Doomsman - the Theif of Thoth

by Harlan Ellison

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  for acclaim . . . so I show you my best work, sir, in

  hopes when you return to that position of importance

  your assassin's garb tells me you possess, you will drop

  the good words about poor Tedus Nur, in the darkness

  below New Chicago."

  His face was beaming .with supplication and a sort of

  beatific need the likes of which J uanito had never

  encountered. But the dwarf had said something Something most important. He had said that Juanito was to be helped, and they had not told the dwarf that Juanita's

  mission was all the puppet work it had become. They had

  told no one, obviously, for in that way only could they

  keep it secret from Juanito. They had told Grice that he

  played a greater part in the conspiracy. And perhaps they

  had not even told him-perhaps he had spied out the information on his own.

  But whatever the case, Juanito was now in the lap of

  the information he needed, and he was safe, completely

  safe, altogether in the driver's seat.

  The dwarf had his instructions, and he had to carry

  DOOMSMAN

  them out Now Juanito would learn where his father was

  to be found.

  "What is it you wish to show me, Nor?" a new tone of

  authority suffused Juanita's voice. ''Will it lead me to

  Eskalyo?"

  The dwarf's ridiculous head bobbed up and down on

  the spindly, nearly nonexistent neck, and he chuckled to

  himself. He threw a flat palm toward the whimpering girl,

  chained to the floor, and said, "This girl will tell us, sir.

  "I have had her in my Chambers for three months

  now, sir. She was sent to me from Ciudad Rosario--I'm

  sure they have told you about Ciudad Rosario. A petty

  monarchy somewhere in Argentina. She is one of the

  household maids or something there, we have never been

  quite able to find out what her position was. She was

  found in the town of Corientes," he mouthed and mispronounced the name fearfully, "that's on the Argentine-­

  Paraguay border-"

  "I know where it is, Nur," Juanito interrupted. "Well,

  what has she said, if she is from Eskalyo's duchy?"

  The dwarf looked frightened then, and sheepish.

  "N-nothing, Mr. Jackh."

  Juanito seized his opportunity.

  "Nothing?"

  The dwarf nodded dumbly, frightened at the authority

  in Juanita's tones.

  "A good word, is it? A good word with my superiors,

  is that what you want, you slug!" The dwarf's face darkened, and he cringed down and back in a confusion of anger and fear. "I'll give you many words. But none

  good. What manner of inefficiency is that, you've had a

  woman here for three months-" The period three

  months rang true; that was just about the time Juanito

  had asked for transfer to the Hi Guard, "-and she has

  not yet spilled her data. You are to be congratulated,

  Tedus Nur, really congrat-"

  .

  The little dwarf sprang forward then. But not at Juanita. He ripped a fearful cry from his chest and threw himself at the girl. In a moment he was over her, the

  blacksnake bullwhip ripping the air, the sparks splattering

  out against the green, glowing walls. Then the whip

  arched down and struck her naked flesh, and the �

  DOOMSMAN

  was a small, stifled thing, all the more terrible for its heaviness and sharpness and shortness.

  Even as Juanito started forward, the dwarf struck

  again and a third time, so quickly Juanito barely' saw the

  movement of the heavily corded arms. Where the lash

  dug in, great wide stripes of blue-black welts erupted, and

  blood surged up into the troughs like water in a pod.

  Juanito caught the dwarfs arm as the third blow landed, and he ripped the bullwhip from his hands, lifting the little maniac and throwing him bodily against the wall.

  Tedus Nur struck the wall and fell on his face. The girl

  cried no longer; she was unconscious, her hands doubled

  into futile little fists.

  Juanito took the whip in his left hand, and saved his

  right hand for the dwarf. He was intent on beating the executioner as he had beaten the girl, but sanity returned quickly, and the assassin's sharp mind stopped him.

  "Fool!" he snapped at Tedus Nur, who was shaking his

  head in confusion and pain. "Would you kill the oile person who can lead me to the man I seek? AmericaState needs her alive

  more than you need her pain! Get

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  out of here!"

  The dwarf stood up shakily, clinging to the wall which

  would not support him He fell again. Enflamed with rage

  .

  at the dwarfs treatment of the girl, Juanito stepped to the

  little man and dragged him bodily to his feet. Juanito

  thrust the shank of the whip into the dwarf's hand, and

  propelled him from the cell.

  As an afterthought he called the executioner back.

  "Here! You, Nur. Give me your keys to these chains. I

  will try some of the methods of persuasion used at the

  School. They are less flamboyant, but I'm sure they will

  give me the answers I seek." He took the plate of

  lectro-keys offered subserviently by the midget, and said,

  "Go to your office and wait for me." Then, "And have a

  jetcopter waiting, I may have to return to the School at

  once. Do you understand?"

  The midget's face was drained of everything by the

  fear method. His eyes were lusterless and he nodded his

  grotesque head jerkily, like a child.

  "And speak to no one about this, is that clear?"

  Juanito jabbed a finger at the midget, and thrust him

  OOOMSMAN

  away without bothering to find out the answer. There

  could be only one answer. The midget was conditioned,

  as everyone in AmericaState was conditioned, to do what

  be was told by a superior representative of the America­

  State officialdom.

  The midget was gone, and Juanito turned to look at

  the girl. Yes, she was Ciudad Rosario. For somewhere

  along the commingled gene-lines, one of Eskalyo's peoples

  had mated with the flame-haired folk of Ireland, and

  down those lines had come the opportunity, which had

  ended in this girl. Her eyes were the only part of her Juanito could not see, for they were closed, but even under the coating of filth and blood and deep cuts that swathed

  her young body, there was no question of her attractiveness. Perhaps not beautiful in the exotic sense of the word, but fair in the traditional sense of fair. Lovely to

  behold

  even in this pit of evil and death.

  •

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  •

  Juanito pleged silently to attend to Tedus Nur before

  he left the Chambers.

  He crouched beside the girl, who was deeply lost in unconsciousness, and slowly began to unlock the chains that held her to the scummy floor. Rats ran for their holes at

  the sounds of the chains dropping away. A sound in the

  walls was the tap-tapping of another prisoner somewhere

  down the line.

  The assassin lifted the girl's upper body into his arms,

  and slid her up against his chest. She was quite light; they

  had
obviously been starving her, in addition to the torture-and whatever extra pleasures Tedus Nur had practiced on her. He swung her legs up, and carried her out of the cell, into the great waiting room.

  The girl's auburn hair hung down in great waves, and

  her head was thrown back across Juanito's arm, so the

  arch of her neck was taut and smooth. He looked at her

  face, and it was a sweet face, despite what the last three

  months had done to her. Her body showed the signs of

  wasting; there were fleshy, fat-lines about her thighs and

  hips and waist where she had lost weight and the skin had

  left fat deposits. Yet her figure was still surprisingly feminine, and not too thin to be called starved.

  He laid her down on one of the great benches for which

  there seemed to be no purpose, and looked around for

  DOOMSMAN

  something to drape over her. There was nothing. The

  great hall was empty.

  Juanita dug in the linings of his pouch and came up

  with a water spot. He took the tiny expansible plastic

  container in his hand, and rubbed his palms together

  rapidly; the water spot expanded with the friction, and

  combined its elements.

  In a few minutes he had a plastic bag :filled with pure

  water, that tasted lightly of chlorine.

  He broke off the drink tip and inserted it between her

  lips. At first the water ran down her face and onto her

  chest, but then she began sipping lightly. In a moment

  she was hacking and choking strangely, and her eyes flew

  open.

  Yes, they were green, as Juanita had supposed.

  She looked at him, and said nothing. He brought the

  drink tip to her lips again and she drank greedily. When

  she had had her fill, he drained the last of the water himself, and threw the bag away.

  "Thank you," she said softly. There was a world of

  suffering in the words, and her eyes wen� frosted over.

  Juanita nodded. He let his face assume an expression

  of sympathy and deep interest. What the instructor of expressions at the School had called "a look to generate confidence in the subject." It worked, of course.

  Juanita had no interest in this girl whatsoever. She was

  merely another step to Eskalyo, and as such, he would

  play her for her worth, and then pass on. He was going to

  Ciudad Rosario if it killed every link in the chain; but he

  was going. That was the way of an assassin.

  "If I carry you part of the way, do you think you could

  walk the rest, up those stairs?" he waved a hand at the

  huge staircase around the comer at the end of the great

  hall.

  She looked at him warily. "Who are you?"

  Juanita had to take a chance. "I'm Eskalyo's son," he

  replied levelly. "I was in the School for assassins when I

  was probed, and found out. I've been trying for a long

  time to get back to my father."

  Her eyes had widened steadily as he spoke till now

  they were huge with incredulity. "You're lying," she

  breathed,

  DOOMSMAN

  Juanito forged ahead. "Listen to me. What I say is

  truth, but whether you believe me or not, I don't care.

  I've killed men to get this far, and I'm not afraid to continue doing it. But I'm going to get to my father, if I have to kill everyone in the world

  everyone in this

  •

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  damned AmericaState. Do you understand me?"

  She did not answer. More, she refused to answer; her

  silence was an electric thing; it defied words; it defied

  him, and in so doing-by mere silence-she infuriated

  him.

  "Did the dwarf torture you?"

  Again, silence. Then, slowly, an infinitesimal nod. A

  nod that embodied a great deal of strength despite horror.

  "What he did was as nothing to what I will do to you,

  if you don't take me to my father." The words were soft

  as ashes, spaced as nails in flesh.

  Her face drew down in a knot of determination; she

  was not going to reveal any more to Juanita than she had

  to Tedus Nur.

  So Juanita did something to her.

  It bothered him to have her break up that way, but

  when cooperation cannot be obtained through coercive

  means, the assassin is trained to bring it about through

  the next most direct. The case had called for insistence,

  and even a bit of callousness, and Juanita's training had

  responded promptly. When he had revived her the second

  time, she was prepared to believe anything he said;

  should he have assured her he was the Director of

  AmericaState, she would have nodded and accepted him

  with a curtsey. But all he wanted was a direction to

  Eskalyo and Ciudad Rosario.

  "You can't get there without me," she assured him, her

  spirit broken, but her position the same as before. "There

  are things about the route no one knows outside of the

  monarchy. Alld there are checkpoints. You'll have to take

  me back with you if you want to get there alive."

  Juanita drew his vibro-blade from its slide sheath and

  held it under her nose. Immature bravado rang in his

  voice as he snapped, "I've been looking for my father for

  OOOMSMAN

  a long time now. With this I'll get there. Don't order me

  around. Don't tell me what I have to do."

  The girl sucked in breath raggedly, and she slumped

  her shoulders. "All right. All right." Weariness rose and

  fell like a tide in her voice. "If you don't believe me, then

  try and get there yourself. I'm willing to take you; you

  say you are who you are, and I'm too--too tired' to

  argue, but I can't change it when I say that without me

  you won't get in."

  Juanito considered. He recognized his own adolescence

  in threatening her so openly with the blade. He sheathed

  it again, and nodded his agreement. "All right. If you

  aren't lying, I'll have to chance it. There's a copter waiting upside, I hope. Just follow my lead, and pretend what I do is the way it is. Don't cross me or we'll both die."

  The look in her eyes said she did not care if either of

  them died, but she would cooperate. Juanita felt a vague

  restlessness in his stomach; things were moving along, he

  was getting where he wanted to get-or was he?

  "Let's go."

  He helped her to her feet, and she refused when he

  offered to carry her. She walked ahead of him, across the

  hall and around the comer, then up the stairs. She carried

  herself proudly, though she was covered with filth and

  slime and despite the fact that she was completely without

  clothing. Her nudity did not seem to disturb her, and she

  held herself high, though the weariness and despair in her

  claimed that regal carriage as they climbed. Juanito was

  finally forced to carry her the last hundred feet of steps.

  When they entered Nor's office, the girl was feigning

  unconsciousness.

  Juanito snapped, "She has more information than I'm

  able to dredge up here. I'm taking her back to the School

  where I can use more advanced m�thods on her. Do you

  have the copter ready?"

&nb
sp; Tedus Nur was smoking a cigar. It looked like a huge

  green protuberance, thrust from his gnomelike face. He

  arched his thick eyebrows in amusement at Juanita's

  words. "Oh?" and "Is that so?" and "Oh, to be sure, to

  be sure, sir," he mumbled and gibed as Juanita spoke.

  His tones were ridicule, his movements insulting.

  DOOMSMAN

  "Welll I want to take my prisoner, now," Juanito used

  the same tones of authority as before.

  But this time Tedus Nur laughed. His laugh was

  compounded of gut-rumbling and spittle and the cigar

  bobbing up and down between his fleshy lips. "You smell

  bad, assassin. You smell very bad; you smell to me like

  an old fish! An old one, Mister Lland Jackh!" he mustered himself on his throne of pillows and burst into riotous laughter. "Smell bad, smell bad, you smell so bad to me. You don't even smell like what you're supposed to be,

  assassin!"

  Juanito moved toward the door. The dwarf rose off his

  pillows. "Oh no!"

  Somehow, the dwarf's mind had snapped. Despite his

  instructions from SecuritySeek, Tedus Nur had lost his

  senses, and was trying to stop the assassin from getting to

  Eskalyo.

  Juanito whispered sharp words to the girl and she

  dropped from his arms as Juanito drew his vibro-blade.

  The blade sang in the air as the assassin threw it overhand. It imbedded itself in the dwarfs throat, and carried him back against the wall with its impact. A fountain of

  blood gushed forth from the little man's throat and he

  had just a second to utter a sharp, piglike squeal.

  Only a second lapsed before he died, open-eyed, and

  clutching his cigar. Then the curtains at the other side of

  the room parted, and Juanito found himself staring at the

  bell muzzle of a ten-thread disrupter, on a tripod mount,

  with three prison guards-ChiTroop guards-tending it.

  He had but a split instant to glean the situation and understand what was going on:

  Juanito threw himself forward, even as the gunner depressed the automatic fire stud. Juanita prayed the girl was out of the line of fire as he assumed she was. He was

  in mid-air as the ten-thread bolt spread blue beneath his

  legs. He sailed over the muzzle of the deadly weapon and

  crashed into the three ChiTroopers; They were bowled

  backward by the impact of his body, and the disruptor

  was knocked sidewise. Its blue beam crackled and spurted