Dwellers of the Deep Barry N. Malzberg

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.Scanned by Highroller.Proofed by.Made prettier by use of EBook Design Group Stylesheet.Dewllers in the Deep by K.M.O'DonnellI Introduction to a collector, July 3,1951.Izzinius Fox comes out of the Astor Place station of the Lexington Avenue IRT blinking, slightly bedazzled by the sun, choking apprehensively on fumes which trucks exude as they stagger up lower Park Avenue.He takes a brief orienta-tional stare at John Wanamaker's, then strikes out purposefully for the Book Stall; his stride twinkling powerfully against the routine background.Still shaken by his encounter on the South Ferry local with the Rhelm people, he tries to now put it out of his mind, concentrate on the goods he expects shortly to find; but the last words of the Arch-Leader himself ring in his mind, overtaking the thinner and more familiar thread of the Izzinius Fox stream-of-consciousness."Be reasonable," the Arch-Leader is saying."Come on now, it's not only for our sake but for the sake of all the peoples of your planet we only want to liberate.We're going through this too often already, Fox.Now the time has come for stronger measures.Will you or will you not give us the article?""No," Fox had said with all the firmness he could manage, choking meanwhile on the fumes within the spacecraft."No I won't; you see, I still don't believe you.""Don't believe us, eh?" the Arch-Leader had said in a terrible voice while the surrounding and lesser aliens mumbled.And Fox had felt a thrill of terror go through him at the sudden force in the monster's tone."Can't believe us after all we've done for you? Well, we'll have to take severe measures then, Fox; severe measures indeed."And then Fox had been out of the ship, spiraling gracefully back to Earth again to find himself in the clattering subway as it eased into the Astor Place stop.It had been a numbing experience; surely the most threatening since the aliens had somehow seized his mind two weeks ago.And he resolved to himself right then that if it didn't stop soon he would have to, against all his principles, probably seek professional help.Now, however, it is already somewhat pushed away: he is concentrating on the Book Stall.And as he goes into the musty interior, and toward the small alcove in the back where Stuart Wiseman maintains his science-fiction collection, Fox gives way to the earlier mood of the day which had been bright: Stuart had phoned him to say that a February 1948 Tremendous had come in."Is it there?" Fox asks, as he comes into the alcove to find Stuart sitting perched calmly on his chair, reading an old issue of Terrific Terran Stories under a reading lamp."No one took it did they?"Stuart gives him a long easy smile—really a great guy for all his small nastiness—takes off his glasses, rubs his hands, and says: "I promised it to you, Fox; isn't that good enough? It's right here." He takes from beneath him a mint edition of the precious Feb.'48 Tremendous, the famous Balsch cover glowing blue at him; the familiar logotype clear and plain."Came in last night," he says."Some guy over in Benson-hurst sold out his collection; he's getting married.Few months later he's going to buy the whole thing back but he doesn't want his wife to get the wrong ideas about him."Fox takes the magazine from Stuart's hands, his own fingers trembling slightly as he runs them over the glistening cover, the slightly raised impression coming through to him; then turns it over to find that the back cover has a rip.Nothing very serious, but a clear deadly indentation running down the middle of the Audell Auto Manual advertisement."How did this happen?" he says."I thought you said mint.""It's mint.Back cover means nothing.You can't even see that tear.Besides, I can't be responsible for what happens to a magazine when a guy packs it.Do you want it or not?" Stuart says and half stands from the stool, adjusts the string on the dim overhead lamp which provides the only faint illumination back here and then sits, closing his copy of Terrific."I mean, I gave you first offer because I know you needed that one to fill, but there are plenty other guys who I could have called, any one of whom—""Oh," Fox says, "oh, I'll take it." The possibility that the issue might be taken from him fills him with dread.Rip or no, he needs this one desperately to clear his files of Tremendous through 1948; with it he can go clear back to June 1947.(May 1947 is another rare issue.) "Is it a dollar, right, the usual price?""No," Stuart says, "it's got to be a little more for this one.I paid double my usual to get it because of the condition and the guy didn't want to give this copy away anyway [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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