Traitor to the Living

by Philip José Farmer

  The car screamed to a halt, sliding sideways, its front half across the other lane. Carfax looked behind him.

  The other car was just behind them, and coming around the curve was another huge steam semi.

  "It is a trap!" he yelled.

  He looked ahead again, and saw that the two drivers were running around the other side of their vehicle.

  Then the brakes and tires of the semi behind them squealed, and the vehicle slid to a halt» neatly jackknifing and blocking their retreat. Its cab door opened. The single driver scrambled out, ran along the side of the semi, and disappeared.

  Carfax thought, they don't have enough men to fight us, unless the vans are filled--the Trojan Horse analogy flashed across his mind--or unless the bushes along the road are concealing more men.

  Szentes was phoning in to the State Police Headquarters ten kilometers down the road past Emerson's.

  Jardine and Brecht were out of the car and walking toward the guards in the car behind. These were advancing to meet them.

  Carfax started to get out, but Szentes said, "You stay in here."

  Carfax did not know whether or not that was a good idea. The automobile was supposedly bulletproof, but Western's men would know that. They might have a bazooka aimed at the car right now.

  If, however, the vans did contain men, they should be emptying now. They weren't. Both trucks looked deserted, and the drivers were nowhere in sight.

  He opened his window, stuck his head out, and said, "Hey, Szentes! Can you see the truckers?"

  Szentes walked to one side of the road and looked down. He swore and scratched his head and said, "They're going like hell! Running toward some cars that've just pulled up!"

  Carfax swung the door open and shot out. "Run!" he yelled. "Run for the woods! There must be explosives in those vans!"

  He gestured frantically at Patricia, who was scrambling out. The other men looked at him for a second and then they broke. Carfax took Patricia's hand and pulled her along behind him. His goal was the creek which paralleled the road and which was about forty meters to the east. Between its banks and the road was a row of sycamores planted by Emerson's grandfather.

  Gordon and Patricia ran between two of these, crashed through some bushes, and dived over the edge of the bank. They rolled down a muddy slope, ending in water a foot deep. They lay there for two seconds, panting, and then Patricia opened her mouth. Carfax never heard what she intended to say.

  19.

  Carfax regained consciousness the evening of the next day. He was totally deaf, and his head pained him as if a spike had been driven through it. His face was swollen, and after he got his hearing back, he trembled at every sound. By keeping his right ear pressed to the pillow, he could shut out most noise, however. His left ear, previously injured by the explosion at Western's, was now useless. And the doctor did not think he would recover any use of it.

  The twin explosions of the vans, each holding an estimated hundred pounds of dynamite, had knocked down the giant sycamores and thrown the upper part of the creek bank over him and Patricia. The police might have missed them if it had not been for Patricia's hand sticking out of the bank. Their heads were covered by a few inches of loose dirt and some uprooted bushes, and Patricia would have soon strangled.

  None of the others had survived. Jardine was the only one whose body was comparatively intact. He had taken refuge in the creek, too, but he must have stuck his head above the bank for some reason just as the explosions occurred. The post-mortem had found massive hemorrhages in his brain.

  "If the walls of the van hadn't offered some resistance, you two would be dead," the doctor had said.

  Carfax could not, of course, hear him then, but he was a fluent lip reader.

  Later, he read in the newspaper that the drivers of the trucks had not been caught. He also read of the murder of Emerson and the wounding of Langer, which had taken place two days after the ambush. They had just entered the Pieter Stuyvesant Hotel lobby when two men got off six shots from their 9mm. automatics before they were killed by the bodyguards.

  The murderers had been identified as Leo Congdon and Humberto Corielli, both with long police records and a total of ten years in jail on charges of assault and battery with intent of murder. Langer, visiting the Carfaxes a week later, told them that there was no provable connection between them and Western.

  "They must have known they couldn't get away alive," Carfax said. "Western must have promised them new bodies."

  "Undoubtedly," Langer said. "They would want new bodies. Congdon had a stiff knee from a bullet wound and deep knife wounds on his face. Corielli was suffering from tertiary syphilis and had a face that would frighten Frankenstein's monster. Western chooses his agents well."

  "And so we know now that Western has agents in your organization."

  Langer said grimly, "Jackson, one of my bodyguards, was absent that day, and Wiener, one of my under-secretaries, disappeared. Neither would know, I hope, what our plans are, but both had seen you with me and my father-in-law. I'm taking it for granted that there are others, and a thorough recheck of everybody who is in a sensitive position is being made."

  Langer rose from the chair, wincing. His arm was in a sling. A ricocheting 9mm. had only touched his biceps, but it had gouged out skin and muscle. He would have a weak left arm the rest of his life. Which might be short, Carfax thought.

  "I'm not waiting any longer to accumulate a large dossier," Langer said. "Tomorrow my staff is mailing out to the president and his cabinet and every member of Congress all the evidence we have. These will also go to the news media. I don't know what'll happen after that, but I do know that Western will be summoned to face my investigating committee. And he won't dare try any more assassinations."

  "Don't be too sure of that," Carfax said. "If Western doesn't try it, some of those religious nuts may. He's a god to many."

  "And an anti-Christ to many others," Langer said. "He isn't safe either. I wouldn't be surprised if a lynch mob didn't go after him."

  "A fat chance they'd have. Megistus is a fortress. He even has an around-the-clock air patrol equipped with machine guns. He got a permit to arm them on the basis that if one maniac has flown an airplane loaded with dynamite into his house, another might."

  "Of course I know," Langer said. "Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs."

  Carfax sighed. He was getting tired of that phrase.

  However, he had to admit that Langer was the man to lead the fight against Western. He was almost as ruthless as Western. He would stop short of murder, but that was about all. And later he was to wonder if Langer was not capable of even that.

  Carfax and Patricia were in a suite in the Pangea Hotel when Langer's documents became public property.

  The New York Times had a special section consisting of the entire Message to the People of the World and editorial comments on it. The TV shows were interrupted by lengthy special bulletins, and the news programs devoted most of their precious time to it. By morning of the next day, the White House and members of Congress had been deluged with letters and telegrams. Half of these, as expected, protested Western's innocence and an abhorrence of his enemies, particularly Langer. The other half demanded that Western be put on trial immediately or be shot or hung, with or without a trial. At the latest count, one-eighth of the letters contained obscenities that were still unprintable in reputable newspapers, even in this permissive age. These came from both anti- and pro- Westernites.

  The 22:00 news showed a brief interview with Western conducted inside Megistus.

  Western (looking angry and indignant!): "I repeat!

  Those documents issued by Senator Langer are fakes!

  He is out to get me, and he has stooped to a depth of fraud which I find, even now, difficult to believe that any sane man could sink to."

  Carfax (to Patricia): "He must be furious. How can you stoop and sink at the same time? He's about to foam at the mouth."

  Patricia: "Shut up,
Gordon!"

  Western: "I have said it and will continue to say it. The senator must be at his wit's end to make such a charge! He is indeed desperate if he thinks he can put across a blatant fraud like this! Of course, I understand his situation. He believes that I've discredited, no, demolished his religion. But it has never been my intent to interfere with religious beliefs. MEDIUM is a scientific device, using scientific means to communicate with another world. There is no doubt that this is a cosmos to which so-called souls go when the body and soul are parted. Any other viewpoint is demonstrably wrong.

  But ...»

  Newsman (interrupting): "But why have Grebski, Torrance, Swanson, and Simba fled to Brazil? If they are innocent... "

  Western: "Of course they've left the country! They know they're innocent but they're afraid for their lives! They're afraid that they'll be murdered by fanatics! Can you blame them?"

  Carfax: "If they think there aren't any homicidal nuts in Brazil, they're due for a shock."

  Patricia: "Must you always wisecrack?"

  Carfax: "I must when I'm scared."

  Western: "... and let him sue! I stand by my words!"

  Interviewer (pulling a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket and handing it to Western): "Here's a subpoena to appear before Senator Langer's committee, sir."

  Carfax: "I wondered how they were going to serve it to him! The reporter's a fraud! Oh, man!"

  A crazy sweep of the camera, ending in a scene of one of Western's guards slugging the newsman.

  Western, face a dark red, shouting: "Throw the bastards out!"

  Carfax stood up and walked to the bar. "Now let him defy the committee! The federal marshals will have authority to go in after him!"

  "He might take off for South America, too," Patricia said. "What's to keep him from taking his jet right now?"

  "I think the president would order it forced down. If that didn't work, his plane would be shot down. Obviously, he'd be trying to escape the country."

  "That'd tear this country apart."

  "It's torn. So what's the difference? Besides, as I said, he won't be safe no matter where he goes. The government of Brazil would be under tremendous pressure to extradite him, and the Brazilians are as much if not more upset than we are. The majority are Catholics, you know."

  "Don't you think I know anything?"

  "Sorry," he said. "You forget that I am a teacher."

  "I'm sorry, too," she said. "But I'm so nervous."

  "Who isn't?"

  "I'm worried about Daddy, too," she said. "If Western gets scared that everything might blow sky-high, he might get rid of Daddy."

  Carfax had thought of that but he had seen no reason to discuss it with her. She would just become more anxious. Besides, there was no proof that his uncle was in Megistus. If only there was a MEDIUM available, it could be used to determine if his uncle was still in the embu. Patricia must have been thinking along the same lines. She said, "It looks as if I might get the rights to MEDIUM, doesn't it? And when I do, I'll find out just where Daddy is."

  "Or where he isn't," Carfax said. "I wish Langer's man had been able to get his last batch of data out. Then we might know."

  Nobody knew what had happened to him. He had not come out of Megistus with the other employes during the weekend. This might indicate something sinister, or might just mean that he had been kept busy. He sometimes had work to do which necessitated his putting off his holidays.

  Carfax started to sit down, changed his mind, and began pacing back and forth.

  "I'm tired of sitting on my ass. Now's the time to force an issue, while Western's off balance, and I'm going to do it."

  "I suppose it'll get us killed."

  "Aren't you willing to take a chance if you can save your father?"

  "What have you got in mind, for God's sake!"

  I'll tell you later."

  He pressed the phone's VO button and punched Langer's number. He had to wait for twelve minutes, since the senator was "tied up," but he declined to leave his number. He didn't want Langer to be sidetracked by other affairs.

  Langer was in a hurry, but when he heard a few sentences of Carfax's proposal he told his secretary to delay his next outgoing call. After Carfax had finished, Langer said, "We'll hit him on both flanks then. I'll take care of the judicial business right now. You and Patricia take the next plane out. I'll see that it's held for you."

  Thirty minutes later, the Carfaxes boarded a passenger plane that had been kept waiting fifteen minutes for them. They were conducted to the first-class section, and the double-decker taxied off. It went past ten planes that were lined up, waiting for Carfax's to take off ahead of them. The stewardesses were all smiles, hovering over them to make sure they were quite comfortable.

  Carfax suspected that behind the overly courteous attitude was irritation. He didn't mind. He'd been delayed too many times when he was a second-class passenger and his plane had been held up by high-priority big shots.

  In two hours and three minutes, the huge jet was in the landing pattern for the Las Vegas airport. The Carfaxes disembarked fifteen minutes later and in five minutes were strapping on their seat belts in the twin-jet that Langer had rented for them. Within thirty-five minutes, their plane was landing on the strip of the Bonanza Circus port.

  From there they checked into the only completely roofed-over city in the world. No large vehicles were permitted in it; the population traveled on moving sidewalks or used the small electric fare-free taxis. Gordon and Patricia were met by a U.S. Marshal, George Chang, who accompanied them to the Athena Tower, the legislative building. There they were introduced to the judge who had issued the warrant Langer had asked for, another U.S. Marshal, and the county electrical inspector. The latter were, respectively, Amanda Hiekka, a blonde Valkyrie of Finnish descent, and Ricardo Lopez, a short, stocky cigar-smoking redhead whose parents had fled Cuba thirty years'-ago.

  Carfax learned all these unnecessary biographical details from Judge Kasner. The judge seemed to be trying to delay the expedition with trivial conversation. When Carfax expressed impatience, Kasner replied, "I'm not sure that we shouldn't wait until morning, although the senator did indicate extreme haste. He doesn't know the situation here, and when I tried to explain it to him, he said he wasn't interested. He just wanted action.

  But. . ."

  "And what is the situation?" Carfax said.

  "Explosive! There are at least three hundred men camped outside the gates of Megistus, armed men, anti-Westernites. They claim they're there to see that Western doesn't flee the country. The sheriff has ordered them to disperse, but they won't pay any attention to him. In the meantime, the pro-Westernites are organizing; they're meeting now at the Profacd Hall.

  It's evident they plan to march out to Megistus and confront the mob there. The mayor has asked the governor to call out the state militia, but he's refused. He says the situation doesn't warrant it."

  Carfax nodded. This was to be expected. The governor was a good friend of Langer's.

  "This is no time to play politics," Judge Kasner said. "There's going to be bloodshed unless the militia is there. And maybe even then. I was reluctant to issue the warrants because I was afraid that your appearance there will precipitate things."

  Marshal Chang said, "I've got my orders. I'm not hanging around here a moment longer. The rest of you coming along?"

  "That's why we flew out here," Carfax said. "Let's go."

  "I strongly advise against it," Kasner said.

  "Then you shouldn't have issued the warrants," Carfax said. He felt sorry for the judge, since he had been put under such pressure by Langer for Langer's own purposes. On the other hand, the judge should have had enough character to resist Langer, even if it meant his political career. And there was no doubt in Carfax's mind that Langer's agents had stirred up the anti-Westemites and led them out to Megistus. And all this had been done since Carfax had phoned Langer. There were, of course, strong feelings against Western in Bonan
za Circus, as there were in every city in the United States. Langer had spoken to the few men needed to organize this sentiment into a crowd and lead them out to Megistus. The leaders were probably a strange mixture of religious and criminal elements, churchmen and Mafia. The latter organization was the secret, or not-so-secret, builder of Bonanza Circus and owner of the giant gambling casinos. Most of them were devout Catholics except when religion interfered with business, and they were implacable enemies of Western. They feared MEDIUM and were opposed to its use. The proposal that the machine be used to extract testimony from dead members of their organization terrified them. It was said that the Mafia had required all its members to take a solemn oath that they would keep silent about their activities even after death. How could they enforce it, since the dead were beyond any retribution?

  Langer was a bitter enemy of organized crime. It must have hurt him to ask its chiefs to help him. But in politics usefulness and compromise are the prime movers. Langer would worry later about his debt to criminals. This was war, where you didn't consider the ethics of your allies or, indeed, any ethics at all.

  Why did Langer want a mob with heated emotions outside of Megistus? Was it just to scare Western into giving in to the marshals and Lopez? Or did he plan to send the mob in after the gate had been opened to the legal representatives? Carfax thought that the latter was most likely. This scared him, and it also made him sick. Langer was sending men to their death.

  These thoughts occupied him with gloominess while the parties rode through the wide walks of Bonanza Circus. There was not much traffic at this time, which was to be expected. The many faces that appeared at the doors and the windows as they rode by the fantastically ornamented buildings showed that a large part of the citizenry and the tourists were up. Word had gotten around, and the people were afraid. They weren't venturing outside, because they must fear a clash between the pros and the antis.

  Chang, however, commented that there wasn't much chance of that in the city itself. All the action would be out at Megistus.