‘Don’t give me convulsions – I’m strictly on my own.’
‘Well, why did you try to avoid me – twice?’
‘I might as well ask why you were so eager to find me.’
‘Don’t be silly. It’s natural for our kind to exchange salutes and confidences – you must know that.’
‘I know. I’m sorry, but I’ve been away a long time, and I suppose I’ve got used to keeping myself to myself.’
‘You sound a plausible rascal,’ she said, smiling now. ‘I can hardly believe you’re a geologist, or that you’ve been to Mercury.’
‘You can’t? Well, read me then.’
He let her have the image of another time then, the heat and blinding whiteness of the sand and rocks, the choking blue dusts, and the immense fatigue of working in a thick badly oxygenated asbestos suit; of conducting experiments in the most fearsome conditions ever experienced by any survey team anywhere in interplanetary space. It did not matter that the scenes were years old; she was not to know that, for he gave no clue to the time situation. She clapped a hand to her cheek and uttered an imprecation.
‘Name of a black comet! Whatever made you go there?’
‘I’ve been a geologist much longer than a telepath.’
‘You mean you actually liked the job?’
He nodded, and she gave a somewhat wry smile. ‘You must be a trifle thick in the head. My name is Linnel – what’s yours?’
He told her and she said: ‘Come on, I’ll show you a place where we can have a drink and a smoke.’
The room was long, and poorly lit. On a small stage at one end, four or five naked girls, human and Venusian, danced to a rhythmic beat.
‘Are you on holiday too?’ Coman asked.
‘I’m always on holiday,’ Linnel replied. She had a small well-formed, but determined, mouth, and tiny, delicate nostrils. Everything about her was small except for her eyes, which were large and a lustrous green.
‘I can’t believe that,’ he said smiling.
‘Hum. I can’t believe that you’re just a geologist on holiday.’
‘It seems we must leave it like that,’ he replied, ‘because we are both entitled to our private doubts.’ He stood up. ‘I think we’d better break this up, don’t you? Maybe we’ll meet again.’
‘Hey, what’s the hurry?’ she asked. ‘Sit down. Do you mind if I say that I like you? You’ve got the smell of strength, and that’s rare among telepaths. I wonder what kind of lover you are?’
‘Adequate,’ he replied, slumping back in his chair. He ordered more drinks and Linnel smiled.
‘I suppose you’ve already found a companion to play with on holiday.’
He did not answer. Behind the protective barriers of his mind he tried to think constructively on a necessarily confined level. It was difficult, because from the moment they had sat down he had been aware of her probing delicately and hesitantly, waiting for him to exchange thoughts with her. Earlier, he had snatched a moment alone in order to make brief contact with Jonl by way of the wrist transmitter, and had told her to stay with Sein at the pool until his return; but if he left them too long, anything might happen. It was not unknown in those times for good-looking women left unguarded to disappear entirely and permanently from the public scene.
However, if Coman could disarm Linnel sufficiently he might manage to find out where she and her companion were staying in the City.
She was saying: ‘Oh come, isn’t it time we looked into each other properly? You can have first entry, if you wish.’
He relaxed and nodded, noting the excitement in her eyes.
At first he saw only what she wanted him to see: her small, exquisite body, quite free of the clothes she now wore, rotating slowly and with small hesitations, allowing him to explore in detail her many charms. This blended into a demonstration of some of the erotic arts she had learnt, and which apparently she would like to practise with him. There was, however, a sense of insincerity in all this, and overcoming his first surprise Coman went deeper, behind these images to another level, and another, glancing swiftly into the many rooms before they could lock against him, then running on swiftly … In flashes, incomplete and chaotic, disguised by cross-streams and patterns used so often as to become imprinted as circuits, he saw the male joker she was working with and whom she hated, the room where she boarded, Marst, unknown faces, Marst again … back further to an old lover, and others … back still further, even to a glimpse of the lost child who resided in all jokers …
Then she closed abruptly. You are strong and inquisitive. Weren’t you satisfied with what I showed you?’
‘Your body is beautiful and exciting, but bodies are not always enough.’
She burst into a puzzled laugh. ‘I don’t get you. You don’t talk like a joker, yet you haven’t the stamp of a keyman. I’m usually good at spotting either.’
‘It’s all part of my charm – being “different”.’
She pursed her mouth comically. ‘Let me read you, then. Maybe I’ll learn some more.’
There was only one way he could prevent her from finding and querying the memory blocks in his mind.. Jokers could only dig so far, but he knew she was clever, and interested enough to come very close to the truth about him unless he was able to distract her.
Therefore he showed himself in the same way as she had shown herself to him, but with brilliance and passion, drawing her into the imagery with almost savage power. The pictures flowed thick and fast, their content ever more intriguing, and at the same time relentlessly inflaming, until suddenly she stood up, trembling, her head turned from him and her heart thumping.
‘Stop it!’
‘I thought that was what you wanted?’
‘That wasn’t fair.’ She turned, but now her eyes were soft, and not at all direct. ‘My word, you certainly know something about – women. How did you manage to get along among all those rocks and fossils, with not a woman in sight?’
‘I can forget about females when I need to do so.’
She laughed a little shakily. ‘I’d never have thought it after that exhibition.
Her head bemused by what she had seen and felt, Linnel had lost her former wariness and suspicion.
‘Have another cigarette,’ said Coman. A new atmosphere had arisen between them for they were already lovers in imagination if not in fact. And now he detected the existence of an anxiety neurone, and deduced that she was remembering her mission in the City, and considering how unwise a sexual association might prove to be in the present circumstances. He decided to push her.
‘You’re on holiday, and so am I. So …?’
‘Please …’ she said. She took the cigarette, turning her face away, as if to watch the dancers as they gyrated. Then with a swift, nervous movement, she turned and presented it in her mouth for him to light. As he lit it their eyes met, and their minds also, intermingling gently, caressingly, not concerned with anything but each other’s personality, tastes and sensibility.
She thought: I know what you want, and you know how I feel, but we cannot. Not yet anyway. Not for a few days.
Why not?
I lied to you. I’m not on holiday. I have a job to do, and I’m being paid well for it.
I have many Koneas.
Not just money. If I showed slackness or failed, I would be punished severely.
So … You’re a member of some kind of gang?
There was a pause.
Yes.
Can I join?
Fool. No, you can’t
She averted her eyes from his and dropped the cigarette stub into the air funnel in the centre of the table, and stood up again.
‘It’s my turn to break things up – for now,’ she said. ‘Don’t look at me like that, because I cannot – I must not – give way to my personal desires at this time. Where can I find you.’
‘I haven’t found a place yet. Wouldn’t it be better if you gave me your address?’
‘No,’ she replied abru
ptly. She was angry, and bewildered at herself for becoming so entangled with him that she was unable to look at the situation coldly and objectively. She knew that the right thing would be to break now and hope for a reunion at some time in the unforeseeable future. But few jokers had hope in anything – least of all the future.
She hesitated, then. ‘I won’t give you the address but I’ll tell you the district. It’s in the Martel Section, where all the tourists’ souvenirs and baubles are sold, on the south side of the Grand Park. Come there in three days’ time at noon and sit in The Willow Bar until I arrive.’
‘I will,’ he said.
She looked at him seriously. ‘Promise you won’t try and find me before then?’
‘I won’t come before then, unless I consider it to be absolutely necessary.’
‘Must we have that qualification?’
‘I’m afraid so. I don’t like to feel that you’re in danger. Why do you have to be the tool of criminals?’
She sighed. ‘It’s nothing to do with you, and you mustn’t interfere. Aren’t you going to kiss me goodbye?’
‘Do you think I should?’
‘No, perhaps not. You’ve done enough to me already.’
Coman watched her slim neat figure threading its way through the tables to the door, disappearing without one backward glance, then relaxed with another cigarette. He had not liked having to deceive her about his intentions, but he had enjoyed arousing her, principally because she had started that particular game herself.
He began to put some of the things he had learnt into a semblance of order, and to look at them carefully. Linnel’s telepathic powers had originated in fear, and gradually developed during a childhood of evil and cruelty. Nothing was of real value to her now but her own pleasures, and these were mainly sensual. Like most jokers she could be cured of her cynicism and sense of hopelessness, but only with her own co-operation; a transformation hardly possible owing to the difficulty of obtaining the last condition. She was tormented by dreams, and took many drugs. She would probably end by suicide.
He had a picture of the building in which she lived, and he knew that the male joker lived elsewhere. She had some kind of job as a clerk, evidently as a mask to her real work. Concealed below her left breast she carried an extremely lethal weapon which fired soundless death over fifty yards, and with which, he was sure, she was both familiar and accurate. She disliked her joker companion for reasons possible unknown even to herself.
What had she learned about him? Nothing much, he hoped, except that he fancied her and wanted to make love to her. He had left certain compartments open – memory patterns dealing with childhood, student days, voyages into Space, some women before Jonl and Sein – but mostly he had relied on the erotic smoke screen, since it was evident that the refinements of sexual experience fascinated her, as they did nine out of every ten telepaths.
He looked at the time factor and saw that an hour had passed since he had left the Pool.
Chapter VI
WHEN HE GOT back, Coman found Sein and Jonl dressed and waiting in the restaurant with the young man, Jark, who had evidently bought them drinks and probably decided that he might be lucky after all. He certainly looked disappointed when Coman appeared.
‘It was nice of you to act as escort, and it’s a shame you have to leave now,’ Coman remarked.
Jark looked disgruntled but recovered well enough, for he was a goodnatured individual at heart. He rose with good grace, saying: ‘I got off to a bad start when we met, and I was just expressing the hope that I might show my willingness to atone by asking the three of you to an evening’s entertainment at my place tonight.’
‘We’d be delighted,’ said Jonl before Coman could answer.
Jark bowed. ‘Tonight at eight then. You have the address, and I can assure you that my mother will be delighted to meet you all.’ With a polite smile he left them, moving easily and gracefully towards the exit.
‘How nice,’ Coman murmured.
‘Don’t be grumpy,’ said Jonl. ‘We’re on holiday, aren’t we? He was most affable and amusing while you were away, and it seems that he is the son of Doln Raylond, who donates quite a lot of money to the Suicide Prevention Society, of which I am a committee member. And now we have two questions for you. Where have you been and why have you discarded the insignia that binds us?’
He glanced ruefully at the empty spot on his sleeve. ‘It’s only temporary, I assure you.’
‘A good thing Jark didn’t notice,’ said Sein. ‘Or did he, I wonder?’
‘It’s pretty obvious to me,’ said Jonl, ‘that you’ve been in the company of another woman. Explanations are in order.’
‘I can see your point, but I’m afraid they will have to wait.’
‘Look here, Claus Coman, are we on holiday or not?’
‘I did warn you that I have something else to do first,’ he said.
‘Well why don’t you tell us about it, and then perhaps we can help you settle it —’
He stared at her and she stopped talking, her heart sinking at the look in his eyes. It was a look she knew well, and it told her that he was committed irrevocable yet again to carry out a command of the key organisation.
‘It’s not a little thing after all – it’s a big job,’ she said flatly.
Coman shrugged. ‘It may be as easy as falling off a log, and then again, it may not. I just don’t know. But anyway I don’t want you two involved. It should only take me a day or two, and then we can all relax.’
‘I see,’ said Jonl. ‘Just long enough for the Committee to make up its mind. Tell us the worst: is there a great deal of danger?’
‘It depends on what you mean by danger,’ he said easily. ‘Every cell in the human body contains elements which could at any time change their relationship to each other, and thus kill or maim. Then again, that young fool tried to challenge me to a duel. We are surrounded and encompassed by dangers always.’
‘Oh hell, they are the normal hazards of everyday life – but you seem to look for extra perils.’
‘I’ve told you before that the possession of faculties such as mine impose duties which I am bound to carry out.’ He put his hand on hers and, as she made to snatch it away, held it hard until she relaxed.
‘That is always the question between us,’ she said. ‘Nothing is more important to you than the key game. Everything else, including us, is of little account except as a form of pawn.’
‘Claus,’ breathed Sein, ‘you promised – a holiday.’
‘And so it shall be,’ he replied smiling. ‘For you two it has already started, and I shall join you in two days’ time.’
‘You mean you’re going to leave us?’ They both stared at him with expressions of dismay.
‘You’re – crazy,’ said Jonl. ‘In these times, and in a place like the Fifteenth City, how shall we protect ourselves? Your friend Deenan can’t.’
His eyes narrowed as he saw her point, but his mind was made up on this matter. It would be far safer for all of them if he broke away for the next forty-eight hours.
‘This Doln Raylond. How well do you know her?’ he asked.
‘We haven’t met before, but I’ve heard a good deal about her,’ replied Jonl. ‘In her youth she went through a form of marriage – one of the last of those ceremonies to take place – to an eminent industrialist. It was a “love-match” and this Jark was the child of the union. The husband died and Doln Raylond was left with a hundred million koneas. She’s known all over the world for her donations to worthy causes and I believe there is at least one hospital that owes its very existence to her benevolence.’
‘Splendid. You should get on well together. Do you think you could persuade her to have you both as guests for the next two days?’
Jonl stared at him. ‘I didn’t think of that. I suppose I could. To her sort the mere fact that I am the daughter of a judge would be sufficient to guarantee her hospitality. Even the mere suggestion of the law is always ac
ceptable to those with wealth.’
‘Then you must do that, and all will be well. When you are accepted you must let me know and I will have your belongings re-routed. After that we must beak contact until I’m finished. Try to stay in the house and grounds, unless you are given adequate escort outside.’
‘And Jark Raylond? I thought you disliked him.’
‘Of course I dislike him. He desires you and has not given up the idea of accomplishing his aim. He will be delighted to have you stay under his mother’s roof. What is more, his joy will know no bounds when he learns that I am unavoidably detained elsewhere. But he can be relied upon to protect you from others, and I in my turn rely on you to protect yourselves from him.’
They smiled, despite the turn of events.
‘Meanwhile, you have a perfectly wonderful time with this other woman,’ said Sein.
I doubt that. Tell me, both of you, are you for or against the inauguration of a War Section?’
‘I hate the idea,’ said Sein with a shudder.
‘Why this weighty question?’ asked Jonl.
‘You have already guessed that my purpose here has to do with the settling of that problem.’
‘Then what difference will our opinions make?’
‘None. But I should like to know what you think.’
‘Well I haven’t made up my mind. As a woman I should condemn the idea. It is against all the rules of humanity to set men, one against the other in – a jungle, wherein they may kill and prey upon each other. But then all our so-called civilisations to date have been little better than that. And even if we enclose these violent criminals, the rest of us will continue to fight and prey upon one another, less openly, but none the less cruelly. Oh, I don’t know – perhaps it should be tried, so long as it remains an experiment, for research – I just don’t know.’
‘I do,’ said Sein. ‘It is morally wrong and can only end in tragedy – for all men. Why, it’s worse than “The Games”. I know that my opinion on this is of no value intellectually, that I am way behind you and Jonl when it comes to evaluating such important matters, but to me it seems definitely wrong. And another thing – I don’t know what you have to do with it or just why you have to leave us, but suddenly I feel terribly frightened for you, Claus. My intuition tells me …’
A Man of Double Deed Page 7
