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The Man Who Staked The Stars - Katherine MacLean · Classic Drama Audiobooks

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter one. Bryce Carter could afford a smug smile, for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: hadn't he risen gloriously from thieves row to director of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: famed U T was not Earth Moon and all the
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Belt at this very moment awaiting his command for the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: grand coup, And wasn't his cousin from monte Hito a
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: star sent help? What do I do for a living,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: repeated the slim, dark skinned young man in the next
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: seat of the Earth moonliner. I'm a witch doctor, he answered,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: with complete sincerity. What do you mean, I mean, what
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: do they hire you for? Asked Donahue, with understandable confusion
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and a touch of nervousness. I'm registered as a psychotherapist,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: said the dark skin young man. He looked too young
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to be practicing a profession, barely nineteen, but that could
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: merely be a sign of talent, Donahue reflected. The new
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: teaching and testing methods graduated them young. I know I'm
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: a witch doctor because my grandfather and his father and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: his father's father were witch doctors. And I learned a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: special technique from my uncles, who are registered therapists with
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: medical degrees like mine. But the technique is not the
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: one you find in the books. It is unusual. They
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: don't say where they learned it, but it's not hard
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: to guess. The dark skinned youth shrugged cheerfully. So I'm
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: a witch doctor. That's an interesting thought, said Donahue. He
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: would be a long three day trip to the moon,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and he had expected to be bored, but this conversation
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: was not boring. What do you do? He again asked specifically.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Donahue had rugged features, a dark tan and attractively sun
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: bleached hair worn a little too long. He exuded a
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: sort of rough charm which branded him one of the
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: class of politicians, and he knew how to draw people out.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: So now he settled himself more comfortably for an extended
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: spell of listening. Tell me more and join me in
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a drink, he signaled the hostess and continued with the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: right mixture of admiring interest in condescending skepticism. You don't
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: chance spells and higher ghosts, do you not? Exactly? The dark,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: innocent looking young man smiled with a cheerful flash of
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: white teeth. I'll tell you what I did to a man,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a man named Bryce Carter. A group of men sat
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: in a skyscraper at Cape Hatteras, with their table running
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: parallel to a huge flooried ceiling window that overlooked the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: clouded sky and gray waves of the Atlantic. They were
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the respected directors of Union Transport, and like most men
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of high position, they had a keen sense of sar
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: preservation and a knowledge of ways and means that included
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: little in the way of scruples. The chairman rapped lightly, gentlemen,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: your attention please, I have an announcement to me. The
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: buzz of talk at the long table stopped, and the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: fourteen men turned their faces. The meeting had been called
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: a full week early, and they expected some emergency as
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: an explanation, a disturbing announcement. I'm afraid someone is using
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: this corporation for illegal purposes. The Chairman's voice was mild
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: and apologetic. Bryce Carter, second from the opposite end, was
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: brought to a shock of tense, balanced alertness. How much
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: did he know? He gave no sign of emotion, but
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: reached for a cigarette to cover any change in his breathing,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: fumbling perhaps more than you. The men at the long
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: table waited, showing a variety of bored expressions that never
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: had any connection with their true reactions. The chairman was
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: a small, inconspicuous, sandy haired man whose ability they respected
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: so deeply that they had elected him the chairman to
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: have him where they could watch him. They knew he
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: was not one to mention trifles. And there was a
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: moment of silence. All right, John, said one, letting out
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: his held breath and leaning back. I'll bite what kind
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: of illegal purposes? I don't know much, The small man apologized,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: only that the crime rate has risen forty percent in
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the average of the cities served by UT and in
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Kolastro City, Calastro and Panama City, where we just put
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: in a spaceport, it more than doubled. Funny coincidence, someone grunted,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Very funny, said another. If the police notice it and
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the public hairs of it. There was no man there
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: who would willingly have parted with his place at that table,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: no one who was unaware that inviting his way to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a place at that table, he had seized some part
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: of control of the destiny of the solar system. UT
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Union Transport spread the meshes of its transportation service through
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: almost every city of Earth, and the hamlets and roads
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and bus and railroad and airlines between and even to
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the few far ports where mankind had found a toe
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: hold in space. But its existence was precariously balanced on
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: public trust. UT's unity from city to city and country
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to country. Its spreading growth had saved the public look
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: much discomfort and expense of overlapping costs and transfers and confusion,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and so the public, on the advice of economists, grudgingly
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: allowed UT to grow ever bigger. There was a conservative
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: movement to put all such outsized businesses under government ownership,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: as had been the trend in the last generation. But
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the economy was mushrooming too fast for the necessary neatness,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: and the public rightly would not trust politicos in any operation,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: too confusing for them to be watched, and preferred to
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: leave such businesses to private operation, accepting the danger for
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: the profit of efficient and penurious operation dividends and falling costs.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: But all these advantages were barely enough to buy UT's
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: life from year to year. It had grown too big.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Its director held power to make or break any city
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and the prosperity of its inhabitants by mere small shifts
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: and shipping fees. A decision to put in a line,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: or a terminal or a crossroad. The power was indirectly
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: recognized in the honors and higher offices, the free entertainment
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and lavish privileges available to them from any chamber of commerce,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and any political representative, lobbying discreetly for a slight bias
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: of choice that would place an airport or spaceport in
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: their district rather than another. Perhaps some of the directors
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: used their position for personal pleasure and advantage, but power
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: used for the sake of controlling the direction of growth
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: of races and nations. Power for its own sake was
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the game which was played at that table, its members
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: playing the game of control against each other in the
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: world for high stakes of greater control, nursing behind their
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: untelling faces. Who knows what megalomaniac dreams of dominion. Yet
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: they used their control discreetly, serving the public welfare and
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: keeping the public goodwill when it was possible. As always,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Bryce Carter sat relaxed, lazily, smiling, his expression not changing
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: to his thoughts. Who knows of this besides us, someone asked?
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: The chairman answered mildly. It was a company statistician in
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the publicity department who noticed it. He was looking for
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: favorable correlations. I believe his pale blue eyes ranged across
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: their faces, touching Bryce Carter's face expressionlessly in passing. I
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: requested that he tell no one else till I had investigated.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: He added, apologetically, commitments for drug addiction correlate to that
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: was worse news. Narcotics investigators are no fools, someone said thoughtfully.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Nie Swanger, a thin, orderly man near the head of
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the table, pressed his fingertips together, frowning slightly. I take
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: it then, that our corporation is being used as a
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: criminal means of large scale smuggling of drugs, transport of
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: criminals on false identification, and transport for resale of the
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: goods resulting from their thefts. Is that correct, Niswanger always
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: like to have things neatly listed. I think so, said
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the chairman. And would you say that the organization responsible
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: is centered in this corporation? It would seem likely. Yes.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: The members of the board stirred uneasily, seeing a blast
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of sensational head lines investigations which would spread to their
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: private lives themselves, giving repetitive testimony to inquisitive politicians, and
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: a glare of television lights while the Federated Nation's Anti
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Cartel Commission vivisected the ut Giant into puny separate squabbling midgets.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: It was not an appealing prospect. We'll have to stop it,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of course, said the lean blonde man whose name was Stout.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: He could be relied on to say the obvious and
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: keep a discussion, driving to the point. I understand we
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: have a good detective agency. If we put them on
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: this with payment for speed and silence, and when we
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: know who is responsible, asked Kneeswanger, then what do we do?
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: There was silence as they came to another full stop
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: in thinking turning culprits over to the police was out
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: of the question, an admission that such crimes had happened
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and could happen again. Firing the few detected could not
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: impress the undetected and unfired ones enough to discourage them
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: from their profitable criminality. Hire some killings, said the round
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: face mister Beldman, with simplicity. The chairman laughed, you are joking,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: of course, mister Beldman. Of course, said mister Beldman, and
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: laughed barkingly, being well aware of the permanent film record
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: taken of all meetings but he was not joking. Nobody
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: there was joking. The detective agency and the hired killers
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: would be arranged for. Bryce Carter leaned back with a
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: slight cynical smile on his lean face. That was his
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: habitual expression. Suppose the top man is high in the company,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: he suggested softly. What then? He did not need to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: point out that the disappearance of such a man would
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: be enough to start a police and stockholder's investigation of
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the company in itself. The implication was clear. Such a
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: man could not be touched. A hypnotist, suggested, rawl, so
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: one to make our top man backtrack and clean up
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: his own mess. Illegal, dangerous and difficult, mister rail Irving
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: said sourly. There are extremely severe penalties against any complicity
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: in the unsupervised use of hypnotism or hypnotic drugs, and
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: their use against the will of the subject is a
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: major crime. A circulating company psychologist would be legal, suggested
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the lean blonde man whose name was Stone. We have
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: over seventy five of those on the company payrolls already,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: and I failed to see what use one of the
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: special high priced boys who iron out kings and groups
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: by joining them and working with them for a while,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: like that conference manager we had with us last year.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Every member of the group that hires one has to
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: sign an application for treatment and a legal release. They're
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: very quiet and don't broadcast what they do or who
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: they talked with. But they have a good record of results.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: The groups who hire them report better work and easier work.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: We could use one as a troubleshooter. Are they a
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: special organization, somebody asked, I think I've heard of them. Yes,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: some sort of union. I can't remember the name. What
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: would you expect them to do for us? Asked Irving.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I hear Stout said, vaguely, his eyes wandering from face
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: to face, that they have a special tough technique for
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: hard case troublemakers. For those who knew him, the vague
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: look was a veil over some thought which pleased him.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Presumably he was thinking the thing which had occurred to
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: them all. The culprit might be a member of the board.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: There was a sudden cheerful interest visible among them as
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: they wondered who was quarry for the tough treatment. I've
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: heard of that, said Juan Land, remembering it has been
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: said that they not only do not inform others of
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the fact of treatment, but frequently do not inform the
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: man under treatment. But seemed to be only a new
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: friend until poof. He smiled, I think the guild name
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: is Manoba. The Manoba group, stout said, they'll probably charge
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: enough for the skill, Wan said, smiling. I also heard
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: some idle rumor that in a few such cases discored
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: within a group was alleviated by sudden suicide. Presumably a
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: psychologist can grow impatient and push a certain button in
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the mind. Sounds like a good idea, Beldman said, do
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: you think if we offer this Manoba the right kind
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: of money? You don't mean that, mister Beldman cut in
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the chairman, reprovingly you're joking again. We're all great jokers,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: said Beldman, and laughed. Everybody laughed. I move, we vote
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: a some for the hiring of a Manova psychologist. Second,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: how about five hundred thousand. I don't know their fees,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: The chairman objected cautiously. You can turn back in a surplus.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: We stand to lose more than that by several orders
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: of magnitude. Spend it at your discretion. Make it seven
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand, give them a little more room, I SA
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: move second it carry it to a vote. They slipped
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: their hands under the table edge before the respective seats,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: and each man ran his fingers over two buttons concealed
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: there before him. It was between the yes and the
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: no button, and pushed one the choice of his fingers.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Unseen by the others, two numbers lit up on the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: small divided panel before the chairman. He looked at them
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: with his mild face, expressionless. Rejected by one vote. Unanimity
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: was the law on board decisions, which, by a natural law,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: was probably the reason why no love was lost among them.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: But this time irritation was curbed by interest. They sat
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: watching each other's expressions with glances which seemed casual. Whose
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: was the one vote? I moved that the vote be
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: repeated and made open. Someone said, seconded, all in favor
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: of the appropriation for the psychologist, Raise your left hand,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the chairman requested. They complied and looked at each other.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: All hands were up. Carried on the second vote, the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: chairman said, without apparent interest, for my own curiosity, will
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the gentleman who voted nay on the secret vote the
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: first time speak up and explain his objections? And why
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: he changed his mind on the open vote. There was
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: silence a moment. Nie Swanger looked at his kneat fingernails.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Bryce Carter, smoking and smiling slightly as he always smiled, stout,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: leaning back, casually, scanning his eyes from face to face.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Beldman lit a cigar and released a cloud of blue
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: smoke with a contented sigh. No one spoke, gentlemen, said
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the chairman. It is entirely likely that the culprit is
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: among us. Never mind the melodrama. John Irving tapped the
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: table impatiently. We've dealt with that. Let's get on to
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the next business. End of chapter one. In the exit
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: lounge at floor five, Bryce Carter stopped a moment and
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: glanced at himself in the mirror. Thick neck, thick body,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: a physique so evenly and heavily muscled that it looked
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: fat until he moved. Atop the thick body, a lean
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: face that he didn't like stared back at him. It
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: was darkly tanned, with underlying freckles that were almost black.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Years had passed since he had worked in space, but
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the space tan remained indelible. It was not a bland
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: or pretty face at the dinner, deep in discussion with
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: mister Juan, he had been surprised to find himself smiling
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: at intervals irrepressibly. He hoped it had looked cordial and
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: not too much like a cat enjoying the company of mice.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: They had no defense against him. The drugs were organization
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: could never be traced to him. The connection was too
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: well concealed. Even the organization knew nothing about him. The
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: only evidence which could make the connection was in his
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: own mind. The only witness against him was himself. He
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: cast his mind back over the meeting and dinner, but
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: there had been no slips past the first shock of
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the chairman's announcement, and that had been unobserved by anyone.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: The psychologists they had hired might perhaps get a betraying
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: flicker of expression from him in an interview. Many well
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: trained observers of human reactions could read expressions that keenly,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: but the interviewing of all the board by the psychologist
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: was not likely. The directors of the Board were even
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: now climbing into trains and strato planes to scatter back
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to the firepoints of the Earth. It would take many
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: days for an investor gating psychologists to follow to interview
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: each one. He and Irving would be last on the list.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: For he went to Moon Bay City and Irving to
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Luna City. He had weeks. He smiled, fastening bands and
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: his cuffs that folded them tightly on his wrists, zipping
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: up his suit coat, and slipping on gloves. He looked
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: at himself again. Where he had been wearing a conservative,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: dark silk business suit with a short cape, he now
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: seemed to be wearing a tailored ski suit with an
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: odd cowl, or a pressure suit without boots or helmet,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: which is what it was. Carrying the zipper up further
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: would have turned the cape to an air tight helmet bubble.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Employees and executives passing in and out of the ut
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: building gave the clothes an approving an interested glance as
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: they passed. The justification by utility was obvious. It had
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: cousted money to have a pressure suit designed light and
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: flexible enough for comfortable wear. But long ago he had
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: grown irked by the repetitious business of climbing in and
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: out of clothes every time one stepped through a space lock.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: While over capes and hoods were needed, stepping outside of
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: any temperate zone earth building in winter, a pressure suit
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: was completely independent of weather and regulated its own internal heat.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Since the suit had been designed, the manufacturer had begun
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: to receive an increasing number of orders for duplicates and
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: was now being put into mass production. Probably in these
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: five minutes he had just made many more sales for
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the manufacturer. He was setting a style, he thought, in
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: please surprise. Stepping out of the building, the salt wind
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: hit him with a block dust of cold, and the
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: automatic thermostatic wiring in the suit countered with a wave
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: of warmth. As he leaned into the wind and started
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: to walk. The connection between the Union Hotel and the
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: building he had just left was an arched sidewalk that
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: curved between them, five stories above the sand and surf.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: The hotel was an impressively towering building against the ragged sky,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and as he walked, a gleam broke through from the
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: hidden sunset and spotlighted it and the low scudding clouds
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and a sudden glowing red. He stopped and leaned against
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the balustrade to watch the red gleams reflecting from the bay.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Red and purple clouds fled by low overhead, their colors
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: changing as they moved. This was something a man couldn't
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: see in space or on the moon, but after a moment,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: he couldn't fully enjoy it because he was being watched.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: The feeling was disturbing. Damn rubber necks, he thought, and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: turned irritably, half hoping that at least it would be
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: an acquaintance or some pretty girls. But there was no
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: one watching him. A few pedestrians walked by hurriedly because
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: it was growing dark and the view that they had
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: come to enjoy was fading. The wind wrapped their enveloping
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: capes around them and made them all look abnormally tall
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: and calumnar. It was darker, the sidewalk lights abruptly flicked on,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: in a flood of amber light that thickened the twilight
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: beyond their circle to an opaque, purple curtain of darkness.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: He noticed a pedestrian walking slowly towards him from the
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: direction he had come. The figure approached more slowly than
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: seemed natural, with his head bowed and his hands in
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: his pockets, as though lost in thought. A trailer from
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: the detective Agency. It was too soon for that. If
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: it were arranged that every member of the board betrailed. Still,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: it could not have been arranged and begun so soon. Besides,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: there was something more deadly than that in the walking
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: man's indifference, a killer arranged by Beldman. It would be
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: natural for a Beldman or Stout to take a chance
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: and fight back the direct way, but there was no
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: evidence how could either of them have decided who to
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: blame or who to fight. The few huge buildings that
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: stood dark against the night sky were being brightened now
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: by lights going on in hundreds of windows. In long,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: slender spans. Between them stretched the aerial walks and the
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: necklaces of amber lights that outlined them. The wind blew
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: colder across the walks, and the view of sea and
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: sky that had been visible from them was now blotted
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: out by night. The walkers were going in. There was
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: small chance of sheltering himself in a crowd, or even
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: of keeping only one or two walkers between himself and
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the one who followed him. At the first sight of
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the approaching figure, he had instinctively leaned back against the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: concrete railings and taken his gun from its pocket holster,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: holding it lightly in his gloved hand. An aged couple
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: and a vigorous, middle aged woman hurrying in the opposite
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: direction glanced at him without interest or alarm. His pose
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: was not menacing, and anyway, most men with money enough
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: to travel carried hand arms. This was an indirect effect
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: of a Federated Nations ruling that only hand arms of
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: a regulated deadliness be manufactured as the armament of nations.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: The ruling had been carefully considered for other secondary effects,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: for any nation growing over centralized and militaristic was likely
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: to arm at citizens universally for greater military power by numbers,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: and then suffer the natural consequences of having armed their
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: public opinion, an armed man need not vote to be counted,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: and once having learned that lesson, the feeling that an
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: armed man carried his bill of rights in his pocket
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: made this the first clause of the ridden and unwritten
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: constitutions of many suddenly democratic nations. The right of the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: yeomanry to carry arms shall not be abridged. They kept
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: their guns, and with weapons instantly available to hot tempers,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: dueling came back into custom in most places. All this
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: had little effect on the large calm manufacturing countries who
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: had run the un and now ran the FN, but
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: it made easy their decision that, since in space policing
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: is almost impossible, the citizens who venture there must be
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: armed to protect themselves. Thus, in spite of the continued
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: outcry of a minority of Christian moralists, a holster pocket
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: was now built into all space suits. Bryce had grown
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: up in a famine country, an almost unpoliced area, and
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: weapons had been as familiar to his hands as fingers
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: since he had passed twelve, and when, as a steel
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: worker he had been one of the first settlers in
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the foundry towns of the asteroid belt. He had found
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: life no gentler there, but it was all right as
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: far as he was concerned. He had heard of safer
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: and duller ways to live, but had never wanted them.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Life as a moon based transport manager had been a
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: short interval of nonviolence, five years of startling calm, which
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: he had not yet grown accustomed to. The gun fitted
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: into his hand as comfortably as his thumb, or as
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the handshake of an old and trusted friend, but it
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: was useless here. Reluctantly, he slipped it back into his
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: pocket and began walking again. A director of ute couldn't
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: shoot people on intuition. He had barely stopped for account
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: of ten, and there was still distance between them when
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: he had turned, But the follower could be walking faster now,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: narrowing the distance between them. If he had waited and fired.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: An inspection of the man's pockets could have confirmed his
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: judgment by the finding of an assassin's illegal needle gun.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: That alone might be enough to satisfy the police if
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: he were still merely a space worker, But a director
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: of ut couldn't live that casually. It would be difficult
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: to explain his certainty to the police, and still more
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: difficult to explain to the newspapers. He could not afford
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: that sort of publicity. Bryce let out a soft curse
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: and lengthened his stride. He had to wait for proof
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: of the follower's intentions, and the only proof would be
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: to be attacked, and the first proof of that, since
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: needle guns are soundless and inconspicuous, would probably be a
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: curari loaded needle in his back. After that, the follower
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: could inconspicuously drop his weapon over the balustrade it self,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: destroying mechanisms set to he melted before it reached the
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: sands far below. However, since the follower certainly would not
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: openly run after him. The most logical thing to do,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: bryce decided, was to run to the hotel, as if
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: he were in a hurry. The idea irritated him. He
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: walked on, slowing perversely. It was irrational to walk, and
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: he knew it, But he walked, and the knowledge that
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: it was irrational irritated him further. The skin between his
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: shoulder blades itched meditatively in its own imaginative anticipation of
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: an entering needle. What good did it do him to
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: be proud of his brains When he put himself in
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: a spot where he walked around like a target, he
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: controlled a rising rage, But he walked. The sky was
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: totally dark now, and there were only two or three
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: couples ahead on the slender cod crete span, and one
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: old couple he had just passed so that they were
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: between himself and the follower, But that was no adequate screen.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Far above soared the sky taxis, and now he wanted
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: a taxi. He was approaching a place where there was
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: a hack stand just ahead, at the midway point where
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: the upward curve of the sidewalk leveled off and began
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: to curve down a narrow catwalk jutted into space with
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: a small landing platform at its end. Taxi a luminescent
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: arrow glowed at him directingly as he came abreast of it.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: He walked rapidly out along the railed catwalk, making a
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: perfect target he knew. Silhouetted against the glow, he cursed
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: under his breath. Reaching the end of it. Here he
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: made an even more perfect target, with a single bright
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: light that poured down brilliance on the bench and landing platform,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: spotlighting him against the darkness of the night. The bench
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: was thin iron grill work. It offered no cover. He
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: needed cover, He considered the white concrete pillar of the lamp,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: put his hand on the railing, and jumped up to
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: sit on the railing casually, a one hundred and fifty
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: foot fall behind him and the width of the lamp
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: post between him and the follower, who was now an
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: unmoving figure leaning against the railing of the sidewalk near
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: where the catwalk began. The sight of the insolently lounging
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: figure did nothing to soothe his irritation. This escape was
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: not the way he wanted to deal with a threat.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: There was an oddity in the man's waiting. The range
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: was poor, and he probably was not firing, although he
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: would look as if he were not in any case,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: But if he were not going to take this chance
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: for his murder attempt, why did he openly exhibit himself,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: arousing suspicion and cutting off further chances An innocent stroller
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: or even a mere trailer from the detective agency would
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: have strolled on. Above came the nearing drone of a taxi,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: which had spotted him in the bright pool of light
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: at the hackstand. There was something in the careless confidence
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: of the follower's open interest in him that raised his
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: neck hair as no direct threat could have, and filled
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: the rumble of the night hidden serf with obscure menace.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: The man acted as if his job was over clinched.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Bryce reached the answer as the tax he floated down
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: on hissing rotor blades and settled to the platform. Sliding
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: down from the railing, he walked toward it, the stiff legged.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: The light was out inside it, and the cabby did
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: not climb out or attempt to open the door for him.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Bryce turned his hat and looked back as if with
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: a last glance at the watching figure grasping the door
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: handle with his right hand as if fumbling blindly. He
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: was left handed. When the door was opened a crack,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: it stopped opening, and those inside saw the muzzle of
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: a Magnematic in his left hand, looking through the crack
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: at them. It's easier to catch wolves if you're disguised
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: as a rabbit, pot Jack had told him once. He
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: must have looked a complete sucker. Starting to climb into
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: a dark cab with his head turned backward. Don't move,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Bryce said, some of his anger reaching his voice in
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: a biting rasp. Inside, the driver was frozen with his
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: head turned enough to see the glint of a muzzle
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: behind his neck, and in the darkened far corner of
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: the back seat, where there should have been no one,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: there was the pale blur of a face and a
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: hand holding something. Bryce knew that there was no way
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: a shot could reach him except through the shielding steel
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: door or the shatterproof window, and a man would hesitate
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: before shooting through glass. When he was looking down the
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: throat of Bryce's gun, Bryce waited for him to think
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: it over. The hand of the man in the back
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: seat came into focus as his eyes adjusted to the
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: darkened side, and he could see that it was holding
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: a gun. The gun was not pointing at anything in particular.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: It was frozen in mid motion. The man had a
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: half smile frozen on his face, probably in the way
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: he had been smiling just before Bryce spoke, open your hand,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: drop it. The glint of the gun disappeared, and there
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: was a faint thud from the floor. Bryce opened the
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: door and slid into the rear seat, watchful for motion,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: ready to shoot face front. They faced front like two puppets.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the uncontrollable rasp in his voice was convincing. He
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: still did not know whose men they were or why
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: they had been hired. It would be no use questioning them,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: for they would not know either. He could guess who
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: it was. A name came to mind, but there was
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: no way of checking up. This kind of business did
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: not fit well with the crucial balance of his plans
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: for the next two weeks. Be careful, he said, perhaps unnecessarily.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: I'm nervous, Union hotel. Please. The short ride to the
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: hotel was made in dead silence, with the man in
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: the opposite corner barely moving enough to blink his eyes.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: He was middle aged, with a resign sagging lines to
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: his face of ambition, disappointed, but he sat with a
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: waiting stillness that Bryce recognized as something to watch. There
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: was probably another gun within quick reach of that passive
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: right hand. The rotor drifted down to a landing space
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: on the floodlighted landing roof of the hotel and settled
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: with a slight bump, don't move. The clumsy, careful business
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: of opening the door backward with his right hand and
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: sliding out without taking his eyes from either of them
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: was tediously slow. Once out, he slammed the door briskly
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: take off. Not until the red and green lights had
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: faded into the distance did he turn away, pocket his
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: gun and walk into the wide doorway to the elevators.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: As he brushed past the hotel detective standing in the doorway,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the detective was reholstering a large sized police pacifier. Apparently
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: he had been ready to impartially stun everyone concerned at
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: the first sign of trouble, which probably explained why those
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: in the air cap had not attempted any retaliation. The
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: detective gave Bryce a cold stare as he went by,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: probably in disapproval of guests waving weapons on hotel premises.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: End of chapter two, Chapter three. In his luxurious hotel,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Bryce checked his watch eight o'clock. A telephone call was
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: scheduled for some time in the half hour. He filed
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: the question of who is behind the Knight's attack and
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: picked up the phone. The dial system was an automatic
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: contact with any city in the world. He dialed somewhere
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: in a city, A phone rang. It rang, unheard, for
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: it was locked into a safe in a tiny rented
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: office with some unusual mechanisms attached. The ringing was stopped abruptly,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: and a recorded voice answered yeah. Bryce took a dial
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: phone from the night table where it had been sitting
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: innocently like a toy he had bought for some child. Hi, how,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: he said cheerfully to the automatic mechanism at the other end. Listen,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: I think I've got a new phrase for that tra
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: transition theme. How's this? He put the receiver against the
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: back of the toy and dialed the toy dial It
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: responded to each letter and number with a ringing note
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: of different pitch that played a short, unmelodious tune. The
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: pitch notes went over the line and entered the mechanism
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: making the contacts within it that dialed the number he
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: had dialed on the toy phone. How's that, Bryce said, cheerfully.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: The recorded voice said, sounds good. I'll see what I
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: can do with it. Somewhere far away and unheard, another
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: phone had begun to ring. Want to speak to George? Sure?
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: A phone rang in a pay booth somewhere in a
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Great City railroad station, and someone browsing at a magazine
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: stand or sitting on a suitcase, apparently waiting for a train,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: strolled casually to answer it. Hello, said a non committal voice,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: prepared to claim that he was merely a stranger answering
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: the phone because it was ringing in public. Hello George,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: how's everything going, Bryce asked. Those words were his trademark,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: the passwords that identified him to everyone as the voice
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: who gave tips. Among the Monster organization, which had grown
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: from the proven reliability of those tips, the voice was
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: known as Hello George. Hello. George's tips were always good,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: so they had come to be followed as blindly as
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: tips from God, even when they were not understood. Certainty
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: was one thing men in the fencing and drug smuggling
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: business most sorely lacked. They communicated only by phone. They
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: transmitted their wares by leaving them in public lockers and
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: mailing the key. They never saw each other's faces or
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: heard each other's names. But even the use of a
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: key could be a trap that would bring a circle
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: of narcotic agents of I n C around the unfortunate
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: who attempted to open the locker. Far away over the
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: bulge of the earth between a man sat in a
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: phone booth waiting for his tip. Pretty well, no complaints.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: How's with you any news? I think you better cut
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: connections with the Union Transport. They're getting pretty sloppy. I
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: think they might spill something. What'd you say, asked the
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: man at the other end, cautiously, I didn't get you.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Better stop using ut for shipping, Bryce repeated, wording his
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: sentence carefully. They aren't careful enough anymore. You don't want
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: him to break an ink case wide open? Do you Ink?
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Was the International Narcotics Control Agency of the FN, but
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the conversation would have sounded like an innocent discussion of
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: shipping difficulties to any chance listener. On the telephone lines,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: The flat tones were plaintive and aggrieved. But we're expecting
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: a load of stuff Friday. Our buyers are expecting it.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: Stuff was drug and expecting was a mild word for
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: the need of drug addicts. And we've got a lot
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: of loads of miscellaneous items to go out. The contact
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: was a small man in the organization, but he evidently
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: knew just how hot fence goods could be. That can't wait.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: He had planned this. Maybe they are all right for
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: shipments this week. I'll chew them out to be careful,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: check up and call back Friday. Meanwhile, break with them,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: tell them a few things from me. The distant voice
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: added a surprising string of derogatory agittis Friday, What Friday? About?
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: About six? The double about confirmed the signal for a
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: telephone appointment that was general for all contact numbers Friday
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: about six. Okay. There was a faint click that meant
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: he had hung up, and the phone in the safe
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: was open for more dialings on his toy dial. Bryce
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: hung up, leaned back on his bed, and pushed a
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: button that turned on the radio to a semi classical program.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Soothing music came into the room, and slow waves of
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: colored light moved across the ceiling. He tuned to a
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: book player and chose a heavy economic study from the
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: current seller list of titles which appeared on the ceiling.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: The Daily Moonship was scheduled to blast off at five
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: point thirty its optimum at this week's position of the moon.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: By this time tomorrow night, he and all the other
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: members of the board, it would be out of reach
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: of any easy observation or analysis by their hired psychological
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: mind hunter. With a slight chilling of the skin, he
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: remembered the cop psychos the gangs had warned him about
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: in his scrambling and desperate childhood, and what they were
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: supposed to do to you when they caught you In
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: a third offense. He had been born into an ex
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: European quarter in a Chinese city, a descendant of something
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: prideful and forgotten called an empire builder, and grew with
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: the mixed gangs of children of all colors who roamed
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: the back streets at night, looting and stealing and breaking.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Population control was almost impossible in a land where the
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: only social security against starvation and old age was sons,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: and social security was impossible in a land so corrupted
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: by the desperation of famines so little able to spare
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: the necessary taxes. The nation was too huge to be
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: fed from outside, and so had been left by the
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: FN to stew in its own misery until its people
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: solve their basic problem. So in an enlightened, clean and
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: wealthy world. Bryce Carter had grown up in a slum
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: whose swarming viciousness was a matter of take, steal, kill,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: climb or die. Perhaps under those special circumstances, police penal
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: compulsion had to be brutally strong, stronger than the drive
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: for life itself, as brutal as the lurid tales he
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: had heard. Perhaps in other countries the methods were different.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: A hypno converted man not a horror to his friends,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: but he had had no time to study and investigate.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: If it were so, and the horror and hatred remained,
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: there was no need to think about the psycho hunter
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: the board had put on him, for by the time
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: the hunter could reach him, Ut would have fallen as
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: a legal entity, its corruption would be completely public, and
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: the psychologist would be called off before discovering anything. Bryce
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: thought of the slight nervousness he had let show at
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: the first words of the chairman's announcement. The only witness
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: against him was himself. His control wasn't perfect, no one's was,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: but he was safe. He concentrated on the opening pages
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: of the Basic Principles of Economies in the darkened UT building,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: which could be seen from his window, a few lights
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: still burned, where the night shift dealt with emergencies. In
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: a small projection room on the fifty fifth floor, a
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: man sat and looked at a film of the UT
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Board meeting of that day. He played only a certain
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: small twenty minute interval, listening closely to the voices. Gentlemen,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: your attention please, watching the faces? Did the police know
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: of this? Do you think if we offered this Manoba
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: the right kind of money? Will the gentleman who voted
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: nay on the secret vote the first times speak up
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: and explain? It is entirely likely that the conspirators among
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: us on the screen showed the apparently bored faces and
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: relaxed poses of men accustomed to the power game, habitually
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: masking their feelings from each other, shifting their positions slightly,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: sometimes some smoking. We've dealt with that. Let's get onto
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: the next business. The watcher stopped the film and silently
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: reset it. It began again, with the Chairman on the screen,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: wrapping the table slightly, gentlemen, your attention. In the darkened
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: projection room, the chairman sat to work one side, smoking
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: and thinking while the psychologist played the film through for
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: the fourth time. The chairman was wondering just how seriously
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: the watcher was taking mister Beldman's proposals about what he
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: should do to the culprit and whether he would raise
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: his fee. The telephone rang four point thirty. Mister Carter,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: said the voice of the night clerk in the receiver.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: It was time to catch the five thirty moonship. He
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: splashed cold water on his face in the back of
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: his neck until he was awake, took a hot shower,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: dressed rapidly, and gave up his key at the desk
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: at four forty five. A letter for you, mister Carter,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: she smiled, handing it to him from the wall speakers.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: A mild but penetrating voice began repeating bus line for
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: spaceport leaving in twelve minutes. All passengers for Luna City,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: moon Base, asteroid belt and points out, please please go
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: to the landing deck. Bus line for Spaceport leaving in
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: twelve minutes. He opened the letter when he'd settled down
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: in a comfortable Morris chair in the air bos. The
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: letter had said Manoba Group Psychotherapeutic Research and Conference Management.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: One sheet of it was a half page contract in
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: fine print, apparently a standard form, with the name of
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Union Transport Corporation typed in the appropriate blanks above. It
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: was printed in clear English and large type for the
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: benefit of those readers unaccustomed to contracts. Warning, after you
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: have signed this release, you will have no legal recourse
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: or claim as an individual against any physical or mental
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: injury or inconvenience you may claim to have sustained as
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: a result of the activities of this contracted psychotherapists in
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: the course of group therapy. Your group is the responsible agent.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: It must make all claims and complaints as a unit,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: and may withdraw from the contract as a unit. Those
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: who withdraw from the group withdraw from participation in the contract.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: Bryce smiled, or in other words, if you didn't like it,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: you could quit your job and get out. The other
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: sheet he glanced at casually. It seemed to be an
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: explanatory page to the effect that the Manoba's work was
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: strictly confidential, and they were under no obligation to explain
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: what they had done or were doing, or give their
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: identities to any member of the corporation who had hired them.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: There was nothing resembling a sales talk about results, and
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: the only thing approaching it was a stiff last sentence
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: referring anyone who was curious about the results of such
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: treatment to the National Certified Analytical Statistics of professional standing
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: in such and such bulletins of such and such years.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: He signed the contract smiling, and mailed it at a
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: handy postal and telegraph window at the spaceport before boarding
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: the spaceship. The phone was ringing. Bryce rolled over sleepily
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: and picked it up. Eight A M L S S
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: S Sir, said the soft voice of the dust clerk. Okay,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: he grunted, glancing at his watch and hanging up. It
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: was two minutes after eight, but he didn't check her
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: up on it. If he placed the voice rightly, it
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: belonged to an exceptionally pretty brunette. He had not tried
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: to date her yet, but she looked accessible and Mona
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: was becoming tiresome. He turned the dial in the headboard
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: that reversed the polarization of the window, and rose reluctantly,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: stretching a sunlight flood of the room. It was daylight
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: on Moon Bay City. It had been daylight for a week,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: and it would be daylight still for another week. Through
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: the softening filter of the airtight glass, the view of
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: distant crater walls in the air sealed towers of Moon
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: Bay City shone in etched magnificence, but he gave it
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: only a glance. It was always the same. There was
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: no weather on the moon and no variety of view.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: Good morning, he smiled, passing a bell boy in the luxurious,
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: deep colored halls. Good morning, mister Carter, the boy answered rapidly,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: with an eager, nervous smile. Bryce had caught the management
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: up sharply on several small lapses, and they all knew
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: him now. He strode on pleased efficiency. No one gave
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: him a second glance or noticed him in the tube trains,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: but he was not irritated by it. Someday they would,
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: Someday the whole world would know his face as well
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: as they knew their own. He promised that to them silently,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: and then settled down to concentrate on some constructive planning
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: before reaching the office. He was not going to waste
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: his time gawking at ads or listening to the music
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: like the others. Mister Carter said a hesitant voice behind
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: him as he was reaching for the handle of the
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: office doors. What is it, he asked, crisply turning, But
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: as he saw who had spoken, he knew exactly what
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: it would be. Bardon me, mister Carter, But it was
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: a spaceman, a skinny wreck of a man in clothes
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: that hung on him, a junkie, a drug addict. Bryce
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: knew the signs. He had spent all his money and
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: gone without food for his drug, and now he had
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: remembered from belt talk that Bryce Carter was a soft
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: touch for a loan. Never mind, Bryce snarled, reaching for
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: the door again. He assisted the smuggling of the stuff,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: but that that did not mean he had to admire
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: the fools who took it. The man was muttering something
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: about a loan when the door shut and cut off
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: his words. The loan would be spent on more junk.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: If he had wanted food, he could have signed into
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: a state hospital to take the cure and be imprisoned
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: and fed until the hunger for his drug had passed
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: and released him. The cure was a brief hell, but
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: it was fair payment for having had his fun, and
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: if the attic had any guts, he would face it
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: any time. He was ready to pay the price of exit,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: he could go back to being a man. Bryce strode
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: through the offices irritably. It did not matter if Earthlings
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: chose to waste their time in artificial ecstasy, but it
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: was different to see a good belt spaceman let himself go.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: The receptionist looked up with frightener eyes as he passed
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: and gave him a special good morning, with a smile
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: that was tremulous and very eager to please. He still
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: had her in the stage of new employment, where she
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: was kept afraid of losing her new job with a
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: bad reference. It was best to put them all over
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: the hurdles. At first. He gave her a condescending smile
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: as he went through into the inner offices. Good morning.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: She was shaky enough. A few well faked cold rages
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: against minor errors had done well. From now on she
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: would need only smiles to give the utmost innloyalty and
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: hard work. What had Maggiavelli said, make them fear your wrath,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: and they will be grateful for your forbearance. He did
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: not bother to speak to Kesby when he passed his
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: open office door. Kesby didn't need smiles or praise. He
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: worked loyally just for the rare Kurt acknowledgment that he
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: had done well. Three years of managing had made him
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: a good lieutenant, completely faithful. When Bryce quit Union transport,
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: Kesby would follow him. End of chapter three, Chapter four.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: He went into his luxurious inner office with its deep
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: rugs and eye relaxing colors, and its comfortable wide dusk,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: with its speaker box and telephones that were like the
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: nerve wires of power, and sat down comfortably like a
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: king on a throne or a mule skinner in the
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: driver's seat, with ten pairs of reins in each hand.
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: He never felt completely awake and up to his full
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: size in the morning until he was here. There was
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: a good stack of letters and memos on the desk
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: waiting for him. On top of the mail stack was
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: a letter labeled private and a beam spacegram envelope. He
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: did not recognize the name at the head of it,
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: but the return address was General Delivery REEF three the Belt.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: It read something urgent has come up, must see you
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: arrange when Bob Roberto Arillo, who had been his manager
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: in the small line that UT had taken from him,
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: now the owner of a tiny line of his own,
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: which carefully avoided the competition with UT in the Belt,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: arranged when they could only meet in secret. What would
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: Arillo want to discuss? The theory he had held in
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: the back of his mind for three days gave answer, murder.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: It was a Rillo who was behind the attempted attack
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: on Earth. This meeting was another trap Arillo wanted him dead.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: Roberto Arillo had been his first helper with the shipping
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: and delivery service BRYCE had built up from the days
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: when he had been merely an asteroid prospector with a
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: ship overstocked with supplies and an obliging willingness to sell
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: his surplus. After he put his traveling stores on schedule,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: he noticed an increasing number of people began moving into
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: the Belt to settle along his route without investing in
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: the proper ship or supplies, depending on him using his
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: ship for a store and bus service, swelling his profits.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: He found that wherever he chose to extend a route
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: and offer credit for a stake. Settlers would appear and
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: a community begin to grow. He absorbed that lesson and
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: laid plans UT blocked them, running his storeships on their
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: regular rounds, making loans, mediating deals, taking half interest in
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: ideas that looked profitable, selling fuel and power, subtly binding
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: his customers to him with bonds of dependency deeper than peenage.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Bryce found suddenly that Ut, whose trademark had never been
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: seen in the belt before, had slipped in five ships
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: patterned precisely after his, but larger, more magnificent, and expensive,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: and set them running on the same course as his,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: but one day ahead. His customers told him they were apologetic,
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: but they had bought at the ship which came earliest,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: enticed by the glitter and the bargain prices. It was
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: a killing blow and was obviously meant to be so.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: The UT managers were wise in the ways of power,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: and with limitless money, could bankrupt him. That day, Bryce
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: saw that he could not fight UT from outside, and
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: he saw a dream of m empire greater than Alexander
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: ever dreamed of being ripped from his hands. When a
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: tactful and conciliating offer came from UT for a merger
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: and an exchange of stock at double its value. He
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: saw it was an indirect bride for his silence submission
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: without complaints to Spaceways or to the anti cartel Commission
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: of the FN, and he saw that the only way
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: to compete with the gigantic corporation was to destroy it
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: from within. He held out for a seat on the
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: board of directors. They gave it to him, and in
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: three years had done an efficient job of corrupting and
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: undermining UT to the point where it was ready to fall.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: UT had a week more to live in respected public
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: service before an outraged public tore it apart. Bryce had
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: left Aurillo in the Belt to form a small all
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: delivery companies servicing thinly settled outlying points where the profits
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: were too small to disturb ute. It would be this
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: company that would take over and buy out the UT
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: equipment when Spaceways chopped up the Monster Corporation, and it
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: was planned that Orillo offered Bryce full partnership when this
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: event took place. But perhaps Arillo objected to sharing his
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: reign with a partner, and perhaps Arilla had always objected
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: to the fact that Bryce was the only one who
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: knew Arillo was a fugitive from justice. Bryce had never
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: quite been able to tell what went on behind the handsome,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: blonde face and impassive blue eyes of his assistant. Bryce
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: had taken him in hand and given him a job
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: after Orrillo fled from a murder charge in South America,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: and Bryce had arranged the operations that gave Arillo a
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: new face, new fingerprints, and an unworried future. Only Bryce
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: could now give the word to the police, which could
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: bring the examination that would show a Rillo's retina tallied
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: with that of a wanted man. But if murder had
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: always lain behind those impassive, pale blue eyes, why had
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: there been no attempts before? The answer to that was easy.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: Up to this time, Bryce's activities had been profitable to
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: a Rillo. He had seen where Bryce's plans were leading
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: and wanted them to succeed so that he might step
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: into Bryce's shoes and reap the results. In three more months,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: Bryce's death would be the death of a partner and
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: bring the unwonted spotlight of police investigation on a Rillo himself.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: But now at this point. The disappearance of Bryce Carter
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: would bring police inquiry and suspicion only to the already
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: shaky and undermined fabric of ut to the profit and
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: loss of his death to the man he had helped
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: and smiled ruefully. Yet the request for the meeting might
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: be genuine and important. He had to take a chance
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: on it and meet his ex assistant and future partner
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: somewhere far away from witnesses, recognition, or protection. Taking a
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: memo pad, he printed I'll meet you Friday, three pm
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: LM and wrote in the coordinates of a position in
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: space not very far out from Earth, indicated the radar
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: blink signals for its BUI, and clip the memo sheet
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: to the envelope with its false name and return address.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Ringing for his secretary, he handed it to her. See
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: that gets beam back immediately. Friend of mine seems to
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: be in some sort of a jam. That was that.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: He turned to his work. After an hour or so,
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: the intercom box clicked and Kesby said, unexpectedly, visitor to
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: see you, boss. Can I send him in? Yes. The
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: receptionist had strict orders to keep out everyone except those
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: scheduled for appointment, and to announce the names and businesses
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: of dubious cases for his deciding, but Kesby must have
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: overridden her decision. He sounded confident, probably somewhat important. Kesby
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: opened the door with an expression half nervous, half mischievous,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: you're visitor, and closed it hastily as the person stepped in.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: He didn't belong in there. It was obvious to Bryce
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: that whoever he was, he had gotten in through a lie.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: The young man who stood inside his office watching him
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: was no one connected with the business. He was too
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: young for any position of importance. The slender frailty of
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: childhood was still with him. Yet that impression soon faded
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: under the impressiveness of his stance. It was more than
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: just arrogance or poise. It was an unshakable confidence, as
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: if no failure could be conceived. He stood balanced to
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: move either forward or back. His voice was again a surprise,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: absolute total clarity, almost without inflection, as if the words
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: reached the mind without needing a voice. If you're going
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: to throw me out, this is the best time to
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: do it. Dark brown skin of one of the dark races,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: jet black, straight hair, a dark pair of eyes that
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: were merry and watchful and had the impact of something
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: dangerous colossal gall Bryce characterized it to himself. He might
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: be as good as he thinks he is. He was
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: probably selling the Brooklyn Bridge and he should never have
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: gotten in, but the fact that he had somehow gotten
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: past Kesby made him worse. A few questions before being
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: thrown out, what do you want? He came forward to
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: the dusk to answer, I want to be your right
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: arm He took out a pack of cigarettes, shaking one
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: free and offering it with courtesy. Have one. Bryce shook
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: his head, and the boy put one between his own
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: lips and put the pack away. My name is Piers,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: he said, lighting the cigarette with the flame cupped in
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: his hands as if he were used to smoking in
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: the wind. He looked up with his eyes squinting against
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: the smoke, shook the match out and dropped it in
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: the dusk ashtray. Roy Piers, he was as much at
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: home as an invading army. Bryce felt an impulse to laugh.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: He knew this kid very well, but he couldn't place where,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: when or how am I supposed to know the name.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: Do you remember pop Yak? Bryce remembered pop Yack? He
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: gave in with a sigh and ordered in the sing
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: song vernacular of his childhood, Okay, sits off, dell Spiel
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: talk catch up. Pop Yak was a grizzled man who
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: had watched Bryce fighting with another kid. Afterward, he had
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: taken Bryce into a store and given him ice cream
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: and some pointers on dirty fighting. Not much had penetrated
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: the first time, but Bryce went back for advice again,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: learning that that was the place to be told how
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: to do things and get what he wanted. Pop was
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: always patient with his teaching and always right. He had
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: chosen Bryce as his agent to sell minor drugs to
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: the other kids and acted as a fence for the
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: things he stole, and he encouraged him to study in
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: the compulsory school and loaned him books, and Pop was
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: the first to give him the tip on legitimate business
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: and how to pull money on the right side of
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: the law and make a profit. They couldn't kick about.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: Good Old Pop will pay. The boy sat down and
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: leaned forward with a slight intent motion of a hand.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: That was Pop's favorite gesture, one that Bryce had picked
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: up from him himself. He told me, you're on the
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: way up. Roy Pierce held him with a steady, dark gaze.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: I want a slice of that, and I want it
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: the easy way, hitching my wagon to your rocket. You
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: can use me. A big man is too public. You
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: need a new hand and a new voice, one that
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: does what you want done and can do it in
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: the dark or the light without your name. A stand
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: in for alibis, and a contriver of accidents so they
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: don't break for you without your motion. A left arm
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: that your enemies don't recognize as yours. He was asking
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: to be Bryce's substitute, and the things that had to
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: be done without connection to himself, and yet had to
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: be done by Bryce himself, because no one could be
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: trusted with a knowledge of them. Could he be trusted?
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: His coming could be another trap by the unidentified enemy.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: It was almost too providential, almost too well timed. References
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: and abilities. Roy Pierce reached into his wallet and handed
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: out an aptitude profile card backed by the Universal Test
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: score listings in training and skills. On the other side.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: Bryce played with the card and studied the youth. The
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: boy was well dressed in a dark tailored suit of
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: the kind Bryce favored. He looked able, clean, cool, and ruthless. Armed.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: Bryce asked. A thing like a very thick cigar suddenly
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: appeared in Pierce's hand. The end of it, pointing at
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: him was except for a very small hole, a needle gun,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: obviously loaded with two and a half inch groove drug
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: carrying needles. Sleep or death, Bryce asked, sleep, Pierre said,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: putting it away. It's licensed. Bryce wondered what made him
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: so sure he could trust this kid? He analyzed while
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: he questioned, he did not bother to look at the card.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: Languages Basic Coast Pigeon, symbolic and Glot, Basic English and Polyglot.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: The two universals detector proofed lie detectors could be a nuisance,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: for they were used casually and universally without needing the
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: legal warrants and deference to constitutional immunities and medical supervision
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: of hypno questioning, Pierce smiled with a flash of white teeth.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: First thing I ever saved my money for. Though they
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: he spoke standard English. Bryce had placed his intonations almost
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: to the block he grew up in, almost to the
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: half block. He was as familiar as pop yac, as
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: familiar as his own face in the mirror, and as understandable.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: Bryce knew the inside of his mind as well as
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: if it were suddenly attached lobe of his own. It
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: was like looking back through time at himself, younger and
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: less complex. Popyak had turned out another on the same model,
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: a younger, simpler, duplicate of himself. Pierce was doing exactly
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: what he said, offering service to Bryce as he would
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: offer him a sword, simply for the risk and delight
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: of being an instrument in a power game with stakes
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: as high as he had guessed Bryce's game to be.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: There was no danger of him being a plan and
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: no danger of him squealing under pressure. The risk of
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: death or arrest was part of his pay, okay, Bryce said.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: He gestured with his head to a corner of the
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: room behind him. Sit over there, you're my cousin from
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: monte Hado, and I'm showing you the town. He turned
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: to his appointment pat again and read. After Pierce had
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: placed a chair in the indicated position, Bryce said, without turning,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: this week, I can use a bodyguard. Someone's hiring killers
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: for me. There was no sound of motion for a moment.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: Bryce got the idea that Pierce was more surprised than
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: the fact warranted, but his question was gentle and deadly,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: any idea who the line forms to the left, Bryce said, dryly,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: Put away that needle gun and buy something legal that kills.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: He handed back a sheaf of letters, memos, and grafts.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: Read these and learn. For some reason, he felt exat.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: He turned back to work routing shipments, shifting rates to balance,
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: shifting costs, lowering rates for a preliminary incentive on lines
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: that could be run at lower costs with the heavier load,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: occasionally using the Bell communication load analyzer and Kesby's formula
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: analysis for a choice of ways of averting bottlenecks and
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: overload slow down points, sometimes consulting the Solar system maps
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: on the walls. Good service built up customer demand and
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: dependency on good service producers manufacturing now on Earth with
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: the new materials shipped in from space could not be
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: cut off from access to the new materials without ruin
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: to the manufacturers. Earth was becoming dependent on space transport.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: Once the customers were given it, they grewed and needed.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: He smiled at the thought it was another kind of
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: drug traffic and wielded the same of potentially infinite power
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: over the customers. One thing he had learned from the
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: economics tome he had struggled with four nights ago, a
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: simple inexorable principle he had recognized dimly before that since
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: it was difficult and more expensive to ship out goods
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: from Earth to space than it was to drop goods
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: into Earth from space, eventually space people might be independent
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: of Earth and Earth totally dependent on space products. The
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: potentialities of the business game were amazing, past anything pop
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: Yak had ever hinted. But the funny thing was that
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: he had to find it out step by step for himself.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: That kind of excitement wasn't in stories. The adventures of explorers,
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: research men, and detectives were written into stories, but not
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: money men. The life and growth and death and blackmail
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: of individuals were in the stories he had read, the
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: murder of planets and cities, the control and blackmail of
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: whole populations in this odd legal game with the simple rules.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: Funny there hadn't been lured stories about this in the
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: magazines he had read as kid. He grinned, well the
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: kids would read about him. In fifteen years. He'd have
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: everyone under his thumb, and they'd smile and bow and
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: be frightened just speaking to him. The work vanished rapidly,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: the pile of accumulated letters and reports of dwindling and
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: the phone ringing at intervals complaints He dealt with, carefully
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: wording each letter in reply so as to give the
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: impression that he, Bryce Carter, was personally breaking the corporation
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: policy to satisfy the complainer, and adding a word of
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: praise on the intelligence and lucidity of the complaining letter.
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: So far, he had made a total of some six
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: hundred letter writing allies that way. Complainants were usually loquacious,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: interfering types who expressed more than their share of public opinion,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: and many would glorify him to everyone whose ear they
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: could hold, if only to have it known that they
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: were on pally terms with the director of the Great Ut.
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: Many of the letters were merely friendly and chatty, telling
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: of money troubles, successes, and family affairs. To those, he
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: recorded a few friendly remarks on wire's spool, telling the
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: same joke to each, and slipped each sloop of wire
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: into an envelope to be mailed. Pierce, studying a transport
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: routing map, looked over and grinned at the sixth repetition
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: of the joke, and Bryce grinned back and continued on
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: recording a letter to an address in the Ozarks. Got
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: a young cousin of mine in from Monte Hado, Miss
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: fernand He's sitting here watching to see how a big
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: business office operates, and he's grinning at me because it
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: looks like I want to just sit and talk to
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: my friends all day. I have fifty nine business letters
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: here to answer, Honest to God, fifty nine I just
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: counted them. So I guess I'll cut off and show
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: the young squirt how I can work. Send me that
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: photo of your sister's new baby. He hung up the
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: record's mouthpiece. One more voter and loyal friend to pull
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: for him when he was a public figure, and the
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: going got rough, he grinned. It was a strange life
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: and a strange game. End of chapter four, Chapter five.
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: When he left the office with Peers, someone stepped out
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: of a corner of the corridor and clutched at his sleeve,
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: speaking rapidly. Bryce brushed the hand off carelessly and walked
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: on a junkie. He remarked to Peerce there was a
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: quick flash of motion behind them that sent them whirling
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: to one side. Pierce stood aside with a small needle
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: gun in his palm, waiting to see if it would
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: be needed, while Bryce finished the downstroke of his hand
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: that sent the knife and the junkie reeling to the
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: rubbery corridor flooring. Shall I report him, Pierce asked, making
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: his needle gun vanish in the same smooth motion it
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: had appeared and indicating a phone sign. No, it doesn't matter,
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: Bryce walked on thoughtfully. Everyone wants to kill me at once,
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: Pierre said. It's easy to sway a miserable man to
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: the point of pitting all his troubles and hate onto
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: one name like Bryce Carter. I know, said Bryce. He
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: saw that the smiling, dark young man was alert, walking
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: a little ahead of him and glancing quickly left and
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: right as they approached corners and intersections and recessed doorways
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: where a man could wait unseen, doing his job as
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: a bodyguard efficiently and inconspicuously. If it's the man I
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: think it is, Bryce told him, falling into step again
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: after they passed the turn into the tube trains. He's
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: working against a deadline. It's now or never. There won't
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: be any more of this after next month, Pearce answered,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: after a glance at a passing mirror to see if
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: they were followed, and a quick scan of the train platform.
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: Your usual haunts will be booby trapped. Better stay out
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: of routine. That night, in the space hands end of
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: the city, they ate the dinner that he usually had
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: with Mona at a nightclub or alone, looking for a
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: good pickup and an expensive cocktail lounge. It was in
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: the shipping area around the docks, at the opposite end
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: of the city from his usual haunts. The ceiling was
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: low and the glasses shivered and danced with the constant
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: muted thunder of jets that shuddered through the floor from
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: the nearby landing fields. His new assistant and bodyguard was
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: pleasantly deferential, lighting cigarettes for him, listening respectfully to his opinions,
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: drawing him out with questions that showed he understood what
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: he was listening to. Bryce could not remember having had
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: such a good time talking since he left the company
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: of the meteorite miners at the Belt. Everything he said
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: seemed right and even brilliant. As he talked and told
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: anecdotes of his life and sketched some of his plans,
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: he saw his past life with peculiar vividness, as if
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: he were a stranger seeing it for the first time.
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: In the reflected light of the interest and enthusiasm of
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: his audience, events took on a new glow of entertainment
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: and adventure and success, where they had seen to be
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: just work and risk and routine at the time. They
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: had an evening to pass. Somehow, Pierce got into conversation
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: with a little Egyptian who could have stood for Syno
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: and had the same merry, impetuous way about him. Raz
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: Anna was his name. He claimed to be the Caliph
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: of Baghdad, still incognito, or perhaps a professional explorer disguised
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: as a native. After a few drinks, he enlisted them
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: somewhat confusedly as the two missing Musketeers, and they found
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: themselves wandering arm in arm from bar to bar and
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: up and down dark alleys interviewing the heathen natives. Bryce
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: realized that he was laughing steadily and enjoying himself in
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: a way that had nothing to do with a small
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: number of drinks he'd had. He couldn't get any deference
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: out of raz raz wouldn't have deferred to God, and
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: it was no use trying to impress him, for nothing
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: impressed him. Apparently, the hook nosed, merry little man had
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: no ambition and no envy of anyone, and wanted no
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: better of life than he had at the moment. It
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: was a strange new world they led Bryce through. Not
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: the ragged, starving, crowded viciousness of his childhood, Not the
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: fighting equality of spacemen and rock miners, many of them
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: wanted by the law. Not the simple, barren hospitality of
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: the sellers in the belt who owed him money and
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: who invited him to their sparse dinners in gratitude. Those
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: he had always managed to keep in their places and
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: exact a certain measure of respect. Even the smooth, powerful
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: men of wealth around him now accorded him a certain
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: measure of deference that was an acknowledgment of strength. But
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: the two must tears he was with, and the world
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: they opened for him, seemed to respect neither distance, nor politeness,
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: nor hold any fear for strength. Friendly insults and uncritical
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: friendliness mingled oddly with the mock solemn pretense of the
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: fairy tale, and that part was genuine and spontaneous. It
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: didn't seem to be a different kind of people. He
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: was meeting exactly. It was the same kind of people,
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: approached differently. He didn't know exactly how it was done,
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: and he let the other two take the lead. Perhaps
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: he had drunk too much, he thought as he rode
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: the hotel elevator. For in retrospect, the evening was a
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: haze of pleasure that was hard to pin his attention to.
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: Everything he had said, Everything that had happened seemed profoundly right,
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: an atmosphere which he had encountered rarely be and only
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: then in the last stage of drunkenness. But he was sober.
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: He had had only a few drinks, and his perceptions
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: seemed sharpened rather than blurred. Yet where there should have
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: been critical thoughts and regrets for error and restless plans
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: in his mind, there was only a pleasant, empty buzz.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: Too much talk, he thought, yawning as he went down
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: the luxurious hotel corridor to his room. It was that
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: night that he first noticed something wrong with the mirror.
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: He glanced into it casually while undressing, then not so casually,
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: walking up to it and inspecting his face. A slight,
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: unpleasant tingle coursed along his nerves. A stranger when he
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: tried to focus on what was wrong. He could find
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: nothing that looked any different, yet the total effect was
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: completely wrong. He decided that it must be the mirror,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: some subtle distortion of the reflection. The old one must
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: have been broken and cleaning, and a new one put in.
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: The chill passed, and still the good blank feeling lasted.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: He went to bed, reviewing the evening and smiling, and
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: went to sleep without resorting to the mental arithmetic that
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: he generally used to clear his mind of dissatisfactions. The
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: next morning, the mirror still looked peculiar. There seemed to
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: be nothing wrong with the reflected image of the room,
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: But when he gave himself the usual inspection before stepping
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: out into the corridor, the feeling of strangeness returned, and
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: his eyes felt as if they were blurring. He put
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: his hand up to his eyes instinctively and felt a
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: distinctive shock when the mirror image did the same. Odd
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: A slender, smiling young man joined him in the lobby,
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: rising and falling into step with him as he passed,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: going through doors before him. With the inconspicuous alertness and precaution,
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: he did his duties as a bodyguard well, Bryce noted,
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: but that was only to be expected. Efficiency is and
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: should be unnoticeable. One thing he discovered during the working
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: morning at the office. There had been nothing wrong with
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: the mirror in his hotel room. The washroom mirror was worse.
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: He stood for a while, frozen in mid step while
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: he looked at a lean, tanned, and freckled face which
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: looked like a color movie of his, every feature in
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: its proper place, as he remembered it, but yet not his.
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: It didn't belong to him. He made faces at it,
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: and it made faces back as if it were his,
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: while he tried to believe that he was looking out
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: of the gray eyes which looked back at him. Then
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: he heard someone coming in and left suddenly and sheepishly.
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: That afternoon, after Pierce got into the swing of the work,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: he began to be useful, fitting himself into the work
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: routine as though he had always been part of it,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: making the right calls and contacts and appointments on the
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: barest hints, handing him the phone intuitively as he needed it,
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: always at the right time, with almost telepathic instinct, while
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: checking over the decisions and plans of Kesby and the
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: staff that needed is okay and signing type letters. Bryce
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: taught the thoughts and plans which came half formed to mind,
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: almost thinking aloud, and when his remark struck something that
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: sounded like it would be good to do soon, he
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: saw Pierce jotting them down later, detailing the preliminary steps
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: for Bryce's use. And two, all the small tasks were
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: being taken from him with easy naturalness, saving him much time.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: His assistant was being what he had claimed he would be,
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: a genuinely useful left hand. Bryce found himself proud of
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: the kid's manifest efficiency, for he was a product of
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: the same school that Bryce himself had climbed from. On
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: the way back to the hotel after work, he caught
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: Pierce glancing at him with a thoughtful expression, and realized
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: he had been faltering and giving a second glance to
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: every public mirror that he had passed. He was momentarily embarrassed,
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: wondering if any strain had showed on his expression. There
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: was a party he had to go to that night,
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: so he changed to formal clothes and stepped off again
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: for the home of the fn Administrative Governor of the Moon.
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: He did not want to attend it would be another
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: of those stiff, lonesome dinners he had suffered through before.
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: But he had to learn to make friends on his
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: own social level and be easy and convivial with the
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: kind of people he would be associating with the rest
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: of his life. After the first hour had given him
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: a good test, Bryce decided that the evening was as
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: bad as he had anticipated. He stood on the outskirts
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: of a small group, holding a drink and watching resentfully
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: as a startlingly beautiful woman laughed and talked with the
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: others of the group and not with him. She had
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: been introduced to him as Sheila Wesley. The jokes she
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: had with the others were quick and subtle flashes of
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: wit and insight, and seemed to be based on a
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: mutual understanding that he could not share, even though some
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: of the others had just been introduced and had been
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: strangers to each other a few minutes back. It was
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: something he grasped vaguely as a common background and approach
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: to life that they shared, perhaps through education. There were
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: quick references to political situations they all seemed familiar with,
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: or a name that could have been some character in
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: a book. They might all have read or could have
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: been somebody in history, each reference followed by a subdued
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: laugh and an added witty statement from some other quarter.
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: No one of them gave a word to him or
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: noticed that he was there. Why should they? He was
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: dressed well and expensively, but so were they all. He
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: was a person of prominence and power, but so were
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: they all, and bored by it. He could not talk
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: like the others. Then what could he do to make
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: Sheila Wesley smile at him the way she smiled down
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: at the ridiculous little fat man beside her as he
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: excitedly stuttered out his opinions. Sheila Wesley was not like
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: Mona to be captured by money and clothes and influence.
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: Would she be impressed even by the power he would have? Later,
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: he tried to picture her as tremulous and odd, hanging
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: on his words and flattering him, but he couldn't believe it.
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: She probably wouldn't notice him anymore than now. There was
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: nothing he could do to impress her. He had thought
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: Mona had poise, but now he saw that her manner
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: was just an inadequate carbon copy of a completely spontaneous original.
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: The woman Sheila managed to be poised, aloof and yet
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: friendly to everyone, simultaneously warm and unattainable. He desired to
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: be bitingly rude that at least would make her admit
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: that he existed. She was smiling at that ridiculous little
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: fat man. Again, he trained his class and completely unnoticed,
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: left the party. Nobody would miss him, he was sure.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: Outside in the corridor, Roy Pierce, his assistant, was engaged
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: in conversation with two young men and two girls. There
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: he is now, he heard Pierce say, and one of
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: the men came toward him, laughing. Is it true that
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: this lunatic can't go and make up with the lady
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: of his heart because she has had him bad? If
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: we all try to smuggle him in? And one of
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: the girls are really gorgeous, blonde called he was just
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: telling us about that time you were in space with
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: the pirates after you, and they had stolen the big
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: focusing mirror from the first belt foundry furnace. I'm sure
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: you could tell it better. You tell it. He was
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: surrounded by the five. Then go ahead, they were urging, laughing,
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: go ahead. It didn't really happen, did it. This accusation
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: was made by the pretty blonde. He looked at her,
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: half indignantly. I don't know how he tells it, but
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: it happened, and he began to tell what had happened.
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: The two girls and the two young men listened, adding
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: occasional startled interjections and admiring laughter. Pierce inserted an occasional question,
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: and Bryce became aware that in answering them, he was
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: guided to stress and amplify points that made clearer the
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: danger and comedy. Later, he became aware that he was
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: half consciously following the clues of Pierce's expression for the
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: right stress and mood of the telling, now offhand and smiling,
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: and telling what he had done, now heavily dramatic, mimicking
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: and burlesquing the tones and threats of the outlaws, now
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: ironic and bitterly indifferent to passing over damage and deaths
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: as a Riley lifted eyebrow in the dark, young face listening,
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: and a faint, imperceptible shrug made him see what had
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: happened from a different angle than he had seen it.
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: Then Pierce apparently had something he needed. A good story
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: sense following him must be something he had learned unconsciously
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: last night but it worked. He could see how well
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: it worked in the expressions of his audience. Someone leaving
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: the party had stopped to listen, standing behind his right shoulder.
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: When he finished, amid the exclamations and sighs of his listeners,
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: a cool, familiar voice drawled, that's quite a story. I
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: picked up something about that the new Foundry on maree five,
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: but it was already an old yarn. Then she stood
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: before him, still smooth and poised and lovely, offering her hand.
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear it from the horse's mouth, aren't you,
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: Bryce Carter. We were introduced in there, I think, but
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: the name didn't click. It was Sheila Wesley. That evening
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: was something to remember. First they were a private party
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: at a night club, then at a small restaurant, Tom Betty,
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: who was the pretty blonde Ralph, and the pretty brunette
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: whose name was Marcia, Pierce himself and Sheila. The talk
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: ranged wildly over a multitude of subjects, breaking sometimes into
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: collective fantasies of nonsense, like a hatful of fireworks that
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: left them laughing helplessly, sometimes shifting to philosophy and mutual confidences.
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: Every so often, Pierce brought the subject around to something
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: that's struck home to Bryce, and he found himself holding
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: forth with unexpected passion and eloquence, and he was surprised
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: to see that the others were keenly interested. Pierce rarely
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: said more than an occasional cheerful remark, but in the
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: more subtle plays of conversation, Bryce found himself still half
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: consciously consulting the cues of his expression to find what
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: his own reaction should be, to find the right word
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: and the right attitude that pleased the table and urged
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: them all onto greater and more fantastic heights of talk.
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: It was obvious that Pierce never had any difficulty understanding anyone.
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: He had an instinct that Bryce lacked, and Bryce willingly
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: surrendered to superior skill and followed his silent lead. Sheila,
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: he discovered, besides being a member of one of the
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: top diplomatic families, had worked for a short while as
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: a consultant at the Belt Plastic Manufactory when it was
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: being set up, and had taken to space life. She
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: shared his enthusiasm about the future of the asteroid belts.
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: It was an unprecedented evening. At the close of it,
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: he had four new friends, and had discovered that Tom
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: was Tom Mahernick, one of the attorneys of the Spaceways
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: Commission and one of the men whom he had gone
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: to the dinner to meet. And Sheila, tall and slender
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: and beautiful, pressed his hand as the group parted, and said,
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: in her wonderful voice, I want to see you again. Bryce.
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: She smiled, I eat at the technician's end of town.
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: You know, I'll be with a group at Geiger's counter
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: tomorrow lunch. If you bear the company of slide rule artists,
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: we'd be glad to see you anytime. He stood for
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: a moment, surprised, say thank you to the lady. Pierre
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: smiled and to Sheila, you shouldn't startle people like that, ma'am.
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: His heart's weak. I just dropped dead, Bryce said, finding words.
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: You aren't leading me on. You'll be there on my honor.
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: She smiled, good night, Bryce. She was used to such tributes.
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: Half mocking as they were, she knew how much they
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: were basically sincere, and accepted their tribute to her beauty
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: as a matter of course. What a wife to have
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: and introduced as his wife to other men and see
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: the look in their eyes. He remembered suddenly that he
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: had not once mentioned that he was a director of
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: u T. Somehow the conversation had never been led to
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: a subject where he could have said it. He made
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: a mental note to tell her next time. It seemed
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: strange that he had been with five people so many
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: hours without informing them that he was a director of UT.
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: He had done the same thing last night, now, he remembered,
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: but they had seemed to like him without it. He
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: led himself into his hotel room and turned on the light,
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: but the first sidewise glimpse of himself in the mirror
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: was disturbing. He solved that problem by the remarkably simple
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: expedient of turning the light out again, and undressed in
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: the dark, grinning foolishly. End of chapter five, Chapter six.
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: Approaching the scientists and technicians row along the subsurface arcades.
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: The expensive restaurants grew fewer and were replaced by German
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: type beer hals schools with courses advertised in their posted
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: schedules whose titles were completely un an intelligible to him,
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: and second hand bookstalls selling battered technical books in journals
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: whose titles were undecipherable. In any tongue Bryce could think of.
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: The lunch hour, crowds were beginning to pour out into
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: the arcades from elevators and tube trains in a rush
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: to get first place in their favorite eating places. Pierce
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: half turned as if his eyes caught on the expression
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: of a face behind them. Carter, there you are, you bastard,
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: the voice came from behind him, thick with rage. But
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: more than that was the insult. It meant challenge. This
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: was nothing in which Pierce could defend him. Bryce wheeled
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: left hand automatically, plucking out his magnematic, wondering if the
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: attacker would be the honorable kind of duellist who would
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: hold fire long enough for him to get his gun out. Miraculously,
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: it seemed to be happening. He already he had his
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: sights halfway on to the speaker when he recognized him,
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: a gross heavy figure he had seen a hundred times,
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: mister Beldman of the Board of Directors. What was he
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: doing on the moon? Beldman stood with his fists on
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: his hips and his legs sprattled, sneering at Bryce. That's right,
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: he said, heavily, sarcastic. Start shooting when you're surrounded by
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: innocent spectators. When you know I can't draw on you,
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: That's the way of a crook. The husky bass voice
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: echoed from the walls behind him. To the bend of
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: the corridor, people were scattering hastily out of the firing line.
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: Krook was the central word. Somehow Beldman had found out
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: that Bryce was responsible for the corruption of ut and
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: he was dealing with the matter in the most direct
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: way that it could be dealt with. For a death
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: in a private duel would be laid to a quarrel
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: and not investigated. How had you found out? Bryce forced
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: down the question as he stiffly reholstered his magnematic. There
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: was no use of thinking of that until a question
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: of surviving the next five minutes was settled. He stood
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: with his hands empty, feeling curiously empty inside, oddly missing
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: the white rage and love of murder that usually carried
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: him through such things. It seemed too good at day
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: to spoil. He would rather have continued his way to
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: lunch with Sheila and let the man live, or let
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: himself live. This would be no duel for a little
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: blood letting. Beldman's purpose was to kill and Beldman himself,
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: knowing what he knew, had to die. Do you understand
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: what you have said? Sir? Bryce used the formal words
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: of the dueling countries. You're damn right I do. Are
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: you prepared to take the consequences, sir? More ready than
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: you are, Beldman said, his hands still on his hips.
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: He amplified his remark with a few well chosen words
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: that harked back to his truck driving days. How many shots?
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: Bryce asked, more softly, beginning to want to kill until
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: one of us is down with his gun out of
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: his hand. Bryce repeated the provision to the crowd that
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: had drawn up discreetly along the sidelines. We fire until
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: one of us is both down and disarmed. There was
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: a murmur of surprise among the crowd, for that was
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: an unusual and deadly provision for a formal duel. As
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: Bryce paced backward the required number of paces, counting aloud,
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: two men volunteered as seconds. They came forward to compare
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: the guns rapidly, and we owe them to the duelists.
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: It had to be done and finished rapidly, for lunch
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: hour had begun, with its flood of people into the corridors,
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: and they were holding up traffic. Bryce's gun was a
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: forty two magnematic working on an electrical acceleration of a
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: slug by electromagnetic rings in the thick barrel. It was
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: soundless except for a legal built in radio YEAP that
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: announced its firing and number to the police emergency receivers.
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: Feldman's gun was another Maggie of the same make, but
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: heavier with a wide mouthed barrel, apparently throwing a much
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: heavier caliber slug Ready. The second stepped back to the
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: edge of the crowd and began counting off half a
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: minute by seconds. The faces of the crowd faded from
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: his consciousness. Bryce stood with his hands empty at his
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: sides as the seconds were counted. Thirty twenty nine, twenty eight,
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: twenty seven came the voice, counting evenly and loudly. The
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: world narrowed to a corridor of space, with the blocky
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: figure of Beldman at one end and himself at the other.
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: Funny Bryce thought that he had never considered that bull
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: headed impatience and strength as dangerous. He was a massive
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: block of a man where Bryce was thick with muscle. J. H.
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: Beldman was so wide and shoulder and barrel, and so
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: thick an armed that he looked almost round like Bryce.
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: He had worked up from the bottom. Bryce remembered starting
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: as a truck driver and labor organizer, and then owning
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: his own line and giving ut a stiff battle before
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: being bought out. Crude, But that didn't mean there wasn't
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: a lightning brain behind that round face twenty six, twenty five,
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: twenty four, twenty three. He had underestimated the deadliness of
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: the man. Beldman was obviously subject to rages and in
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: the grip of one now, and if he had survived
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: all the duels and battles that his rages had brought
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: long enough to grow as old as he was, then
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: his age was an indication not of weakness, but of
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: the degree of his deadliness. The irritable thought came that
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: he might well be killed by this ox twenty two,
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: twenty one, twenty nineteen. He flexed his fingers restlessly and
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: felt in his mind the speed and sureness of his
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: draw and firing. That big, blocky figure was just another
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: obstacle standing in his way to be blasted, aside a
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: loud mouth to be shut. Ten nine. He concentrated on
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: the counting six, five, four, sureness growing like a coiled
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: spring in every muscle. Three he crouched slightly. That blocky
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: figure that was all the rest of the world was
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: no more than a target, a big target. Two one fire.
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: Something confusing happened as the word came. It seemed that
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: a gigantic blow hit him somewhere on his left shoulder,
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: twisting him around so that he couldn't see his target.
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: He spun back, willing himself to shoot again quickly, but
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: his legs buckled oddly as he turned. He reeled, finding
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: his balance with great effort. Heavy slug, he thought, seeing
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: as delayed memory, the coiled spring speed which with Beldman
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: had moved Bryce's left arm did not seem to have
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: any connection with his mind. Glancing down briefly, he saw
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: that it dangled, but the Maggie was still there, held
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: in the numb, unfeeling hand pointed limply at the ground.
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: He wondered if he had fired it yet, drop it
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: and fall down, advised Pierce's clear voice. From somewhere. There
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: was a stirring and whisper from the blur of the
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: crowd who stood watching to see that the rules were observed.
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: Beldman was walking towards him. Do you end the duel?
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: Asked someone, probably the second No. The blur of Beldman answered,
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: and suddenly he came into focus, walking up his wide mouth,
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: gun unwavering in his hand. Bryce Rema remembered the provisions
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: of the duel. Fire until one is down and weaponless.
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: There was nothing sad about remaining at a fixed distance.
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: Beldman intended to walk up close enough to shoot him
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: between the eyes. It was too late to let himself
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: fall and end the duel. Beldman would fire if he
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: saw Bryce begin to fall. Now he was already close
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: enough for a sure headshot. Feeling was returning to his
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: left arm. It dangled abnormally far and probably looked broken
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: and useless, but there was nothing actually wrong with it.
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: Only something in his shoulder was broken. After the first
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: cold numbness of impact, sensation returned tingling in his fingers,
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: and pain was beginning to burn in his shoulder. Bryce
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: waited a few more seconds, feeling the control returning to
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: his fingers, not changing the glazed offe focus of his eyes.
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: How many duels had Beldman won like this? The impact
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: of one of those heavy slugs hitting bone was a
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: dazing blow enough to stun some men, and he probably
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: counted on that effect. The square figure lumbered closer, a lumpish,
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: clumsy caricature of the self made man, brutally strong, unashamedly
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: misfit to the society of the smooth, wise, smiling, easy
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: mannered people that he and Bryce had joined, a model
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: of everything that Bryce was trying to destroy in himself.
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: With a quick twist of the wrist, Bryce swung his
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: palm flat up, flipping the magnematic muzzle into line with it,
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: and put a bullet into the round face in that
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: position of his hand. The back kick of the shot
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: twisted his arm back in its broken shoulder and pulled
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: the maggie from his hand, but it didn't matter. The
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: duel was over. The motionless crowd dissolved again into talking
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: individuals going to lunch. Pierce picked up the maggie and
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: made the usual query of those who chose to remain,
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: which of you has any complaint of unfairness or advantage
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: taken by either party of this duel. Most of them
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: were leaving, anticipating the arrival of the police, with their
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: time consuming questions, but twenty or so crowded close round
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: Bryce in the corpse. Press a thumb on your shoulder,
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: subclaviant man, Someone advised Bryce, you're bleeding like a faucet.
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: Pierce's clear voice said the standard words over the murmur
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: and shuffle of feet. No unfairness having been observed. When
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: called to give testimony, you can then say that he
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: shot in self defense and under duress. A low wail
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: of sirens was heard. Who was that character? Pearce asked later,
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: Sitting beside the table, while the surgeon patiently pieced together
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: the three or four shattered pieces of Bryce's collarbone and
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: fastened them with ingenious plastic bolts. Bryce absently watched the
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: process in a large tilted mirror slung overhead. Medicine boored him. J. H. Beldman,
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: member of the board of Directors, he explained, and for
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: the benefit of the policeman standing beside the door, he added,
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: bad tempered as they come. He looked into the mirror uneasily,
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: trying to focus on his face. His clothes were being
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: cleaned of blood and dried somewhere. When the doctor finished
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: sewing and patching, Bryce showered and dressed in a small
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: dressing room beside the emergency ward, where he found his
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: clothes hanging neatly in a drying closet. As he finished,
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: a man in playing clothes entered and dismissed the cop
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: with a word, and handed Bryce a printed notice in
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: his magnmatic You're clear, he said, leaving again with a
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: friendly half salute. No charges. The police had already recorded
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: the testimony of the witnesses and inspected the weapons used.
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: It had been a fair duel and the survivor was
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: clear with a standard case for self defense. The printed
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: notice called him to testify at the coroner's inquest into
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: the death of J. H. Beldman during the next Saturday,
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: but there would be no charges and no investigation. There
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: would be no trouble from Beldman. But who else knew
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 1: what he had known? That Bryce Carter was responsible for
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: the corruption of U T How had he learned it?
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: If somebody else knew there was going to be trouble.
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: Coming out of the emergency ward, he checked his watch
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: one fifteen too late to find Sheila Wesley still at
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: Geiger's counter, but he knew he could see her another
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: day and with a good story to explain why he
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: had not turned up the first time. They ate at
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: the nearest stand and went back to work. Trying to
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: write was almost impossible, and even using his left hand
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: for minor tasks was difficult. In spite of quick healing
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: of muscle and flesh from the amino and nucleic acid
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: powders the doctor had packed in the shoulder ached with
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: a tightness that spoiled his coordination. He shifted to writing
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: clumsily with his right hand. After twenty minutes, he abandoned
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: the pretense of working and began thoughtfully doing practice draws
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: with his right hand. It was stiff and clumsy, and
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: there was no holster in his right pocket to make
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: grasping easy. The second time, the Maggie caught on his
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: pocket edge slid from his hand. He left it on
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: the rug where it had fallen, sitting looking at it
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: thoughtfully for a moment. Today was the day he would
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: meet Arillo. How well can you handle a four tube
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: cabin cruiser line of sight only? I'm no navigator, Pierce responded,
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: Bryce says, soberly, realizing what he had decided. This is
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: a good day to have a bodyguard who's a good shot.
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: I have an appointment to meet a friend, and I'm
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: not sure he's a friend I shoot, Pierce said, writing
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: at one of the letters he had been said to
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: happy to oblige. Shall I wear my bulletproof clothes? You
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: could do with something like that, Bryce said soberly. Pierce
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: looked up from the letters. Would this be the man
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: behind all these bullets? And you're meeting him in space? Yes,
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: in armor plated tanks with heavy artillery, no no light,
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: in heavy cruisers, no marines, just you. Bryce was smiling
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: at Pierce's mock astonishment. He knew that the kid didn't
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: care in the slightest where Bryce led him, as long
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: as there was a fight at the end of it,
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: and he left it to Bryce to choose the odds.
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: The odds might be even enough, Orillo himself, if he
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: came with murder as his intention, would bring no helpers
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: for witnesses, and he would expect Bryce to bring none.
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: Or if he had hired assassins, he would not come himself,
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 1: and they would not know who had hired them, but
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: they would have been told to expect one man only.
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: The secrecy of any meeting in space is practically absolute
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: if there is one thing which space has plenty of
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: its distance, distance enough to lose things in distance, enough
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: to hide in distance, enough so that even if you
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: know where something is by all the figures of its coordinates,
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: if it's smaller than a planet, you can't find it
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: even when you are there. To put it crudely, what
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: space has is space, and finding something that doesn't want
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: to be found in space is like looking for a
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: missing germ in the Atlantic. He had the coordinates of
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 1: the beacon he had chosen for his appointment point, and
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: the robot pilot took him to that area with automatic precision.
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 1: But once there he had to cruise manually back and
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: forth three times through the perpendicular plane of Earth's equator
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: before picking up the radar pip of the Boy, which
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: was set to broadcast its presence by a circular sweep
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: of radar pulses on a flat plane corresponding to the
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 1: earth equatorial average. He found it no later than expected,
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: which was over an hour early on the prince that
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: he who arrives first finds no ambush. He left pierced
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: with certain instructions and floated from the ship to the
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: familiar globe that spun so placidly on the anchoring rod
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: that attached it to the controlling buoy. The buoy was
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: powered strongly enough to control the orbits of fifty such
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: globes without strain. Buoys of that type were just beginning
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: to be popular in the Belt. Once inside, he opened
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: his face plate, looking around with the same pleasure he
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: always felt on his visits here. It was like being
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: back at the Belt for a time, after the raw
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 1: harshness of the Moon and the artificial luxuries of its cities,
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: after the agoraphobic vastness of Earth's giant surface. To be
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: within this little, close knit, familiar world was soothing and relaxing.
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: It was a green glade of leaves and branches, greenness
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: underfoot and overhead a brown metal cliff with vines and
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: a door to his left, a larger brown metal cliff
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: like the round head of a barrel, with doors to
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: his right, and a circular silver door in the center.
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: Behind the small right hand cliff was a small amount
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: of regulating machinery required. Behind the doors of the larger
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: cliff was a small kitchen and convertible study bedrooms. Behind
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: the silver door was a corridor leading to the airlock.
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: In space, it was forty feet from cliff to cliff,
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: and from the growing greenery underfoot to the growing greenery overhead,
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: as spacious as a wide glade in the woods of Earth.
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: He picked his way among the vines and shrubs to
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: a carpet like patch of green moss, and sat down
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: comfortably to wait. Pierce had drawn the ship off beyond
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: detector range by now, and it would seemed to any
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: ship approaching that he had not yet arrived. It was
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: peaceful there, no breeze stirred. The leaves twenty feet above.
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: Fixed in the air on clear spokes of leucite, the
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: crystal globe that was the sun for this small world
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: gave forth its warming flood of light, sunlight borrowed from
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: the sunlight outside and let in on the leusite spokes.
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: He had an interest in its manufacture and had angered
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: his globe here as a commercial sample of a space
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: globe for the viewing of likely settlers. It was slightly
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: better and more compact, since it was a newer model
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: contained in an ovoid hull that was only forty six
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: by sixty six feet, But in essence it was like
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: any of the farms in the homes of the asteroid belt,
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: and there was nothing like it on any planet in
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: the universe. End of chapter six, Chapter seven. Behind a
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 1: silver door, a bell rang. Suddenly, a spaceship was approaching.
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: It was still early. They would see the globe aloon
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: and assume that Bryce had not yet arrived. The spaceship
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 1: itself might be armed illegally, but those within would not
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: blast the globe without checking its interior. Bryce glanced up
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: at the silver door in the cliff and arranged his
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: position so as to be lounging on one elbow with
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: his gun hand lying relaxed under a thin curtain of leaves.
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: The magnematic was pointed up toward the corridor door. There
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: were a few tall bushes between the base of the
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: cliff and himself, but the silver central door was five
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: feet up a flight of steps, and in clear view.
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 1: Four flights of steps radiated away from the circular door
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: to the hull, like spokes from an axle, all of
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 1: them leading down to the inside surfaces of the globe.
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 1: As he waited, he heard the faint clang of magnetic
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: souls hitting the metal of the airlock, and then the
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: door chimes had announced that the airlock was being used.
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: Someone was coming in. He could follow their action in
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: his mind, timing them now. They would be floating in
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: the vestibule, facing a circular wall with a door, the
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 1: wall spinning silently and rapidly, and the door in its
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: center turning slowly and over end. The door marked the
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: axis of rotation. There was a turning bar with handles
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: running through the center of the airlock. They would float
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: up to that and grip it to pick up spin
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 1: until the vestibule seemed to be rotating around them, and
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 1: only the circular wall and the central door seemed to
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 1: be steady. Beyond it would be the corridor, and then
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 1: the silver door. The door in the cliff dilated silently.
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: Two spacesuited men stood in it. It was incredible that
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: he had let them come in without seeing the door open.
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: In the first split second, he saw that neither of
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: them was a rillo. In the second instant, he saw
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: that no weapons were visible, but that one stood slightly
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 1: behind the other and his right arm was hidden. They
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: had happened to come to the entrance at an angle
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: to his orientation, almost at right angles, and they would
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: be confused for a moment before they identified his shape.
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: For to their orientation, if they used earth thought for it,
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: he would seem to be leaning head downward on an
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: almost vertical slope. He took advantage of the lag to
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: move his gun under its curtain of leaves and get
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: the sights lined up on them. They swung their eyes
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: around the circle and saw him. Mister Carter asked the
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: foremost one. Their face plates were still closed and their
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 1: voices slightly distorted by transmission to the helmet speaker, but
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: he could hear a note of surprise as the first
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: one spoke. The second one moved his hidden arm slightly,
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: as if he were holding something, bryce did not tighten
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: his finger on the trigger. These could be mere innocent sightseers.
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: The position of his head almost upside down relative to
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 1: theirs was probably confusing them, though almost certainly they had
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: studied trimensional photographs of him. At any rate, they probably
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: were aware that they were standing like targets in the
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: corridor doorway, and would be in no mood to postpone action.
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: Take off your helmets, gentlemen, make yourselves at home. It
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: was a partial admission that he was the man they wanted,
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: but not certain enough for a decision. He saw the
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 1: shoulder twitch that meant that the second one's hidden hand
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: jerked for a moment of uncertainty, and he thought he
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: saw something glitter under the first one's arm, the old
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: trick of shooting from under a friend's screening arm. Mister
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: Bryce Carter, the foremost one, was asking again. Bryce smiled. Now, Pierce,
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: he said, he had turned on the two way speaker
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: and tuned it to the ship as he came in. Immediately,
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: the voice came in the corridor behind them, Stand still,
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: you're covered. There was no chance that anyone could genuinely
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: be behind them, but the rear one whirled and snapped
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: a startled shot into the darkened corridor, and the other
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 1: leaped sideways down from the doorway, drawing his gun with
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: blurred speed and leveling on Bryce as his feet left
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: contact with the sill. He was falling slowly, almost floating,
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: and it should have been an easy shot except for
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: something he had obviously forgotten, or he never would have leaped.
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: Bryce disregarded him as a danger and threw three shots
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: at the other, who still stood startled and off balance
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: in the corridor, firing three with his inexperienced right hand
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: to make sure of placing even one. The figure dropped
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: out of sight in the corridor. In the flick of
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: time that Bryce's eyes had been away from the falling one,
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: the path of the man's leap had begun to curve strangely,
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: until now he seemed to be floating in a curve,
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: flying sideways and upward, faster and faster as he approached
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 1: the hull. The rule of conservation of momentum was having
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: its way to the man's dizzied eyes. As he tried
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: to keep Bryce within his sights long enough to fire,
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: It must have seemed that the ground began inexplicably to
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: turn and slide. By that suddenly the whole shell was
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: turning around him like a big wheel, carrying his target
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: up the wall and over his hat. He was almost
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 1: to the sliding ground when a bush caught at his
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: feet and yanked them from under him with a crackling
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: of branches, and the bottom tread of a flight of
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: stairs swung at his head like a gigantic club. Among
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 1: the sudden splintering of branches and snapping of vines was
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: a crunching thud which sounded final. To anyone within a globe,
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: it did not ordinarily appear to be spinning. The only
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: sign it was was the comfortable pseudo gravity for anyone
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: standing on hull level. But to those who approached the
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 1: ground from the lighter G corridor, the stairs were necessary,
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: stairs whose treads were oddly dipped in the middle in
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: a shallow U. By bracing against one side of the
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: U coming down and on the other side going up,
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: one invisibly picked up enough speed to match the speed
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: of the ground level jumping was the equivalent of jumping
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: out of a moving car at forty feet a second.
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: The sixteen feet a second half of the corridor plus
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 1: an extra thirty feet a second spin the side slip
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: speed of an eighteen foot drop where it had looked
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: like five. It was probably these added extra distances in
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: the air. Bryce decided that sometimes made the bird flights
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: look so bewilderingly variable in speed and direction. He had
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: not thought before how difficult it would be to plot
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: a straight course from one side of the globe to
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: the other. He waited for a sign of motion, his
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: magnematic ready looking up at the gunman lying overhead forty
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 1: feet away on the other side of the globe, the
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: limp figure was unmoving. It looked badly tangled in vines,
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: and its gun was gone. There was no need to shoot,
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 1: but he wondered suddenly if he had, what kind of
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 1: a curve would the bullet have followed. There was no
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: sound from the other but Bryce hesitated to climb the
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: stairs and put his head above floor level of the corridor.
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: A voice might give the other direction for a snapshot,
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: if that's what he was waiting for. Bryce chanced speaking,
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: I've got this one, Pierce. How's the other? The televiewer
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: in the entrance hall replied, lying on his back with
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: his gun five feet away. You are right, yes. Bryce
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: walked around the circumference of the globe and searched in
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: the vines for the missing weapon of number one. The
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: body in the spacesuit nearby was quite definitely a corpse.
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: He saw the gun glittering a little further on and
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: picked it up, wiping off leap pulp on a clean
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: patch of moss. It was a heavy duty police pacifier,
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: a distant stunner adjusted to a narrow beam. He climbed
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 1: to the corridor and collected the other weapon. It was
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: a police pacifier too. They had not meant direct murder then,
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 1: but only to stun him and deliver him to a
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: rillo cod How are you doing with their ship? Bryce asked,
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: is it armed? Armament for spaceships was illegal, and careful
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: official inspection made it rare. I didn't wait to see.
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: Pierce's voice came apologetically after a pause in which some
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: background noise sounded like a crash came over the televi
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: or speaker. It started swinging around when I came in sight,
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: so I just rammed it with that pretty ornamental nose spike.
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 1: I'm backing off now with the forward breaking jets. Then
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: whoever's inside is probably either space frozen or cooked. Jockey
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 1: that ship around on the spike and give her a
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: four minute shove toward Earth. Then push that button that
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: collapsed is the ornamental veins on the spike, and let
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: it pull loose when you start breaking. I don't want
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: any ship hulks floating around here. I I cap go
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: slow on those breaking jets. When you pull loose, the
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: backwash could touch your hull. Piers returned and came in
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: to help Bryce drag the corpses through the airlock and
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: into space. They braced against the silver curve of the
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: floating spaceship and gave the body a combined strong shove
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: toward Earth. Spinning slowly and over end, it dwindled into
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 1: a dark speck against the glowing orb of Earth, destined
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: to be a meteorite and make a small bright streak
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 1: in the Earth's sky. Several days later, when the tubes
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 1: conk out, the fuel runs down, the cold creeps into
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: where I lie. Pearce was reciting as they went back
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: into the globe for the second corpse. I'll take the
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: meteor's trail, go home to Earth and make a Viking's
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: funeral in the sky. This is too easy, Bryce complained,
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: as they watched the second corpse fade from sight. The
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: trouble is in space, all corpses are DELCTI. It's an
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: incentive launch your enemies. Gaucho Country did all right under
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 1: that system, Pierce said somberly, and so did the American Frontier.
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: He floated motionless. A space suited figure turned toward the gray,
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: green misted globe of Earth that shone against the black
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: star sprinkled sky, as if he could have reached out
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: and touched it. The sun caught the planet on its
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: day hemisphere and reflected brilliantly from a shadowy blue glaze
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 1: of water that was the Mediterranean, turning half of it
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: to white fire. Bryce's earphones picked up He's voice again.
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: Frontier born nations always look back and say that the
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: first years were the best. The words caught at something
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: Bryce had felt before. He looked at Earth hanging splendidly
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: in space. It was beautiful and he was fond of it.
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: But he said, I don't think we'll ever go back,
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: nor would mankind itself, never again, through all conquests from
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: this point in time, would mankind go back down into
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: the mesh of gravity to be a thin film over
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: the surface of a planet. Give Old Earth a smile, Bryce,
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 1: We've hatched for a moment longer. Bryce hung, watching Earth
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: turning below. The management of ut was down there. He'd
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: be damned if he let them get away with thinking
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: they could tell him what to do, or tell the
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 1: belt where a line should be extended and a colony planted.
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: The belt was his country, not theirs. Space belonged to
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: the people who lived in it. No taxation without representation,
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: Pierre said, irrelevantly, as if he had been reading Bryce's thoughts.
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: They jetted back to the ship and into the space
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 1: lock from Tier Country. Bryce said as he stepped into
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 1: the cubicle of the revolving door. Gently tightening elastic bands
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: drew him into position within the man shaped mold. What's
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 1: a frontier on your terms? Roy? When he was in place,
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: the other half of the rubbery air excluding mold closed
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: on him and the air tight cylinder rotated, delivering him
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: into the interior of the ship. He pushed the button
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: impatiently to have it revolved back for Pierce, but it
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: remained obstinately open it's servo, refusing to close on a
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 1: mold full of air and rotate air back to release
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 1: into space. Bryce remembered then this was something he didn't
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 1: have to bother with when he flew alone, for when
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: going in or out, he was always in the door
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: when it rotated, it never turned empty. Beside the door
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: on a hook hung an inflated pressure suit, complete with gloves, boots,
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: and helmet. Except for the absence of any sign of
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 1: a head or face inside the dark translucence of the helmet,
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: it looked like a full sized man Bryce reached it down,
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: placed it in the mold, and watched, grinning as the
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 1: mold closed and the door rotated, delivering the man form
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 1: to an equivalent hook in the space lock. The doll
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: was known by all spacemen as Hector Dimwitdie, and every
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 1: ship had one or two. There were a thousand yarns
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 1: and jokes circulating about the adventures of the Hector's, them lewd,
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 1: and a few of them true. Pierce's answer was in
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 1: his earphones a frontiers where people go when they are young, broke,
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: or have the cops after them. Right, Suppose I stake
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: the broke and loan them transport and offer the fugitives
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: unregistered safety to receive mail and buy supplies. You do that,
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: Pierce stepped out of the door, and they took off
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: their helmets. Yes, when I am my own man, not
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 1: working for U. T. If you do that, you bring
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 1: in ten times as many of them broke who wanted
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: to settle there, And Pierce took a long jump and understanding,
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 1: saying softly, they're dependent on you, handcuffed to you and
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: praying for your health and prosperity as long as you
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: hold their loans and secrets for with your death or bankruptcy.
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: Another man might come to your books to read the
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 1: records of your loans and demand payment and give the
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: secrets to the police or keep them for his blackmail.
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: But to do it is to take a risk of
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: murder or arrest, and a high cost in hard work
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: and money. Why do you want to do this? What
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: payment do you take? They pay by being my men,
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: grateful and ready to back me up when I want
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: help later. They don't have to be grateful, for they
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 1: know I can call any loan if the owner crosses me,
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 1: and I've built a reputation for an occasional fit of
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: a rational temper that is threat enough for anyone to
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 1: avoid crossing me without feeling that I wanted to threaten
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: or force them. As for the fugitives, they pay enough
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 1: by wanting the Belt to be organized as a nation
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: independent of earth, so that the hand of the law
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 1: can't stretch out and drag them back, and they can
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 1: become wealthy and open business in the million chances for
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: wealth that lie around them the Belt. They don't know
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: that they want this yet, but they will see it
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: when it is told to them. I can't do any
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 1: of this now it's suspended. For as long as I
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 1: am part of ut and have to drag the dead
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 1: weight of ten earthtide conservatives with me in every decision.
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 1: End of chapter seven, Chapter eight, he stopped to set
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: in the coordinates of the Moon for the robot pilot,
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 1: but he found himself still wanting to talk. Man has
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: reached space. Do you think he'll ever go back to
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 1: the ground. In space, he has gravity only when he
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: wants it, and any weight of gravity he likes, depending
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: on how fast he spins his house, and no gravity
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: when he wants that. You see what that means to
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 1: engineers and the advantage of building things. No weight and transportation,
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: no weight and travel liimentless speed, and almost no cost.
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: As long as he stays away from planet pulls. His
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: house is in the sky, and when he steps out
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 1: of it, he can fly like a bird and food
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: to grow food. There is sunlight earth never dreamed of
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 1: for heat and power. There is sunlight to focus. Space
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: is flooded with heat, irradiated with power. It's not child's
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: play taming it, and those on the ground don't see
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: it yet. But the next step of mankind is out
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: into space, and it's never coming back. Pierce, sitting in
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 1: one of the shock tank armchairs, asks what part do
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 1: you have in this? Bryce looked at him with a
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: feeling almost of surprise, as if he had been called
• 2:20:54
  Speaker 1: back from a long distance me. He laughed a little
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 1: by the immensity of the goal and the ease of it.
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 1: First President of the Belt and political boss for life.
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: That's enough enough to hold the solar system in the
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 1: palm of his hand if he chose, he who rules
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: space rules the planets. It was the first time he'd
• 2:21:23
  Speaker 1: ever mentioned his goal to anyone. Roy Pierce asked, what
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: do I do about this friend of yours who lays traps?
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 1: The last attack had settled the question of who was
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 1: behind the other attacks and who had told Beldman, but
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 1: Arilla would still be a useful pawn. All that was
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: necessary was to evade his attempts at murder for a
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: month or so until partnership tied them too close for murder.
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 1: Bryce explained some of that to Pierce, setting up a
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: chessboard to pass away the time until they arrived back
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: at Moon Bay City. What's my next assignment? Pierce asked.
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 1: When they were several moves into the game, Bryce recalled
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: a danger he had made no move to guard against.
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: The board hired a psychologist, a mind hunter to find
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: out who's doing the undermining. He's one of them, Anoba group.
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 1: Remember the name. Look it up and find out what
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 1: their methods are, how to recognize them, and report back
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 1: what to do about it. I'll take care of him,
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: Roy Pierce said, absently, moving his knight to threaten Bryce's bishop.
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: No unnecessary trouble. Remember, I have to keep my name clean.
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: Bryce moved upon one step to cover the bishop and
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 1: leave room for his other bishop to menace the Knight.
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 1: I'll be careful, there'll be no publicity. He won't get hurt,
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 1: Pierce said, moving the Knight into Bryce's second line, where
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: threats the king in a cornered castle. Check, and he added,
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 1: as if apologizing for having delayed his move. I don't
• 2:23:08
  Speaker 1: like to move until I'm sure what's going on. The
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 1: remark didn't seem to be suited to the game, as
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 1: if he had referred to something else. It was during
• 2:23:21
  Speaker 1: dinner on the Moon that he and Pearce loosened up
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 1: for the first time since the ambush. Pierce had been
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 1: comparatively silent since the chess game on the trip back,
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 1: and Bryce too, whether in sympathy with him or in
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 1: a naturally parallel mood, had little to say. But now
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 1: the tension had diffused, and with the stimulus of aromatic food,
• 2:23:45
  Speaker 1: they climbed out of their depression of emotional solemnity. The
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: decorations of the dining room were lush, while they ate.
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 1: The materialism of their lives was reinforced from silvered and
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 1: tappy street walled. There was life here, low key, with excitement,
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 1: in the blend of subdued talk and the shifting artistry
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 1: of lights and music. Their table was almost in the
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 1: center of the islands of tables and potted trees. And
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 1: around them were the diners, their voices washing up at them,
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 1: both inviting them with gentle tugs to surrender the resistance,
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 1: beckoning them into the sea of simple pleasures. We owe
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 1: ourselves some fun. Bryce. At Pierce's words, Bryce sharpened his
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 1: eyes on the face across the table. There was a
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: touch of seriousness in those words, more like a statement
• 2:24:41
  Speaker 1: than a suggestion. Pierce smiled wiley and took a vial
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: out of his pocket and poured it into his drink.
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: He spun the empty bottle between thumb and fingers. We
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: owe ourselves some fun, Pierce repeated. We've nothing on the
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 1: fire tonight, nothing to do, that's crucial. It's a good
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 1: night to experiment. The warm waves laughing at Bryce's mind
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 1: suddenly receded and left a chill with instinctive weariness. He
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 1: thought of hypnotics and single shot addictors. Piers couldn't have
• 2:25:16
  Speaker 1: missed the emotionless freeze on the other's face, still twirling
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 1: the vile Casually, he began to explain. It was a
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: new drug, he said, found being used by a tribe
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 1: in Central Africa. I've heard of it for some time,
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 1: and what you mentioned a little while back reminded me
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 1: of it. Bryce caught the hidden reference Central Africa and
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 1: the Manoba group, so Pierce had not dismissed the mind
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 1: Hunter from his thoughts as a problem to be easily
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: dealt with. It's still in the testing stage, Pierce added,
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: but some of it is circulating among medical students. The
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 1: tests have interesting effects, and as I say, tonight's a
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: good night to experiment. It's called binyab i Oh. The
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 1: chill in Bryce's head and spine was thawing out you're
• 2:26:11
  Speaker 1: not conning me. He said it with a grin, but
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 1: there was an edge to the question which demanded an answer.
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 1: Pierce gave it to him for a brief moment, deadly serious.
• 2:26:23
  Speaker 1: You couldn't get addicted if you swam in it, Bryce
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 1: believed him. He stared at the glass. What does it
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: do to the IQ? We've got to collect some information
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 1: here and there this evening. I want to be able
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 1: to read and talk, he smiled, crookedly. No worse than usual.
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: That is, either raises the IQ or leaves it alone.
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: What's the effect it affects different people different ways? After
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 1: hearing the reports, I'd like to see how it hits us.
• 2:26:56
  Speaker 1: Pierce pushed it towards him, grinning, Leave half for me.
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 1: Bryce's weary thoughts touched poison and immunity and murder, but
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: inwardly he began to scoff at his own habits of suspicion. However,
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: before he could reach for the glass, Peers had given
• 2:27:16
  Speaker 1: a short snort, as though in recognition of his presumptuousness,
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 1: and drank his own share first. Then Bryce raised the
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 1: cold glass to his lips. As he put it down,
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 1: he could feel a change beginning to spread through his blood,
• 2:27:31
  Speaker 1: warming and relaxing, bringing closer to the memories of pleasure
• 2:27:35
  Speaker 1: in good times. The restaurant was now completely seductive, with
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 1: the surf of voices pleasant in his ears, calling him
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: to join the world in its offers of uncomplicated pleasures.
• 2:27:48
  Speaker 1: He felt himself blending with the ethereal background mixture of
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 1: light and sound. I like this, he decided we should
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 1: take notes. Peers was smiling as he stuffed the empty
• 2:28:01
  Speaker 1: vial back in his pocket. The next day, Bryce looked
• 2:28:07
  Speaker 1: back on that evening with pleasure. Everybody had been remarkably pleasant,
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 1: friendly and considerate, and Pierce had always had the right
• 2:28:16
  Speaker 1: friendly word and gesture to reward them. Speaking for Bryce,
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: knowing his way around the cities of the Moon to
• 2:28:24
  Speaker 1: the right places for the information they sought. Always speaking
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 1: for Bryce Carter his employer, getting him the things he wanted,
• 2:28:34
  Speaker 1: giving the orders he wanted to give. Before Bryce had
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 1: even fully realized that he wanted them. Bryce had needed
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 1: to say nothing the whole time except right, that's it,
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 1: and everything went as he wanted it. A perfect left
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: hand man, he smiled, stretching and turned the polarization dial
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 1: to let in the sunlight. The telephone rang. He picked
• 2:28:59
  Speaker 1: it up, and the dust clerk said, in a deferentially
• 2:29:02
  Speaker 1: hushed voice, eight o'clock, mister Carter. For some reason, the
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 1: hushed voice struck him as funny. Thanks, I'm up. He
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 1: hung up and stretched again. It was soothing to have
• 2:29:17
  Speaker 1: someone solicitous that he arose on time, if only a hotel.
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 1: The hotel had given him a lot of good service.
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: He felt suddenly grateful for all the pleasures and luxuries
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: and small services they surrounded him with. He was a
• 2:29:32
  Speaker 1: good place. He was feeling good that morning, maybe because
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 1: the sun was so bright. He liked the look of
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 1: the people passing in the lobby as Pierce joined him,
• 2:29:44
  Speaker 1: and he liked the look of the passengers and the
• 2:29:46
  Speaker 1: tube trains on the way to the office. They all
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 1: looked more friendly, And as he pushed through the second
• 2:29:53
  Speaker 1: glass door into his offices, he liked the clean shine
• 2:29:57
  Speaker 1: of the glass and the rich blended colors and soft
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 1: rugs and gray textured desks, and the soft, efficient hum
• 2:30:05
  Speaker 1: of work in progress. Bryce usually passed Kesby's office with
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 1: a business like nod, but Pierce smiled in stopping for
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 1: an instant with Bryce. Good morning, Kesby were glad to
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 1: see you. It was true enough, and expressed what he felt.
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 1: Bryce exchanged a grin with Kesby the boy's insolence, and
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 1: then went on into his office. It was a good day.
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 1: It was a good day for what he had to do.
• 2:30:39
  Speaker 1: In the luxury of his inner office, he sank into
• 2:30:41
  Speaker 1: the deepest, softest chair, letting his cousin from Monte Hatos
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 1: sort the mail, agreeing with the boy's suggestions for action,
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 1: or sometimes issuing his own instructions, keeping only half his
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: mind on the routine day's business, relying on piers and
• 2:31:00
  Speaker 1: concentrating the other half on the deed to be done.
• 2:31:04
  Speaker 1: The plan was set in his mind, but he had
• 2:31:06
  Speaker 1: changes to make. He was barely conscious of the time
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 1: slipping by as he lay, rarely moving in his chair
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 1: while Pierce worked at top speed. By one o'clock the
• 2:31:19
  Speaker 1: deck was cleared for action. Bryce stood up, stretched and
• 2:31:25
  Speaker 1: checked his watch again. It was thirteen oh four hours.
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 1: A telephone call was scheduled in about another hour and
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 1: five more successively about a half hour apart. Order us
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 1: some lunch, Pierce before I lift the drawbridge. The food
• 2:31:41
  Speaker 1: came in as he was instructing his staff to leave
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 1: them undisturbed for the rest of the afternoon. By the
• 2:31:48
  Speaker 1: time they had finished eating, their isolation was complete. The
• 2:31:52
  Speaker 1: office was a command post now, with only the slender
• 2:31:56
  Speaker 1: unattended telephone wires connecting them with the outside worlds. Bryce
• 2:32:01
  Speaker 1: moved over behind his desk. He drew the telephone toward
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 1: him and dialed a number somewhere in the lock safe.
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 1: The phone rang from the case. He took a toy
• 2:32:14
  Speaker 1: dial phone. Pierce's eyes were on it, his eyebrows lifted quizzically,
• 2:32:19
  Speaker 1: but Bryce offered no explanation. The boy was due for
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 1: a series of surprises, and when it was over, he
• 2:32:27
  Speaker 1: would know everything. Without any explanations and too late to interfere,
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 1: hi al, Bryce said to the recorded yeah. At the
• 2:32:37
  Speaker 1: other end, he dialed a number on the toy dial,
• 2:32:41
  Speaker 1: the one receiver against the other's back. After the usual ritual,
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 1: Bryce said, Hello, George, how's everything going? This is it?
• 2:32:51
  Speaker 1: Bryce thought this was the first part of the final
• 2:32:55
  Speaker 1: blow to UTA, and the only instrument he needed in
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: and his delightfully simple method was a telephone. Originally, he
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 1: had planned six brief warning calls to the six key
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 1: members of the ground organization. He would tell them to
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 1: refuse to take anything from the hands of the UT
• 2:33:15
  Speaker 1: branch and break contact with them immediately after accepting cash
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 1: for miscellaneous items. That would set the stage. The police
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 1: trap would close on all members of the UT branch
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 1: of the organization while they were encumbered with a maximum
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 1: of incriminating objects to dispose of in too little time.
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 1: Then would come his anonymous tip to the police. He'd
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 1: inform them that certain employees of UT in a few
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 1: listed cities would be found to be smuggling in large
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 1: quantities of drugs. The thing would be so simple, and
• 2:33:51
  Speaker 1: the whole works would blow up with the efficiency of
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 1: the calculated explosion of nuclear reaction. That had been his
• 2:34:00
  Speaker 1: original plan. But things would be different now. The morning
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 1: in the easy Chair had changed his approach. The newer,
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 1: more elaborate program, still remarkably simple, would bring down the
• 2:34:15
  Speaker 1: whole structure within UT without the help of the police,
• 2:34:19
  Speaker 1: but by himself alone, planning it, initiating it, executing it
• 2:34:25
  Speaker 1: with no one's help, not even pierces. He heard himself saying,
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 1: this is hello, George. Listen to me and don't interrupt.
• 2:34:36
  Speaker 1: Somebody has talked. I've been betrayed myself. Get that Hello
• 2:34:41
  Speaker 1: George is washed up right now. The cops are tapping
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 1: this line. It doesn't make any difference to me now,
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 1: but it does to you. This is an open warning
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 1: from Hello George to you. Spread the word. I'll keep
• 2:34:56
  Speaker 1: making calls till they break in on me and cut
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 1: this line. Meanwhile, spread the word break connections with me
• 2:35:03
  Speaker 1: and the whole organization. Get out of range before the
• 2:35:06
  Speaker 1: trap closes, But pass on this warning first. I'll hold
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 1: out against questioning a short time. The police will get
• 2:35:14
  Speaker 1: me eventually, of course, and when they do they'll pump
• 2:35:17
  Speaker 1: me dry. They'll get names and addresses. The whole works'll
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 1: get grabbed. Unless you move fast, spread the word. Bryce
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 1: paused and winked at Peers, who was standing at his elbow.
• 2:35:29
  Speaker 1: Any questions, Yes, I'm sure, of course, I'm sure. Any
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: other questions, Good luck? Okay? He hung up. As Caesar
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 1: once said, the dice were rolling. Peers beside him through
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: it all, simply stood there, his eyes wide in his
• 2:35:51
  Speaker 1: face sharp with curiosity and incredulity, his body twitching now
• 2:35:55
  Speaker 1: and then from the infection of the excitement which rippled
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 1: over the room. That excitement had been there, though Bryce
• 2:36:02
  Speaker 1: had not permitted himself to indulge in it in any
• 2:36:05
  Speaker 1: visible way. He had showed Pierce a new facet to
• 2:36:09
  Speaker 1: his operations, one which Pierce could not anticipate immediately, one
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 1: in which only he Bryce could make the snap decisions
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 1: and evaluate the immediate responses demanded of him. That was
• 2:36:25
  Speaker 1: with the first call. With the second one, Pierce began
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 1: to contribute, rising to the occasion as he had so
• 2:36:33
  Speaker 1: often and quickly done in the past. He began pacing
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: up and down between calls, smoking furiously and laughing under
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 1: his breath. Tell him the police are breaking down the door,
• 2:36:44
  Speaker 1: he suggested. During the third call. Say you're hypno to
• 2:36:48
  Speaker 1: hold out against questioning five days at the most two
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 1: hours more likely. His suggestions were a howl. Bryce repeated
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 1: them into the phone with counterfeit, desperate, and was rewarded
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 1: by the sounds of panic at the other end. He
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 1: and Peers chortled over the frantic queries and exclamations from
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 1: the victim. The whole thing, Succincton pointed, and with the
• 2:37:13
  Speaker 1: dramatic power of simplicity, was one super practical joke which
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 1: would set the entire solar system scurrying around for the
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 1: next few weeks, the ramifications would be endless. Persons would
• 2:37:28
  Speaker 1: vanish abruptly and take up new names and identities in
• 2:37:31
  Speaker 1: the obscure countries. Others would draw out their heavy savings
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 1: and take the first rocket out from Earth. There would
• 2:37:39
  Speaker 1: be a new influx of refugees in the belt. New
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 1: sellers to be honest, farmers and factory workers and repair men. Yes,
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 1: the situation was dramatic. The day was a good day,
• 2:37:56
  Speaker 1: but as Bryce hung up on the last call, a
• 2:37:59
  Speaker 1: depressing sense of calamity, unsettlingly anti climactic, began to press
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 1: down on him. Pearce was talking about plans for the
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 1: next week with an enthusiasm which should have been completely contagious.
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 1: But there was something wrong. There was something wrong, well
• 2:38:20
  Speaker 1: was it? Bryce felt Pierce's enthusiasm catch at him and
• 2:38:24
  Speaker 1: start to sweep them away. He savored the pleased globe
• 2:38:29
  Speaker 1: produced by the shattering changes he had managed to cram
• 2:38:32
  Speaker 1: into one day, with six telephone calls, he had broken
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 1: the drug ring completely and forever, broken it, so completely
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 1: that no member of it would ever have dealings with
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 1: any member of it again. All of them were out
• 2:38:47
  Speaker 1: of business, fleeing with the imaginary hounds of the law
• 2:38:51
  Speaker 1: baying at their heels. He smiled at the thought, and
• 2:38:57
  Speaker 1: then his smile faded for some strain reason, and he
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 1: ceased listening to Pierce for a moment, looked away, and
• 2:39:05
  Speaker 1: ceased listening. For hearing Pierce just then distracted oddly from
• 2:39:10
  Speaker 1: the clarity of his thinking. He wanted to review what
• 2:39:14
  Speaker 1: he had just done, what was wrong? What? He struggled
• 2:39:22
  Speaker 1: with a mounting confusion, the desktop and telephones blurring as
• 2:39:26
  Speaker 1: he tried to concentrate with desperate effort. Unexpectedly, the question
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 1: sprang into focus. It was as if the room turned
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 1: inside out, the day turned upside down. He had smashed himself,
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 1: not ut why why had he made those calls, changed
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 1: his plans, and made those calls. With the most perfect
• 2:39:58
  Speaker 1: and terrible clarity. He saw the results of what he
• 2:40:02
  Speaker 1: had done. The organization destroyed the contacts he had made
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 1: fifteen years ago as an anonymous young dockhand, contacts that
• 2:40:12
  Speaker 1: as Bryce Carter he could never make again, vanishing, merging
• 2:40:18
  Speaker 1: with the great mass of the public, becoming gray, unknown figures,
• 2:40:24
  Speaker 1: the building of years melting like a sugar castle melts
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 1: into the tide. The invisible army that had obeyed his
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 1: sourceless voice without being able to blackmail or rebel. The
• 2:40:38
  Speaker 1: perfectly balanced tool in his hands that could be used
• 2:40:42
  Speaker 1: for the bribing of venal politicians, with a limitless fund
• 2:40:46
  Speaker 1: for the bribery, the growing secret control of the most
• 2:40:50
  Speaker 1: venal of the political machines of Earth, that by the
• 2:40:54
  Speaker 1: time he needed it, it would have been an irresistible
• 2:40:58
  Speaker 1: weapon in his hands for the single swift political blow
• 2:41:02
  Speaker 1: that would rip the belt from Earth control and give
• 2:41:05
  Speaker 1: it a seat on the Assembly of the Federated Nations
• 2:41:09
  Speaker 1: and mastery of the Solar System. But as he sat there,
• 2:41:15
  Speaker 1: the organization dissolved. He grasped the phone, but there was
• 2:41:20
  Speaker 1: no one to call now, No one would answer. He
• 2:41:24
  Speaker 1: could never reach them again. This was sanity now, But
• 2:41:31
  Speaker 1: what had it been before? He was cheerfully destroying his future.
• 2:41:35
  Speaker 1: It seemed to him that there were two halves to
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 1: his brain, each wanting different things. For a moment, the
• 2:41:43
  Speaker 1: one that had controlled the day was gone, and he
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 1: was sane again. But how long would that moment last?
• 2:41:49
  Speaker 1: What sign had there been when it took control? Would
• 2:41:53
  Speaker 1: he know it when it came again? He remembered that
• 2:41:58
  Speaker 1: in the tube train that mo he and Pierce had
• 2:42:01
  Speaker 1: a half joking argument about the best short and merry life.
• 2:42:06
  Speaker 1: One of the happy ones on the list had been
• 2:42:08
  Speaker 1: the i NC agent, because they spent so much of
• 2:42:12
  Speaker 1: their lives working into smuggling gangs that they had all
• 2:42:16
  Speaker 1: the pleasures and profits of being a crook and an
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 1: honest man too? Was that where he had slipped his cog.
• 2:42:25
  Speaker 1: Looking back on the things he had done that day,
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 1: he saw that much of it had fitted an abstract
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 1: pattern of justice, as if he had been thinking of
• 2:42:34
  Speaker 1: himself as an iron sea man, or as if he
• 2:42:41
  Speaker 1: thought of the things he had seen in his childhood.
• 2:42:44
  Speaker 1: That they had called zombies and jeered at and tormented
• 2:42:47
  Speaker 1: without fear of any retaliation or vengeance from their gray
• 2:42:51
  Speaker 1: faced victims, imprisoned men. They looked normal, but they had
• 2:42:57
  Speaker 1: been mentally imprisoned law zombies, memorizing and following laws and
• 2:43:04
  Speaker 1: being honest with a simple and terrifying literalness. He had
• 2:43:10
  Speaker 1: not known that he had any capacity for terror, Bryce Carter.
• 2:43:16
  Speaker 1: He had his name, his identity, and his memory, and
• 2:43:20
  Speaker 1: they were his own. Sometimes he'd had nothing else, only
• 2:43:25
  Speaker 1: the pride and strength of knowing his identity that it
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 1: was his, and stronger than others, just as his hands
• 2:43:32
  Speaker 1: were stronger, a thing they couldn't take from him, could they.
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 1: There was a nightmare he had had more than once,
• 2:43:42
  Speaker 1: that he remembered suddenly for the first time, with all
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 1: its atmosphere of childish strangeness. The cops I gooes were
• 2:43:50
  Speaker 1: after him. He was trapped in a big room with lights,
• 2:43:54
  Speaker 1: and they had his head open and were chasing him
• 2:43:56
  Speaker 1: around inside his head somehow, trying to catch him and
• 2:43:59
  Speaker 1: kill him. The hymn that lived in his mind would
• 2:44:04
  Speaker 1: he know if it was gone. The black, sharp ed
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 1: shadows of the crater walls were drawing across the landing
• 2:44:12
  Speaker 1: plane outside, bringing to a close the two weeks of daylight,
• 2:44:17
  Speaker 1: and the reflected sunlight was dimming in the room. He
• 2:44:21
  Speaker 1: could hear the rumble of the heavy ship of a
• 2:44:23
  Speaker 1: cargo fleet lowering into a landing. His assistant was sitting
• 2:44:28
  Speaker 1: quietly on the edge of the desk, as he had
• 2:44:30
  Speaker 1: been for some time, motionlessly watching the thin plume of
• 2:44:34
  Speaker 1: smoke that rose from a cigarette in his hand. He
• 2:44:38
  Speaker 1: was as still as if he were listening for some
• 2:44:40
  Speaker 1: subtle sound. Far away, rocket jets flashed an orange glow
• 2:44:45
  Speaker 1: through the Venetian blinds and fell in stripes of orange
• 2:44:49
  Speaker 1: light across the dark young face. The brief rumble of
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 1: a rocket takeoff came transmitted through the ground in the building.
• 2:44:58
  Speaker 1: Smoke curling up from the cigarette was the only motion. Roy,
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 1: is Pierce your real name? The light flashed and faded
• 2:45:10
  Speaker 1: in bars of orange across the young face. He had
• 2:45:12
  Speaker 1: thought it was like his own, the boy he had
• 2:45:15
  Speaker 1: thought had come from pop Yak. The quick, deep rumble
• 2:45:20
  Speaker 1: of sound came and faded in the walls around them.
• 2:45:24
  Speaker 1: A fleeting smile touched the face, and the dark eyes
• 2:45:28
  Speaker 1: rested on his for a moment as Roy Pierce gave
• 2:45:31
  Speaker 1: the information casually, as if it were any other information,
• 2:45:36
  Speaker 1: answering the question that had been meant. It is my
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 1: mother's name. We always take our mother's names. I am
• 2:45:44
  Speaker 1: a Manoba, a Manoba of Jiaco. End of chapter eight,
• 2:45:52
  Speaker 1: Chapter nine. Looking into Bryce's face, he slid to his feet,
• 2:45:58
  Speaker 1: slowly ground out the stub of his cigarette and stood
• 2:46:02
  Speaker 1: before the desk. Bryce took out his gun and held
• 2:46:07
  Speaker 1: it where Pierce could see it. Our Minoba's ever shot.
• 2:46:11
  Speaker 1: It was a heavy little gun, his Maggie, Its barrel
• 2:46:15
  Speaker 1: sleek and rounded, The heavy metal warm from being worn
• 2:46:18
  Speaker 1: close to the skin. Sometimes it's a natural enough reaction.
• 2:46:25
  Speaker 1: It was a space worthy gun with adjustable velocity for
• 2:46:28
  Speaker 1: driving through padded suits and pressure suits. The velocity was
• 2:46:33
  Speaker 1: set high, but it would be inartistic to blow a
• 2:46:36
  Speaker 1: large hole through a psychotherapist. Bryce turned the dial down slowly,
• 2:46:42
  Speaker 1: watching him do the professional ethics of privacy and non
• 2:46:46
  Speaker 1: publicity cover this kind of situation. Pierce was smiling slightly,
• 2:46:52
  Speaker 1: with a touch of bitter humor. It's undiplomatic to tell
• 2:46:56
  Speaker 1: you that, but yes, the contingency is covered. There is
• 2:47:00
  Speaker 1: nothing to connect myself with you as a case in
• 2:47:03
  Speaker 1: any records, nor anything to identify me as a member
• 2:47:06
  Speaker 1: of the Manoba group contracted by your company. The ethic
• 2:47:10
  Speaker 1: of privacy is allowed to have no exceptions for the
• 2:47:13
  Speaker 1: family's record. A cool curiosity held him, tell me when
• 2:47:20
  Speaker 1: you saw that, I was beginning to think, why didn't
• 2:47:23
  Speaker 1: you just needle me down for a short nap and leave.
• 2:47:28
  Speaker 1: The smile remained. I am supposed to control the shock
• 2:47:32
  Speaker 1: of realization and make sure that it is assimilated without
• 2:47:35
  Speaker 1: damage to the subject. His dark, expressionless eyes met Bryce's,
• 2:47:41
  Speaker 1: and Bryce felt the impact of them and realized for
• 2:47:45
  Speaker 1: the first time that there was the same slight, bitter,
• 2:47:49
  Speaker 1: offhand smile on his own lips, and inwardly the quiet,
• 2:47:54
  Speaker 1: ironical mood with the still clarity of a deep pool
• 2:47:59
  Speaker 1: his own mood. He hafted the gun in his hand,
• 2:48:03
  Speaker 1: feeling its weight and balance. You could have done that
• 2:48:06
  Speaker 1: over the televiewer, he pointed out, as passionately. What is
• 2:48:10
  Speaker 1: the average mortality? Do you know? Not high? It is
• 2:48:16
  Speaker 1: only an experience that is dangerous. If one can get
• 2:48:19
  Speaker 1: through one's first three or four cases, it's safe enough.
• 2:48:25
  Speaker 1: Looking back over the past days, it was quite clear
• 2:48:27
  Speaker 1: that Pierce had control over his emotions. Any emotion Pierce
• 2:48:32
  Speaker 1: chose him to feel, he would feel. It remained to
• 2:48:36
  Speaker 1: be seen how much that could influence what he was
• 2:48:38
  Speaker 1: going to do. The dark skinned young man stood before
• 2:48:42
  Speaker 1: the dusk casually and answered questions with a slight, restrained
• 2:48:46
  Speaker 1: smile that set the wry irony of both their minds.
• 2:48:52
  Speaker 1: A man does what he wants, that is freedom, but
• 2:48:56
  Speaker 1: what he wanted could be controlled. Apparently, a man and
• 2:49:00
  Speaker 1: is what he wants, but what he wanted could be changed.
• 2:49:05
  Speaker 1: How easy had it been to change him? Bryce tried
• 2:49:09
  Speaker 1: himself with a thought of the power and glory of rule,
• 2:49:13
  Speaker 1: the rain and mastery of space, a goal that had
• 2:49:17
  Speaker 1: warmed his thoughts for many years. He didn't want it.
• 2:49:23
  Speaker 1: There was a slight numbness where there should have been
• 2:49:25
  Speaker 1: a motion, and all he could feel for his loss
• 2:49:29
  Speaker 1: was the resignation and the faint, bitter humor permitted him
• 2:49:32
  Speaker 1: by Pierce's smile. Watching that smile, he shifted the heavy
• 2:49:38
  Speaker 1: little gun in his hand, turning it over casually, feeling
• 2:49:42
  Speaker 1: its familiar weight in the texture of its surfaces. He
• 2:49:47
  Speaker 1: spoke gently, If you don't mind my asking, have you
• 2:49:52
  Speaker 1: passed through your first three cases? Yet you are my first,
• 2:49:57
  Speaker 1: said Roy Piers, whom he had trusted. I'm afraid I
• 2:50:00
  Speaker 1: was clumsy. Oh you did all right, Bryce shot him, then,
• 2:50:06
  Speaker 1: placing the bullet carefully in the pit of his stomach
• 2:50:09
  Speaker 1: where it would hurt. That was for doing well for justice.
• 2:50:15
  Speaker 1: No man has the right to meddle in another man's mind.
• 2:50:20
  Speaker 1: Pierce had been starting to speak. He swayed back a
• 2:50:24
  Speaker 1: half step with a flicker of change crossing his face,
• 2:50:28
  Speaker 1: then stood steady and smiling again. That brief grimace touched
• 2:50:33
  Speaker 1: Bryce's nerves with a sensation that was like the jangle
• 2:50:36
  Speaker 1: of something heavy dropped inside a piano, a sound he
• 2:50:40
  Speaker 1: had heard once, but the numbness did not lift from
• 2:50:43
  Speaker 1: his feelings. He was still smiling. The third bullet would
• 2:50:49
  Speaker 1: be between the eyes. The words were low and rapid,
• 2:50:54
  Speaker 1: but clear. Bryce did not listen. This is for doing
• 2:50:59
  Speaker 1: a good job, he said, overriding the other voice with
• 2:51:03
  Speaker 1: his own, and pulled the trigger again, placing the lug
• 2:51:07
  Speaker 1: slightly lower, this time in the belly, where if it
• 2:51:11
  Speaker 1: entangled in one of the spinal plexus it could hurt.
• 2:51:15
  Speaker 1: Past belief, Pierce wayed slightly. His face went to the
• 2:51:20
  Speaker 1: clay blue color that comes to dark skinned races when
• 2:51:23
  Speaker 1: they pale, bleeding inside somewhere, and already dead unless he
• 2:51:29
  Speaker 1: were given help, Bryce figured. For a moment, Bryce saw
• 2:51:34
  Speaker 1: something like effort in the dark, unreadable eyes. Then suddenly
• 2:51:39
  Speaker 1: Pierre smiled, his young face disarmingly innocent and merry. Oh,
• 2:51:45
  Speaker 1: come on, Bryan, sai, it's not that serious. Be a
• 2:51:47
  Speaker 1: good sport. You don't want to. Suddenly Bryce saw the
• 2:51:54
  Speaker 1: situation as the sheerest humor, a sort of lunatic farce,
• 2:51:58
  Speaker 1: for the laughter of some cosmic joker. He swung the
• 2:52:02
  Speaker 1: gun sights up toward the smiling face. Amusement bubbled in
• 2:52:06
  Speaker 1: his blood, and he heard himself laugh, heard it with
• 2:52:09
  Speaker 1: a grim secondary amusement. The joke's on you, he said,
• 2:52:15
  Speaker 1: and pulled the trigger, then laughed again. The joke was
• 2:52:20
  Speaker 1: on him. He had missed. He had missed at a
• 2:52:24
  Speaker 1: distance of three feet, yet his hand was rock steady.
• 2:52:30
  Speaker 1: Pierce's control had him. His laughter stopped as the humor
• 2:52:35
  Speaker 1: in Pierce's attitude faded down again to the small, wry
• 2:52:38
  Speaker 1: smile that had been there from the beginning. Bryce had
• 2:52:43
  Speaker 1: not lost. He only had to wait a little, and
• 2:52:46
  Speaker 1: he had won. Unless Pierce could use his control to
• 2:52:50
  Speaker 1: force him to call help. He set himself to resist
• 2:52:54
  Speaker 1: and not to listen. There was not long to go.
• 2:52:59
  Speaker 1: The expresstionless dark eyes that held his were beginning to
• 2:53:03
  Speaker 1: widen slightly, in an effort of sight that meant a
• 2:53:06
  Speaker 1: private darkness was closing in on the psychotherapist. The rumble
• 2:53:12
  Speaker 1: of distant rockets seemed louder covering his fading voice. It's
• 2:53:16
  Speaker 1: your choice, Bryce, I give it to you. You won't
• 2:53:21
  Speaker 1: want this later, Bryce, but don't hunger to undo it.
• 2:53:28
  Speaker 1: Is payment enough for all times like this that you
• 2:53:33
  Speaker 1: change and do not want them any again. Pierce pulled
• 2:53:41
  Speaker 1: in a strangling breath, swaying more visibly. Gun, he whispered,
• 2:53:48
  Speaker 1: reaching out in Bryce's direction, his eyes going sightless. Piers
• 2:53:54
  Speaker 1: handed him the magnematic and watched as Pierce fumbled his
• 2:53:57
  Speaker 1: hands over it, putting his print on it blindly, his
• 2:54:01
  Speaker 1: knees bending. When he fell, Bryce picked up the phone
• 2:54:07
  Speaker 1: and called emergency. The emergency squad would be cruising around
• 2:54:11
  Speaker 1: in the hall somewhere nearby, looking for the source of
• 2:54:15
  Speaker 1: the three radio notes that had told them a gun
• 2:54:18
  Speaker 1: was fired. That was the last I saw of him.
• 2:54:23
  Speaker 1: The young man stopped talking and looked pleased with himself.
• 2:54:28
  Speaker 1: Donahue drained his drink irritably and put it on the
• 2:54:32
  Speaker 1: bar that had been set up on the ceiling. When
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 1: the g's went off, it clung magnetically. Make it the same, please,
• 2:54:39
  Speaker 1: He turned to Roy Pierce, floating beside him. Stop needling me, man,
• 2:54:45
  Speaker 1: finish the story the way you tell it. I don't
• 2:54:48
  Speaker 1: know why you did, how you did it, or even
• 2:54:50
  Speaker 1: whether you died or not. Oh I died, said Roy Peers,
• 2:54:56
  Speaker 1: but they revived me, he added. Good. I'm glad to
• 2:55:00
  Speaker 1: hear that, said Donna Hue word cheerfully, wondering suddenly just
• 2:55:04
  Speaker 1: how extensively he was being kidded. For a moment there
• 2:55:07
  Speaker 1: he had me worried. Now, explain about this treatment. It's
• 2:55:12
  Speaker 1: called soul eating, explained the dark skinned, straight haired boy.
• 2:55:18
  Speaker 1: I don't think you could do it. Dona Hue thought
• 2:55:22
  Speaker 1: that information over carefully. Maybe not. How's it done in
• 2:55:27
  Speaker 1: the tribes of my people? The soul is supposed to
• 2:55:29
  Speaker 1: be an invisible double who walks at your side, protecting
• 2:55:33
  Speaker 1: you and speaking silently to your mind. Its face is
• 2:55:37
  Speaker 1: the face that looks out of mirrors and up from
• 2:55:40
  Speaker 1: pools at you, and the shadow that walks on the
• 2:55:43
  Speaker 1: ground beside you. Evildoers, after they had spoken to him
• 2:55:47
  Speaker 1: in Noba would say that their reflections were gone. Our
• 2:55:52
  Speaker 1: family was called the eaters of souls, and all the
• 2:55:55
  Speaker 1: tribes were afraid of us for nine hundred miles around
• 2:56:00
  Speaker 1: so Am, I said Dona Hue, compactly as my Yiddish
• 2:56:04
  Speaker 1: grandmother on my mother's side would say. It sounds from werewolves.
• 2:56:09
  Speaker 1: I can explain it. No magic, look, said the youth tersely,
• 2:56:15
  Speaker 1: Do I want to get kicked out of the fnme?
• 2:56:18
  Speaker 1: What if I had sat in a jungle circle, loaded
• 2:56:20
  Speaker 1: to the ears with herbs and spells, with the drums
• 2:56:23
  Speaker 1: of my cousins throbbing around me, and learn the best
• 2:56:26
  Speaker 1: and sullest ways of my technique back in time, looking
• 2:56:30
  Speaker 1: through the eyes of my great grandfather, or conversing with
• 2:56:33
  Speaker 1: his ghost. Do you think I would say so? No,
• 2:56:38
  Speaker 1: Donahue admitted, he edged away a little. The youth spoke gloomily.
• 2:56:45
  Speaker 1: Rapport and intensified empathy is something you learned by exposing
• 2:56:49
  Speaker 1: yourself to mirrors. The technique is published, known and accepted
• 2:56:54
  Speaker 1: among psychologists, but most of them just don't try. It
• 2:57:00
  Speaker 1: backfires too easily and it takes too high a level
• 2:57:03
  Speaker 1: of skill. It originated with my family. The youth spoke
• 2:57:08
  Speaker 1: even more gloomily. What I do is obvious enough if
• 2:57:12
  Speaker 1: I make it so. It's simply prior mimicry. I watch
• 2:57:18
  Speaker 1: the trend of what goes on in his thoughts and
• 2:57:20
  Speaker 1: express approximately what he is feeling and thinking a little
• 2:57:24
  Speaker 1: before he does so that presently, subconsciously, he is depending
• 2:57:29
  Speaker 1: on me to tell him what he thinks and how
• 2:57:32
  Speaker 1: he feels. I was his mirror, his prior mirror. I
• 2:57:37
  Speaker 1: am a clear, expressive, underplaying actor. As an actor, and
• 2:57:42
  Speaker 1: each shade of reaction is separate and unmistakable. The subconscious
• 2:57:47
  Speaker 1: is not rational, but it generalizes from regularities that the
• 2:57:51
  Speaker 1: conscious mind never has the subtlety to notice. It saw
• 2:57:55
  Speaker 1: me consistently representing its own internal reactions, our after hour,
• 2:58:00
  Speaker 1: in every situation, more clearly than Bryce ever saw himself
• 2:58:04
  Speaker 1: express anything in a mirror, and more steadily than he
• 2:58:08
  Speaker 1: ever saw any mirror. The subconscious then associated the inside
• 2:58:13
  Speaker 1: emotion with the corresponding outside image. For each one, I
• 2:58:18
  Speaker 1: became Bryce's subconscious self image. When he thinks of doing anything,
• 2:58:24
  Speaker 1: the image in the imagination that does it is not himself,
• 2:58:28
  Speaker 1: It is me. This can cause considerable mental confusion. It
• 2:58:34
  Speaker 1: should Dona Hue agreed fervently. I put him in new
• 2:58:38
  Speaker 1: places and situations where he was unsure, and I was sure,
• 2:58:42
  Speaker 1: so that when I diverged from mirroring him, he gave
• 2:58:46
  Speaker 1: me the lead and mirrored me. One of us had
• 2:58:50
  Speaker 1: to be the originator and the other of the reflection.
• 2:58:53
  Speaker 1: But now it was reversed. He did not fight it subconsciously,
• 2:58:57
  Speaker 1: because the results were pleasant. I kept the lead and
• 2:59:02
  Speaker 1: led him a mental dance through thoughts and reactions he
• 2:59:05
  Speaker 1: had never had before. In her personality pattern completely foreign
• 2:59:09
  Speaker 1: to his own one that I wanted him to have.
• 2:59:14
  Speaker 1: I hadn't been hired for that, but I had time
• 2:59:17
  Speaker 1: to pass before I could untangle that UTA problem, and
• 2:59:20
  Speaker 1: I wanted to do it for him. The mirror link
• 2:59:23
  Speaker 1: was complete the first day, but I'm afraid the extra
• 2:59:26
  Speaker 1: days made it indelible. He'll always be me in his mind,
• 2:59:31
  Speaker 1: and mirrors will never look right to him. It's so simple,
• 2:59:37
  Speaker 1: it's obvious, said Donahue with disappointment. It doesn't sound like
• 2:59:43
  Speaker 1: magic to me. The youth was thoughtful, frowning. Sometimes it
• 2:59:50
  Speaker 1: doesn't to me either. I wonder if the ghost of
• 2:59:53
  Speaker 1: my grandfather was telling me the right forget the ghost
• 2:59:57
  Speaker 1: of your grandfather, Donahue interrupted, hastily. On a few space trips.
• 3:00:03
  Speaker 1: He could never get used to this business of floating
• 3:00:05
  Speaker 1: eagerly around in the air, and it seemed a poor
• 3:00:08
  Speaker 1: time to talk about ghosts. What about Bryce Carter? What
• 3:00:13
  Speaker 1: became of him? You know? He said defiantly. I like
• 3:00:17
  Speaker 1: his plans for organizing the belt and breaking utea. And
• 3:00:20
  Speaker 1: come to think of it, if I had been there
• 3:00:22
  Speaker 1: when you were interfering with that, I think I would
• 3:00:25
  Speaker 1: have shot you myself. Ut had only hired me to
• 3:00:29
  Speaker 1: find the organizer of the smuggling ring and persuade him
• 3:00:32
  Speaker 1: to disband his organization. In Ut, I had done that,
• 3:00:37
  Speaker 1: So the third day, when I could walk, I left
• 3:00:40
  Speaker 1: the hospital and went back to Earth and collected my
• 3:00:43
  Speaker 1: fee for a job done. Many people had vanished suddenly
• 3:00:47
  Speaker 1: from their payrolls, and the crime statistics in some cities
• 3:00:51
  Speaker 1: had shown a startling lull. They knew I had done it,
• 3:00:55
  Speaker 1: and so they paid and were grateful. The dark youth shrugged.
• 3:01:00
  Speaker 1: I didn't feel I had to tell him about Arillo.
• 3:01:03
  Speaker 1: He tipped the police and started a rumor, And there
• 3:01:06
  Speaker 1: was evidence enough in the crime statistics of the months
• 3:01:08
  Speaker 1: before when they were correlated with the distribution of branches
• 3:01:12
  Speaker 1: of Union Transport, though there was nothing to point at
• 3:01:16
  Speaker 1: it anyone in particular except the ones who had disappeared.
• 3:01:21
  Speaker 1: Donahue remembered, Sure, that's that investigation of transportation monopolies that
• 3:01:26
  Speaker 1: raised such a stink last year. I saw a part
• 3:01:29
  Speaker 1: of it in Congress. Peers handed him a travel folder,
• 3:01:34
  Speaker 1: godly illustrated. It advertised the advantages of the C and
• 3:01:38
  Speaker 1: O lines for space tourists. Carter and a Rillo Donahue
• 3:01:45
  Speaker 1: looked up puzzled. But this is the next step in
• 3:01:48
  Speaker 1: what he planned. I thought you changed him. Mahatma Gandhi
• 3:01:52
  Speaker 1: would have followed out those plans, Pierce said, with a
• 3:01:55
  Speaker 1: touch of grimness. As you pointed out they are attractive,
• 3:01:59
  Speaker 1: but I changed him. I won't give you personality dynamics,
• 3:02:03
  Speaker 1: but if you want a list of changes, He's married
• 3:02:07
  Speaker 1: to Sheila Wesley, that's one change. And instead of going
• 3:02:10
  Speaker 1: home nights, he roisters around in bars and restaurants, talking
• 3:02:14
  Speaker 1: to everybody, listening to everybody, liking them all, and enthusiastically
• 3:02:19
  Speaker 1: making friends in car load lotts. That's another change. He
• 3:02:24
  Speaker 1: doesn't look into mirrors because they make him feel cross eyed.
• 3:02:28
  Speaker 1: That's because he unconsciously expects to see me in the mirror.
• 3:02:32
  Speaker 1: And he will organize the belt and be president as
• 3:02:35
  Speaker 1: he planned. I won't stop him in that. The difference
• 3:02:39
  Speaker 1: will be that he won't want the power he'll get,
• 3:02:43
  Speaker 1: Pierce said, grimly. A power lesting man can never be
• 3:02:46
  Speaker 1: trusted with power. He goes megalomaniacal Carter was already halfway there,
• 3:02:54
  Speaker 1: but he's safe from that. Now. He's going to be
• 3:02:57
  Speaker 1: given plenty of power and see it only as responsibility
• 3:03:02
  Speaker 1: and not wanted. That's the only safe kind of man
• 3:03:05
  Speaker 1: to have in a powerful position. That, said Donahue, with
• 3:03:10
  Speaker 1: great earnestness, is like sending a poor damn soul achismetic
• 3:03:14
  Speaker 1: paradise as a eunuch. You psychologists are all complete sadists,
• 3:03:19
  Speaker 1: he said, lifting his drink. I suppose you put something
• 3:03:23
  Speaker 1: in my drink. Absolutely nothing, Roy Pierce assured him, grinning.
• 3:03:29
  Speaker 1: Funny thing was when I got back to Earth that time,
• 3:03:33
  Speaker 1: I kept feeling cross eyed when I looked into a mirror,
• 3:03:36
  Speaker 1: and my friend said I was not myself. If I
• 3:03:39
  Speaker 1: was not myself, I knew I must still be Bryce Carter.
• 3:03:44
  Speaker 1: Things had seemed different, and they had warned me that
• 3:03:47
  Speaker 1: the technique sometimes backfired when I was learning. So I
• 3:03:51
  Speaker 1: called my uncle Mordand on the televiver. He's the head
• 3:03:54
  Speaker 1: of the family, and he lives in an estate in
• 3:03:56
  Speaker 1: the jungle, and he Donahue was fascinated again. There was
• 3:04:03
  Speaker 1: a different approach for each case. Pierce had found it
• 3:04:08
  Speaker 1: was not ordinarily ethical to discuss any case history, but
• 3:04:12
  Speaker 1: he knew with great surety that Donahue could be trusted
• 3:04:15
  Speaker 1: not to repeat what he was being told the only
• 3:04:18
  Speaker 1: reason there wasn't something extra in his current drink was
• 3:04:21
  Speaker 1: because there had been something in the last drink. This
• 3:04:28
  Speaker 1: was case five, end of chapter nine, end of The
• 3:04:35
  Speaker 1: Man Who Staked the Stars by Catherine MacLean,