Nine by Laumer

by Keith Laumer

  It pulled over. The driver climbed out and came up the walk to me. “Are you—uh … ?” He scratched his head.

  “Right.” I waved at my loot. “Put it in the back.” He obliged. Together we rolled toward the gate. The guard held up his hand, came forward to check the truck. He looked surprised when he saw me.

  “Just who are you, fella?” he said.

  I didn’t like tampering with people any more than I had to. It was a lot like stealing from a blind man: easy, but nothing to feel proud of. I gave him a light touch—just the suggestion that what I would say would be full of deep meaning.

  “You know—the regular Wednesday shipment,” I said darkly. “Keep it quiet. We’re all relying on you.”

  “Sure thing,” he said, stepping back. We gunned through the gate. I glanced back to see him looking after the truck, thinking about the Wednesday shipment on a Friday. He decided it was logical, nodded his head and forgot the whole thing.

  V

  I’d been riding high for a couple of hours, enjoying the success of the tricks I’d stolen from the Gool. Now I suddenly felt like something the student morticians had been practicing on. I guided my driver through a second-rate residential section, looking for an M.D. shingle on a front lawn.

  The one I found didn’t inspire much confidence—you could hardly see it for the weeds—but I didn’t want to make a big splash. I had to have an assist from my driver to make it to the front door. He got me inside, parked my box beside me and went off to finish his rounds, under the impression that it had been a dull morning.

  The doctor was a seedy, seventyish G.P. with a gross tremor of the hands that a good belt of Scotch would have helped. He looked at me as though I’d interrupted something that was either more fun or paid better than anything I was likely to come up with.

  “I need my dressing changed, Doc,” I said. “And maybe a shot to keep me going.”

  “I’m not a dope peddler,” he snapped. “You’ve got the wrong place.”

  “Just a little medication—whatever’s usual. It’s a burn.”

  “Who told you to come here?”

  I looked at him meaningfully. “The word gets around.”

  He glared at me, gnashed his plates, then gestured toward a black-varnished door. “Go right in there.”

  He gaped at my arm when the bandages were off. I took a quick glance and wished I hadn’t.

  “How did you do this?”

  “Smoking in bed,” I said. “Have you got … something that …”

  He caught me before I hit the floor, got me into a chair. Then he had that Scotch he’d been wanting, gave me a shot as an afterthought, and looked at me narrowly.

  “I suppose you fell out of that same bed and broke your leg,” he said.

  “Right. Hell of a dangerous bed.”

  “I’ll be right back.” He turned to the door. “Don’t go away. I’ll just … get some gauze.”

  “Better stay here, Doc. There’s plenty of gauze right on that table.”

  “See here—”

  “Skip it, Doc. I know all about you.”

  “What?”

  “I said all about you.”

  He set to work then; a guilty conscience is a tough argument to answer.

  He plastered my arm with something and rewrapped it, then looked the leg over and made a couple of adjustments to the brace. He clucked over the stitches in my scalp, dabbed something on them that hurt like hell, then shoved an old-fashioned stickpin needle into my good arm.

  “That’s all I can do for you,” he said. He handed me a bottle of pills. “Here are some tablets to take in an emergency. Now get out.”

  “Call me a cab, Doc.”

  I listened while he called, then lit a cigarette and watched through the curtains. The doc stood by, worrying his upper plate and eyeing me. So far I hadn’t had to tinker with his mind, but it would be a good idea to check. I felt my way delicately.

  —oh God, why did I … long time ago … Mary ever knew … go to Arizona, start again, too old … I saw the nest of fears that gnawed at him, the frustration and the faint flicker of hope but not quite dead. I touched his mind, wiped away scars …

  “Here’s your car,” he said. He opened the door, looking at me. I started past him.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” he said.

  “Sure, Pop. And don’t worry. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  The driver put my boxes on the back seat. I got in beside him and told him to take me to a men’s clothing store. He waited while I changed my hand-me-downs for an off-the-hook suit, new shirt and underwear and a replacement beret. It was the only kind of hat that didn’t hurt. My issue shoes were still good, but I traded them in on a new pair, added a light raincoat, and threw in a sturdy suitcase for good measure. The clerk said something about money and I dropped an idea into his mind, paused long enough to add a memory of a fabulous night with a redhead. He hardly noticed me leaving.

  I tried not to feel like a shoplifter. After all, it’s not every day a man gets a chance to swap drygoods for dreams.

  In the cab, I transferred my belongings to the new suitcase, then told the driver to pull up at an anonymous-looking hotel. A four-star admiral with frayed cuffs helped me inside with my luggage. The hackie headed for the bay to get rid of the box under the impression I was a heavy tipper.

  I had a meal in my room, a hot bath, and treated myself to a three hour nap. I woke up feeling as though those student embalmers might graduate after all.

  I thumbed through the phone book and dialed a number.

  “I want a Cadillac or Lincoln,” I said. “A new one—not the one you rent for funerals—and a driver who won’t mind missing a couple nights’ sleep. And put a bed pillow and a blanket in the car.”

  I went down to the coffee room then for a light meal. I had just finished a cigarette when the car arrived—a dark blue heavyweight with a high polish and a low silhouette.

  “We’re going to Denver,” I told the driver. “We’ll make one stop tomorrow—I have a little shopping to do. I figure about twenty hours. Take a break every hundred miles, and hold it under seventy.”

  He nodded. I got in the back and sank down in the smell of expensive upholstery.

  “I’ll cross town and pick up U.S. 84 at—”

  “I leave the details to you,” I said. He pulled out into the traffic and I got the pillow settled under me and closed my eyes. I’d need all the rest I could get on this trip. I’d heard that compared with the Denver Records Center, Fort Knox was a cinch. I’d find out for sure when I got there.

  The plan I had in mind wasn’t the best I could have concocted under more leisurely circumstances. But with every cop in the country under orders to shoot me on sight, I had to move fast. My scheme had the virtue of unlikeliness. Once I was safe in the Central Vault—supposed to be the only H-bomb-proof structure ever built—I’d put through a phone call to the outside, telling them to watch a certain spot; say the big desk in the President’s office. Then I’d assemble my matter transmitter and drop some little item right in front of the assembled big shots. They’d have to admit I had something. And this time they’d have to start considering the possibility that I wasn’t working for the enemy.

  It had been a smooth trip, and I’d caught up on my sleep. Now it was five A.M. and we were into the foothills, half an hour out of Denver. I ran over my lines, planning the trickiest part of the job ahead—the initial approach. I’d listened to a couple of news broadcasts. The FBI was still promising an arrest within hours. I learned that I was lying up, or maybe dead, in the vicinity of Key West, and that the situation was under control. That was fine with me. Nobody would expect me to pop up in Denver, still operating under my own power—and wearing a new suit at that.

  The Records Center was north of the city, dug into mountainside. I steered my chauffeur around the downtown section, out a street lined with dark hamburger joints and unlit gas stations to where a side road branched off. We
pulled up. From here on, things might get dangerous—if I was wrong about how easy it was all going to be. I brushed across the driver’s mind. He set the brake and got out.

  “Don’t know how I came to run out of gas, Mr. Brown,” he said apologetically. “We just passed a station but it was closed.

  I guess I’ll just have to hike back into town. I sure am sorry; I never did that before.”

  I told him it was okay, watched as he strode off into the predawn gloom, then got into the front seat and started up. The gate of the Reservation surrounding the Record Center was only a mile away now. I drove slowly, feeling ahead for opposition. There didn’t seem to be any. Things were quiet as a poker player with a pat hand. My timing was good.

  I stopped in front of the gate, under a floodlight and the watchful eye of an M.P. with a shiny black tommygun held at the ready. He didn’t seem surprised to see me. I rolled down the window as he came over to the car.

  “I have an appointment inside, Corporal,” I said. I touched his mind. “The password is ‘hotpoint’.”

  He nodded, stepped back, and motioned me in. I hesitated. This was almost too easy. I reached out again …

  “… middle of the night … password … nice car … I wish …”

  I pulled through the gate and headed for the big parking lot, picking a spot in front of a ramp that led down to a tall steel door. There was no one in sight. I got out, dragging my suitcase. It was heavier now, with the wire and magnets I’d added. I crossed the drive, went up to the doors. The silence was eerie.

  I swept the area, searching for minds, found nothing. The shielding, I decided, blanked out everything.

  There was a personnel door set in the big panel, with a massive combination lock. I leaned my head against the door and felt for the mechanism, turning the dial right, left, right …

  The lock opened. I stepped inside, alert.

  Silence, darkness. I reached out, sensed walls, slabs of steel, concrete, intricate mechanisms, tunnels deep in the ground …

  But no personnel. That was surprising—but I wouldn’t waste time questioning my good luck. I followed a corridor, opened another door, massive as a vault, passed more halls, more doors.

  My footsteps made muffled echoes. I passed a final door and came into the heart of the Records Center.

  There were lights in the chamber around the grim, featureless periphery of the Central Vault. I set the valise on the floor, sat on it and lit a cigarette. So far, so good. The Records Center, I saw, had been overrated. Even without my special knowledge, a clever locksmith could have come this far—or almost. But the Big Vault was another matter. The great integrating lock that secured it would yield only to a complex command from the computer set in the wall opposite the vault door. I smoked my cigarette and, with eyes closed, studied the vault.

  I finished the cigarette, stepped on it, went to the console, began pressing keys, tapping out the necessary formulations. Half an hour later I finished. There was a whine from a servo motor; a crimson light flashed. I turned and saw the valve cycle open, showing a bright-lit tunnel within.

  I dragged my bag inside, threw the lever that closed the entry behind me. A green light went on. I walked along the narrow passage, lined with gray metal shelves stacked with gray steel tape drums, descended steps, came into a larger chamber fitted out with bunks, a tiny galley, toilet facilities, shelves stocked with food. There was a radio, a telephone and a second telephone, bright red. That would be the hot-line to Washington. This was the sanctum sanctorum, where the last survivors could wait out the final holocaust—indefinitely.

  I opened the door of a steel cabinet. Radiation suits, tools, instruments. Another held bedding. I found a tape-player, tapes —even a shelf of books. I found a first aid kit and gratefully gave myself a hypo-spray jolt of neurite. My pains receded.

  I went on to the next room; there were wash tubs, a garbage disposal unit, a drier. There was everything here I needed to keep me alive and even comfortable until I could convince someone up above that I shouldn’t be shot on sight.

  A heavy door barred the way to the room beyond. I turned a wheel, swung the door back, saw more walls lined with filing cabinets, a blank facade of gray steel; and in the center of the room, alone on a squat table—a yellow plastic case that any Sunday Supplement reader would have recognized.

  It was a Master Tape, the Utter Top Secret Programming document that would direct the terrestrial defense in case of a Gool invasion.

  It was almost shocking to see it lying there—unprotected except for the flimsy case. The information it contained in micromicro dot form could put my world in the palm of the enemy’s hand.

  The room with the tool kit would be the best place to work, I decided. I brought the suitcase containing the electronic gear back from the outer door where I’d left it, opened it and arranged its contents on the table. According to the Gool these simple components were all I needed. The trick was in knowing how to put them together.

  There was work ahead of me now. There were the coils to wind, the intricate antenna arrays to lay out; but before I started, I’d take time to call Kayle—or whoever I could get at the other end of the hot-line. They’d be a little startled when I turned up at the heart of the defenses they were trying to shield.

  I picked up the receiver and a voice spoke:

  “Well, Granthan. So you finally made it.”

  VI

  “Here are your instructions,” Kayle was saying. “Open the vault door. Come out—stripped—and go to the center of the parking lot. Stand there with your hands over your head. A single helicopter manned by a volunteer will approach and drop a gas canister. It won’t be lethal, I promise you that. Once you’re unconscious, I’ll personally see to it that you’re transported to the Institute in safety. Every effort will then be made to overcome the Gool conditioning. If we’re successful, you’ll be awakened. If not …”

  He let the sentence hang. It didn’t need to be finished. I understood what he meant.

  I was listening. I was still not too worried. Here I was safe against anything until the food ran out—and that wouldn’t be for months.

  “You’re bluffing, Kayle,” I said. “You’re trying to put the best face on something that you can’t control. If you’d—”

  “You were careless at Delta Labs, Granthan. There were too many people with odd blanks in their memories and too many unusual occurrences, all on the same day. You tipped your hand. Once we knew what we were up against, it was simply a matter of following you at an adequate distance. We have certain shielding materials, as you know. We tried them all. There’s a new one that’s quite effective.

  “But as I was saying, we’ve kept you under constant surveillance. When we saw which way you were heading, we just stayed out of sight and let you trap yourself.”

  “You’re lying. Why would you want me here?”

  “That’s very simple,” Kayle said harshly. “It’s the finest trap ever built by man—and you’re safely in it.”

  “Safely is right. I have everything I need here. And that brings me to my reason for being here—in case you’re curious. I’m going to build a matter transmitter. And to prove my good faith, I’ll transmit the Master Tape to you. I’ll show you that I could have stolen the damned thing if I’d wanted to.”

  “Indeed? Tell me, Granthan, do you really think we’d be fools enough to leave the Master Tape behind when we evacuated the area?”

  “I don’t know about that—but it’s here.”

  “Sorry,” Kayle said. “You’re deluding yourself.” His voice was suddenly softer, some of the triumph gone from it. “Don’t bother struggling, Granthan. The finest brains in the country have combined to place you where you are. You haven’t a chance, except to do as I say. Make it easy on yourself. I have no wish to extend your ordeal.”

  “You can’t touch me, Kayle. This vault is proof against a hell-bomb, and it’s stocked for a siege . .

  “That’s right,” Kayle said.
His voice sounded tired. “It’s proof against a hell-bomb. But what if the hell-bomb’s in the vault with you?”

  I felt like a demolition man, working to defuse a blockbuster, who’s suddenly heard a loud click! from the detonator. I dropped the phone, stared around the room. I saw nothing that could be a bomb. I ran to the next room, the one beyond. Nothing. I went back to the phone, grabbed it up.

  “You ought to know better than to bluff now, Kayle!” I yelled. “I wouldn’t leave this spot now for half a dozen hypothetical hell-bombs!”

  “In the center room,” Kayle said. “Lift the cover over the floor drain. You’ll find it there. You know what they look like. Don’t tamper with its mechanism; it’s internally trapped. You’ll have to take my word for it we didn’t bother installing a dummy.”

  I dropped the phone, hurried to the spot Kayle had described. The bomb casing was there—a dull gray ovoid, with a lifting eye set in the top. It didn’t look dangerous. It just lay quietly, waiting .. .

  Back at the telephone, I had trouble finding my voice. “How long?” I croaked.

  “It was triggered when you entered the vault,” Kayle said. “There’s a time mechanism. It’s irreversible; you can’t force anyone to cancel it. And it’s no use your hiding in the outer passages.

  “The whole center will be destroyed in the blast. Even it can’t stand against a bomb buried in its heart. But we’ll gladly sacrifice the center to eliminate you.”

  “How long!”

  “I suggest you come out quickly, so that a crew can enter the vault to disarm the bomb.”

  “How long!”

  “When you’re ready to emerge, call me.” The line went dead.

  I put the phone back in its cradle carefully, like a rare and valuable egg.

  I tried to think. I’d been charging full speed ahead ever since I had decided on my scheme of action while I was still riding the surf off the Florida coast, and I’d stuck to it. Now it had hatched in my face—and the thing that had crawled out wasn’t the downy little chick of success. It had teeth and claws and was eyeing me like a basilisk …