Category Phoenix

by Boyd Ellanby

use it as a specialreward for certain Rulers, and he will try to keep its very existence asecret so that people in general will not be envious or rebellious. Thatmeans that he will have to get rid of you."

  "Get rid of me? But I haven't done any harm!"

  "Just by existing and letting people look at your unchanging youth, youwill be a threat to him, for you will give away his secret. How he'lldeal with you, I don't know. Concentration camp, exile, or moreprobably, simple execution on grounds of treason, such as unauthorizedchoices of activity or study. It doesn't matter, he'll find a way. Theonly safety for you is in keeping hidden. You must stay quietly inLeah's apartment until we can find a refuge for you. Do you see that?"

  She looked around in bewilderment. "Is that right, Dr. Haslam? And whatwill they think at the Institute? I'm supposed to go back to my job inIntercom."

  "Dr. Wong is right," he said kindly. "Please believe us. It's hard foryou to understand that we are asking you to do something secret, butjust try to remember that you are, after all, an Office Category and arenot equipped by training or constitution to think out problems likethis. We'll tell you what is the right thing to do. You just do as wetell you, and you'll be perfectly safe."

  Leah snickered. "Oh, _she'll_ be safe enough, being as pretty as she is!What are you going to do about me? Don't I count?"

  "We'll come to that in a few minutes. Right now, we need food. Leah, youand Tanya be good girls and go out to the kitchen and heat up somesupper for us. After we've eaten, we'll talk about you."

  * * * * *

  As soon as the girls were out of the room, the four men drew together atthe table.

  "No use burdening them with too much knowledge," Karl remarked. "Even asit is, they are a great danger to us, and the less they know the better.David, will you proceed?"

  "I have little to add to the plans we made last night at the lab. Thething we need most is time; and next to that, a hiding place. We mayvery soon be classed as traitors, with every watchguard on the continenthunting for us. We will take care that they don't find us. Now, you saidlast night that each one of you has accumulated a Free Choice during thepast year, which hasn't yet been used."

  "That's right," said Faure. "I intended to use mine next winter to liveamong the Australian aborigines for a week. I've been wanting that foryears, but the planners always refused me; it was a project withoutpractical purpose."

  "And I intended to use mine to attempt a water-color painting," addedHudson. "In my boyhood I hoped to be put in Arts Category, but thePlanners laughed at me. I suppose it's wrong, yet I still have the yen."

  "You have my sympathy," said Karl. "I was going to take an AimlessTramp. Just shed my identity and wander on foot through the great northarea of woods and lakes."

  David sighed. "Well, if we are successful in hiding and in changing theworld as we'd like, you can all three be free to do as you like withoutasking permission. But at present that's only the wildest of dreams.And, first, we must find our refuge. Today is Saturday. Tomorrowmorning, each of you will go to BureauMed and claim your Free Choice.And each of you will choose an Aimless Tramp."

  "But I don't like hiking," objected Hudson.

  "You won't be hiking. You'll take off in your roboplanes and thendisappear. You will be without supervision. You will then proceed,disguised as you think suitable, to find a place for our newcolony--somewhere in South America?--and make preliminary arrangementsto receive us. You must be back by Tuesday afternoon at the latest. OnTuesday, as soon as you have reported back to BureauMed, get to theInstitute as fast as you can."

  "Why the deadline?"

  "Because by Tuesday afternoon, sometime before evening, probably, Iexpect all three of you to be suffering from an attack of Blue MartianFever, and I want you to get expert hospital care. You will be thenucleus of the new regime."

  Karl laughed. "I wish you could have picked a base for your SDE that wasless unpleasant than Blue Martian."

  "Who's got Blue Martian?" asked Tanya, as the girls came in from thekitchen with their trays of food. "I'll never forget how sick it mademe."

  "You should worry," said Leah. "It kept you young and beautiful, didn'tit?"

  "You won't have to envy her, Leah," said David going to the liquorcabinet. "I'm going to give you and the others a shot of the SDE-MartianBlue. Sometime Tuesday afternoon you should feel the first symptoms. Butafter forty-eight hours in the hospital, you'll be good as new. And youwill all stop growing older."

  They watched, fascinated, as he opened the cooling compartment of theliquor cupboard.

  "I always like plenty of ice in my drinks," he remarked, drawing out atray of cubes and opening a small door behind the tray. He removedseveral small bottles filled with a milky liquid, and a copper box ofsterile needles and syringes.

  "Who'll be first?"

  There was a knock at the door, and David stopped.

  "What is it?" he called.

  "Me," came the watchguard's voice. "Just thought I'd do you a favor andtell you it's only ten minutes till checkout time. Time to getyourselves decent!"

  They could hear the rumble of his laugh as he moved on down the hall.Trembling, David picked up a bottle, poured alcohol onto the rubber cap,and deftly filled the sterile syringe. He reached for a piece of cotton,dipped it in iodine, and looked up, waiting. Karl Haslam had alreadybared his left arm. David swabbed the spot on the upper deltoid.

  Karl laughed. "Here I come, Methuselah!"

  "All set?" asked David.

  He plunged the needle home.

  * * * * *

  David ran up the steps of the Institute, two at a time, and hurriedtoward his office through the echoing corridors, where the usualwatchguard sauntered on patrol.

  "Morning, Jones."

  "Good morning, Doctor. Pretty early, aren't you?"

  "Wednesday's my busy day." He settled at his desk, miserably consciousof the open door and curious eyes behind him, opened his briefcase, thenglanced at his wristwatch. More than an hour before his interview withLeader Marley.

  Spreading some data sheets before him, he looked at them blankly as hetried to order his thoughts. His eyes were ringed with dark depressions,for he had had no sleep. There had been so many things to plan for, somany arrangements to make.

  It was possible, of course, that this morning's talk would turn out tobe mere routine. There might remain several weeks of freedom--but theremight be only a few hours. He shrank from the complexity of the problembefore him; he was a Research man, devoted to his test tubes and hisculture growths, and would have been happy never to face any problembeyond them.

  He had a moment's revulsion at the unfairness of the fact that a simpleexperiment in the lab, an addition to man's knowledge of the Universe,should have plunged him against his will into a situation far beyond hisability to handle. There had been, as Karl pointed out, the alternativeof turning the SDE over to the Leader. That would have absolved him ofall responsibility. But that was the trouble, he thought. Responsibilitycould not be confined to squiggles in his notebook, when those squigglesmight affect the whole of society.

  "Dr. Wong!"

  He jumped and turned around hastily.

  "Leah! What in the world?"

  She stood in the doorway, glaring at him, breathing heavily as thoughshe were trying to hold back sobs. Slowly she tottered to the desk andsank down into her chair by the stenograph.

  "You doublecrosser!" she whispered.

  He looked quickly at the doorway, but the guard had not come back.Leaning forward, he questioned her fiercely.

  "What are you doing here? They told me yesterday that several people hadcome down with attacks of Blue Martian. Why aren't you in the hospitalwith the others?"

  "Because I wasn't sick!"

  "But I gave you--"

  "Imagine how I felt," she raced on, "watching Dr. Haslam start having achill, hearing Dr. Faure complain about his awful headache, andlistening to Dr. Hudson dial Intercom and
call for a doctor. And allthat time I was waiting, waiting for something to happen to me. Andnothing did! What have you got against me, Dr. Wong, that you infect allthe others and only pretend to do it to me? I don't want to grow old anymore than they do!"

  "But I wasn't pretending. Quiet, now, and let me think."

  He waited until the watchguard had passed by the door, then raised hishead.

  "Look here, Leah. Evidently the infection didn't take. This is what musthave happened. That treatment I gave you ten years ago must have madeyou