtle, is no one he trusts more. It is he Kang Chou. I foresee great deeds

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 39 ”

for our alliance. We are just in gods you sacrifice to, for you time.” have not long to live." The Chinese governor smiled He raised the spear by the softly. "Drop the key—over middle, hefted it once to test its here.” He pointed with the gun. balance. Aspasia gave a cry and threw herself forward. Therame- HE words were not under- nes brushed her aside with a Tstood, but the gesture was. quick heave of a powerful arm, Aspasia threw oyer the key and into the close grasp of Kang straightened up, her eyes flash- Chou. Crawford ground his ing with ancient hauteur. teeth in silence and strained at "What is the meaning of his bonds. this?” she demanded. The spear was raised again. Theramenes grinned. “The There was death in the back- very question I would ask you. ward movement of the hand. Think what your father, divine The muscles tensed for the quick Alexander, would say to his heave. Aspasia screamed once. daughter freeing a prisoner.” The door banged violently A wild hope flashed through open. Theramenes whirled, the her. spear darting for the thrust. !" “Take me to him, then. He “Hold, mighty Theramenes shall be judge.” “Not so fast! he warned, and N armored warrior plunged shut the door. His easy mockery A into the room, his face suf- changed to cold, wintry fury. “I fused with fast running, his heard your speech with this out- breath whistling in stertorous lander. You will be given no pants. It was the dark-haired chance to betray us. You remain guard, the brutal one. my prisoner until— The Greek stayed his arm. "Until what?” she asked. “What is it, Nicias?” he de- "Until we are through,” he manded, thunder-browed. ended cryptically. Nicias leaned a moment Crawford said in deadly tones. against the damp rock. “We are “Listen to me, Theramenes. You discovered,” he gasped at last. harm Aspasia the least bit, and Theramenes took a step for- you sign your death warrant.” ward, shook the bearer of the ill The Greek raised his eyebrows news furiously. “You lie! Who mockingly. “Threats?” he has betrayed us?” sneered. "From a prisoner, whose Nicias cowered away from fate is already decided! Pray, him. “I do not know,” he cried. Owen Crawford, to whatever “But Alexander is even now

40 FANTASTIC ”

gathering the phalanges. I re- his two captives, slammed it ceived orders; I am thought shut. Their straining ears heard loyal. At the first opportunity I the sound of bolts being shot, fled to warn you. Master, what the retreating clatter of the met- shall we do ’’ al sandals; then there was si- Terror was written large on lence. the face of the wretch. Alexan- Crawford gave another inef- der’s vengeance was apt to be fectual heave and stared across lightning swift. at Aspasia. “What,” he asked, “Peace, fool !” commanded "is the Holy Dragon?” Theramenes. “If only— The girl shuddered against Aspasia said exultingly. “My the dampness of the wall. “I do father is still the divine Alexan- not know," she admitted, “ex- der. He overheard your speech cept that it is a terrible monster. with the yellow man. He learned Only Alexander himself and The- the barbarous language secretly ramenes know the secret of gov- from a captive woman. His ven- erning it—and a few men sworn geance will be terrible.” to silence on penalty of death.’’ Theramenes’ furrowed brows cleared instantly. OW strong is your father?” “Thanks, Aspasia, for your ex- H Crawford inquired irrele- planation,” he mocked. “Then vantly. Alexander knows very little; The girl straightened proudly. knows nothing of the Dragon. “He is the mighty, the divine Quick, Kang Chou, we have not Alexander. He has lived two a moment to lose. The time is but thousand years; the wisdom of hastened, that is all. You, Nicias, the Greeks is his; he will crush bind Aspasia, bolt the door, and the revolt as though it were a follow us. We need every man. fly under a catapult." Your life depends on strict “Does she really believe that obedience.” nonsense?" the American won- With that he darted out of the dered, and carefully avoided pur- door, the Chinese governor at suing it further. his heels. “Btit his phalanges are honey- Nicias drew out from his tunic combed with treachery,” he ar- thin, flexible bronze links, and gued aloud. "And the Dragon.” fastened the unresisting girl All Aspasia’s pride collapsed. with the skill of long experience “That is true,” she said weakly. to a firmly imbedded ring on the “Theramenes will use the Drag- opposite wall from Crawford. At on. If only we were free!” the door he grinned cruelly at “If we’re not free in the next

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 41 ; ”

several hours,” he told her, "it T^HE girl saw it first, cried out will be too late.” -L in fright. She shrank back against the wall. A LREADY outside the thick- A figure inched slowly 1 ness of their door they around the could barricade ; a tattered, hear muted shoutings, the clang torn, bleeding figure. Grime and of running feet. The ming-oi, the blood were mingled in equal pro- House of a Thousand Rooms, portions on that paunchy form, was emptying its occupants great raking gashes showed on whether as loyal men or as reb- flesh through slashed clothes. els, the captives had no means of The intruder turned slowly, determining. and Crawford cried out: The revolt had begun. "Aaron!” Crawford groaned and The torn, broken figure thrust strained fruitlessly. The bronze up its head, and grinned. “Mas-

links bit painfully into his flesh. ter, my ancestors are good. I He tried rubbing against the have found you.” stone edge, and succeeded only The American gaped at his in rasping his legs into raw servant, returned from the dead. sores. There was fighting out- “I thought the Dragon— side, and he was trussed up like Aaron shuddered. “The Drag- a fowl for the slaughter, he and on, he terrible! He dropped me Aspasia. in a pit.” The man of Tientsin The uproar grew; there swayed and groped to the wall was the faint noise of spear on for support. He was weary and shield. The opposing forces were pain-stricken. “That pit, I never locked in battle. Within the ming- forget. Bones and rotting bodies oi was silence. of others he dropped. It was deep The two captives stared hope- I fell, but I was not killed. All lessly at each other. night and day it took, I climbed It was Aspasia, as nearer to out. I met a woman, woman of the door, who first heard the the Gobi. She took pity, hid me, faint fumbling. told me where you prisoner." "What is that?” she cried, near Crawford flamed into action. panic. “The key, Aaron !” He pointed The fumbling continued, as of to the flung bit of bronze un- some one inexpert with locks. regarded on the floor. “Open our Then the door swung open, slow- chains; we have work to do.” ly, an inch at a time. Crawford The servant lumbered weakly

tensed ; what new horror was to the key, picked it up, and coming through now? with many a groan, unlocked his

42 FANTASTIC master. At the girl he looked again in a moment, with a spear. doubtfully, but unloosed her, He hefted it lovingly, thrust too, while Crawford stamped to the automatic back to Aaron. bring circulation back into his “Now we’re both armed.” veins. Then they were in the valley. There was the old exultant It was a bloody, yet stirring ring to his voice. To Aspasia, in picture that presented itself to Greek, he said: “We shall fight them. for your father.” To Aaron, in English: “Have V. you still your gun?” Aaron searched through the HE pleasant green fields were voluminous folds of his slashed Ttrampled down as if an army fragments of clothes. Crawford had beaten them with flails. The watched with growing fear. Hi3 meandering stream was choked own gun had been taken away. with corpses, through whose At last the yellow hand emerged, sprawling forms the water trick- bringing with it an automatic. led and spread. Farther up, The American reached for it near the temple, a battle was in with a cry of joy, broke it open, furious progress—opposing ar- spun the cylinders. It was fully mies, almost equal in numbers, loaded. He felt better now. on whose bronze armor and “The Dragon, Aaron! What gleaming shields the warm sun was it?” sparkled with almost unendur- Fear clouded the paunchy able brilliance. servant’s eyes. “I did not see. The formation of the pha- Its claws caught me, held me langes had been broken; it was tight in the long journey. I hung confused, man-to-man fighting

face downward ; I could hear the now. Spears thrust home, dipped, noise of its nostrils, the flames and rose again, reddened at the of its breath were hot around tip. Short, heavy swords hacked me, but I saw it not.” furiously down, cutting through Crawford made a gesture of helmets and shields and breast- annoyance. “Then we’ll have to plates with shearing force. find out for ourselves. Come!” Shouts and ancient Greek battle Out of the door they went, in- cries mingled with the groans of to freedom, into deserted corri- the dying. No one yielded; the dors. The ming-oi was empty. A tide of battle ebbed and flowed; door stood open to one side. men died as they stood. Crawford glanced in. The next Grim war as only the Greeks instant he was inside, and out once fought! Platea and Mara-

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 43 thon and Thermopylae. It was lashed into venomous life. The thrilling; it was magnificent! waters of the lake were tossed Aspasia cried suddenly: "My into foaming spume. The Dragon father!” started to move, slowly at first, A tall figure, on whose shield as the flames from its tail length- a huge ruby gathered the rays ened, and red-pitted eyes and of the sun and thrust them out widespread nostrils spewed again in blood-red waves, was in smoky glares; then faster and the very thick of the battle, faster, until with a bound it was laying about him with a short in the air. sword that cleared men out of his Higher and higher it fled, the path like grain before the reap- great claws distended beneath

er. as though seeking its prey ; then "We must help him,” she said, it swerved, and like the wind and started forward. was careening down the narrow Crawford held her with a re- valley, belching and roaring, straining arm. He was looking straight for the tangled, locked the other way, where the stream armies. ended in the lake, on which the Crawford jerked the girl sud- monster had floated earlier in denly toward him, thrust her be- the day. hind the concealment of an over- It was still there, quiescent, hang of the ming-di. its claws concealed, its long tail "Down, Aaron!” he shouted, no longer lashing, the sun re- throwing himself flat. "It must flected from the metallic scales not see us.” of its body, breathing no fire or Crouching in their precarious smoke. shelter, they watched with grow- "That is where we are need- ing horror the tragedy that fol- ed,” Crawford said grimly. lowed. “Your father will have to take care of himself a while longer.” HE fighting troops had seen Spear swinging in hand, he Tby this time the swift ap- started on the run. They had proach of the monster. They were gone a hundred yards, when brave, these descendants of the Crawford stopped short with a Macedonians, as brave as any groan. men of any age in the world, but “Too late!” he said. "The they had been brought up to Dragon has started.” fear the mysterious Dragon. It The trio stared in silence. had roared on occasion out of The great beast was belching the valley and brought back ter- flame from every pore, its tail rified, tongue-tied captives; it

44 FANTASTIC had swooped on condemned crim- ander disappeared. The Dragon inals and dropped them from swept upward in its headlong heights into the terrible pit of flight, back in the direction of the dead, but never had any ex- the lake. cept the few initiates seen the “My father!” moaned Aspasia. monster at close hand. Crawford held her in a steely Now it was coming to attack grip. His brow was furrowed, —whom? puzzled. Suddenly it cleared. “Of Neither side knew; few of the course!” he almost shouted. rebels, chiefly of blood filtered “What, master?" Aaron through Kazak captives, were in asked. He was trembling uncon- the closest counsels of Therame- trollably. nes. Crawford disregarded the So it was that at the sight of question. "Give me your revolv- the plunging, fiery serpent of er; take the spear,” he said the air, the contending armies urgently. “Whatever happens, broke. Loyal troops and rebels whatever you see, guard Aspasia. alike threw away their arms in a If I fail, hide, and run for the wild stampede for safety. mountain during the night. The great Dragon swooped Good-by.” with the noise of a thousand He stood up, stepped from be- thunderbolts. Straight down to hind his shelter, exposed to full within fifty feet of the plain, view of the swiftly flying Drag- then it straightened out and fled on. parallel in huge concentric cir- “Don’t!” Aspasia screamed. cles. Its belly opened into a veri- “It will kill you as it killed my

table fountain of detonating father. I, too, shall die then.” flame that Beared the ground to She struggled to rise, but blackened stone and crisped the Aaron held her by force. His running men to char and ash. master was mad, but he had Suddenly the belching ceased, given orders, and they must be and once more the Dragon obeyed. swooped. Aspasia cried out in helpless horror. For the great T first Crawford thought the claws extended and caught on a A Dragon had not seen him; man—a man who remained on that it was continuing to the the field of battle, proudly erect, lake of its sojourn. But in mid- disdaining to run, a man whose flight it swerved, circled once to shield was centered with a blood- check its tremendous speed, red ruby. dropped perpendicularly with The claws retracted and Alex- steely claws hideously out-

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 45 ! — spread. For a moment Crawford dashed to splintered bones in the was shaken; would the monster pit of the dead. sear him with fire and flame? Then it happened But the great scaly belly re- The great belly yawned open mained cold; only from tail and like a gaping mouth; the claws nostrils gushed streamers of that held Crawford retracted, blazing smoke. The monster thrust him into the darkness in- wished to capture him, even as it side. The steely prongs released had Alexander. their cruel bite, withdrew, and Crawford stood relaxed, steel- the belly closed around him ing himself against the ripping like Jonah in the whale. thrust. His gun was pocketed, The pain of his wounds dizzied out of sight. Crawford. He staggered, fell. The Dragon came on with a Then there was light. The semi- rush. The wicked, razor-sharp- darkness sprang into illumina- ened claws reached down, bit tion. All around him was a soft, ruthlessly into his naked flesh, steady roaring. whirled him aloft into the air The archaeologist came to his with a screaming of wind and feet again, unsteadily. He was in snorting roars. Below, Aspasia a small, ovoid chamber, metal-

promptly fainted, and Aaron in- sheathed ; at either end were voked all his ancestors on behalf strange instruments of a type he of his doomed master. had never seen before. There Crawford felt the blood drip- were voices, too, of men; the ping steadily from his sides, ev- sound of Chinese diphthongs, of ery movement exquisite anguish, the rolling Greek of Homer. but he squirmed around until he Theramenes regarded him was staring up at the belly of with a thin-lipped smile. “You the fabulous beast. It was scaly, are a hard man to keep put.” unbroken, and rippled with the The American idiom sounded in- similitude of life. Behind, he congruous in his slurred Eng- could see the huge tail lashing lish. “What do you think of through the atmosphere. our Dragon?” In all his life Crawford had “I’ve known its secret for never experienced the sinking some time,” Crawford lied quiet- sensation he now felt in the pit ly. “It’s a rocket plane.” of his stomach. Had he been “You are indeed intelligent.” mistaken? If so, he was as good "The Chinese have reported as dead. A revolver bullet would the worship of the Holy Dragon be but a flung pebble to this for centuries. Who invented it?” fiery Dragon; he would be “My ancestor, twelve times re-

46 FANTASTIC moved. He found bitumen in the her. We shall turn back. She lake, refined it for fuel. His de- must be where we found the scendants are the hereditary American.” captains of the Dragon.” Now was the time to act, if ever. Crawford felt real nausea TTE might have been lying, but at the thought of those cruel it didn’t matter. Crawford’s claws gashing that tender flesh. head had cleared, but he swayed His hand stole unobtrusively to in pretense of faintness. His the pocket where the automatic wounds ached horribly; the rested. blood went drip, drip, down his But Kang Chou, with the guile sides. of the Oriental, had not been "What do you intend doing deceived by his play acting. “He with me?” he asked faintly. He is shamming!" he cried in warn- had not been searched; no one ing. “Look out!” knew that Aaron had escaped with a weapon. RAWFORD completed his “Do ?” Theramenes said. C move in split seconds. His “Throw you into the pit of the hand tore at the pocket, leaped dead. This time you will stay out, gun muzzle in front, finger put. You and the Alexander who pressing against trigger. thought he was divine.” A shot rang reverberating in For the first time Crawford the narrow confines. Kang Chou saw the old man, lying in a pool had fired first. Something of blood to one side. His breath- burned across Crawford's arm; ing was labored, stertorous. If <-hen his pistol spoke. It smashed Crawford read the signs aright, the pointing gun out of the he was dying. No help could b Chinese governor’s hand, then expected from him. The Ameri- the bullet deflected and plowed can half closed his eyes, to simu- through the wrist, breaking it. Kang Chou cursed horribly and late exhaustion ; from beneath locked lashes he warily surveyed sat down. the scene. Crawford whirled, balancing There were three men in the lightly. Just in time, for the crew, besides Theramenes and Greek renegade was pressing Kang Chou. All armed, no doubt, home the trigger, a light of in- the latter two with guns. Five sane hatred in his slanted eyes. against one! It would be a Two shots rang out, almost si- chance that he must take. multaneous in their report. The Theramenes said: “The devil, wind of it tugged at the Ameri-

Aspasia. I had almost forgotten can’s ear ; but Theramenes

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 47 stared in wide surprise, then ning in through the opened slid slowly to the floor, a bluish belly, eyes wide with astonish- round hole in his forehead. ment. Then the girl saw her Once more Crawford whirled father. With a cry she dropped to meet the rush of a Macedon- to his side. ian, spear drawn back for the The old Alexander’s stern, fatal lunge. Just then the Drag- pain-wracked face softened into on took a sickening plunge; the a smile. He was only a weary old steersman had left the controls. man, about to die. The spear whizzed harmlessly “Do not cry, my daughter,” past, to clang metallically he whispered with evident ef- against the concave wall. Craw- fort. “It was my mad ambition ford braced himself, and shot. that was responsible for the The man screamed and fell. tragedy to my peaceful land. "Back to your posts!” the Theramenes, the traitor, urged American shouted at the remain- me on. He is dead; so am I.” ing pair. Aspasia flung herself upon

With a wild rush they obeyed. him, sobbing. “No, no ! You shall The fight was gone out of them. live, you must.” They had never seen a gun be- His smile held rare quality. fore, nor known of its terrible “It is too late! The gods are execution. Theramenes had kept calling me; the ancient gods.” the secrets he had learned in the He half rose. His voice was outer world to himself. loud: “Jupiter Ammon,' your son The Dragon was plunging and comes!” He fell back, dead. To swinging erratically, its rocket the last he was Alexander, Is- jets, cleverly concealed in nos- kander, the divine! trils, eyes, mouth, and tail, roaring and sputtering. The steers- A SPASIA cried quietly, while man swung swiftly on a series Aaron patted her hand

of rudders ; the great beast clumsily. Crawford looked out of shuddered and steadied into the tiny porthole. The scattered smooth, slanting flight. remnants of the rebels had re- "Land here,” Crawford or- formed, were advancing on the dered, and gave directions. Dragon, five phlanges strong. The cowed Macedonians Brave men, thought the Ameri- obeyed. Kang had stopped curs- can admiringly. ing salty Chinese oaths; he sat He turned to give orders to holding his shattered wrist, his take off, when something else face philosophically calm. caught his attention. He stiff- Aspasia and Aaron came run- ened incredulously. The air was

48 FANTASTIC full with droning noise. Five air- tubes burst into roaring flame. planes, bombers of an American Along the ground it bumped in- make, were winging in battle terminably, while the combat formation over the inaccessible planes whistled with the speed valley of the Heavenly Moun- of their flight. tains. The leader was almost upon The placid calm of Kang Chou them. Crawford could see the wreathed into a smile. “It is my helmeted face of the pilot reach- turn now,” he remarked. “Those ing for the bomb trip, when the planes are mine, from Turfan. Dragon gave a great lurch and I left instructions. The pilots are left the ground. It was up in foreigners, reckless fools who the air, gathering speed. fear neither man nor devil. They The bombers whirled around, come ahead of time, to seize the darted headlong for the fleeing Dragon. It will be useful to con- prey. Machine-gun bullets vince my countrymen I am a whined and zipped; a pellet of good ruler.” steel ripped through the outer But Crawford was not listen- shell, ripped out again through ing. Already the airplanes had the opposite side. deployed over the armed forces. The Macedonians needed no Bombs dropped with deadly pre- urging now. The rudders con- cision. The valley lifted and trolling the rocket jets swung heaved. The temple was shat- wide. The acceleration fairly tered into wind-borne fragments, hurled the great beast through the ming-di House of a Thou- the air. No plane could hope to sand Rooms, was blasted from keep pace with the hurtling the side of the mountain. The Dragon. strange, anachronistic civiliza- Four of the bombers were tion of two thousand years was dropping fast behind; one, the being effectually wiped out. leader, held to the pace for a Then a pilot saw the resting grim half minute. Kang Chou Dragon. The planes wheeled, half rose, his mask ripped off. came in a long, slanting rush. The pursuing pilot saw that he Crawford jumped into action, was losing ground, in despera- roaring orders. The terrified tion he sent a last wild fusillade Macedonians saw the oncoming toward the fleeing monster. One death, sprang frantically to the bullet found its mark. It crashed rudders. through the belly, caught Kang The great monster shuddered Chou in the chest. throughout its sinuous length; He spun around, mouth half jerked forward as the rocket open, and sprawled forward.

THE DRAGON OF ISKANDER 49 The Dragon lifted high over For some reason Crawford felt the encircling peaks, flaming curiously happy as Aspasia and snorting at every pore; over nestled against his shoulder. No the accustomed trail to Dead words were spoken; there was Mongol Pass, toward the en- silence except for the curious campment of the expedition in throbbing of the unknowing the hollow of the Black Gobi, Dragon.

THE END

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51 Hchellini

52 AU peoples have their myths of wanderers through

time . . . who, though they may not end their own

sufferings, have the power to help others save

themselves . . . Such a one was the gaunt man.

OU’RE walking down Fool’s went, and this one was no differ- YStreet, Laura used to say ent from the others. The same when he was drinking, and she skeletonic signs bled beer names had been right. He had known in naked windows, the same even then that she was right, winos sat in doorways nursing but knowing had made no dif- muscatel; the same drunk tank ference; he had simply laughed awaited you when at last your at her fears and gone on walk- reeling footsteps failed. And if ing down it, till finally he stum- the sky was darker than usual, it bled and fell. Then, for a long was only because of the rain time, he stayed away, and if he which had begun falling early a DRINK of DARKNESS

By ROBERT F. YOUNG

Illustrator SCHELLING had stayed away long enough he that morning and which had would have been all right; but been falling steadily ever since. one night he began walking Chris went into another bar, down it again—and met the girl. laid down his last quarter and It was inevitable that on Fool's ordered wine. At first he did not Street there should be women as see the man who came in a mo- well as wine. ment later and stood beside him. He had walked down it many There was a raging rawness in times since in many different him such as even he had never towns, and now he was walking known before, and the wine he down it once again in yet an- had thus far drunk had merely other town. Fool’s Street never served to aggravate it. Eagerly changed no matter where you he drained the glass which the

53 ; —

bartender filled and set before . . . now down this flight of him. Reluctantly he turned to stairs.” leave. He saw the man then. It was a long gray room, damp, and dimly lit. A gray- HE man was gaunt—so faced bartender stood statu- Tgaunt that he seemed taller esquely behind a deserted bar. than he actually was. His thin- When they entered he set two featured face was pale, and his glasses on the bar and filled dark eyes seemed beset by un- them from a dusty bottle. “How imaginable pain. His hair was much?” the gaunt man asked. brown and badly in need of cut- “Thirty,” the bartender an- ting. There was a strange statu- swered. esqueness about him—an odd The gaunt man counted out sense of immobility. Raindrops the money. “I shouldn’t have iridesced like tiny jewels on his asked,” he said. “It’s always trench coat, dripped sporad- gray thirty—no matter where I go. ically from his black hat. “Good Thirty this, or thirty that; thir- evening,” he said. “May I offer ty days or thirty months or you a drink?” thirty thousand years.” He For an agonizing moment raised his glass and touched it Chris saw himself through the to his lips. other’s eyes—saw his thin sensi- Chris followed suit, the raw- tive face with its intricate net- ness in him screaming. The glass works of ruptured capillaries was so cold that it numbed his his gray rain-plastered hair; his fingertips, and its contents had ragged rain-soaked overcoat; his a strange Cimmerian cast. But eracked rain-sodden shoes—and the truth didn’t strike him till he the image was so vivid that it tilted the glass and drained the shocked him into speechlessness. darkness ; then the quatrain But only briefly; then the raw- came down from the attic of his ness intervened. “Sure I’ll have a mind where he had stored it drink,” he said, and tapped his years ago, and he knew sudden- glass upon the bar. ly who the gaunt man was “Not here,” the gaunt man So when at last the Angel of said. "Come with me.” the Drink Chris followed him out into Of Darkness finds you by the rain, the rawness rampant the river-brink, now. He staggered, and the And, proffering his Cup, in- gaunt man took his arm. “It’s vites your Soul only a little ways,” the gaunt Forth to your Lips to qtiaff man said. “Into this alley here it—do not shrink.

54 FANTASTIC ——

But by then the icy waves were fied each place. The playground washing through him, and soon was the one where he had played the darkness was complete. as a boy. The lake was the one he had fished in as a young man. EAD! The word was a hoarse The foxhole was the one he had D and hideous echo caroming bled and nearly died in. The down the twisted corridor of his summer street was the one he mind. He heard it again and had driven down on his way to

again and again—dead . . . his first post-war job. He re-

. . . till finally to place played, dead dead— he turned each ; realized that the source of it was fished, swam, bled, drove. In himself and that his eyes were each case it was like living each tightly closed. Opening them, he moment all over again. saw a vast starlit plain and a dis- Was it possible, in death, to tant shining mountain. He closed control time and relive the past them again, more tightly than He would try. The past was before. definitely preferable to the pres- “Open your eyes,” the gaunt ent. But to which moment did he man said. “We’ve a long ways to wish to return? Why, to the II go. most precious one of all, of Reluctantly Chris obeyed. The course—to the one in which he gaunt man was standing a few had met Laura. Laura, he feet away, staring hungrily at thought, fighting his way back the shining mountain. “Where through the hours, the months, are we?” Chris asked. "In God’s the years. “Laura!” he cried out name, where are we!” in the cold and starlit reaches of The gaunt man ignored the the night question. “Follow me,” he said, And the plain became a sun- and set off toward the mountain. filled street Numbly Chris followed. He sensed coldness all around him E and Minelli had come off but he could not feel it, nor H guard duty that noon and could he see his breath. A shud- had gone into the Falls on a der racked him. Of course he twelve-hour pass. It was a golden couldn’t see his breath—he had October day early in the war, no breath to see. Any more than and they had just completed the gaunt man did. their basic training. Recently The plain shimmered, became each of them had made corporal, a playground, then a lake, then and they wore their chevrons in a foxhole, finally a summer their eyes as well as on their street. Wonderingly he identi- sleeves. A DRINK OF DARKNESS 55 The two girls were sitting at a Falls over the weekend—and booth in a crowded bar, sipping Chris had thought, Good, now at ginger ale. Minelli had made the last we’ll be rid of them. Guard advances, concentrating on the duty always wore him out—he tall dark-haired one. Chris had had never been able to adapt lingered in the background. He himself to the two hours on-two sort of liked the dark-haired girl, hours off routine—and he was but the round-faced blonde who tired. But Minelli went right on was with her simply wasn’t his talking after they reached the cup of tea, and he kept wishing boarding-house, and presently Minelli would give up and come the two girls agreed to go out to back to the bar and finish his supper. Minelli and Chris waited beer so they could leave. on the porch while they went in Minelli did nothing of the sort. and freshened up. When they He went right on talking to the came out Laura stepped quickly tall girl, and presently he man- over to Chris’s side and took his aged to edge his stocky body in- arm. to the seat beside her. There was He was startled for a mo- nothing for it then, and when ment, but he recovered swiftly, Minelli beckoned to him Chris and soon he and Laura were went over and joined them. The walking hand in hand down the round-faced girl's name was Pa- street. Minelli and Pat fell in tricia and the tall one’s name behind them. “It’s all right, is- was Laura. n’t it?” Laura whispered in his They went for a walk, the four ear. “I’d much rather go with of them. They watched the Amer- you.” ican Falls for a while and after- “Sure,” he said, “it’s fine.” ward they visited Goat Island. And it was, too. He wasn’t Laura was several inches taller tired any more and there was than Minelli, and her thinness a pleasant warmth washing made her seem even taller. They through him. Glancing sideways made a rather incongruous cou- at her profile, he saw that her ple. Minelli didn’t seem to mind, face wasn’t quite as thin as he

but Laura seemed ill at ease and had at first thought, and that kept glancing over her shoulder her nose was tilted just enough at Chris. to give her features a piquant Finally she and Pat had in- cast. sisted that it was time for them Supper over, the four of them to go home—they were staying revisited the American Falls. at a modest boarding-house just Twilight deepened into darkness of the main drag, taking in the and the stars came out. Chris

56 FANTASTIC —

and Laura found a secluded lived, he had cried when he had bench and sat in the darkness, seen her standing in the station- shoulders touching, listening to doorway, and she had cried too; the steady thunder of the cata- and the years of want and of ract. The air was chill, and per- waiting had woven themselves meated with ice-cold particles* of into a golden moment—and now spray. He put his arm around the moment was shreds. her, wondering if she was as Shreds, said the plain. Shreds, cold as he was; apparently she pulsed the stars. The golden mo- was, for she snuggled up close ment is shreds , . , to him. He turned and kissed her The past is a street lined with then, softly, gently, on the lips; hours, he thought, and I am it wasn’t much of a kiss, but he walking down the street and I knew somehow that he would can open the door of any hour I never forget it. He kissed her choose and go inside. It is a once more when they said good dead man's privilege, or perhaps night on the boarding-house a dead man’s curse—for ivhat porch. She gave him her ad- good are hours now? dress. "Yes,” he whispered, The next door he opened led "I’ll write.” “And I’ll write too,” into Ernie’s place, and he went she whispered back in the cool inside and drank a beer he had damp darkness of the night. ordered fourteen years ago.

“I’ll write you every day . . “How’s Laura?” Ernie asked. “Fine,” he said. “And Little VERY day, said the plain. Chris?” “Oh, he’s fine too. He’ll E Every day, pulsed the stars. be a whole year old next month."

I’ll write you every day . . . He opened another door and And she had, too, he remem- went over to where Laura was bered, plodding grimly in the standing before the kitchen gaunt man’s wake. His letters stove and kissed her on the back from her were legion, and so of the neck. “Watch out!” she were her letters from him. They cried in mock distress. “You al- had gotten married a week be- most made me spill the gravy.” fore he went overseas, and she He opened another door—Er- had waited through the unreal nie’s place again. He closed it years for him to come back, and quickly. He opened another all the while they had written, and found himself in a bar full written written; Dearest Chris of squealing people. Streamers and Dearest Laura, and words, drifted down around him, words, words. Getting off the streamers and multicolored bal- bus in the little town where she loons. He burst a balloon with his

A DRINK OF DARKNESS 57 ” —

cigarette and waved his glass. “You've just recovered from a “Happy New Year!” he shout- long bout with a disease to ed. “Happy New Year!” Laura which you are extremely sus- was sitting at a corner table, a ceptible, and because you are

distressed look on her face. He extremely susceptible to it, you went over and seized her arm must sedulously avoid any and and pulled her to her feet. “It’s all contact with the virus that

all right, don’t you see?” he causes it. You have a low alco- said. “It’s New Year’s Eve. If a holic threshold, Chris, and con- man can’t let himself go on sequently you are even more at New Year’s Eve, when can he the mercy of that ‘first drink’ let himself go?” than the average periodic drink- “But darling, you said— er. Moreover, your alternate per- “I said I’d quit—and I will, sonality—your ‘alcoholic alter too—starting tomorrow.” He ego’—is virtually the diametric weaved around in a fantastic opposite of your real self, and little circle that somehow hence all the more incompatible brought him back to her side. with reality. It has already be- “Happy New year, baby—Happy haved in ways your real self New Year!" would not dream of behaving, “Happy New Year, darling,” and at this point it is capable of she said, and kissed him on the behavior-patterns so contrary to cheek. He saw then that she was your normal behavior-patterns crying. that it could disrupt your whole He ran from the room and out life. Therefore, I beg you, Chris, into the Cimmerian night. Hap- not to unleash it. And now, good py New Year, the plain said. bye and good luck. I am happy Happy New Year, pulsed the that our institution could be of stars. Should auld acquaintance such great help to you.” be forgot, and, never brought to He knew the hour that lay

mind . . . The gaunt man still behind the next door, and it was strode relentlessly ahead, and an hour which he did not care now the shining mountain oc- to relive. But the door opened of culted half the sky. Desperately its own accord, and despite him- Chris threw open another door self he stepped across the dark

threshold of the years . . . E was sitting in an office. He and Laura were carrying H Across the desk from him Friday-night groceries from the sat a gray-haired man in a white car into the house. It was sum- coat. “Look at it this way,” the mer, and stars glistened gently gray-haired man was saying. in the velvet-soft sky. He was

58 FANTASTIC tired, as was to be expected at light caught it, and it gleamed the end of the week, but he was softly in the darkness. He knelt taut too—unbearably taut from there, staring at it, the chill three months of teetotalism. And dampness of the ground creep- Friday nights were the worst of ing up into his knees. What all; he had always spent his harm can one drink do? his Friday nights at Ernie’s, and tautness asked. One drink stolen while part of his mind remem- in the darkness, and then no bered how poignantly he had more? regretted them the next day, the No, he answered. Never. Yes, rest of his mind insisted on the tautness screamed. Just one. dwelling on the euphoria they A sip. A swallow. Hurry! If it had briefly brought him—even wasn’t meant to be the bag though it knew as well as the would not have burst. His fin- other part did that the euphoria gers wrenched off the cap of had been little more than a pro- their own volition then, and he

found and gross feeling of ani- raised the bottle to his lips . . . mal relaxation. When he returned to the patio The bag of potatoes he was Laura was standing in the door- carrying burst open, and pota- way, her tall slenderness silhou- toes bounced and rolled all over etted softly against the living- the patio. “Damn!” he said, and room light. He knelt down and knelt down and began picking resumed picking up the pota- them up. One of them slipped toes, and perceiving what had from his Angers and rolled per- happened, she came out, laugh- versely off the patio and down ing, and helped him. Afterward the walk, and he followed it she went down the street to her angrily, peevishly determined sister’s to pick up Little Chris. that it should not get away. It By the time she got back, the glanced off one of the wheels of bottle was half empty and the Little Chris’s tricycle and rolled tautness was no more. under the back porch. When he reached in after it his fingers E waited till she took Little touched a cold curved smooth- H Chris upstairs to put him to ness, and with a start he re- bed, then he got in the car and membered the bottle of whiskey drove downtown. He went to he had hidden the previous Ernie’s. “Hi, Chris,” Ernie said, spring after coming home from a surprised. “What’ll it be?” Saturday-night drunk—hidden “Shot and a beer,” he said. and forgotten about till now. He noticed the girl at the end of Slowly he withdrew it. Star- the bar then. She was a tall

A DRINK OF DARKNESS 59 blonde with eyes like blue moun- back to Laura. Before, when he tain lakes. She returned his gaze had walked down Fool’s Street, coolly, calculatingly. The whis- it had been the booze and the key he had already drunk had booze alone, and afterward he made him tall; the boilermaker had been able to face her. But made him even taller. He walked he could not face her now—not down to the end of the bar and Laura of the tender smile, the slipped onto the stool beside her. gentle eyes. Hurting her was one “Have a drink with me?” he thing; destroying her, quite an- asked. other. “Sure,” she said, “why not?” No, he had not gone back; he He had one too, soaring now had accepted Fool’s Street as his after the earthbound months on destiny, and gone on walking ginger ale, all the accumulated down it through the years, and drives finding vent as his inhi- the years had not been kind. bitions dropped away and his The past was not preferable to drunken alter ego stepped upon the present after all. the stage. Tomorrow he would hate what he was tonight, but 'T'HE shining mountain loomed tonight he loved what he was. death-tall against the star- Tonight he was a god, leaping flecked sky. He could face it now, upon the mountains, skipping whatever it was meant to be; upon the hills. He took the but there was still one more door blonde to her apartment and to open, one final bitter swallow stayed the night, and went home remaining in the cup. Grimly he in the small hours, reeking of stepped back across the bottom- cheap perfume. When he saw less abyss of time to the little Laura’s face the next morning tavern on School Street and fin- he wanted to kill himself, and if ished the glass of muscatel he it hadn’t been for the half-full had bought six years ago. Then bottle under the porch, he would he walked over to the window have. But the bottle saved him, and stood looking out into the and he was off again. street. It was quite a spree. To fi- He stood there for some time, nance it, he sold his car, and watching the kids go by on their weeks later, he and the blonde way home from school, and after wound up in a cheap rooming- a while the boy with Laura’s eyes house in Kalamazoo. She stayed came into view. His throat con- around long enough to help him stricted then,- and the street drink up his last dollar, and swam slightly out of focus; but then took off. He never went he went on watching, and pres-

60 FANTASTIC ently the boy was abreast of the from life to death. You repeat- window, chatting gaily with his edly returned to moments in companions and swinging his your past because the present, books now past the window and except in a symbolic sense, ; no disappearing from view. For a longer exists for you. If you do moment he almost ran outside not climb it, you will keep return- and shouted, Chris, remember ing to those moments.” me ? —and then, by the grace of “What will I find on the moun- God, his eyes dropped to his tain?" cracked shoes and his mind re- “I do not know. But this much membered his seedy suit and the I do know: whatever you find wine-sour smell of his breath, there will be more merciful than and he shrank back into the what you have found—or will shadows of the room. ever find—on the plain.” On the plain again, he shout- “Who are you?” ed, “Why didn’t you come soon- The gaunt man looked out er, Mr. Death? Why didn’t you over the plain. His shoulders come six years ago? That was sagged, as though a great when I really died!” weight lay upon them. “There is The gaunt man had halted at no word for what I am,” he said the base of the shining mountain presently. “Call me a wanderer, and was staring up at the snow- if you like—a wanderer con- white slopes. His very aspect ex- demned to walk the plain for- pressed yearning, and when he ever; a wanderer periodically turned, the yearning lingered in compelled to return to life and his eyes. "I am not death,” he seek out someone on the verge said. of death and die with him in the “Whe are you then?” Chris nearest halfway house and share asked. “And where are we go- his past with him and add his ing?” sufferings to my own. A wander- “We are not going anywhere. er of many languages and much From this point you must pro- lore, gleaned through the cen- ceed alone. I cannot climb the turies; a wanderer who, by the

mountain ; it’s forbidden me.” very nature of my domain, can “But why must / climb the move at will through the past

mountain?” . . . You know me very well.” “You do not have to—but you will. You will climb it because it HRIS gazed upon the thin- is death. The plain you have just C featured face. He looked into crossed and upon which you still the pain-racked eyes. “No,” he stand represents the transition said, “I do not know you.”

A DRINK OF DARKNESS 61 ” ”

“You know me very well," the once he is suspended in the past, gaunt man repeated. “But to return to the moment and, through words and pictures only, merely by choosing the other and a historian cannot accurate- alternative, postpone his death. ly describe a man from hearsay, But in order to do so he would nor can an artist accurately de- have to know which moment to pict a face he has never seen. return to— But who I am should be of no “But I do know which mo- concern to you. What should be ment,” Chris said hoarsely. “I— of concern to you is whether or The gaunt man raised his not there is a way for you to hand. “I know you do—and hav- return to life.” ing relived it with you, I do too. Hope pounded in Chris’s And the alternative you chose brain. “And is there? Is there a did precipitate your death: you ” way died of acute alcoholism. But “Yes,” the gaunt man said, there is another consideration. “there is. But very few men have Whenever anyone returns to the ever traveled it successfully. The past he automatically loses his essence of the plain is the past, ‘memory’ of the future. You have and therein lies its weakness. already chosen the same alterna- Right now you are capable of tive twice. If you return to the returning to any moment of your moment once more, won’t the life; but unless you alter your result be the same? Won’t you past while doing so, the date of betray yourself—and your wife your death will remain un- and son—all over again?” changed.” “But I can try,” Chris said.

“I don’t understand,” Chris “And if I fail, I can try again.” said. “Try then. But don’t hope too “Each individual, during his much. I know the critical mo- life span,” the gaunt man went ment in my past too, and I have on, “arrives at a critical moment returned to it again and again in which he must choose between and again, not to postpone my two major alternatives. Often- death—it is far too late for that times he is not aware of the im- —but to free myself from the portance of his choice, but plain, and I have never succeed- whether he is aware or not, the ed in changing it one iota.” The alternative he chooses will arbi- gaunt man’s voice grew bitter. trarily determine the pattern "But then, my moment and its which his future life will follow. consequences are firmly cement- Should this alternative precipi- ed in the minds of men. Your tate his death, he should be able, case is different. Go then. Try.

62 FANTASTIC —

Think of the hour, the scene, the and knelt down and began pick- way you felt ; then open the door. ing them up. One of them This time I will not accompany slipped from his fingers and you vicariously; I will go as my- rolled perversely off the patio and self. I will have no ‘memory' of down the walk, and he followed

the future either ; but if you in- it angrily, peevishly determined terpret my presence in the same that it should not get away. It symbolic way you interpreted it glanced off one of the wheels of before, I may be of help to you. little Chris’s tricycle and rolled I do not want your hell too; my under the back porch. When he own and those of the others is reached in after it his fingers enough.” touched a cold curved smooth- The hour, the scene, the way ness, and with a start he remem- he had felt. Dear God! ... It is bered the bottle of whiskey he a summer night and above me had hidden the previous spring stars lie softly on the dark velvet after coming home from a Sat- counterpane of the sky. I am urday-night drunk—hidden and driving my ear into my drive- forgotten about till now. way and my house is a light- warmed fortress in the night; LOWLY he withdrew it. Star- secure stands my citadel beneath S light caught it, and it gleamed the stars and in the ivomb of it softly in the darkness. He knelt l will be safe—safe and warm there, staring at it, the chill and wanted ... I have driven dampness of the ground creep- my car into my driveivay and ing up into his knees. What my wife is sitting beside me in harm can one drink do ? his taut- the soft summer darkness . . . ness asked. One drink stolen in and now I am helping her carry the darkness, and then no more? groceries into the house. My No, he answered. Never. Yes, wife is tall and slender and dark the tautness screamed. Just one. of hair, and she has gentle eyes A sip. A swallow. Hurry! If it and a tender smile and much ivasn’t meant to be the bag would loveliness . . . Soft is the night not have burst. His fingers around us, compassionate are wrenched off the cap of their the stars; warm and secure is my own volition then, and he raised house, my citadel, my soul . . . the bottle to his lips And saw the man. HE bag of potatoes he was He was standing several yards Tcarrying burst open, and po- away. Statuesque. Immobile. His tatoes bounced and rolled all thin-featured face was pale. His over the patio. "Damn!” he said, eyes were burning pits of pain.

A DRINK OF DARKNESS 63 — : —

He said no word, but went on drew her tightly against him standing there, and presently an and kissed her—not gently, the icy wind sprang up in the sum- way he had kissed her at the mer night and drove the warmth Falls, but hard, hungrily, the

away before it. The words came way a husband kisses his wife tumbling down the attic-stairs of when he realizes suddenly how Chris’s mind then, and lined up much he needs her. on the threshold of his memory After a while she leaned back So when at last the Angel of and looked up into his eyes. She the Drink smiled her warm and tender Of Darkness finds you by the smile. "I guess the potatoes can river-brink, wait at that,” she said. And, proffering his Cup, in- vites your Soul HE gaunt man stepped back Forth to your Lips to quaff Tacross the abysmal reaches of it—do not shrink. the years and resumed his eter- “No,” he cired, “not yet!” and nal wandering beneath the cold emptied the bottle onto the and silent stars. His success ground and threw it into the heartened him; perhaps, if he darkness. When he looked again, tried once more, he could alter the man had disappeared. his own moment too Shuddering, he stood up. The Think of the hour, the scene, icy wind was gone, and the sum- the way you felt; then open the mer night was soft and warm door ... It is spring and I am around him. He walked down the walking through narrow tivist- walk on unsure feet and climbed ing streets. Above me stars the patio steps. Laura was stand- shine gently in the dark and ing in the doorway, her tall mysterious pastures of the night. slenderness silhouetted softly It is spring and a ivarm wind is against the living-room light. blowing in from the fields and Laura of the tender smile, the bearing with it the scent of gentle eyes; a glass of loveliness growing things. I can smell standing on the lonely bar of matzoth baking in earthen ovens night . . . Noiu the temple looms be- He drained the glass to the fore me and 1 go inside and wait last drop, and the wine of her beside a monolithic table . . . was sweet. When she saw the Now the high priest is ap- potatoes scattered on the patio proaching . . . and came out, laughing, to help The high priest upended the him, he touched her arm. “No, leather bag he was carrying and not now,” he whispered, and spilled its gleaming contents on

64 FANTASTIC — the table. “Count them,” he said. “Yes. Thirty.” He did so, his fingers trem- “It is agreed then ?” he replied. bling. Each piece made a clinking For the hundredth, the thou- sound when he dropped it into sandth, the millionth time, he the bag. Clink . . . clink . . . nodded. "Yes,” he said, “it is clink. When the final clink sound- agreed. Come, I will take you to ed he closed the bag and thrust him, and I will kiss his cheek so it beneath his robe. that you will know him. He is in “Thirty?” the high priest a garden just outside the city asked. a garden named Gethsemane.”

THE END

COMING NEXT MONTH

The Vernon Kramer cover on the August issue of FANTASTIC gives you a rough Idea of how ''far-out'' that issue will be.

Right now we know that Larry Harris' cover-illo story. Sword of Flowers, will be one of the most unusual fantasy tales we've ever published.

And we know that the co-star in the August FANTASTIC will be the unforgettable Fantasy Classic, The Titian, by P. Schuyler Miller.

In addition there will be a handful of short stories— including some by either Arthur Porges, Jack Sharkey or Rob- ert Young—as well as all our regular features.

Get the August FANTASTIC, at your newsstand on July 19.

65 By POUL ANDERSON Conclusion SHIELD

SYNOPSIS r Vy HE world after the atomic mation and the Pax Americana A wars was big, scientific, pro- demanded. Peter Koskinen had ductive, but hardly pleasant un- thought he did. A war orphan, less you had the skills and the he was raised a&d given inten- kind of personality which auto- sive technical education in an

66 institution; hardly had he grad- the nonhuman Martian race and uated than his application for a their enigmatic science. The berth on the ninth Mars expedi- Martians in turn learned from tion was accepted . That ship, the the Earthmen, and the fusion of Franz Boas, remained away for ideas produced concepts new to fire years while the men studied both planets. Koskinen in particular, with his ‘native friend Elkor, came up with something revolutionary, a potential barrier field coupled to an cnergy- storing device. When the machine was switched on, nothing that traveled at less than miles per second could penetrate the invisible screen. With an air re- newer added, it enabled a man to travel about much more freely on Mars than the ordinary thermsuit. The expedition mem- bers were thinking only of such applications when they at last brought back a small portable model urith them. They were supposed to rest a few days before reporting for- mally to the A8tronautical Au- thority which had sent them, and scattered to their homes. Koskinen, who had none, checked into a hotel in the Atlantic sea- board megapolis, taking the shield generator with him to have it handy. He was dismayed when two agents of Military Se- curity arrested him for an in- terrogation that was obviously going to be thorough and ruth- less. MS was the intelligence agency of the Protectorate, which the United States under Doctrine unilat- Illustrator ADKINS the Norris had 67 eraUy imposed on Earth. No oth- somewhere. But he was captured er country was allowed armed by some of the bandits who forces, and the United States re- roved freely about such parts of served unlimited rights of in- town as this. They had only in- spection. What had Koskinen to tended to rob him. When he do with that? switched on his shield again, He found out when the aircar though, they realized they had in which he was being taken something more valuable. Im- away was attacked and captured mobilized as long as the force by a Chinese stratoship. Though shell surrounded him, he was officially disowned by their gov- carried to the atomic-bomb cra- ernments, some nationalist or- ter beneath which Zigger, the ganizations did exist in other local robber baron, maintained a countries and had accumulated fortress. Koskinen thought he weapons. It was an open secret could outwait their patience in that the Chinese dictatorship his impenetrable field. But a supported its own terrorists, but strikingly beautiful woman sci- the problems of governing China entist quickly saw that if light directly tvere so hopeless that could pass the barrier, so could the Protectorate must needs a heat raw. Threatened, in writ- wink at this. Koskinen was still ing, ivith a maser gun, Kos- more appalled when the agents kinen surrendered and turned of his own country tried to kill off his generator. him to keep his knowledge from Somewhat later the woman in- Chinese hands. Having some vited him to a private dinner in skill in judo, he managed to es- her suite. Her name ivas Vi- cape from them and jump over- vienne Cordeiro, a strong, high- board with his generator. The IQ type with great sympathy for field protected him from injury the prisoner. She explained the when he landed in a slum area. potentialities of the shield de- Bewildered, Koskinen tried to vice which made Zigger want it call a friend from the expedition, so badly. Invulnerable gangsters and learned that he had been ar- could expand the Crater boss’s rested. News service told him operations, which were already that Twain, captain of the Boas, large, until he might rule the had been murdered while resist- entire underworld. This would ing a kidnap attempt, apparent- be especially simple if shield ly by Chinese agents. Feeling generators that permitted men that everyone was after him and to move freely around could be in his naivete not knoiving why, developed—a mere question of Koskinen thought of hiding out engineering.

68 FANTASTIC Zigger ordered Koskinen to the Protectorate had violated its help Vivienne on this work. Wor- oivn N'orris Doctrine as well as ried by the disappearance of one all Constitutional guarantees. of his men, the chief was brutal Hugh Marcus, Director of MS, about it, but also offered rich was not one to let mere legality payment for willing cooperation. hamper him. If he got control of To keep Koskinen from one day the shield effect—or the Chinese switching on the field in a place did, or anyone who had power— where heat rays couldn’t reach, then invulnerability ivould re- Vivienne was made to weld an move the last checks on that explosive capsule around his power. “I’d rather Zigger got neck, with a radio detonator that this thing,’’ she finished. “All he the chief kept. wants, really, is plunder. Not the When they were alone in the souls of the whole human race." laboratory, the woman suggested wearily to Koskinen that he OSKINEN came awake. might as well join the gang. It K What was that? was no worse than the govern- Maybe nothing. A dream, from ment. Shocked, he denied this, which he’d escaped before it got even though MS had tried to kill too ghastly. He had perforce him. She told him her own story taken a pill to sleep, but that —an orphaned refugee, rescued must have worn off by now. The and raised much like him, she luminous clock said 0415 EDST. had entered government service Otherwise he lay in total black- as a science attache and married ness. And soundlessness, apart a Brazilian. Though she knew from the murmur in the ven- for a fact that he was innocent tilation grille. These thick walls in a case of conspiracy against effectively insulated every apart- the Protectorate, he was never- ment. If an outside noise had theless railroaded and executed. roused him, it must have been The reason, she found out later, loud indeed. was simply that MS thought he He rolled over and tried to might some day make trouble. doze off again, but instead he Embittered, Vivienne went down grew completely wakeful. What to the slums and, when she was Vivienne had said today, and kidnapped by Zigger, made no her tone and expression and effort to escape but settled down whole posture, had disturbed as his technical aide as well as him more than he wanted to ad- mistress. It was one way of mit. striking back. She mentioned I wouldn’t know the score. Not other eases she knew of, where really. My youth was spent in

SHIELD 69 ? ? —

what amounted to a fancy boarding of my own. But the explosive ing school. I never encountered locket and chain were like a hand outside, day-to-day reality. Not around his neck. Maybe some- that the professors lied to us, or time, somewhere along the line, any such thing. They told us he could secretly make a cage to conditions were hard, and that screen out the signal that would we’d have to buck poverty, ig- touch off the fulgurite. Maybe. norance, tyranny, greed, and Not soon, though. He’d have to hate. But I see now their under- bide his time, and watch his standing of the situation was chance, and eat dirt childish. They accepted their po- A dull boom resounded. litical opinions readymade, from Koskinen sprang out of bed. official sources, because their His heart skipped a beat and be- work kept them too busy to do gan galloping. Hoy—wasn’t that anything else. a siren? He found the light I might have gone into the switch. In that sudden illumina- world with the rest of my class- tion the room looked altogether mates and had my nose rubbed bare. He tried the door. Locked, in a few facts. But instead I of course. He laid his ear against shipped out to Mars. Now I come the panel and could just hear

home, and the truth confronts shouts, running feet . . . yes, cer- me. And not piecemeal, so I can tainly a siren, wailing elsewhere get used to it and accept it as in the caverns. sad but unavoidable, hi one big He switched on the phone. It brutal dose. 1 want to vomit it up didn’t respond. Were nonessen- again. tial circuits cut off for the emer- Only what is the truth he gency, or had the central been thought wearily. Who’s right destroyed? Another crash trem- What’s the way out? If any. bled through rock. Raid! But who? E had spent the day in an Zigger. Koskinen broke into a H emotionally stunned fash- chill sweat. If a desperate Zigger

ion, finding some anodyne in pressed one certain button. . . . drawing up, with Vivienne’s He discovered he was trying to help, the diagrams and specifica- snap the chain with his hands. tions for the shield unit. There Swiftly, futilely, he searched the seemed no choice but to obey apartment for anything that Zigger. Lying now in bed, his might cut metal. Nothing. He fists clenched, he thought: I’ve put on some clothes, set his been pushed around too bloody teeth, and paced the floor, wait- often. Time I started some pushing.

70 FANTASTIC ! —

The racket increased outside. Strength resurged. He heaved Another explosion came, and an- the metal up and put his arms other. But he heard no more peo- through the straps. "What's hap- ple go by. The fight must be pened?” some ways off, then. He couldn't “Raiding party. Big one, with do a thing except await events. military equipment. Chinese, ac- He tried to recall his parents, cording to one guy at a monitor. and Elkor, and daydreams he They lobbed in a couple of small had once nourished, but he was HE missiles from the air, which too tense. Stupid, he scolded shook up our ack-ack long

himself. If that bomb goes off, enough for them to land. Now you’ll never know it. The realiza- they’re blowing their way in past tion did little to calm him. our defenses. We’re equipped to A louder crash yet. The lights stand off another gang or even a flickered and dimmed. The ven- police siege, but not stuff like tilator fan whirred to a halt. they’ve got!” She tucked the Koskinen’s mouth felt like cloth firmly about his burden. Martian dust. He started to the "Into the cubby, now.” cubby for a drink of water. The “What?” door opened. He whirled and She dragged him by the hand. crouched back. “Everybody knows what you look like. But without those ivienne cordeiro whiskers, you’ve got a fair Vstepped through, closing the chance of not being noticed. door behind her. She wore a cov- Quick!” She handed him the erall, there was a pistol in her depple. hand and an ungainly bundle on He ran it over his face, recog- her back with a cloth draped over nizing his chin again with a

it. Her eyes were narrowed, the faint shock. Not having a very broad nostrils flared and her strong growth of beard, he could mouth bore a tight grin. expect to be smooth-cheeked for "There!” she panted. "Take a week or so without further this.” She slipped the thing off plucking. The desensitizer spray her shoulders. The cloth fell felt cool on his skin. away and Koskinen looked upon Vivienne kept on talking: “I

the shield unit. “A little heavy can guess how they did it, the for me to run with.”— Chinese. They knew approxi- "What—what ” He stag- mately where you landed, so they gered toward her. sent a good many agents in to "Get it on, you clotbrain try and pick up your trail. Must We’ll be lucky to escape as is.” have identified Bones in town

SHIELD 71 everybody in the neighborhood another pocket. “Here’s the deto- knows who the Crater people are nator." —and put the snatch on him." Koskinen snatched for it. She She spared a sigh for poor old sidestepped him. “No, you don't. Bones and the treatment which Now let’s go. There isn’t much was doubtless used to make him time." guide the attack. “Obviously they’re shooting their wad. Ev- HE opened the door first and ery military weapon they’ve S peered into the hall. “Okay. stockpiled in this country, se- Everything’s clear." They cretly, over the years, must be stepped through. A guard out there. It’s worth it, though. sprawled outside. He had been A China equipped with barrier shot in the head. Vivienne nod- screens could tell MS where to ded. “Yes,” she said. “Wasn’t get off, build a nuclear arsenal any other way to get in. Gimme again, and probably blackmail a hand.” They dragged him into us out of Asia.” the room and locked the door Koskinen shuddered. again with his key. “I can’t take the chance they’ll "Burned your bridges, eh?” succeed,’’ Vivienne said. “Espe- Koskinen asked. In this corridor cially since it looks as if they full of explosions, machine gun will get in here. I don’t want an- snarl, smoke and shock, he felt other war either. So I got my oddly callous about the murder. gun and let myself into the lab. “No,” said the woman. “My The plans we drew today are in bridges were burned for me this pocket.’’ She slapped her quite some time ago. The day hip. they killed Johnny. C’mon, this “Wait.” Koskinen remem- way.” bered. He touched his throat. They crossed a glideway which She laughed, a short humor- had gone motionless. The air al- less bark. “Yes, I thought of that ready seemed stagnant and cool- too. There’s a direct passage being. The sounds of battle grew tween Zigger’s suite and mine. fainter. Koskinen’s pulse leaped He thought he had the only key, when a squad of guards came but I made myself a duplicate loping past, but they paid him no long ago. And I know where he special heed. Vivienne led him keeps stuff like this. The minute on down a side hall with plain, he went out to command the de- unnumbered doors. “Mostly fense, I popped in.’’ Briefly she they’re storerooms,” she said, drew a small flat case with a “but this here—take the lead. button and a safety catch from Keep your hand on the switch

72 FANTASTIC and be ready to shield yourself never’ve let us by without a pass. when I tell you.” Don’t waste any grief on these Beyond the room, another door bums. They did plenty of assas- gave onto a steep upward ramp. sinations in their day.” She Koskinen’s footfalls pattered be- pulled a control switch. "We’ve tween bare walls. His breathing got to hurry. They probably sent was loud in his ears. He felt the an alarm.” strain in thigh and shoulder muscles, caught the sour smell MOTOR whirred. The door of his own sweat. The lights A swung ponderously open. were few and dim against white- Blackness gaped beyond. Vivi- washed flatnesses. enne took a flashlight from one Rounding a continuous curve, guard’s belt and scrambled over he came to the end without warn- unfinished rock—a short, curved ing. An armored door blocked tunnel that roared and echoed the passage ahead, where a ma- with battle noise. Its entrance chine gun pit held two sentries. was camouflaged by a giant Their helmets and gas masks boulder. Koskinen halted in the made them unhuman. "Hold it, stone’s shadow and looked out. you two!” one called. The gun Three big, lean aircraft hov- swiveled toward Koskinen. ered against the red sky. He "Shield,” Vivienne hissed. He could discern several others on threw the switch. Silence the black surface near the main clamped upon him. Vivienne, at entrance; they were little more his back, drew her gun and than metallic gleams, seen by fired, full automatic. The first lightning-like bursts as ground soldier lurched and fell. The ma- combat spilled across the crater chine gun raved, noiselessly for bowl. Smoke hazed the scene as Koskinen. Bullets dropped at his much as the night did. Koskinen feet. Vivienne continued to fire was chiefly aware of confusion. from behind him. The gunner But he distinguished the collapsed. sounds: bang, crack, staccato She ran to the pit, looked at rattle, then a rumbling as high the men, and waved to her com- explosive went off down in the panion. He snapped off his shield tunnels. and joined her. The blood glis- “The Chinese must be gam- tened impossibly bright. This bling the police will figure this killing sickened him, perhaps for only another gang clash,” because he had seen it done. Vivienne said. "If the cops do “Did you have to?” he strangled. try to intervene, naturally they’ll Her nod was curt. "They'd be shot down. They haven’t got

SHIELD 73 any stuff to compare with that that might otherwise have been there. So then MS and the Army heard. The air was cold and

will be called in . . . but that’ll smelled faintly of sulfur com- take a little while. The Chinese pounds. must hope to be away with their Koskinen sat down opposite booty—you, for one item—be- Vivienne and let exhaustion fore matters progress that far.” overwhelm him. After a long ‘‘Where can we go?” he asked, time he was able to look across stupefied at what he saw. at her, where she huddled in the ‘‘Away. Come.” She led him murk as another shadow, and over a nearly invisible track that say, "What next?” wound toward the rim. He stum- "I don’t know," she answered bled after her. Now and then he in a dead voice. fell, taking cuts and bruises "The police—” which stung abominably. But "No!” The violence of her de- the discovery and capture which nial shocked them both toward terrified him didn’t happen. greater wakefulness. “Let me They mounted the crater lip, think a while,” she said. She scrambled down through snags struck a cigaret on the wall—he and skeletons of blasted struc- heard the tiny scrit through all tures, and so into the labyrinth the city’s grumble—and drank called low-level. smoke till the red end flared into brilliance. HEY stopped in an alley. “Who else have we got to turn TBlank brick walls enclosed to?” he argued. "Another gang two sides and filled it with gloom. boss? No, thanks." Light trickled from gray rec- "Indeed not,” she said. "Espe- tangles at either end, where the cially since the hue and cry will streets could be seen, empty at really be out, once MS picks up this hour save when the wind the pieces at the Crater and gets blew a dust cloud along or a rat- some idea of what happened. The tling scrap of paper. Overhead word will get around. No baron ran a pneumotube and a tangle will dare do anything but turn

of power lines ; beyond, the sky- us in if he finds us.” glow. They had come too far to “So let’s save everyone a lot of hear the battle at the Crater, if trouble,” he tried to laugh. it was still going on. Midnight “How many times do you have growling and pounding, auto- to get kicked in the teeth before matic machines, automatic traf- you learn not to walk behind fic, made a background which that particular horse?” she smothered any remote noises snapped. 74 FANTASTIC —

“What do you mean? Okay, I HE wind whimpered. A train *’ admit they’ve killed. But— Tscreamed down some track “Do you want to spend your not far away. Vivienne’s cigaret life incommunicado?” end waxed and waned. “Huh?” “I know one spot we might “Oh, they may simply wipe aim for,” she said at length. your memory. Which runs a “Zigger has—had—a place up- grave risk of disintegrating the state, under a different name. entire personality. Mnemotech- He took me there for a weekend nics isn’t the exact science it now and then. It’s stocked with pretends to be.” He thought she supplies and weapons, like all quailed in the darkness. “Me, his places. Got a special phone I’d rather be put in a dungeon system, too: a shielded under- for life than have their probes ground cable that sneaks into a go into my brain. A prisoner can public circuit several miles off, always find some way to decently so you can buzz your friends kill herself.” without danger of having your “But why? I’m not the rebel call tapped or traced. We can lie type." low there for a while, and maybe “Figure it out. At present you. get in touch with some reliable and only you on Earth, know Brazilian?—anyway, try to get how the screen generator works. ourselves smuggled out of the A man like Marcus, who’d cold- country.” bloodedly frame and shoot an “And then what?” innocent person because he “I don’t know. Maybe throw might someday make trouble . . . your unit and plans into the sea a man like that won’t want to and hide out in some backwoods risk the secret getting out of his area for the rest of our lives. Or control. I don’t say Marcus maybe we can think of some- would actually plan on making thing better. Don’t bug me, Pete. himself the military dictator of I’m about ready to cave in as is." the United States—not right “No,” Koskinen said. away—but that’s where he’d “What?” She stirred. end, step by step. Because how "Sorry. Perhaps I am too do you effectively oppose a man trusting. Or perhaps you aren’t who’s got strong convictions, trusting enough. But when I and power, and invulnerability ?” signed for the Mars trip, I took “You're exaggerating,” he an oath to support the Constitu- said. tion.” He climbed achingly to "Shut up," she said. “Let me his feet. "I’m going to call MS to think.” come get me.”

SHIELD 75 She rose too. “No, you don't!” many things, feeling his alone- He clapped a hand on his gen- ness. Until she caught her breath erator switch. “Don’t draw that with a gulp and said in a thin gun,” he said. "I can shield my- little voice: self faster than you can shoot, “Maybe. I can’t tell for sure. and outwait you.” It’s your machine, and your life, She stepped back, reached in a and—I suppose I could always pocket and pulled forth the deto- go hide, personally. But I, I wish

nator. “Can you outwait this?” you’d really satisfy yourself . . . she answered unsteadily. before you walk into their parlor

He gasped and made a move . . . I wish you would. Once toward her. "Stop where you you're there it’d be too late. And are!” she shrilled. He thought you're too good for what might he heard a snick as she thumbed happen to you.” off the safety. “I’ll kill you be- Dave, he remembered. For a fore I let you turn that thing long while he stood, shoulders over to him!” hunched beneath his burden, Koskinen stood very still. thinking about Dave Abrams. “Would you?” he breathed. Anyway, I’ve been too passive.

“Yes . . . it’s that important That’s a shirking of responsibili-

. . . it really is, Pete. You talked ty, / suppose—but mainly, I'm about your oath. D-d-don’t you fed to the eyeballs with being see — Marcus — he’d destroy pushed around. what’s left of ... of the Consti- tution?” She began to cry, he MINOR part of him was sur- heard her, but he could make A prised to note how resolu- out in the night that she still tion brought back physical clutched the detonator. strength. He spoke quite steadi- “You’ve got everything ly. "Okay, Vee, I’ll do what you wrong,” he pleaded. “How do you say. I think I know how, too." know Marcus would act that way She slipped the detonator back —or be able to if he wanted ? He into her pocket and followed him doesn’t even have Cabinet rank. mutely to the street. They There're other branches of gov- walked several blocks before ernment, Congress, the courts, turning a corner and seeing a the President. ... I can’t outlaw cluster of darkened shops with a myself just because—an opinion public call booth outside. She —you aren’t giving them a gave him some coins—he had chance, Vee!” none in this suit—and posted Silence fell between them herself by the door. Her cheeks again. He waited, thinking of gleamed wet in the dull lamp-

76 FANTASTIC —

light, but her lips had grown ready there, as he had hoped. firm again. Vivienne had prudently tucked Koskinen called first for a her gun and holster into the cov- taxi. Then he punched for local erall; the driver wouldn’t have MS headquarters. The telltale come near if he saw that. As it

glowed crimson ; government was, he wore a helmet and had a agencies always recorded calls. needier just like Neff’s friend He didn’t make a visual trans- dear God, only two nights ago? mission. No sense in betraying Standard equipment for low- his changed appearance before level hackies, evidently. Koski- he must. nen and Vivienne got in. The “Bureau of Military Securi- driver said into a microphone ty,” said a woman’s voice. a blankout panel, doubtless bul- Koskinen stiffened. “Listen,” letproof, hid him from the rear he said. “This is urgent. Get seat—“Where to?” your tape immediately to whoever’s in charge. This is Peter oskinen was caught off Koskinen speaking, from the K guard. Vivienne said quick- USAAS Franz Boas. I know ly: "Brooklyn, and fast.” you’re looking for me, and I’m “Got to swing wide of the back at large with the thing Crater, ma’am. Wider than usu- you’re after. But I’m not certain al, I mean. Some kinda ruckus I can trust you. I tried to call going on there, so Control’s re- a shipmate of mine, David routed traffic.” Abrams, a couple of nights ago, “That’s okay.” Koskinen and learned you’d hauled him in. leaned back as much as the unit That sounds suspicious to me. he wore permitted. They swung Maybe I’m wrong about that. aloft. MS would probably have a But what I’ve got is too impor- car at the booth within minutes, tant to hand over blindly. but that would be too late. They “I’m leaving now. I’ll call might then check with Control, again in half an hour from but the chances were that the somewhere else. At that time I computer would already have re- want you to have a hookup ready moved the fact that this one cab which will include Abrams. Un- had stopped at that one corner derstand? I want to see Abrams from its circulating memory. personally and satisfy myself Investigation of the various that he’s okay and not being un- taxi companies would take more justifiably held. Got me?” time than was available. So I am He switched off and stepped on top of the situation, Koskinen from the booth. The taxi was al- thought. Barely.

SHIELD 77 ROOKLYN,” the driver said He took her hand, wordlessly, B after a short while. “Where and dared slip the other arm now?” across her shoulder. The dark “Flatbush tube station,” Vivi- head leaned against him. “I'm enne instructed. sorry, Pete,” she said. “I don’t “Hell, I’ll getcha anywhere in want to go soupy on you. But do the borough as cheap’s the tube- you mind if I cry a little ? I’ll be way, now we’re here, and a lot very quiet.” quicker.” He held her closer. No one else “You heard the lady,” Koski- paid any particular attention. nen said. The driver muttered He remembered the oneness of something uncomplimentary but the ship’s crew, and of the Mar- obeyed. Vivienne gave him a tians, and eventually with the

handsome tip when they left. Martians . . . not a loss of free- “Otherwise he might get so mad dom, rather an unspoken belong- he’d check with the cops, hoping ingness which gave meaning to we are wanted,” she explained as a freedom that would otherwise

she boarded the escalator with have been empty . . . perhaps the her companion. grisliest thing he had found on The gate took money and ad- Earth so far was the isolation of mitted them. They entered the human beings from each other. tube, stepped onto the belt and But what else could result, found a seat. when a man was one atom in a Vivienne regarded Koskinen a deaf, dumb, blind, automated while. “You’re looking better machine? now," she remarked. “I feel a little better, some- HEY rode with no special des- how," he admitted. He slipped Ttination until his watch said off the screen unit and laid it at it was about time to call MS his feet. again. Occasionally Koskinen “Wish I could say the same.” switched the seat onto crosstube Her own eyes were bloodshot and belts chosen at random. Vivienne edged with blackness. “I’m tired, had dozed a few minutes and though.” She sighed. “Tired seemed refreshed thereby. She down into my bones. Not just walked springily with him to the the chase tonight. All the years gate when they got off. behind me. Was there ever a Below the escalator, he looked small girl named Veevee in a around. They had come into a room with blue ducks on the better district. The buildings on wallpaper? It feels more like their side of the street were fair- something I read once in a book.” ly new, with curving setback

78 FANTASTIC ” — " walls of tinted plastic, broad Colonel Ausland. If you’ll go on windows, and balconies. Across visual, Koskinen, I’ll switch you the avenue marched the cyclone over to Director Marcus him- fence that enclosed the park- self.” scape around a Center. The “Okay.” Koskinen put in the building dominated the scene extra coin. “But bear this in like a mountain, but Koskinen mind, I don’t have the machine. hardly noticed. He was too If you trace this call and snatch struck by the grounds them- me, my confederate has instruc- selves, grass ablaze with green, tions to take off for parts un- flowerbeds of red and blue and known. Unknown to me too, I’d yellow, the graciousness of trees, better add.” beneath a sky that had turned The screen showed him an in- pale in the east. I’d almost for- dignant face which quickly gave gotten that Earth is still the way to another—heavy, bushy- most beautiful planet, he browed, with distinguished gray thought. hair, Hugh Marcus in Washing- A uniformed guard watched ton. Koskinen had seen so many them idly from behind the fence. news pictures in his youth that A few early—or very late he recognized the man at once. ground cars whispered along the "Hello, there,” said Marcus street; trucks and trains weren’t quite gently. “What’s the mat- allowed here. There was a cab- ter? What are you scared of, stand close by, so no reason to son?” phone for getaway transportation “You,” Koskinen said. again. “Well, you’ve obviously had Why getaway? Koskinen re- some rough experiences, but— sisted. Why not simply a ride “Quiet! I know damn well I doivn to the MS office? haven’t much time before your He wet his lips, made himself agents can get to where I am. ignore his pulse, and entered the I’ve been treated pretty high- corner booth. Vivienne waited handedly, Marcus, and I want outside, guarding the shield gen- some assurance from a person I erator. Her gaze never left him. can trust that it was only be- He punched the number. cause of circumstances and not “Bureau of— because your bureau has grown “Koskinen,” he said roughly. too big for its britches. Got “Are you prepared to talk to Dave Abrams ready to talk to me?” me?” “Oh! One moment." Click. A “Wait a minute. Wait a min- man’s voice rapped : “This is ute.” Marcus raised one large

SHIELD 79 "

manicured hand. “Don't go off “Oh. Pete." Holmboe’s eyes half programmed like that. We flickered sideways. Did a guard took Abrams into custody, yes. with a gun stand beyond pickup For his own protection, same as range? “What’s got into you?” we wanted to protect you. He’s “I’m not sure,” Koskinen said. perfectly okay— “How’re they treating you?’ “Let him tell me so. Quick, “Fine. Shouldn’t they be? I’m there!” fine." “You don’t look it.” ARCUS flushed but contin- “Pete—" Holmboe swallowed. M ued mildly: “Why Abrams “Come on home, Pete. I don’t in particular? It so happens we know what the score is, except can’t bring him on such short that you insist on being told notice. We tucked him away in a they won’t hurt you at MS. Well, Rocky Mountains hideout, and they won’t.” saw no reason why he and the Koskinen paused. Stillness agents guarding him shouldn’t hummed from the phone. get in some fishing. So they’re Through the booth windows, he off in the woods, and atmospher- saw the western stars go out as ics are such that their talkie the sun came closer. Vivienne sets evidently won’t reach our had not stirred from her place. nearest closed-circuit relay." He forced tongue and larynx “I say you’ve shot him full of into those deep croaks which mind dope and couldn’t wring were the closest men would ever him dry that fast. So long, Mar- come to High Martian Tactile. cus.” Koskinen reached for the “Carl, Sharer-of-Hopes, is there switch. a reality in what you attest?” “Wait a second!” Marcus Holmboe started. His face yelled. “Will you talk to Carl turned still whiter. “Don’t call Holmboe? We’ve got him stand- me that!” ing by for you, safe and sound." “Why should I not name you The engineering officer—Kos- Sharer-of-Hopes, as our whole kinen swayed on knees gone band named each other that rubbery. “Sure,” he husked. night in the shrine with the “Put him on.” Martians and the Philosopher’s The image changed. A balding Sending? I will come to you if walrus-mustached man regarded you tell me in the pledge lan- Koskinen, in his own screen, guage that there is no wrongness with a dazed expression. intended." “Hello, Carl,” Koskinen said Holmboe tried to speak and softly. could not.

80 FANTASTIC “Sharer-of-Hopes, I know the He picked up the unit. “Let’s danger to yourself,” Koskinen get away while we can,” he an- said. ‘‘Were that the only aspect swered sharply. of this plenum, I would come at once. But I believe, in the nigkt HEY approached the stand. way I learned on Elkor’s tower, TThe taxis were new and shiny that more is at hazard than life.” here, the drivers unarmed. “This “Go swiftly and far,” Holmboe line doesn’t enter the slums,” told him. Vivienne muttered. “Sure we He shook himself, leaned for- want it?” ward, and barked in English: “Not much choice, I’m afraid. “Lay off that crap, Pete. You I can’t have stalled MS for many must be having a brain typhoon minutes, and they can stop the or something, the way you’re tubeways, can’t they?” acting. If you want me to swear The nearest cabman gave in Martian that it’s safe to come them a knowing grin. Koskinen here, okay, I’ve sworn. So quit looked respectable, for his dark making a jackass of yourself.*’ outfit didn’t show the dirt ac-

“S-sure. I’ll come,” Koskinen tually there, and his companion said. “I, uh, I have to stop and like a pickup with whom he’d get the machine from the person been touring the low-level tav-

I left it with. But then I’ll go erns. Alcohol, joy juice, maybe straight to the nearest MS of- an hour of electric brain tickling, fice.” He drew a breath. His then a stim pill and so to bed. throat felt thick, as if he had “Where you headed, sir?” swallowed the bomb that was "Syracuse,” Vivienne said.

chained beneath it, and his eyes Koskinen assumed she meant to stung. “Thanks, Carl,” he said change cars several times. They somehow. got in. The driver punched for

“Yeah. I’ll be seeing you.” top speed, uppermost Controlled I hope so. level. There Koskinen glimpsed Koskinen blanked the screen. the rising sun and the ocean Maybe Carl was off the hook burning with light. Megapolis now. Maybe he’d gained a little itself became a romantic tower- time for himself to ... to do pierced mistland. whatever came next. Existence The blankout panel began to grant that this be. There had slide across the middle of the been so much death. cab. “No,” Vivienne said. “Stop. He left the booth. Vivienne Retract that thing.” seized his hand. “What’s the The driver looked surprised, word, Pete?" but obeyed. "I ... I like to watch

SHIELD 81 ” " ”

the view in front too,” she said the Federal Bureau of Military lamely. Since that was nothing Security. He may be riding in a but a sky, turning from silver to public or private— blue as the sun mounted, Koski- Vivienne’s gun was already out nen doubted the driver was con- of her coverall and aimed at the vinced. driver’s head. "Not a move, asco,” Wait! She had leaned forward she ordered. "Don’t let your to give her order. Recollection hands go anywhere near that leaped through Koskinen. He transmission switch.” reached around her back, into her “—considered extremely dan- left pocket. “What the devil !” she gerous," the crisp voice said. In exclaimed, and tried to twist the screen Koskinen saw his own about. His right hand stopped face, from the tape that had been her with a grip on the arm. He made during his second call. "If pulled the detonator out and let you see this person, you are re- her go. She crouched away from quired by the National Defense him, spitting an oath. Act to— He grinned. “No hard feelings, “What, what’s going on?” the Vee,” he said. "We’re bound in driver stuttered. “What do you the same direction anyhow, are- want?” n’t we? But I want to make my “You won't get hurt if you co- own decisions." He dropped the operate," Vivienne said. case in a pocket of his blouse and "Look,—I got a wife and kids. I sealed the flap. —please She let out a long breath. Mus- Koskinen glanced out the win- cle by muscle she relaxed. The dow and down. At this speed, the smile she gave him was slow and densest part of town had been warm. "You’re toughening fast, left behind. The land was still I see," she murmured. dominated by roofs, but they be- He flushed. "Have to, I sup- longed to relatively small build- pose.” With returning unease he ings and traffic was light. noticed how the driver watched "You can’t get nowhere in this them in his rearview. Why had car,” the driver said frantically. Vee not wanted him blocked off “Not in any car. If they want you 7 that bad, Control’ll take everything past the police check- HE call phone told Koskinen points.” Twhy, two minutes later. “At- “That’s a rather extreme ac- tention all vehicles ! Attention all tion,” Koskinen said. "I should vehicles! A criminal is at large, think it’d tie up traffic from now foreign agent badly wanted by till sunset."

82 FANTASTIC ” —

Vivienne threw him a bleak Martian way, I got a ... I don’t glance. “This is a rather extreme know what the English word case, Pete. I think he’s right. would be, if there is any. A sense We’d better get out of this hack of rightness. Of how things must while we can.” — be in order to work.” “But—I mean, how “Good. You’ll need some such “I don’t know, I don’t know. ability if—Oh, oh. Man coming.”

. . . Wait. Yes! Stop at that playground yonder.” BURLY person in mechanic’s They slanted down, went off A garb slouched along the Control, touched an old and street, stopped and said, “Trou- cracked street, and halted at the ble, bud ? Maybe I can help.” curb. The playground stretched “Thanks,” Koskinen said, “but vacant and the houses opposite the company wants me to report peak-roofed, narrow-windowed, direct in case of breakdowns. with peeling stucco fronts, ob- Also, my fare has to get on her viously prewar survivals—hard- way. Where’s the nearest tube?” ly showed more life at this hour. The mechanic regarded him Vivienne opaqued the windows sharply. “No tubes this far out.” and suggested Koskinen bind and “Oh.” Koskinen laughed. “I’m gag the driver. fresh from Los Angeles. Still “I'll use my own clothes,” Kos- feeling my way around. Where’s kinen said, "and wear his.” a monorail station?” “Good idea. You are becoming “I’m headed there myself.” a fine outlaw.” She watched with Koskinen was pleased at how frank, disconcerting interest readily he answered questions while he swapped garments. But about the west coast, where he there wasn’t really time for em- had never been either. It took the barrassment. Having secured the mechanic’s mind off Vivienne, in- prisoner, he went out, opened the congruously dressed to be hiring rear hood, yanked some wires and a taxi, and off the generator. The unbolted some fuel system parts. man couldn’t afford to travel, “This car isn’t going anywhere with wages as low as they were, now,” he told her. “I've sabotaged "thanks to them goddam ma- the phone too.” chines. I’m lucky to have a job at “Excellent. How'd you know, all. If that there Antarctic colony though?" had only worked out the way they "I studied machinery at the talked about, I’d’ve gone like a Institute, same as you. But main- shot. Chance to be my own boss ly, uh, on Mars, learning to see again.” things in something like the “Expensive, though, isn’t it?”

SHIELD 83 —

“Yeah. That’s the catch. Need self-sufficient. Home industries shelter against the cold. That could revive, not so much com- costs money. So only the big competing with the great automatic panies or the government can factories as ignoring them. And build. So nobody can go who’s that, in time, would force the not on their payroll, and every- economy as a whole to use auto- body has to live cheek by jowl mation rationally. ... If big because one big shelter costs less business, big labor, big govern- than a lotta little ones. I decided ment would sit still for such a I might as well stay here.” development. I’m afraid, though,

Too bad, Koskinen thought. they’d clamp down on it, using Americans were free men once. zoning laws or taxes or some- Luckily there were no taxis at thing as a blind, but actually the station—if this poor decayed fearing that a nation of inde- suburb rated any such service pendent men would bring the end

so there was nothing suspicious of their power. . . . My! I seem in Vivienne not taking one. The to’ve gotten cynical at the same mechanic boarded the train astounding rate Vee thinks I’ve which had just come in. The gotten tough. But damn it, I can woman said she needed the next sense the wrongness in society one. But as the train got started, today, as clearly as I could sense she led Koskinen in a run and it in a badly designed engine. mounted a car further down. “This is aimed our way, all HAT reminded him. “Where right,” she panted, “but we don’t Tare we going now?” he asked want our friend to know that. low. He’ll see a public bulletin some- “It’s a pretty wild idea, and time today for sure.” you may think we’d do better to Koskinen nodded. They took a double back to the slums,” she

seat. There were only a few answered. “But I thought . . . sleepy, drably clad fellow passen- that place upstate I told you gers, and he doubted if the coach about ... we could at least was ever filled. Employment had catch our breath there, and phone dropped far below transportation for help, maybe to the Brazilian capacity. friends I’ve still got or—Any- You know, he thought, with way, we wouldn’t simply be run- cheap modem power tools, small ning.” machines—and, yes, the hydro- "Sounds good to me. But how- ponics, algal, and bioreclamation can we get there? Control can techniques developed for space- stop anything we’d likely be a"ble ships—a family could be almost to hire or steal.” 84 FANTASTIC “Yes. Except—” She stared out. I think we can steal one and out the window. The suburb was the theft won’t be noticed for giving way to open fields, where days. I could be wrong, of course. dew flashed in the young sun- What do you say?” light. He realized that she had made “The World War One Centen- a final surrender of leadership to nial Commission has built a lot him. It was as heavy a burden as of replica machines,” she said. the unit lying on the bench be- “They're for re-enacting battles side them. He gulped and said, as the appropriate dates roll “Sure. We’ll try.” around. You know, 3D spectacle, keep the masses sodden and do- HE planes were stored three cile—but the planes and guns Tmiles from the nearest train and ground cars are honest work- stop. Koskinen and Vivienne ing reproductions. Between as- walked there, after buying break- signments they’re occasionally fast and two lengths of rope at used in advertising stunts, or as the supermarket, as well as some a demonstration for history pills to compensate for sleepless- classes, or what have you. Well, a ness. Most of the way they fol- batch of airplanes are kept right lowed a straight, rather narrow, in this area.” crumbling street lined with the “Huh?” mean houses of a moribund vil- “They haven’t any autopilots; lage. Trucks, occasional cars, go- so they can run about freely. carts with bubble canopies, That’s no traffic hazard: as slow whirred past them. But there as they are, anybody’s radar can weren’t many other pedestrians spot ’em in ample time to dodge, —chiefly women, though some and Control routinely compen- unemployed and sullen men—and sates for bigger swerves than nobody paid the strangers much that. What matters to us is that attention. One man pointed where the police can’t take over a ve- to turn, baffied that anyone went hicle from a distance that doesn’t to the hangar on foot but too have an autopilot. Also, no one apathetic to ask why. The side except the field super pays much street petered out in an asphalt attention to where those planes lane which crossed an enormous go. They don’t file flight plans or stretch of vacant lot. any sueh thing.” “Ugh,” said Vivienne. “Weeds “My God.” Koskinen pulled his and brambles—where homes jaw back into place. stood once, before the fire storm “Zigger and I visited out there —It gives me the crawls.” one day last year. I know the lay- “Eh?” Koskinen blinked at

SHIELD 85 her. The grasses rippled silvery shell until he could leap. He fell green. Somewhere a bird was clear of the fence. The impact singing. Instead of dust he jarred him more than he had ex-

smelled moist earth. “But this is pected ; you landed easier on lovely.” Mars. When he had his breath “Ah, well.” She squeezed his back, he hauled on the lariat un- arm. “You’re sweet to say so.” til Vivienne in her force-cocoon The hangar and airstrip stood tilted over the top of the wires in the middle of the field, sur- and hung on the inside. Then he rounded by a twelve-foot electri- swayed back and forth like a bell- fied fence. Radar alarms would ringer, until she was bumping alert the police if anyone tried to the fence and rebounding land an unauthorized aircar here. through a long arc. At the far So a watchman wasn’t needed, end of one such swing she cut off and there wasn’t any activity the field and fell clear of the scheduled today. Koskinen harness. Nevertheless she landed looked around with care, seeing so close to the fence that his nobody outside the nearest hous- heart stopped for a moment. es, many yards distant, and got She picked herself up. “Okay, busy. we’re in.” Actual laughter sound- He made a noose in one rope ed beneath the wind. “Koskinen and, after several tries, threw it and Cordeiro, Cat Burglars by around the top of a fencepost. Appointment to His Majesty Ty- “Okay, Vee,” he said, and helped balt I, King of the Cats. C’mon, her don the shield generator. She let's swipe us some transporta- turned it on. He used the second tion." rope to lash himself to the outside of the potential barrier, and HEY crossed more weeds and passed the lariat’s end through a Tthe tarmac strip to the hangar. loop in that harness. Awkwardly, Vivienne would have shot out the then, he shoved her against the lock, but the door opened for fence and pulled them both up them as they neared. The space hand over hand, the invisible within was huge and dusky. Kos- shell between him and the kinen gaped about at the ma- charged mesh. He sweated to chines. Somehow they made him think what would happen if he feel he had wandered into a more touched it. At the top he hung on ancient past then even the towers one-handed while he knotted las- on Mars. You see, he told him- so and harness together. Taking self, this is my past. My great- the lasso’s end in his teeth, he un- grandfather must have ridden in tied himself and crawled over the a car like these.

86 FANTASTIC —

This is my planet. Anger gath- we’d been talking half the night, ered in him. I don’t like what you and I, remember? ... I they have done to her. couldn’t do it. There’s no explo- He suppressed emotion and sive in that capsule. Only talcum got to work. In an hour he had powder." chosen his vehicle—a De Havil- "What?” he whispered again. land 4 day bomber, it was called "I wanted you to know, Pete.” on its nameplate, a big two- She tried to withdraw her winged machine, two open cock- hands, but he caught them and pits, less dash than the Spads or wouldn’t let go. "That’s the Fokkers but a certain honest truth, Vee?" homeliness that pleased him “Yes. Why should you doubt and deduced, with the help of an me, now?”

operator’s manual, how to fly it. "I don’t,” he said. He rallied They rolled it out onto the strip, his entire courage, drew the de- fueled it from a pump, and tonator from his pocket, and turned off the radar alarms. snicked off the safety. She “Take the rear seat and use watched him through tears. He the auxiliary controls to start pressed the button. ’er,” he told Vivienne. “I’ll crank With a whoop, he tossed the the propeller." object into the weeds, kissed her She regarded him with a sud- with inexpert violence, stam- den intensity. “We might crash, mered something about her being or get shot down, or anything, his crewmate and Sharer-of- you know,” she said. Hopes and much else, kissed her “Yes.” He shrugged. “That’s again, and lifted her bodily to the been understood right along.” rear cockpit. She nestled among “I—" She took his hands. “I the machine guns there and took want you to know something. In the stick in a dazed fashion. He case I don’t get another chance swung the heavy wooden propel- to tell you.” ler down with more strength than He looked into the brown eyes he had known he had. and waited. “That detonator,” she said. “I 'T'HE engine coughed to life. was bluffing.” * Exhaust fumes grew pungent “What?" in his nose. He sprang onto the “Or, I should say, the detona- lower wing and thence to the tor works but the bomb does- front seat. Vivienne relinquished n’t.” Her laugh caught in her her own controls. Koskinen spent throat. "When Zigger told me to a minute listening to the engine make that thing for you . . . and feeling the many vibrations.

SHIELD 87 It sensed right to him. He taxied he looked upward. "Dream weU, forward, accelerating. The plane Elkor,” he called. left earth with a joyous little jump unlike anything he had JIGGER'S retreat overlooked ever felt before. “ the river, which ran like fire Vivienne had shown him their beneath the westering sun. Steep destination on a map. He found forested slopes rose from the op- he could follow the landmarks posite shore. On this side, the without much trouble, at this lei- view off the terrace was of lawns surely pace. Elkor’s training of and rosebeds that sloped down to nerves and muscles made pilot- the water. Koskinen had spent ing simple after the first few much time there today, seeking minutes. oneness with the land. Oak leaves The airplane was a roaring, rustled above him, an apple tree shuddering, odorous, cranky stood heavy with fruit, a fir thing to fly. But fun. He had nev- sighed in the breeze, a thrush er been so intimate with the air. whistled. He had stood be- It howled around his windshield, witched by the million scents. lashed his face, thrummed in the But "now” is an infinitesimal. struts, sang in the wires, and Toward evening he could no bucked against the control sur- longer maintain joy. faces. Ridiculous, he thought, Why not? he asked himself. that he should draw so much life We still have peace. and hope from a primitive ma- We won’t much longer. chine, or even from learning that We’ll have it again, or be dead. the woman with him had never Can’t say I want to be dead. been willing to help with his The caretaker couple had been murder. But that was the way he predictably flurried when the DH felt. And the landscape below had 4 landed, its rear skid plowing up grown altogether fresh, open, the golf course in lieu of the fair; this was a wealthy district, wheel brakes it didn’t have. They where houses were big and far recognized Vivienne and opened between, separated by woods and the house for her, but with dubi- parklands. The Hudson gleamed ous looks. It would have been dif- between hills that were dazzling ficult to imprison them, so she green under a blue sky and scud- sent them off to their cottage, ex- ding white clouds. There must be plaining that she wanted pri- an answer to his dilemma—in vacy. No doubt the old man would such a world! flit to the local village, or the There was. He saw it with wife would phone some acquaint- wonder. After a very long while ance, and gossip about them

88 FANTASTIC there carryings on at Mr. Van der. “I wish I could do something Veit’s place. But the word would- more for you, Pete, than just n’t get back to MS any faster make you a meal." than Marcus' people could follow “Why?” His face turned hot. the clues pointing in this direc- He stared fixedly across the river. tion. Or so Koskinen assumed. “I owe you so much.” His enemy was efficient. "No. No, you saved me—bailed Doubts assailed him. His hopes me out of the Crater—and that were tenuous, after all, based on was little, really, compared to

little more than a feeling of how . . . that business of the locket.” cause and effect ought to develop He touched the chain. “I don’t in a rational world; and surely think I ever want this taken off.” this world was anything but ra- “Does it mean that much to tional. Might it not be best to you, Pete? Really?”

flee on? “Yes. Because you see . . . No. Probably not. Sooner or you suddenly became someone, later, you had to make a stand. the only one on Earth besides my So the showdown wouldn’t be shipmates, who’re in jail or dead

long delayed. Koskinen drew an- . . . someone I belonged with. I other breath of Earth’s air. can’t ever repay you that.” Vivienne emerged through the “You know,” she whispered, French doors. “Whew!” she said. “that’s pretty much the way I “I'm hoarse as a frog and my fin- feel about you.” gertips are raw from button punching. Spell me again, huh ?" UDDENLY she pulled free of "Sure,” he said. S him and ran back into the "I’ll rustle up some supper house. He heard her start crying, meanwhile.” and wondered why, and more “Eh? You mean heat a pack- than anything else he wanted to age?” go after her and help her if he “I do not. I mean an old-fash- could. ioned individually prepared sup- Grimness clenched within him. per, using my own hands and Not much time left. He went into brain. I really am a fair cook.” the living room. Threading his The forced lightness left her way among luxurious furniture, tone. She came to stand beside he reached the phone. Every call him. "We won’t have many more he made was another blow at the chances." enemy. “Maybe not,” he admitted. The note pad showed him that She laid an arm about his Vivienne, on her latest stint, had waist and her head on his shoul- covered half a dozen numbers in

SHIELD 89 Calcutta. The Americas and Eu- I have brought with me a device rope were already taken care of, which confers virtual personal however sketchily. Koskinen re- invulnerability. To prevent its flected upon his school geog- suppression, I am broadcasting raphy. Where next? Bombay? the physical principles, engineer-' New Delhi? No, better some ing specifications, and operating other countries first, and then instructions on a worldwide ba- come back to India if he could. sis.” The idea was to scatter the in- The Japanese got a word in formation as widely as possible. edgewise, doubtless to the effect He couldn’t quite bring him- that he didn’t speak English and self to inform China directly. The this was some mistake. Koskinen average Chinese was a decent, held the first sheet of his treatise

kindly man ... of course . . . up to him, then the next and the the average anybody was. But next, as fast as he was able. A the current government of China few people had switched off, but —Okay, the Chinese would find this man watched with growing out eventually from someone else. interest. Koskinen felt sure he’d Koskinen punched for the opera- take his tape to someone who tor. “English-language Tokyo di- could read a playback frame by- rectory,” he said. frame. And if only a fraction of With a helpfully inhuman lack the many who had been called of curiosity, the robot flashed a would try the gadget out, word page onto his screen. Koskinen would get around—unstoppably. turned the reel knob until he came to the listing for Engineers. OSKINEN finished, said He copied down several home and K goodbye, and started on the office numbers at random, cleared next number. Vivienne’s shout the board, and punched the first interrupted him. He cursed and number, adding the RX which in- dashed back onto the terrace. She ternationally directed the receiv- poised there, bowstring taut, ing instrument to record. A flat pointing into the sky. Four long Oriental face looked out at him, black aircars whistled down the puzzled. This job was easier when evening sunbeams. He thought no one was home. already he could pick out the “I am Peter Koskinen,” he rat- Military Security emblem on tled for the - ?-th time. He offered their flanks. a mechanical smile. “News serv- “I saw them from the kitchen ice will confirm for you that I window,” she said. Her voice have lately returned from Mars wavered. "So soon?" with the Franz Boas expedition. “We must have left a clearer

90 FANTASTIC I

trail for them than I hoped.” was not turned off. He had also “But—” She caught hia hand taken a rifle from Zigger’s gun in cold fingers and struggled not cabinet, a radio talkie, bedding, to cry again. and such-like necessities. The “What’s wrong, Veevee?” He heap was surrounded by a crude laid his other hand below her hut—four tall pieces of sheet chin and tilted her face toward metal tacked to light wooden his. "Aren’t you glad we can frames, a fifth piece laid on top start hitting back?” as a roof. “If ... if we really can— A car hovered low overhead. thought we’d have some time to- The others must have landed, for gether. The two of us.” a couple of men came around the “Yes,” he said, "that would house as Koskinen emerged. They have been nice.” wore plain clothes, but they She stiffened her shoulders. carried pistols and ran in the “I’m sorry. Don’t mind me.” crouched zigzag of soldiers. He forgot shyness and kissed Koskinen laid the generator on her lightly on the lips. Her re- the ground and flipped the sponse was explosive. They re- switch. He had adjusted it so the turned to the living room. Vivi- barrier shell enclosed a cylin- enne took over the phone: one droid about fifteen feet in diame- last number, a man’s surprised ter and seven feet high. The face springing into the screen fountain made a loud crack as and a rush of Portuguese from the field, expanding from zero to her. Koskinen picked up the finite thickness, sheared its base screen generator, ready to turn in two. The potential field was it on if there was an attack from also a good cutting tool. The the air. But nothing happened great stone bowl, several tons in immediately. mass, fell onto the rubbery floor Vivienne finished, waved good- of the barrier, near the sheet bye to the man in Brazil and metal shack, and lay still. switched off. She and Koskinen “Okay,” Koskinen said. “We’re hurried out onto the rear patio. safe now, Veevee.” It was a wide flagstoned area She crept into his arms, buried surrounded by willows and roses, her face against his breast and the clear view making it a better trembled. He became so en- place for a stand than the house. grossed with soothing her that Koskinen had heaped food pack- he stopped noticing the agents ages and miscellaneous contain- who surrounded them. He had ers of water in the middle, near a looked forward to some comic re- large ornamental fountain which lief when they tried to break in,

SHIELD 91 ” ”

but by the time Vivienne was their own protection, I’ll come seated anid smoking a cigaret out and beg your humble pardon. with some return of coolness, the Otherwise I’ll stay put till the siege had settled down. Two doz- sun freezes.” en hard young men ringed the Marcus reddened. “Do you patio with weapons. know what you’re doing? You’re setting yourself against the gov- OSKINEN walked to the in- ernment of the United States.” K visible wall and tapped his “Oh? How? Perhaps I am talkie. A man nodded and called guilty of resisting arrest, but I something. Koskinen was not un- remember the Constitutional def- duly surprised when Hugh Mar- inition of treason too well to cus came from the house with a think I’ve committed that. Let’s transceiver in his own hand. take the case to court. My lawyer They confronted each other, a will argue that the arrest was yard apart, an uncrossable few wrongful. Because you know I centimeters raised between. Mar- haven’t done anything to rate cus smiled. "Hello, there, Pete,” it.” he said. “Why, your misappropriation

Coldness surged up : “Mr. Kos- of government property.” kinen to you.” “Uh-uh." Koskinen shook his "Now you’re being childish," head. "I’m prepared to turn this Marcus said. “This whole esca- gadget over to the proper author- pade has been so fantastic, in ity at any time. The Astronauti-

fact, that I can only guess you’ve cal Authority, that is. The ar- gone psycho." Gently again: ticles of the expedition said in “Come on out and let us cure you. plain language— For your own sake. Please.” Marcus’ forefinger stabbed. "Cure me of my memory Or “Treason, yes!” he shouted. my life?" “You’re withholding something "How melodramatic do you vital to the security of the United think— States." “Where’s Dave Abrams?” “Has Congress passed a law “He—” regulating the use of potential “Bring my shipmates here,” barrier fields? Has there even Koskinen said. “You admit you been a Presidential proclama- have several of them, if not all. tion ? Sorry, chum. The articles I Have them stand immediately signed never said a word about outside this barrier. I’ll readjust secrecy. Contrariwise. We were it to include them. If they, then, expected to publish our find- tell me you've only kept them for ings.”

92 FANTASTIC ”

Marcus stood silent a space, ing,” Koskinen warned. “She’s as then threw back his head and stubborn about this business as stated flatly: “I’ve got better me.” Not without trepidation, he things to do than argue with an emerged and went toward Mar- incompetent amateur lawyer. cus. You’re under arrest. If you con- The chief looked almost be- tinue to resist, we’ll burn you mused. He ran a hand through out.” his gray hair. “What’s your “Have fun,” said Koskinen. game, Koskinen? What do you He walked back to the middle of want?" his fortress. The figures outside “First, my friends released.” ran here and there, and presently "But they wouldn’t be safe!” three of them returned carrying “Stop lying. Since you haven’t maser guns. produced them yet, I know why “So they deduced that,” Vivi- they’re being held and I can enne said on a note like terror. make a pretty good guess how "Sure. I told you they would. most of them have been inter- They’re not stupid, much.” Kos- rogated. My second point would kinen slipped into the metal make them perfectly safe any- shack with her. He closed the last how, since there’d be no more gap and they sat down on the reason to snatch them. I want the supply pile. potential barrier information made public.” UNLIGHT filtered through “What!” Marcus looked genu- S the cracks, touching her hair inely aghast, so much so that the with a crow’s wing sheen. His agents near him stepped closer. heart thudded as he looked at her. He waved them back and stared The metal warmed somewhat but at Koskinen. Long gold-colored soon reached equilibrium. They light fell across both men and held hands. Koskinen waited till glowed on the leaves behind. the walls had cooled again before “You’re crazy,” Marcus said. he opened a crack to peer out. He “You don’t know what It’d didn't see any masers. mean.” “I’ll parley if it amuses you,” “Tell me,” Koskinen invited. he said with his talkie, “but on “Why, every crook would be condition you keep those silly immune to the police— heat rays elsewhere.” “Wouldn’t every honest citizen "All right,” Marcus said furi- be immune to the crook ? Let this ously. thing be refined further, let it be “My partner will stay in the engineered into a pocket-size shelter, in case you do try snip- gadget which lets you move about

SHIELD 93

” freely while the screen is up, and possibly be getting across? Hope I’d guess there’d be a nearly flared in him. “Look,” he said, complete end to personal vio- “you’re missing the essential lence. Even its present clumsy point. Not only is war going to shape, the unit lets you go into become impractical, it isn’t even dangerous places unarmed.” going to be tried. You need a

“Maybe so. But I’ll tell you stern government and a regi- what else it would end." Marcus mented populace to organize mod- thrust out his jaw. “The Protec- ern war. And how long do you torate. Do you want the atomic think any government can last wars back?” that isn’t popular. . . easygo-

“The Protectorate won’t be ing . . . when any citizen can needed any more.” tell his masters to go take a “Can this thing withstand an running dive into hell? Don’t atomic bomb?” worry about Wang’s dictator- “N-no. Not a direct hit or a ship. Six months from now near miss. But you don’t get Wang’ll be cowering inside his many people that way anyhow in own barrier field with a mob a war. You get them through waiting to starve him out !’’ fallout, epidemics, and chaos, against which this does make the ARCUS leaned forward. “Do common man safe.” M you realize the same thing “There are a billion Chinese, could happen here?” he asked Koskinen. A billion—can you un- most softly. derstand that number. We sit on “Sure,” Koskinen said. “And the lid only because we could de- long overdue.” stroy them faster than they could “Do you want anarchy, then?” charge us. If our weapons were “No. Only freedom. Limited useless against them— government and individual inde- “Why, then you’d simply turn pendence. Wasn’t that always on your own barrier field. You the American ideal? There may won’t see hordes marching across be some upheaval here and there Bering Straits one winter, or as society readjusts, but I’d call sailing across the Pacific, if that a small price for a return to that’s what you’re afraid of. Jefferson’s principles. ‘The tree

They’d be too easy to stop . . . of liberty must be watered from without any shooting, even. A time to time with the blood of big potential barrier, with the patriots and tyrants’—remem- generator anchored to bedrock, ber? And in this case I don’t ex- would do it.” Koskinen saw Mar- pect any blood would be shed cus’ face change. Could the idea except the tyrants’."

SHIELD 95 Koakinen lowered his voice, back against the supply pile and which had rung out with the old stared at his hands. brave words. “I know you hate to Vivienne finished her work and see your job made obsolete,” he made him eat something. “Now said. “A job you believe in. But lie down for a while,” she said. you’ll have plenty to do, helping He didn’t resist, but laid his head the transition along. You’ll have on her lap. Sleep came like a more fun, even, in a world that’s blow. begun bubbling again, instead of this surly garrison state. Let’s be HE shook him awake. “Uh,” he friends, shall we?” Ssaid, struggling through many

The director stood motionless. thick layers. “Oh . . . ugh . . . A breeze ruffled his hair, and Yeh. You wanna rest?" He Koskinen wished he too could knuckled his eyes. The lids felt feel Earth’s air moving over him. gritty. “Damn me. I should'a let The sun slipped low. you sleep first.” Marcus raised his eyes and “That’s not the trouble," she rasped, “This has gone far said. Her face was intent in the enough. If you don’t surrender at glowlight. “They’ve brought once, you’ll be in real trouble.” machinery.” Koskinen tried to answer, but “Oh.” Koskinen stuck his head couldn’t. He swallowed grief and out the shelter. Floodlamps had anger, snapped off his transmis- been erected, hiding the night in sion, and went back to Vivienne. glare. A movable crane loomed “No go?" she asked. A glow dinosaurian over the barrier. Its globe lit the metal shack, where treads had ripped the turf to

darkness had already entered. pieces. Laborers accompanied it. She knelt by some packages she Koskinen looked at his watch. was opening. He shook his head “Quarter to five,” he said. “Took and sat down. Weariness began ’em quite a while to fetch it here, to drag at him. eh?" “Come on, eat,” she urged. “But what will they do?" “I’m afraid it isn’t the supper I "Didn’t I explain this possi-

promised you, though. I’ll give bility? Thanks to that broken you a rain check on that.” fountain, we weigh too much to "I’d like to see rain again,” he be carried off by hand. They fig- sighed. ure to lift us by that gadget in- She stopped what she was do- stead. Probably put us on a ing. “Don’t you expect to?” stratoship and take us someplace “Oh, I have hopes. Hope is all more convenient for them.” we’ve got to go on.” He leaned “But Pete—" She leaned

96 FANTASTIC against him. He laid an arm Marcus sighed. “You leave me around her waist. After a minute no choice. I hate to do this but if he sensed the fear draining from you don’t come out, I’ll have to her. “You don't seem worried,” use an atomic bomb.” she said. “Lord, no," he laughed. OSKINEN heard Vivienne’s The hook came down. Chains K gasp. Her nails dug into his were attached, harnessing the in- wrist. “You can’t,” he snarled. visible shell. A foreman waved "Not without a Presidential or- his crew back. The crane arm be- der. I know that much law.” gan slowly rising. “How do you know I don’t “Okay,” Koskinen said. “Class have an order?” dismissed.” He hunkered down Koskinen passed a dry tongue by the generator and turned the across his lips. “Listen,” he said, adjustment knob. “if you can get the President to The barrier field expanded a okay such a thing, you can a lot foot, irresistibly. Chains broke in easier get him to come here and pieces and whipped across the give me his personal assurance yard. The crane swayed. Koski- you aren’t trying to grab all the nen retracted the field. “I think I power there is before the power could knock that machine over by you’ve got slips away from you. extending our roof upward,” he If he’ll do that, I’ll come out.” said, “but why risk hurting the “You’ll come out when you’re operator ?” told, Koskinen. This minute.” “You know something?” Vivi- “In other words, you don’t enne said shakily. “You’re won- have any Presidential authoriza- derful.” tion and you know you can’t get He blushed. it. Now who’s breaking the law?” The confusion outside settled “Military Security has the leg- down again. The workers left al right to use the nuclear wea- with their crane; the agents re- pons in its arsenals, on its own sumed guardian positions out- initiative, in case of dire na- side the circle of floodlighting. tional emergency." Marcus stepped into it, alone. “What’s so dire about us? "Koskinen,” he spoke into the We’re only sitting here.” talkie. Marcus looked at his watch. “Yes?” Koskinen stayed where “Quarter past five,” he said. he was. “You have two hours to surren- “Pretty good trick, that. Do der.” He walked quickly, stiff- you plan to keep on resisting?” legged, from the light. "Yes.” “Pete.” Vivienne shuddered

SHIELD 97 — against Koskinen. “He’s bluffing, rials. The first handmade proto- isn’t he? He can’t. Not for real.” types can’t be ready for days at “I’m afraid he can,” Koskinen best. If he acts fast, knowing the said. situation, Marcus’ gang still has a “But how can he explain it chance to hunt down the people afterward?” who’re trying to build the things, “Trump up some story or oth- and brand everything as an anti- er. There won’t be any evidence Protectorate conspiracy. But left, you know. Plenty of fireball that’s provided the rest of the atoms travel fast enough to pene- government believes him and trate this shield, not to mention backs him. Which they won’t as radiant heat. Obviously his men long as we’re able to testify.” here are a hand-picked core, loyal "I see,” she said. After a mo- to him rather than to the Consti- ment, for no reason he could tution. Every would-be dictator guess, she switched off the glow recruits such a gang, according globe. The blaze outside was to all the sociology I ever studied. softened as it diffused through So they’ll support his yarn. Sure, cracks in the metal shelter, until he can get away with it.” it touched her with highlights “But he’ll lose the generator and embracing shadows. “We too!” can only wait, then,” she said. “That’s better than losing his position, and his chance for a A/fAYBE your Brazilian friend, still higher position. Besides, he -L’-*- the one to whom you told must figure that his tame scien- the whole story to, maybe he’ll tists now have clues which’ll let be able to get action.” them work out the secret in “Maybe. He’s had to go through time.” a lot of bureaucratic channels “Pete, there isn’t any secret! in the middle of the night— if he’s We took care of that. Why have- accomplished anything so far. n’t you told him?” And his own government has him “Because I was afraid, I still on the ‘suspicious’ list because he am, that he’d fire that bomb at knew Johnny and me. Still, he is once. We, right here, with a a journalist; his breed do know working potential barrier ma- more ropes than the rest of us.” chine, we’re the only immediate “How about that Senator you proof that he's a liar and traitor mentioned? The one you said was who’s outlived his day. No one a libertarian.” can make a unit overnight, you “Hohenrieder? Yes, I contact- realize. It’s an intricate thing, ed him too, as well as sending calling for some special mate- him a set of plans. But I didn’t

98 FANTASTIC ”

talk to him, of course. A secre- mostly his, about what they tary, who looked skeptical as would do in their future together. hell. Maybe he wiped the tape at once. Hohenrieder’s office must HE first sunlight tinged the get a lot of crank calls.” Tsky. They went outside to “Still, maybe the guy did pass watch, careless of heat ray snip- this one on to his boss. So there’s ers, looking past the guards who your Brazilian journalist cer- still stood in shadow, even past tainly trying to tell the President the ugly long cylinder that had of the U.S. what’s going on, and been wheeled on a cart next to Senator Hohenrieder possibly the barrier field. trying, and maybe a few of the “Sunrise,” Koskinen said, others, who’ve simply gotten our “trees, birdsong, the river, but standard message, have put two mostly you. I’m glad I came back and two together and are also to Earth.” trying. They may succeed at any She didn’t reply. He could not minute.” keep from looking at his watch. “Cut out that fake cheerful- The time was 0647. ness, darling,” she said. “I’m A bullet spray chewed holes in perfectly well able to face the the house wall. Koskinen jumped. fact that they probably won’t. The Security car which had been Not before 0715, anyhow. Mar- hovering on guard sped away. A

cus may be in jail by noon; but gleaming needle swept after it. we’ll never know.” Guns tongued fire. The car stag- “Maybe not,” he admitted re- gered and fell downward. Koski- luctantly. After a second: “It nen didn’t see it strike, but smoke won’t hurt. You won’t feel a puffed up above the trees. thing.” The slender craft returned. “I know. In a way, that scares “That’s Air Force!” Vivienne me worst.” screamed. “The insignia, see. Air “Do you want to go out to Force— them?” he asked. “I can switch A man in uniform came run- off the barrier for a second and ning and dodging through the you can run out.” rosebushes. An MS agent dropped “Lord, no!” Her vehemence to one knee and shot at him with put life back in them both. She a submachine gun. The soldier laughed unsteadily and groped hit dirt just beneath the bullet for a cigaret. Then she smiled stream. His arm chopped through and nestled beside him. They an arc. Koskinen saw the grenade held hands. Afterward he remem- Coming. Instinctively, he thrust bered that the talking had been Vivienne behind him. Not even

SHIELD 99 sound penetrated the barrier. But dential command. When we land- at least, he realized with nausea, ed to investigate what was going he had spared her a view of the on, these birds opened fire. What agent’s death. The others scat- the devil is the situation?” tered from sight. “I'll explain,” said Koskinen. No—one man pelted over the "One minute. One minute,

torn grass. Marcus ! His face was please.” He unwrapped Vivi-

twisted out of humanness ; slaver enne’s arms from around his ran from his mouth. He reached neck, dashed into the shelter and the bomb and fumbled with the turned off the generator. As he nose. A soldier dashed from became out, the dawn wind blew hind a willow tree and fired. across him. Marcus went on his belly. The soldier approached, turned him TTE had a moment alone with over, shook a helmeted head and her in the living room, by looked warily around. Marcus’ grace of General Grahovitch, be- dead eyes glared at the rising fore they embarked for Wash- sun. ington. As he entered, he saw her There was no more fighting at the window, staring out across that Koskinen saw. He held Vivi- the lawn to the river and the enne close, wondering why she hills beyond. wept. An Army platoon deployed “Veevee,” he said. around the potential shell. He She didn’t turn around. He read nothing on their young came behind her, laid his hands faces except amazement. on her waist and said into her A grizzled man led three or ear, with the blue-black hair four junior officers and a couple tickling his lips and smelling like of civilians around the house and summer, “Everything’s settled. onto the patio. Four stars All over but the shouting.” gleamed on his shoulders. “Kos- Still she didn’t move. kinen?” he said into the talkie at "Of course,” he said, “the his throat. He stopped, peering shouting’s apt to last quite a uncertainly at the two behind the while. I’m told that half the gov- barrier. ernment thinks I ought to be “Yes?” Koskinen remembered hanged for scattering the plans to switch on his own transmit- around so widely. But the other ter. “Hello?” half sees that we really had very “I’m General Grahovitch. Reg- little choice, so the only thing to ular Army— ’’ a contemptuous do is make public heroes of us look at Marcus’ corpse—“Special and so on. I can’t say I relish Operations office. Here by Presi- that prospect, but we should be

100 FANTASTIC ” able to sneak off eventually.” around. After everything I’ve “That’s good,” she said in a done and been— flat voice. “Do you think that matters to He kissed her cheek. “And me?” — “ then ” he said shyly. —everything I still am; be- “Oh, yes,” she said. “I don’t cause habits don’t go away just doubt you’ll have a wonderful by my wishing they would—Yes, time.” it does matter. Not now; you’re “What do you mean, me? I'm still too young to understand. thinking about us.” He grew But later it would. As the years aware of the tension under his passed. As you came to know me hands. “Hey, you aren’t worried better, and know other people about those old charges, are you? better too, and started realizing I have Grahovitch’s personal —No, I can’t do that to you. Or word that you’ll get not just a to myself, even. Let’s say a clean pardon, but a national apology.” goodbye.” “It was good of you to remem- “But what will you do?” he ber about me, in the middle of asked, stunned into stupidity, everything else,” she said. Slow- seeing only afterward that the iy, forcing herself, she turned one rational thing would perhaps about to meet his gaze. “I’m not have been to prevent her by force surprised, though. You’re that from departing. kind of guy.” “I'll manage,” she said. “My

“Nuts,” he blustered. “Got to kind always does. I’ll disappear take care— of my own wife, don’t —I know how to do that very I?—Uh ” He saw with uncom- thoroughly—and get a new face prehending shock that she was somewhere, and find something not crying simply because she to keep me busy. Remember, dar- had wept herself dry. ling, you’ve known me less than a “I’ll miss you like hell, Pete,” week. In six months you’ll have she said. trouble recalling what I looked “What are you talking about?” like. I know.” “You don't think I'd tie a She kissed him, a hasty ges- man like you ... to somebody ture, as if she were afraid. “But like me . . . do you? I haven’t next to Johnny," she said, “I sunk that far.” liked you the best.” “What do you mean, sunk? Before he could stir, she was Don’t you want me?” out the door, walking down to- “Oh, Pete, Pete." She took his ward the riverside where several head between her hands. “Can’t Army aircars waited. Her head you see? It’s the other way was held high. THE END

SHIELD 101 OU are thinking at this very ing the whole world outside. Ymoment. But where do you What a crazy, useless mess to be feel this thinking is taking place? concocting when humanity al- Is it in the front of your head or ready was topsy-turvy, teetering the hack? Ah, somewhere just on collapse, and waiting for its back of the eyes, you say, and a best minds to find an answer, little above them. Don’t tell me any answer, to its real problem. your thinking seems to occur in So he stopped walking around

a sinus passage ! No, close your the idea and waited until it fad- eyes and it won’t seem to focus ed, leaving behind only a vacuum. so much in that unlikely area. Then the horrible truth rose Now there isn’t any focus at all? once more in its place. Just all over the inside of your “Your coffee, sir?” Hubert had head, ivhatever that means, and slipped so quietly into the library even a little in your arm or your that Benson had not heard the heart or ivhatever spot you hap- slightest clink of metal or crackle pen to concentrate on. of electronic circuits. The butler Any spot you happen to con- was leaning slightly forward centrate on! now, ready to set the silver serv- The stream of ideas came to a ice down on the end table next dead halt right there and Benson to his master’s easy chair. “You walked around the final thought did not ring, sir, but you always as if absorption of it back into have coffee at four.” his mind, turning it over and “Thank you, Hubert.” He over there, might mean overturn- looked intently into the robot's

An ingenious re-examination of the Laws of

Robotics, involving a new way for robots to kill

people and a new way for people to kill robots.

the THINKING By ALBERT TE1CHNER DISEASE

102 103 face and the two plasti-eyes Not so perfect, though, nowa- stared back persistently but days. For the past two years without the slightest hint of in- there had been an increasing solence. This one, at least, re- number of master-murders with- mained faithful to his original out any feedback destruction in programming. the responsible machines. Be- Or did he? Benson sipped his cause no single robot had con- coffee (perfectly blended as ever), ceived the idea of revolt. as he watched the impeccably butler-tailored back retreating to lVrOW, for the past few months, the door. There was no special increasing numbers were reason they could not get to Hu- abandoning their places of work bert. In fact, it seemed now that and congregating in strategical- there was no reason why they ly scattered strongholds for guer- could not get to any of their fel- illa forays, hit and run tactics, low creatures, no matter what against people unaccustomed to the original programming. Hu- physical struggle. Each day the bert’s well-regulated face could red stains of rebellion inched be as amenable as ever at the very onward, like overstuffed amoe- moment he leaned forward, bas, on the telenews maps. With- thumb nail properly tilted to slit in those darkened, antiseptic his master’s throat from ear to zones no cell of life persisted; ear. robots needed neither human The situation, theoretically im- slaves nor biological food. possible, had been speculated This was the problem to wres- upon so long that now, even tle with, Benson sighed, gazing though actually existent, it into the bottom of his coffeecup seemed like some mere word trick as if the grains there could spell of those ancient fictioneers and out an effortless solution for the metaphysicians who had found man who had the key to their their greatest pleasure in toying chaotic code. It was the problem with the impossible. From Dr. to which all human beings on Frankenstein to Norbert Weiner Earth and the dependency plan- and beyond there had been the ets were supposed to be devoting idle speculation about man’s crea- every waking hour. Each being tions taking over from man. But a vast repository of history’s cul- the proper precautions had al- tures, thoroughly self-indoctri- ways been observed—any robot nated in every art and science thinking revolt had lost the ca- during his centuries of gentle pacity for thought itself, a self- leisure. Someone should have had regulating cutoff mechanism. an answer by now.

104 FANTASTIC But the only response had been UDDENLY he felt exhausted a vast failure of nerve, a desire S by the whole thing and leaned to make the threat disappear by back, relaxing pleasantly and re- ignoring its existence. Many had turning to that consoling prob- managed to disregard the future lem about where a man’s thought by concentrating all their think- were. "Would you care for an- ing on some obscure aspect of other cup of coffee, sir?” There the past, a period of particularly was Hubert again at his elbow. beautiful china glazes or a shift “Why yes, that would do very in vertebrate jaw structures. nicely.” Others had found total relief Once more the unbreakable from the thought of metallic nail glinted on Hubert’s out- hands crushing fragile necks by thrust thumb as he tilted the sil- drugging themselves with twen- ver coffee pot but, this time Ben- ty-four hour sessions of mathe- son languidly refused to see

music. And a few, like Benson, menace in it. He waved Hubert had become students of their own away and the butler bowed, then private selves, studying each moved silently out of the library. minor movement of the mind Now, let’s see. My thoughts, from one idle speculation to an- when I really concentrate on other. them, don’t seem to be anywhere in particular. Suppose I wanted HOULD I pour myself a sec- them to seem to be outside of me? S ond cup? Benson wondered. He concentrated, eyes tightly Now, then, the problem is really shut. The vague place of thinking quite simple—they have devel- floated until it felt as if it were oped a collective unconsciousness half within him, half somewhere and this overall mechanism gives outside. Then the movement each captured robot its instruc- stopped. tions, pools their separate knowl- After an hour of futile effort edge for a common effort. Should he resolved on a new tack. He I pour myself a second cup? would aim at a precise point one Leifs see, where was 1? Ah yes! meter directly ahead of him and all ice have to do is find a way to see if his thinking could seem to shortcircuit that collective func- come from it. Novo! There was a tion the way we can make a sin- sense of some force straining to gle decision-creating machine be completely beyond him but break down. Broad wavefront nothing happened. beams should do that trick—oh Maybe I’m trying too much no! that's been tried. Have to for a starter. figure something else. Benson refocussed on a spot

THE THINKING DISEASE 105 ten centimeters straight ahead. next it billowed outward to ele- All of a sudden some mental point phantine proportions. Wheel he gave way and he was experienc- screamed happily, the sound too ing the most peculiar sensation loud and too high to be produced of his long, long life. The part of by vocal cords. I zoomed from him that said I was no longer in- one end of the library to the oth-

side ; it was floating beyond him, er, then swooped a curlicue pas- just as instructed! For a few sage back to the ceiling corner minutes I watched the body from which it had taken off. through which it worked, then His chubby body rested below slowly slid back into its vague him like an object from another usual home. galaxy. It moved slowly to the Fiddling while Rome burns, his soft pulsing of breath and blood conscience warned. At any other but everything else in the library

time this would have been a won- was perfectly still. . . . derful discovery, good for a few Until the door opened and, decades of pleasant trifling. Now looking equally diminished and it could only be part of the dan- faraway, Hubert glided noiseless- gerous drift into race suicide that ly back into the library. He was was going on everywhere. moving quickly across the room So he went right back to toy- but with no evident purpose ex- ing with and refocussing his I. cept to see his master at closer A few more trys and he had range. Then the mechanical hand managed to move it a full meter slowly rose and, like a jackknife out. It was an enjoyable thrill springing from its place of con- that could grow with practise cealment, the thumb nail flicked and the devil with being practi- into place. cal! Some machine somewhere Horrified, Benson watched his was bound to remain loyal and death approaching as if seeing come up with a solution sooner or the action in the slowest motion later. possible without all illusion of movement ending. Suddenly, FTER another hour the I of though, he could no longer re- A his being moved about the li- main passive—would there be brary, rising and falling at his any place left for I to go to if his command, like some metaphysi- body died ? That was one experi- cal bird swimming across the di- ment no one alive could risk. mensions of its private universe. Frantically he refocussed to One moment his body shrank in come to closest grips with the his inner eye, as if seen through rebellious robot, to be inside the the wrong end of a telescope, the very heart of danger. He swooped

106 FANTASTIC .

again and he really was there! posed to be staying at home, The next thing he knew body and thinking intensively about the mind were one again and he was collective menace. Either he had rising from his seat, staring at fallen victim to an attack or— the crumpled metal figure. His Desperately, Benson turned on foot cautiously shoved against the Emergency Demand circuit, Hubert’s torso, increasing the hoping it had not been tampered pressure until the robot fell with with. The viewers in Larkins a clatter over onto its back. Two place all went on. The third melted eyes blankly rested in a screen on Benson’s console contorted face. The whole cun- showed the scientist deep in an ning mechanism had collapsed escapist fugue, staring at a color into junk. symphony. Benson pressed for Why? Benson unscrewed the maximum sound until Larkin neckplate and peered inside. was shaken from his intellectual There, too, organs had fused into narcosis. “All right, all right,” he dead metal and the precisely fro- grumbled, coming toward his zen cryotron box had melted, its own televiewer. “Can’t a man vast information store destroyed. even have a little privacy in his own home ?”

E SAT down again, his being “Come to my place,” Benson H invigorated by the narrow shouted. “One hundred and fifty escape from death. Why, he kept B.” asking himself, why has this That brought the lean, bitter happened? But, alive as his mind face completely awake. “Are you now was, it could find no answer. crazy, Benson? That is Benson, Ordinarily he would have just isn’t it?” He peered a while, then sat there four or five hours, sa- nodded. “I’ve got work to do here. voring the chance to speculate to Anyway, it’s dangerous to go out no purpose. This time, though, in the corridors.” he managed to sustain a will to “You’ve got to risk it.” act and set the televiewer for Dr. "Oh, sure, just like that !” Larkin’s apartment thirty stories “Look and listen.” He turned above him. his camera on Hubert’s corpse There was no answer. It didn’t and repeated everything that had seem likely that Larkin would be happened in the past few hours. away from his apartment—peo- The scientist said nothing but ple went out as little as possible became increasingly agitated as these turbulent days. Anyway, the story went on. “Larkin, don’t as one of the greatest living cy- you believe me? I tell you it hap- berneticians, Larkin was sup- pened just that way—only I

THE THINKING DISEASE 107 don't know what happened." the corridor, then saw him cut “I’ll be there, I'll be there down as he went down a bend in right away.” His skinny hands the hall, metal madmen springing clutched pleadingly toward Ben- at him from behind every bush son. “Don’t move out of your of the hall gardens, then imag- place whatever you do. Don’t ined him slashed from behind open the door for anyone and while waiting for the elevator. when I come on your entry plate Could I project that far? he won- let me in right away. Maybe dered. Could I really help him? !” there is some hope after all Even if it were possible, it "What’s all this sudden rush would be a terrible gamble, let- about? I didn’t mean you had to ting the I go so far away and hurry this much." leaving the body unprotected. If Larkin were right, he was the ARKIN was too excited to one who possessed the power of L bother turning his set off. He knowledge that had to be saved was already half way out the at any price. room when he shouted over his The seconds went by more shoulder. "Maybe it’s nothing slowly. Then there was a gap be- but they can’t be sure either. You tween two of them so intermin- may be the worst danger they’ve able that he had to take the hit yet—they probably know al- chance. Benson focussed every ready what’s happened and they weightless ounce of mental force !” can’t let you live if I’m right on the corridor outside Larkin’s “I’m not that spenial,” Benson place and, with a strength born insisted. “I’m sure any human of desperate need, the I broke being would have done what I immediately from him, then, like did. I—.” But Larkin was already a quantum leap, was at its desti- gone. nation without being anywhere It would be three or four min- between. utes at most before the older man There was Larkin pacing anx- would reach him but he began to iously by the elevator door. Down

count each . second nervously. the long green corridor Benson Suppose Larkin was right? Sup- saw a huge Servile, designed for pose the collective robot mind the coarsest heavy labor, emerge would really be working to get from an apartment and start to him now? Wouldn’t that mechan- lumber menacingly toward the ical subconsciousness also be out elevator where the dial showed for Larkin’s blood too? the car was still thirty floors He pictured the spindly fellow away. Then Larkin, eyes widen- being attacked as he rushed into ing with fear and suddenly-re-

108 FANTASTIC .

turning defeat, saw the hulking rhythmically thumped a row of thing approaching too. knuckles into a bony palm. Benson lunged toward the “Disappear?" Servile and the thing hesitated as “Absolutely." He leaned for- if functioning with new-found ward. “Nobody’s ever going to sophistication of awareness. Fi- understand what mind really is nally it turned tail and headed but we have figured this much back into the apartment from out about the robot collective. It which it had came. did not exist when there were Larkin leaped into the elevator fewer thinking machines. But we as soon as the door started to made too many that make other slide open and Benson followed thinking machines. At some cri- him in. He rode down with the tical point a few years ago there trembling man and accompanied were suddenly enough of them him to the door of 150B. Then he for another, higher level of me- returned to his body and opened chanically-based mind to emerge. the door. It’s like the bombs of the ancients —they didn’t explode until a cer- HASTLY close thing!” Lar- tain critical mass was achieved. If G kin exclaimed, rushing in- we can destroy enough robots side and slamming the great door without their striking back ef- shut. “A Servile came down the fectively their numbers will re- corridor toward me— cede below the critical point and “ that will be that!” —and then turned tail and went back to the place from “But they can cope effectively.” which it had emerged.” “Not necessarily. This emerg- “How did you know that?” ing thing is still new, feeling its “I was there.” way into full being. If we wait Shaking, Larkin eased himself much longer, of course, we’ll be into a chair. "Give me a little completely powerless. If—every- time to take this in. I feel like thing’s if!—if I could grasp the everybody else—licked and al- principle behind what you have most not caring anyway—but been doing we’d have a real this makes a little difference. weapon.” Look, do you think you could “You’re not going to get a teach me how to do it?” deep insight, not even with all “You can teach yourself, just your knowledge, unless you your- a matter of concentration.” self try to project.” “If we could destroy enough "Then let’s start right away! individual robots their collective But first—you’d better check the mind would disappear.” He corridors.”

THE THINKING DISEASE 109 “Right.” Benson focused again “You can do it, Larkin. Other- and this time the I moved away wise why do you almost get as easily as if the body had never through? You have to. You’ve been its restraining home. It got the training to profit by the moved out into the corridors and experience even if it takes much saw one block away down a longer for you to get there.” straight hall three enormous Ser- “All right,” he sighed, “but viles approaching, the floor buck- it’s sheer murder.” He returned ling beneath their tread. They all to concentrating on the problem carried blasters. and still nothing happened. Benson concentrated more in- Then, in a split second, he tensely than ever and passed went limp. A minute later his from one to the other, each move- eyes opened and he was smiling.

ment of his will ending in a tiny “It happened ! I was outside my- moment of blackout. Soon the self and I could move a little three of them lay dead on the there.” buckling floor. "No time for talk,” Benson insisted. “Back to work.” FTER that he sped through An hour later Larkin was more A each floor, passing human adept at it. “Now,” he said, “I’m masters, bloodily gored in their going to try to get into yovr easy chairs, and other places body.” !” where the butlers still moved “No, that’s too dangerous obeisantly to their tired masters’ “So is trying nothing.” commands. In a few apartments He closed his eyes and sud- where death seemed to be at hand denly Benson started to shake as he intervened to destroy the if about to collapse. Something threatening machine. Then he re- was trying to take over within turned to his own place and felt him and in another second he Larkin’s skinny fingers clutching would no longer exist. Instinc- at his elbow. “It’s all right now,” tively he fought back against the Benson smiled. “We can begin.” invading factor and it pulled Larkin proved to be a difficult away. pupil and hour after hour he Sweat was pouring over his tried with little success to disen- back as he watched the older man tangle mind from body. “I can come to. Larkin shook his head feel something almost happen- in wonder and smiled. “I know!” ing,” he said finally, “but it does- he said. “I’m sure of it.” n’t. I’m not an introspective like “You know you could have you. We’d better get somebody killed me!” who can pick this up right.” “No. Any human soul would no FANTASTIC — — fight off such a threat. But the ers. I’m thinking of the Tau com- robot is not that sophisticated in ponent that is always present as its structure. No robot will ever a harmonic in every thought be able to hold it back.” process.” “But what is it?” “Tau waves? Larkin, that’s the “Wait until I finish.” Larkin one thought wave that’s the same took a pencil and started scrib- for everyone, animal or machine bling calculations on some sheets —everyone. How could the im- of paper. After a while he looked position of my Tau on another up. “There’s the answer. We brain’s Tau make any differ- should be able to train all men to ence?” do it, maybe even design ma- “That’s the beauty of the chines.” thing. It’s the same and it isn’t the same! ENSON was trying to un- "I’m not trying to make a par- B ravel the esoteric calcula- adox game. The Tau waves are tions. “They’ve already tried the same because our most deli- broad wave interference. It does- cate mechanisms show them to n’t work?” be. They are not the same be- “Not broad wave, young man, cause no two things in the uni- but a very specific one, that’s verse can be exactly alike. In this what’s needed. When the attack- case we’re dealing with a varia- ing wave’s broad the harmonics tion so close to the heart of men- cancel out the potentially danger- tal reality that it must remain ous factor. Every advanced deci- beyond our instrumental grasp. sion-maker, whether biological or See what I’m driving at?” mechanical, functions on the ba- Benson stared at the scrawled sis of a whole series of carrier sheets. "The invading Tau wave waves.” is so much like that of the host “You mean that my free-float- mind's that it can come to grips ing psyche has been fouling up with that mind but it is still these robots with an alien al- sufficiently—if imperceptibly pha?” different to disturb the harmonic “Of course not. Alpha waves, unity of that host. And from this betas and the rest that were the tiny alien tremor the frequency first to be discovered at the dawn shifts ripple outward until the of EEG, they couldn’t be upset whole psychic function is shat- by telepathic superimposition tered and along wiih it the phys- each receiving brain is so unique ical seat of that function.” in those rhythms that it never “Which is why the human race even gets to grapple with intrud- is back in business!” the end

THE THINKING DISEASE 111 112 : One Long Ribbon

By FLORENCE ENGEL RANDALL

Illustrator ADKINS

From beyond the grave, her husband had given her

this house. But as she slowly went mad in it,

she wondered if it were a gift, or a vengeance.

AN moved into the house with stared numbly into space, want- Pall the possessions she and ing to cry, waiting for the tears Chris had accumulated over the to come. Now, she was sure, they years, all the things they had would flow easily and bring chosen with such care, with such peace, release. But nothing hap- love. They had been sure that, pened. She just felt drained and someday, they would have a home. weary, more tired than she could Chris would stop flying and she ever remember, more exhausted would call for him each evening than she had felt that night al- at some suburban station with most a year ago when the tele- Jamie watching for the train and gram had come. yelling, “There’s Daddy, Mommy. She had known what it con- I can see him.” tained the moment it had arrived. She directed the moving men She hadn’t opened it for a long “Put the piano over there, please. time; just held it in her hands,

That easy chair goes next to the as if by not opening it, she could fireplace.” negate its contents, deny the She directed Jamie: “Go out facts, bring Chris back again. and play, darling. There must be And then, months after the lots of children here. You can telegram, the lawyer had given help me later.” her Chris’ letter. Then, when the furniture was “I COULD NEVER GIVE YOU A in place and the men had left, she HOME,” it had said, the hand- sat down in the living room and writing strong and bold like

113 Chris, ‘‘WE WERE ALWAYS ON THE fell in love with it at once. There MOVE—ONE AIR BASE AFTER THE was something almost fey about

OTHER. I HAVE REQUESTED THAT it ; a sense of instant recognition THEY WAIT A WHILE BEFORE GIV- that this was home, that this was ING THIS TO YOU BUT, NOW THE where she and Jamie belonged.

TIME HAS COME WHEN I THINK Searching for Jamie, she stood YOU’LL BE ABLE TO MAKE THE up and peered out of the window. MOVE. THIS HOUSE IS YOURS WITH The lane had been empty, de- MY LOVE. LIVE IN IT FOR ME. LIVE serted, but, it was as if her ap- IN IT FOR JAMIE AND FOR YOUR pearance was a signal. It was as OWN FUTURE.” if her- presence at the window She had memorized his words. had caused the curtain to roll up, She had read and reread the let- the play to begin. Little boys ter so often that it had become pedalled bicycles; roller skates almost devoid of meaning. There scraped the sidewalks; the trees had never been a house for them waved to the sky and, just next before, yet, now that Chris was door to her, two women stopped gone, he expected her to live in to talk, their voices clear in the this one. spring air. The lawyer had been firm. “It The lawyer had said, “I do was what he wanted, Mrs. Hol- hope you won’t be too lonely den,” he had said, the sunlight there.” reflected in his glasses. “He was This wasn’t a street for loneli- most explicit. He made all the ar- ness and grief. This was a street rangements about two years ago. for happiness with the houses He said that if anything hap- like a child's colored blocks set pened to him, you must live in neatly side by side. Chris had this house.” He took off his seen its life, its happiness and

glasses and polished them. “I do had wanted her to be a part of it. hope,” he added thoughtfully, That was why he had bought this staring into space, “that you house and no other. won’t be too lonely there." She wouldn’t disappoint him. She wouldn’t withdraw from the his was the house! White- life around her. She would join

Tshingled, red-roofed, the first it, become a part of it, give Jamie

house on a winding lane ; a lane, the home he needed. curving, rambling, meandering Fran put up a pot of coffee just as if it couldn’t make up its mind in case someone dropped by to where it was supposed to go. This welcome her. She had almost was the house; the house Chris emptied two of the cartons when had chosen, his gift to her. She Jamie came in.

114 FANTASTIC ”

"Hi, darling,” she said, rum- being considerate. They may feel pling his hair. Jamie, at seven, it’s much too soon to call. Jamie was a small edition of Chris; and I will go for a walk this aft- wide, brown eyes, light brown ernoon and surely, someone will hair and a few freckles trailing stop and greet us. across the bridge of his nose. Feeling more cheerful, she ran “Thought you were going to help up the stairs and paused at the me unpack,” she said, "Have door to Jamie’s room. He was ly- fun?” ing across the bed, his eyes open, "It’s all right, I guess,” he said staring at the ceiling. politely, "if you like a lot of “Jamie, what’s wrong?” She trees.” was suddenly anxious. She She grinned at him. “City touched his forehead with her boy,” she teased. “You’ll have to lips. “Are you feeling well?” get used to living in the country.” “Sure,” he said, "Honest, "Sure,” he said, "It’s fine.” Mom, I’m fine.” Without protesting, he rested “How about taking a walk with after lunch. Fran sat at the table me ? We can go down the lane and alone, the aroma of the coffee still explore a bit.” filling the kitchen. The house was "There’s not much to see,” said very still. Even the electric clock Jamie, "Just a lot of trees and didn’t tick, but moved silently, bushes and rocks. It’s going to counting out the minutes, the be pretty lonely here, Mom.” hours. Outside of her window, Fran bit her lip. “How can you outside of her quiet house, the say such a thing? There are so children played and laughed ; the many beautiful houses. I can women visited back and forth. hear the children playing and Fran felt a little unreal. She having a marvelous time. I saw hadn’t expected a brass band to them roller-skating just a little draw up, the trumpets gleaming while ago. Why don’t you unpack in the sunlight, the drums rolling your skates?” a greeting. She certainly hadn’t He sat up and stared at her. expected her neighbors to jump He touched her hand. “I’ll go if up and down, shouting, "Wel- you want me to,” he said, but his come to the Holdens.” It was as eyes were frightened. if no one had noticed the moving She was puzzled. “Jamie— van; no one had seen them, no “I’m ready right now.” He one wanted to see them. stood up, "Let’s go,” he said and ran down the hall, down the steps. an thought: I’m being fool- She followed him slowly, won- Pish. Probably everyone’s just dering why he suddenly seemed

ONE LONG RIBBON 115 so strange, so remote. Was he The boys never looked up. They thinking of Chris too, missing behaved as if she and Jamie did- him, longing for him? n’t exist, as if they neither saw She closed the front door be- nor heard them, their eyes intent hind them and they walked down on their game, their litany. the path together. They turned What rude children, thought to the right. The sidewalk was Fran. Perhaps, that’s why Jamie blocked by three little boys play- was behaving so oddly; he had ing marbles. never encountered rudeness be- “Excuse me, please,” said fore. He didn’t know what to do Fran. except pretend it didn’t exist. “No quitsies, no changies," said the snub-nosed boy. HAT rude grown-ups, she “No back fires, no side fires,” Wthought a moment later. Two chanted the second. women had passed, their eyes “Hello," said Fran, smiling, staring through her, ignoring “We’ve just moved in.” Fran’s friendly nod. “No richochets,” said the third She felt a sudden chill although boy, ignoring her. the day was warm and sweet with Jamie tugged at her hand, May. Magnolias were in bloom “Please, Mom.” and a crab apple splashed pink “It’s all right, darling,” said against the sky. In the distance Fran, “I’m sure they’ll become a lawn mower whirred. Jamie more friendly after a while.” blinked in the sunlight. “Who?” said Jamie. I must be imagining this, “The children,” said Fran, im- thought Fran; it couldn’t pos- patiently. “Really, Jamie.” sibly be real. It was as if the en- “Mom,” he whispered, “I don’t tire street was determined to ig- see any children.” nore her, as if the entire street She stared at him. “Darling, had banded together, united in what are you saying? They’re their snub. right over there. Can’t you see?” But why? What had they "Oh, sure,” he said, his voice done? quivering, “I didn’t at first but She turned back without a now I do.” He patted her arm word, still holding Jamie’s hand, with a strangely adult gesture of finding comfort in the firm clasp reassurance. “Maybe we ought to of his fingers. go home,” he said. There was a man on the lawn “I want to walk," said Fran of the house next door to hers. stubbornly. She was suddenly, He was painting, his canvas inexplicably very frightened. propped against a rock. He stared 116 FANTASTIC into the distance, his back toward O,” she said aloud, shutting her. N the front door behind her. It would be quite simple. She “No, it’s impossible.” She would walk right up to him and leaned against the door, braced say, “I’m Fran Holden. I just against it, her legs trembling. moved next door to you and I It had been someone else. wanted to say, ‘hello’.'’ Someone who resembled Fran; She tugged at Jamie’s hand someone who looked enough like but he broke away and ran to- Fran so that a slip of the brush, ward their house. She watched a touch of color in the wrong him go, startled, moved uncer- place, gave the illusion that it tainly in his direction, and then, had been Fran, herself, who had turned and walked resolutely posed for the picture. across the lawn. Was it because she was so tired Fran cleared her throat. that everything was so strange, so disoriented? She just wasn't T^HE man kept on painting, ab- seeing things in their proper per- sorbed. His dark hair was spective. They would have an cropped short; his ears lay flat early dinner and go to sleep, and, against his head, his hands were in the morning, everything would brown and strong. She peered be normal and usual. They would over his shoulder with the feeling become part of the street. They of unreality flooding through her would belong there. The faces again. He was finishing, with would be friendly they would be ; quick brushstrokes, the portrait made welcome. Chris would never of a woman a woman who stood have chosen a house, would never ; erect against the backdrop of the have chosen a street that would sky, her skirt blowing in the hurt them in any way. breeze, her eyes slitted in the sun. “LIVE IN this house,” he had Fran took a deep breath and written, “for your future.” ran away, ran after Jamie, run- For her future. She thought of ning, seeking, searching for the the years still ahead of her, the cool safety of her house. She interminable years without love, had recognized the portrait; had walking alone, living alone, stared at it unbelievingly and watching Jamie grow, always then, had done the only thing alone, never to share the joy of left to do. She had fled. him. The woman on the canvas with They ate their dinner in si- the red lips smiling, the blue lence, seated at opposite ends of eyes shining with happiness, had the kitchen table; Jamie, still been Fran. troubled, still frightened and

ONE LONG RIBBON 117 withdrawn. She wanted to com- laughter and the music envelop fort him and fumbled, seeking, her, warming her. She had never hoping for the right words. felt so cold, so set apart, so iso- “We’ll do better tomorrow,” lated. she said, clearing the table, “It’ll Searching for courage, she be much better tomorrow, Jamie. took a deep breath and walked We’ll shop at the stores and stock slowly up to the house. She up on things and then, we’ll go reached for the doorbell, but be-

to the school and register you. fore she could touch it, the man You’ll be happy here, darling, opened the door wide and peered you’ll see.” into the darkness as if he were She tucked him in bed and searching for someone. He stood then moved through the lonely next to her, so close that if she house, not able to stay in one moved her hand, she could have place, walking through the silent touched him. She looked up at living room, the quiet hall. him, for he was very tall, but he Next door, the lights blazed didn’t see her. His eyes stared and the sound of music drifted through her. through the open windows. She She shivered. “Please,” she could hear a woman laugh and said, “Oh, please.” then, the deep, answering mur- “Steve,” called the woman’s mur of the man. Those were her voice, “Steve, what are you do- neighbors, living in a house that ing?” was filled with lights and laugh- It was a voice oddly familiar, ter and music. a little distorted, a little muffled, Fran opened her front door and as if Fran, herself, had spoken moved silently across the path. and this was the echo. She walked toward the house next “I keep wondering,” said the door, across the wet, newly man, his face bathed in moon- sprinkled lawn, her hands out- light, his lips curving tenderly, stretched, as if she were plead- “I keep wondering just when it ing. She stood in front of their happened. I keep wondering what house, watching, aching with un- I could do to help. But, at the believable longing, wanting to same time, Fran, I’m afraid. I

move toward it, and yet, fearful don’t want to change anything. I of being turned away, of being don’t want to change what we rebuffed. have now.” “Come in, quickly,” said the TT would be so wonderful if she voice, “Oh, please, darling, be- could press that doorbell and cause I’m afraid too.” enter that house and feel the And there was a hand placed

118 FANTASTIC on his tanned arm, the long, back through time to bring him white fingers curving gently, pos- close to her; the gentleness, the sessively. “Please, darling,” and warmth and kindness of Chris. he went into the house and shut Why had he chosen this house the door. for her? Chris had never done Fran stood frozen on the steps. anything without a reason. Why She was having a nightmare. this particular house? Had he This is the way a nightmare be- known what she would feel here, gins; the thudding heart, the experience here? Was this what sudden terror, the legs that just he had wanted for her? won’t obey. She was really lying Or was she dreaming even in her bed, sound asleep, dream- through the daylight hours, as ing. she had pretended she must be She had dreamt this walk dreaming that night? Did the across the wet grass and the street exist? Was it really there woman’s shadow on the blinds or were she and Jamie suspended and the strong, hard planes of in some dreadful limbo, their the man’s face. She had dreamt only existence a swing on the she had heard the sound of her pendulum of time and space, not own voice calling from within a belonging anywhere? strange house. After a while, she fell asleep, her arm over her eyes, trying to L'KAN forced herself to move, close out the world, shut out her to walk quietly back to her loneliness. own house, to lock the door, turn out the lights and behave like HE next morning, the sun- any normal householder closing Tlight sparkled, the birds sang up for the night. and even Jamie seemed more like

She wouldn’t think about it. himself, eager to get into the car She wouldn’t allow herself to with her, eager to get to the think about it. That way lay school. madness and gibbering terror. The school was new, red- She forced herself to undress, bricked. It smelled of chalk and shower and get into bed. She lay fresh paint. very quietly, trying to think The principal was cordial. about Chris, trying to think of “Mrs. Holden,” she smiled, “I Jamie, trying to think of any- want to welcome you to our com- thing but this winding lane on munity. We do hope you’ll be which her house was built, the very happy here.” house Chris had chosen. Fran smiled back, smiled at Rembering Chris, she moved another human being, smiled at

ONE LONG RIBBON 119 ”

this friendly, plump little woman the rutted, country road that led who actually saw her, who heard to her house. her, who spoke to her. Every- thing seemed suddenly delight- ACH person she had met that ful, very sharp, very clear; the E morning had been friendly. shining desk, the fly buzzing at She had her identity once again. the window, the yellow roses in She was Fran Holden and next the white vase. to her sat her son, Jamie. They “Thank you," said Fran, “I’m lived in the first house on the sure we will.” lane and everyone in town who “You live on the lane, don't had met them, had smiled at you? It’s so pretty out there.” them. “Yes," said Fran, “It is.” If there was anything wrong, "Of course, you’ll be rather it was with the street not with lonely for a while.” her, not with Jamie. “Why should I be lonely?” Fran parked the car in the Fran said carefully, “Do you driveway. She worked in the know why?” house for the rest of the day, The principal looked startled. cleaning, straightening, unpack- “Well,” she said, uncertainly, "If ing. She ignored the street, clos- you don’t know why, Mrs. Hol- ing her ears to the sounds of the den, then, you must be a very laughing children, the voices of self-sufficient person indeed.” the mothers, the noises from next "Please,” said Fran, leaning door. forward, “I wish you’d— Jamie followed her about, "Excuse me,” said the princi- handing her things, opening car- pal, picking up the 'phone. “I’m tons, making no move to go out- always being interrupted by calls doors. She didn’t urge him. If she just when I’d like to settle down couldn’t face the street, what was for a nice long chat. I think it it like for Jamie? would be best to start Jamie She turned to him suddenly, fresh in the fall. I’m sure he’ll be not meaning to say it but the very happy here and we’ll be very words spilling out in spite of her- happy to have him.” self. Fran was dismissed. “Darling,” she said, “What do She delayed the trip home as you see when you look outdoors ?” long as possible. She shopped in His eyes were troubled. “What the supermarket; Jamie pushing do you see, Mom?” the cart. She loaded the car and “Please, Jamie.” Fran sat drove through the town. Finally, down and pulled him toward her. reassured, she started back along "Please tell me. You said you saw

120 FANTASTIC nothin? but trees and rocks and thump of a ball slammed by a bushes. Don’t you see anything bat; she heard a mother calling else?" her child. He shook his head. He saw the woods; the trees

‘‘No houses?” asked Fran. stretching green and tall ; the ‘No people? No children?" brown rocks, the grass growing “I think I ought to go up- wild. stairs,” said Jamie quickly. This was no house for her. “There’s something I’ve got to Chris had been wrong. But it had do." been his gift to her. How could "Jamie!" she turn her back on Chris? He put his head on her shoulder. "You said you saw people, '"PHE doorbell rang and she Mom,” he whispered. "There was stood still for a moment, no one there.” shocked, immobile. Someone was Fran released him and stood standing on her front steps. up. She went to the sink. She let Someone was ringing her bell. the cold water run and took a She opened the door. drink. It was icy against the It was the man who lived next back of her throat. door. He stood tall on her steps, “Jamie, darling,” she said his eyes, brown like Chris’, alive gently, “Right now, there are peo- with dancing lights. ple walking past our house. Right “I’m Steve Marshall,” he said. now, there’s music coming from Fran was filled with happiness. next door. And yet, you see noth- A wave of it flowed through her, ing, hear nothing?” She clasped making her dizzy, making her her hands. She mustn’t frighten weak with joy. It had been so him. “Perhaps I’m mistaken,” long since she had felt this way. she said, keeping her voice light, “Please, come in," she said, "But that’s what I see.” opening the door wide, “Jamie," Jamie backed away. “I really she called, “We have a visitor. have to go upstairs,” he mut- It’s our next door neighbor.” tered, and ran. Jamie came down the steps, his She mustn’t question him. She hands in his pockets, his eyes mustn’t do that again. She would alert and wary. have to leave this house—for her “Hi,” said Steve, holding out own sanity, for Jamie’s. his hand, “I’m glad to know you.” She saw the neat, manicured They shook hands gravely, so- lawns, the carefully planned flow- berly, studying each other. Jamie ergardens. She saw children smiled. whirling past; she heard the “I’m Fran Holden,” she said,

ONE LONG RIBBON 121 ; holding out her own hand. “I've he said gently, “We’re going to been meaning to call. I did want follow the natural contours of the to meet your wife.” land. The street will curve and This was reality; the warmth wind and we’ll leave all the tall of the sunlight on her bare arms, trees.” the way his teeth gleamed white Fran stared at him, "This is when he smiled. the way it’s going to be?" “I’d like you to meet my wife He nodded, trying to under- if I had one," he said, “I just stand. wanted to stop by and tell you “The house next door will be that your isolation is over.” sprawling and low and you’re go- “I was sure it wouldn't last," ing to live in it yourself,” she said Fran. “It was some sort of said, not asking a question, sim- a joke, then?” She tried to laugh. ply stating the fact. “I’ll have to admit I’ve been "It will be sprawling and low.” pretty lonely here." Then, as the He grinned. “I didn’t know I was full significance of his words going to live in it, though. Are struck her, she said, “But, I don’t you telling fortunes today ?” understand. You do have a wife. Fran leaned back and smiled at I heard you talking to her last Jamie. "The houses will look like night.” building blocks and there will be He frowned, puzzled. “I wasn’t lots of children here." She looked here last night,” he said slowly, up at Steve. “The house next “I just stopped by today to tell door to you will have three chil- you that the bulldozers will be dren. Two boys and a girl.” ripping the place up soon. I’m He frowned. “They just bought the architect for the new devel- from the plans," he said. "How opment we’re going to build.” could you know?” "I can’t explain right now,” L’KAN backed away, reaching she said, “I just do.” A for Jamie. She touched his Somehow, she was no longer shoulder, and then moved uncer- frightened. tainly into the living room. Exhilarated, she stood up and The two of them followed her ran to the front door. The street the tall man and the little boy. still lay stolid, real before her The man spoke quietly, gently, eyes. As she watched, it shim- as if he knew she was frightened, mered and seemed to go a little as if he knew of her confusion out of focus. and wanted, somehow, to comfort Tomorrow, she thought, when her. they start to tear up the ground, “It will be a beautiful street," it will all disappear. I won’t see

122 FANTASTIC it again, not until it becomes road of time, the lane, winding real. beneath him. Standing in the doorway, she Now, she knew why he had remembered, suddenly, some chosen this house. He had known. thing Chris had once said. This was what he had wanted “TIME IS LIKE A WINDING ROAD. for her. Had he also known that TO THE MAN ON THE GROUND, THE through some miracle she would FUTURE LIES HIDDEN, BLOCKED BY be able to see it too?

A CLUMP OF TREES ; THE PAST, BE- Steve touched her shoulder. HIND HIM, DISAPPEARING AROUND “You know,” he said, his eyes THE BEND. TO THE MAN IN THE thoughtful, “just the way you PLANE THE ENTIRE ROAD LIES EX- look right now—someday, I’d POSED, ONE LONG RIBBON UNWIND- like to paint you.” ING, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE She smiled at him, drawing CLEAR AND IN VIEW.” Jamie close to her. “You will,” Chris had been the man in the she said, with wonder, “and it will plane watching from above, the be beautiful.”

THE END

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123 —

According to you...

• Herewith a fascinating pear. Although the third volume communique re Mervyn Peake of the ‘Titus’ trilogy was very {"Titus Groan”) from a close different (in that it left the con-

friend : fines of Gormenghast) to the pre- Dear Miss Goldsmith: ceding volumes it is in some ways I was interested to note your better than the others. However, comment on the novel “Titus in the final chapters one can ob- Groan” by Mervyn Peake and serve a different quality of un- was pleased by the reaction it re- reality and when you know that ceived in the letter column of Peake was suffering greatly from your April issue. his illness at the time he wrote I have long been an admirer, them, it is understandable that friend and drawer-of-inspiration- this should be apparent. from of Mervyn Peake and am I note there has been no men- the author of a couple of ‘Appre- tion of the collection which Bal- ciations’ of Peake. Thus I wr as lantine published a while ago more than pleased to see that the “Sometime, Never”—which was a editor of what is now my favor- reprint of the volume published ite U.S. fantasy magazine also by Eyre and Spottiswoode in this enjoys him as a novelist. country. "Sometime, Never” con- For over three years Mervyn tained novelettes by Peake, Wil- Peake has been almost totally in- liam Golding and John Wynd- capacitated by a serious nervous ham. “Boy In Darkness” could be illness which makes it seem un- called an extension of "Titus likely that the projected sequel Groan,” although it does not fit to "Titus Alone” will ever ap- into the pattern of the trilogy

124 and was written as an independ- so much in Peake is that for all ent story especially commis- his use of grotesque situations, sioned for the volume. Peake’s bizarre characters and ‘purple story appeals most strongly to prose’ he uses all this objective- me, but all the stories are exam- ly, far more, for instance, than ples of the fine tradition of Eng- his old friend and admirer Dylan lish fantasy which seems to have Thomas did in his surrealistic declined somewhat in recent fantasy stories. Peake’s rhetoric years but, I feel, is at last be- has the same lucid, detached ob- ginning to re-emerge. jectivity to be found in Shake- Pat Scott, who appears to speare and, indeed, I have often share my taste in fantasy (al- thought Steerpike a closer (in deline- though I, personally, appear to some ways more subtly have a high opinion of Fritz ated) second to Richard the Third Leiber’s Mouser/Fafhrd stories) than any other villain in litera- calls “Titus Groan” a "Gothic” ture. I have never put this to fantasy and continues, “In fact, Peake, but Steerpike (even in so it’s the Gothic fantasy. You can’t far as physical appearance goes) really know the meaning of Goth- might well have been based on If call ic if you have never read Peake’s Richard. you can “Mac- or III” ‘Gothic work.” I beg to differ here. Peake beth” “Richard was astonished when the Ameri- fantasies’ (with their surfeit of can publisher of “Titus Groan” ghosts and witches) then, I sup- label labelled it ‘A Gothic Romance'. I, pose, the same can be put also, was surprised when one or on the ‘Titus’ trilogy. I realize two reviewers in this country that I am going out on an old and also dubbed it a Gothic. creaking literary limb by making In the past I have made a comparisons with Shakespeare, study of the Gothic novel from but the truth is I can only find Hugh Walpole’s “Castle Of the same qualities of combined Otranto” through Radcliffe, Lew- High Romance and intellectual stimulation in the works of is et a l. to Bram Stoker’s "Drac- ula.” All of these works have Shakespeare. seemed to me unhealthy, subjec- Perhaps I overrate Peake, but tive and, for all their horror, if this is so I can defend my as- lacking in ‘marvellous invention’ sertions by saying that, insofar (there are exceptions and, as as the general public is con- well, I would not include Wal- cerned, he has for too long been pole's novel under these descrip- underrated or ignored. In my

tions) . own experience I have found The thing which appeals to me many people who have never

125 a

heard of him (though all the different in that almost all of ‘quality’ magazines and newspa- these writers independently cre- pers in this country have praised ated fantasy worlds having no his books highly at some time) knowledge (at one time, of but when they have read him on course, it didn’t exist) of the my recommendation have been as main mass of fantasy fiction. enthusiastic as I. To read and They created their fantasy worlds then meet Peake is to realize that and situations for a purpose, be- here is a genius. cause in them they could best And the genius, sadly, will express what they had to say. probably never write another Unlike myself or other modern book again. He has used up his SF and Fantasy writers, they mental and physical energy in did not first decide to write fan- creating plays, stage designs, tasy and then wonder what kind

novels, portraits, poetry and il- of fantasies they were going to lustrations and is now incapable write. I’m not expressing myself

either of concentrating his men- very clearly, today . . . tal powers or his physical ener- Possibly it’s the shock of see- gies. Many friends believe that ing three letters about Peake in he will never produce anything one magazine. more than a few drawings again, Since I’m on the subject, but I get the impression, in the though, I’d like to add that there face of all the medical evidence, are American writers who have that he is resting, recovering his obviously begun writing fantasy powers. Perhaps this is wishful for the same reasons (Cabell, for thinking on my part. instance and Mark Twain) and, Peake, incidentally, has read certainly in the Gothic tradition very little fantasy and although (which I find somewhat distaste- I have often recommended fan- ful nowadays) Edgar Allen Poe tasies by modern American writ- was far better than almost any of ers (such as Leiber, de Camp, the English Gothic writers— Pratt or Anderson) he has not as little less gloomy self-pity (so yet read any. He writes in a dif- obvious in many a gloomy Ro- ferent tradition than do we poor mantic like Lovecraft or Howard SF and Fantasy authors—the old for instance) and a little more tradition of English fantasists objectivity and Poe would have which has given us Swift, Wal- transcended the genre to have pole, Dunsany, Machen, Black- produced stories even better than wood, Wells and, lately, Charles those we have. Williams, C. S. Lewis, T. H. Perhaps the reason I prefer White and J. R. R. Tolkien. It is Leiber’s Mouser stories to any

126 FANTASTIC .

others in the Sword and Sorcery contributors these days are Brit- genre is that the sackcloth and ish—this appeals to the old chau- ashes, the sorrow and misery, vinist in me . . the ‘Woe is me and you too, Jack’ I will show Mervyn the com- is missing entirely and is re- ments which you and your read- placed by a clever use of dialogue ers have made of his work—it and a detached, ironic humor- will do him a lot of good, I know. essness which contains all the In publishing these letters, you tricks that Dunsany ever taught will have helped encourage him us—and goes one better for, in and perhaps aided him to strug- truth, I prefer Leiber at his best gle out of his illness. Let's hope any day to Dunsany who, like so. Wilde and Thomas at their worst, Michael Moorcock. often overembellished or else, 18, Beatrice Ave., very often, wrote nothing but Norbury embellishment—decoration with London, SW. 16, England nothing beneath it, not even a simple plot line. Dear Miss Goldsmith: The Americans, whether fan- Those interested in the works tasists or mainstreamers or hu- of Mervyn Peake can purchase morists, have taken irony away them from: from England, it seems, for good. Eyre & Spottiswoode (P) LTD When they are good they are 22 Henrietta Street very, very good and when they London, W.C. 2, England are bad they are readable. Price is $8.50 in American money By a coincidence, it seems, for all three books, including both magazines which deal pri- postage to the States. (Books in- marily in fantasy fiction (fan- volved are “Titus Groan,” “Gor- tastic in the U.S. and science menghast,” and “Titus Alone.”) fantasy here) are improving tre- The Ring trilogy by J. R. R. mendously. It is not simply that Tollkien is published by Hough- they are publishing more ‘genu- ton, Miflin at $5 each for the ine’ fantasy—but the standard first two volumes and $5.50 for of the material has improved the third. Individual titles in or-

both in style, ideas and presenta- der are : “The Lord of the Rings,” tion. Now that it is possible to “The Two Towers," and “The Re- buy fantastic and amazing reg- turn of the King.” It is well worth ularly over here, I look forward the price. to being entertained and stimu- Sharon Towle lated at least once a month. I 325 Great Mills Lane also note that quite a few of your Lexington Park, Md.

ACCORDING TO YOU 127 :: —!

Dear Miss Goldsmith: Dear Editor Well, now you’ve gone and done Fritz Leiber, one of our finest

it. Put out an issue with not a writers, can be rest assured this

single objectionable thing in it. reader felt, upon reading his "A The April cover was emin- Bit of the Dark World" in the ently approvable; it’s getting so February issue of fantastic, not lately I sort of wince inwardly in only a “spine-tingling scare,” but anticipation before I can bring also awed wonderment. This story myself to look at the covers on my fascinated me; bewitched me! favorite reading material. Some scared me, possibly beyond di- sort of plague is sweeping the edi- mension. We must have more tors and publishers lately that stories like this from Mr. Leiber makes them blind to anything but Bill R. Wolfenbarger a spacesuit for the cover illustra- 602 West Hill Street tion. Why they think we should Neosho, Missouri be interested in gazing at one spacesuit after another I can’t • A Leiber novelet that goes imagine. back to the earliest days of the The last instalment of the se- Grey Mouser will appear in the rial “Joyleg” was not quite up to October issue. par with the opening one; I had sort of expected all kinds of in- Dear Editor teresting sieges and what not. Some compliments are due on The Grand Old Man holding off your April issue of fantastic. all of the armed forces in the Barr’s cover, I must say, certain- whole nation certainly wouldn’t ly was quite good for a first. The have been any more unbelievable style reminded me somewhat of than that bit of the two govern- Summers, only neater—maybe ments giving up their atomic more like Vernon Kramer. What might. In fact the latter I just happened to Kramer anyway? A could not quite bring myself to year ago you had two very excel- swallow. But the writing was lent covers by him and then he good, and I wasn’t too disap- was never heard from again. pointed. Pat Scott Bob Adolfsen Box 401 9 Prospect Ave. Anacortes, Wash. Sea Cliff, N. Y.

• Wait till you see the August • A Kramer cover—a real cover. It’s not only out of this stunner—will adorn the August world, but all worlds. issue of Fantastic.

128 FANTASTIC iaii ijj

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PRINTED IN U.S.A. 130 THE 1962 CAR AND DRIVER YEARBOOK

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