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diff --git a/old/30063.txt b/old/30063.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7ce655 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/30063.txt @@ -0,0 +1,958 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Double Take, by Richard Wilson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Double Take + +Author: Richard Wilson + +Illustrator: Paul Orban + +Release Date: September 22, 2009 [EBook #30063] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOUBLE TAKE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + _The barn turned out to be a spaceship in disguise, and + that was only the beginning. Before his strange adventure + ended, young Paul Asher found himself going around in + circles--very peculiar circles indeed!_ + + + DOUBLE TAKE + + By Richard Wilson + + Illustrated by Paul Orban + + +_Paul Asher, 27, men's furnishings buyer, leaned back and let the cloth +band be fastened across his chest, just under his armpits. He adjusted +his heavy spectacles, closed his eyes for a moment, breathed deeply, and +was off._ + +The semi-darkness was dispelled as he shot out of a tunnel into dazzling +sunlight. The high-powered vehicle he was driving purred smoothly as it +took the long, rising curve. The road climbed steadily toward the +mountaintop city ahead. He looked around to satisfy himself that he was +alone in the car. + +He wasn't. + +The girl was a pretty one. He'd seen her somewhere before, he thought. +She was looking insolently at him, her wide red mouth in a half smile. +Her dark hair stirred in the breeze coming through the window, next to +her, which was open just a slit. + +She said: "Just keep going, Sweetheart, as fast as you can." And she +patted the oversized pocketbook that lay in her lap. + +He pressed down on the accelerator and the car responded with a flow of +power. The countryside fell away from the road on either side. Far below +he could see a river, winding broadly to the far-off sea. The summer day +sent its heat-shimmers across the miniature landscape. + +The road curved again. Theirs was the only car he had seen since he'd +come out of the tunnel. But now, far ahead, he saw another. It was +standing at the side of the road, next to a gate that came down in the +manner of one at a railroad crossing. But he knew by its black and white +diagonals and by the little sentry hut half hidden behind the other car +that it marked the frontier. A man with a rifle on his shoulder stood +there. They drew up to it fast, but his foot automatically eased up on +the floorboard pedal until the girl spoke sharply. + +"Right through it, Sweetheart." + +In the rear-view mirror he saw her leaning forward, her face tense. + +In a moment it would be time to stop, if he were going to. + +_Paul Asher hesitated a moment. Then he too leaned forward, the band +pressing into his chest. He was breathing heavily. There was an almost +inaudible click._ + +He trod on the accelerator. He had a glimpse of the guard unslinging his +rifle from his shoulder and of another man running toward the parked car +as his vehicle smashed into the flimsy gate and sent it, cracked and +splintered, to the side of the road. He fought the slight wrench of the +wheel and sped on. He thought he heard a shot. + +"Nice work," the girl said. She seemed to be appraising him as she +looked at him. "My name, incidentally, is Naomi." + +"Hello," he heard himself saying as he whipped the car around a curve +that hid the frontier behind a hill. "You seem to know who I am." + +"That I do," she said. + +"Then why don't you call me by my name, instead of 'Sweetheart'?" + +"That's because I like you, Sweetheart." She was looking out the rear +window. "Now just step on the gas, because we've got company." + +The car that had been parked near the sentry hut was whipping into view +around the curve. It was lighter than his, but it was fast, too. He +stepped on it. + + * * * * * + +Now the road had become narrow and twisting. The grade was steep but the +surface was good. Abruptly, it entered a forest. + +The girl said: "Two more curves. Then you'll see a field and a barn. Off +the road and into the barn, fast." + +He took the curves with rubber screaming and almost without braking sent +the car bumping across the field and into the barn. It was bigger than +it had seemed from the outside. As he brought the car to a lurching halt +the barn door closed. + +Where he had expected to see stalls and milking machines and hay he saw +an expanse of metal floor and monstrous machinery. The barn door which +had been a rickety wooden slab from the outside was a gleaming sheet of +metal from the inside. It glided silently shut and left no joint or seam +to show where there had been an opening. + +"Out," said Naomi. + +As they left the car, a flexible metal arm snaked from one of the smooth +walls, attached itself to the front bumper of the vehicle, and whisked +it into a cubicle which opened to receive it and closed behind it. + +A power-driven wheelchair sped up to them. Sitting in it was a fat man +of middle age, with pendulous jowls and a totally bald head. His +expression was a sardonic scowl. + +"You have the plans?" he asked the girl. + +"Sweetheart here has them." + +"I don't know what you're talking about," the young man said. + +"He knows, all right," the girl said. "He pretends to be innocent, but +that is merely his training. He has them under a sticking plaster on +the small of his back." + +"Remove your coat and shirt," commanded the man in the wheelchair. + +At that moment the floor shuddered under their feet, a gong began to +clang insistently, and the giant machinery, which had been silent, +throbbed into life. + +The man in the wheelchair whirled and was off, shouting commands to men +who materialized high on the walls in cylindrical turrets which the +visitor could only think of as battle stations. + +"What _is_ this place?" he asked. + +He got no answer. Instead the girl grabbed his arm and pulled him off to +the edge of the gigantic metal room. An opening appeared in the wall and +she pushed him through it into a room beyond. The entranceway snapped +shut behind them and when he looked he could see no door. The room also +was windowless. + +Naomi went to a metal table and as she looked down into its surface it +became a screen. Mirrored in it was the mountainous countryside they had +driven through to get to the barn--or what had seemed to be a barn from +the outside. He looked over her shoulder. + +They saw as from a height. There was the light car that had chased them +from the frontier. Standing near it was a man in an officer's uniform +and another in civilian clothes. They were talking and gesturing. Beside +the car was a tank. As they watched, its gun fired and the structure +they were in shuddered, but they heard no sound. + +Lumbering up the mountain road were more tanks and a self-propelled gun. +One of the tanks became enveloped in smoke and flames as they watched. +After a moment the smoke cleared. The tank was gone; where it had been +there was a deep crater. + +Gradually, the figures in the drama below grew smaller. At the same time +the vista widened, so that they saw more and more countryside. It +twisted beneath them and the horizon came giddily into view. A few +moments later the curvature of the earth could be plainly seen. + +Everything fitted together at once. Some of the things, anyway. + +"We're in a ship," he said. "Some kind of rocket-ship." + +"It's a planet plane," the girl said. "We're safe now." + +"Safe from what?" he asked. "What's this all about?" + +She smiled enigmatically. "Hafitz could tell you, if he chose. He's the +boss." + +"The man in the wheelchair?" + +She nodded and took out a compact. As she added lipstick to her mouth, +she looked him over, between glances in her mirror. + +"You don't look like the spy type. If there is a type." + +"I'm not a spy. I don't know what you're talking about." + +"The innocent! Go on, take off your coat and shirt. We'll save Hafitz +some time." + +"I'll be glad to, just to prove this is all ridiculous. A case of +mistaken identity. You've made a mistake, that's what you've done." + +He stood there, hesitating. + +The girl gave a burst of laughter. Then she said: "All right, +Sweetheart. I'll turn my back." + +She did, and he pulled his shirt out of his trousers. Then he froze. +Taped to the skin of his back was a flat package. + +_Paul Asher made the decision. He bent forward, feeling perspiration in +the palms of his hands. There was a faint click._ + + * * * * * + +Quickly he ripped the adhesive from his back. There was an instant of +pain as the plaster came free. He wadded up the sticky package, dropped +it to the floor and kicked it under the desk. + +Then he took off his coat, tie and shirt. + +"You can turn around now," he said. + +"A more modest spy I've never seen. Okay," she said, "now _you_ turn +around." + +"As you see," he said, "there are no plans--no papers." + +"No--not now. But there is a red mark on your back. What is it?" + +"Oh," he said. "Oh--that's a birthmark." + +She spun him around to face her. Her face was harsh. She slapped his +cheek. "Where is the sticking plaster? Don't trifle with me." + +Her eyes bored into his. He returned the gaze, then shrugged. + +"Under the desk," he said. "I tore it off and kicked it under the desk." + +"You are sensible to confess," she said. + +She bent down, unwisely. + +_Paul Asher felt the familiar tightening in his chest as he leaned +forward. The click was barely heard._ + +He raised his hand and brought the edge of it down hard on the back of +her neck. + +She crumpled and fell to the metal floor. He noticed that a smear of her +freshly-applied lipstick came off on it. + +He pushed the unconscious body aside and fished the packet out from +under the desk. He searched the room for another hiding place. + +But it was too late. A section of wall opened and Hafitz, the fat man in +the wheelchair, sped in. + +He wheeled past the young man, looked briefly at the unconscious girl, +then whisked himself around. + +"You will pay for this, my friend," he said. "But first we will have the +plans for the way-station. Where are they?" + +"I don't know anything about any plans and I don't know anything about a +way-station. I tried to tell the girl: it's all a crazy mistake." + +"We will see," said Hafitz. He pressed a button on the arm of his +wheelchair and two bruisers appeared through the walls, in the abrupt +way people had of materializing here. Bruisers was the only way they +could be described. They were human brutes, all muscle and malevolence. + +"Take them," said Hafitz, indicating the unconscious girl and the young +man. "Take them and search them for a small packet. If you do not find +it, search this room. If you do not find it still, hurt the male animal. +They persuade well with pain here, I understand. But do not kill him. I +will be in the communications room." + +He sped off, through a wall opening. + +One of the bruisers picked up the girl, roughly, and disappeared with +her. The other grabbed the young man and hauled him off in a third +direction. The young man hastily snatched up his coat, shirt and tie en +route. + +They ended up in a cell of a room, about seven feet in all directions, +in which the bruiser stripped him, methodically went through each piece +of clothing, and then satisfied himself that he didn't have the packet +anywhere on his body. + +The muscle-man then raised a fist. + +"Wait," his prospective victim said. He thought back quickly. "Hafitz +didn't say you could bat me around till you searched the room, too." + +The other spoke for the first time. "You say the truth." He put his arm +down. + +The young man watched intently as the bruiser went through the wall of +the cell-like room. + +He dressed fast. By placing his fingers in exactly the same position as +the other had done, was able to make the wall open for him. + +The silver-metal corridor had two directions. He went to the right. +After many turnings, at each of which he reconnoitered carefully, he +came to a passageway that was damp. Why it was damp he couldn't tell, +but there in the wetness were tracks which could have been made by a +wheelchair. + +He followed them, feeling the throb of giant engines underfoot. + + * * * * * + +The wheelchair tracks abruptly made a ninety-degree turn and ended at a +blank wall. Somewhere beyond it must be the communications room. + +He retreated and waited. + +In time the wall snapped open and Hafitz sped out. The young man +retreated into the maze of corridors and hoped chance would be on his +side. It was. Hafitz went another way. + +The young man ran back to the wall and used his fingers on it in the +combination he had learned. It opened for him. + +He closed it behind him and blinked at the huge instrument panel which +filled almost the entire room. + +One of the instruments was a color vision screen, tuned in to a room in +which there was a mahogany desk, at which was seated a man in uniform. +Behind him was a map of the United States. + +The man in uniform was a major general in the Air Force. An aide, a +lieutenant colonel, was leaning over the desk. He had a sheaf of papers +in his hand. The men's conversation was audible. + +"Messages have been coming in from all over Europe," the colonel was +saying. "Here's the way it reconstructs: + +"Our agent was en route to the rendezvous when he was intercepted by +Naomi. That's the only name we have for her. She's a spy. She's worked +for half a dozen countries and her present employer could be any one of +them. They were spotted as they crossed the frontier between Italy and +France. Their car went into a barn and we thought we had them. But the +barn turned out to be a spaceship in disguise. It took off." + +_So I'm their agent, Paul Asher thought. So that's what it's all about. +I'm a secret agent for the United States, but they didn't tell me +anything about it. This is real George, this is ... He expected to hear +a faint click and leaned forward experimentally, but nothing happened. +He leaned backward. Still nothing._ + +The colonel was answering a question from the general. "We don't know +who they are, Sir. They're not from Earth, obviously. And the best +scientific minds go still further--they're not even from our solar +system. Whoever they are, it's clear that they don't want us to build a +way-station in space." + +"Those spaceships started buzzing around right after our first Moon +trip," the general said. "This is the first time they've become really +troublesome--now that we've got the Moon under control and are ready to +build the way-station so we can get to Mars." + +"That's right, Sir," said the colonel. + +"Progress is a wonderful thing," said the general. "Things certainly +have changed since those early days of strategic atomic bombing and +guided missile experiments." + +"Yes, Sir," said the colonel. + +The young man in the communications room of the spaceship let his +attention wander away from the scene back on Earth and experimented with +some of the switches and controls. Trial and error led him to one which +lit up a signal on the desk of the general. + +The general flicked it on. + +"Yes?" he said. He looked puzzled when he got no picture, just a voice +saying, "Hello, hello." + +"Yes?" he said. "Hello. Speak up, man." + +"This is your agent aboard the enemy spaceship," said the young man. "Do +you read me?" + +"Yes," said the general. "We read you. Go ahead." + +"I may not have much time. Get a fix on me if you can. And send help." + +"What's your position?" the general was reacting well. He was alert and +all business. + +"I don't know. I've been taken prisoner, but I'm temporarily free. There +isn't much time. Hafitz is bound to be back soon. He seems to be the +brains of this outfit--this part of the outfit, anyway. Naomi is here, +too, but I don't know whether she's with them or against them." + +"Where are the plans, son?" asked the general. + +"They're safe, for the moment. I can't guarantee for how long." + +"I'm getting the fix," the colonel said. He was beyond the range of the +young man's vision screen. "I've got him. He's still within range, but +accelerating fast. We can intercept if we get up a rocket soon enough." + +"Get it up," ordered the general. "Get up a squadron. Scramble the Moon +patrol and send out reserves from Earth at once." + +"Right!" said the colonel. + +The young man was so engrossed in the makings of his rescue party that +he didn't see the wall open up behind him. + +There was a squeak of rubber tires and he whirled to see Hafitz, in his +wheelchair, slamming toward him. The fat man's hand held a weird-looking +gun. + +The young man recoiled. His back pushed against a row of control +buttons. + +_Then everything went white._ + + * * * * * + +Paul Asher blinked his eyes, like a man awakening from a vivid dream. + +The house lights went on and the manager of the theater came on the +stage. He stood in front of the blank master screen with its +checkerboard pattern of smaller screens, on which the several lines of +action had taken place simultaneously. Paul took off his selectorscope +spectacles with the earphone attachments. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," the manager said. "I regret very much having to +announce that this vicarion of the production _Spies from Space_ was +defective. The multifilm has broken and, because of the complexity of +the vikie process, it will be impossible to splice it without returning +it to the laboratory. + +"Ushers are at the exits with passes good for any future performance. +Those of you who prefer can exchange them at the box office for a full +refund of your admission price." + +Paul Asher unstrapped the wired canvas band from across his chest. He +put the selectorscope spectacles into the pouch on the arm of the seat +and walked out of the R.K.O. Vicarion into High Street and around the +corner to where his car was parked. + +His roommate at the communapt, MacCloy, was still up when he got there, +going over some projectos. Mac snapped off the screen and quickly swept +the slides together and into a case. + +"You're back early," MacCloy said. + +"The multifilm broke," Paul told him. + +"Oh." Mac seemed abstracted, as he often did, and again Paul wondered +about this man he knew so casually and who had never confided in him +about anything--especially about his government job. + +"So I missed the ending," Paul said. "I guess it was near the end, +anyhow. The space patrol was on the way, but the villain, that Hafitz, +was just about to blast me with his gun and I don't know how I would +have got out of that." + +"I remember that," Mac said. He laughed. "You must have been Positive +all the way through. Like I was when I saw it. If you'd had any negative +reactions--if you'd leaned back against the strap instead of +forward--you'd have been at some other point in the multiplot and I +wouldn't have recognized that part. Want me to tell you how it ends?" + +"Go ahead. Then if I do see it again I'll change the ending somewhere +along the line with a lean-back." + +"Okay. There really wasn't much more. It takes so much film to provide +all the plot choices that they can't make them very long. + +"Well, Hafitz blasts me and misses," Mac went on, "--or blasts _you_ and +misses, to keep it in your viewpoint. When you jump back, you set off a +bunch of controls. That was the control room, too, not just the +communications room. Well, those controls you lean back against take the +ship out of automatic pilot and send it into some wild acrobatics and +that's why Hafitz misses. Also it knocks him out of the wheelchair so +he's helpless and you get his gun. Also you see that the plans are still +there--right where you put them, stuck to the bottom of his wheelchair." + +"So that was it," said Paul. + +"Yes," said Mac. "And then you cover Hafitz while he straightens out the +ship and you rendezvous with the space control and they take you all +into custody. You get a citation from the government. That's about it. +Corny, huh?" + +"But what about the girl?" Paul asked. "Is she really a spy?" + +"Girl? What girl?" + +"Naomi, her name was," Paul said. "You couldn't miss her. She was in the +vikie right at the beginning--that brunette in the fast car." + +"But there wasn't any girl, Paul," Mac insisted. "Not when I saw it." + +"Of course there was. There had to be--the vikies all start out the same +way, no matter who sees them." + +"It beats me, pal. I know I didn't see her. Maybe you dreamed up the +dame." + +"I don't think so," Paul said. "But of course it's possible." He yawned. +"I wouldn't mind dreaming of her tonight, at that. Think I'll turn in +now, Mac. I've got that long trip tomorrow, you know. Up to Canada to +look over a new line of Marswool sport jackets at the All-Planets +Showroom." + +"Driving or flying?" + +"The weather prognosis is zero-zero. I'll drive." + +"Good," said Mac. + + * * * * * + +Paul Asher woke up late. He had a confused recollection of a dream. +Something about a beautiful brunette giving him a backrub. + +A look at the chrono sent the dream out of his head and he hurried +through shaving and dressing. + +His car was waiting for him, engine idling, at the curb. He got in, +tossing his briefcase and topcoat ahead of him to the far side of the +front seat. His back began to itch, insistently, and he rubbed it +against the leather upholstery. + +Paul adjusted the safety belt around him, and fastened it. Might as well +do it now, instead of having to fool around with it later. Damn that +itch, anyway! It was as if something were stuck to his skin--like a +sticking plaster.... + +The high-powered vehicle purred smoothly as it took a long, rising +curve. The road climbed steadily toward the mountaintop city ahead. + +The scene was familiar. + +The itching of his back spread and became a prickly feeling in the small +hairs at the nape of his neck. + +He knew now that he was not alone in the car. He looked in the rear-view +mirror. + +Naomi. + +She was looking at him insolently, her wide red mouth in a half smile. + +She said: "Just keep going, Sweetheart, as fast as you can." + + + ... THE END + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _If Worlds of Science Fiction_ January + 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and + typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Double Take, by Richard Wilson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOUBLE TAKE *** + +***** This file should be named 30063.txt or 30063.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/0/6/30063/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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