“Fine,” Cartwright said. “Where is he?”
“He’ll meet you here. He’s coming up the ramp right now.”
Cartwright fumbled in his coat pocket for his crumpled pack of cigarettes. “Strange,” he said to Rita. “Wakeman dead, after all his careful planning.”
“I’m not sorry for Wakeman. I only wish you’d do something instead of just standing there.”
“Well,” Cartwright said, “I can’t go anywhere. And we’ve tried everything we know. There’s not a hell of a lot left, when you get down to it. I can’t help thinking if one man is really determined to kill another, there’s not much that can be done to stop him. You can delay him, you can make it hard for him, you can do a lot of intricate things that take up a lot of time and energy, but sooner or later he shows up.”
“I think I liked you better when you were afraid,” Rita said bitterly. “At least I understood that.”
“Don’t you understand this?”
“You were afraid of death. Now you’re not human—you have no emotions. Maybe you’re dead. You might as well be dead.”
“I’ll make a concession,” Cartwright said. “I’ll sit facing the door.” He settled gingerly on the end of a table, his popper in his palm, a dispassionate expression on his face. “What does Pellig look like?” he asked the Corpsman.
“Young. Thin. Blond. No special characteristics.”
“What kind of weapon is he using?”
“He has a thumb-gun. That’s a heat beam principle. Of course he may have something more we don’t know about.”
“I want to recognize Pellig when I see him,” Cartwright explained to Rita. “He may be the next person through that door.”
The next person through the door was Major Shaeffer.
“I brought this man with me,” Shaeffer explained to Cartwright, as he entered the room. “I think you’ll want to talk to him.”
A dark, neatly-dressed classified man in his early thirties had entered slightly behind Shaeffer. He and Cartwright shook hands as Shaeffer briefly introduced them.
“This is Ted Benteley,” Shaeffer said. “A serf of Reese Verrick’s.”
“You’re a little premature,” Cartwright said. “You can go downramp to the pool and the game room and the bar. The assassin ought to be showing up any time, now; it won’t be long.”
Benteley laughed, sharply and tensely. He was more rumpled and on edge than they had first realized. “Shaeffer is incorrect,” he said. “I’m not under oath to Verrick any longer. I left him.”
“You broke your oath?” Cartwright asked.
“He broke his oath to me. I left in a considerable hurry. I came here directly from Farben. There were complications.”
“He killed Herb Moore,” Shaeffer said.
“Not exactly,” Benteley corrected. “I killed his body.”
Rita’s breath caught sharply. “What happened?”
Benteley explained the situation. When he was perhaps half through, Cartwright interrupted with a question. “Where’s Pellig? The last we heard he was around here, somewhere, not more than a few miles from the resort.”
“The Pellig body is on its way toward deep space,” Benteley said. “Moore isn’t interested in you; he’s got his own problems. When he realized he was stuck in the synthetic body, he left Luna and headed straight out.”
“Headed where?” Cartwright asked.
“I don’t know.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Rita said impatiently. “He’s not after you; that’s what’s important. Maybe he went insane. Maybe he’s lost control of the body.”
“It’s possible,” Benteley admitted. “It was an event he didn’t expect; he had just smashed your teep net.” He explained how Moore destroyed Peter Wakeman.
“We know that,” Cartwright said. “What kind of velocity is the synthetic capable of?”
“C-plus,” Benteley answered. “Aren’t you satisfied Moore is moving away from here?”
Cartwright licked his lips. “I know where he’s going.”
There was a quick murmur and then Shaeffer said, “Of course.” He rapidly scanned Cartwright’s mind. “He has to find some way to stay alive. Benteley gave me a lot of involuntary material on the way here; I can construct most of the missing parts. Moore will undoubtedly find Preston with the information he has.”
Benteley was astounded. “Preston! Is he alive?”
“That explains the prior informational request,” Cartwright said. “Verrick must have tapped the closed-circuit ipvic beam from the ship.” His cigarette came to an end; he dropped it, ground it out wrathfully, and lit another. “I should have paid more attention when Wakeman brought it up.”
“What could you have done?” Shaeffer asked.
“Our ship is close to Preston’s ship. Moore wouldn’t be interested in it, though.” Cartwright shook his head irritably. “Is there any way we can set up a screen to follow Moore?”
“I suppose so,” Benteley said. “Ipvic arranged a constant visual beam from the body back to Farben. We could cut into it; it’s still being relayed. I know the frequency of the channel.” A thought struck him. “Harry Tate’s under fief to Verrick.”
“Everybody seems to be under fief to Verrick,” Cartwright said. “Is there anybody at ipvic we can work with?”
“Put pressure on Tate. If you cut him off from Verrick, he’ll cooperate. He isn’t keen on this stuff, according to what Eleanor Stevens told me.”
Shaeffer looked into his mind with interest. “She told you a lot. Since she left us and went to Farben she’s been useful.”
“Yes, I’d like to keep some kind of a visual check on the Pellig body.” Cartwright fumbled with his popper and finally slid it into a half-unpacked suitcase on the floor. “We’re better off now, of course. Thanks, Benteley.” He nodded vaguely to Benteley. “So things have changed. Pellig won’t be coming here. We don’t have to worry about that any more.”
Rita was eyeing Benteley intently. “You didn’t break your oath? You don’t consider that you’re a felon?”
“I told you,” Benteley said, returning her hard stare. “Verrick broke his oath to me. He released me by betraying me.”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
“Well,” Cartwright said. “I still want something to eat. Let’s have lunch or dinner or something, and you can explain the rest to us.” He moved toward the door, the ghost of a relieved smile on his tired face. “We have time, now. My first assassin is a closed book. We don’t have any reason to hurry.”
FOURTEEN
As they ate, Benteley put his feelings into words. “I killed Moore because I had no choice. In a few seconds he would have turned Pellig over to a technician and returned to his own body at Farben. Pellig would have gone on and detonated against you; some of Moore’s staff are that loyal.”
“How close would the body have had to be?” Cartwright asked.
“The body got within less than three miles of you. Two miles closer and Verrick would now dominate the known system.”
“No actual contact was necessary?”
“I had time for only a quick look at the wiring, but a standard proximity mechanism tuned to your brain pattern was wired into the circuit. And then there’s the power of the bomb itself. The law specifies no weapon a man can’t carry in one hand. The bomb was a regulation H-grenade from the last war.”
“The bomb is,” Cartwright reminded him.
“Everything depended on Pellig?” Rita asked.
“There was a second synthetic body. It’s about half complete. Nobody at Farben expected total disorganization of the Corps; they got more than they hoped for. But Moore is out of the picture. The second body will never go into operation; only Moore can bring it to its final stages. He kept everybody else down to lower levels—and Verrick knows that.”
“What happens when Moore reaches Preston?” Rita demanded. “Then Moore will be back in the picture again.”
“I didn’t know ab
out Preston,” Benteley admitted. “I destroyed Moore’s body so he couldn’t leave the synthetic. If Preston is going to help him he’ll have to work fast. The synthetic won’t last long in deep space.”
“Why didn’t you want him to kill me?” Cartwright inquired.
“I didn’t care if he killed you. I wasn’t thinking about you.”
“That’s not precisely true,” Shaeffer said. “The thought was there, as a corollary. When you made your psychological break, you automatically switched against Verrick’s strategy. You acted as an impeding agent, semi-voluntarily.”
Benteley wasn’t listening. “I was tricked from the beginning,” he said. “All of them were mixed up in it; Verrick, Moore, Eleanor Stevens. From the moment I set foot in the lounge, Wakeman tried to warn me; he did what he could. I came to the Directorate to get away from rottenness. I wound up doing its work; Verrick gave me orders and I followed them. But what are you supposed to do in a society that’s corrupt? Are you supposed to obey corrupt laws? Is it a crime to break a law that’s a rotten law, or an oath that’s rotten?”
“It’s a crime,” Cartwright admitted slowly. “But it may be the right thing to do.”
“In a society of criminals,” Shaeffer offered, “the innocent man goes to jail.”
“Who decides when the society is made up of criminals?” Benteley demanded. “How do you know when your society has gone wrong? How do you know when it’s right to stop obeying the laws?”
“You just know,” Rita O’Neill said fiercely.
“You’ve got a built-in mechanism?” Benteley asked the woman. “That’s great; I wish I had. I wish everybody had … It must be a hell of a handy thing. There’s six billion of us living in this system, and most of us think the system works just fine. Am I supposed to go against everybody around me? They’re all obeying the laws.” He was thinking of Al and Laura Davis. “They’re happy, contented, satisfied; they have good jobs; they eat well; they have a nice place to live. Eleanor Stevens said I had a sick mind. How do I know I’m not a sick misfit? A quasi-psychotic?”
“You have to have faith in yourself,” Rita O’Neill said.
“Everybody has that. That’s a dime a dozen. I stood the rottenness as long as I could and then I rebelled. Maybe they’re right; maybe I am a felon. I think Verrick broke his oath to me … I think I was released. But maybe I’m wrong.”
“If you’re wrong,” Shaeffer pointed out, “you can be shot on sight.”
“I know. But …” Benteley struggled up the words. “In a way that isn’t important. I never kept an oath because I was afraid of breaking it. I kept it because I didn’t think it should be broken. But I can only go so far. A point came when this whole thing sickened me so much I couldn’t work with it any more. I can’t stand to get it on my hands! Even if it means being hunted down and shot.”
“That may happen,” Cartwright said. “You say Verrick knew about the bomb?”
“That’s right.”
Cartwright reflected. “A protector isn’t supposed to send a classified serf to his death. That’s reserved for unks. He’s supposed to protect his classies, not destroy them. Judge Waring would know, I suppose; it takes an expert. You didn’t know Verrick had been quacked when you took your oath?”
“No. But they knew.”
Cartwright rubbed his grizzled jaw with the back of his hand. “Well, maybe you have a case. Maybe not. You’re an interesting person, Benteley. What are you going to do, now that you’ve tossed off the rules? Are you going to take a fealty oath again?”
“I don’t think so,” Benteley said.
“Why not?”
“A man shouldn’t become another man’s serf.”
“I don’t mean that.” Cartwright picked his words carefully. “What about a positional oath?”
“I don’t know.” Benteley shook his head wearily. “I’m tired. Maybe later on.”
Rita O’Neill spoke up. “You should join my uncle’s staff. You should swear on to him.”
They were all looking at him. Benteley said nothing for a while. “The Corps takes a positional oath, doesn’t it?” he asked presently.
“That’s right,” Shaeffer said. “That’s the oath Peter Wake-man thought so much of.”
“If you’re interested,” Cartwright said, his shrewd old eyes on Benteley, “I’ll swear you on to me—as Quizmaster—with a positional oath.”
“I never got my p-card back from Verrick,” Benteley said.
A fleeting, potent expression crossed Cartwright’s face. “Oh? Well, that can be repaired.” He reached in his coat and got out a small carefully-wrapped package. With slow, deliberate fingers he unwrapped the package and laid the contents on the table.
There were a dozen power cards.
Cartwright sorted through them, selected one, examined it intently, then replaced the others in the package and wrapped them up tight. He restored them to his pocket and passed the single p-card to Benteley. “Two dollars does it. And you can keep it; I won’t collect it back. You should have one; everybody ought to have an even chance in the great game.”
Benteley got slowly to his feet. He dug in his wallet and presently tossed two paper dollars down. He pocketed the p-card and stood waiting as Cartwright rose. “This feels familiar,” Benteley said.
“You know,” Cartwright said, “I haven’t any idea how the oath goes. Somebody’ll have to help me out.”
“I know it,” Benteley said. With Rita O’Neill and Shaeffer watching silently, he recited the positional oath to Quizmaster Cartwright and then abruptly took his seat. His coffee was cold but he drank it anyhow. He barely tasted it; he was deep in thought.
“Now you’re part of us officially,” Rita O’Neill said.
Benteley grunted.
The woman’s eyes were dark and intense. “You saved my uncle’s life. You saved all our lives; the body would have blown this resort to fragments.”
“Leave him alone,” Shaeffer said to her warningly.
Rita ignored him. Leaning toward Benteley, her strong face avid, she continued, “You should have killed Verrick while you were at it. You could have. He was there, too.”
Benteley threw down his fork. “I’m through eating.” He got to his feet and left the table. “If nobody minds, I’ll be outside walking around.”
He strode out of the dining room and into the corridor. A few Directorate officials stood here and there talking softly. Benteley wandered aimlessly around, his mind in turmoil.
After a while Rita O’Neill appeared at the doorway. She stood watching him, her arms folded tautly. “I’m sorry,” she said presently.
“It’s all right.”
She came up beside him, breathing rapidly, red lips half-parted. “I shouldn’t have said that. You’ve done enough.” She put her quick, feverish fingers on Benteley’s arm. “Thanks.”
Benteley pulled away. “I broke my oath to Verrick; let’s face it. But that’s all I can do. I killed Moore—he was as soulless as he is bodyless. He’s nothing but a calculating intellect, not a man. But I’m not going to touch Reese Verrick.”
Rita’s black eyes blazed. “Common sense ought to tell you better than that. You’re so noble and full of ethics! Don’t you know what Verrick would do to you if he caught you?”
“You don’t know when to stop. I swore on to your uncle; isn’t that enough? On paper I’m a felon; I broke a law. But I don’t consider myself a criminal.” He faced her defiantly. “Understand?”
Rita retreated. “I don’t consider you a felon, either.” She hesitated uncertainly. “Will you try to tell him what to do?”
“Cartwright? Of course not.”
“You’ll let him run things himself? Wakeman wouldn’t let him. He has to run things; you can’t interfere.”
“I never told anybody what to do in my life. All I want to do is—” Benteley shrugged angrily, unhappily. “I don’t know. Be another Al Davis, I suppose. Have my house and a good job. Mind my own business.” H
is voice rose in despair. “But goddamn it, not in this system. I want to be an Al Davis in some world where I can obey the laws, not break them. I want to obey the laws! I want to respect them. I want to respect the person around me.”
Rita was silent a moment. “You respect my uncle. You will, if you don’t now.” She broke off, embarrassed. “Don’t you respect me?”
“Sure,” Benteley said.
“Do you mean it?”
Benteley grinned crookedly. “Of course. In fact …”
At the end of the hall Major Shaeffer appeared. He shouted at Benteley, faint and shrill. “Benteley, run!”
Benteley stood paralyzed. Then he jerked away from Rita O’Neill. “Get in there with your uncle.” He yanked out his popper.
“But what—”
Benteley turned and raced down the corridor to the descent ramp. Corpsmen and Directorate officials scurried everywhere. He reached the ground level and ran desperately toward the balloon-wall.
It was too late.
A clumsy figure in a half-removed Farley suit blocked his way. Eleanor Stevens, red hair flaming, face pale, gasping for breath, hurried up beside him. “Get out of here,” she panted. In the heavy unfamiliar suit, she stumbled over a supply-carrier and half-fell against the wall. “Ted,” she wailed. “Don’t try to fight him; just run. If he gets you—”
“I know,” Benteley said. “He’ll kill me.”
At the entrance-sphincter of the balloon, a single high-velocity Hill transport had landed on the arid surface. Passengers were climbing out; a small knot of bulky figures was moving cautiously toward the resort.
Reese Verrick had arrived.
FIFTEEN
Leon Cartwright moved toward the entrance-sphincter.
“You had better disappear for a while,” he said to Benteley. “I’ll talk to Verrick.”
Shaeffer gave rapid instructions; a group of Corpsmen came hurrying up, accompanied by a handful of Directorate officials. “It isn’t really worth it,” Shaeffer said to Cartwright. “He might as well stay here. He can’t leave the resort and Verrick knows he’s here. We might as well get this thrashed out.”