by Keith Laumer
“I was too slippery for them. Besides,” I added, “I met a friend.”
“A friend? Who’s that?”
“An old man who thought I was Prince Charming, come to wake everybody up. He was nuts. But he got me through.”
Renada came back, handed me a square steel box. “Let’s have the key, Mallon,” I said. He handed it over. I opened the box, sorted through half a dozen silver-dollar-sized ovals of clear plastic, lifted one out.
“Is it a magical charm?” Renada asked, sounding awed. She didn’t seem so sophisticated now—but I liked her better human.
“Just a synthetic crystalline plastic, designed to resonate to a pattern peculiar to my EEG,” I said. “It amplifies the signal and gives off a characteristic emission that the psychotronic circuit in the Bolo picks up.”
“That’s what I thought. Magic.”
“Call it magic, then, kid.” I dropped the electropass in my pocket, stood and looked at Renada. “I don’t doubt that you know how to use that gun, honey, but I’m leaving now. Try not to shoot me.”
“You’re a fool if you try it,” Mallon barked. “If Renada doesn’t shoot you, my guards will. And even if you made it, you’d still need me!”
“I’m touched by your concern, Toby. Just why do I need you?”
“You wouldn’t get past the first sentry post without help, Jackson. These people know me as the Trollmaster. They’re in awe of me—of my mana. But together—we can get to the controls of the Bolo, then use it to knock out the sentry machine at the Site—”
“Then what? With an operating Bolo I don’t need anything else. Better improve the picture, Toby. I’m not impressed.”
He wet his lips.
“It’s Prometheus, do you understand? She’s stocked with everything from Browning needlers to Norge stunners. Tools, weapons, instruments. And the power plants alone.”
“I don’t need needlers if I own a Bolo, Toby.”
Mallon used some profanity. “You’ll leave your liver and lights on the palace altar, Jackson. I promise you that!”
“Tell him what he wants to know, Toby,” Renada said. Mallon narrowed his eyes at her. “You’ll live to regret this, Renada.”
“Maybe I will, Toby. But you taught me how to handle a gun—and to play cards for keeps.”
The flush faded out of his face and left it pale. “All right, Jackson,” he said, almost in a whisper. “It’s not only the equipment. It’s … the men.”
I heard a clock ticking somewhere.
“What men, Toby?” I said softly.
“The crew. Day, Macy, the others. They’re still in there, Jackson—aboard the ship, in stasis. We were trying to get the ship off when the attack came. There was forty minutes’ warning. Everything was ready to go. You were on a test run; there wasn’t time to cycle you out …”
“Keep talking,” I rapped.
“You know how the system was set up; it was to be a ten-year run out, with an automatic turnaround at the end of that time if Alpha Centauri wasn’t within a milliparsec.” He snorted. “It wasn’t. After twenty years, the instruments checked. They were satisfied. There was a planetary mass within the acceptable range. So they brought me out.” He snorted again. “The longest dry run in history. I unstrapped and came out to see what was going on. It took me a little while to realize what had happened. I went back in and cycled Banner and Mackenzie out. We went into the town; you know what we found. I saw what we had to do, but Banner and Mac argued. The fools wanted to reseal Prometheus and proceed with the launch. For what? So we could spend the rest of our lives squatting in the ruins, when by stripping the ship we could make ourselves kings?”
“So there was an argument?” I prompted.
“I had a gun. I hit Mackenzie in the leg, I think—but they got clear, found a car and beat me to the Site. There were two Bolos. What chance did I have against them?” Mallon grinned craftily. “But Banner was a fool. He died for it.” The grin dropped like a stripper’s bra. “But when I went to claim my spoils, I discovered how the jackals had set the trap for me.”
“That was downright unfriendly of them, Mallon. Oddly enough, it doesn’t make me want to stay and hold your hand.”
“Don’t you understand yet!” Mallon’s voice was a dry screech. “Even if you got clear of the palace, used the Bolo to set yourself up as Baron—you’d never be safe! Not as long as one man was still alive aboard the ship. You’d never have a night’s rest, wondering when one of them would walk out to challenge your rule …”
“Uneasy lies the head, eh, Toby? You remind me of a queen bee. The first one out of the chrysalis dismembers all her rivals.”
“I don’t mean to kill them. That would be a waste; I mean to give them useful work to do.”
“I don’t think they’d like being your slaves, Toby. And neither would I.” I looked at Renada. “I’ll be leaving you now,” I said. “Whichever way you decide, good luck.”
“Wait.” She stood. “I’m going with you.”
I looked at her. “I’ll be traveling fast, honey. And that gun in my back may throw off my timing.”
She stepped to me, reversed the pistol, and laid it in my hand.
“Don’t kill him, Mr. Jackson. He was always kind to me.”
“Why change sides now? According to Toby, my chances look not too good.”
“I never knew before how Commander Banner died,” she said. “He was my great-grandfather.”
7
Renada came back bundled in a gray fur as I finished buckling on my holster.
“So long, Toby,” I said. “I ought to shoot you in the belly just for Don, but—”
I saw Renada’s eyes widen at the same instant that I heard the click.
I dropped flat and rolled behind Mallon’s chair—and a gout of blue flame yammered into the spot where I’d been standing. I whipped the gun up and fired a round into the peach-colored upholstery an inch from Toby’s ear.
“The next one nails you to the chair,” I yelled. “Call ’em off!” There was a moment of dead silence. Toby sat frozen. I couldn’t see who’d been doing the shooting. Then I heard a moan. Renada.
“Let the girl alone or I’ll kill him,” I called.
Toby sat rigid, his eyes rolled toward me.
“You can’t kill me, Jackson! I’m all that’s keeping you alive.”
“You can’t kill me either, Toby. You need my magic touch, remember? Maybe you’d better give me a safe-conduct out of here. I’ll take the freeze off your Bolo—after I’ve seen to my business.”
Toby licked his lips. I heard Renada again. She was trying not to moan—but moaning anyway.
“You tried, Jackson. It didn’t work out,” Toby said through gritted teeth. “Throw out your gun and stand up. I won’t kill you—you know that. You do as you’re told and you may still live to a ripe old age—and the girl, too.”
She screamed then—a mindless ululation of pure agony.
“Hurry up, you fool, before they tear her arm off,” Mallon grated. “Or shoot. You’ll get to watch her for twenty-four hours under the knife. Then you’ll have your turn.”
I fired again—closer this time. Mallon jerked his head and cursed.
“If they touch her again, you get it, Toby,” I said. “Send her over here. Move!”
“Let her go!” Mallon snarled. Renada stumbled into sight, moved around the chair, then crumpled suddenly to the rug beside me.
“Stand up, Toby,” I ordered. He rose slowly. Sweat glistened on his face now. “Stand over here.” He moved like a sleepwalker. I got to my feet. There were two men standing across the room beside a small open door. A sliding panel. Both of them held power rifles leveled—but aimed offside, away from the Baron.
“Drop ’em!” I said. They looked at me, then lowered the guns, tossed them aside.
I opened my mouth to tell Mallon to move ahead, but my tongue felt thick and heavy. The room was suddenly full of smoke. In front of me, Mallon was wavering like a mir
age. I started to tell him to stand still, but with my thick tongue, it was too much trouble. I raised the gun, but somehow it was falling to the floor—slowly, like a leaf—and then I was floating, too, on waves that broke on a dark sea …
“Do you think you’re the first idiot who thought he could kill me?” Mallon raised a contemptuous lip. “This room’s rigged ten different ways.”
I shook my head, trying to ignore the film before my eyes and the nausea in my body. “No, I imagine lots of people would like a crack at you, Toby. One day one of them’s going to make it.”
“Get him on his feet,” Mallon snapped. Hard hands clamped on my arms, hauled me off the cot. I worked my legs, but they were like yesterday’s celery; I sagged against somebody who smelled like uncured hides.
“You seem drowsy,” Mallon said. “We’ll see if we can’t wake you up.”
A thumb dug into my neck. I jerked away, and a jab under the ribs doubled me over.
“I have to keep you alive—for the moment,” Mallon said. “But you won’t get a lot of pleasure out of it.”
I blinked hard. It was dark in the room. One of my handlers had a ring of beard around his mouth—I could see that much. Mallon was standing before me, hands on hips. I aimed a kick at him, just for fun. It didn’t work out; my foot seemed to be wearing a lead boat. The unshaven man hit me in the mouth and Toby chuckled.
“Have your fun, Dunger,” he said, “but I’ll want him alive and on his feet for the night’s work. Take him out and walk him in the fresh air. Report to me at the Pavilion of the Troll in an hour.” He turned to something and gave orders about lights and gun emplacements, and I heard Renada’s name mentioned.
Then he was gone and I was being dragged through the door and along the corridor.
The exercise helped. By the time the hour had passed, I was feeling weak but normal—except for an aching head and a feeling that there was a strand of spiderweb interfering with my vision. Toby had given me a good meal. Maybe before the night was over he’d regret that mistake …
Across the dark grounds, an engine started up, spluttered, then settled down to a steady hum.
“It’s time,” the one with the whiskers said. He had a voice like soft cheese to match his smell. He took another half-twist in the arm he was holding.
“Don’t break it,” I grunted. “It belongs to the Baron, remember?”
Whiskers stopped dead. “You talk too much—and too smart.” He let my arm go and stepped back. “Hold him, Pig Eye.” The other man whipped a forearm across my throat and levered my head back; then Whiskers unlimbered the two-foot club from his belt and hit me hard in the side, just under the ribs. Pig Eye let go and I folded over and waited while the pain swelled up and burst inside me.
Then they hauled me back to my feet. I couldn’t feel any bone ends grating, so there probably weren’t any broken ribs—if that was any consolation.
There were lights glaring now across the lawn. Moving figures cast long shadows against the trees lining the drive—and on the side of the Bolo Combat Unit parked under its canopy by the sealed gate.
A crude breastwork had been thrown up just over fifty yards from it. A wheel-mounted generator putted noisily in the background, laying a layer of bluish exhaust in the air.
Mallon was waiting with a 9-mm power rifle in his hands as we came up, my two guards gripping me with both hands to demonstrate their zeal, and me staggering a little more than was necessary. I saw Renada standing by, wrapped in a gray fur. Her face looked white in the harsh light. She made a move toward me and a greenback caught her arm.
“You know what to do, Jackson,” Mallon said speaking loudly against the clatter of the generator. He made a curt gesture and a man stepped up and buckled a stout chain to my left ankle. Mallon held out my electropass. “I want you to walk straight to the Bolo. Go in by the side port. You’ve got one minute to cancel the instructions punched into the command circuit and climb back outside. If you don’t show, I close a switch there—” He pointed to a wooden box mounting an open circuit-breaker, with a tangle of heavy cable leading toward the Bolo—“and you cook in your shoes. The same thing happens if I see the guns start to traverse or the antipersonnel ports open.” I followed the coils of armored wire from the chain on my ankle back to the wooden box—and on to the generator.
“Crude, maybe, but it will work. And if you get any idea of letting fly a round or two at random—remember the girl will be right beside me.”
I looked across at the giant machine. “Suppose it doesn’t recognize me? It’s been a while. Or what if Don didn’t plug my identity pattern in to the recognition circuit?”
“In that case, you’re no good to me anyway,” Mallon said flatly.
I caught Renada’s eye, gave her a wink and a smile I didn’t feel, and climbed up on top of the revetment.
I looked back at Mallon. He was old and shrunken in the garish light, his smooth gray suit rumpled, his thin hair mussed, the gun held in a white-knuckled grip. He looked more like a harassed shopkeeper than a would-be world-beater.
“You must want the Bolo pretty bad to take the chance, Toby,” I said. “I’ll think about taking that wild shot. You sweat me out.”
I flipped slack into the wire trailing my ankle, jumped down, and started across the smooth-trimmed grass, a long black shadow stalking before me. The Bolo sat silent, as big as a bank in the circle of the spotlight. I could see the flecks of rust now around the port covers, the small vines that twined up her sides from the ragged stands of weeds that marked no-man’s-land.
There was something white in the brush ahead. Broken human bones.
I felt my stomach go rigid again. The last man had gotten this far; I wasn’t in the clear yet …
I passed two more scattered skeletons in the next twenty feet. They must have come in on the run, guinea pigs to test the alertness of the Bolo. Or maybe they’d tried creeping up, dead slow, an inch a day; it hadn’t worked …
Tiny night creatures scuttled ahead. They would be safe here in the shadow of the troll where no predator bigger than a mouse could move. I stumbled, diverted my course around a ten-foot hollow, the eroded crater of a near miss.
Now I could see the great moss-coated treads sunk a foot into the earth, the nests of field mice tucked in the spokes of the yard-high bogies. The entry hatch was above, a hairline against the great curved flank. There were rungs set in the flaring tread shield. I reached up, got a grip and hauled myself up. My chain clanked against the metal. I found the door lever, held on and pulled.
It resisted, then turned. There was the hum of a servo motor, a crackling of dead gaskets. The hairline widened and showed me a narrow companionway, green-anodized dural with black polymer treads, a bulkhead with a fire extinguisher, an embossed steel data plate that said BOLO DIVISION OF GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION and below, in smaller type, UNIT, COMBAT, BOLO MARK III.
I pulled myself inside and went up into the Christmas-tree glow of instrument lights.
The control cockpit was small, utilitarian, with two deep-padded seats set among screens, dials, levers. I sniffed the odors of oil, paint, the characteristic ether and ozone of a nuclear generator. There was a faint hum in the air from idling relay servos. The clock showed ten past four. Either it was later than I thought, or the chronometer had lost time in the last eighty years. But I had no time to lose …
I slid into the seat, flipped back the cover of the command control console. The Cancel key was the big white one. I pulled it down and let it snap back, like a clerk ringing up a sale.
A pattern of dots on the status display screen flicked out of existence. Mallon was safe from his pet troll now.
It hadn’t taken me long to carry out my orders. I knew what to do next; I’d planned it all during my walk out. Now I had thirty seconds to stack the deck in my favor.
I reached down, hauled the festoon of quarter-inch armored cable up in front of me. I hit a switch, and the inner conning cover—a disk of inch-thick armor—
slid back. I shoved a loop of the flexible cable up through the aperture, reversed the switch. The cover slid back—slicing the armored cable like macaroni.
I took a deep breath, and my hands went to the combat alert switch, hovered over it.
It was the smart thing to do—the easy thing. All I had to do was punch a key, and the 9-mm’s would open up, scythe Mallon and his crew down like cornstalks.
But the scything would mow Renada down, along with the rest. And if I went—even without firing a shot—Mallon would keep his promise to cut that white throat …
My head was out of the noose now, but I would have to put it back—for a while.
I leaned sideways, reached back under the panel, groped for a small fuse box. My fingers were clumsy. I took a breath, tried again. The fuse dropped out in my hand. The Bolo’s I-R circuit was dead now. With a few more seconds to work, I could have knocked out other circuits—but the time had run out.
I grabbed the cut ends of my lead wire, knotted them around the chain and got out fast.
8
Mallon waited, crouched behind the revetment.
“It’s safe now, is it?” he grated. I nodded. He stood, gripping his gun.
“Now we’ll try it together.”
I went over the parapet, Mallon following with his gun ready. The lights followed us to the Bolo. Mallon clambered up to the open port, looked around inside, then dropped back down beside me. He looked excited now.
“That does it, Jackson! I’ve waited a long time for this. Now I’ve got all the mana there is!”
“Take a look at the cable on my ankle,” I said softly. He narrowed his eyes, stepped back, gun aimed, darted a glance at the cable looped to the chain.
“I cut it, Toby. I was alone in the Bolo with the cable cut—and I didn’t fire. I could have taken your toy and set up in business for myself, but I didn’t.”
