by Keith Laumer
The redhead bit the corner from a plug of spearmint. He glanced around the plant. “Things is quiet now; but you never know.”
“Rather old-fashioned equipment isn’t it? When was it installed?”
“Huh? I dunno. What’s wrong with it?”
“What’s your basic power source, a core sink? Lithospheric friction? Sub-crustal hydraulics?”
“Beats me, Mister. I’m the boss here, not a dern mechanic.”
* * * *
A gray-haired man carrying a clipboard walked past, studied a panel, made notes, glanced up to catch Retief’s eye, moved on.
“Everything seems to be running normally,” Retief remarked.
“Sure. Why not?”
“Records being kept up properly?”
“Sure. Some of these guys, all they do is walk around looking at dials and writing stuff on paper. If it was me, I’d put ’em to work.”
Retief strolled over to the gray-haired man, now scribbling before a bank of meters. He glanced at the clipboard.
Power off at sunset. Tell Corasol was scrawled in block letters across the record sheet. Retief nodded, rejoined his guard.
“All right, Jake. Let’s have a look at the communications center.”
Back in the car, headed west, Retief studied the blank windows of office buildings, the milling throngs in beer bars, shooting galleries, tattoo parlors, billiard halls, pinball arcades, bordellos and half-credit casinos.
“Everybody seems to be having fun,” he remarked.
Jake stared out the window.
“Yeah.”
“Too bad you’re on duty, Jake. You could be out there joining in.”
“Soon as the corporal gets things organized, I’m opening me up a place to show dirty tri-di’s. I’ll get my share.”
“Meanwhile, let the rest of ’em have their fun, eh Jake?”
“Look, Mister, I been thinking. Maybe you better gimme back that kick-stick you taken outa my gun….”
“Sorry, Jake; no can do. Tell me, what was the real cause of the revolution? Not enough to eat? Too much regimentation?”
“Naw, we always got plenty to eat. There wasn’t none of that regimentation up till I joined up in the corporal’s army.”
“Rigid class structure, maybe? Educational discrimination?”
Jake nodded. “Yeah, it was them schools done it. All the time trying to make a feller do some kind of class. Big shots. Know it all. Gonna make us sit around and view tapes. Figgered they was better than us.”
“And Sozier’s idea was you’d take over, and you wouldn’t have to be bothered.”
“Aw, it wasn’t Sozier’s idea. He ain’t the big leader.”
“Where does the big leader keep himself?”
“I dunno. I guess he’s pretty busy right now.” Jake snickered. “Some of them guys call themselves colonels turned out not to know nothing about how to shoot off the guns.”
“Shooting, eh? I thought it was a sort of peaceful revolution. The managerial class were booted out, and that was that.”
“I don’t know nothing,” Jake snapped. “How come you keep trying to get me to say stuff I ain’t supposed to talk about? You want to get me in trouble?”
* * * *
“Oh, you’re already in trouble, Jake. But if you stick with me, I’ll try to get you out of it. Where exactly did the refugees head for? How did they leave? Must have been a lot of them; I’d say in a city of this size alone, they’d run into the thousands.”
“I don’t know.”
“Of course, it depends on your definition of a big shot. Who’s included in that category, Jake?”
“You know, the slick-talking ones; the fancy dressers; the guys that walk around and tell other guys what to do. We do all the work and they get all the big pay.”
“I suppose that would cover scientists, professional men, executives, technicians of all sorts, engineers, teachers—all that crowd.”
“Yeah, them are the ones.”
“And once you got them out of the way, the regular fellows would have a chance. Chaps that don’t spend all their time taking baths and reading books and using big words; good Joes that don’t mind picking their noses in public.”
“We got as much right as anybody—”
“Jake, who’s Corasol?”
“He’s—I don’t know.”
“I thought I overheard his name somewhere.”
“Uh, here’s the communication center,” Jake cut in.
Retief swung into a parking lot under a high blank facade. He set the brake and stepped out.
“Lead the way, Jake.”
“Look, Mister, the corporal only wanted me to show you the outside.”
“Anything to hide, Jake?”
Jake shook his head angrily and stamped past Retief. “When I joined up with Sozier, I didn’t figger I’d be getting in this kind of mess.”
“I know, Jake. It’s tough. Sometimes it seems like a fellow works harder after he’s thrown out the parasites than he did before.”
A cautious guard let Retief and Jake inside, followed them along bright-lit aisles among consoles, cables, batteries of instruments. Armed men in careless uniforms lounged, watching. Here and there a silent technician worked quietly.
Retief paused by one, an elderly man in a neat white coverall, with a purple spot under one eye.
“Quite a bruise you’ve got there,” Retief commented heartily. “Power failure at sunset,” he added softly. The technician hesitated, nodded and moved on.
Back in the car, Retief gave Jake directions. At the end of three hours, he had seen twelve smooth-running, heavily guarded installations.
“So far, so good, Jake,” he said. “Next stop, Sub-station Number Nine.” In the mirror, Jake’s face stiffened. “Hey, you can’t go down there—”
“Something going on there, Jake?”
“That’s where—I mean, no. I don’t know.”
“I don’t want to miss anything, Jake. Which way?”
“I ain’t going down there,” Jake said sullenly.
Retief braked. “In that case, I’m afraid our association is at an end, Jake.”
“You mean…you’re getting out here?”
“No, you are.”
“Huh? Now wait a minute, Mister! The corporal said I was to stay with you.”
Retief accelerated. “That’s settled, then. Which way?”
* * * *
IV
Retief pulled the car to a halt two hundred yards from the periphery of a loose crowd of brown-uniformed men who stood in groups scattered across a broad plaza, overflowing into a stretch of manicured lawn before the bare, functional facade of sub-station number Nine. In the midst of the besieging mob, Sozier’s red face and bald head bobbed as he harangued a cluster of green-uniformed men from his place in the rear of a long open car.
“What’s it all about, Jake?” Retief enquired. “Since the parasites have all left peacefully, I’m having a hard time figuring out who’d be holed up in the pumping station—and why. Maybe they haven’t gotten the word that it’s all going to be fun and games from now on.”
“If the corporal sees you over here—”
“Ah, the good corporal. Glad you mentioned him, Jake. He’s the man to see.” Retief stepped out of the car and started through the crowd. A heavy lorry loaded with an immense tank with the letter H blazoned on its side trundled into the square from a side street, moved up to a position before the building. A smaller car pulled alongside Sozier’s limousine. The driver stepped down, handed something to Sozier. A moment later, Sozier’s amplified voice boomed across the crowd.
“You in there, Corasol! This is General Sozier, and I’m warning you to come out now or you and your smart friends are in for a big surprise. You think I won’t blast you out because I don’t want to wreck the planet. You see the tank aboard the lorry that just pulled up? It’s full of gas—and I got plenty of hoses out here to pump it inside with. I’ll put men on the roof
and squirt it in the ventilators.”
Sozier’s voice echoed and died. The militiamen eyed the station. Nothing happened.
“I know you can hear me, damn you!” Sozier squalled. “You’d better get the doors open and get out here fast!”
Retief stepped to Sozier’s side. “Say, Corporal, I didn’t know you went in for practical jokes.”
Sozier jerked around to gape at Retief.
“What are you doing here!” he burst out. “I told Jake—where is that—”
“Jake didn’t like the questions I was asking,” Retief said, “so he marched me up here to report to you.”
“Jake, you damn fool!” Sozier roared. “I got a good mind—”
* * * *
“I disagree, Sozier,” Retief cut in. “I think you’re a complete imbecile. Sitting out here in the open yelling at the top of your lungs, for example. Corasol and his party might get annoyed and spray that fancy car you’ve swiped with something a lot more painful than words.”
“Eh?” Sozier’s head whipped around to stare at the building.
“Isn’t that a gun I see sticking out?”
Sozier dropped. “Where?”
“My mistake. Just a foreign particle on my contact lenses.” Retief leaned on the car. “On the other hand, Sozier, most murderers are sneaky about it. I think making a public announcement is a nice gesture on your part. The Monitors won’t have any trouble deciding who to hang when they come in to straighten out this mess.”
Sozier scrambled back onto his seat. “Monitors?” he snarled. “I don’t think so. I don’t think you’ll be around to do any blabbering to anybody.” He raised his voice. “Jake! March this spy over to the sidelines. If he tries anything, shoot him!” He gave Retief a baleful grin. “I’ll lay the body out nice and ship it back to your cronies. Accidents will happen, you know. It’ll be a week or two before they get around to following up—and by then I’ll have this little problem under control.”
Jake looked at Retief uncertainly, fingering his empty rifle.
Retief put his hands up. “I guess you got me, Jake,” he said. “Careful of that gun, now.”
Jake glanced at Sozier, gulped, aimed the rifle at Retief and nodded toward the car. As Retief moved off, a murmur swept across the crowd. Retief glanced back. A turret on the station roof was rotating slowly. A shout rose; men surged away from the building, scuffling for way; Sozier yelled. His car started up, moved forward, horns blaring. As Retief watched, a white stream arced up from the turret, catching the sun as it spanned the lawn, plunged down to strike the massed men in a splatter of spray. It searched across the mob, came to rest on Sozier’s car. Uniformed men scrambled for safety as the terrified driver gunned the heavy vehicle. The hose followed the car, dropping a solid stream of water on Sozier, kicking and flailing in the back seat. As the car passed from view, down a side street, water was overflowing the sides.
“The corporal will feel all the better for an invigorating swim in his mobile pool,” Retief commented. “By the way, Jake, I have to be going now. It wouldn’t be fair to send you back to your boss without something to back up your story that you were outnumbered, so—”
Retief’s left fist shot out to connect solidly with Jake’s jaw. Jake dropped the gun and sat down hard. Retief turned and headed for the pumping station. The hose had shut down now. A few men were standing, eyeing the building anxiously. Others watched his progress across the square. As Retief passed, he caught scattered comments:
“—seen that bird before.”
“—where he’s headed.”
“—feller Sozier was talking to….”
“Hey, you!”
Retief was on the grass now. Ahead, the blank wall loomed up. He walked on briskly.
“Stop that jasper!” a shout rang out. There was a sharp whine and a black spot appeared on the wall ahead. Near it, a small personnel door abruptly swung inward. Retief sprinted, plunged through the opening as a second shot seared the paint on the doorframe. The door clanged behind him. Retief glanced over the half dozen men confronting him.
“I’m Retief, CDT, acting Charge,” he said. “Which of you gentlemen is Manager-General Corasol?”
* * * *
Corasol was a tall, wide-shouldered man of fifty, with shrewd eyes, a ready smile, capable-looking hands and an urbane manner. He and Retief sat at a table at one side of the large room, under a maze of piping, tanks and valves. Corasol poured amber fluid into square glass tumblers.
“We spotted you by the blazer,” he said. “Baby blue and gold braid stand out in a crowd.”
Retief nodded. “The uniform has its uses,” he agreed. He tried the drink. “Say, what is this? It’s not bad.”
“Sugarweed rum. Made from a marine plant. We have plenty of ocean here on Glave; there’s only the one continent, you know, and it’s useless for agriculture.”
“Weather?”
“That’s part of it. Glave is moving into what would be a major glaciation if it weren’t for a rather elaborate climatic control installation. Then there are the tides. Half the continent would be inundated twice a year when our satellite is at aphelion; there’s a system of baffles, locks and deep-water pumps that maintain the shore-line more or less constant. We still keep our cities well inland. Then there are the oxygen generators, the atmosphere filtration complex, vermin control and so on. Glave in its natural state is a rather hostile world.”
“I’m surprised that your mines can support it all.”
“Oh, they don’t.” Corasol shook his head. “Two hundred years ago, when the company first opened up Glave, it was economical enough. Quintite was a precious mineral in those days. Synthetics have long since taken over. Even fully automated, the mines barely support the public services and welfare system.”
“I seem to recall a reference in the Post Report to the effect that a company petition to vacate its charter had been denied….”
Corasol nodded, smiling wryly. “The CDT seemed to feel that as long as any of the world’s residents desired to remain, the Company was constrained to oblige them. The great majority departed long ago, of course. Relocated to other operational areas. Only the untrainables, living off welfare funds—and a skeleton staff of single men to operate the technical installations—have stayed on.”
“That explains the mechanics of the recent uprising,” Retief said.
The bottle clinked against glasses for a second round. “What about the good corporal?” Retief asked. “Assuming he’s a strong swimmer, you should be hearing from him soon.”
Corasol glanced at his finger watch. “I imagine he’ll be launching his gas attack any minute.”
“The prospect doesn’t seem to bother you.”
“Sozier is a clever enough chap in his own way,” Corasol said. “But he has a bad habit of leaping to conclusions. He’s gotten hold of a tank of what someone has told him is gas—as indeed it is. Hydrogen, for industrial use. It seems the poor fellow is under the impression that anything masquerading as gas will have a lethal effect.”
“He may be right—if he pumps it in fast enough.”
“Oh, he won’t be pumping it. Not after approximately five minutes from now.”
“Hmmm. I think I’m beginning to see the light. ‘Power off at sunset.’”
Corasol nodded. “I don’t think he realizes somehow that all his vehicles are operating off broadcast power.”
“Still, he has a good-sized crowd of hopefuls with him. How do you plan to get through them?”
“We don’t. We go under. There’s an extensive system of service ways underlying the city; another detail which I believe has escaped the corporal’s notice.”
“You’ll be heading for the port?”
“Yes—eventually. First, we have a few small chores to see to. Sozier has quite a number of our technical men working at gun point to keep various services going.”
Retief nodded. “It won’t be easy breaking them out. I made a fast tour of the city thi
s afternoon. Locked doors, armed guards—”
“Oh, the locks are power-operated, too. Our fellows will know what to do when the power fails. I think the sudden darkness will eliminate any problem from the guards.”
The lights flickered and died. The whine of the turbines was suddenly noticeable, descending. Faint cries sounded from outside.
Corasol switched on a small portable lantern. “All ready, gentlemen?” he called, rising. “Let’s move out. We want to complete this operation before dawn.”
* * * *
Four hours later, Retief stood with Corasol in a low-ceilinged tunnel, white-tiled, brilliantly lit by a central glare strip, watching as the last of the column of men released from forced labor in the city’s utilities installations filed past. A solidly-built man with pale blond hair came up, breathing hard.
“How did it go, Taine?” Corasol asked.
“They’re beginning to catch on, Mr. Corasol. We had a brisk time of it at Station Four. Everybody’s clear now. No one killed, but we had a few injuries.”
Corasol nodded. “The last few crews in have reported trouble. Ah—what about—”
Taine shook his head. “Sorry, sir. No trace. No one’s seen them. But they’re probably at the port ahead of us, hiding out. They’d know we’d arrive eventually.”
“I suppose so. You sent word to them well in advance….”
“Suppose I stand by here with a few men. We’ll patrol the tunnels in case they show up. We have several hours before daylight.”
“Yes. I’ll go along and see to the preparations at Exit Ten. We’ll make our sortie at oh-five-hundred. If you haven’t seen anything of them by then….”
“I’m sure they’re all right.”
“They’d better be.” Corasol said grimly “Let’s be off, Retief.”
“If it’s all the same to you, Mr. Manager-General, I’ll stay here with Taine. I’ll join you later.”
“As you wish. I don’t imagine there’ll be any trouble—but if there is, having a CDT observer along will lend a certain air to the operation.” He smiled, shook Retief’s hand and moved off along the tunnel. The echo of feet and voices grew faint, faded to silence. Taine turned to the three men detailed to him, conversed briefly, sent them off along branching corridors. He glanced at Retief.