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diff --git a/32410.txt b/32410.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4504a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/32410.txt @@ -0,0 +1,721 @@ +Project Gutenberg's No Shield from the Dead, by Gordon Rupert Dickson + +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: No Shield from the Dead + +Author: Gordon Rupert Dickson + +Release Date: May 18, 2010 [EBook #32410] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NO SHIELD FROM THE DEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from IF Worlds of Science Fiction January + 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + NO SHIELD FROM THE DEAD + + + By Gordon R. Dickson + + + _No conceivable force could penetrate Terri's shield. Yet he + was defenseless._ + + * * * * * + + + + +It was a nice little party, but a bit obvious. Terri Mac saw through +it before he had taken half a dozen steps into the apartment. A light +flush staining his high cheek-bones. "This is ridiculous," he said. + +The light chatter ceased. Cocktail glasses were set down on various +handy tables and ledges; and all faces in the room turned toward a man +in his late fifties who sat propped up invalid-wise on pillows in a +chair in a corner of the room. + +"The Comptroller is perspicacious," said the old man, agreeably, +waving one hand in a casual manner. "On your way, children." + +And the people present smiled and nodded. Quite as if it were an +ordinary leave-taking, they pushed past Terri Mac and filed out the +door. Even the blonde, Terri had picked up at the embassy ball and who +had brought him here, strolled off casually, but in a decidedly less +drunken fashion than she had exhibited earlier in the evening. + +"Sit down," said the old man. Terri Mac did so, gazing searchingly at +the skinny frame and white eyebrows in an unsuccessful effort to +connect him with something in memory. "This is ridiculous," he +repeated. + +"Really?" The old man smiled benignly. "And why so?" + +"Why--" the situation was so obvious that Terri fumbled--a little at a +loss for words. "Obviously you intend some form of coercion, or else +you would have come to me along recognized channels. And any thought +of coercion is obviously--well, ridiculous." + +"Why?" + +"Why? You senile old fool, don't you know that I'm shielded? Don't you +know all government officials from the fifth class up wear complete +personal shields that are not only crack-proof but contain all the +necessary elements to support life independently within the shield +for more than twenty hours? Don't you know that I'll be missed in two +hours at the most and tracked down in less than sixty minutes more? +Are you crazy?" + +The old man chuckled, rubbing dry hands together. He said, "I'm +shielded too. You can't get at me. And now the room's shielded. You +can't get out of it." + +Terri stared at him. The initial shock was passing. His own statements +anent the completeness of his protection had brought back confidence, +and his natural coolness was returning. "What do you want?" he asked, +eyeing the other narrowly. + +"Pleasure of your company," said the old man. "There are some very +strong connections between us. Yes, very strong. We must get to know +each other personally." + + * * * * * + +It occurred to Terri that he had misinterpreted the situation. Relief +came, mixed with a certain amount of chagrin at the way in which he +allowed himself to show alarm. He had looked ridiculous. He leaned +back in the chair and allowed a note of official hauteur and annoyance +to creep into his voice. "I see," he said. "You want something?" + +The old man nodded energetically. + +"I do. Indeed I do." + +"And you think you have some kind of a bargaining tool that is useful +but might not be so if it became known to official channels." + +"Well--" said the old man cautiously. + +"Don't waste my time," interrupted Terri, harshly. "I'm not an +ordinary politician. No man who works his way up to the fifth level of +the government is. I didn't get to where I am today by pussy-footing +around and I haven't the leisure to spend on people who do. Now _what_ +do you want?" + +The other cackled. "Now, what do you think?" he said, putting one +finger to his nose cunningly. + +"You are old," Terri said. "And therefore cautious. Consequently you +would not risk trying to force something from me, but are almost +certainly trying to sell me something. Now what do I want? Not the +usual things, certainly. Within my position I have all the material +things a man could want; and within my shield I enjoy complete +immunity. No one but the Central Bureau, itself, can crack this +shield. And no one but they can prevent the conditioned reflex that +stops my heart if for some reason the shield should be broached. I +have a hold on every man beneath me that prevents him from knifing me +in the back. There could be only one thing that I want that you could +give me--" he leaned forward, staring into the deep-pouched eyes--"and +that is a means of getting at the man above me. Am I right?" + +"No," said the old man. + +Terri stiffened. + +"No?" he echoed in angry incredulity. + +Their eyes locked. For a long time they held, and at last Terri looked +away. + +The old man sighed--sipped noisily from a drink on the table beside +his chair. + +"Wait!" said Terri. To his own surprise, his voice was eager, even a +little timorous in its hopefulness. "Wait. I've got it. There will be +a test. There always is a test every time a man moves up. His +superiors watch him when he doesn't suspect it. It will be that way +for me when I am ready for the fourth level. And you have some kind of +advance information. You know what the test will be. Maybe you know +the man who will administer it. You want to sell me this information." + +The other said nothing. + +"Well," Terri spread his hands openly. "I am interested. I'll buy. +What do you want. Money? A favor? Protection?" + +"No." + +"No?" Terri shouted, starting up from his chair. "What do you mean by +no? Can't you say anything but 'no'?" A rage possessed him. He flung +himself forward two furious steps to stand threateningly over the aged +figure. "You doddering idiot! Say what you want, and quickly! My two +hours are nearly up. I'll be missed. They'll be here in a few +minutes--the Bureau Guards. They'll crack the room shield. They'll +rescue me. And they'll take you into custody. To be questioned. To be +executed. At my order. Do you understand? Your life depends on me." + +After a little, the old man chuckled again. "Yes," he muttered, in a +high-pitched old voice. "That's the way it'll be." + +Terri stared at him. "You don't seem to understand. You're going to +die." + +"Oh yes," said the old man, nodding his head indulgently. "I'll die. +But I'm an old man. I'd die anyway in a year or so--maybe in a day or +so. But for you--for a young man like you--the up and coming young +governmental with everything to lose--" he leered slyly at Terri. +"Your death won't be so easy for you to take." + +"I die?" echoed Terri, stupefied. "But I'm not going to die. They're +coming to _rescue_ me." + +"Oh, are they?" said the old man, ironically. + +"Of course!" said Terri. "Of course, why shouldn't they?" + +The old man winked one faded eye portentously. + +"Fine young man," he said. "Up and coming young man. Brilliant. Never +a thought for the people he trampled on the way up the ladder. Dear +me, no." + +"What do you mean?" said Terri. + +The old eyes, looking up suddenly, pierced him. + +"Do you remember Kilaren?" + +"K-Kilaren?" + +"Kilaren," recited the old man as if quoting from a newspaper. "The +beautiful young secretary of a provincial governor whose lecherous and +unnatural pursuit drove her to suicide. So that one day to escape the +governor, she jumped or fell from a high window. And the people of the +province, who had for a long time heard ugly stories and rumors, +finally mobbed the office and lynched the governor, hanging him from +the same window from which the girl had jumped. They said that even +the fall had not spoiled her beauty, but that was probably false." The +old man's words dwindled away into silence. + +"If so what of it?" said Terri. "What's that to do with me?" + +"Why, you were there. You were the governor's aide, and when the mob +had gone home and feeling had slackened off, you stepped into the gap +and seized up the reins of government, handling matters so skillfully +that you were immediately promoted to an under-post at Government +City." + +"What of it?" + +"Why it was all your doing," replied the other, in a mildly reproving +voice, "the rumors, the stories, the mob, even the suicide. Poor +Kilaren--a pitiful pawn in your ruthless game to eliminate the +governor in your mad dash up the ladder." + +"I never touched her!" cried Terri, his voice cracking. "I swear it." + +"Who said you did? The type of mind that stoops to murder would never +have gotten you this far. But you were the one who hired her, knowing +the governor's tendencies. You were the one that gave her work that +kept her, night after night, alone with the man. You preyed upon her +fear of losing her job. You threw the sin in her face after she had +committed it. You told her what she might have been, and what she was, +and what she would be. You broke her, day after day. In the sterile +privacy of the office you reviled her, scorned her, brought her to +believe that she was what she was not, a creature of filth and +dishonor. You blocked off all avenues of escape but the one that led +through one high window. _You killed her!_" + +"No!" + +"Yes!" + + * * * * * + +Terri brought his quivering hands together and clenched them in his +lap. He stared at the old man. "Who are you?" + +"I was a friend of hers. We lived in the same hotel-apartment. She had +no family. I believe you knew that when you hired her." + +"I see," said Terri. He drew a long, deep, shuddering breath, and +leaned back in the chair. "So that's the story," he said, his voice +strengthening, "I might have known it. Blackmail. There are always +fools that want to try blackmail." + +"No," said the old man. "Not Blackmail, Comptroller. I want your +life." + +Terri laughed shortly, contemptuously. "No knowledge that you have can +threaten my life." + +"They will come," said the old man, leaning wearily back against his +cushions. "As you said, the Bureau Guards will come; and I think I +shall kill myself when I hear them starting to crack the shield around +this room. They will come in and find you with a dead man. What will +you tell them, Terri?" + +"Tell them? Anything I choose. They won't question _me_." + +"No. The guards won't. But the Bureau will. How can they raise a man +to the fourth level when there is a two-hour mystery in his +background? They will want to know what you were doing here." + +"I was kidnapped," said Terri. + +"By whom? Can you prove it? And why?" + +"I've been held a prisoner here." + +"By a dead man? No, no, Terri. The circumstances are suspicious. You +walk away from the embassy under your own power. You disappear and are +found in a shielded room with a man who has committed suicide. This +must be explained, and in the end you will have to tell them the +truth." + +"And what if I do?" said Terri, truculently. + +"But the truth is so fantastic, Terri. So uncheckable. I am dead, and +I am the only one who could have supported your story. These people +who were here when you came in are common actors. They have no idea +why I wanted you decoyed here. These are my rooms. And there is no +obvious connection between me and the dead Kilaren. And perhaps I will +decide to live just long enough to denounce you as a traitor when they +enter." + +Ashen-faced, Terri stared. + +"The Bureau will have to question you. They will clamp a block on your +mind so that you can't operate the reflex that stops your heart. And +they will question you over and over again, because the Bureau cannot +afford to take chances. You will go into a private hell of your own, +Terri Mac. You will tell the story of your own evil to that girl over +and over again, pleading to be believed. And they will not believe +you. And in the end they will kill you, just to be on the safe side. +Because, you see, you _might_ have been doing something traitorous in +these two shielded hours." + +Terri's head bobbed limply, like a drunken man's. He made one last +effort. "Why?" he said. "Why do you do this? Your life. For a girl who +was no connection to you?" + +The old man folded his hands. + +"I was a little like your governor," he said. "We all have our sins. I +loved Kilaren and the shock of her death wrecked my health." He cocked +his head suddenly on one side. "Listen," he said. + +From beyond the closed door of the room, a high-pitched humming was +barely audible. It grew in volume, going up the scale. Terri leaped to +his feet; and for the space of a couple of seconds, he lunged first +this way then that, like a wild animal beating against its trap. Then, +as if all will had at last gone out of him, he stopped in the middle +of the room and closed his eyes. For a fraction of a moment he stood +there, before a faint convulsion seized him and he fell. + +With a faint smile on his face, the old man reached out to a hidden +switch and cut the shield about the room. Uniformed guards tumbled +through the door, to pull up in dismay at the sight of the body on the +floor. + +"I'm sorry," said the old man, "I must have turned the shield on by +mistake. I was trying to signal someone. The Comptroller seems to have +had a heart attack." + +THE END + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's No Shield from the Dead, by Gordon Rupert Dickson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NO SHIELD FROM THE DEAD *** + +***** This file should be named 32410.txt or 32410.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/4/1/32410/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, 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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