by Keith Laumer
There was a dry rattle.
The guns traversed, clattering emptily. Beyond the fence the floodlight played for a moment longer against the Bolo, then moved on across the ramp, back, across and back, searching …
Once more the Bolo fired its empty guns. Its red I-R beams swept the scene again; then relays snicked, the impotent guns retracted, the port covers closed.
Satisfied, the Bolo heaved itself around and moved off, trailing a stink of ozone and ether, the broken tread thumping like a cripple on a stair.
I waited until it disappeared in the gloom two hundred yards away, then cautiously turned my suit control to vent off the heat. Full insulation could boil a man in his own gravy in less than half an hour.
The floodlight had blinked off now. I got to my hands and knees and started toward the perimeter fence. The Bolo’s circuits weren’t tuned as fine as they should have been; it let me go.
There were men moving in the glare and dust, beyond the rusty lacework that had once been a chain-link fence. They carried guns and stood in tight little groups, staring across toward the blockhouse.
I moved closer, keeping flat and avoiding the avenues of yellowish light thrown by the headlamps of the parked vehicles—halftracks, armored cars, a few light manned tanks.
There was nothing about the look of this crowd that impelled me to leap up and be welcomed. They wore green uniforms, and half of them sported beards. What the hell: had Castro landed in force?
I angled off to the right, away from the big main gate that had been manned day and night by guards with tommy-guns. It hung now by one hinge from a scarred concrete post, under a cluster of dead polyarcs in corroded brackets. The big sign that had read GLENN AEROSPACE CENTER—AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY lay face down in hip-high underbrush.
More cars were coming up. There was a lot of talk and shouting; a squad of men formed and headed my way, keeping to the outside of the fallen fence.
I was outside the glare of the lights now. I chanced a run for it, got over the sagged wire and across a potholed blacktop road before they reached me. I crouched in the ditch and watched as the detail dropped men in pairs at fifty-yard intervals.
Another five minutes and they would have intercepted me—along with whatever else they were after. I worked my way back across an empty lot and found a strip of lesser underbrush lined with shaggy trees, beneath which a patch of cracked sidewalk showed here and there.
Several things were beginning to be a little clearer now: The person who had pushed the button to bring me out of stasis hadn’t been around to greet me, because no one pushed it. The automatics, triggered by some malfunction, had initiated the recovery cycle.
The system’s self-contained power unit had been designed to maintain a starship crewman’s minimal vital functions indefinitely, at reduced body temperature and metabolic rate. There was no way to tell exactly how long I had been in the tank. From the condition of the fence and the roads, it had been more than a matter of weeks—or even months.
Had it been a year … or more? I thought of Ginny and the boy, waiting at home—thinking the old man was dead, probably. I’d neglected them before for my work, but not like this …
Our house was six miles from the base, in the foothills on the other side of town. It was a long walk, the way I felt—but I had to get there.
2
Two hours later I was clear of the town, following the river bank west.
I kept having the idea that someone was following me. But when I stopped to listen, there was never anything there; just the still, cold night and the frogs, singing away patiently in the low ground to the south.
When the ground began to rise, I left the road and struck off across the open field. I reached a wide street, followed it in a curve that would bring me out at the foot of Ridge Avenue—my street. I could make out the shapes of low, rambling houses now.
It had been the kind of residential section the local Junior Chamber members had hoped to move into some day. Now the starlight that filtered through the cloud cover showed me broken windows, doors that sagged open, automobiles that squatted on flat, dead tires under collapsing car shelters—and here and there a blackened, weed-grown foundation, like a gap in a row of rotting teeth.
The neighborhood wasn’t what it had been. How long had I been away? How long …?
I fell down again, hard this time. It wasn’t easy getting up. I seemed to weigh a hell of a lot for a guy who hadn’t been eating regularly. My breathing was very fast and shallow now, and my skull was getting ready to split and give birth to a live alligator—the ill-tempered kind. It was only a few hundred yards more; but why the hell had I picked a place halfway up a hill?
I heard the sound again—a crackle of dry grass. I got the pistol out and stood flatfooted in the middle of the street, listening hard.
All I heard was my stomach growling. I took the pistol off cock and started off again, stopped suddenly a couple of times to catch him off guard; nothing. I reached the corner of Ridge Avenue, started up the slope. Behind me a stick popped loudly.
I picked that moment to fall down again. Heaped leaves saved me from another skinned knee. I rolled over against a low fieldstone wall and propped myself against it. I had to use both hands to cock the pistol. I stared into the dark, but all I could see were the little lights whirling again. The pistol got heavy; I put it down, concentrated on taking deep breaths and blinking away the fireflies.
I heard footsteps plainly, close by. I shook my head, accidentally banged it against the stone behind me. That helped. I saw him, not over twenty feet away, coming up the hill toward me, a black-haired man with a full beard, dressed in odds and ends of rags and furs, gripping a polished club with a leather thong.
I reached for the pistol, found only leaves, tried again, touched the gun and knocked it away. I was still groping when I heard a scuffle of feet. I swung around, saw a tall, wide figure with a mane of untrimmed hair.
He hit the bearded man like a pro tackle taking out the practice dummy. They went down together hard and rolled over in a flurry of dry leaves. The cats were fighting over the mouse; that was my signal to leave quietly.
I made one last grab for the gun, found it, got to my feet and staggered off up the grade that seemed as steep now as penthouse rent. And from down slope, I heard an engine gunned, the clash of a heavy transmission that needed adjustment. A spotlight flickered, made shadows dance.
I recognized a fancy wrought-iron fence fronting a vacant lot; that had been the Adams house. Only half a block to go—but I was losing my grip fast. I went down twice more, then gave up and started crawling. The lights were all around now, brighter than ever. My head split open, dropped off, and rolled downhill.
A few more yards and I could let it all go. Ginny would put me in a warm bed, patch up my scratches, and feed me soup. Ginny would … Ginny …
I was lying with my mouth full of dead leaves. I heard running feet, yells. An engine idled noisily down the block.
I got my head up and found myself looking at chipped brickwork and the heavy brass hinges from which my front gate had hung. The gate was gone and there was a large chunk of brick missing. Some delivery truck had missed his approach.
I got to my feet, took a couple of steps into deep shadow with feet that felt as though they’d been amputated and welded back on at the ankle. I stumbled, fetched up against something scaled over with rust. I held on, blinked and made out the seeping flank of my brand new ’79 Pontiac. There was a crumbled crust of whitish glass lining the brightwork strip that had framed the rear window.
Afire …?
A footstep sounded behind me, and I suddenly remembered several things, none of them pleasant. I felt for my gun; it was gone. I moved back along the side of the car, tried to hold on.
No use. My arms were like unsuccessful pie crust. I slid down among dead leaves, sat listening to the steps coming closer. They stopped, and through a dense fog that had sprung up suddenly I caught a glimpse of a t
all white-haired figure standing over me.
Then the fog closed in and swept everything away.
I lay on my back this time, looking across at the smoky yellow light of a thick brown candle guttering in the draft from a glassless window. In the center of the room a few sticks of damp-looking wood heaped on the cracked asphalt tiles burned with a grayish flame. A thin curl of acrid smoke rose up to stir cobwebs festooned under ceiling beams from which wood veneer had peeled away. Light alloy trusswork showed beneath.
It was a strange scene, but not so strange that I didn’t recognize it: it was my own living room—looking a little different than when I had seen it last. The odors were different, too; I picked out mildew, badly cured leather, damp wool, tobacco …
I turned my head. A yard from the rags I lay on, the white-haired man, looking older than pharaoh, sat sleeping with his back against the wall.
The shotgun was gripped in one big, gnarled hand. His head was tilted back, blue-veined eyelids shut. I sat up, and at my movement his eyes opened.
He lay relaxed for a moment, as though life had to return from some place far away. Then he raised his head. His face was hollow and lined. His white hair was thin. A coarse-woven shirt hung loose across wide shoulders that had been Herculean once. But now Hercules was old, old. He looked at me expectantly.
“Who are you?” I said. “Why did you follow me? What happened to the house? Where’s my family? Who owns the bully-boys in green?” My jaw hurt when I spoke. I put my hand up and felt it gingerly.
“You fell,” the old man said, in a voice that rumbled like a subterranean volcano.
“The understatement of the year, pop.” I tried to get up. Nausea knotted my stomach.
“You have to rest,” the old man said, looking concerned. “Before the Baron’s men come …” He paused, looking at me as though he expected me to say something profound.
“I want to know where the people are that live here!” My yell came out as weak as church-social punch. “A woman and a boy …”
He was shaking his head. “You have to do something quick. The soldiers will come back, search every house—”
I sat up, ignoring the little men driving spikes into my skull. “I don’t give a damn about soldiers! Where’s my family? What’s happened?” I reached out and gripped his arm. “How long was I down there? What year is this?”
He only shook his head. “Come eat some food. Then I can help you with your plan.”
It was no use talking to the old man; he was senile.
I got off the cot. Except for the dizziness and a feeling that my knees were made of papier-mâché, I was all right. I picked up the hand-formed candle, stumbled into the hall.
It was a jumble of rubbish. I climbed through, pushed open the door to my study. There was my desk, the tall bookcase with the glass doors, the gray rug, the easy chair. Aside from a layer of dust and some peeling wallpaper, it looked normal. I flipped the switch. Nothing happened.
“What is that charm?” the old man said behind me. He pointed to the light switch.
“The power’s off,” I said. “Just habit.”
He reached out and flipped the switch up, then down again. “It makes a pleasing sound.”
“Yeah.” I picked up a book from the desk; it fell apart in my hands.
I went back into the hall, tried the bedroom door, looked in at heaped leaves, the remains of broken furniture, an empty window frame. I went on to the end of the hall and opened the door to the bedroom.
Cold night wind blew through a barricade of broken timbers. The roof had fallen in, and a sixteen-inch tree trunk slanted through the wreckage. The old man stood behind me, watching.
“Where is she, damn you?” I leaned against the door frame to swear and fight off the faintness. “Where’s my wife?”
The old man looked troubled. “Come, eat now …”
“Where is she? Where’s the woman who lived here?”
He frowned, shook his head dumbly. I picked my way through the wreckage, stepped out into knee-high brush. A gust blew my candle out. In the dark I stared at my back yard, the crumbled pit that had been the barbecue grill, the tangled thickets that had been rose beds—and a weathered length of boards upended in the earth.
“What the hell’s this …?” I fumbled out a permatch, lit my candle, leaned close, and read the crude letters cut into the crumbling wood: VIRGINIA ANNE JACKSON. BORN JAN. 8 1957. KILL BY THE DOGS WINTER 1992.
3
The Baron’s men came twice in the next three days. Each time the old man carried me, swearing but too weak to argue, out to a lean-to of branches and canvas in the woods behind the house. Then he disappeared, to comeback an hour or two later and haul me back to my rag bed by the fire.
Three times a day he gave me a tin pan of stew, and I ate it mechanically. My mind went over and over the picture of Ginny, living on for twelve years in the slowly decaying house, and then—
It was too much. There are some shocks the mind refuses.
I thought of the tree that had fallen and crushed the east wing. An elm that size was at least fifty to sixty years old—maybe older. And the only elm on the place had been a two-year sapling. I knew it well; I had planted it.
The date carved on the headboard was 1992. As nearly as I could judge another thirty-five years had passed since then at least. My shipmates—Banner, Day, Mallon—they were all dead, long ago. How had they died? The old man was too far gone to tell me anything useful. Most of my questions produced a shake of the head and a few rumbled words about charms, demons, spells, and the Baron.
“I don’t believe in spells,” I said. “And I’m not too sure I believe in this Baron. Who is he?”
“The Baron Trollmaster of Filly. He holds all this country—” the old man made a sweeping gesture with his arm—“all the way to Jersey.”
“Why was he looking for me? What makes me important?”
“You came from the Forbidden Place. Everyone heard the cries of the Lesser Troll that stands guard over the treasure there. If the Baron can learn your secrets of power—”
“Troll, hell! That’s nothing but a Bolo on automatic!”
“By any name every man dreads the monster. A man who walks in its shadow has much mana. But the others—the ones that run in a pack like dogs—would tear you to pieces for a demon if they could lay hands on you.”
“You saw me back there. Why didn’t you give me away? And why are you taking care of me now?”
He shook his head—the all-purpose answer to any question.
I tried another tack: “Who was the rag man you tackled just outside? Why was he laying for me?”
The old man snorted. “Tonight the dogs will eat him. But forget that. Now we have to talk about your plan—”
“I’ve got about as many plans as the senior boarder in death row. I don’t know if you know it, old timer, but somebody slid the world out from under me while I wasn’t looking.”
The old man frowned. I had the thought that I wouldn’t like to have him mad at me, for all his white hair …
He shook his head. “You must understand what I tell you. The soldiers of the Baron will find you someday. If you are to break the spell—”
“Break the spell, eh?” I snorted. “I think I get the idea, pop. You’ve got it in your head that I’m valuable property of some kind. You figure I can use my supernatural powers to take over this menagerie—and you’ll be in on the ground floor. Well, listen, you old idiot! I spent sixty years—maybe more—in a stasis tank two hundred feet underground. My world died while I was down there. This Baron of yours seems to own everything now. If you think I’m going to get myself shot bucking him, forget it!”
The old man didn’t say anything.
“Things don’t seem to be broken up much,” I went on. “It must have been gas, or germ warfare—or fallout. Damn few people around. You’re still able to live on what you can loot from stores; automobiles are still sitting where they were the day the world end
ed. How old were you when it happened, pop? The war, I mean. Do you remember it?”
He shook his head. “The world has always been as it is now.”
“What year were you born?”
He scratched at his white hair. “I knew the number once. But I’ve forgotten.”
“I guess the only way I’ll find out how long I was gone is to saw that damned elm in two and count the rings—but even that wouldn’t help much; I don’t know when it blew over. Never mind. The important thing now is to talk to this Baron of yours. Where does he stay?”
The old man shook his head violently. “If the Baron lays his hands on you, he’ll wring the secrets from you on the rack! I know his ways. For five years I was a slave in the palace stables.”
“If you think I’m going to spend the rest of my days in this rat nest, you get another guess on the house! This Baron has tanks, an army. He’s kept a little technology alive. That’s the outfit for me—not this garbage detail! Now, where’s this place of his located?”
“The guards will shoot you on sight like a pack-dog!”
“There has to be a way to get to him, old man! Think!”
The old head was shaking again. “He fears assassination. You can never approach him …” He brightened. “Unless you know a spell of power?”
I chewed my lip. “Maybe I do at that. You wanted me to have a plan. I think I feel one coming on. Have you got a map?”
He pointed to the desk beside me. I tried the drawers, found mice, roaches, moldy money—and a stack of folded maps. I opened one carefully; faded ink on yellowed paper falling apart at the creases. The legend in the corner read: “PENNSYLVANIA 40M:1. Copyright 1970 ESSO Corporation.”
“This will do, pop,” I said. “Now, tell me all you can about this Baron of yours.”
“You’ll destroy him?”
“I haven’t even met the man.”
“He is evil.”
“I don’t know; he owns an army. That makes up for a lot …”
After three more days of rest and the old man’s stew I was back to normal—or near enough. I had the old man boil me a tub of water for a bath and a shave. I found a serviceable pair of synthetic-fiber long-johns in a chest of drawers, pulled them on and zipped the weather suit over them, then buckled on the holster I had made from a tough plastic.
