Groff Conklin (ed)

by Five Odd

  "You're sure there's no danger?" I asked, nodding at the three on the lawn. Anyone who wanted to take a shot at them could do so without hindrance. We had no guards in attendance.

  "Oh yes," said Dick confidently. "Making an attempt on Lorraine's life in the ship, something that might have passed off as an accident, was one thing. Jack Kelman was just a thug hired to do a job, Rhoda Walker an assistant in case he needed one. But trying anything here would merely prove that there was something here for a Unit to find, and the U.A. would probably send out about six Units to make sure it was found."

  "It's all very well for you," I commented. "It isn't your responsibility to look after the safety of the Unit—it's mine."

  "Believe me," said Dick, "if something happened to a member of this Unit—any member—you wouldn't care half as much about it as we would."

  "I don't quite get that," I said. "Suppose you lost lone, say. The four of you who were left would still have plenty of brains and drive and personality and brawn, wouldn't you? Would it make all that difference? Surely the Unit would function much as before?"

  Dick shook his head very decidedly. "Absolutely not," he said. "We're trained so that we each cover so much. We could have been trained so that the four of us without lone could do a decent job . . . but we weren't When anything happens to any one of us, you're supposed to take his place—-but frankly, Edgar, you'd be no good at all."

  "Seems to me," I remarked, "that it's a queer way to build up a working force—useless if one member is missing."

  Dick grinned. "What a wonderful argument that is. You could make a car with only three wheels. Does that mean that if you make a car with four, you should make it so that it can run quite well on three? Should you construct your car so that it will run if necessary without a carburettor, or without the gas pump, or the oil pump?" "All right, you win," I grunted.

  "That analogy isn't too bad. The five of us are the engine, the transmission, the body, the wheels and the controls. Without any one of us, what good is the car?"

  The phone rang. Strictly I should have answered, but Dick was nearest He picked it up.

  People who are cleared dont lose their emotions. They are said to feel all the more pleasant emotions much more clearly and strongly than ordinary people, and though the less pleasant emotions like fear and anger and desperation don't necessarily affect them the way they do us, they're still there.

  But cleared people don't have to show these emotions. If they're with others who are showing theirs, they do, usually, just to be sociable. They seldom make demonstrations which are artificial as far as they're concerned.

  Dick was so calm I thought this was just a routine call. So it was a shock when he put the phone down and said:

  "Someone just shot six bullets into Lorraine. She won't live. Let's get down to the hospital, shall we?"

  It took a while before even the considerable authority we could wield got us in to see Lorraine. They'd been operating when we arrived. There was a faint chance to save her life, apparently, but so faint that it was mentioned only for the sake of accuracy.

  "Don't you understand, idiot" Dick said heatedly to the head surgeon, for once letting his exasperation with ordinary uncleared people show, "that that's exactly why we've got to see her right away? She's a member of a Unit. With the rest of us helping her, she'll puO through if there's a ghost of a chance. But if—"

  The head surgeon walked away.

  Cleared or not Dick was raging. It was as if someone was insisting on amputating his right leg and he knew the leg didn't have to be amputated.

  "Cool down," I said. "We've got to do this their way."

  "While Lorraine dies!" Dick exclaimed.

  On Earth the Units are commoner and better understood. People know that if a Uniteer has a baby, for example, the other members of the Unit are always with her. The hus-

  band, whoever he is, stays outside as usual, but the four other members of her Unit are there beside her, helping her. Not that they need to be there for a confinement.

  They do need to be there when it's something really serious.

  You see, in one way cleared people aren't as sensible as the rest of us. If they're in supreme danger, if they're badly injured, they refuse to give up. They won't lapse into unconsciousness and cease to take any responsibility for what happens to them. They go on fighting until at last they die.

  That's if they're on their own—or surrounded by ordinary people, which comes to the same thing as far as a cleared person is concerned.

  If the Unit is there, they trust it completely, as usual. The Unit tells them to sleep, or concentrate on something, or block off something, or go into deep trance for days at a time if necessary, and they do exactly as they're told.

  Uniteers aren't medically qualified, but they do know far more about their own bodies and about some aspects of healing than doctors do.

  - I sent lone to find out what had happened, Brent to check on conditions at the hospital to make sure that whoever had done this didn't have a chance to make absolutely sure, Helen to see the police chief, and Dick to find out from some responsible doctor exactly what Lorraine's injuries were. I gave them four minutes.

  I myself went to see the medical supervisor. He'd be up-to-date in his information and would know that Uniteers shared everything—even operations.

  That was what I hoped. What I found was an old man who tried to argue with me.

  "I know it's done," he agreed, "but surely it's merely a sort of Unit privilege. Now in this case I understand the woman has two bullets through the right lung and one in the stomach. It's purely a surgical—"

  "Doctor Green," I said savagely, "If you delay us ten seconds more, 111 have you broken and thrown into the street"

  The doctor drew himself erect "Intimidation won't get you anywhere, young man," he snapped. "I'm in charge here, and I haven't refused your request, merely—"

  "Merely delayed us so that when we get to Lorraine it may be too late. Dr. Green, if Lorraine dies you may be charged with murder."

  That got through and frightened him. It wasn't an idle threat either, and perhaps he could see that. If Lorraine died and later investigation showed that the assistance of her Unit might have saved her life, Green would be hounded by the U.A. So he climbed down, trying to pretend that wasn't what he was doing. He and I arrived back at the theater just as Dick, Brent and Helen got back from their errands. We had to wait ten seconds for lone.

  We went in. We were lucky, we were able to stop the heavy sedation they were putting Lorraine under. Trouble with medicine is, it's ninety-five per cent generalization. Since Lorraine had been shot six times, with three wounds which could be classed as fatal, they were naturally treating her for shock as well.

  Which was wrong, for Lorraine wasn't, couldn't be, suffering from shock.

  When she first opened her eyes, we were all there. She was conscious only for a few seconds, but even that dumbfounded the doctors. She shouldn't have regained consciousness at all.

  They all spoke to her, rapidly, quietly. Dick told her briefly and with bluntness which shocked the doctors exactly what her injuries were and how serious they were. He told her what to do. Helen, who as a woman could tell her more than Dick could, amplified his recommendations. lone added a word or two. Brent merely said her name, but I gathered it carried a promise that she need devote no attention to self-defense—he was taking that over.

  In less than half a minute it was over. The Unit could cover a lot of ground in a very short time.

  When she went under again Dick breathed a sigh of relief. "She's okay," he said. "Shell sleep for about six hours. Well have to be back here then." He looked at the doctors round us. "And before you do a thing to her, check with us, understand?"

  The chief surgeon still hadnt recovered from the shock of seeing Lorraine open her eyes. "I don't understand this . . ." he began.

  "That's what I was telling you," said Dick. "You don't understand it at all. Get this for
a start. Lorraine's cleared. That means she has much more control of her so-called autonomous nerve centre than you've ever known any one to have. When she suffers an injury the brain doesn't cut out just to save itself, it wants to know if there's anything it can

  do and won't go out of phase until it's satisfied. That's why we had to be here. We told her she'd be all right and that she could sleep for six hours with everything under control." "But you dont know—"

  Dick sighed. "I know exactly what her injuries are and exactly how she can help them to heal. Doctor, if Lorraine felt like it she could step up her thyroid activity or cut it down. She could stimulate or diminish her heartbeat She has some control over all the endocrine glands and can exert a small influence over the behaviour of most groups of cells she decides to concentrate on. If you looked at her wounds now you'd be astonished to find how clean they are already."

  The surgeon looked at me. I nodded. I'd seen one or two demonstrations at the U.A. depot

  "111 believe you," said the surgeon. Obviously it was an effort

  We held a discussion with the doctors about Lorraine's treatment and then went out—except Brent He had taken charge of Lorraine. He had promised her that it was safe to sleep, and he was going to keep his promise. - The doctors still believed Lorraine was going to die, obviously. That didn't worry us.

  We compared notes. Apparently Lorraine had just left the police chief and was walking in the street when a man in a gray suit fired six shots into her from twenty yards' range, jumped into a car and was driven off. The car had already been found abandoned. It had been stolen anyway.

  There had been no pursuit because there weren't many cars in Sedgeware and the only one in the street at the time had been going the other way. The only description we could get of the assassin was that he was tall and wore a gray suit There had been someone in the car, but there was no description of him at alL

  I couldn't help remarking: "You'd just been proving this wouldn't happen, Dick."

  "I know," said Dick. "This seems crazy. It's been Lorraine both times. Could someone be trying to kill Lorraine, independent of the Unit?"

  My thoughts somersaulted. Lorraine, though she no longer knew it was A.D.'s daughter. And A.D. was mixed up in all sorts of things and might have all sorts of enemies.

  "Could be," I said. "Ill tell you what I know later."

  "Tell me what you know now," said Dick, though we were still standing in the corridor outside the operating theater.

  I told him.

  "Well check on that," said Dick. "But it doesn't sound likely."

  "You thought h wasn't likely that Lorraine would be shot"

  Dick nodded. One thing about Uniteers—you cant needle them. Dick had made a mistake, and it didn't bother him. He didnt blame himself for not having foreseen the attempt on Lorraine's life.

  We left the hospital. Nothing was said about taking extra care now, but I noticed lone wasn't even listening to what Dick and I were saying. She was looking about her like a lynx. With Brent guarding Lorraine, she had taken over the job of protecting us.

  "Next thing," said Dick. "Could it have been meant to happen just like this? Lorraine seriously hurt, but not dead? After all, an old explosive gun was used. If it had been a new gun, it wouldn't have been worth taking what was left to the hospital."

  Unexpectedly it was Helen who answered that "One in the shoulder, two in the legs, two through a lung and one in the stomach," she said. "The best marksman in the galaxy couldnt do that and expect the victim to live afterwards."

  That disposed of that.

  When Lorraine wasn't around, Helen talked more. She brought up the next point

  "Could this be a Benoit City stratagem to turn us against Sedgeware?" she asked.

  Dick considered it "No," he said. "Because obviously it won't."

  We got back to the house. Already there was a police guard there. Tyburn, the Sedgeware police chief, was taking no more chances.

  I saw right away when the three Uniteers who remained tried to get down to business that what Dick had said about all five being essential was all too true. There was no Unit any more—just four people, including me. Four people who could make mistakes like any other four people.

  "But well get a session with Lorraine tomorrow," said Dick.

  "No, you won't" I retorted.

  Dick looked at me in surprise. "The fact that she's in hospital won't stop us," he said. "We can sit round her bed and—"

  "So far," I said grimly, 'Tve only got your word for it that

  Lorraine will live. And we're not going to take any chances with her."

  Dick nodded reluctantly. "Anyway she won't take sedation so shell have a lot of pain for a day or two," he said. "Might not be at her best We'll wait a couple of days."

  "We'll wait more than that" I said. "Officially I'm in charge of this Unit remember?"

  It was decided that meantime the Unit should function as fact-finding individuals. We all carried guns and kept our eyes open.

  The difference between the kind of investigation you read of in fiction and the one we were engaged in was that in fiction the people behind the spy ring or crime cartel or whatever ft is introduce themselves to the investigators in the first few hours—though not of course, as the leaders of the spy ring or crime cartel. The fictional detective merely has to sift through the people he knows, remembering that the more harmless his suspect the more likely he is to be the villain of the piece.

  Now with us the position was exactly the opposite. Assuming our opponents had the slightest knowledge of the capabilities of a Unit and at least average intelligence, we knew they'd have stayed out of our way. None of the people we'd met in Benoit City or Sedgeware could possibly be involved with our enemies.

  Just as the Unit had identified Jack Kelman and Rhoda Walker they could identify people involved in the other attempt to kill Lorraine. The fact that we hadn't done so meant that we hadn't met any of them.

  And we weren't going to, either. Detectives may be underrated. Few people underrate Units any more.

  During the next few days we learned almost all there was to be known about Perryon. We visited the other cities. Nineteen towns, in addition to Benoit City and Sedgeware, had more than twenty thousand inhabitants. One of us visited each of them.

  And Helen, after one such visit came up with what might be the answer to the North-South problem.

  Benoit City and Sedgeware were the clear leaders of the two sections of Perryon, and the people of these two cities were also the leaders of the North-South squabble. But Twen-don, a hundreds miles to the north of Sedgeware, and Forest-hill, two hundreds miles south of Benoit City, were only a little behind them in economic and political importance. And neither Twendon nor Fores thill had ever taken much part in the dispute. Being in the south of the northern hemisphere and in the north of the southern section, they could understand both points of view, steered a middle course, and didn't think it mattered much anyway.

  Now the Unit, once it was functioning again, could quite easily sway the balance of power and make Twendon the capital of the South and Fores thill the capital of the North. The influence and importance of Benoit City and Sedgeware would wane, and so would the importance of the issues they stood for.

  We needn't tell anyone, even the people of Twendon and Foresthill, what we were doing.

  None of us saw any sign that Perryon was the Traders' base, and none of our efforts to find out who had shot Lorraine bore any fruit.

  Lorraine was going to be all right, eventually. She had been so seriously injured that there was no question of her leaving hospital for some weeks, and even Dick didn't insist on a Unit session in the hospital for four or five days.

  But at last we'd done all we could do without some guidance from the Unit as a whole, and since Lorraine herself insisted that she could take part in a brief Unit session we all went to the hospital and got busy.

  I wasn't present this time. I was fully occupied keeping doctors
and nurses out of the way. Understandably, they were all against this. I had some sympathy with their point of view. Lorraine was still in anything but good shape, and though she was by now out of danger, her body was fully occupied with healing without having to cope with a strenuous Unit session as well.

  And they are strenuous. The man who works with his brain while his body does nothing can be fully as tired at the end of a day's work as a laborer. Fit Uniteers can work together all day—but a fit Uniteer could also walk upstairs, and it would be some time before Lorraine could do that.

  I had made Dick promise to go easy on Lorraine. He kept his promise, after a fashion. They were with her for only half an hour. But I saw her afterwards, and she was dead beat

  "No more for another week at least, Lorraine," I promised her.

  She managed a faint smile. "It took more out of me than I thought," she admitted. "Another thing, Edgar—don't trust our conclusions too much. Dick's satisfied, but I know I wasn't playing my full part."

  Dick, when we got back to the residency, was jubilant "Even at half strength the Unit can get somewhere," he said, "Edgar, you'll have to send a new report back to UA on Earth. We've been barking up the wrong tree."

  I waited.

  "Someone hired Jack Kelman to kill Lorraine," said Dick. "The Traders, we thought—and we were right. Someone hired someone else to kill her here in Sedgeware. The Traders again, we thought—and again we were right

  "I told you before Lorraine was shot why I thought no further attempt would be made on us. Because that would make it clear that Perryon had something to hide, and in a few weeks, even if they killed the lot of us, there would be half a dozen Units out from Earth to investigate the whole thing— and they'd get results.

  "Well, somebody did shoot Lorraine. So the first thing we considered today was how that changed the situation. The obvious answer was that all the Traders wanted was time. They wanted time to pull something off, or make their escape, or get themselves properly hidden, before a properly functioning Unit got busy on Perryon. They didn't care what happened in two months, they just didn't want the Unit checking on them now."