Brink of Madness

by Walter J. Sheldon

  Chapter III

  The big tourist rocket let them down at the Endymion Crater Landing, andthey went through the usual immigration and customs formalities in theunderground city there. They stayed in a hotel overnight, Pell and Ciellooking very much like tourists, Kronski tagging along and lookingfaintly out of place. In the morning--morning according to the 24 hourearth clock, that is--they took the jitney rocket to the resort town ofAugea, in the Hercules Mountains. The town was really a cliff dwelling,built into the side of a great precipice with quartz windows overlookinga tremendous, stark valley.

  It was hard to say just what attraction the moon had as a vacation land,and it was a matter of unfathomable taste. You either liked it, or youdidn't. If you didn't, you couldn't understand what people who liked itsaw in it. They couldn't quite explain. "It's so quiet. It's so vast.It's so beautiful," they'd say, but never anything clearer than that.

  Augea itself was like twenty other resorts scattered throughout both thenorthern and southern latitudes of the moon. Except for the militaryposts and scientific research stations the moon had little value otherthan as a vacation land. People came there to rest, to look at thebizarre landscape through quartz, or occasionally to don spacesuits andgo out on guided exploration trips.

  Immediately after checking into their hotel Pell and Kronski gotdirections to the office of the Resident Surgeon and prepared to gothere. Ciel looked on quietly as Pell tightened the straps of hisshoulder holster and checked the setting on his freezer.

  Ciel said, "I knew it."

  "Knew what, honey?" Pell went to the mirror to brush his hair. He wasn'tsure it would materially improve the beauty of his long, knobby, faintlymelancholy face, but he did it any way.

  "The minute we get here you have to go out on business."

  He turned, kissed her, then held and patted her hand. "That's justbecause I want to get it over with. Then I'll have time for you. Thenwe'll have lots of time together."

  She melted into him suddenly. She put her arms around his neck and heldhim tightly. "If I didn't love you, you big lug, it wouldn't be so bad.But, Dick, I can't go on like this much longer. I just can't."

  "Now, baby," he started to say.

  There was a knock on the door then and he knew Kronski was ready. Hebroke away from her, threw a kiss and said, "Later. Later, baby."

  She nodded and held her under lip in with her upper teeth.

  He sighed and left.

  * * * * *

  Pell and Kronski left the hotel and started walking along the windingtunnel with the side wall of quartz. On their right the huge valley,with its stark, unearthly landshapes, stretched away. It was near theend of the daylight period and the shadows from the distant peaks,across the valley, were long and deep. Some of them, with littlereflected light, seemed to be patches of nothingness. Pell fancied hecould step through them into another dimension.

  All about them, even here in the side of the mountain, and behind thethick quartz, there was the odd, utterly dead silence of the moon.

  Their footsteps echoed sparsely in the corridor.

  Pell said to Kronski, "Got the story all straight?"

  "Like as if it was true."

  "Remember the signal?"

  "Sure. Soon as you say we're out of cigarettes. What's the matter, youthink I'm a moron, I can't remember?"

  Pell laughed and clapped him on the shoulder blade.

  Minutes later they turned in from the corridor, went through another,shorter passageway and then came to a door marked: Resident Surgeon.They knocked and a deep voice boomed: "Come in!"

  It was a medium-sized room, clearly a dispensary. There was an operatingtable, a sterilizer, tall glass-fronted instrument cabinets and arefrigerator. At the far end of the room a hulking, bear-like man satbehind a magnalloy desk. The nameplate on the desk said: Hal H. Wilcox,M.D.

  "Howdy, gents," said Dr. Hal H. Wilcox, shattering the moon-silence witha vengeance. "What can I do for you?" he was all smiles.

  That smile, decided Pell, didn't quite match the shrewdness of his eyes.Have to watch this boy, maybe. There was a big quartz window behind theman so that for the moment Pell saw him almost in silhouette. "We'refrom _Current_ magazine," said Pell. "I'm Dick Pell and this is SteveKronski. You got our radio, I guess."

  "Oh, yes. Yes, indeed." Wilcox creaked way back in his chair. "You'rethe fellas want to do a story on us moon surgeons."

  "That's right." Pell fumbled a little self-consciously with the gravityweights clipped to his trousers. Took a while for moon visitors to getused to them, everybody said.

  "Well, I don't know exactly as how there's much of a story in what wedo. We're just a bunch of sawbones stationed here, that's all."

  "We're interested in the diseases peculiar to the moon," said Pell. "Forinstance, why do the permanent residents up here have to have aninoculation every year?"

  "That's for the Venusian rash. Thought everybody knew that."

  "Venusian rash?"

  "Nearest thing we ever had to it on Earth was Rocky Mountain SpottedFever. It's a rickettsia disease. Makes a fella pretty sick; sometimeskills him in two, three days. It started when they had those Venusianconstruction workers and tunnel men here, oh, long before the war. Undercertain conditions the rickettsia stays dormant and then pops up again."

  "And the inoculation's for that?"

  "Standard. Once a year. You got the inoculation yourself, no doubt,before you jumped off for the moon."

  "Where does the serum or whatever you call it come from?"

  Pell thought he saw Wilcox's eyes flicker. The doctor said, "It's storedat the main landings. We draw it as we need it from there."

  "Have any here now?"

  Wilcox's eyes did move this time. He looked at the refrigerator--butonly for the veriest moment. "Don't really reckon so," he said finally.He was staring blankly at Pell again.

  Pell patted his pockets, turned to Kronski and said, "You know, I thinkwe're out of cigarettes." Before Kronski could answer he moved to thebig quartz window behind Wilcox's desk. He gazed at the moonscape. "Justcan't get over how big and quiet it is," he said.

  Wilcox turned and gazed with him.

  Kronski drew his freezer. He pointed it, squeezed, and there was a soft,momentary buzzing and a twinkling of violet sparks at the muzzle of theweapon.

  Wilcox sat where he was, frozen, knowing nothing.

  * * * * *

  Pell turned fast. "Come on, Steve. Let's get it." They both stepped tothe refrigerator.

  They had only seconds; Kronski's weapon had been set at a low reading.The time of paralysis varied with the individual and Doc Wilcox lookedhusky enough not to stay frozen very long. If Pell and Kronski returnedto their original positions after he came out of it he would never knowthat anything had happened.

  Far back on a lower shelf of the refrigerator were a dozen small bottlesof the same type. Pell grabbed one, glanced at the label, nodded, anddropped it into his pocket. They took their places again.

  A few moments later Wilcox moved slightly and said, "Yup. Moon's a funnyplace all right. You either like it or you don't."

  The rest of the conversation was fairly uninspired. Pell didn't want towalk out too quickly, and had to keep up the pretense of interviewingWilcox for a magazine story. It wasn't easy. They excused themselvesfinally, saying they'd be back for more information as soon as they madeup some notes and got the overall picture--whatever that meant. Wilcoxseemed satisfied with it.

  They hurried back along the tunnel, descended to another level and foundthe Augea Post Office. They showed the postmaster their C.I.B. shieldsand identification cards and arranged for quick and special handling forthe bottle of vaccine. Pell marked it _Attention, Lab_, and it wasscheduled to take a quick rocket to the Endymion landing and the nextunmanned mail rocket back to World City.

  Pell stayed at the Post Office to make out a quick report on theincident so he wouldn't have to bore Ciel by doing
it in the room, andKronski sauntered on back to the hotel.

  There was a fax receiver there and Pell, missing the hourly voicebulletins of World City Underground, checked it for news. The pages werecoming out in a long tongue. He looked at the first headline:

  VENUSIAN OBSERVERS ADMITTED TO WORLD CONGRESS

  Well, that was a step in the right direction. Maybe one of these daysthey'd get around to a Solar Congress, as they ought to. The recent openwar with Venus had taught both Earthmen and Venusians a lot about spacetravel, and it was probably possible to explore the solar system furtherright now. No one had yet gone beyond the asteroids. Recent observationsfrom the telescope stations here on the moon had found what seemed to begeometrical markings on some of Jupiter's satellites. Life there? Couldbe. Candidates for a brotherhood of the zodiac--if both Terrans andVenusians could get the concept of brotherhood pounded through theirstill partially savage skulls.

  Another headline:

  'WE CAN LICK UNIVERSE'--WAR SEC

  Not so good, that. Loose talk. Actually it was an Undersecretary of Warwho had said it. Pell ran over the rest of the article quickly and cameto what seemed to him a significant excerpt. "_Certain patriotic groupsin the world today are ready and willing to make the necessarysacrifices to get it over with. There is a fundamental differencebetween Earthmen and other creatures of the system, and this differencecan be resolved only by the dominance of one over the other._"

  Supremist stuff. Strictly. If this Undersecretary were not actually amember he was at least a supporter of the Supremist line. And that linehad an appeal for the unthinking, Pell had to admit. It was pleasant toconvince yourself that you were a superior specimen, that you werechosen....

  VENUSIAN SPY SUSPECTS HELD ON MARS

  Pell frowned deeply at that one and read the story. A couple of Venusianminers on Mars had wandered too close to one of the Earth militaryoutposts, and had been nabbed. He doubted that they were spies; hedoubted that the authorities holding them thought so. But it seemed tomake a better story with a slight scare angle. He thought about how Marswas divided at an arbitrary meridian--half to Venus, half to Earth. Thedivision solved nothing, pleased nobody. Joe Citizen, the man in thetunnels could see these things, why couldn't these so-called traineddiplomats?

  Pell finished his report, questioned the Postmaster a little on routinefacts concerning the town, and went back to the hotel.

  * * * * *

  Ciel was waiting for him. She was in a smart, frontless frock ofsilvercloth. Her golden hair shone. Her large, dark eyes looked deep,moist, alive. She looked at him questioningly? and he read the silentquestion: _Now can you spare a little time?_

  "Baby," he said softly, and kissed her.

  "Mm," he said when he had finished kissing her.

  The voice-phone rang.

  He said, "Damn it."

  It was Kronski, in his own room next door. "Did Wilcox leave yet?" heasked.

  "Wilcox?"

  "Yeah. The Doc. Is he still there?"

  "I didn't know he was here at all."

  Kronski said, "Huh?"

  Pell said, "Maybe we better back up and start all over again."

  "Wilcox, the Resident Surgeon Doc Wilcox," said Kronski, not toopatiently. "He was in my room a little while ago. Said he'd drop by onhis way out and see if you were in."

  Pell glanced at Ciel. She was busy lighting a cigarette at the other endof the room. Or pretending to be busy. Pell said, "I just got here. Justthis minute. I didn't see any Wilcox. What'd he want?"

  "I don't know exactly. He was kind of vague about it. Wanted to know ifhe could answer any more questions for us, or anything like that."

  "Sounds screwy."

  "Yeah. It sure does, now that I think it over."

  "Let me call you back," said Pell and hung up. He turned to Ciel. "WasDoc Wilcox here?"

  "Why, yes. He stopped in." Nothing but blank innocence on her face.

  "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "Hm?" She raised her eyebrows. "He just stopped in to see if you werehere, that was all. I told him you weren't and he went out again."

  "But you didn't mention it."

  "Well, why should I?"

  "I don't know. I'd think you'd say something about it."

  "Now, listen, Dick--I'm not some suspect you're grilling. What's thematter with you, anyway?"

  "It just strikes me as funny that Wilcox should drop in here and youshouldn't say one word about it, that's all."

  "Well, I like that." She folded her arms. "You're getting to be so muchof a cop you're starting to be suspicious of your own wife."

  "Now, you know it's not that at all."

  "What else is it? Dick, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of this whole stupidbusiness you're in. The first time we get a few minutes alone togetheryou start giving me the third degree. I won't stand for it, that's all!"

  "Now, baby," he said and took a step toward her.

  The deeper tone of the viewer sounded.

  * * * * *

  "Agh, for Pete's sake," he said disgustedly and answered the call. Theimage of Chief Larkin's boyishly handsome face came into focus on thescreen. Pell lifted a surprised eyebrow and said, "Oh, hello, Chief."

  Larkin's eye was cold. Especially cold in the setting of that boyishface. "What in hell," he asked, "are you and Kronski doing on the moon?"

  "Hm?" Now it was Pell's turn to look innocent. "Why, you know what we'redoing, Chief. We're investigating that case. You know the one--I don'twant to mention it over the viewer."

  "Who the devil authorized you to go traipsing to the _moon_ to do it?"

  "Why, nobody authorized us. I thought--I mean, when you're working on acase and you have a lead, you're supposed to go after it, aren't you?"

  "Yes, but not when it's a crazy wild goose chase." In the viewer Pellsaw the Chief slam his desk with the palm of his hand. "I'd like to knowwhat in blazes you think you can do on the moon that you can't do in agood healthy session at the computers?"

  "Well, that's kind of hard to explain over the viewer. We have made someprogress, though. I just sent you a report on it."

  Larkin narrowed one eye. "Pell, who do you think you're fooling?"

  "Fooling?"

  "You heard me. I know damn well you wanted to take a vacation on themoon. But we have a little job for you that holds you up, and what doyou do? The next best thing, eh? You see to it that the job _takes_ youto the moon."

  "Now, Chief, it wasn't that at all...."

  "The devil it wasn't. Now, listen to me, Pell. You pack your bags andget right back to World City. The next rocket you can get. Youunderstand?"

  Before he answered the question he looked at Ciel. She was staring athim quietly. Again he could read something of what was in her mind. Heknew well enough that she was trying to say to him: "_Make a clean breaknow. Tell him No, you won't come back. Quit. Now's the time to doit--unless you want that stupid job of yours more than you want me...._"

  Pell sighed deeply, slowly looked into the viewer again and said,"Kronski and I'll be back on the next rocket, Chief."