MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE
Bruce Gordon jerked the door open to yell for Izzy while he tucked the
bit of notebook cover into his pocket. Then he stopped as something
nibbled at his mind; the odor Gordon had smelled before registered. He
yanked out the bit of notebook and sniffed. It hadn't been close enough
for any length of time to be contaminated by Mother Corey, so the smell
could only come from one place.
He checked the batteries on his suit and put it on quickly. There was no
point in wearing the helmet inside the dome, but it was better than
trying to rent one at the lockers. He buckled it to a strap. The knife
slid into its sheath, and the gun holster snapped onto the suit. As a
final thought, he picked up the stout locust stick he'd used under
Murdoch.
There were no cabs outside tonight, of course. The streets were almost
deserted, except for some prowler or desperation-driven drug addict. He
proceeded cautiously, however, realizing that it would be just like
Sheila to ambush him. But he reached the exit from the dome with no
trouble.
"Special pass to leave at this hour," the guard there reminded him. "Of
course, if it's urgent, pal..."
Gordon was in no mood to try bribes. He let his hand drop to the gun.
"Police Sergeant Gordon, on official business," he said curtly. "Get the
hell out of my way."
The guard thought it over, and reached for the release. Gordon swung
back as he passed through. "And you'd better be ready to open when I
come back."
He was in comparative darkness almost at once, and tonight there was no
sign of the lights of patrolling cops. Then three specks of glaring blue
light suddenly appeared in the sky, jerking his eyes up. They were
dropping rapidly.
Rockets that flamed bright blue--military rockets! Earth was finally
taking a hand!
He crouched in a hollow that had once been some kind of a basement until
the ships had landed and cut off their jets. Then he stood up, blinking
his eyes until they could again make out the pattern of the dim bulbs.
He'd seen enough by the rocket glare to know that he was headed right.
And finally the ugly half-cylinder of patched brick and metal that was
the old Mother Corey's Chicken Coop showed up against the faint light.
He moved in cautiously, as silently as he could, and located the
semi-secret entrance to the building without meeting anyone. Once in the
tunnel that led to the building, he felt a little safer.
He removed his helmet, and strapped it to the back of his suit, out of
the way. The old hall was in worse shape than before. Mother Corey had
run a somewhat orderly place, with constant vigilance; Bruce Gordon
could never have come into the hallway without being seen in the old
days.
Then a pounding sound came from the second floor, and Gordon drew back
into the denser shadows, staring upwards. A heavy voice picked up the
exchange of shouts.
"You, Sheila, you come outa there! You come right out or I'm gonna blast
that there door down. You open up."
Gordon was already moving up the stairs when a second voice reached him,
and this one was familiar. "Jurgens don't want _you_; all he wants is
this place--we got use for it. It don't belong to you, anyhow! Come out
now, and we'll let you go peaceful. Or stay in there and we'll blast you
out--in pieces."
It was the voice of Jurgens' henchman who had called on Mother Corey
before elections. The thick voice must belong to the big ape who'd been
with him.
"Come on out," the little man cried again. "You don't have a chance.
We've already chased all your boarders out!"
Gordon tried to remember which steps had creaked the worst, but he
wasn't too worried, if there were only two of them. Then his head
projected above the top step, and he hesitated. Only the rat and the ape
were standing near a heavy, closed door. But four others were lounging
in the background. He lifted his foot to put it back down to a lower
step, just as Sheila's muffled voice shrilled out a fog of profanity. He
grinned, and then saw that he'd lifted his foot to a higher step.
There was a sharp yell from one of the men in the background and a knife
sailed for him, but the aim was poor. Gordon's gun came out. Two of the
men were dropping before the others could reach for their own weapons,
and while the rat-faced man was just turning. The third dropped without
firing, and the fourth's shot went wild. Gordon was firing rapidly, but
not with such a stupid attempt at speed that he couldn't aim each shot.
And at that distance, it was hard to miss.
Rat-face jerked back behind the big hulk of his partner, trying to pull
a gun that seemed to be stuck; a scared man's ability to get his gun
stuck in a simple holster was always amazing. The big guy simply lunged,
with his hands out.
Gordon side-stepped and caught one of the arms, swinging the huge body
over one hip. It sailed over the broken railing, to land on the floor
below and crash through the rotten planking. He heard the man hit the
basement, even while he was swinging the club in his hand toward the
rat-faced man.
There was a thin, high-pitched scream as a collarbone broke. He slumped
onto the floor, and began to try hitching his way down the steps. Gordon
picked up the gun that had fallen out of the holster as the man fell and
put it into his pouch. He considered the two, and decided they would be
no menace.
"Okay, Sheila," he called out, trying to muffle his voice. "We got them
all."
"Pie-Face?" Her voice was doubtful.
He considered what a man out here who went under that name might be
like. "Sure, baby. Open up!"
"Wait a minute. I've got this nailed shut." There was the sound of an
effort of some kind going on as she talked. "Though I ought to let you
stay out there and rot. Damn it ... uh!"
The door heaved open then, and she appeared in it; then she saw him, and
her jaw dropped open slackly. "You!"
"Me," he agreed. "And lucky for you, Cuddles."
Her hand streaked to a gun in her belt. "Kill him!"
This time, he didn't wait to be attacked. He went for the door, knocking
her aside. His knee caught the outside of her hip as she spun; she fell
over, dropping the gun.
The two men in the room were both holding knives, but in the ridiculous
overhand position that seems to be an ingrained stupidity of the human
race, until it's taught better. A single flip of his locust club against
their wrists accounted for both of the knives. He grabbed them by the
hair of their heads, then, and brought the two skulls together savagely.
Sheila lay stretched out on the floor, where her head had apparently
struck against the leg of a bed. Gordon shoved the bodies of the two men
aside and looked down at the wreck of a man who lay on the dirty
blanket. "Hello, O'Neill," he said.
The former leader of the Stonewall gang stared up at the club swinging
from Gordon's wrist. "You ain't gonna beat me this time? I'm a sick man.
Sick. Can't hurt nobody. Don't beat me again."
Gordon's stomach knotted sickly. Doing something under the pressure of
necessity was one thing; but to see the sorry results of it later was
another. "All right," he said. "Just stay there until I get away from
this rat's nest and I won't hit you. I won't even touch you."
He was sure enough that it was no act on O'Neill's part; he wasn't so
sure about Sheila. He checked the two men on the floor, who were still
out cold. Then he stepped through the door carefully, to make sure that
the big bruiser hadn't come back.
His ears barely detected the sound Sheila made as she reached for the
knife of one of the men. Then it came--the faintest catch of breath.
Gordon threw himself flat to the floor. She let out a scream as he saw
her momentum carry her over him; she was at the edge of the rail, and
starting to fall.
He caught her feet in his hands and yanked her back. There was nothing
phony this time as she hit the floor.
"Just a matter of co-ordination, Cuddles," he told her. "Little girls
shouldn't play with knives; they'll grow up to be old maids that way."
Fury blackened her face, but she still couldn't function. He picked her
up and tossed her back into the room. From the broken mattress on the
bed, he dug out a coil of wire and bound her hands and feet with it.
"Can't say I think much of your choice of companions these days," he
commented, looking toward the bed where O'Neill was cowering. "It looks
as if your grandfather picks them better for you."
"You filthy-minded hog! D'you think I'd--I'd--One room in the place with
a decent door, and you can't see why I'd choose that room to keep
Jurgens' devils back. You--You--"
He'd been searching the room, but there was no sign of the notebook
there. He checked again to see that the wire was tight, and then picked
up the two henchmen who were showing some signs of reviving.
"I'll watch them," a voice said from the door. Gordon snapped his head
up to see Izzy standing there. He realized he'd been a lot less cautious
than he'd thought.
Izzy grinned at his confusion. "I got enough out of the Mother to case
the pitch," he said. "I knew I was right when I spotted the apeman
carrying a guy with a bad shoulder away from here. Jurgens' punks, eh?"
"Thanks for coming. What's it going to cost me?"
"Wouldn't be honest to charge unless you asked me to convoy you,
gov'nor. And if you're looking for the vixen's room, it's where you
bunked before. I got around after I spotted you here."
Sheila Corey forced herself to a sitting position and spat at Izzy.
"Traitor! Crooked little traitor!"
"Shut up, Sheila," Izzy said. "Your retainer ran out."
Surprisingly, she did shut up. Gordon went to the little space--and saw
that Izzy was right; there was a nearly used-up lipstick, a comb, and a
cracked mirror. There was also a small cloth bag containing a few scraps
of clothes.
He turned the room upside down, but there was no sign of the notebook or
papers from it.
He located her helmet and carried it down with him. "You're going
bye-bye, Cuddles," he told her. "I'm going to put this on you and then
unfasten your arms and legs. But if you start to so much as wiggle your
big toe, you won't sit down for a month."
She pursed her lips hotly, but made no reply. He screwed the helmet on,
and unfastened her arms. For a second, she tensed, while he waited,
grinning down at her. Then she slumped back and lay quiet as he
unfastened her legs.
He tossed her over his shoulder, and started down the rickety stairs.
There was a little light in the sky. Five minutes later, it was full
daylight, which should have been a signal for the workers to start for
their jobs. But today they were drifting out unhappily, as if already
sure there would be no jobs by nightfall.
A few stared at Gordon and his burden, but most of them didn't even look
up. The two men trudged along silently.
"Prisoner," he announced crisply to the guard, but there was no protest
this time. They went through, and he was lucky enough to locate a
broken-down tricycle cab.
Mother Corey let them in, without flickering an eyelash as he saw his
granddaughter. Bruce Gordon dropped her onto her legs. "Behave
yourself," he warned her as he took off his helmet, and then unfastened
hers.
Mother Corey chuckled. "Very touching, cobber. You have a way with
women, it seems. Too bad she had to wear a helmet, or you might have
dragged her here by her hair. Ah, well, let's not talk about it here. My
room is more comfortable--and private."
Inside, Sheila sat woodenly on the little sofa, pretending to see none
of them. Mother Corey looked from one to the other, and then back to
Gordon. "Well? You must have had some reason for bringing her here,
cobber."
"I want her out of my hair, Mother," Gordon tried to explain. "I can
lock her up--carrying a gun without a permit is reason enough. But I'd
rather you kept her here, if you'll take the responsibility. After all,
she's your granddaughter."
"So she is. That's why I wash my hands of her. I couldn't control myself
at her age, couldn't control my son, and I don't intend to handle a
female of my line. It looks as if you'll have to arrest her."
"Okay. Suppose I rent a room and put a good lock on it. You've got the
one that connects with mine vacant."
"I run a respectable house now, Gordon," Mother Corey stated flatly.
"What you do outside my place is your own business. But no women, except
married ones. Can't trust 'em."
Gordon stared at the old man, but he apparently meant just what he said.
"All right, Mother," he said finally. "How in hell do I marry her
without any rigmarole?"
Izzy's face seemed to drop toward the floor. Sheila came up off the
couch with a choking cry and leaped for the door. Mother Corey's immense
arm moved out casually, sweeping her back onto the couch.
"Very convenient," the old man said. "The two of you simply fill out a
form--I've got a few left from the last time--and get Izzy and me to
witness it. Drop it in the mail, and you're married."
"If you think I'd marry you, you filthy--" Sheila began.
Mother Corey listened attentively. "Rich, but not very imaginative," he
said thoughtfully. "But she'll learn. Izzy, I have a feeling we should
let them settle their differences."
As the door shut behind them, Gordon yanked Sheila back to the couch.
"Shut up!" he told her. "This isn't a game. Hell's popping here--you
know that better than most people. And I'm up to my neck in it. If I've
got to marry you to keep you out of my hair, I will."
Her face was pasty-white, but she bent her head, and fluttered her
eyelashes up at him. "So romantic," she sighed. "You sweep me off my
feet. You--Why, you--"
"Me or Trench! I can take you to him and tell him you're mixed up in
Security, and that you either have papers on you or out at the Chicken
Coop to prove it. He won't believe _you_ if I take you in. Well?"
She looked at him a long time in silence, and there was surprise in her
eyes. "You'd do it! You really would.... All right; I'll sign your
damned papers!"
Ten minutes later, he stood in what was now a connecting double room,
watching Mother Corey nail up the hall door to the room that was to be
hers. There were no windows here, and his own room had an excellent lock
on it already--one he'd put on himself. Izzy came back as Mother Corey
finished the door and began knocking a small panel out of the connecting
door. The old man was surprisingly adept with his hands as he fitted
hinges and a catch to the panel, and re-installed it so that Sheila
could swing it open.
"They're married," Izzy said. "It's in the mail to the register, along
with the twenty credits. Gov'nor, we're about due to report in."
Gordon nodded. "Be with you in a minute," he said as he paid Mother
Corey for the materials and work. He jerked his head and the two men
went out, leaving him alone with Sheila.
"I'll bring you some food tonight. And you may not have a private bath,
but it beats the Chicken Coop. Here." He handed her the key to the
connecting door. "It's the only key there is."