Guilt by Association

by Gilbert, Morris

Sid stared up at the vent then shook his head. “That’s a long drop. You’ll break your neck if you fall.”

  They watched as Ben failed time after time to get the steel through the vent. Finally Lonnie said, “Lemme try, Ben!” He took the rig and made a shot. It hit the vent, but sideways, the ends of the steel striking the edges of the opening.

  He tried again, and soon everyone had gathered to watch. It was a game that went on for a long time, everyone laughing and insisting on a chance to try it.

  “That is good, Ben,” Holtz said once. He had come in to see what the noise was about, and Ben had gone to stand beside him. “We need a little fun, yah?” Looking up at the vent, he shook his head. “A long way to climb a rope, but it would be good to have a report on our situation. Can you climb that far?”

  “Is George Bush a Republican?” Ben grinned. Then he shrugged and said, “Was a time I could, Karl. But I’ve lost a step. Come on, let’s have a cup of coffee.”

  The two went to the kitchen, got coffee, and talked for twenty minutes. Suddenly a cheer went up from the crowd. Lonnie’s loud voice rattled the walls: “I done it! I done it! Hey, Ben, I got it!”

  “Let’s take a look.”

  Lonnie was beaming. “I got ’er in, Ben!”

  Ben grinned at the big southerner, clapping him on the shoulder. “Good job!” He took the rope, holding it tense and then put his weight on it. The end of it came within a foot of the floor, and he lifted his feet, waited, then jerked at the rope, but it didn’t move.

  Dani watched this, then tilted her head back, peering at the vent. “Ben, that piece of steel might be just barely holding. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I’m fully insured, boss,” he said, then he went up the rope. All of them had expected him to put his feet to the wall and walk up in the manner of a mountain climber, slowly, hand over hand. But he extended his legs, holding them together at a right angle from his body; as fast as his hands could move, he hauled himself up in a series of movements that were so smooth that his body seemed to float upward, without hesitation or strain. Ben went up the rope with no more apparent effort than a man would expend walking up a flight of stairs.

  “Wow!” Bix gasped as Ben reached the top and peered out. “He wasn’t lying about bein’ in a circus!” Then he asked, “What’s he doing now?”

  “Looks like he’s tying a knot in the rope,” Rosie said.

  Letting go with one hand, Ben had reached down, pulled up a short length of the rope, and working slowly, fashioned a loop. He looked down, laughed, and said, “Should have practiced up on my knot tying before I got up here!” But he got the knot made, lowered it, and carefully inserted his foot. He put his weight on it, and free from the strain of holding on with his hands, he steadied himself and gazed out the vent.

  “What’s it like?” Vince called out. “Can you see anything?”

  “Tell you about it in a minute,” Ben answered. His eyes swept the horizon, and the sight of something other than the blank walls of his prison was soothing. He searched the landscape, putting his head out and turning to look both ways. Finally he pulled his head back, kicked his foot out of the noose, and came down the rope, hand over hand. “Better tie something around the rope so the bar won’t move so much,” he said.

  Rachel pulled a chair forward, and he anchored the rope firmly, then turned to face them, his square face thoughtful. They crowded around him, and he said slowly, “It’s mountain country—the Ozarks. We’re in a valley, between two ridges. I think this was a town at one time—at least a whistle stop. A set of tracks comes right by the silo, and over to the left I can see some old deserted houses.”

  “Lots of places like that, all over Arkansas,” Lonnie put in. “When fanning went to pot, people put their fields into timber, and the towns died off.”

  “Well, there’s some sort of clearing over to the left, with a few metal buildings,” Ben went on. “I keep trying to remember if I saw this place when I flew over it, but I can’t. My guess is that this is part of Maxwell Stone’s military kingdom. I could see fresh tracks in the muddy road that comes by here—probably from some kind of four-wheel-drive truck. It looks like there’s six of these silos in this group, and we’re in the two in the middle.”

  “No sign of life?” Holtz asked.

  “Nobody stirring. But there’s got to be a room somewhere where he watches us with that camera. And I could see the box down there, where we put out the list for supplies. I’ll be able to get a good look at whoever comes for it.” He looked thoughtful and added, “I could even talk to him; he’d only be thirty feet away.”

  “Offer him a bundle?” Vince murmured. His dark eyes gleamed, and he nodded, “I’m in for a hundred grand—and we can promise him anything.”

  “I don’t think Stone would send a man who could be bribed,” Rachel demurred.

  “Baby—anybody will go for the price. Just a matter of making it big enough!”

  Ben’s report lifted their spirits, it seemed, but that afternoon, an unpleasant incident occurred. For several days Vince had been watching Candi carefully. She had been a source of masculine pride for him, something he had to have. Now she obviously avoided him, and it ate away at him.

  After three, he found her sitting on the couch, reading a book. He sat down at once and put his arm around her, complaining, “Candi, you been hiding from old Vince.”

  She looked up and shook her head. “I guess I’ve been down in the dumps, Vince. This place is gettin’ to me.”

  “Why, you just need a little happy time.” He grinned. “And you know I can make you happy, don’t you, honey?”

  Ordinarily Candi would have brightened up and joined in his mood, but today she refused his smile. “I just want to be left alone.” She tried to leave, but he held her down. She struggled vainly against his iron strength and cried out shrilly, “Vince, let me go!”

  He looked around and saw Bix and Rosie sitting at the table across the room and cursed them. Rosie shook his head and remained seated, but Bix rose just as Ben and Karl came out of the sleeping quarters, followed by Betty and Rachel. Dani was in the kitchen, making a pie, and Lonnie was chipping away at the floor but came to see what the noise was about.

  Vince’s face reddened, and the violence that lurked constantly under the surface broke out. He cursed them all and ended by saying, “Get out of my sight!” In his anger he gave a brutal squeeze to Candi’s arm, and she cried out in pain.

  At once Rachel marched across the floor and, with anger blazing in her dark eyes, yelled, “You filthy scum! You’re a big man, aren’t you? If I were a man, I’d . . . !”

  Her words broke off when Vince suddenly stood and aimed a backhanded blow at her. Rachel dodged it easily, but Bix ran across the room to help her. “You shouldn’t hit a woman, Vince.” he said.

  Vince grinned, and he said, “All right, I’ll hit you, hippie!” He took a step forward and drove his fist into the boy’s mouth, driving him backward as if he’d been hit by a piston. Vince picked Bix up, struck him brutally in the face, three times, then let him fall to the floor in an unconscious heap.

  Dani had stood there, stunned by her first experience of the raw power of violence. She wanted to go to Bix, but seemed rooted to the spot.

  Karen, however, was not. Ignoring Vince, who stood over Bix, she knelt by the boy’s side. She pulled one eyelid back, then said calmly, “Ben, you and Rosie help me get him on the couch.”

  Vince glared at the two men. “You want to take it up, acrobat? I’m a little harder than climbing a rope.”

  Savage paused, seeming small next to Canelli’s burly form. He stood there, looking up at Vince, then answered, “No,” and bent to help Rosie get Bix off the floor. Vince looked around for someone to attack, cursed loudly, and stalked away. Throwing himself down at a table, he began dealing solitaire.

  Bix was not badly hurt, but he was shaken in spirit. As Karen cleaned his face, he said in a shaky voice, “He’s a killer! Did you see his eyes?”<
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  “I expect that’s right, Bix,” Karen said evenly. She left him and went to Candi, who had fled to her bunk and dissolved in hysterical weeping.

  Dani found herself standing by Rosie. She tried to cover the trembling in her hands, sat down abruptly, and commented in an unsteady voice, “That was a bad scene, Rosie.”

  “Yes, ma’am, it purely was,” he agreed. “I seen lots of bad men in my business—but I reckon Canelli is as rough as any.”

  “I was surprised at Ben. I didn’t think he’d be afraid of Vince, even if he is smaller.”

  “Miss Dani,” Rosie said, shaking his head, “don’t you make no mistake. Ben Savage ain’t afraid of Canelli or nobody else! He just don’t take on useless battles, that’s what.”

  Dani dropped her head onto her hands, leaning on the table. “Oh, Rosie! I’m so tired! Is this ever going to end?”

  The thin, dark face of Rosie Smith grew sober. He was an alien, cut off by his race from the others, yet his inner strength shone forth clearly.

  “Why, God ain’t forgot us, Miss Dani,” he said simply. “I learned a long time ago that it’s up to us to believe the Lord God to help us when we’re in trouble, but we have to leave the when and the how up to Him!” He touched her shoulder and asked gently, “Can you say amen to that, Miss Dani?”

  She lifted her head, and the sight of his thin face with the slight smile touched her. She put her hand out, and he took it, holding it warmly. “Amen, Rosie! And amen!” The burden lifted from her, and she sat there thinking how strange it was that an uneducated black man twice her age had such an ability to lift her spirits. As she had many times over the past weeks she thought: Some things can’t be learned from a book!

  Karen came to the rec room early. She had lain awake for a long time, listening to Candi sob and to Dani, who tried to comfort her. Empty from the lack of sleep, she busied herself making coffee.

  “Hey, Doc, how about giving me some?” She looked up, startled, and saw nobody. Then her eyes caught a movement up high, and she spotted Savage up at the vent. She took a cup to him as he slid down.

  “Pretty morning outside,” he commented as he sipped the steaming brew. “How’s Candi and Rachel?”

  “Candi’s hysterical, and Rachel’s ready to kill,” Karen answered wearily. “It’s getting pretty hard, Ben.”

  They talked about small things, and finally Karen said, “Tell me about the outside.”

  He glanced at her. “Why don’t you take a look for yourself?”

  She shook her head. “I’m no acrobat, Ben.”

  He grinned rashly. “If you’ve got the nerve, you can look out all you want to.” He shook his head as she stared at him, then put down the coffee cup, saying, “Come on. I’ll show you.”

  Karen followed him to the rope. He took the end, quickly formed a loop, and nodded. “When I get up, put this loop under your arms. I’ll haul you up, and we can enjoy a good view together.”

  “Why, you can’t do that!” she answered, but he turned and ascended the rope. When he got to the top, he put his foot in the noose, then bent over and expertly formed another bowline just below it. He slipped his foot out of the original noose, put it in the lower one, then looked down and said, “Elevator going up!”

  Karen stood there uncertainly.

  “Come on, Karen. You can trust me. And it’s time you started trusting men, I guess,” Ben called down.

  Angered by the words, she put the loop under her arms and said defiantly, “All right—do your stuff.” Looking up, she saw him reach down and take a hitch on the rope, then lift; she gasped as her feet left the floor. She shut her eyes as she went up a foot and a half at a time, but opened them to look up. He was grinning at her. No sign of strain appeared on his face, but the muscles in his forearms swelled as he hauled her smoothly along.

  Once she looked down, and the floor looked far, far away. Just then her shoulder bumped his foot, and he said, “Top floor—just slip your foot into that loop.” She did as he commanded, and he said, “Now, trust in that loop and in ol’ Ben Savage, who never dropped a woman yet.”

  She put her weight on the loop, and felt his arms pulling at her. He swung behind her, put his arms around her and said, “Take a look.”

  Karen gripped the bottom edge of the vent hole, bracing her lower arms against the wall, and drank in the sights. Mist was creeping along the feet of the huge pines that grew in a solid wall a hundred yards away, but the sun, a huge orb of yellow, sent heavy, slanted beams down through the branches of the trees—brilliant slabs of sunshine forming glittering gold prisms. The sky seemed bluer than she thought possible. It made her want to cry, and she whispered, “Oh, Ben, it’s so beautiful!”

  “Look over to your left, Doc,” he directed. She turned her head, and he said, “See him?”

  A big bird sat on a high limb of a dead pine. “What is it?” she asked.

  “Red-tailed hawk. Keep watching, and you’ll see him get his lunch.” Finally the hawk swooped down and nabbed a mouse, then rose to carry it back to the limb. “I think his nest is in that tree,” Ben said. “He’s a beauty, isn’t he?”

  She stayed up for ten minutes, then complained, “Ben! I’m getting a cramp in my leg!”

  He swung her around. “Hold on tight. . . .” Loosing one hand, then the other, Ben said, “Going down,” and she descended to the floor in a series of easy movements. Her feet felt numb, and she almost fell, but she was smiling as he came down and stood beside her.

  “Thanks a lot,” she said with a nod. “That was heavenly!”

  “Savage’s Aerial View Service—we never close,” he said lightly. He slipped the rope off, and both saw that Dani was sitting at one of the tables. She was not looking at them, but raised her head when Karen called out, “Dani, come here! You’ve got to see the outside!”

  Dani looked up at the vent and shrugged. “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Oh, you’ve got to!” Karen insisted. Then she hesitated. “Are you afraid of falling?”

  “No!” Dani answered sharply, but then added peevishly, “But I’m not a little thing like you, Karen.”

  “One hundred and thirty-four pounds,” Ben piped up. “Still size twelve, I see.”

  A flush rose to Dani’s cheeks. She lifted her head and commented, “I don’t like to be treated like a yo-yo.”

  “Ah, you liberated types are all alike, boss,” Ben said sadly. “You sure do miss a lot of fun.” When the anger that he had provoked came, he said, “Course, it is dangerous. No sense taking a chance, I guess.”

  Dani said, “You are an insufferable male chauvinist! I can go up that rope as well as Karen!”

  He said innocently, with a sly wink at Karen, “Why, I thought you could,” and at once took the rope and pulled himself aloft.

  Karen handed her the loop. “Just slip this under your arms.”

  Dani obeyed. Suddenly the rope cut into her chest as Ben called out, “Alley oop!” and she felt like a fool dangling there helplessly. She wore a dress, not slacks, like Karen. Suddenly she thought of the impossibility of modesty. If the men came out now . . . !

  But she was soon at the opening, having been handled like a baby, and like Karen, was struck speechless by the view. She was a little afraid of heights, but with his arms around her like steel bands, she gave herself up to the pleasure of the sights of the outside world.

  Finally she sighed and said, “I feel like Dorothy in The Wizard, of Oz. Remember? Everything was gray and dark—then she got to Oz, and everything was in beautiful color!”

  Ben showed her the hawk, and she even got to see him swoop down on a small snake. That seemed to be a miracle to her, though he felt her shiver slightly at the kill. Then she stiffened and said, “Look!”

  He glanced over her shoulder and saw a large white-tailed deer, a buck with a handsome set of horns, step out of the woods and advance into the open. Two does followed him, and Ben felt Dani’s flesh grow tense as she watched. Something must have alarme
d the deer, for they suddenly floated away in a long, impossible jumps.

  She slumped back against him, saying, “I’ve never seen wild deer!”

  Finally her leg grew strained, and he said, “Turn around, and hold on to me.” She turned awkwardly, and for one moment she was in his arms. He was watching her, his eyes inches away, and their bodies were pressed together. Dani flushed and tried to draw back, but that was impossible. A silence came over them, and in that moment, she forgot everything. Her arms were around his neck for support, and he held her waist with one arm, the other grasping the rope. Her breath grew short, and her lips parted slightly as she watched him.

  Then he simply moved his head forward and kissed her on the lips. It was not a long kiss, nor did it demand anything. It was, in fact more of a salute than a kiss, and he grinned and said, “Good morning, boss!”

  She blinked and felt strange, as if she would like to return the salute. Instead she gave her shoulders an angry shake and whispered, “Let me down from here!”

  He stared at her, then said, “Sure.” Taking her rope in one hand, said, “You can let go now.” She avoided his gaze, but turned loose, and as she was lowered to the floor, anger and shame began to rise in her. Dani had always despised those who played games with their employees, and she felt cheap. As soon as she reached the floor and removed the rope, she mastered herself; but when Ben stood before her, studying her with his shrewd eyes, she said, “I think that will be enough sight-seeing for me.” Then she added spitefully, “I’m sure you can find others to maul.”

  He nodded and seemed more interested than anything else. From the moment he had met Dani, he had sensed her pride. No woman, he knew, could have so much of it without having, somewhere, the power of great emotions. In her eyes and lips lay carefully controlled flexible capacities, as though she feared revealing herself. Now he had a view of the undertow of her spirit, as she looked at him with her angry eyes.

  “Well, now, Miss Danielle Ross,” he said evenly, but with a hard edge in his tone. “Somewhere under all that education and ability lies a real woman that a man would be lucky to get. You’re standing there, though, ashamed because for one moment up there, you felt like a real woman.”