If only the R.A. had arrived a little earlier was all that Comstock was
able to think. Five minutes earlier and his convictions would have been
safe. He'd have been able to throw himself into the R.A.'s protection
and tell all. That way would have meant safety and perhaps a reward.
But now?
Bowdler's bulky body moved toward the door. He yelled, "All right, keep
your halo cool, I'm coming."
How, Comstock wondered, could anyone be so brave? No fear showed on
Bowdler's granite-like face. None at all. His hand on the door knob,
he paused and called back over his shoulder, "Grundy, come here, stand
at this side of the door, you, Comstock, stand on the other side. I'll
stall him, and if my plan works, you two beat it! Fast! Grundy, you
know where to take Comstock!"
"Sure, to Helen's," Grundy said and took up a position at the side of
the door. Comstock, knees wobbling, hands sweating, stomach writhing,
took up the position indicated for him.
Then Bowdler opened the door. He bowed derisively and said, his tones
steady, the words ironical. "Won't you come in and make yourself
comfortable?"
It was the same R.A. whose small features and lean hand had menaced
them in the saloon.
His halo was bright with anger. His hand had the stun-gun at the ready.
The words that came from his mouth were bright with menace. He said,
"I want you three to know that my gun is set to kill!"
Now sweaty-footed fear was walking down Comstock's back. Never had
he heard of an R.A. using the death control on his gun. Ordinarily
just the threat of nervous stunning was enough to make the most irate
submissive.
Long legs spread wide apart, hands on his hips, Bowdler said, "By what
right do you enter the sanctum of a Gantry?"
"By the right invested in me by the Fathers and by my warrant from The
Grandfather!" The R.A.'s reedy voice was cold.
Throwing his big head back, Bowdler laughed in the man's face. He said,
"Well, now, that sounds real important. But does it mean anything?"
Spread in a straight line, as the three men were, the R.A. could only
menace one of them at a time. His gun went back and forth in a slow arc.
He said, "Put your hands behind your backs and come quietly."
"Throw ourselves into the broad lap of The Grandfather, eh?" Bowdler
asked and he seemed to be enjoying himself tremendously.
"Of course. He understands and He will judge your case according to its
merits!"
"And having understood our case, and having judged it in advance, He
will have us 'removed' for the good of society?" Bowdler asked, but it
was more of a statement than a question.
"That remains to be seen," the R.A. said.
"Humph," Bowdler grinned, "if we play it your way, our remains will be
all that will be seen. No, thank you. I don't think I like that method
at all!"
With no warning and with no change of expression, Bowdler waited till
the R.A.'s gun was pointed at Grundy at one end of its slow arc, then
threw himself in a berserk charge straight at the R.A.
The R.A. hurriedly swung his gun back and pulled the trigger. He
missed, and by that time Bowdler's long arms were around his knees and
he was being dragged down to the soft carpet on the floor.
* * * * *
At the precise moment that the R.A. began to fall, Grundy gestured for
Comstock to follow him and ran through the door. It took a second or so
for Comstock's frozen muscles to obey his frightened brain, but then as
the R.A. brought the gun up level with Bowdler's forehead and pulled
the trigger, he ran.
The last sight he saw, as he chanced a look over his shoulder, was the
sight of all intelligence draining out of Bowdler's face. The charge
had hit him.
Slamming the door on the scene, Comstock ran, and as he ran he screamed
to Grundy, "The R.A. killed him! He killed Bowdler."
Ten feet away the news made Grundy pause and almost stumble, but
Comstock saw him recover and then run on. He yelled back to Comstock.
"Tough. He was a good guy. But we gotta keep goin' or we'll be killed
too."
The endless corridor through which they were running was dank and it
was dark. There was no curve, no up or down. It was simply a black hole
through which they ran and ran, and kept on running. When Comstock
thought that he would never be able to breathe again, that his muscles
could no longer bear his weight, that he must slump in a helpless heap
and wait for death, he heard Grundy snap, "Ten feet more."
The words shot a new charge of adrenalin into Comstock. With a last
surge of strength he darted after his friend's back. As a matter of
fact he lunged full tilt into it because the darkness was so complete
he could not see his hand before his face.
Grundy grunted, "Hold everything. I have to find the latch."
Another moment that seemed to stretch out far beyond the end of
eternity and then, just as Comstock's strained ears heard footsteps
running behind him in the dark. Grundy said, "There it is." And a door
opened. Beyond was further darkness, but it was not as complete as
the stygian blackness they were leaving. Falling through the doorway,
Comstock fell to his face as Grundy slammed the door behind them.
"That'll hold the R.A. for a minute and that's all we need."
Lifting his head, forcing his trunk upwards from the ground, Comstock
saw that they had come out on a street ... he looked at it while his
breath raced in and out of his tortured lungs ... the street was
familiar. It was the one that housed the b.....l to which he repaired
once a month.
At the curb waiting, was an R.A.'s carriage. The team of astrobats
waited patiently in harness, their too-pointed faces and four ears
heavy with menace towards anyone who dared to approach them.
Staggering to his feet, Comstock felt Grundy's arm go around his
shoulders. Grundy half carried, half pushed him into the carriage.
"But ... we can't go in this!" Comstock gasped. "You know the penalty
for even going near an R.A.'s carriage!"
A final push shoved Comstock onto the seat. Grabbing the wicked metal
electro-whip, Grundy forced the recalcitrant astrobats into what those
crotchety animals considered a gallop.
"The first person who sees us will call for help! We're not even
dressed like R.A.'s!" Comstock said.
Grundy was kind. He said patiently, "Our halos will protect us."
* * * * *
Looking at Grundy's head, Comstock half expected to see the silvery
sheen of the mark of an R.A. But there was no sign of one.
"Are you insane? We have no halos. Only the R.A. has them."
Whipping the team expertly, Grundy said, and his words were a sigh,
"You have much to learn, Comstock. There are no halos except in the eye
of the beholder."
"What does that mean?"
The carriage was racing by the b.....l now and Comstock was amazed
to see the madame, who was standing in the doorway, make the sign of
reverence and obeisance as they raced by.
"The halos don't exist. They're just post-hypnotic suggestion implanted
in our minds when we're kids. We're conditioned to see the halos when
we see an R.A. We're in an R.A.'s carriage now and so anyone seeing us
will see our halos. It's as simple as that. But then, you don't know
what hypnotism is, do you?"
"No." Comstock said this humbly and at the moment he felt that he knew
nothing at all. He turned and looked backwards.
Down the street behind them, the R.A., his halo shining brightly, like
a good deed in an evil world, was pointing his gun at them. Comstock
said, "The R.A. found the door. He's going to shoot us!"
Wordlessly, Grundy flicked the whip over the beasts' backs. The
carriage swerved and carried them around the corner. Comstock could not
tell if the R.A. had fired and missed, or had held his fire, for of
course a stun-gun is silent as the grave, and only affects the human
nervous system.
Careening along the quiet streets Comstock found time to feel deep
and real sorrow for Bowdler. It still did not seem possible that
anyone could have been as brave as all that. Aloud he said, "Bowdler
sacrificed himself for us, didn't he?"
Grundy nodded, his eyes alert, scanning the road ahead, for what?
Comstock wondered.
"When you are daring what we are, you must be prepared for instant
sacrifice," Grundy said.
"Hadn't we better give up?" Comstock asked. "Two of us against the
entire world seems ridiculous. What chances have we?"
"None if you feel that way. But if you feel as Bowdler did and as I
do, that it is worth anything to be a man, then it is worth while. Any
chance is worth taking."
Grundy's tone changed. He said, "When I turn the next corner I'll slow
the team down. When I do, jump out."
Jump out? What new madness was this? But before he had a chance to
argue, Grundy had pulled hard on the bits and snapped, "Now!"
Rolling free of the carriage on his side, Comstock saw even as he fell
to the ground, that Grundy had thrown himself out of the other side of
the carriage.
The team raced on, dragging the empty carriage banging and clattering
at their multiple heels.
* * * * *
Shaken, bruised, sore from head to foot, Comstock said as Grundy pulled
himself to his feet. "Why did you do that?"
"Let the R.A.'s keep their radio tail on the carriage. A lot of good
it'll do them!"
Grundy again helped him to his feet, and then said, "Follow me."
Comstock's mind was a whirl again. What was a radio?
The street was even quieter than most in Comstock's city. Small houses,
a decent distance apart, lined the lawns where the purplish grass
sparkled in the light of the twin moons.
The house that Grundy stopped in front of was identical with all the
others. He took a key from his pocket and opened the door. Then he
called out, "Helen!"
* * * * *
Comstock had come a long way at that moment when he had waited futilely
for The Grandfather's wrath to strike him dead, but he had not come
to the point where he could watch the indecency of the scene that
followed. Averting his eyes as the young girl entered the room, he
wished desperately that he might be struck deaf so as not to have to
hear what followed their entry.
In the first place she was obscenely young, not more than twenty-five.
In the second place her ugly young skin was completely without
wrinkles. In the third place she threw her round young arms around
Grundy's neck, and in the fourth place she k....d him hard and long on
the l..s and in the fifth place she crooned to him l..e words that no
one should ever be forced to hear.
"Darling, darling, darling," she said over and over again. "I've missed
you so terribly, I've been so worried ... but it's over and you're near
me again."
"Dearest," Comstock could not help hearing Grundy say and his opinion
of the man descended sharply, "My loveliest sweetheart."
Then their l.ps met again in a sustained and prolonged bit of
pornographic action that left Comstock weak. Worse perhaps than the way
they were pushing their l..s against each other was the way they had
glued their bodies together.
He coughed trying to bring them back to their senses.
Grundy broke away from the girl. "Thank The Grandfather," Comstock
thought, and then bit his lip as he realized that he no longer had the
right to call on that name....
The girl said, "But where's Bowdler? Darling, what's happened ... he
hasn't been ... he isn't hurt?"
"Worse, dear." And the man touched her hair. The sight made little
horripilations go up and down the hair on the back of Comstock's head.
"He's not dead?"
"Yes, my darling, but he died bravely trying to save us."
She bent her head reverently and Comstock was pleased to see that even
so brazen a hussy was still not lost to all the common decencies.
Grundy cleared his throat and made an obvious effort to change the
subject. He said, "I'm sorry, I've forgotten to have you meet our new
friend." Grundy introduced them.
Horror piled on horror. Comstock's face whitened as the young girl
walked to him, took his hand, shook it, and then impulsively k....d him
on the cheek.
Thank Grandfather she stopped after an interminable moment and turned
back to Grundy. She asked, her voice low and shaken, "But dearest, oh
my dearest, what are we to do now? Bowdler was so strong, so sure of
himself; he knew so much more than we do of what is really happening in
this sick world of ours ... what are we to do?"
There, it was happening again. Comstock averted his shocked eyes as
Grundy put his hand on the girl's w...t and said, "You are to do
nothing, my love. You'll stay here in safety. You know that Bowdler and
I decided that this is a man's job, and it must stay that way. I'll
take no chance of risking your lovely skin...."
Then he turned to Comstock and said decisively. "There's no use waiting
any longer, taking chances, risking death the longer we wait. We'll
eat, rest a bit, and then, we'll risk all!"
"You mean...." The girl let her voice fade away.
"Tonight, in half an hour," Grundy said, his face set and stern,
"Comstock and I will go before the Board of Fathers and challenge The
Grandfather!"
Some of his resolution faded and he said more quietly, "But how I wish
Bowdler were with us. We three might have stood a better chance. But he
had set the time as tonight, and I'll not be false to his trust."
Half an hour, Comstock thought dully. It wasn't long to live ... not
long enough at all....