"Speed it up a little."
Dan moved a small lever. The pages turned more quickly.
* * * * *
Dan said, "We'll see how the feeder works before I leave it." Then he
got out a mirror and went to work to change his appearance again.
The second book fed in with no difficulty, so Dan took four of his
little mataform units, which was all he had room for, and went back to
the terminal.
The crowd seemed to have thinned out somewhat, so he supposed the
evening rush was about over. As in terminals nearly everywhere Dan had
been, most of the people moved briskly, intent on their own affairs. No
one paid much attention to Dan while he glanced around, noting the wall
of flashing lights and moving letters, similar to but far larger than
the one he had seen before, and a series of sizable blocky structures
with large numerals suspended above them, and the stylized outlines
of doorways on their four walls. People appeared in front of these
doorways, or strolled directly toward them and vanished, hesitating
only when a red glow outlined the door to show that someone was coming
through from the other side.
In the center of the room toward either end were large silvery
structures with the word "Information" hanging above them. Dan went
to one and found that vertical blue lines divided it into twenty-four
sections, with room left over for more that weren't there as yet, plus
a section headed "General Information."
Dan studied the numerous slots, went to the General Information
section and spent most of his change. He sat down with a small package
of maps and folders and soon had before him a cross-sectional drawing
showing a series of spherical layers one inside the other, labeled,
"Level 1--Retail," "Level 2--Retail," "Level 3--Wholesale," "Level
4--Manufacturing," and so on, numbered from the outside in toward the
center of the sphere, from one to twenty-five.
Dan sat perfectly still for a moment, looking at this. He leafed
carefully though the folders, and was soon convinced that this wasn't a
map of underground layers under just one city, but of an interconnected
system that appeared to stretch over most of the planet. The surface
was labeled, "Recreation--Ordeals--General."
The complex of underground layers seemed to be much thicker than
separate floors of a building would be; the map showed cross-sections
of buildings of many stories in the individual layers.
Dan studied the map further and found that Level 10 was marked,
"Coordination--Government." Dan walked to the information machine
and came back with a general map of Level 10, which was divided into
sixteen sections. Sections 4 and 5 were headed "Government Sections,"
and Dan got large-scale maps of each of them.
What he was looking at was being reproduced far away on big screens,
and instantly recorded, to be examined in detail by staffs of trained
men. He was thankful this was so. The map was a maze of colored lines,
blocks, and curves, with numbered lists up and down both sides and
across the bottom.
Abruptly, Kielgaard's voice said, "Dan, see that dark purple oval a
little to the left of the center of the page?"
"I see it." Dan glanced from the number to the list at the side of the
page and read, "War Ruler's Control Center."
* * * * *
Kielgaard said, "The staff going over those books thinks there is some
sort of an arrangement by which a 'war ruler' takes over absolute power
in an emergency. What would be a better way to take over the planet
than to get control of this War Ruler and then provoke an emergency?"
Dan studied the purple oval on the map. "Yes. But what do we do about
it?"
"The first of your reinforcements will be coming down tonight. If you
can get near that control center and plant a few transceivers, we might
be able to make a good deal of trouble for anyone who may have seized
it."
"I'll do my best," said Dan. He got up, put most of the maps and
folders into a locker, and bought a ticket for Level 10, Section 4. As
he turned, he noticed two men standing about twenty feet away, talking.
On impulse, Dan went, not to the block that would take him to Level
10, but instead toward the station that his pamphlet had told him
would take him to Section 6 of the same level he was on. As he rounded
a corner and strode up a deserted corridor, he stooped and slid a
mataform unit into the space between a waste container and the wall.
An instant later, he was back beside the posters where he had hidden a
transceiver earlier.
Two men were walking in the same direction he had gone.
Dan followed them till they vanished, walking very rapidly now, around
another corner.
He picked up the mataform transceiver and looked around for the blocky
structure with the big number "10" over it. He saw it, after a moment,
near the wall with the lights and moving letters on it.
"Kielgaard," he thought, "what do you suppose that wall is?"
"We think it's a sort of abbreviated classified ad arrangement."
"Sounds reasonable," Dan thought.
Dan was by now near the blocky structure with the big numeral "10"
above it. Each of the four faces of the structure had four large doors
outlined on it--one door for each of the sixteen sections of the
level. Dan stepped up to the door marked "4" and it was immediately
outlined in red. A voice said, "Travelers are reminded of the special
restrictions now enforced at the governmental sections. To enter, you
must present valid authorization papers, or state an acceptable reason
for entering."
Dan stood perfectly still. He was fairly sure now that he must get into
this section. But how?
At that moment, the lights of the huge wall of moving letters caught
his attention, and Kielgaard's voice said, "Dan, look to the left,
about halfway up."
Dan looked and saw moving letters spell out:
S WANTED ON LEVEL 10 ALL CREDITS PAID SHORT TERM EMPLOYMENT
*MEN WITH FAST REFLEXES WANTED ON LEVEL 10
* * * * *
Dan realized he had seen parts of this ad spelled out twice at the
terminal entrance. He didn't know if it was a trap or something he
could use. He said, "I'm interested in a job on Level 10."
"You have examined the record?"
Dan had no idea what this meant. He said, "I understand men with fast
reflexes are wanted on Level 10."
"One moment."
There was a short pause, then a new voice. "What we offer you is a
special credit allotment sufficient for all normal mating and purchase
needs. On account of these latest restrictions, I can't tell you
exactly what the job is, but I can say this: The rewards are great. But
you also might end up getting sprinkled over the forest. We've got a
situation down here that has to be cleaned up fast. With the special
referendum tomorrow, it might boil over and make an interstellar mess.
We want you for a night's work. At the end you're either rich or dead.
How about it?"
Dan thought of the two words "interstellar mess," used in connection
with a "special referendum." He had the sensation that he was getting
close.
"All right," he said.
* * * * *
There was a blur as mataform stations shuttled him from one place to
the next. Then he was walking into a large room holding about thirty
men, all of whom had something of the look of big cats alert for prey.
Dan had hardly come in when a lithe man walked out on a raised
platform, looked over the waiting men, and said, "I'd like to wait till
there are more of us, but there isn't time. I'll come to the point
without delay. I'll only explain it once, so listen carefully.
"On this level, we have the War Ruler's control center. Two levels up,
there is the planetary zoo. Among the animals in the zoo is an ape
about our size and general shape, with a thick layer of fur, strong
muscles, and a sense of humor like a white-hot rivet dropped down your
collar. By some process I don't understand, about fifty of these apes
have gotten into a storeroom in an arms depot attached to the control
center.
"With this referendum coming up to decide whether we should join the
Stellar Union, every time there is a disturbance the election committee
blames it on one faction or another. Using their emergency powers, they
then clap on some new restriction to keep order till the referendum is
over. If there is now a disturbance near the control center itself,
tempers are going to shorten further. If the blame should be stuck on
one side or the other, true or untrue, it could swing the vote either
way.
"We have got to get those apes out of the arms depot right away. The
trouble is, there's an alarm in the arms depot that can't be shut off
except from the control center. Fire any kind of impact or vibration
weapon in there, or change the composition of the atmosphere by pouring
in gas, and the alarm automatically goes off in guard stations all over
this level. If we had more time, we could starve them out. We don't
have the time.
"The result is that we have to go after them with knives and clubs.
Now, the apes are fast, they gang up, they throw things, and if they
can, they'll grab you from opposite sides and pull your arms and legs
off. That's very funny--for them. So we'll have to work together as a
team and fight as hard as we know how."
* * * * *
After the speaker finished, there was a silence in the room. Dan was
thinking over the idea and he liked nothing about it. He had little
enough time to do his job, and he did not want to spend it being pulled
to pieces by apes. He called out, "Mind if I make a suggestion?"
"I'm willing to try anything. Let's hear it."
Dan said, "I don't know about anybody else here, but I am no team
player myself. Let me go in alone first. You wait half an hour and then
come in and see if there are fifty apes left."
Everyone craned to see who was offering to fight fifty wild apes
singlehanded.
The man on the platform turned pale, but said, "Agreed. And if you win,
you received the combined credits of all."
Dan found himself walking down a corridor, surrounded by well-wishers,
to a room where several tables were loaded with hand-weapons. He picked
up a short weighted club, and a short double-edge, razor-sharp sword. A
few minutes later, he arrived at a heavy metal door studded with rivets
and painted green.
Dan had intended to hide a transceiver nearby on the outside and
spend as little time in the storeroom as possible. But everything had
happened so fast, and there were so many eyes watching him, that he had
no chance to hide a mataform unit anywhere.
There was a loud clang as the heavy door swung shut behind him. Then he
was in a big dimly lighted room with a twelve-foot aisle running down
the center, a narrower aisle along each wall, and high piles of wooden
crates and wirebound heavy cardboard cartons spaced five feet apart
to either side of the central aisle. There was a strong smell of damp
dirty fur. On the floor partway up the aisle lay what looked like a
clothed human arm.
From the far end of the building came a series of low gruff barks. A
humping motion ran along like a wave up the aisle and over the piles of
crates toward Dan.
He glanced briefly to either side at the solid concrete walls of the
building, felt behind him. The door was locked.
It flashed through his mind that up till now he had had good luck on
this planet.
Dan saw, in the nearest corner of the room, several pipes that ran
up from the floor and were bent to travel along near the ceiling. He
quickly slipped a mataform unit behind these pipes on the floor, then
cut into a cardboard carton about fifteen feet away and put another
unit inside. He tossed a third on top of the nearest pile of cartons,
mentally said a key word, and was on the pile slashing open a carton to
slide the unit inside. Then he was on the floor in the corner.
In the dim light, the shadowy figures came toward him. Their long arms
swung up and a barrage of rifle parts, bayonets, scabbards, and helmets
smashed into the corner. Dan was fifteen feet away when they hit. An
instant later, he was back, kicking the rubble out of the corner. There
was a repeated gruff cough, then the aisles were jammed, and he had a
brief view of bared teeth in fur-covered faces, and hairy arms that
reached out to grasp him. There was a grisly laugh that started as a
low chuckle and ended on a high-pitched wavering note.
Dan mentally pronounced a key word and he was on the pile of cartons
with a half a dozen apes. The short sword flicked out and back. Other
apes sprang from the next pile of cartons. Dan dropped the weighted
club, threw his last mataform unit toward the top of a pile across the
aisle, and an instant later had recovered it, dropped to the floor, and
raced up the aisle.
* * * * *
There was noise like teeth clicking together and then the wavering
laugh burst out again as the apes turned to chase him up the aisle. Dan
slid the transceiver into a slit-open carton and whirled as the leaders
rushed toward him. The short sword flashed out and back in rapid
thrusts, and abruptly Dan was on top of the first pile of cartons. He
recovered the weighted club, glanced down at the apes turning to rush
up the aisles, and then suddenly he was with them, slamming the last
few of them over the heads with the weighted club.
He thrust, stabbed, and smashed, now in one place, now another,
always striking the gibbering horde where they were fewest and most
off-balance.
After a long, hideous interval, there came a silence. Dan could see
that there were four heaps of dead or unconscious apes, the only live
ones were a few clinging to overhead beams with their eyes shut.
Dan recovered his transceivers and made his way to one of the few
windows in the room. This was about seven feet from the floor, heavily
barred, with its glass panes broken out. Dan pulled himself up and
looked out at a walk and a high wall a few feet away. He cut the
sleeve of his shirt into strips and knotted the strips together with a
transceiver tied onto either end, so that one transceiver hung on the
outside and the other on the inside.
Then Dan was outside, in an underground part of the planet where no one
was supposed to be without an official permit.
The air seemed as fresh as outdoors, while overhead there was the
appearance of the sky on a heavily overcast day. There was light enough
to see by, but it was apparently dimmed to provide an artificial night.