Dwight V Swain The Transposed Man

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.He had a big brindle cat on his lap.The spray of blue pockmarks along one side of his face said he wouldn't make any more space trips; probably that was why he was here now, looking after a second-rate apartment building for a living.He said, "Hi, Mr.Caudel.""Hi," I grinned back."Look, a friend of mine with Security asked me to check up on something.Where's the trap door down here?""The trap door?" The husky looked blank."Yes.All these old buildings have shafts that go down to refuge tunnels.They dug 'em back during the Chaos, when they were afraid the atomic wars on Earth might spread to Luna.""Oh." The caretaker scratched the back of the cat's head absently."Yeah, I guess I know what you mean."He got up, sliding the cat to the floor, and led me back to the stairway."Here.Is this what you're talking about?"It was a manhole, set in the floor behind the stairs.I scraped the rim clean with my foot."Let's see if we can get the cover off.""Sure.There's a ring, see?" He bent, heaved.The lid came free.I looked down into the black shaft.There was a metal ladder set into the wall."That's it, all right." "That's all you wanted?""That's all," I nodded."Come on up to my place and have a drink.You can put the lid back later." "Gee, thanks, Mr.Caudel."He followed me up the stairs.I brought out my pulsator under cover of my tab-card.When he stepped through the doorway ahead of me, I touched him with it.Five minutes later I was back at the manhole, a young husky with a blue-pocked face.Fred Caudel lay snoring on his own bed upstairs.I lowered myself into the shaft and slid the manhole cover shut above me, then descended the metal ladder.It went down a long way—fifty feet or more, as nearly as I could figure.At the bottom I felt my way around the shaft wall till I found the thick, lead-sheathed door.It had a lever handle instead of a lock.I opened it and stepped out into the cold, greenish glow of a radiation lamp set in a wall bracket.The distant gleam of other lamps marked a broad passageway that stretched off both to right and left—the last, half-forgotten relic of a terror long dead.I trotted left through the tunnel's sifting dust till my legs began to tire, then got out my com-set and sat down against the wall beneath one of the coldly glowing lamps.This time the duty man gave me Zero without question."Yes, Four-four?"I said, "The trouble's started, Zero.The real trouble." "What do you mean, Four-four?" The words were calm, but his voice had a raw edge."You remember that I told you a woman might be the key to this whole business—all Project X, both segments A and B?" "Yes.""She's developed an outfit that picks your thoughts right out of your mind.It reacts as spontaneously as your brain does.So far as I can see, there's no way to beat it.""Does Security know about it?""Aneido himself.That's why he came to Luna.He'd have caught me for sure if the woman hadn't tricked him." "She.tricked him?" "Yes." "Why?""I don't know."There was a moment of silence.Then Zero asked, "Is it possible she's a sympathizer, Four-four?" "No.Definitely not.""Perhaps she knows more about the personality you're currently wearing than you do, and was afraid for him—what he might reveal about himself.""It could be."More silence.I said, "There's more, Zero.She's figured out what's happened to the shorties.All of it."I could hear him suck in breath."Then Four-four, you're on the ground.What do you recommend?"I grunted."I'm afraid it's not my day for recommending.For once, I can't see any angle.""Four-four."I waited."Could you route this woman to The Center? By the end of the next cycle?"I twisted sharply."What-"Zero's voice was grim, savage."I know it's going to rush you.But this crisis—there's only one answer.We've got to revise our whole timetable, push it ahead.Getting the woman's a major step."I was breathing too fast."What good would that do? There's bound to be plans for her gadget on file in a dozen places.We can't get them all.And Aneido—""Aneido may prove to be the least of our worries," Zero cut in on me harshly.And then, after a pause: "The tests on Process Q are completed.It's ready for use.""Process Q?" I frowned and ran my thumb along the corn-set."That's new to me.What is it?"Zero chuckled.His voice had lost some of its tension."It's our road to power, Four-four.Our top 'top secret.'""But what—""It will.replace.the general."I gripped the corn-set."Zero! Is this a joke?""Hardly." He clipped the word."We haven't any choice, Four-four.Not after what you've, told me.So.General Aneido will be treated by Process Q.He becomes our first non-experimental subject."I groped for words."But how—""You know where he's located, don't you?""Of course.We've got a plant in the next apartment.""Good.The equipment can be set up there.Well rush Nine-seven in from our Luna lab to take care of the technical side of it.You can pick him up at the secret station."I leaned back against the wall.Talking suddenly seemed like a waste of time."Route the general to The Center, also," Zero continued."That's why I want the woman here.She can demonstrate her apparatus on him.Well need all the information we can drain out of him to put this thing over.And Four-four." "Yes."A little of the grimness left Zero's voice."This woman-was I right, before? Was she the one you.used to know?" I shifted."Does it matter?""I think it does." He was Zero, my friend, now; not the chill, impersonal Zero who directed the far-flung affairs of the Society of Mechanists on every satellite and planet."We need her, Four-four.We need her badly.But you still love her, and she's not one of us, so you'll be.tempted."I stared down at the com-set's grillwork."You know me awfully well, don't you, Zero?""Yes, I know you." He said it almost sadly."I know you because I know myself, Four-four.It's that reckless, headstrong streak of yours that brought us together.I've got it, too.""I hadn't noticed.""Just don't let it get out of hand, Four-four.Not now when we're so close to victory.The work you've done—the Society won't forget it.And once your sweetheart's here, you can be together."I scuffed the dust of the passageway with my toe.Zero said, "It's setded, then, Four-four.Process Q for Aneido; then route both him and the woman to The Center.Right?" His tone was brisk again, incisive.I stared off through the darkness, down the long line of cold, green, glowing radiation lamps that marked the passage.The utter stillness pressed in on me.The corn-set buzzed."Right, Four-four?" Zero prodded."Right," I answered dully.I kept on staring at the radiation lamps for a long, long time.CHAPTER VIIIAnotheb cog-train thundered into the transit center.Brakes screamed and couplings rattled.Then the bars went down.Miners poured out of the pneumocars, yelling and laughing: thick-shouldered, heavy-chested men, in for a cycle or two or three here at the great port base.Around the cycle, they came and they went—cog-trains and miners, up from the Mare Nubium fields and the Leibnitz Mountains; outbound for the pits at Schickard and the giant shaft south of Lacus Somniorum.I leaned back in my seat and relaxed and watched Street Exit D.No one gave me a second glance.Blue pockmarks and stained brotex work clothes were too common.A new crowd surged in from the street: more miners, outbound; girls from the thil-shops, down to see them off; a stray spaceman or two.One of the girls stepped out of the rush and paused.She was a tall girl, with tawny hair.I got up and wandered over closer to her.It was Narla Cherritt.She was frowning and scanning the crowd.I drifted around beside her, as if I were looking for someone, too.She glanced at me, then turned away [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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