"Talk? What for?"
"We're tired of being rayed down. And nothing but paralyzers to fight
back with. We're going over to the rebels. Hey! Come back here!"
But Joel was gone, running down the empty street.
Other men shouted at him from doorways, from windows. Suddenly an
officer jumped in his path, raised a paralyzer.
"Hold up there!"
Joel skidded to a halt. If the troops were deserting to the Unfit,
General Roos' badge would be of no help to him now.
"Where--", the officer began.
Joel hit him in the temple with a sledge-hammer fist. He didn't wait to
see the effect of his blow, but darted into an open doorway.
There was an entrance hall and it was crowded with men. Joel put his
head down, charged straight through them.
He hit the steps four at a time. Yellow flame lapped at his heels.
Then he was around a curve. A whistle blew someplace below, shrill,
threatening. He leaped up two more flights of steps, came out on the
roof.
More guards were lying on their bellies behind a coping. They stared at
him curiously.
"Ray that damn fool down!" a voice roared from the street.
Joel plunged straight for the recumbent soldiers. They clawed at their
paralyzers, trying to twist around.
He leaped to the coping, hung there a second silhouetted against the
murky sky. Then he jumped spasmodically for the adjoining roof.
He didn't look at the ground three stories below, but he was aware of
it. His feet struck the edge of the next roof and he sprawled forward,
gasping for breath.
Two roofs in front of him, he could see a row of shaggy heads raised
above another coping. They were watching him curiously.
Then they began to yell and beckon, lifting projectors into sight.
Pale green fingers probed all around him, but none of the deadly
blood-destroying rays touched him.
They were covering his retreat, Joel realized. He scrambled to his
feet. He leaped the next gap easily and the next.
The grinning serfs pulled him down behind the wall, clapping him on the
back. Joel was too winded to talk.
One of the rebels was crawling across the roof towards him. He had a
black arm-band. Something dangled from his belt--like hair. It was
hair! Long black woman's hair--and it was bloody!
Joel bit his lip, feeling sick at his stomach. He remembered suddenly
what Priscilla had said, "The Ganelon's have organized the worst
elements among the Unfit--the criminally insane!"