The Big Time

  CHAPTER 13

  But whence he was, or of what wombe ybore, Of beasts, or of the earth, I have not red: But certes was with milke of wolves and tygres fed.

  --Spenser

  THE TIGER IS LOOSE

  I guess when they really push the button or throw the switch or springthe trap or focus the beam or what have you, you don't faint or go crazyor anything else convenient. I didn't. Everything, everybody, every movethat was made, every word that was spoken, was painfully real to me,like a hand twisting and squeezing things deep inside me, and I sawevery least detail spotlighted and magnified like I had the sevenskulls.

  Erich was standing beyond the bomb chest; little smiles were rufflinghis lips. I'd never seen him look so sharp. Illy was beside him, but noton his side, you understand. Mark, Sevensee and Beau were around thechest to the nearer side. Beau had dropped to a knee and was scanningthe chest minutely, terror-under-control making him bend his head alittle closer than he needed to for clear vision, but with his handslocked together behind his back, I guess to restrain the impulse to pushany and everything that looked like a disarming button.

  Doc was sprawled face down on the nearest couch, out like a light, Isuppose.

  Us four girls were still by the control divan. With Kaby, that surprisedme, because she didn't look scared or frozen, but almost as intenselyalive as Erich.

  Sid had turned back, as I'd said, and had one hand stretched out towardbut not touching the Minor Maintainer, and a look on his beardy face asif he were calling down death and destruction on every boozy rogue whohad ever gone up from King's Lynn to Cambridge and London, and Irealized why: if he'd thought of the Minor Maintainer a second sooner,he could have pinned Erich down with heavy gravity before he could touchthe buttons.

  Bruce was resting one hand on the head of the control divan and waslooking toward the group around the chest, toward Erich, I think, as ifErich had done something rather wonderful for him, though I can'timagine myself being tickled at being included in anybody's suicidesurprise party. Bruce looked altogether too dreamy, Brahma blast him,for someone who must have the same steel-spiked thought in his head thatI know darn well the rest of us had: that in twenty-nine minutes or so,the Place would be a sun in a bag.

  * * * * *

  Erich was the first to get down to business, as I'd have laid any oddshe would be. He had the jump on us and he wasn't going to lose it.

  "Well, when are you going to start getting Lili to tell us where she hidthe Maintainer? It has to be her--she was too certain it was goneforever when she talked. And Bruce must have seen from the bar who tookthe Maintainer, and who would he cover up for but his girl?"

  There he was plagiarizing my ideas, but I guess I was willing to signthem over to him in full if he got us the right pail of water for thattime-bomb.

  He glanced at his wrist. "According to my Caller, you have twenty-nineand a half minutes, including the time it will take to get a Door orcontact headquarters. When are you going to get busy on the girl?"

  Bruce laughed a little--deprecatingly, so help me--and started towardhim. "Look here, old man," he said, "there's no need to trouble Lili, orto fuss with headquarters, even if you could. Really not at all. Not tomention that your surmises are quite unfounded, old chap, and I'm a bitsurprised at your advancing them. But that's quite all right because, asit happens, I'm an atomics technician and I even worked on that verybomb. To disarm it, you just have to fiddle a bit with some of theankhs, those hoopy little crosses. Here, let me--"

  Allah il allah, but it must have struck everybody as it did me as beingjust too incredible an assertion, too bloody British a bare-faced bluff,for Erich didn't have to say a word; Mark and Sevensee grabbed Bruce bythe arms, one on each side, as he stooped toward the bronze chest, andthey weren't gentle about it. Then Erich spoke.

  "Oh, no, Bruce. Very sporting of you to try to cover up for your girlfriend, but we aren't going to let ourselves be blown to stripped atomstwenty-eight minutes too soon while you monkey with the buttons, thevery thing Benson-Carter warned against, and pray for a guessworkmiracle. It's too thin, Bruce, when you come from 1917 and haven't beenon the Big Time for a hundred sleeps and were calling for an A-techyourself a few hours ago. Much too thin. Bruce, something is going tohappen that I'm afraid you won't like, but you're going to have to putup with it. That is, unless Miss Foster decides to be cooperative."

  "I say, you fellows, let me go," Bruce demanded, strugglingexperimentally. "I know it's a bit thick to swallow and I did give youthe wrong impression calling for an A-tech, but I just wanted to captureyour attention then; I didn't want to have to work on the bomb. Really,Erich, would they have ordered Benson-Carter to pick us up unless one ofus were an A-tech? They'd be sure to include one in the ballyoperation."

  "When they're using patchwork tactics?" Erich grinningly quoted back athim.

  * * * * *

  Kaby spoke up beside me and said, "Benson-Carter was a magician ofmatter and he was going on the operation disguised as an old woman. Wehave the cloak and hood with the other garments," and I wondered howthis cold fish of a she-officer could be the same girl who was givingMark slurpy looks not ten minutes ago.

  "Well?" Erich asked, glancing at his Caller and then swinging his eyesaround at us as if there must be some of the old _Wehrmacht_ ironsomewhere. We all found ourselves looking at Lili and she was looking sosharp herself, so ready to jump and so at bay, that it was all _I_needed, at any rate, to make Erich's theory about the Maintainer arock-bottom certainty.

  Bruce must have realized the way our minds were working, for he startedto struggle in earnest and at the same time called, "For God's sake,don't do anything to Lili! Let me loose, you idiots! Everything's true Itold you--I can save you from that bomb. Sevensee, you took my sideagainst the Spiders; you've nothing to lose. Sid, you're an Englishman.Beau, you're a gentleman and you love her, too--for God's sake, stopthem!"

  Beau glanced up over his shoulder at Bruce and the others surging aroundclose to his ankles and he had on his poker face. Sid I could tell wasonce more going through the purgatory of decision. Beau reached his owndecision first and I'll say it for him that he acted on it fast andintelligently. Right from his kneeling position and before he'd eventurned his head quite back, he jumped Erich.

  But other things in this cosmos besides Man can pick sides and act fast.Illy landed on Beau midway and whipped his tentacles around him tightand they went wobbling around like a drunken white-and-silver barberpole. Beau got his hands each around a tentacle, and at the same timehis face began to get purple, and I winced at what they were both goingthrough.

  Maybe Sevensee had a hoof in Sid's purgatory, because Bruce shook loosefrom the satyr and tried to knock out Mark, but the Roman twisted hisarm and kept him from getting in a good punch.

  Erich didn't make a move to mix into either fight, which is my littlecommandant all over. Using his fists on anybody but me is beneath him.

  * * * * *

  Then Sid made his choice, but there was no way for me to tell what itwas, for, as he reached for the Minor Maintainer, Kaby contemptuouslysnatched it away from his hands and gave him a knee in the belly thatdoubled me up in sympathy and sent him sprawling on his knees toward thefighters. On the return, Kaby gave Lili, who'd started to grab too, aneffortless backhand smash that set her down on the divan.

  Erich's face lit up like an electric sign and he kept his eyes fixed onKaby.

  She crouched a little, carrying her weight on the balls of her feet andfirmly cradling the Minor Maintainer in her left arm, like a basketballcaptain planning an offensive. Then she waved her free hand decisivelyto the right. I didn't get it, but Erich did and Mark too, for Erichjumped for the Refresher sector and Mark let go of Bruce and followedhim, ducking around Sevensee's arms, who was coming back into the fighton which side I don't know. Illy un-whipped from Beau and copied
Erichand Mark with one big spring.

  Then Kaby twisted a dial as far as it would go and Bruce, Beau, Sevenseeand poor Siddy were slammed down and pinned to the floor by about eightgravities.

  It should have been lighter near us--I hoped it was, but you couldn'ttell from watching Siddy; he went flat on his face, spread-eagled, onehand stretched toward me so close, I could have touched it (but not letgo!), and his mouth was open against the floor and he was gaspingthrough a corner of it and I could see his spine trying to sink throughhis belly. Bruce just managed to get his head and one shoulder up a bit,and they all made me think of a Dore illustration of the _Inferno_ wherethe cream of the damned are frozen up to their necks in ice in theinnermost circle of Hell.

  The gravity didn't catch me, although I could feel it in my left arm. Iwas mostly in the Refresher sector, but I dropped down flat too, partlyout of a crazy compassion I have, but mostly because I didn't want totake a chance of having Kaby knock me down.

  Erich, Mark and Illy had got clear and they headed toward us. Maudpicked the moment to make her play; she hadn't much choice of times, ifshe wanted to make one. The Old Girl was looking it for once, but Iguess the thought of her miracle must have survived alongside the fearof sacked sun and must have meant a lot to her, for she launched outfast, all set to straight-arm Kaby into the heavy gravity and grab theMinor Maintainer with the other hand.