The Keith Laumer MEGAPACK®

by Keith Laumer

  “No doubt a gentleman like you is used to better,” she said carelessly. She went away.

  “I’m Awalawon Dhuva,” the red-head said.

  “My name’s Brett Hale.” Brett took a bite of the sandwich.

  “Those clothes,” Dhuva said. “And you have a strange way of talking. What county are you from?”

  “Jefferson.”

  “Never heard of it. I’m from Wavly. What brought you here?”

  “I was on a train. The tracks came to an end out in the middle of nowhere. I walked ... and here I am. What is this place?”

  “Don’t know.” Dhuva shook his head. “I knew they were lying about the Fire River, though. Never did believe all that stuff. Religious hokum, to keep the masses quiet. Don’t know what to believe now. Take the roof. They say a hundred kharfads up; but how do we know? Maybe it’s a thousand—or only ten. By Grat, I’d like to go up in a balloon, see for myself.”

  “What are you talking about?” Brett said. “Go where in a balloon? See what?”

  “Oh, I’ve seen one at the Tourney. Big hot-air bag, with a basket under it. Tied down with a rope. But if you cut the rope...! But you can bet the priests will never let that happen, no, sir.” Dhuva looked at Brett speculatively. “What about your county: Fession, or whatever you called it. How high do they tell you it is there?”

  “You mean the sky? Well, the air ends after a few miles and space just goes on—millions of miles—”

  Dhuva slapped the table and laughed. “The people in Fesseron must be some yokels! Just goes on up; now who’d swallow that tale?” He chuckled.

  “Only a child thinks the sky is some kind of tent,” said Brett. “Haven’t you ever heard of the Solar System, the other planets?”

  “What are those?”

  “Other worlds. They all circle around the sun, like the Earth.”

  “Other worlds, eh? Sailing around up under the roof? Funny; I never saw them.” Dhuva snickered. “Wake up, Brett. Forget all those stories. Just believe what you see.”

  “What about that brown thing?”

  “The Gels? They run this place. Look out for them, Brett. Stay alert. Don’t let them see you.”

  “what do they do?”

  “I don’t know—and I don’t want to find out. This is a great place—I like it here. I have all I want to eat, plenty of nice rooms for sleeping. There’s the parades and the scenes. It’s a good life—as long as you keep out of sight.”

  “How do you get out of here?” Brett asked, finishing his coffee.

  “Don’t know how to get out; over the wall, I suppose. I don’t plan to leave though. I left home in a hurry. The Duke—never mind. I’m not going back.”

  “Are all the people here ... golems?” Brett said. “Aren’t there any more real people?”

  “You’re the first I’ve seen. I spotted you as soon as I saw you. A live man moves different than a golem. You see golems doing things like knitting their brows, starting back in alarm, looking askance, and standing arms akimbo. And they have things like pursed lips and knowing glances and mirthless laughter. You know: all the things you read about, that real people never do. But now that you’re here, I’ve got somebody to talk to. I did get lonesome, I admit. I’ll show you where I stay and we’ll fix you up with a bed.”

  “I won’t be around that long.”

  “What can you get outside that you can’t get here? There’s everything you need here in the city. We can have a great time.”

  “You sound like my Aunt Haicey,” Brett said. “She said I had everything I needed back in Casperton. How does she know what I need? How do you know? How do I know myself? I can tell you I need more than food and a place to sleep—”

  “What more?”

  “Everything. Things to think about and something worth doing. Why, even in the movies—”

  “What’s a movie?”

  “You know, a play, on film. A moving picture.”

  “A picture that moves?”

  “That’s right.”

  “This is something the priests told you about?” Dhuva seemed to be holding in his mirth.

  “Everybody’s seen movies.”

  Dhuva burst out laughing. “Those priests,” he said. “They’re the same everywhere, I see. The stories they tell, and people believe them. What else?”

  “Priests have nothing to do with it.”

  Dhuva composed his features. “What do they tell you about Grat, and the Wheel?”

  “Grat? What’s that?”

  “The Over-Being. The Four-eyed One.” Dhuva made a sign, caught himself. “Just habit,” he said. “I don’t believe that rubbish. Never did.”

  “I suppose you’re talking about God,” Brett said.

  “I don’t know about God. Tell me about it.”

  “He’s the creator of the world. He’s ... well, superhuman. He knows everything that happens, and when you die, if you’ve led a good life, you meet God in Heaven.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “It’s ...” Brett waved a hand vaguely, “up above.”

  “But you said there was just emptiness up above,” Dhuva recalled. “And some other worlds whirling around, like islands adrift in the sea.”

  “Well—”

  “Never mind,” Dhuva held up his hands. “Our priests are liars too. All that balderdash about the Wheel and the River of Fire. It’s just as bad as your Hivvel or whatever you called it. And our Grat and your Mud, or Gog: they’re the same—” Dhuva’s head went up. “What’s that?”

  “I didn’t hear anything.”

  Dhuva got to his feet, turned to the door. Brett rose. A towering brown shape, glassy and transparent, hung in the door, its surface rippling. Dhuva whirled, leaped past Brett, dived for the rear door. Brett stood frozen. The shape flowed—swift as quicksilver—caught Dhuva in mid-stride, engulfed him. For an instant Brett saw the thin figure, legs kicking, upended within the muddy form of the Gel. Then the turbid wave swept across to the door, sloshed it aside, disappeared. Dhuva was gone.

  Brett stood rooted, staring at the doorway. A bar of sunlight fell across the dusty floor. A brown mouse ran along the baseboard. It was very quiet. Brett went to the door through which the Gel had disappeared, hesitated a moment, then thrust it open.

  He was looking down into a great dark pit, acres in extent, its sides riddled with holes, the amputated ends of water and sewage lines and power cables dangling. Far below light glistened from the surface of a black pool. A few feet away the waitress stood unmoving in the dark on a narrow strip of linoleum. At her feet the chasm yawned. The edge of the floor was ragged, as though it had been gnawed away by rats. There was no sign of Dhuva.

  Brett stepped back into the dining room, let the door swing shut. He took a deep breath, picked up a paper napkin from a table and wiped his forehead, dropped the napkin on the floor and went out into the street, his suitcase forgotten now. At the corner he turned, walked along past silent shop windows crowded with home permanents, sun glasses, fingernail polish, suntan lotion, paper cartons, streamers, plastic toys, vari-colored garments of synthetic fiber, home remedies, beauty aids, popular music, greeting cards ...

  At the next corner he stopped, looking down the silent streets. Nothing moved. Brett went to a window in a grey concrete wall, pulled himself up to peer through the dusty pane, saw a room filled with tailor’s forms, garment racks, a bicycle, bundled back issues of magazines without covers.

  He went along to a door. It was solid, painted shut. The next door looked easier. He wrenched at the tarnished brass nob, then stepped back and kicked the door. With a hollow sound the door fell inward, taking with it the jamb. Brett stood staring at the gaping opening. A fragment of masonry dropped with a dry clink. Brett stepped through the breach in the grey facade. The black pool at the bottom of the pit winked a flicker of light back at him in the deep gloom.

  Around him, the high walls of the block of buildings loomed in silhouette; the squares of the windows were ran
ks of luminous blue against the dark. Dust motes danced in shafts of sunlight. Far above, the roof was dimly visible, a spidery tangle of trusswork. And below was the abyss.

  At Brett’s feet the stump of a heavy brass rail projected an inch from the floor. It was long enough, Brett thought, to give firm anchor to a rope. Somewhere below, Dhuva—a stranger who had befriended him—lay in the grip of the Gels. He would do what he could—but he needed equipment—and help. First he would find a store with rope, guns, knives. He would—

  The broken edge of masonry where the door had been caught his eye. The shell of the wall, exposed where the door frame had torn away, was wafer-thin. Brett reached up, broke off a piece. The outer face—the side that showed on the street—was smooth, solid-looking. The back was porous, nibbled. Brett stepped outside, examined the wall. He kicked at the grey surface. A great piece of wall, six feet high, broke into fragments, fell on the sidewalk with a crash, driving out a puff of dust. Another section fell. One piece of it skidded away, clattered down into the depths. Brett heard a distant splash. He looked at the great jagged opening in the wall—like a jigsaw picture with a piece missing. He turned and started off at a trot, his mouth dry, his pulse thumping painfully in his chest.

  Two blocks from the hollow building, Brett slowed to a walk, his footsteps echoing in the empty street. He looked into each store window as he passed. There were artificial legs, bottles of colored water, immense dolls, wigs, glass eyes—but no rope. Brett tried to think. What kind of store would handle rope? A marine supply company, maybe. But where would he find one?

  Perhaps it would be easiest to look in a telephone book. Ahead he saw a sign lettered hotel. Brett went up to the revolving door, pushed inside. He was in a dim, marble-panelled lobby, with double doors leading into a beige-carpeted bar on his right, the brass-painted cage of an elevator directly before him, flanked by tall urns of sand and an ascending staircase. On the left was a dark mahogany-finished reception desk. Behind the desk a man stood silently, waiting. Brett felt a wild surge of relief.

  “Those things, those Gels!” he called, starting across the room. “My friend—”

  He broke off. The clerk stood, staring over Brett’s shoulder, holding a pen poised over a book. Brett reached out, took the pen. The man’s finger curled stiffly around nothing. A golem.

  Brett turned away, went into the bar. Vacant stools were ranged before a dark mirror. At the tables empty glasses stood before empty chairs. Brett started as he heard the revolving door thump-thump. Suddenly soft light bathed the lobby behind him. Somewhere a piano tinkled More Than You Know. With a distant clatter of closing doors the elevator came to life.

  Brett hugged a shadowed corner, saw a fat man in a limp seersucker suit cross to the reception desk. He had a red face, a bald scalp blotched with large brown freckles. The clerk inclined his head blandly.

  “Ah, yes, sir, a nice double with bath ...” Brett heard the unctuous voice of the clerk as he offered the pen. The fat man took it, scrawled something in the register. “... at fourteen dollars,” the clerk murmured. He smiled, dinged the bell. A boy in tight green tunic and trousers and a pillbox cap with a chin strap pushed through a door beside the desk, took the key, led the way to the elevator. The fat man entered. Through the openwork of the shaft Brett watched as the elevator car rose, greasy cables trembling and swaying. He started back across the lobby—and stopped dead.

  A wet brown shape had appeared in the entrance. It flowed across the rug to the bellhop. Face blank, the golem turned back to its door. Above, Brett heard the elevator stop. Doors clashed. The clerk stood poised behind the desk. The Gel hovered, then flowed away. The piano was silent now. The lights burned, a soft glow, then winked out. Brett thought about the fat man. He had seen him before ...

  He went up the stairs. In the second floor corridor Brett felt his way along in near-darkness, guided by the dim light coming through transoms. He tried a door. It opened. He stepped into a large bedroom with a double bed, an easy chair, a chest of drawers. He crossed the room, looked out across an alley. Twenty feet away white curtains hung at windows in a brick wall. There was nothing behind the windows.

  There were sounds in the corridor. Brett dropped to the floor behind the bed.

  “All right, you two,” a drunken voice bellowed. “And may all your troubles be little ones.” There was laughter, squeals, a dry clash of beads flung against the door. A key grated. The door swung wide. Lights blazed in the hall, silhouetting the figures of a man in black jacket and trousers, a woman in a white bridal dress and veil, flowers in her hand.

  “Take care, Mel!”

  “... do anything I wouldn’t do!”

  “... kiss the bride, now!”

  The couple backed into the room, pushed the door shut, stood against it. Brett crouched behind the bed, not breathing, waiting. The couple stood at the door, in the dark, heads down ...

  * * * *

  Brett stood, rounded the foot of the bed, approached the two unmoving figures. The girl looked young, sleek, perfect-featured, with soft dark hair. Her eyes were half-open; Brett caught a glint of light reflected from the eyeball. The man was bronzed, broad-shouldered, his hair wavy and blond. His lips were parted, showing even white teeth. The two stood, not breathing, sightless eyes fixed on nothing.

  Brett took the bouquet from the woman’s hand. The flowers seemed real—except that they had no perfume. He dropped them on the floor, pulled at the male golem to clear the door. The figure pivoted, toppled, hit with a heavy thump. Brett raised the woman in his arms and propped her against the bed. Back at the door he listened. All was quiet now. He started to open the door, then hesitated. He went back to the bed, undid the tiny pearl buttons down the front of the bridal gown, pulled it open. The breasts were rounded, smooth, an unbroken creamy white ...

  In the hall, he started toward the stair. A tall Gel rippled into view ahead, its shape flowing and wavering, now billowing out, then rising up. The shifting form undulated toward Brett. He made a move to run, then remembered Dhuva, stood motionless. The Gel wobbled past him, slumped suddenly, flowed under a door. Brett let out a breath. Never mind the fat man. There were too many Gels here. He started back along the corridor.

  Soft music came from double doors which stood open on a landing. Brett went to them, risked a look inside. Graceful couples moved sedately on a polished floor, diners sat at tables, black-clad waiters moving among them. At the far side of the room, near a dusty rubber plant, sat the fat man, studying a menu. As Brett watched he shook out a napkin, ran it around inside his collar, then mopped his face.

  Never disturb a scene, Dhuva had said. But perhaps he could blend with it. Brett brushed at his suit, straightened his tie, stepped into the room. A waiter approached, eyed him dubiously. Brett got out his wallet, took out a five-dollar bill.

  “A quiet table in the corner,” he said. He glanced back. There were no Gels in sight. He followed the waiter to a table near the fat man.

  Once seated, he looked around. He wanted to talk to the fat man, but he couldn’t afford to attract attention. He would watch, and wait his chance.

  At the nearby tables men with well-pressed suits, clean collars, and carefully shaved faces murmured to sleekly gowned women who fingered wine glasses, smiled archly. He caught fragments of conversation:

  “My dear, have you heard ...”

  “... in the low eighties ...”

  “... quite impossible. One must ...”

  “... for this time of year.”

  The waiter returned with a shallow bowl of milky soup. Brett looked at the array of spoons, forks, knives, glanced sideways at the diners at the next table. It was important to follow the correct ritual. He put his napkin in his lap, careful to shake out all the folds. He looked at the spoons again, picked a large one, glanced at the waiter. So far so good ...

  “Wine, sir?”

  Brett indicated the neighboring couple. “The same as they’re having.” The waiter turned away, returned ho
lding a wine bottle, label toward Brett. He looked at it, nodded. The waiter busied himself with the cork, removing it with many flourishes, setting a glass before Brett, pouring half an inch of wine. He waited expectantly.

  Brett picked up the glass, tasted it. It tasted like wine. He nodded. The waiter poured. Brett wondered what would have happened if he had made a face and spurned it. But it would be too risky to try. No one ever did it.

  Couples danced, resumed their seats; others rose and took the floor. A string ensemble in a distant corner played restrained tunes that seemed to speak of the gentle faded melancholy of decorous tea dances on long-forgotten afternoons. Brett glanced toward the fat man. He was eating soup noisily, his napkin tied under his chin.

  The waiter was back with a plate. “Lovely day, sir,” he said.

  “Great,” Brett agreed.

  The waiter placed a covered platter on the table, removed the cover, stood with carving knife and fork poised.

  “A bit of the crispy, sir?”

  Brett nodded. He eyed the waiter surreptitiously. He looked real. Some golems seemed realer than others; or perhaps it merely depended on the parts they were playing. The man who had fallen at the parade had been only a sort of extra, a crowd member. The waiter, on the other hand, was able to converse. Perhaps it would be possible to learn something from him ...

  “What’s ... uh ... how do you spell the name of this town?” Brett asked.

  “I was never much of a one for spelling, sir,” the waiter said.

  “Try it.”

  “Gravy, sir?”

  “Sure. Try to spell the name.”

  “Perhaps I’d better call the headwaiter, sir,” the golem said stiffly.

  From the corner of an eye Brett caught a flicker of motion. He whirled, saw nothing. Had it been a Gel?

  “Never mind,” he said. The waiter served potatoes, peas, refilled the wine glass, moved off silently. The question had been a little too unorthodox, Brett decided. Perhaps if he led up to the subject more obliquely ...

  * * * *

  When the waiter returned Brett said, “Nice day.”

  “Very nice, sir.”