The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge ssr-2

by Harry Harrison

  All I could do was make a dive for him.

  “Stop him!” Kraj shouted and the guard looked at me and pressed a quick pattern on the red keys on the box.

  I can’t pretend that it felt nice. Enough pain leaked through to tear at my stomach with nausea and to knot my muscles. I stumbled and fell at the man’s feet, not quite reaching him. The drug I had taken blocked most of the pain, but not all of it. There still had to be nerve pathways open for motor control. My eyes filled with tears and I could not wipe them so my vision blurred and swam. There was a shoe before me and that was no good, and a uniform leg, bad as well.

  And then the guard’s hand as he bent over to take hold of me. I lashed out with my extended middle finger and scratched the skin on the back of his hand.

  He shivered just a bit and kept on bending, almost in slow motion, until he crumpled on the floor next to me, dropping the control box. It was just close enough to reach out and tap the off button.

  The pain was over, instantly. And Kraj was behind my back. I scrambled and rolled, fighting my knotted muscles, climbing to my feet.

  In the few moments since I had attacked the guard the situation had changed drastically. Angelina lay across Kraj’s desk, holding to her collar, writhing in pain. Kraj was on his knees behind the desk reaching for his gun. I dived for him just as he raised it. I was not going to make it, I was too late, he was going to fire and that was that.

  But at precisely that moment the distant explosion went off and the floor heaved, dust and bits of plastic shook down from the ceiling and the lights flickered. Kraj had not been expecting this—and I had—and his attention wavered for that vital instant as I slithered across the desk towards him and my fingernail nicked his skin.

  He fired, but the slug plowed into the far wall because he was falling, unconscious even as he pulled the trigger.

  Angelina must have attacked him as soon as I had dived for the guard. By hanging from the cable she had brought her feet up high enough to get in the one good kick that had sent Kraj over. He had retaliated by going to the radio control before his gun—and this little bit of excess sadism had given me the chance to reach him. But Angelina was paying for this now.

  I could not look at her twisting body as I climbed up on the desk beside her. There were a number of controls before Kraj’s chair but I was not going to take the time to try to figure them out. Instead I unhooked the box and turned it off. Angelina opened her eyes and lay still, just staring at me as I went through the drawers in the desk.

  “Darling you are a genius,” she said weakly. I found a key and bent to unlock her collar. “How did you do it?”

  “I out-thought them, that’s all. They couldn’t find any weapons in my clothing because the clothing itself was the weapon. The fabric was soaked in tanturaline which transformed it into a powerful explosive. I put the liquid catalyst on the cloth under my arms where my body heat would keep it from reacting. As long as I was in the uniform nothing happened, but as soon as they made me strip it off—as I was sure they would—the catalyst began to cool and when it reached the critical temperature…”

  “Boom the whole thing exploded. My genius.” She reached up and pulled me to her as the collar clicked open, and bestowed a warm and passionate kiss that I returned for a bit until I remembered where we were and disentangled gently. She sat up shakily and tried the key in my collar.

  “And I suppose you have some wonderfully ingenious explanation of how you killed these fiends?”

  “Not dead yet, just unconscious. I filed one fingernail to a point sharp enough to scratch skin, then punted it with callanite.” “Of course! Invisible to the eye and it would take a spectrometric test to find the tiny trace. But more than enough to render the scratchee instantly unconscious. What next?”

  “A phone call to get the rest of the operation going in case that explosion wasn’t heard outside the building. But they have listening devices…”

  Before I could finish the sentence the lights went out. Since the room had no windows we were in complete darkness and I was lost, falling, out of contact with reality.

  “Angelina!” I called out, aware of the hoarseness of my voice. “I am juiced to the eyeballs with narco drugs that cut off almost all pain sensation, which is why I could polish off the guard even though he was jazzing me with his shock box. But this also means I can’t feel anything at all—I’m completely numb. All I can do is hear in the darkness. You’ll have to help.”

  “What should I do?”

  “Find Kraj and drag him over to me. I’m going to see if we can’t get him out with us.”

  She pulled him out from behind the desk, none too gently from the sounds I heard, and helped me get him up on my shoulders.

  “Now lead us out of here. You’ll have to guide me because I have no way at all of moving around in this darkness. Across to the other side of the hall, then left for about 45 meters until you come to the stairs. Then down, all the way.”

  Angelina took my hand and we were off. I slammed into a couple of things but that wasn’t her fault since I still had no sense of touch. It was easier and faster in the hall where she could follow the wall with one hand. There were voices shouting in the distance as well as one or two satisfying screams. My exploding wardrobe was providing plenty of distraction, coupled with the electrical failure. Then, just as I was congratulating myself on how well things were going, the lights flickered and came back on dimly.

  We stopped, frozen, blinking in the sudden illumination and feeling as though we were in the middle of a spotlit stage. There must have been at least a dozen people in sight.

  But they were all ignoring us, involved in their own troubles, barely aware of each other. A uniformed fat official actually ran by us, eyes wide with fear after the explosion and the darkness, not even seeing us.

  “The stairway, quick,” I said and lumbered forward as fast as I could with Kraj bounding on my shoulders.

  Of course it was too good to last. The emergency limits flickered and dimmed redly and seemed about to expire at any minute. A soldier coming towards us had enough time to look and to think about what he was seeing. It finally dawned on him that something was wrong and he raised his gaussrifle and shouted to us to stop.

  Angelina had Kraj’s pistol and she fired just once. The soldier folded and we were at the stairs—when the lights went out again and stayed out.

  The stairs were difficult to maneuver, though some sensation was coming back and I could feel a certain amount. But I dropped Kraj once, we both laughed a little at this and rolled him down an extra step or two for good measure, and a moment later I fell against Angelina and almost toppled us both headlong. After this we went more carefully and one flight down someone spoke.

  “We’ve been waiting to take you out. Just stand still.”

  It was a girl’s voice, and not speaking Cliaandian, or Angelina would have blown the whole stairwell up. We waited and I felt someone’s hands touching my head, putting on a pair of heavy glasses. Then I could see again, with everything in harsh contrast. They were infrared goggles and the girl who was waiting for us had a hand projector. We went down almost at a run after that, while she called on her com-radio. Taze was waiting at the foot of the stairs.

  “We sent people up all the staircases to try and contact you. They are coming back now. This way.”

  They took Kraj from me. I couldn’t feel any pain or fatigue, but I was sure from the way my muscles were vibrating that I would ache all over when the drug wore off. We went at a fast trot to the open mouth of the service tunnel.

  “In,” Taze ordered. “There are cars waiting at the other end.”

  Chapter 19

  Whenever I moved I groaned. A little more hollowly and theatrically than was really called for by my condition, but it made Angelina feel wanted and took her mind off her troubles. She clucked about like a mother hen, plunking the pillows under my head, pouring me soothing drinks, peeling sweet fruits and cutting them into tiny pie
ces for me to nibble on. I hoped that these wifely ministrations would keep her from remembering the torture box of the day before, and if she were thinking about this she never mentioned it. The air that moved in through the open windows was warm and the sky its usual brilliant blue.

  “Were there any casualties?” I said. “I meant to ask when I woke up but my head is still swimming in slow circles.”

  “None to speak of. Some burns and scrapes and a few superficial wounds among the rear guard. Apparently everything went off just as you had planned. As soon as the explosion was heard they shorted all the phone and power lines that led to the Octagon and made a fearful mess of the wiring. Then the girls came through the tunnel and knocked out the emergency generator. You know the rest since you were obliging enough not to keel over until we reached the cars.”

  “I would have been happy to do it earlier but I did not relish the thought of being dragged through the pipes by Taze’s amazons. They still don’t scan to think much of men. Maybe they’ll make me an honorary girl.”

  “Let’s see that is all they make you. Dr. Mutfak phoned a little while ago to say that he had Kraj almost to the point where we could talk to him.”

  “Then let’s go. This is a conversation I have been lodging forward to for a long time.”

  When I got out of the bed my muscles creaked and snapped and I felt a thousand years old. I was wearing swimming attire, as was Angelina; informality was the order of the day at the luxurious Ringa Baligi. This also enabled us to do our dive for life if any troops came nosing around. Which made me think.

  “What happens if any interfering Cliaandians come this way? I assume plans have been made to hide Kraj.”

  “Hide is the correct word. Since he is unconscious he can be stowed in the back of one of the refrigerators. A good idea, particularly if they forget and leave him there.”

  “Vengeance later, information now. I wonder what fascinating facts the good doctor has uncovered about our alien?”

  “He’s not an alien,” Dr. Mutfak insisted. While I slept he had been working in the small but complete laboratory that was part of the mini-hospital in the hotel. “I will stake my reputation on it.”

  “The only reputation that you have that I know of is as a brainsqueezer,” I said. “Can you be sure…”

  “I will not be insulted by foreigners!” The doctor shouted, drawing himself up in anger so the top of his head almost reached my shoulder. “Insults from females I am used to, but from offworlders I will not bear. Even on the nameless planet where you were spawned it must be known that the basis of all medical training is a sound grounding in biology and physiology. It so happens that cytology is a bit of a hobby of mine—I could show you cells that would have you crying aloud with wonder—so I know what I am about. This man’s cells are human, so he is human. A viable homo sapiens.”

  “But the differences, so alien, his low body temperature, the lack of emotions, all that.”

  “All well within the realm of human variation. Mankind is quite adaptable, and generations of survival in various environments produce suitable adaptations. There are many more exotic instances cited in the literature than are represented by this individual.”

  “Then he couldn’t be a robot either?” Angelina asked with wide-eyed innocence, skittering away when I reached to grab her. My theories didn’t seem to be holding up too well.

  “When can we talk to him?” I asked.

  “Soon, soon.”

  “Is it permitted to ask what you have done to him that will make him amenable to questioning?”

  “A good question.” Mutfak fingered his silvery beard and concentrated on interpreting the mysteries of medicine for the layman.

  “Since this is the man who appears to be responsible for the major and harmful tampering with your brain I did not feel what might be called the usual moral responsibility of doctor to patient, particularly when the patient has helped arrange the ruthless invasion of my planet as well.”

  “Good for you. Doc.”

  “Therefore I have been quite single-minded and have circumvented his normal thought processes for our benefit and not for his. I did not do this easily, and feel it is just as much a moral crime as what was done to you, but I will take the responsibilities of the act. The fact that he was unconscious when brought here was a help. I have planted false memories and caused regression in areas Of attitude and emotions, put in memory blocks and in general have done some terrible things for which I will carry shame until the day I die.”

  Dr. Mutfak looked as though he might cry at any moment and I patted him on the shoulder.

  “You’re a front line soldier. Doctor, going into battle. Doing what you have to do to win. We all respect you for it.”

  “Well I don’t, but I shall worry about that later.” He shook himself and was the man of science again. “In a few minutes I shall bring the patient up from the deep trance. He will appear to be awake but his conscious mind will have little or no awareness of what is happening. His emotional attitudes will be those of a child of about age two who wants to help. Remember that. Do not force questions or act hostile. He wants to aid you in every way he can, but many times won’t have access to the information easily. Be kind and rephrase the question. Don’t push too hard. Are you ready?”

  “I guess so.” Though I found it hard to think of Kraj as a cooperative kiddy.

  Angelina and I trooped along behind the doctor, into the dimly lit hospital room. A male nurse who had been sitting by the bed stood up when we came in. Mutfak arranged the lighting so most of it fell on Kraj while we sat in half darkness, then gave the man an injection.

  “This should work quite fast,” he said.

  Kraj’s eyes were closed, his face slack and unmoving. White bandages wrapped his skull and a handful of wires slipped out from under them to the machines beside the bed.

  “Wake up, Kraj, wake up,” the doctor said.

  Kraj’s face stirred, his cheek twitched and his eyes slowly opened. His expression was one of calm serenity and there was the trace of ashy smile on his lips.

  “What is your name?”

  “Kraj.” He spoke softly in a hoarse voice that reminded me of a young boy’s. There were no traces of resistance.

  “Where do you come from?”

  He frowned, blinking at me, and stammered some meaningless sounds. Angelina leaned forward and patted his hand and spoke in a friendly tone.

  “You must be calm, don’t rush. You have come here from Cliaand, haven’t you?”

  “That’s right.” He nodded and smiled.

  “Now think back, you have a good memory. Were you born on Cliaand?”

  “I—I don’t think so. I have been there a long time, but I wasn’t born there. I was born at home.”

  “Home is another world, a different planet?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Could you tell me what it is like at home.”

  “Cold.”

  When he said it his voice was as chill as the word, more like the Kraj we knew, and his face worked constantly, expressions echoing his words.

  “Always cold. Nothing green, nothing grows, the cold doesn’t stop. You have to like cold and I never did though I can live with it. There are warm worlds and many of us go to than. But there are not many of us. We don’t see each other very much, I don’t think we like each other and why should we? There is nothing to like about snow and ice and cold. We fish, that is all, nothing lives on the snow. All the life is in the sea. I put my arm in once but I could not live in the water. They do and we eat them. There are warmer worlds.”

  “Like Cliaand?” I asked, quietly as Angelina had done. He smiled.

  “Like Cliaand. Warm all the time, hot too, too hot, but I don’t mind that. Strange to see living things on the land other than people. There is a lot of green.”

  “What is the name of home, of the cold world?” I whispered.

  “The name… the name…”

  The transf
ormation was immediate. Kraj began to writhe on the bed, his face twisting and working, his eyes wide and staring. Dr. Mutfak was shouting at him to forget the question, to lie still, while he tried to get a hypodermic needle into his thrashing arm. But it was too late. The reaction I had triggered went on and just for an instant, I swear there was the light of intelligence and hatred in his eyes as the conscious Kraj became aware of what was happening.

  But only for that moment. An instant later his back arched in a silent spasm and he collapsed, still and unmoving.

  “Dead,” Dr. Mutfak pronounced, looking at his telltale instruments.”

  “That was useful,” Angelina said, walking to the window and throwing open the curtains. “Time for a swim if you feel up to it, darling. Then we’ll have to think of a way to get another gray man for Dr. Mutfak. Now that we know the area to avoid we can make him last longer while he is questioned.”

  The doctor recoiled. “I couldn’t, not again. We killed him, I killed him. There was an implanted order, an irresistible order, to die rather than reveal where this planet is. It can be done, the death wish, I have seen it now. Never again.”

  “We have been raised differently, doctor,” Angelina said, calmly and without passion. “I would shoot a creature like Kraj in battle and I feel no differently about his dying in this manner. You know what he is and what he has done.”

  I said nothing because I agreed with them both. Angelina who saw the galaxy as a jungle, as survival a matter of eating or being eaten. And the doctor, a humanitarian who had been raised in a matriarchy, stable and unchanging, peaceful and at peace. They were both right. An interesting animal is man.

  “Take a rest. Doc,” I said. “Take one of your own pills. You have been up for a day and a night and that can’t be doing you any good. We’ll see you when you wake up, but have a good rest first.”

  I took Angelina’s arm and guided her out, away from the sad little man who was staring, unseeing, at the floor.

  “You don’t feel sorry for that Kraj creature?” Angelina asked, giving me her number two frown which means something like I’m not looking for trouble, but if you are you are certainly going to get it.