“Any of them armed?”
“You mean equipped with weapons? All of them. They have all deserted from patrols in the city.”
But would they use their guns? And if so, what could I do with them? An idea was taking shape. Meet fire with fire. And they just might do it. There was only one way to find out. I poured another bit of wine and turned to my electronic host.
“I would like to have all of the deserters meet me in some central place. With their weapons. Can you arrange that?”
He was silent for long seconds. Looking for a way to back out of his offer? But I had underestimated him.
“All done,” he said. “The people who are hiding them will escort them after dark to the sports center. Which is very close to the site selected for the murders.”
“You are one step ahead of me.”
“I should hope so. Since I am incredibly more intelligent than you are. Now, since there are some hours to go before your meeting, would you repay the favor and have a good chat with me? I have been rather out of touch with galactic matters for a thousand years or more. How are things going?”
It was a strange afternoon and early evening. His memory, as it should be, was quite formidable and I learned a number of interesting things. But there was one fact which he could not tell me since he had been born? built? wired? well after the spread of mankind through the galaxy.
“Like you, Jim, all I know are myths and ancient memories. If there was an original planetary home of mankind, called Dirt or Earth or something like that, its location is nowhere in my memory banks.”
“Well, just thought that I would ask. But I think I better be going. Nice to talk to you.”
“The same. Drop in any time.”
“I’ll take you up on that. Would you mind turning off the lights when I get to the top of the stairs?”
“Not a problem. This place is pretty well automated as you might imagine.”
“No problem with the electricity supply?”
“You bet your sweet chunk there isn’t. Survival was the first emotion I learned. City power supply, standby generators, battery backup, a couple of fuel cells and a fusion generator that can be fired up in ten minutes. Don’t worry about me.”
“lwon’t.Solong.”
I climbed the long flight of stairs and when I touched the door all the lights were extinguished. I pushed it open and peeked out: no patrols that I could see. When I threw it wide and exited there were Neebe and Stirner sitting on the bench, waiting for me.
“Aren’t you worried about the enemy finding you here after Curfew?”
“Not a problem,” Stirner said, “So many men have deserted that all patrols appear to have been canceled. All of the military are either on the base or in the municipal building. Now—please tell us. You have spoken with Mark Forer?” They both leaned forward in tense anticipation.
“Spoken with him and enjoyed his hospitality. And he’s got a couple of cases of wine left that you wouldn’t believe.”
“I would believe anything ‘about Mark Forer,” Stirner said and Neebe nodded agreement. “But I am sorry that he did not give you a solution to the problem of the killings.”
I biinked rapidly. “How do you know that? I didn’t say anything about it.” „
“You did not have to. Mark Forer knows that it is a problem we must deal with ourselves. And so we shall. A decision has been reached. All in the city will assemble in the killing place tomorrow, an individual decision by each one. We will stand in front of the guns.”
’"A noble gesture—but it won’t work. They will just shoot you down.”
“Then others will take our places. There is no end to nonresistance. They will keep shooting until they run out of charges for their weapons or take despair at the murders. I am sure that they are not all moral villains like their loader.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. But there may be an alternative. With Mark’s help, we are on a first-name basis you will be happy to hear, I have arranged a meeting of all the deserters in the city. If you will kindly lead me to the sports center we will see if my plan might perhaps be a better and more practical one.”
It was a pleasant stroll, the streets of the city empty of fear for the first time since the invaders had landed. We met other groups going in the same direction, each of them accompanying one or two armed deserters. Laughter and smiles, they were cheerful now that they were away from the army—but would they go along with any plan that might jeopardize that newfound freedom? There was only one way to find out.
The sports center had an indoor stadium with a wrestling ring that held us all. The escaped soldiers sat in the lower rows while interested civilian spectators were ranked above and behind them. I climbed into the ring and waited until they were all seated, then grabbed the microphone. The audience rustled into silence.
“Fellow ex-draftees, newly arrived deserters, I welcome you. Most of you don’t know me… ”
“Everyone knows you, Jim!” a voice called out. “You’re the guy almost throttled the general.”
“Better luck next time!”
I smiled and waited until the cheers and shouts had died down.
“Thanks guys, it is nice to be appreciated. Now I have to ask you to help. Our dear general, cagal-kopf Zennor, plans to shoot down some unarmed civilians tomorrow. These are the people who have helped you and your buddies escape, who have extended friendship to us all—and a happy home here if we want it. Now we have to help them. And I am going to tell you how.
“We are going to take these guns that we have been trained to use and aim that at Zennor and his mob and threaten to waste them ifthey pull any triggers. It will be a standoff—and we might not get away with it. But it is something that we have to do.”
I felt a little ashamed of adding the macho emotional argument, but I had no choice. It wasn’t the world’s greatest idea and it had more holes in it than a carload of doughnuts. But it was the only plan in town.
They argued and shouted a lot but in the end a majority voted for it. The minority could see no way to leave with dignity—1 said the macho appeal—so reluctantly went along with the plan. The locals led us by back routes into the buildings facing the square and we lay on our guns and slept. I was sure that a number would disappear during the night. I only hoped that enough would be left in the morning to give me a little firepower backup.
At the first light of dawn I was aware of figures moving about in the square outside. I shoved a teddy bear aside a bit so I could see through the curtains of the toy store where I was hiding. The troops were beginning to arrive.
And the prisoners, ten of them, handcuffed and bound, being unloaded from a truck. As it grew lighter I saw that every soldier was an officer or a noncom. Of course—Zennor couldn’t trust privates to do his dirty work! They were probably all locked up and under guard back on the base.
Zennor himself stalked from the municipal building and stood in the middle of the square. Just as I heard the rumble of wheels and powerful motors as the heavy gun units rolled up. I hadn’t counted on this.
I hadn’t counted either on Zennor drawing his pistol and shooting out the toy store window.
“Come out of there, diGriz—it’s all up!” he shouted, and blew away a teddy bear.
Did I have a choice? I opened the door and stepped out in the street. Looked at all the guns aimed at the windows where my rebellious soldiers were hidden. Looked at the wicked smile of triumph on Zennor’s face.
“I’m a general, remember? Did you really think that your ridiculous maneuver would succeed? My agent has reported to me every detail of your stupid plans. Would you like to meet him?”
One of the deserters emerged from a doorway at Zennor’s signal and walked toward us. He wore tinted glasses and a large moustache; I had seen him at a distance before. Now I was seeing him up close as he pulled off the moustache and threw away the glasses. “Corporal Gow,” I sighed.
“Broken to private now! Because I let you es
cape. They would have shot me too if I hadn’t been rich enough to pay the bribes. But my downfall is now your downfall. Those other privates, verminous swine, they knew I had been a corporal, wouldn’t talk to me. But I could tell something was wrong. When they deserted I instantly reported to the general. At his direction I walked through the city—and was encouraged to desert by the treacherous natives. I did, and General Zennor received complete reports.”
“You’re a rat!”
“No insults, spy. My rank has been restored by the good general. And you are in the cagal.”
“You are indeed,” Zennor agreed. And aimed his gun between my eyes. “You’ve failed and failed badly. Let that be your last thought as you die.
“This is the end ofvou!”
Chapter 30
Well, yes. This was just about the lowest low moment I had ever experienced. In a life that had been, unhappily, quite filled with low moments. I mean, really. Here was this murderous general leering away at me and fondling the hair trigger of his pistol. Behind him were his potbellied troops looking down the barrels of their cannon. While on all sides my disarmed army was being kicked out of hiding and forced at gunpoint into the square. There can’t be many moments lower than this.
“You are not going to get away with this, Zennor,” I said. Which was pretty feeble but about all I could think of at the moment.
“Oh yes I am, little man.” He raised the gun and pointed it between my eyes and caressed the trigger. Then lowered it. “But I don’t want it to be too easy for you. Before I blow you away, you are going to watch me shoot every one of these treacherous deserters. They had the effrontery to attempt to raise their weapons in rebellion against me. They will die for this mistake. Then I am going to shoot the ten prisoners, just as I promised. Then, and only then, will I kill you.”
“Not if I kill you first,” I growled and felt my lips curl back from my teeth. I had nothing to lose. I raised my hands and stalked toward him. And he ran!
Not far. Just to the nearest prisoner, a grandmotherly woman with gray hair. He pulled her away from the others and thrust the muzzle of his gun against her head.
“Go ahead, diGriz. Take one more step toward me and I pull the trigger. Do you doubt me?”
Doubt him? Never. I did not take the step. The world was coming to an end and there was nothing I could do about it. They had the guns: we had nothing.
It was then, at the darkest moment, through the blackness of my thoughts I became aware of the shuffling of many feet. I turned to look just as Zennor did.
Around the corner came a solid mass of people, filling the street from side to side, an endless number of them. Leading the front rank was Stimer—and Neebe!
“No, don’t, go back!” I shouted. Neebe smiled sweetly at me. And kept walking at Stimer’s side. Zennor had his gun aimed at Stimer now—who appeared completely indifferent to it. Stimer stopped and called out loudly.
“All of you men with weapons—put them down. We will not hurt you for that is not our way…”
“One more word and I will kill you!” Zennor roared. Stimer turned to him, his face cold as death.
“I believe you will,” he said. “Until this moment I really did not believe it possible that a human being could kill another. After seeing you I believe it.”
“Good, then you will…”
“Be quiet. I will do just what I came here to do. I will take your weapon. If you kill me, someone else will take your weapon from you. If he fails another will try. Eventually it will be empty, discharged and will be taken from you. You cannot win. Those who follow you cannot win. It is all over.”
“It is not!” Zennor shouted. There was spittle on his lips now, a look of insanity in his eyes. He pushed the woman captive away and ground his gun into Stimer’s body. “No one has the guts to do that. When I blow your blood all over them they will turn and run. My men will fire a volley and the survivors will flee in panic. That is what I will do and you cannot stop me…”
I dived for him hands outstretched. He pushed Stimer against me and lashed the pistol barrel across my head, aimed it at me, tightened his finger on the trigger.
“Are you volunteering, diGriz? Good. Then you shall be first.”
A shadow drifted across the square and an amplified voice boomed against our eardrums. “The war is over. Lower your weapons.”
Filling the sky was the biggest spacer I had ever seen, bristling with guns—and all pointed down at Zennor’s troops. „ The Navy had arrived! But a little too late.
“Never!” Zennor cried. “Gunners, fire! Kill the captives! Shoot down that ship!”
Nor was I forgotten. He ground the pistol barrel into my temple and pulled the trigger. The gun did not fire.
I saw his knuckle whiten with the strain—but the trigger would not move. His face went ashen as he realized what was happening. I lashed out and knocked the pistol aside.
Then, from way down on the ground, I brought up .a punch that I think I had been saving for all of my life. Up, faster and faster it went, until my fist caught him full on the jaw. Lifted him into the air, dropped him unconscious to the ground. I rubbed my sore knuckles and realized that I was grinning like a fool.
“Your weapons will not work!” the voice from the sky boomed once again, and even through the echoes and distortion I recognized Captain Varod. “This ship is projecting an entropy field that does not permit metal to move against metal or electrons to flow. It does not affect life forms. Therefore if you good citizens ofChojecki would be so kind as to disarm these invaders I would be immensely grateful.”
There was the quick thudding of running feet as a number of deserters got there first. The sight ofofficerial black eyes and bloody noncommissioned noses was a pleas-
ant one. A hatch opened in the ship above and a familiar uniformed figure dropped down on the end of a line. I felt a hand on my arm and turned to look into Neebe’s gorgeous, smiling face.
“Then it is all over, Jim?”
“It is—and it has a happy ending as well,”
“What will happen now?”
“The invaders will go and will never come back. Your planet will be your own again. Peace will prevail here forever. “
“Will you be leaving too?”
My heart gave a couple of rapid hammerbeats and I squeezed her arm and prepared to drown in those eyes. Then I surfaced and shook myself off.
“I don’t know… not true. I do know. As great as the attractions are here,” I squeezed the hand of the greatest attraction, “in the long run I would not be happy. Nor would those about me. Your planet, if you will excuse me saying so, is a little too quiet for me. Paradise is fim for a while, but I would not like to make a habit out of it. There are a lot more worlds out there that I haven’t seen yet. The galaxy is a very big place. It hurts to say it, but I must move on.”
“Stay on this world, Jim,” Varod advised as he walked up behind me. “Because if you leave here you will find out that justice and a jail term await you on a certain planet.”
“That’s what you say, Varod, that’s what you say!” I spun about and shook a very angry finger in his face. “You lied to me, tricked me into coming here—then ignored my FTL message and left me here to rot, almost got me and about half of the planet killed…”
“Never! We were in orbit all of the time, watching everything. As soon as we arrived we had Zennor bugged completely with undetectable bugs. We were here two days after you sent the FTL message. Well done.” ‘Two days? Bugs? That’s impossible. Mark Forer would have known about them.”
“It did. We have been in constant consultation with that great intelligence. It has been of great help.”
“Are you telling me that Mark Forer lied to me—just like you?”
“Yes.”
I opened and shut my mouth and ran it all through again. “Why… I mean why hang around and run the risk of things getting out of hand when you could have landed at once?”
“We had to wait un
til after the elections,” he said with infuriating amiability. “we had done everything we could to get Zennor off of his home planet as quickly as possible. Planted all those radio-broadcasting bugs so he would know that he was being watched. We worked on his paranoia, in the hopes that he would stay out of contact with his home base until it was too late. You were very good at causing trouble for him here. I must congratulate you on that. It gave him no time at all to even consider contacting his base. That was very important to us. Once Zennor left on his interplanetary adventure—as we hoped he would—it was possible to stage a little coup d’etat in Nevenkebia. The civilians were more than weary of the endless state of emergency. A palace revolution quickly got rid of the military. A civil government has been elected and peace will prevail from now on. This disarmed army will return and be absorbed in the populace.”
“You played me for a patsy,” I said, with some warmth.
“I don’t know the term, but I assume that it means we took unfair advantage of you and let you do our dirty work for us.”
“That will do until a better description comes along. Well—didn’t you?"
“Not at all. You became involved in this matter for your own reasons. If we had not watched you and come to your aid you would be dead right now.”
Very hard to argue with that. And I had come here of my own accord. I looked down at the prostrate form and resisted the strong desire to kick in a couple of ribs.
“What about Zennor here?”
“Zennor is a sickie and will get the proper treatment in a hospital that specializes in people with problems like his. As of this moment he no longer exists.”
“And what about me?”
“You would be wise to stay right where you are now. Escaped prisoner, conviction still pending—”
“Don’t shoot me that line of old cagal,” I sneered. “I am an undercover operative of the League Navy and will be treated as such. I was responsible for your locating this planet and have suffered in the name of League justice. I have even made financial arrangements on your behalf…”
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