“Their rulers are benevolent, and the people fairly happy and prosperous. We could give them things, all right, but they are doing perfectly well as it is. The aren’t oppressed or mistreated. No need for a war. We could improve their lot with our scientific advancement, but there would be no reason to conquer them in the bargain. The only answer was that Vargo intended to rule. His motives were selfish. And that, of course, started me doubting everything which was believed concerning his high ideals. I reached the conclusion, with my memory of what had happened in the Vocation Board building, that almost everyone in Detroit is a mental slave of Vargo.
“So I decided I didn’t want to take Vargo’s orders any longer. It’s the same with these others. When Vargo’s hypnosis didn’t quite take, they began to think for themselves, finally winding up as thieves. We refuse to do anything to advance Vargo’s interests. But on the other hand, we have to eat.”
Mark looked thoughtfully around the room, and liked what he saw on their faces. Footpads they might be, but destroyers of Vargo they might become...
Chapter 12: The Girl who wasn’t Hypnotized
A TERRIFIED shriek welled up in Nona’s throat as her falling body burst through the misty lower fringes of the cloud bank. The ground below, shadowy in the early twilight, was rushing at her with awesome speed! It turned and twisted as her body revolved and tumbled through the air.
The shriek, thin and shrill in her ears shocked her to sanity. Abruptly she shook off her panic and concentrated on regaining her awareness of the liquid cosmic waves she had been guiding only a minute before. Instantly she felt them, separate and distinct from the buffeting of the lashing wind. The waves pervaded her being, impinging on sense nerves which had lain dormant since her birth. And with the sensation, the ability to manipulate the waves returned.
Abruptly Nona’s wild descent halted. She clothed herself with an enveloping blanket of atmosphere, and continued her journey, protected from the blast caused by her swift movement. That, she vowed, catching her breath, would never happen again.
On her left was a broad lake. She remembered Omega’s instructions and followed its shore line. Presently there would be another one, and after that a river. On its left bank was her destination. Slightly alarmed at the darkening ground below her, Nona put on more speed, doubling her former velocity. High in the air it was still light, off in the west, but twilight had spread below. And Nona couldn’t know that Detroit was a well-lighted city and would be visible for miles.
Omega hadn’t told her anything to warn her of coming events. He had just said that Mark was at a place called Detroit. And while Nona was a well-read young lady, she couldn’t possibly know anything of the modern Detroit.
Her native city, Hartford, had preserved much in the way of ancient books and arts, and she knew that Detroit had once been an industrious manufacturing center. But she also knew that Hartford was one of the favored spots on the American continent, in the matter of salvaged remains of the twentieth-century civilization.
Other cities of which she knew, while they had been built on the ruins of older ones, had retained very little of the culture that had flourished before the great war. She naturally assumed that Detroit was like them.
“Detroit,” Nona muttered to a passing bird who seemed a little startled to see a human being soaring around in territory he had always considered exclusively avian.
NONA was more than surprised when she sighted, dimly in the distance, the lights of the city. Several minutes passed, as she sped closer, before she figured out what they were. Even Hartford had failed to revive the lost knowledge of electricity. Only recently, as a result of Mark’s efforts, had she known what a city could look like when lighted by it. And she had never seen Stadtland from a height, as she now saw Detroit. Nor was Stadtland nearly as large.
She was momentarily stumped. How would she ever find Mark, in such a big place, among so many people? Where would she start?
Well, it wouldn’t do to drop down in the middle of a thronged and well-lighted street. The obvious thing would be to choose a more secluded spot and proceed from there.
So Nona set herself down in a spot that chanced to be within a quarter mile of the building in which Mark was talking to the self-confessed thieves.
No one saw her and she proceeded casually in a direction calculated to bring her out on one of the more well-lighted avenues. There was a street light at the next corner — a fitful carbon-arc lamp which only served to make the shadows deeper and darker at the edges of the small space which it illuminated.
A young woman stood against the side of a building, negligently watching the occasional passersby. She was gaudily dressed, wearing a gown which covered her completely, but nevertheless accentuated her well-rounded figure. Her face, which was boldly attractive, was resplendently rouged. She saw Nona approach, and her eyes grew sultry.
“Say, that’s not fair!” she exclaimed, gaping at Nona’s scanty costume. “Besides, you’re liable to get arrested.”
Nona was puzzled. “I don’t understand,” she said. “What’s not fair?”
The girl’s answer never came. She was just opening her mouth when she suddenly shut it and gasped, her eyes widening at something behind Nona. Nona turned and saw a man approaching, his eyes blazingly intent on the girl. He didn’t even seem to see Nona.
“There you are!” he grated. “Loafing again. You won’t go out on the main street where you should be. You’d rather stay here — I’ll fix you!”
Before the startled Nona saw what was coming, the man struck the girl a vicious blow. Blood trickled from her lips as the girl whimpered and shrank away from an upraised foot.
“I’ll fix that pretty face of yours,” he raged.
The foot never descended. A whirlwind of motion landed out of nowhere. There was a brief flash of rocklike fists, the thwacks of two exuberant blows, and the man was sprawled on his face.
“Mark! Darling!” the girl cried, in what seemed to be the greatest joy.
Nona stared, aghast, as the girl rose nimbly from the pavement and threw herself at Nona’s mate. Oh, it was Mark, all right. The girl kissed him with great violence, while he stood as if frozen. The girl finally disentangled herself, and cast a wild eye on the motionless figure on the sidewalk. Then she grabbed one of Mark’s hands and tugged.
“Hurry, darling! We mustn’t be here when the big bully comes to.”
TOGETHER they ran off down the street, Mark casting a sheepish glance to the rear. Nona sped along behind, her eyes glistening with, a terrible, vengeful light. Only three days since Mark had left Stadtland and now — Well, he certainly hadn’t wasted much time.
Mark and his little friend came to a halt at a dingy tenement in the middle of a row on the next block. A dark hallway, an even darker flight of stairs, and then the girl opened a door which led into a small apartment. Nona followed, composing a series of devastating remarks. The girl wasn’t even aware of her presence. An oil lamp revealed that the place was clean and well cared for. It also revealed that the furniture was shabby and in a lamentable state of preservation.
“He won’t come back for a while,” the girl breathed. “He’ll just go and get drunker. And when he does come home, he won’t remember a thing.”
Nona kicked the door viciously to behind her. It slammed with a wall-shaking clatter. The girl continued to gaze rapturously into Mark’s eyes. Mark seemed to like it, even to the point of ignoring the fuming Nona as he gathered the girl into his arms.
Nona suddenly saw the light. She slumped weakly into an over-upholstered chair and glared at Mark. Then she grabbed a heavy pot, leaped to her feet, and brought it forcibly down on his skull. He released the girl and turned to Nona, frowning.
“I wish you’d quit interfering,” he said, with some asperity. “After all, you won’t let me experiment on you, you know.”
Nona stamped her foot. “It’s not fair,” she contended. “You shouldn’t use Mark’s body for your experiments. And besi
des, do you have to have a witness?”
“This isn’t Mark’s body,” Omega snapped.
“Well, it’s a darned unreasonable facsimile,” she stormed back. “It’s — it’s indecent.”
Omega grinned. “How was I doing?”
Nona hesitated and fingered a lip judiciously. “You’re a little weak in the clinches,” she decided. “Mark could teach you a thing or two... But I won’t let him. You do your own experimenting!”
While they talked the girl stood idly by, looking at them apathetically. There was no expression whatever on her painted face.
“And you’ll never learn anything,” Nona said, turning back to the spurious Mark, “by hypnotism. It’s not nice, either. Let her go.”
Omega looked thoughtfully at the girl. As he did so the solid body which looked like Mark, slowly became vague in outline, shimmered faintly, then solidified again. But it had adopted the shape of the aged sage which Omega used in his calmer earthly moments.
“There’s something funny about that girl,” he said. “She has a natural resistance against hypnotism. I sensed it back there on the street, and used enough power to do the job. But it took a whole lot more than it does to subjugate the average human mind. I’ll bring her to. Let’s see... For the sake of her mental stability, I’ll just leave her a memory of the two of us knocking out her husband, and of her bringing us here.”
Omega sank down in the chair which Nona had just left. His eyes glowed momentarily.
The girl stared. “I’m Gladys. I’m awfully grateful to you two.”
“I’m Nona. Was that beast your husband?”
The girl nodded, shamefaced. “The law requires him to support me,” she explained. “But he spends all he earns on drink. Then he beats me!”
Nona nodded, sympathetically. “This law — Doesn’t it protect you? Can’t you appeal to a court and make him behave?”
Gladys slumped dejectedly in a creaky chair. “I daren’t,” she said. “They’d find that I’m not obedient. And that would give me away. They’d make me go before the Vocation Board again.”
NONA learned a lot in the next hour or two. Gladys served a hot drink which resembled something between tea and coffee, a product of the forcing grounds which supplied the city’s food. She talked animatedly as she bustled about the small kitchen, preparing the hybrid drink.
Gratitude for the rescue was her topic, until Nona asked pointed questions about things she wanted to know. Omega held his peace, contenting himself with making wry faces after each sip of the steaming drink.
Gladys’ story wasn’t a pretty one, and before long Nona understood very well why Mark was taking an interest in Detroit. Nona was getting the story from a different angle and learned certain things which hadn’t as yet come to Mark’s attention.
For women as well as men came under the jurisdiction of the Vocation Board, and they didn’t fare nearly as well. Some, of course, were used in industry. There were always certain occupations where women excelled. Few, however, held their positions for many years. When their efficiency fell off in the slightest, they returned to the Vocation Board and were then conditioned for woman’s more important task, that of bearing children.
One happy part about the arrangement was in the fact that it was customary to subject both the woman and her assigned mate to the ministrations of the Vocation Board. Both left the place thoroughly convinced that destiny had brought them together. And in both were the mental suggestions which ordinarily led to a lasting devotion. This usually resulted in marital bliss, with little or no friction or discontent.
Usually, but not always. Incompatibility still reared its head. Vargo’s assistants took full charge of this phase of conditioning the inhabitants of Detroit. Vargo only exercised his superior hypnotic power where the suggestions of loyalty to himself and his aims were concerned.
The majority of Detroit’s women, of course, never were used in the industrial plants. There was no need for so many, and therefore only those with special aptitudes were taken. Others were conditioned for matrimony right away.
There were women of still another class, a small minority, who exercised their own choice in the matter of mating. These were the daughters of officials of the government. The families of nobles retained their rights in this respect, though even they, Gladys suspected, were subject to Vargo’s hypnotic power. Their loyalty wouldn’t otherwise have been so firm.
“But how can such things exist!” exclaimed Nona. “Why don’t the people do something about it?”
“But they don’t know it,” said Gladys, patiently.
“You know it.”
Gladys nodded. “They didn’t hypnotize me. They only thought they did. And I was afraid to object to the husband they chose for me. They would have found out. And I didn’t know what they might do to me if they found that I hadn’t gone under their spell. You see I realized that everyone was given the same treatment and that none was aware of it. If any had been, I should have heard of it. Therefore I was afraid to admit that I had resisted.”
Nona saw the sense to that. People who ruled by such an expedient would go to great lengths to prevent their methods from becoming known.
“Your husband —”
Gladys nodded. “That’s the pitiful part,” she said. “He really loves me. He can’t help it, though he knows very well that the feeling isn’t reciprocated. I fooled him for a year or so, but I couldn’t keep it up. His meanness and his stupidity showed up every time he got drunk, and that was practically all the time. So after a while I couldn’t help showing that I loathed him. Now he spends half his time thinking up ways to humiliate me. Funny sort of love isn’t it?”
“IT’S very peculiar stuff,” Omega interjected. “His love is no stronger than his natural ability to feel the emotion. The hypnosis merely keeps it constant. It doesn’t improve it a bit. The same applies, in all likelihood, to the other hypnotically induced emotions.
“The citizens feel loyalty to Vargo only in proportion to each person’s ability to be loyal. That’s enough for him, of course. The same applies to devotion to employment.
“Some people are naturally more industrious than others. And even the most industrious can find occasional pleasure in other things besides work. So as a result the people of Detroit live fairly normal lives, outside of the phases which have been acted upon hypnotically by Vargo and his gang. And that keeps the majority so contented that it never occurs to them that their minds aren’t entirely their own.”
“It’s wicked!” Nona exclaimed, fuming.
The aged man spread his hands eloquently. “It’s all in the point of view. A queen ant would call it an ideal system. On the other hand, Mark thinks it’s undemocratic.”
“Mark will stop it,” Nona said, confidently.
“No doubt,” agreed Omega. “That’s entirely up to him. But there’s something else which interests me, at the moment. How would you like to stay in Detroit; make your home here? Disregarding, of course, the present type of government. Mark will change that, as you said.”
Nona pondered a moment. “I don’t know much about it,” she confessed. “But what I’ve seen makes me think it’s something like the cities I used to read about in the ancient books in Hartford... Even so, it’s up to Mark. My home is where he is.”
“There are amusements,” Omega continued, ignoring the last. “Brilliant people, automobiles, libraries and everything you ever read about. Social life, and all sorts of entertainment. You should eat it up.”
Nona’s eyes lit up. She had read of twentieth-century life, and looked at it something like the way one would look at the enchanted existence in a fairy tale. But she said: “I’ll leave it to Mark to decide. Why?” There wasn’t any sense to telling Omega how she could set about making Mark think he wanted to do what she wanted him to.
“That’s fine!” exclaimed the aged man, rising creakily. “I’ll tell Mark you said you’d like it here. See you later. In the meantime look the town over m
ore carefully. Gladys will show you around.”
With an expansive and toothless grin which included both girls, Omega stepped through the door to the hall.
“No!” exclaimed Nona, leaping toward the door. “Let me tell him. Take me to him.”
But the hall was empty.
Chapter 13: Meet an Ancestor
MARK looked at the assembled men with deep satisfaction. Thieves they might be, but here a thief didn’t necessarily have to be anti-social. These were free men and in Detroit free men had no place. It was steal or starve.
When men are confronted with that particular alternative, the answer is usually a foregone conclusion. At least in the case of hardy men who have no fear of consequences. There was no moral issue at stake, for there was no other acceptable course at hand. It would have been far more degrading to have a hand in furthering Vargo’s plans, once they had realized the true situation.
Ira broke the silence. “You’re one of us now, I suppose,” he said. The tone made it a statement, rather than a question. “You will accept orders from me, naturally. Any difference of opinion we decide by vote. There are seventy-four of us at present, but all questions are decided by this council of five here. Agreed?”
Ira waved a hand to include himself and four others of the six thieves in the room. Tolon was one of the five.
“We now number seventy-five,” Mark said, removing his helmet and unscrewing the wings. “If you gentlemen will excuse me, I’ve some important business to attend to.”
Mark placed the wings in his pouch and the helmet over his unruly thatch of hair.
“Wait, friend Mark,” Ira demurred. “You are too distinctive to roam abroad with Vargo’s agents looking for you. Removing those wings isn’t enough.” He turned to Tolon, “Summon Derek.”
Mark looked at Ira with a certain admiration. The squat leader of the thieves had an agile brain. Mark had said nothing about the wings, but Ira had deduced his reason for removing them.
The Best of Argosy #7 - Minions of Mercury Page 9
