“Do you think we’ve actually got a chance of bringing her out?” “Would it make any difference if I said no?”
Jonath sighed, idly turning the weapon in his hand. “The fact that you know he’s got her.that dictates your action.”
“But not yours,” said Logan. “Why did you come with me, Jonath?”
“Because you’re my friend.” He smiled. “And I happen to place a high value on friendship. It’s one of the few real things I can count on in this brave new world of ours.”
“Did Evans tell you how many Sandmen Gant has with him?”
“At least two dozen.maybe more. He wasn’t sure.”
“It’s Gant himself I worry about,” said Logan. “The man’s a total fighting machine. And he doesn’t make mistakes.”
“Evans told me Gant thinks you’re dead, that the Borgias killed you at Steinbeck.”
“Good. That means he won’t be expecting our visit. Gives us a slight edge going in.” They rode in silence above the Dakotas.
Logan thought of Liath, and of Dia. Of ocean sunsets and midnight sands and clean sea air—and of lying with them in soft coral darkness…They knew he’d never return to them. And when he left they’d sent their farewells soaring after him as the paravane lifted away from the beach.
We love you, Logan!… We’ll always love you.
Always.
Always.
Fading. Dying out behind him.
Always.
“There!” Jonath pointed excitedly downward. “Rushmore! We’re close now.”
The rippling shadow of the paravane flowed over the somber granite heads of Mount Rushmore.
Logan took precautions: Gant might have posted a lookout, and since surprise was essential he brought the paravane down in a tree-screened ravine well short of their goal.
“Last chance to change your mind,” Logan said as the blades idled to silence.
“Let’s go,” said Jonath, his mouth set in a stubborn line.
“If we move fast enough,” said Logan, “we should be able to get there by sundown.” He stowed the Fuser in his belt and removed a canister of water from the paravane.
“We should cover the ship,” said Jonath. “If we make it back here and it’s gone.”
“No one can spot it from the air,” Logan assured him. “Not down in this ravine. It’s safe enough.”
And they set off.
The country was extremely ragged, laced with drifts of sharp rock and tangled root-grass which slowed their progress. Brambles tore at their skin; sun hammered their backs.
At a rest halt Logan shared the canister of water with his friend.
“How much farther?” asked the Wilderness leader, breathing heavily, his back against a pine.
“Hour maybe,” said Logan. “When I was here before, with Jess, I came in from another direction. But we should sight it soon.”
They did.
The pride of the Dakotas.
A carved granite mammoth rising for more than five hundred and fifty feet into the sky of the Black Hills.
A warrior chief riding a mighty stallion.
A mountain that had become a man: Crazy Horse.
They were standing on a high ridge with a clear view of the mountain.
“Magnificent!” declared Jonath, staring at the awesome figure.
“He led the Sioux against Custer at Little Big Horn,” said Logan. “Tashunca-uitco. A great leader. They say his arm points toward the Happy Hunting Ground of his people.”
“And now he belongs to Gant,” said Jonath bitterly.
They started down the ridge.
The sun had tipped to the western horizon when they reached the base of Crazy Horse. Logan raised a hand, hesitating. A gold object glittered in deep grass to his left. Something alive? A hidden Sandman?
He moved cautiously toward it, weapon in hand, Jonath following.
A glazed ruby eye stared up at Logan; its lens was shattered; part of a broken, rusting bulk of sunken metal.
“What is it?”
“Mech eagle,” said Logan, leaning to examine the ruptured metal corpse. “Robot guardian designed to protect Crazy Horse. Looks like this one died with the Thinker.”
Jonath picked up a portion of bronzed wingfeather. “Big,” he said.
“And deadly,” said Logan. “A pair of them ripped me last time I came here.” Logan pointed upward, to the head of the warrior. “They lived on his shoulders. Went after anything that moved.”
“Then let’s be glad this one’s not active.”
Logan smiled.
“How do we get inside?” asked Jonath.
“There are three main access caves, but Gant would likely have men at each.Our best bet is to get in from above. Through a break in the rock.”
“I’m not much good at climbing,” Jonath said.
“We won’t need to go too high,” Logan told him. “Mountain’s split in several places. Just a matter of picking one.”
Logan reconnoitered the flank of rising rock, climbing up to investigate two of the cave-like surface splits. Satisfied, he gestured to Jonath.
“Here,” he said. “
‘This one.”
Awkwardly, Jonath climbed up to join him.
“Be extremely careful inside,” Logan warned. “One loose rock could fall all the way to the bottom. Our game would be up.”
Jonath nodded.
Logan removed a small bulletlight from his tunic. “I’ll have to keep this shielded,” he said, “but at least we won’t be in total darkness. Stay behind me.”
“I sure don’t plan to lead,” smiled Jonath.
“One thing puzzles me,” said Logan.
“What?”
“Why didn’t Evans supply you with information on where Gant has Jessica? We could blunder around for miles in there!”
“My fault, really,” admitted Jonath. “When he told me she was alive I was so anxious to reach you with the news that I failed to question him fully.”
“Doesn’t matter,” said Logan. “If Jess is alive in there I’ll find her…no matter how far we go or how long it takes.”
* * *
THINKER
They had agreed to converse only out of necessity once they were inside the mountain—and now they moved in silence between pressing walls of deep-winding rock. Downward.
Toward the Thinker.
Built in the 1980s on a massive research grant, and symbolizing one of the high points of human scientific achievement, it had never been designed to rule Earth. Its final installation here, in the Crazy Horse caverns in 1991, opened a whole new research era, promising an end to disease and poverty. The truly immense computer-complex, with its mechanical cells numbering ten raised to the seventeenth power, was a natural extension of the space-probe computers of the 1970s, but with much vaster potential.
Until the Little War.
When the young took charge of world government, they also took over the Thinker—re-programming it to their own ends, setting up the Death-at-21 society with this supreme god-computer as their major arm of enforcement. The cities of Earth lived in its metallic grip, becoming totally dependent upon it. The Thinker’s multi-million arteries became the world’s prime root system, feeding power and control to each city around the globe.
As knight slays dragon, Ballard had killed the computer. It lay now, acres of blackened, inert metal, an endless cemetery of silent relays and ruptured cables, stretching for becalmed miles beneath the granite bulk of Crazy Horse.
But even in death, the Thinker inspired awe.
“It was alive when I was here with Jess,” said Logan softly, as he and Jonath stood on a wide ledge overlooking the complex. Fissured cracks in the rock walls of the mountain allowed thin spears of light to cut across the vast, dead-metal plain of linked computer banks.
“It goes on forever!” marveled Jonath. He started moving toward the floor of the caverns. Logan caught him just before his foot touched the dust-dulled surface, pull
ed him back abruptly.
“What’s wrong? Gant isn’t in this section.”
“Not Gant,” said Logan. “The Watchman.”
“Watchman?”
“Another robot kill-device. Programmed to react instantly to the slightest pressure on the floor’s surface.” Logan picked up a small pebble, tossed it onto the flooring.
Silence. No alarms. No movement.
“We’re all right,” sighed Logan. “It’s dead.” He grinned at Jonath. “Believe me, you don’t want that thing coming after you.”
“Which way now?” asked Jonath.
“I’m not sure,” said Logan, looking down a long row of silent computer banks. “Did Evans say why Gant picked Crazy Horse as his headquarters?”
“No. Just that he was here.”
“He’s probably rigged up some kind of auxiliary power—for light and heat. Using parts of the Thinker. Once we locate the power source we’ve found Gant.”
“This thing spreads out for miles.”
“Best chance is to head for the Central Core. Gant could have tapped into it for his power. If so, his headquarters will be close to the Core.”
“But I thought this was dead.all of it.”
“The components still exist,” said Logan. “Gant might have found a way to partially reactivate some of them.” He took out the canister of water, opened it. “Want some?”
“My throat’s been dry ever since we got here,” admitted Jonath, taking several swallows. Logan drank, then stowed the canister back in his tunic. “Let’s go. And walk softly all the way.”
Weapons in hand, they headed for the Core.
* * *
ALIVE
Theoretically, Logan knew where the heart of the Thinker was located, but he’d never seen it. However, if his reasoning was correct regarding Gant’s use of this potential power center, the Core would soon reveal itself.
A live hum of energy alerted them as they moved down one of the mile-long corridors. A golden wash of light haloed the darkness ahead of them.
Logan spoke in a low whisper to Jonath: “Gant’s men could be anywhere in this area. Keep close to the banks.”
The sound increased.
“Crawl,” directed Logan, dropping to his stomach. “We’re almost there.”
They inched forward, emerging onto a spiral of balcony which overlooked the glowing mass of the Central Core.
It was huge—an interlinking of incredibly-complex electronic columns, rising into the upper level of the mountain, each golden column pulsing with incalculable energies. At least half of the columns were “alive.”
Logan was stunned. The display of computer power astonished him. In reactivating this much of the Core Gant had accomplished far more than Logan had believed possible.
To what purpose? Surely he had harnessed considerably more power than his personal use required. “I want to get closer,” Logan told Jonath. “You stay here while I — “
“Closer?” an amplified voice boomed and crashed around them. “A simple wish, Logan 3. One that I shall be happy to grant.”
A cluster of pinbeams raked the balcony as Logan and Jonath sprang back, guns ready. Logan blinked into the glare: “Are you Gant?”
“I am,” the voice crackled.
“Where’s Jessica?”
“Where indeed!” And the voice boomed in laughter. “Why should I tell you anything?”
“We’re armed,” Logan warned. “We can do a lot of damage here.”
A dark figure advanced on them along the curving balcony. “That’s an empty threat,” said a voice that Logan recognized immediately.
“Evans!”
“Been a long time, Logan. When you made it to Argos I thought we’d never see you again. Yet…” And he smiled. “Here you are!”
Jonath was trembling with rage. “You used me—to get Logan here. Everything you told me…lies! All lies!”
“Not everything,” said Evans smoothly, covering them with his Gun. “I said that Gant was here, which he is. And that he’d taken Jessica. Also true.”
Jonath’s eyes blazed. He raised the Fuser. “You filthy—”
Evans Gunned him. Ripper. In a sudden eruption of heat Jonath’s body was blown apart. The remains of his charred corpse sprawled at Logan’s feet.
“You are surrounded, Logan,” boomed Gant’s voice. “My men have been pacing you since the moment you entered Crazy Horse. Now, if you wish to see Jessica alive you’ll hand your weapon to Evans 9.”
“Do it,” snapped Evans.
Face tight, eyes hard on his ex-friend, Logan handed the Fuser to Evans.
Other Sandmen materialized around him. One of them tapewired Logan’s hands behind his back; another quickly looped a chokechain around his neck, affixed it to his wrists, snugged it tight.
During this, Logan remained silent.
With a tight smile, Evans said, “Welcome back, friend.”
Logan spat in his face.
* * *
GANT
Seven feet tall. Bare-waisted. Dark, burnished skin. Deep-sunk, luminous eyes. A shark’s slash of mouth.
Gant.
Logan stood before him, flanked by two Sandmen. “Down,” said Gant to one of them.
In response, the Sandman jerked fiercely on Logan’s chokechain, forcing him to his knees.
Gant walked around him in a slow circle. “Your body’s in good condition.” He prodded Logan’s shoulder. “Solid muscle tone. I’m happy to see that you’ve maintained yourself. So many ex-Sandmen go slack, allow their bodies to—”
“Where—is—she?” Logan’s voice was edged, the words spaced with cold anger.
“You’ll see her,” said Gant. “I give you my absolute promise that the two of you shall soon be reunited.”
“Have you.. .harmed her?”
Gant looked down at Logan and, for the first time, smiled at him. The smile was grotesque. The tall man had replaced his teeth with rubies. They glittered like blood in Gant’s wide jaw.
“I never harm a thing of value,” he said. “And Jessica has been of immense value to me.” Again the jeweled smile. “She brought me you.”
He gestured to the Sandmen. Logan was dragged up, pushed into a couch facing Gant’s desk.
The tall man eased into a lifeleather chair, folded his hands and leaned across the mirrored expanse of desk. “This mountain is mine, Logan. It was Ballard’s once. But he got careless.”
Logan found it all but impossible to listen to Gant, talk to him with any degree of calm; he wanted, with every ounce of his conscious being, to launch himself at the man’s throat.
“You smashed the Sanctuary Line at Steinbeck,” said Logan. “…and followed Ballard here.”
“That’s correct. But I was a bit late in arriving. Before I killed him Ballard had time to destroy a large part of the Thinker. Fortunately, not all. As you can see, he left the greater part of the Core intact.”
Logan remained silent as Gant fingered a large, square-cut ruby, one of several on the desk. He studied his captive, turning the ruby slowly in his fingers. “Now I have the Central Core, and you. A double bonus.”
“All these years.. .you’ve been brooding about my escape.”
“You dishonored me as a Sandman!”
“You have no honor, Gant! You’ve never had it. All you’re after is revenge.”
“An honorable goal in itself,” said Gant. “Many great men have sought it.” He chuckled. “In fact, when you killed at Steinbeck you were seeking exactly that against the Borgias. Revenge.”
“I wanted Jess back. I went there to find her—but it was you behind it all. You had her taken!”
“No, I’m afraid I can’t claim credit for that. The outlanders happened upon her, didn’t realize the prize they’d found. I was able to purchase her for a very modest price. But the price didn’t matter.”
He stood up, walked casually over to Logan, buried his right fist in his hair and savagely jerked Logan’s head back. “I wan
ted you, Logan.” His voice was cold iron. “Wanted you here!”
Then he smiled again, releasing his grip, moved back to his desk. “Actually, until Jessica was put on the Market, I was not aware that you’d returned to Earth. But once I found her it made everything simple. Buy her. Hold her. Get word to you. Wait for you. All very simple.”
“How do I know you haven’t killed her?”
“You don’t,” said Gant. “I thought carefully about it, thought about bringing you here and showing you her corpse.but decided on a richer plan. One that will…satisfy me more.”
“Were you…satisfied with Jonath’s death?” asked Logan bitterly.
“He was brandishing a weapon. There was no other course of action possible.”
“Look.” Logan drew in a breath. “We’ve had our talk. When do I see Jess?”
“Soon. As I promised,” smiled the tall man. “I note, by the way, that you seem to find my smile unusual. Rubies happen to be a personal vanity of mine. I visited a New You and had these put in. I rather like the effect.”
“Why can’t I see Jessica now?”
Gant’s face tightened. “Because I say you can’t. First…there’s a special room you must visit. Of my own design. I think you’ll find it.stimulating. After your visit there you’ll be reunited with Jessica.”
“If you’re lying to me, Gant…If she’s dead.”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll kill you. Somehow, I’ll kill you”
Gant laughed, a booming sound in the room. “As a Sandman you never lacked bravado, Logan. Always full of drive, self-confidence.But, in your present situation, threatening me is an empty and ridiculous gesture.” He took a Fuser from his desk, moved quickly to press the flanged barrel against Logan’s forehead. “I could burn you in an instant.”
“I don’t deny it,” said Logan. His eyes met Gant’s, locked on them. “But you heard what I said.”
Gant flung aside the weapon, abruptly turned his bronzed back on Logan. He raised a hand. “Take him away.”
And Logan was dragged from the room.
Logan: A Trilogy Page 22