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diff --git a/old/50988.txt b/old/50988.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6c2ad6d..0000000 --- a/old/50988.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2429 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bodyguard, by Christopher Grimm - -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/license - - -Title: Bodyguard - -Author: Christopher Grimm - -Release Date: January 21, 2016 [EBook #50988] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BODYGUARD *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - Bodyguard - - By CHRISTOPHER GRIMM - - Illustrated by CAVAT - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction February 1956. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - When overwhelming danger is constantly present, - of course a man is entitled to have a bodyguard. - The annoyance was that he had to do it - himself ... and his body would not cooperate! - - -The man at the bar was exceptionally handsome, and he knew it. So did -the light-haired girl at his side, and so did the nondescript man in -the gray suit who was watching them from a booth in the corner. - -Everyone in the room was aware of the big young man, and most of the -humans present were resentful, for he handled himself consciously and -arrogantly, as if his appearance alone were enough to make him superior -to anyone. Even the girl with him was growing restless, for she was -accustomed to adulation herself, and next to Gabriel Lockard she was -almost ordinary-looking. - -As for the extraterrestrials--it was a free bar--they were merely -amused, since to them all men were pathetically and irredeemably -hideous. - -Gabe threw his arm wide in one of his expansive gestures. There was a -short man standing next to the pair--young, as most men and women were -in that time, thanks to the science which could stave off decay, though -not death--but with no other apparent physical virtue, for plastic -surgery had not fulfilled its bright promise of the twentieth century. - -The drink he had been raising to his lips splashed all over his -clothing; the glass shattered at his feet. Now he was not only a rather -ugly little man, but also a rather ridiculous one--or at least he felt -he was, which was what mattered. - -"Sorry, colleague," Gabe said lazily. "All my fault. You must let me -buy you a replacement." He gestured to the bartender. "Another of the -same for my fellow-man here." - -The ugly man dabbed futilely at his dripping trousers with a cloth -hastily supplied by the management. - -"You must allow me to pay your cleaning bill," Gabe said, taking out -his wallet and extracting several credit notes without seeming to look -at them. "Here, have yourself a new suit on me." _You could use one_ -was implied. - -And that, coming on top of Gabriel Lockard's spectacular appearance, -was too much. The ugly man picked up the drink the bartender had just -set before him and started to hurl it, glass and all, into Lockard's -handsome face. - - * * * * * - -Suddenly a restraining hand was laid upon his arm. "Don't do that," the -nondescript man who had been sitting in the corner advised. He removed -the glass from the little man's slackening grasp. "You wouldn't want to -go to jail because of him." - -The ugly man gave him a bewildered stare. Then, seeing the forces -now ranged against him--including his own belated prudence--were too -strong, he stumbled off. He hadn't really wanted to fight, only to -smash back, and now it was too late for that. - -Gabe studied the newcomer curiously. "So, it's you again?" - -The man in the gray suit smiled. "Who else in any world would stand up -for you?" - -"I should think you'd have given up by now. Not that I mind having you -around, of course," Gabriel added too quickly. "You do come in useful -at times, you know." - -"So you don't mind having me around?" The nondescript man smiled again. -"Then what are you running from, if not me? You can't be running from -yourself--you lost yourself a while back, remember?" - -Gabe ran a hand through his thick blond hair. "Come on, have a drink -with me, fellow-man, and let's let bygones be bygones. I owe you -something--I admit that. Maybe we can even work this thing out." - -"I drank with you once too often," the nondescript man said. "And -things worked out fine, didn't they? For you." His eyes studied the -other man's incredibly handsome young face, noted the suggestion of -bags under the eyes, the beginning of slackness at the lips, and were -not pleased with what they saw. "Watch yourself, colleague," he warned -as he left. "Soon you might not be worth the saving." - -"Who was that, Gabe?" the girl asked. - -He shrugged. "I never saw him before in my life." Of course, knowing -him, she assumed he was lying, but, as a matter of fact, just then he -happened to have been telling the truth. - - * * * * * - -Once the illuminators were extinguished in Gabriel Lockard's hotel -suite, it seemed reasonably certain to the man in the gray suit, as -he watched from the street, that his quarry would not go out again -that night. So he went to the nearest airstation. There he inserted a -coin in a locker, into which he put most of his personal possessions, -reserving only a sum of money. After setting the locker to respond to -the letter combination _bodyguard_, he went out into the street. - -If he had met with a fatal accident at that point, there would have -been nothing on his body to identify him. As a matter of fact, no real -identification was possible, for he was no one and had been no one for -years. - -The nondescript man hailed a cruising helicab. "Where to, fellow-man?" -the driver asked. - -"I'm new in the parish," the other man replied and let it hang there. - -"Oh...? Females...? Narcophagi...? Thrill-mills?" - -But to each of these questions the nondescript man shook his head. - -"Games?" the driver finally asked, although he could guess what was -wanted by then. "Dice...? Roulette...? Farjeen?" - -"Is there a good zarquil game in town?" - -The driver moved so he could see the face of the man behind him in the -teleview. A very ordinary face. "Look, colleague, why don't you commit -suicide? It's cleaner and quicker." - -"I can't contact your attitude," the passenger said with a thin -smile. "Bet you've never tried the game yourself. Each time it -happens, there's a ... well, there's no experience to match it at a -thrill-mill." He gave a sigh that was almost an audible shudder, and -which the driver misinterpreted as an expression of ecstasy. - -"Each time, eh? You're a dutchman then?" The driver spat out of the -window. "If it wasn't for the nibble, I'd throw you right out of the -cab. Without even bothering to take it down even. I hate dutchmen ... -anybody with any legitimate feelings hates 'em." - -"But it would be silly to let personal prejudice stand in the way of a -commission, wouldn't it?" the other man asked coolly. - -"Of course. You'll need plenty of foliage, though." - -"I have sufficient funds. I also have a gun." - -"You're the dictator," the driver agreed sullenly. - - -II - -It was a dark and rainy night in early fall. Gabe Lockard was in no -condition to drive the helicar. However, he was stubborn. - -"Let me take the controls, honey," the light-haired girl urged, but he -shook his handsome head. - -"Show you I can do something 'sides look pretty," he said thickly, -referring to an earlier and not amicable conversation they had held, -and of which she still bore the reminder on one thickly made-up cheek. - -Fortunately the car was flying low, contrary to regulations, so that -when they smashed into the beacon tower on the outskirts of the little -town, they didn't have far to fall. And hardly had their car crashed -on the ground when the car that had been following them landed, and a -short fat man was puffing toward them through the mist. - -To the girl's indignation, the stranger not only hauled Gabe out onto -the dripping grass first, but stopped and deliberately examined the -young man by the light of his minilume, almost as if she weren't there -at all. Only when she started to struggle out by herself did he seem to -remember her existence. He pulled her away from the wreck just a moment -before the fuel tank exploded and the 'copter went up in flames. - -Gabe opened his eyes and saw the fat man gazing down at him -speculatively. "My guardian angel," he mumbled--shock had sobered him -a little, but not enough. He sat up. "Guess I'm not hurt or you'd have -thrown me back in." - -"And that's no joke," the fat man agreed. - -The girl shivered and at that moment Gabriel suddenly seemed to recall -that he had not been alone. "How about Helen? She on course?" - -"Seems to be," the fat man said. "You all right, miss?" he asked, -glancing toward the girl without, she thought, much apparent concern. - -"_Mrs._," Gabriel corrected. "Allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Gabriel -Lockard," he said, bowing from his seated position toward the girl. -"Pretty bauble, isn't she?" - -"I'm delighted to meet you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," the fat man said, -looking at her intently. His small eyes seemed to strip the make-up -from her cheek and examine the livid bruise underneath. "I hope -you'll be worthy of the name." The light given off by the flaming -car flickered on his face and Gabriel's and, she supposed, hers too. -Otherwise, darkness surrounded the three of them. - -There were no public illuminators this far out--even in town the -lights were dimming and not being replaced fast enough nor by the -newer models. The town, the civilization, the planet all were old and -beginning to slide downhill.... - -Gabe gave a short laugh, for no reason that she could see. - - * * * * * - -There was the feeling that she had encountered the fat man before, -which was, of course, absurd. She had an excellent memory for faces and -his was not included in her gallery. The girl pulled her thin jacket -closer about her chilly body. "Aren't you going to introduce your--your -friend to me, Gabe?" - -"I don't know who he is," Gabe said almost merrily, "except that he's -no friend of mine. Do you have a name, stranger?" - -"Of course I have a name." The fat man extracted an identification -card from his wallet and read it. "Says here I'm Dominic Bianchi, and -Dominic Bianchi is a retail milgot dealer.... Only he isn't a retail -milgot dealer any more; the poor fellow went bankrupt a couple of weeks -ago, and now he isn't ... anything." - -"You saved our lives," the girl said. "I'd like to give you some token -of my--of our appreciation." Her hand reached toward her credit-carrier -with deliberate insult. He might have saved her life, but only -casually, as a by-product of some larger scheme, and her appreciation -held little gratitude. - -The fat man shook his head without rancor. "I have plenty of money, -thank you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard.... Come," he addressed her husband, -"if you get up, I'll drive you home. I warn you, be more careful in the -future! Sometimes," he added musingly, "I almost wish you would let -something happen. Then my problem would not be any problem, would it?" - -Gabriel shivered. "I'll be careful," he vowed. "I promise--I'll be -careful." - -When he was sure that his charge was safely tucked in for the night, -the fat man checked his personal possessions. He then requested a taxi -driver to take him to the nearest zarquil game. The driver accepted the -commission phlegmatically. Perhaps he was more hardened than the others -had been; perhaps he was unaware that the fat man was not a desperate -or despairing individual seeking one last chance, but what was known -colloquially as a flying dutchman, a man, or woman, who went from -one zarquil game to another, loving the thrill of the sport, if you -could call it that, for its own sake, and not for the futile hope it -extended and which was its sole shred of claim to moral justification. -Perhaps--and this was the most likely hypothesis--he just didn't care. - -Zarquil was extremely illegal, of course--so much so that there were -many legitimate citizens who weren't quite sure just what the word -implied, knowing merely that it was one of those nameless horrors so -deliciously hinted at by the fax sheets under the generic term of -"crimes against nature." Actually the phrase was more appropriate to -zarquil than to most of the other activities to which it was commonly -applied. And this was one crime--for it was crime in law as well as -nature--in which victim had to be considered as guilty as perpetrator; -otherwise the whole legal structure of society would collapse. - - * * * * * - -Playing the game was fabulously expensive; it had to be to make it -profitable for the Vinzz to run it. Those odd creatures from Altair's -seventh planet cared nothing for the welfare of the completely alien -human beings; all they wanted was to feather their own pockets with -interstellar credits, so that they could return to Vinau and buy many -slaves. For, on Vinau, bodies were of little account, and so to them -zarquil was the equivalent of the terrestrial game musical chairs. -Which was why they came to Terra to make profits--there has never been -big money in musical chairs as such. - -When the zarquil operators were apprehended, which was not frequent--as -they had strange powers, which, not being definable, were beyond the -law--they suffered their sentences with equanimity. No Earth court -could give an effective prison sentence to a creature whose life -spanned approximately two thousand terrestrial years. And capital -punishment had become obsolete on Terra, which very possibly saved the -terrestrials embarrassment, for it was not certain that their weapons -could kill the Vinzz ... or whether, in fact, the Vinzz merely expired -after a period of years out of sheer boredom. Fortunately, because -trade was more profitable than war, there had always been peace between -Vinau and Terra, and, for that reason, Terra could not bar the entrance -of apparently respectable citizens of a friendly planet. - -The taxi driver took the fat man to one of the rather seedy locales in -which the zarquil games were usually found, for the Vinzz attempted to -conduct their operations with as much unobtrusiveness as was possible. -But the front door swung open on an interior that lacked the opulence -of the usual Vinoz set-up; it was down-right shabby, the dim olive -light hinting of squalor rather than forbidden pleasures. That was -the trouble in these smaller towns--you ran greater risks of getting -involved in games where the players had not been carefully screened. - -The Vinoz games were usually clean, because that paid off better, but, -when profits were lacking, the Vinzz were capable of sliding off into -darkside practices. Naturally the small-town houses were more likely to -have trouble in making ends meet, because everybody in the parish knew -everybody else far too well. - -The fat man wondered whether that had been his quarry's motive in -coming to such desolate, off-trail places--hoping that eventually -disaster would hit the one who pursued him. Somehow, such a plan seemed -too logical for the man he was haunting. - -However, beggars could not be choosers. The fat man paid off the -heli-driver and entered the zarquil house. "One?" the small green -creature in the slightly frayed robe asked. - -"One," the fat man answered. - - -III - -The would-be thief fled down the dark alley, with the hot bright rays -from the stranger's gun lancing out after him in flamboyant but futile -patterns. The stranger, a thin young man with delicate, angular -features, made no attempt to follow. Instead, he bent over to examine -Gabriel Lockard's form, appropriately outstretched in the gutter. "Only -weighted out," he muttered, "he'll be all right. Whatever possessed you -two to come out to a place like this?" - -"I really think Gabriel _must_ be possessed...." the girl said, mostly -to herself. "I had no idea of the kind of place it was going to be -until he brought me here. The others were bad, but this is even worse. -It almost seems as if he went around looking for trouble, doesn't it?" - -"It does indeed," the stranger agreed, coughing a little. It was -growing colder and, on this world, the cities had no domes to protect -them from the climate, because it was Earth and the air was breathable -and it wasn't worth the trouble of fixing up. - -The girl looked closely at him. "You look different, but you _are_ the -same man who pulled us out of that aircar crash, aren't you? And before -that the man in the gray suit? And before that...?" - -The young man's cheekbones protruded as he smiled. "Yes, I'm all of -them." - -"Then what they say about the zarquil games is true? There are people -who go around changing their bodies like--like hats?" Automatically she -reached to adjust the expensive bit of blue synthetic on her moon-pale -hair, for she was always conscious of her appearance; if she had not -been so before marriage, Gabriel would have taught her that. - - * * * * * - -He smiled again, but coughed instead of speaking. - -"But why do you do it? _Why!_ Do you like it? Or is it because of -Gabriel?" She was growing a little frantic; there was menace here -and she could not understand it nor determine whether or not she was -included in its scope. "Do you want to keep him from recognizing you; -is that it?" - -"Ask him." - -"He won't tell me; he never tells me anything. We just keep running. I -didn't recognize it as running at first, but now I realize that's what -we've been doing ever since we were married. And running from you, I -think?" - -There was no change of expression on the man's gaunt face, and she -wondered how much control he had over a body that, though second- or -third- or fourth-hand, must be new to him. How well could he make it -respond? What was it like to step into another person's casing? But she -must not let herself think that way or she would find herself looking -for a zarquil game. It would be one way of escaping Gabriel, but not, -she thought, the best way; her body was much too good a one to risk so -casually. - - * * * * * - -It was beginning to snow. Light, feathery flakes drifted down on her -husband's immobile body. She pulled her thick coat--of fur taken from -some animal who had lived and died light-years away--more closely about -herself. The thin young man began to cough again. - -Overhead a tiny star seemed to detach itself from the pale flat disk -of the Moon and hurl itself upward--one of the interstellar ships -embarking on its long voyage to distant suns. She wished that somehow -she could be on it, but she was here, on this solitary old world in a -barren solar system, with her unconscious husband and a strange man who -followed them, and it looked as if here she would stay ... all three of -them would stay.... - -"If you're after Gabriel, planning to hurt him," she asked, "why then -do you keep helping him?" - -"I am not helping _him_. And he knows that." - -"You'll change again tonight, won't you?" she babbled. "You always -change after you ... meet us? I think I'm beginning to be able to -identify you now, even when you're ... wearing a new body; there's -something about you that doesn't change." - -"Too bad he got married," the young man said. "I could have followed -him for an eternity and he would never have been able to pick me out -from the crowd. Too bad he got married anyway," he added, his voice -less impersonal, "for your sake." - -She had come to the same conclusion in her six months of marriage, but -she would not admit that to an outsider. Though this man was hardly an -outsider; he was part of their small family group--as long as she had -known Gabriel, so long he must have known her. And she began to suspect -that he was even more closely involved than that. - -"Why must you change again?" she persisted, obliquely approaching the -subject she feared. "You have a pretty good body there. Why run the -risk of getting a bad one?" - -"This isn't a good body," he said. "It's diseased. Sure, nobody's -supposed to play the game who hasn't passed a thorough medical -examination. But in the places to which your husband has been leading -me, they're often not too particular, as long as the player has plenty -of foliage." - -"How--long will it last you?" - -"Four or five months, if I'm careful." He smiled. "But don't worry, if -that's what you're doing; I'll get it passed on before then. It'll be -expensive--that's all. Bad landing for the guy who gets it, but then -it was tough on me too, wasn't it?" - -"But how did you get into this ... pursuit?" she asked again. "And why -are you doing it?" People didn't have any traffic with Gabriel Lockard -for fun, not after they got to know him. And this man certainly should -know him better than most. - -"Ask your husband." - -The original Gabriel Lockard looked down at the prostrate, -snow-powdered figure of the man who had stolen his body and his name, -and stirred it with his toe. "I'd better call a cab--he might freeze to -death." - -He signaled and a cab came. - -"Tell him, when he comes to," he said to the girl as he and the driver -lifted the heavy form of her husband into the helicar, "that I'm -getting pretty tired of this." He stopped for a long spell of coughing. -"Tell him that sometimes I wonder whether cutting off my nose wouldn't, -in the long run, be most beneficial for my face." - - * * * * * - -"Sorry," the Vinzz said impersonally, in English that was perfect -except for the slight dampening of the sibilants, "but I'm afraid you -cannot play." - -"Why not?" The emaciated young man began to put on his clothes. - -"You know why. Your body is worthless. And this is a reputable house." - -"But I have plenty of money." The young man coughed. The Vinzz -shrugged. "I'll pay you twice the regular fee." - -The green one shook his head. "Regrettably, I do mean what I say. This -game is really clean." - -"In a town like this?" - -"That is the reason we can afford to be honest." The Vinzz' tendrils -quivered in what the man had come to recognize as amusement through -long, but necessarily superficial acquaintance with the Vinzz. His -heavy robe of what looked like moss-green velvet, but might have been -velvet-green moss, encrusted with oddly faceted alien jewels, swung -with him. - -"We do a lot of business here," he said unnecessarily, for the whole -set-up spelled wealth far beyond the dreams of the man, and he was by -no means poor when it came to worldly goods. "Why don't you try another -town where they're not so particular?" - -The young man smiled wryly. Just his luck to stumble on a sunny game. -He never liked to risk following his quarry in the same configuration. -And even though only the girl had actually seen him this time, he -wouldn't feel at ease until he had made the usual body-shift. Was -he changing because of Gabriel, he wondered, or was he using his own -discoverment and identification simply as an excuse to cover the fact -that none of the bodies that fell to his lot ever seemed to fit him? -Was he activated solely by revenge or as much by the hope that in the -hazards of the game he might, impossible though it now seemed, some day -win another body that approached perfection as nearly as his original -casing had? - -He didn't know. However, there seemed to be no help for it now; he -would have to wait until they reached the next town, unless the girl, -seeing him reappear in the same guise, would guess what had happened -and tell her husband. He himself had been a fool to admit to her that -the hulk he inhabited was a sick one; he still couldn't understand -how he could so casually have entrusted her with so vital a piece of -information. - - * * * * * - -The Vinzz had been locking antennae with another of his kind. Now they -detached, and the first approached the man once more. "There is, as it -happens, a body available for a private game," he lisped. "No questions -to be asked or answered. All I can tell you is that it is in good -health." - -The man hesitated. "But unable to pass the screening?" he murmured -aloud. "A criminal then." - -The green one's face--if you could call it a face--remained impassive. - -"Male?" - -"Of course," the Vinzz said primly. His kind did have certain ultimate -standards to which they adhered rigidly, and one of those was the -curious tabu against mixed games, strictly enforced even though it -kept them from tapping a vast source of potential players. There had -also never been a recorded instance of humans and extraterrestrials -exchanging identities, but whether that was the result of tabu or -biological impossibility, no one could tell. - -It might merely be prudence on the Vinzz' part--if it had ever -been proved that an alien life-form had "desecrated" a human body, -Earthmen would clamor for war ... for on this planet humanity held -its self-bestowed purity of birthright dear--and the Vinzz, despite -being unquestionably the stronger, were pragmatic pacifists. It had -been undoubtedly some rabid member of the anti-alien groups active on -Terra who had started the rumor that the planetary slogan of Vinau was, -"Don't beat 'em; cheat 'em." - -"It would have to be something pretty nuclear for the other guy to take -such a risk." The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How much?" - -"Thirty thousand credits." - -"Why, that's three times the usual rate!" - -"The other will pay five times the usual rate." - -"Oh, all right," the delicate young man gave in. It was a terrific -risk he was agreeing to take, because, if the other was a criminal, he -himself would, upon assuming the body, assume responsibility for all -the crimes it had committed. But there was nothing else he could do. - - * * * * * - -He looked at himself in the mirror and found he had a fine new body; -tall and strikingly handsome in a dark, coarse-featured way. Nothing to -match the one he had lost, in his opinion, but there were probably many -people who might find this one preferable. No identification in the -pockets, but it wasn't necessary; he recognized the face. Not that it -was a very famous or even notorious one, but the dutchman was a careful -student of the "wanted" fax that had decorated public buildings from -time immemorial, for he was ever mindful of the possibility that he -might one day find himself trapped unwittingly in the body of one of -the men depicted there. And he knew that this particular man, though -not an important criminal in any sense of the word, was one whom the -police had been ordered to burn on sight. The abolishing of capital -punishment could not abolish the necessity for self-defense, and the -man in question was not one who would let himself be captured easily, -nor whom the police intended to capture easily. - -_This might be a lucky break for me after all_, the new tenant thought, -as he tried to adjust himself to the body. It, too, despite its obvious -rude health, was not a very comfortable fit. _I can do a lot with a -hulk like this. And maybe I'm cleverer than the original owner; maybe -I'll be able to get away with it._ - - -IV - -"Look, Gabe," the girl said, "don't try to fool me! I know you -too well. And I know you have that man's--the real Gabriel -Lockard's--body." She put unnecessary stardust on her nose as she -watched her husband's reflection in the dressing table mirror. - -Lockard--Lockard's body, at any rate--sat up and felt his unshaven -chin. "That what he tell you?" - -"No, he didn't tell me anything really--just suggested I ask you -whatever I want to know. But why else should he guard somebody he -obviously hates the way he hates you? Only because he doesn't want to -see his body spoiled." - -"It _is_ a pretty good body, isn't it?" Gabe flexed softening muscles -and made no attempt to deny her charge; very probably he was relieved -at having someone with whom to share his secret. - -"Not as good as it must have been," the girl said, turning and looking -at him without admiration. "Not if you keep on the way you're coursing. -Gabe, why don't you...?" - -"Give it back to him, eh?" Lockard regarded his wife appraisingly. -"You'd like that, wouldn't you? You'd be _his_ wife then. That would be -nice--a sound mind in a sound body. But don't you think that's a little -more than you deserve?" - -"I wasn't thinking about that, Gabe," she said truthfully enough, for -she hadn't followed the idea to its logical conclusion. "Of course I'd -go with you," she went on, now knowing she lied, "when you got your ... -old body back." - -_Sure_, she thought, _I'd keep going with you to farjeen houses and -thrill-mills._ Actually she had accompanied him to a thrill-mill only -once, and from then on, despite all his threats, she had refused to go -with him again. But that once had been enough; nothing could ever wash -that experience from her mind or her body. - -"You wouldn't be able to get your old body back, though, would you?" -she went on. "You don't know where it's gone, and neither, I suppose, -does he?" - -"I don't want to know!" he spat. "I wouldn't want it if I could get -it back. Whoever it adhered to probably killed himself as soon as he -looked in a mirror." He swung long legs over the side of his bed. -"Christ, anything would be better than that! You can't imagine what a -hulk I had!" - -"Oh, yes, I can," she said incautiously. "You must have had a body to -match your character. Pity you could only change one." - - * * * * * - -He rose from the bed and struck her right on the mouth. Although he -hadn't used his full strength, the blow was painful nonetheless. She -could feel the red of her lipstick become mixed with a warmer, liquid -red that trickled slowly down her freshly powdered chin. She wouldn't -cry, because he liked that, but crumpled to the ground and lay still. -If, experience had taught her, she pretended to be hurt, he wouldn't -hit her again. Only sometimes it was hard to remember that at the -actual moment of hurt and indignity. He was too afraid of prison--a -tangible prison. And perhaps, to do him credit, he didn't want to -deface his own property. - -He sat down on the edge of the bed again and lit a milgot stick. "Oh, -get up, Helen. You know I didn't hit you that hard." - -"Did you have to beat him up to get him to change bodies?" she asked -from the floor. - -"No." He laughed reminiscently. "I just got him drunk. We were friends, -so it was a cinch. He was my only friend; everybody else hated me -because of my appearance." His features contorted. "What made him think -he was so damn much better than other people that he could afford to -like me? Served him right for being so noble." - -She stared at the ceiling--it was so old its very fabric was beginning -to crack--and said nothing. - -"He didn't even realize what he had here--" Lockard tapped his broad -chest with complacence--"until it was too late. Took it for granted. -Sickened me to see him taking the body for granted when I couldn't take -mine that way. People used to shrink from me. Girls...." - -She sat up. "Give me a milgot, Gabe." - -He lighted one and handed it to her. "For Christ's sake, Helen, I -gave him more than he had a right to expect. I was too god-damn -noble myself. I was well-milled; I didn't have to leave half of my -holdings in my own name--I could have transferred them all to his. If -I had, then he wouldn't have had the folio to hound me all over this -planet or to other planets, if I'd had the nerve to shut myself up -on a spaceship, knowing he probably would be shut up on it with me." -He smiled. "Of course he won't hurt me; that's the one compensation. -Damage me, and he damages himself." - -"But it's your life he saves, too," she reminded him. - -"My life wouldn't ever have been in danger if it hadn't been for this -continual persecution--it's driving me out of this dimension! I planned -to start a new life with this body," he pleaded, anxious for belief -and, as a matter of fact, she believed him; almost everybody has good -intentions and there was no reason to except even such a one as Gabriel -Lockard, or whatever he was originally named. - -"It was my appearance that got me mixed up," he went on. "Given half a -chance I could have straightened out--gone to Proxima Centauri, maybe, -and then out to one of the frontier planets. Made something of myself -up there. But nobody ever gave me a chance. Now, as long as he follows -me, there's nothing I can do except run and try to hide and know all -the time I can't escape--I'm already in the trap." - -"What can he do if you stay and face him?" - -"I don't know--that's the hell of it. But he's smart. Somehow he'll -lure me into another game. I don't know how, but that must be what he -has in mind. What else could it be?" - -"What else indeed?" Helen asked, smiling up at the ceiling. - - * * * * * - -The milgot vanished in his fingers and he took another. "It'd take time -for him to arrange any kind of private game set-up, though, and as long -as I keep on the move, he won't be able to create anything. Unless he -runs into a floating zarquil game." He smiled mirthlessly. "And he -couldn't. Too much machinery, I understand.... Lucky he doesn't seem to -have connections, the way I have," Lockard boasted. "I have connections -all over the god-damn planet. Transferred them when I transferred my -holdings." - -She got up, seated herself on the vanity bench, and took up a brush, -which she ran absently over the pale hair that shimmered down to her -paler shoulders. "So we keep running all over the planet.... What would -you do if I left you, Gabriel?" - -"Kill you," he said without hesitation. "Slowly. Even if I have to put -this precious hulk of mine in jeopardy. And you wouldn't like that. -Neither would your boy friend." - -"Stop calling him my--" - -"Wait a minute--maybe there is an escape hatch!" His blue eyes -sharpened unbecomingly. "He can't kill me, but there's nothing to stop -my killing him." - -"How about the police?" She tried to speak calmly as she passed the -brush up and down, sometimes not even touching her hair. "The body you -have won't be any good to you with them looking for it. And you're not -a professional exterminator, Gabe--you wouldn't be able to get away -with it." - -"I can hire somebody else to do the killing. Remember I still have -plenty of foliage. Maybe I didn't leave him exactly half of my -property, but, what the hell, I left him enough." - -"How will you recognize him?" she asked, half-turning, fearfully. -"He'll have a new body, you know." - -"You'll recognize him, Helen--you said you could." At that moment she -could have wrapped her own hair tightly around her white throat and -strangled herself; she was so appalled by her own witless treachery. - -He dragged her to her feet. "Aah, moonbeam, you know I didn't mean to -hurt you. It's just that this whole crazy pattern's driving me out of -this world. Once I get rid of that life-form, you'll see, I'll be a -different man." - -As his arms tightened around her, she wondered what it would be like, a -different man in the same body. - - -V - -"What makes you think _I_ would do a thing like that?" the little -lawyer asked apprehensively, not meeting the bland blue eyes of the man -who faced him across the old-fashioned flat-top desk. It was an even -more outmoded office than most, but that did not necessarily indicate -a low professional status; lawyers were great ones for tradition -expressed in terms of out-of-date furniture. As for the dust that lay -all over despite the air-conditioning ... well, that was inescapable, -for Earth was a dusty planet. - -"Oh, not you yourself personally, of course," Gabriel Lockard--as the -false one will continue to be called, since the dutchman had another -name at the moment--said. "But you know how to put me in touch with -someone who can." - -"Nonsense. I don't know who gave you such libelous information, sir, -but I must ask you to leave my office before I call--" - -"It was Pat Ortiz who gave me the information," Lockard said softly. -"He also told me a lot of other interesting things about you, Gorman." - -Gorman paled. "I'm a respectable attorney." - -"Maybe you are now; maybe not. This isn't the kind of town that breeds -respectability. But you certainly weren't sunny side up when Ortiz knew -you. And he knew you well." - -The lawyer licked his lips. "Give me a chance, will you?" - -Lockard flushed. "Chance! Everybody rates a chance but me. Can't you -see, I am giving you a chance. Get me somebody to follow my pattern, -and I promise you Ortiz won't talk." - -Gorman slipped the plastic shells from his face and rubbed the pale -watery eyes underneath. "But how can I get you a man to do ... the -thing you want done? I have no connections like that." - -"I'm sure you can make the right connections. Take your time about it, -though; I'm in no hurry. I'm planning to adhere to this locale for a -while." - -"How about this man you want ... put out of the way?" Gorman suggested -hopefully. "How can you be sure he won't leave?" - -Gabriel laughed. "He'll stay as long as I do." - -The little lawyer took a deep breath. "Mr. Lockard, I'm sorry, but I'm -afraid I really cannot do anything for you." - -Gabe rose. "Okay," he said softly. "If that's your pattern, I'll just -put a call through to Ortiz." He turned to go. - -"Wait a minute!" the lawyer cried. - -Lockard stopped. - -"Well?" - -Gorman swallowed. "Possibly I may be able to do something for you, -after all.... I just happened to have heard Jed Carmody is in town." - -Gabriel looked at him inquiringly. - -"Oh ... I thought you might have heard the name. He's a killer, I -understand, a professional exterminator ... on the run right now. But -this is his head-quarters--I'm told--and he probably would come here. -And he might be short on folio. Naturally, I've never had any dealings -with him myself." - -"Naturally," Gabe mocked. - -"But I'll see what I can do." Gorman's voice was pleading. "You'll -wait, Mr. Lockard, won't you? It may be a little while before I can -find out where he is. This isn't--" his voice thinned--"at all my type -of pattern, you know." - -"I'll wait ... a reasonable length of time." - -The door closed behind him. Descending pneumo tubes hissed outside. -The little lawyer rose and went to the window--a flat expanse of -transparent plastic set immovably into the wall of the building, an old -building, an old town, an old planet. As he watched the street below, a -faint half-smile curved his almost feminine mouth. He went back to the -desk and punched a code on the vidiphone. - - * * * * * - -Gabriel crossed the street to the little cafe with the gold letters -FOR HUMANS ONLY embedded in the one-way glass front; this was -a town that adhered rigidly to the ancient privileges of the indigenous -species. He entered as the shrillness of a vidiphone bell cut through -the babble inside without in any way checking it. After a moment, his -eyes grew accustomed to the dimness and he could see his wife waiting -at a table near the entrance, daintily peeling a tigi fruit. - -"Well," she asked as she put a plump pink section into her mouth, "did -you hire your killer?" - -"Shhh, not so loud!" He threw himself into the chair next to hers. "Do -you want me to get into trouble...? And I wouldn't put it past you," -he continued without waiting for an answer. "Remember, it's your boy -friend's body that gets into trouble." - -"He's not my boy friend." - -A waiter beckoned from the vidiphone booth to someone sitting in the -dark shadows at the rear of the restaurant. - -"Where is he?" Gabriel exclaimed suddenly. "He must be here somewhere. -Tell me which he is, Helen?" - -His hand gripped her arm cruelly, as he swung her around on her chair -to face each part of the room. "Is it that guy over there...? That -one...? That one?" - -She could not repress a start of surprise as her eyes met those of the -thin-featured young man entering the vidiphone booth. He returned her -gaze with somber interest. - -Gabe relaxed. "So that's the one, eh? Not very formidable. Looks the -way he always should have looked." He lit a milgot. "I'll get Gorman to -tip off the zarquil boys--only one game in this parish, I'm told--that -that life-form's not to be allowed to play; I'll make any loss good -out of my own pocket. That'll keep him onstage for the nonce. He won't -leave to get himself fixed up somewhere else as long as I stay. And I'm -going to stay ... to the bitter end." He smiled lovingly to himself. - -_But it's not the right man_, Helen thought gladly. _He did manage to -change, after all. Gabe has the wrong man._ She felt a little sorry -for the unknown and doomed individual who inhabited the delicate, -angular body, but it was so close to death anyhow that the immediate -threat didn't matter. And Gabriel--the real Gabriel--was safe. - - -VI - -The emaciated young man entered Gorman's office and locked the door -behind him with an electroseal. "Disembodiment," he identified himself. - -"So you did get a new body, Jed," the lawyer remarked affably. "Very -good packaging. Makes you look like a poet or something." - -"Good as a disguise, maybe, but one hell of a lousy hulk." The young -man hurled himself into the chair by the desk. Even Gorman winced at -the cruel treatment accorded such obvious fragility. "Gimme a milgot, -Les. This thing--" he indicated his body with contempt--"is shot to -Polaris. Won't last more than a few months. Some bargain I got." - -Gorman lit a stick himself. "The guy who got your body didn't get such -a bargain either," he murmured through a cloud of purple smoke. - -"At least he'll live. If he's lucky. I wish he'd hurry and get himself -picked up, though, so I could collect the folio and jet off. Can't go -after it now. Hounds will be sniffing after anybody gravitating around -the place where I've stashed it until they're sure they have me. They -don't know where the money is exactly, of course, or they'd soak it up, -but they've got an idea of the general sector." - -"Want me to pick it up for you, Jed?" the lawyer asked, his pale, -flickering eyes brushing across the young man's dark intense ones. - -"Oh, sure. All I need is for you to know where it is and all I'd see -would be your rocket trail." The young man leaned across the expanse of -littered steel. "Or _do_ you know where it is, Les?" he asked softly. -"Do you know where it is and are you just hibernating until I'm safely -out of the way?" - -In spite of himself, Gorman could not help moving back. "Don't be a -fool, Jed," he said in a voice that was several tones higher. "If I -knew where it was ... well, you're not very frightening in your present -embodiment, you know." - -"Don't be too sure of that, Gorman. And you were always yellow; anybody -could frighten you." He began to laugh shrilly. "Hey, that's good. Get -it? Any body, see?" - -The lawyer did not join in the mirth. "How are you fixed for cash?" he -asked abruptly. - - * * * * * - -The young man's face split in a sardonic grin. "Why do you think I -risked public communion with a darkside character like you, Les? I shot -my wad making the shift. I could use a little loan. You know I have -millions stashed away," the young man said angrily as Gorman remained -silent. "I'll pay you as soon as the hounds take the chump who's -leasing my hulk." - -"Maybe you can earn some money." Gorman toyed with a paperweight. "Did -you get a look at that big blond guy in the cafe--the one I told you -about on the phone?" - -"Yeah. Nice life-form he had with him. I wouldn't mind being in that -body." - -"Seems he wants somebody exterminated. And I told him I heard Jed -Carmody was in the parish and might be interested." - -The young man sprang to his feet, furious. "You _what_?" - -"Turn your antigravs off. I told him Jed Carmody was in the parish. Are -you Jed Carmody?" - -The other sat down and exhaled heavily. "You're on course--I'm nobody -just now." - -"Any identification come with the package?" - -"Naah, what'd you expect...? But why tell anyone that Jed Carmody's -hitting the locality?" - -"I thought you might be interested in picking up a little free-falling -foliage." - -The young man shook his head impatiently. "Risk having this hulk heated -up for a half-credit crime? Don't be an alien, Gorman. I'm going to hit -subsoil until this other life-form gets collected by the hounds." - -"Thought you might like to do it to help me out," Gorman murmured. - -The other man stared. "How do you fit into the pattern?" Gorman -shrugged. "Oh, I get it: this guy's putting the barometer on you?" - -Gorman nodded. - -"Bad landing, counselor. But you don't seriously expect...? Hey!" The -wide-set eyes glistened darkly. "I got it! Why don't you get this guy -who's got my hulk to make the flight? Send somebody out to magnetize -him like you thought he was the real Carmody, see?" - - * * * * * - -Gorman looked hopeful for a moment; then shook his thin-haired head. -"No reason to think the man is an extralegal." - -"Anyone who finds himself in my hulk damn well has to be if he wants -to stay out of the sardine box.... Look, what's the first thing he's -going to want to do when he finds out what he's been stuck with? Go to -another parish and hop hulks, right? And he'll need plenty of foliage -to do it." - -"Maybe he has money," Gorman suggested wearily. - -"No fuel lost finding out." The young man rubbed his hands together -gleefully. "If he takes on the flight, though, see that he gets my -flash, huh? Rosy up the picture." - -"Maybe he can kill whoever this Lockard has in mind without getting -picked up by the police. Such things have happened; otherwise you -wouldn't have been able to run around loose so long, Jed." - -"An amateur? Not a chance! Besides, just to make sure, little...." He -stopped in the act of tapping his chest. "Say, I don't have a name, do -I? What's a good epithet for me, Les? Something with class." - -The lawyer studied the pale, bony face for a moment or two. "How about -John Keats?" he suggested. "Simple and appropriate." - -The other man thought. "Yeah, I like that. John Keats. Plain, but not -like John Smith. Subtle. I'll buy it. Okay, so you think I'm going -to take my view-finder off the fake Carmody? I'm going to adhere to -that life-form closer than Mary's lamb. So when he knocks off whoever -the other guy wants novaed, I can yell doggie. Then the hounds get -him--with my flash on him and all, they'll never have the nebula of -a notion that they don't have all of me.... I pick up the foliage -and rock out to some place where I can buy me a new jewel case, no -questions asked. Don't fret, Gorman--you'll get your nibble. I've never -played the game with you, have I?" - -Instead of answering, Gorman asked a question of his own. "Kind of hard -on the other guy, isn't it?" - -"He rates it for sticking me with a piece of statuary like this. Look -at it this way, Les--in his own hulk he would've died; this way he's -got a chance to live. Yeah, get him to make the flight, Les. You can -charm the juice out of a lemon when you want to; it's your line of -evil. And don't let on you know he's not the genuine article." - -"I won't," Gorman sighed. "I only hope I can persuade him to take on -the flight. Don't forget it's important to me too, Jed--uh, John." - -"Make planetfall, then," John Keats said. "So long, Les." - -"Good-by, Johnny." - - -VII - -Helen was brushing her long creamy hair at the dressing table when -there came a tap at the door to the living room of the suite--a tap -so light that it could have been someone accidentally brushing past in -the corridor outside. Gabriel sprang up from the bed where he had been -lolling, watching her and stood for a moment poised on the balls of his -feet, until the knock was repeated more emphatically. He started toward -the other room. - -"But who could be knocking at the door at this hour?" she asked. "It's -almost one.... Gabe, do be careful." - -He halted and looked back at her suspiciously. "Why do you say that? -You know you don't care what happens to me?" That last was a question -rather than a statement and had a plaintive quaver which failed to -touch her. Once she had still been able to feel some compassion; now, -nothing he said or did could arouse more than fear and disgust. - -"If somebody knocks you over the head when you open the door," she -murmured, smiling at her own image, "then who will be there to protect -me?" - -A choked sound came from the back of the man's throat. He turned toward -her, his fists clenched. She braced herself for the blow, but then the -knock came for the third time and her husband reluctantly continued -on into the living room, letting the door shut behind him. She rose -and pushed it open a little. She had a pretty good idea of who might -be expected, but was not especially perturbed, for she knew the real -Gabriel Lockard, in whatever guise he might be now, was safe from her -husband. And she was curious to see what the exterminator looked like. - -The door to the corridor was out of her line of vision, but she could -hear it as it opened. "Lockard?" a deep, husky voice whispered. "Gorman -sent me." - -"Come in, Mr. Carmody. You _are_ Carmody?" - -"Shhh," the husky voice warned. "If you get me into trouble, I'm not -going to be able to complete your pattern for you, am I?" - -"Sorry--I wasn't thinking. Come on in." - -A heavy tread shook the ancient floorboards, and presently the man -responsible for it came into the girl's sight. He was a huge creature, -bigger even than Gabriel, with dark hair growing low to a point on his -forehead, and a full-lipped sensual face. Then, as he spoke, as he -moved, she knew who he was. She pressed close against the wall of the -bedroom, her slender shoulders shaking, her handkerchief stuffed into -her mouth, so that the sound of her wild, irrepressible laughter would -not reach her husband's ears. - -"Sit down, Carmody," Gabriel said cordially, as he handed the newcomer -a glass, "and make yourself comfortable." There was a brief, rather -awkward silence. "Well," Gabriel went on, with a smile that would have -been thoroughly ingratiating to anyone who hadn't known him, "I don't -suppose I have to cruise around the asteroids with you?" - -"No," Carmody replied, looking speculatively toward the bedroom door. -"No, you don't." - - * * * * * - -Gabriel followed the direction of his gaze. "Worried about somebody -overhearing? There's only my wife in there. She's listening, all right, -but she won't talk. Come in, Helen." - -Carmody rose automatically as she came in, his dark eyes following -every line of her long, smooth body in its close-fitting, though -opaque, negligee of smoke-gray silk--a fabric which, through extreme -scarcity, had come into fashion again. - -"Sit down," Gabriel ordered brusquely. "We're not formal here." - -Carmody sat, trying not to stare at the girl. She began to mix herself -a drink. "Moonbeam," her husband said, "you won't tell anybody about -this little peace conference, will you?" - -"No," she said, looking at Carmody. "I won't talk." She lifted her -glass. "Here's to murder!" - -"Helen," Gabriel insisted, unable to rationalize the vague uneasiness -that was nagging at him, "you won't dare say anything to anybody? -Because, if you do, you'll regret it!" - -"I said I wouldn't talk. Have I ever broken my word?" - -"You've never had the chance." But it would be incredible that she -should have the temerity to betray him. After all, she was his wife. -She should stick to him out of gratitude and self-interest, for he was -rich, at least, and he wasn't exactly repulsive. And he'd been good to -her. All men lost their tempers at times. - -"Let's get down to business, huh?" Carmody said harshly. "Whom do you -want knocked off?" - -"I don't know his name," Gabriel replied, "but I can describe him." - -After he had finished doing so, there was a small pause. Carmody was -silent. Helen turned back to the bar; her face was concealed from the -men. Her body shook a little. Lockard thought she was crying, and -wondered again whether his confidence in her was entirely justified. - -"I think maybe I know the guy," Carmody went on. "Only been around -the--the parish a couple of days, if it's the life-form I mean." - -"Must be the one," Lockard told him. "Think you can do it?" - -"A cinch," Carmody assured him. - - * * * * * - -As Helen Lockard emerged from the door marked _Females; Human and -Humanoid_, and rounded the turn in the corridor, a brawny arm reached -out of a vidiphone booth and yanked her inside. The girl gave a -startled cry, then relaxed. "Oh, it's you; you gave me a turn." - -"You're not afraid? You know who I am, then?" - -She nodded. "You're the real Gabriel Lockard." His big body was -pressing hers in the close-fitting confines of the booth. In some ways -it could be considered more attractive than her husband's. "Why are you -hiding here?" - -"I'm not hiding, I'm lurking," he explained. "Wouldn't do for me to -appear too openly. The police--that is, the hounds--are on Carmody's -trail. I don't want them to find me." - -"Oh." She pulled away from him. She mustn't let her interest be aroused -in a body so soon to be discarded. - -"I've been looking for an opportunity to talk to you since last night," -he growled, the only way he could gentle a voice as deep as the -thick vocal cords of the body produced. "But your husband is always -around.... You haven't told him who I was, have you?" - -She shook her head slowly, reproachfully. "I wouldn't do that. I -wouldn't have told him about the other one either, but I ... well, -I guess I jumped or something when I caught sight of him and Gabe -mistakenly picked it up." - -There was a tense silence as they stood almost pressed against one -another. "It's easy to see how you got into Carmody's body," she went -on, speaking a little too rapidly, "but how did you happen to get into -this particular line of evil?" - -"Simple--that lawyer your husband went to see sent scouts out to have -Carmody picked up. And they flushed me. Naturally I would have turned -down the job if he hadn't happened to mention for whom it was...." - -"That other man is the real Carmody now, isn't he?" She looked up at -him. Her eyes were gray or green; he couldn't determine which. "So it -doesn't matter even if he does get killed." - -"But how can he get killed?" the big man reminded her with a gentleness -completely out of keeping with the ferocity of his appearance. "I'm not -a killer, please believe me--I have never killed anybody and I hope I -never have to." - - * * * * * - -She had never thought about who he was--who he had been--before -he started playing the game. Gabriel Lockard, of course. But what -had Gabriel Lockard been? Surely not the narco-filled, fear-ridden -dilettante the man--the body, at least--was now. He couldn't possibly -have been or the hulk wouldn't have stood up so well under the -treatment it was getting from its current tenant. But all that didn't -seem to matter. All she wanted was the rightful man in his rightful -body, and that seemed almost impossible of achievement. - -"What do you intend to do?" she asked, almost sharply. - -"I don't know," he said. "By agreeing to kill this--John Keats he calls -himself--I felt I had the situation in hand. And I suppose I have, in -a sense. But the end result is a stalemate. I've been following him -around just to make everything looks on course for your husband until I -decide what to do. Sometimes, though, I get the curious feeling that -Keats is following me." - -"Maybe for the same reason you've been following Gabriel?" Helen -touched his arm gingerly; it was more muscular than her husband's. -"This isn't a bad body, you know--maybe he sets some store by it." - -"But that doesn't make sense!" he said, impatiently shaking off her -hand, not wanting her to like this criminal's body that, despite its -superficial attractiveness, fitted him no more easily than any of the -others. "Logically, it seems to me, he should try to get as far away -from his own hulk as possible.... Duck! Here comes your husband!" - -He blocked her with his wide body as Gabriel Lockard's swung past the -booth, its perfect features marred by a frown. "Okay," he whispered, -as Lockard rounded the corner, "rock back to your table and act angry -because he's late." - -He watched until Gabriel had retraced his steps and gone back to the -hotel dining room; then sauntered in the same direction. From the next -booth, John Keats stared sullenly after the departing figure. He had -been straining his ears, but the booths were effectively soundproofed; -all he could learn was that the stranger had developed some kind of -quick understanding with Lockard's wife and, knowing the potentialities -of his former packaging, this saddened rather than surprised the young -man. - -He punched Gorman's number without turning on the visual. -"Disembodied," he said curtly. "Look here, Gorman, I've been -wondering--just who is this life-form supposed to be sending to the -joyful planetoids?" - -"I haven't any idea," Gorman's voice said curiously. "Didn't seem any -of my evil, so I didn't ask. And I don't suppose Lockard would have -told me. Why do you want to know?" - -"Because I don't see him taking a fix on anybody except Lockard's wife -and I don't hold with exterminating females except maybe by accident. -Besides, I kind of radiate for that tigi myself." - -The lawyer's voice definitely showed interest. "Isn't there anybody -else he could possibly be after?" - -"Well--" John Keats gave a sick laugh--"there's only one other possible -flight pattern. It's kind of extradimensional, but sometimes I think -maybe he's after me." - -There was a long pause. "Absurd," the little lawyer said thoughtfully. -"Absurd. He doesn't even know who you are." - -Pale blood surfaced under the young man's transparent skin. "I never -thought of that, but you're wrong. He does. He's got to. It was a -private game." His voice thickened and he had to stop for coughing. -"When you told him he was Jed Carmody, naturally he could figure out -who was squatting in his hulk." - -"But magnetizing him was your own idea, Johnny," Gorman pointed out -gently. "Besides, that's no reason he should be after you; what's the -percentage in it? And, anyhow, where does Lockard fit into this?" He -seemed to be asking the question of himself as much as of the other man. - -"Yeah," John Keats muttered, "that's what I've got to find out." - -"Me, too," Gorman half-whispered. - -"What did you say?" - -"I said tell me when you find out; I'm sort of curious myself." - - -VIII - -"Look, Gorman," Carmody said, "I'm not working for you; I'm working for -Lockard. What's the idea of sending for me this hour of the night?" - -"Then why did you come this hour of the night when I asked you to?" the -lawyer inquired, leaning back in his chair and smiling. - -The big man hesitated and shrugged. "Can't say, myself. Curiosity, -maybe.... But you can hardly expect me to violate my employer's -confidence?" - -Gorman laughed. "You get your ideas from the viddies, don't you? Only -don't forget that you're the villain, not the hero, of this piece, -fellow-man." - -Carmody, completely taken aback, stared at him--the little alien -couldn't know! And, furthermore, he was mistaken--Carmody, Lockard, -the dutchman, had done nothing wrong, committed no crime, violated no -ethic. On the other hand, he had done nothing right either, nothing to -help himself or any other. "What do you mean?" he finally temporized. - -"Tell me this--Lockard hired you to kill the man who goes under the -name of John Keats, didn't he?" - -"Yes, but how did you know that?" He was beginning to have the same -primitive fear of Gorman that he had of the Vinzz; only it was more -natural for an extraterrestrial to have apparently supernatural powers. - -"Keats told me--and Keats, of course, is the real Carmody." - -"So you found out?" - -"Found out!" Gorman laughed. "I knew it all along. Does a man keep any -secrets from his lawyer?" - -"If he's smart, he does." Carmody absently beat his hand on the desk. -"This Keats isn't too smart, though, is he?" - -"No ... he isn't a very bright guy. But it was his idea that this would -be a fine method of getting you out of the way. And not too bad an -idea, either.... You had to be disposed of, you know," he explained -winningly. "And how nice to have hounds do it for us. Of course we had -no idea of who your quarry was." - -"I can see your point of view," Carmody said ironically. "But why tell -me now?" And then he thought he saw the answer. "Are you afraid I'll -really kill him?" - -The lawyer shook his head and smiled back. "Afraid you really won't." -He placed the tips of his fingers together. "I am prepared to double -whatever Lockard is offering you to make sure that Keats, with Carmody -inside him, is definitely put out of the way forever." - - * * * * * - -So even here there was no basis of trust--none of the reverse honor -that legend commonly assigned to extralegals. Carmody got up. Even -seated, he had towered above the lawyer. Standing, he was like a -larger-than-life statue of doom--of doom, Gorman nervously hoped, -pointing in the desired direction. - -"And if I refuse?" Carmody asked. - -Gorman moved his chair back uneasily. "I might persuade Keats that he -could risk one murder in his present shape, if it was to insure his -ultimate safety." - -"Meaning it would be a good idea for him to kill me?" - -"Meaning it would be an excellent idea for him to kill you." - -"Look here, Gorman," Carmody said, in a low voice that gradually -increased in volume. He could no longer restrain the anger that had -been seething up in him for all the years of his wandering. "I've had -enough of all this, hiding, running, shifting bodies and now hiring out -as a killer. Because I'm an honest man. Maybe you've never seen one -before, so take a good look at me. You may never have the chance again." - -"I am looking and I see Jed Carmody. Not my idea of the prototype of -honesty." - -"But I don't feel like Jed Carmody." - -"Tell that to the hounds." Gorman laughed uproariously. "By law, you're -responsible for Carmody's crimes. Of course, if they put you away -or--as they'd undoubtedly prefer--accidently exterminate you in the -line of duty, and _then_ suspect Carmody hulk-hopped, they might look -around some more. But there wouldn't be any percentage in that for you, -especially if you were dead." - -"I know, I know," Carmody retorted impatiently. "You can't tell me -anything I haven't told myself." He paused for a moment. "This is a -good body, though," he added. "Almost as good as my old one." - -Gorman raised his eyebrows. "You can't be referring to the corpus -currently going by the epithet of John Keats?" - -"The name was your idea, I take it. No, that wasn't my original body." - -"Oh, so you're a dutchman, eh? A thrill boy?" There was contempt, even -from such as Gorman. "Getting a lot of free falls out of all this, are -you?" - -Carmody tried to ignore this, but he couldn't. It wasn't true, he told -himself; he had suffered years of playing the game and derived no -pleasure from those sufferings--no pleasure at all. But he would not -stoop to argue with Gorman. "Maybe I can get away with this body to one -of the frontier planets," he mused. "At least I can make a run for it; -at least that would be a worthwhile kind of running." - -"Brave words!" the lawyer sneered. "But rather risky to put into -action. Don't you think the best thing to do would be just go ahead -with the pattern as set? How much did Lockard offer you?" - -"Half a million credits." - -Gorman sucked in his breath. "You're lying, of course, but I'll match -that. Carmody--Keats--has ten times that amount and maybe more hidden -away where I can lay my hands on it as soon as I'm sure he's where he -can't hurt me. It's worth half a million to me. And, in the remote -instance that you're telling the truth, you can't turn down a million -credits ... whoever you are, dutchman!" - -"Oh, can't I?" Carmody went to the door; then turned. "It may interest -you to know that I'm worth a hundred times that amount and maybe more." - -The lawyer laughed skeptically. "If you have enough money to buy your -way, then why are you doing this?" - -Carmody frowned. "You wouldn't understand.... I'm not sure I understand -myself." The door slammed behind him. Descending pneumos hissed. - -"Just talking with his elbows," Gorman said comfortingly to himself. -"He'll do it. He's got to do it." But he wasn't altogether convinced. - - -IX - -As Carmody left the office building, John Keats' figure emerged from -the shadows of a nearby doorway. He looked up at the golden rectangle -of Gorman's window and then toward the direction in which Carmody had -gone; and bit his lip irresolutely. After a moment's reflection, he -chose to follow his old body. Somehow he didn't have much confidence in -Gorman any more; not that he'd ever really trusted him. In their line -of evil you couldn't afford to trust anybody. He had made a mistake. -But it could still be rectified. - -If the big man was aware of his tracker, he did not seem to care. -He moved purposefully in the direction of the hotel, scorning the -helicabs that swooped down to proffer their services, striding through -the brilliantly lit avenues gay with music and the dark alleys mournful -with the whine of the farjeen wires as if they were all the same. - -The hotel was on one of the avenues, because the Lockards always had -only the best of whatever there was to be had. Carmody crossed the -almost deserted lobby in swift strides and took the pneumo to the -seventh floor. Knowing that his body could have only one objective in -that place, Keats took the stairs to the basement. - -Carmody sprang out of the pneumo exit and ran down the corridor to bang -lustily on the intricately embossed metal door of the Lockards' suite. -After a moment, the girl, again in negligee, opened it. Her green-gray -eyes widened when she saw who the late visitor was, and she put a -finger to her lips. "Shh, Gabe's asleep; let's not wake him unless it's -necessary." She closed the door softly behind him. "What is it ... Jed?" - -He was so choked with excitement that he could hardly get the words -out. "Helen; will you make a break with me for Proxima Centauri? They -won't ask any questions there, if we can get there. And from Proxima we -can go--" - -"But your body?" - -"The hell with my body." He gripped her arms with powerful hands. "You -mean much more to me than that worthless hulk." - -"But, Jed, Gabe'll never let us go...." Proxima Centauri--that had been -Gabriel's dream, too.... - -His hands pressed so hard into her flesh, she knew there would be -bruises on her skin; was she always doomed to fall in love with men who -would leave marks on her? "Let him try to stop us. I'm bigger than he -is, now." - -She looked up at him. "You always were, darling. But he has influence, -though he wouldn't need it; he could simply set the police on you." - -"That's the chance we're going to have to take.... But perhaps I'm -asking too much. I haven't the right to ask you to take such risks," he -added bitterly. "I was thinking only of myself, I see, not of you." - -"Oh, no, Jed!" - - * * * * * - -"Who're you talking to, Helen?" a drowsy voice asked from the bedroom. -It was followed by the comely person of Gabriel himself, fastening his -dressing gown. "Oh, hello, Carmody." His face lighted up avidly, all -sleepiness vanishing like a spent milgot. "Did you do it already?" - -"No, I didn't. And, what's more, I'm not going to do it!" - -Lockard looked astonished. "But what's wrong? You said you would." - -Carmody sighed. "Yes, I know I did. I was stalling. That's what I've -always done--stalled, put things off, hesitated to make decisions. -Well, I've made my decision now." - -"You're not afraid of him?" Lockard said in a voice that was meant to -be taunting and emerged as querulous. "A little pipsqueak like that -Keats? Or maybe half a million credits isn't enough for you? Is that -it?" - -That was enough for the man whose emaciated body was torturedly cramped -in the air-conditioning vent and further agonized by the strain of -repressing the cough that sought to tear its way out of his chest. He -had found out what he wanted to know and, as he inched his way back -down to the basement, he was already making plans for getting even with -all those he now knew to be enemies. It had been a conspiracy against -him from the start; the hounds probably weren't even aware that he -was in town. It was Gorman who had told him they knew of his general -whereabouts--Gorman, the good friend who had suggested he change -bodies, knowing that whatever hulk he wound up with was bound to be -more vulnerable than his primal form. And Gorman would pay.... - -"More than enough," Carmody replied, as unaware of the fact that he had -lost one-third of his audience as he had been that he was addressing -three rather than two listeners. "Only I'm not a killer." - -"But I understood you were supposed to be a professional exterminator?" - -"Jed Carmody is a killer. Only I'm not Jed Carmody." - -Lockard moved backward and stared at the still bigger man. - -Lockard retreated still further. "You--you're him! You were all along!" -He whirled on his wife. "And you knew, you double-crosser! Knew and -didn't tell me! By God, I'll break every bone in your body!" - -"Lay a hand on her and I'll break every bone in _my_ body!" Lockard -stopped where he was. "It doesn't mean anything to me any more, you -see," Carmody explained. "I wanted it when I didn't have anything -else. But now I have Helen. I could kill you, you know. As Carmody, an -acknowledged exterminator, I have nothing to lose. But I'm letting you -live, as a hostage for Helen.... And, besides, as I've been busy trying -to convince everybody all evening, I am _not_ a murderer." He turned to -the girl. "_Will_ you come with me to Proxima, Helen?" - -"Y-yes, Jed," she said, looking apprehensively at her husband. - -"Gather your packs. I'm going to the air office to make the -arrangements." Carmody consulted his chronometer. "It's three o'clock. -I should be back by eight or so. Get some sleep if you can." - -Her wide frightened eyes turned again toward her husband. - -"Here." Jed tossed her the gun Gorman had given him. "If he tries -anything, use it." - -"Yes, Jed. But...." - -"Don't worry; I have another one." - -The door slammed behind him. "Gimme that gun, you little tramp!" -Lockard snarled, twisting it out of her flaccid hand. - - -X - -Carmody marched out of the hotel and turned left in the direction of -the airstation which stayed open all night. He had walked a short -distance when suddenly a high voice came out of the darkness behind -him, "Not so fast, Mr. ... Carmody," and a hard knob was pressed in his -back. - -"Mr. Keats, I believe," Carmody said, wondering why he wasn't -frightened. - -"Right." The other coughed at some length. "You thought you were pretty -smart, didn't you, foisting me off with a hulk that wasn't only -shopworn but hot?" - -"Your intentions weren't exactly noble either, were they, Mr. Keats?" - -"I want my frame back!" - -Suddenly the idea came to Carmody, and so wonderful it was he could -hardly throttle his voice down to calmness. "Shooting me won't help you -get it back. In fact, it might make it rather difficult." - -"You have your choice between going back to the zarquil house with me -and switching or getting your current insides burned out." - -Carmody exhaled a small hissing sigh that he hoped would not be -recognized as obvious relief to the man behind him. "You'll have to -pay. I haven't enough folio on me." - -"I'll pay; I'll pay," the voice snarled. "I always pay. But you'll come -peacefully?" he asked in some surprise. - -"Yes. Matter of fact, I'll be glad to get out of this body. No matter -how much I try, somehow I can never manage to keep it clean.... Gently, -now, you don't want to muss up a body you're planning to occupy -yourself, now do you?" - -"This is too easy," Keats' voice murmured dubiously. "Maybe it's -another trap...." - -"You're always going to imagine traps, Mr. Exterminator, whether -they're there or not. You and Lockard both--people who run must have -something to run from, and half the time it's not there and half the -time, of course, it is; only you never know which is which--" - -"You talk too much," the man behind him snarled. "Shut up and keep -moving." - -"Back again?" the Vinzz at the door asked. The present Carmody was a -little startled. Somehow he had thought of the Vinzz as too remote from -humanity to be able to distinguish between individual members of the -species. "I'm afraid neither of you is qualified to play." - -"No reason why we shouldn't have a private game, is there?" John Keats -demanded belligerently. - -The Vinzz' tendrils quivered. "In that case, no, no reason at all. If -you want to be so unsporting and can afford it. It will cost you a -hundred thousand credits each." - -"But that's twice what I had to pay last week!" Keats protested angrily. - -The Vinzz shrugged an antenna. "You are, of course, at liberty to take -your trade elsewhere, if you choose." - -"Oh, hell," the temporarily poetic-looking killer snarled. "We're stuck -and you know it. Let's get it over with!" - - * * * * * - -It was odd to come out of unconsciousness back into the thin young -man's body again. More uncomfortable than usual, because the criminal's -body had been in such splendid physical condition and this one so -poor--now worse than before, because it had been worked far beyond its -attenuated capabilities. The individuality that had originally been -Gabriel Lockard's, formerly housed in Jed Carmody's body, now opened -John Keats' eyes and looked at the Vinzz who stood above him. - -"The other human has been told you awakened before him and have already -departed," the Vinzz explained. "He has violence in his heart and we do -not care for violence on our doorstep. Bad for business." - -"Has he gone already?" - -The Vinzz nodded. - -"How long has he been gone?" He scrambled to his feet and investigated -the clothing he wore. Carmody had been in too much of a hurry to clean -himself out. There was some money left, a container of milgot sticks, -and a set of electroseals. - -"He has just left." The extra-terrestrial's eyes flickered in what -might have been surprise. "Don't you wish to avoid him?" - -"No, I must go where he goes." - -The Vinzz shrugged. "Well, it's your funeral in the most literal sense -of the word." He sighed as the young man plunged out into the darkness. -"But, from the objective viewpoint, what a waste of money!" - -The massive, broad-shouldered figure of Jed Carmody was still visible -at the end of the street, so the thin man slowed down. He wanted to -follow Carmody, to keep close watch on where he was going and, if -necessary, guide him in the right direction, though he didn't think -he'd have to do that. But he had no intention of overtaking him. -Carmody might not want openly to use the gun the former tenant had so -carefully left him, but with his physique he could break the fragile -body of John Keats in two, if he so desired, and he probably did. - -Meanwhile Carmody--the real Carmody--having been deprived of an -immediate revenge, had begun to realize how much better the situation -was as it now stood. If he killed Keats out of hand, he might miss out -on half a million credits, because it was his custom to get cash in -advance for all his flights, and this was his flight pattern now. He -wouldn't trust that Lockard life-form to defoliate after the job was -done. - -Of course he himself had plenty of money stashed away, but every half -million helped. It would be no trouble to find the sickly Keats later. -And there was no reason the hounds should get him--Carmody--after all, -the other had been rocketing around in his body and he hadn't been -caught. Carmody had allowed himself to be stampeded into panic. He -smiled. Gorman wouldn't ever be able to chart any pattern like that, or -like anything, again. Fortunately there was no permanent harm done, and -a half million credits to cover the zarquil losses, with a nice profit -left over. Maybe he could even beat Lockard up to a million; that one -was obviously a coward and a fool. A few threats should be enough to -get him to hand over. - -Carmody paused for a moment outside the hotel. It still took some nerve -to walk boldly into the brightly lit lobby. - - * * * * * - -The automatic doors slid open as he entered. At the same time, the -pneumo gates lifted and Gabe Lockard came out, dragging a heavily -veiled Helen, their luggage floating behind them. Both stopped as they -caught sight of the killer; Lockard paled--Helen gasped. - -_Too bad I have to leave her in the tentacles of this low life-form_, -Carmody thought with regret, but there was no help for it. He -approached them with what he thought was an ingratiating smile. "Mr. -Lockard, I've decided to give you another chance." - -It was an unhappy choice of word. "Oh, you have, have you!" the big -blond man yelled. "I thought I did have another chance. And now you've -spoiled that, too!" - -"What do you mean by that?" Carmody demanded, his thick dark brows -almost meeting across his nose. - -"I figured on getting away before you came back," Gabriel babbled in a -frenzy, "but you'd have found me anyway. You always find me. I'm sick -of this running. There's only one way to stop you, only one way to be -sure that, whatever happens to me, you won't be around to enjoy it." - -"Listen, Lockard, you're making a mistake. I--" - -"The only mistake I made was in hiring somebody else to do the job I -should have done myself." - -He pulled out the gun--Carmody's own gun--and fired it. He wasn't a -good shot, but that didn't matter. He had the flash on full blast and -he pumped and pumped and pumped the trigger until the searing heat -rays had whipped not only the killer's astonished body but all through -the lobby. The few people still there rushed for cover as rug, chairs, -potted palms were shriveled by the lancing holocaust. There was a -penetrating odor of burning fabric and frond and flesh. - -Helen let out a wail as Carmody, more ash than man, fell to the -charred carpet. "Gabe, Gabe, what have you done!" - -The gun dropped from his hand to rejoin its owner. His face crumpled. -"I didn't really mean to kill ... only to scare him.... What'll I do -now?" - -"You'll run, Mr. Lockard," John Keats' body said as he entered the -devastated lobby. "You'll run and run and run. He's dead, but you'll -keep on running forever. No, not forever--I apologize--some day you'll -get caught, because the hounds aren't amateurs like you and ... -him...." He pointed to the crumbling, blackened corpse, keeping his -hand steady with an effort for, God knew, he was the biggest amateur of -them all. - -Lockard licked his lips and gazed apprehensively around. Frightened -faces were beginning to peer out from their places of concealment. -"Look, Carmody," he said in a low, stiff voice, "let's talk this over. -But let's get out of here first before somebody calls the hounds." - -"All right," the thin man smiled. "I'm always willing to talk. We can -go over to Gorman's office. They won't look for us there right away." - -"How'll we get in?" - -"I have a 'seal," Keats said. Surely one of the electroseals he carried -must belong to Gorman's office. It was a chance he'd have to take. - - -XI - -Keats had to try five different seals before he found the one that -opened the lawyer's office. He was afraid his obvious lack of -familiarity would arouse Lockard's suspicions, but the big man was too -much preoccupied with his own emotions. - -An unpleasantly haunting aroma of cooked meat seeped out from inside. -"For Christ's sake, Carmody, hurry!" Lockard snarled, and gave a sigh -of relief as the door swung open and the illuminators went on, lighting -the shabby office. Gorman was there. His horribly seared body lay -sprawled on the dusty rug--quite dead. - -"You--you killed him?" Gabriel quavered. The sight of murder done by -another hand seemed to upset him more than the murder he himself had -just committed. - -The thin man gave a difficult smile. "Carmody killed him." Which was -undoubtedly the truth. "The gun that did it is in his pocket. I had -nothing to do with it." His eyes sought for the ones behind the veil. -He wanted the girl who stood frozenly by the door to know that this, at -least, was the truth. - -Gabriel also stayed near the door, unable to take his eyes off the -corpse. In death Carmody and Gorman, the big man and the small man, had -looked the same; each was just a heap of charred meat and black ash. No -blood, no germs--all very hygienic. "You're smart, Carmody," he said -from taut lips. "Damn smart." - -"I'm Keats, not Carmody! Remember that." He dropped into the chair -behind the desk. "Sit down, both of you." Only Gabriel accepted the -invitation. "Why don't you take that thing off your face, Mrs. Lockard? -You aren't hiding from anybody, are you?" - -Gabriel gave a short laugh. "She's hiding her face from everybody. I -spoiled it a little for her. She was going to sell me out to ... the -guy in your body." - -Keats' hand tightened on the arm of his chair. Lose his temper now and -he lost the whole game. "It was a good body," he said, not looking at -the thing on the rug, trying not to remember the thing on the rug on -the other side of town. "A very good body." Through the veil, Helen's -shadowy eyes were fixed on his face. He wanted to see what Lockard -had done to her, but he couldn't tear off the veil, as he longed to -do; he was afraid of the expression that might be revealed on her -face--triumph when there should have been anguish; anguish when there -should have been triumph. - -"Not as good as the one I have here." Lockard thumped his own chest, -anxious to establish the value of the only ware he had left. - -"Matter of opinion," Keats said. "And mine was in better shape." - -"This one isn't in bad condition," Gabriel retorted defensively. "It -could be brought back to peak in short order." - -"You won't have much opportunity to do it, though. But maybe the -government will do it for you; they don't pamper prisoners, I -understand, especially lifers." - - * * * * * - -Gabriel whitened. "You're an extralegal, Carmody--Keats," he whined. -"You know your course. You know how to hide from the hounds.... I'm -a--a respectable citizen." He spread his hands wide in exaggerated -helplessness. "Strictly an amateur, that's what I am--I admit I've been -playing out of my league." - -"So?" - -"I'm worth a lot of money, Keats, a hell of a lot. And half of it can -be yours, if you ... change bodies with me." - -Keats' angular face remained expressionless, but there was a sharp cry -from the girl--a cry that might have been misunderstood as one of pain, -but wasn't. - -Gabriel turned toward her, and his upper lip curled back over his -teeth. "I'll throw her in to the bargain. You must have seen her when -she wasn't banged up so you know she's not permanently disfigured. -Isn't she worth taking a risk for?" - -Keats shrugged. "If the hounds pull you down, she'll be a legal widow -anyway." - -"Yes, but you'd have no ... chance with her in the body you now -have.... No chance," he repeated. His voice broke. "Never had a chance." - -"Go ahead, feel sorry for yourself," the other man said. "Nobody else -will." - -Gabriel's face darkened, but he also had to control his temper to gain -what he fancied were his own ends. "You won't deny that this hulk is -better than the one you have now?" - -"Except that there's one thing about the head that I don't like." - -Gabriel stared in bewilderment. His body was beyond criticism. "What is -it you don't like about the head?" - -"There's a price on it now." - -Gabriel pressed his spine against the back of the chair. "Don't play -the innocent, Carmody. You've killed people, too." - -"Well, sure, but not out in the open like that. You know how many -people saw you blast him? Too many. If you're going to exterminate -somebody, you do it from a dark doorway or an alley--not in a -brilliantly lit hotel lobby, and you blast him in the back. But there's -no use giving you lessons; it's not likely you'll ever be able to use -them where you're going." - -Gabriel suddenly sagged in his chair. He looked down at the floor. "So -you won't do it?" - -Keats grew apprehensive. He hadn't expected the big man to give in to -despair so soon--it might spoil all his plans and leave him trapped -in this sick unwanted body. He lit a milgot. "I didn't say that," he -pointed out, trying to sound unconcerned. "Matter of fact, I might even -consider your proposition, if...." - -There was hope in Lockard's eyes again. It made Keats a little sick to -think of the game he had to play with the other; then he thought of -the game the other had played with him, the game the other had played -with his wife, and the faint flickering of compassion died out in him. -"What do you want?" Gabriel asked. - -Keats took a moment before he answered. "I want _all_ of what you've -got." - -Gabriel uttered an inarticulate sound. - -"You can't take it with you, colleague. If we hulk-hop, it's got to be -tonight, because the hounds will be baying on your trail any moment. -You wouldn't have the chance to transfer the property to my name and, -if you take my word that I'll hand over half afterward, you're just -plain out of this dimension.... Think of it this way, Lockard--what's -worth more to you, a couple of lousy billions or your freedom?" - -"All right, Carmody," Lockard said dully, "you're the dictator." - - -XII - -The Vinzz' eyes flickered in astonishment. "_Another_ private game? -However...." he shrugged eloquently. "It will cost you a hundred -thousand credits each, gentlemen." - -"No discount for a steady customer?" Keats inquired lightly, though he -was trembling inside. - -The Vinzz' tendrils quivered. "None. You ought to be glad I didn't -raise the price again." - -"Why didn't you?" he couldn't help asking. - -The Vinzz looked steadily into the man's eyes. "I don't know," it -answered at last. "Perhaps I have been so long on this planet that I -have developed a sentimental streak.... In any case, I am going back to -Vinau the day after tomorrow...." - -"For God's sake," Lockard, his senses so confused with fear and -apprehension that he was able to catch only fragments of their talk, -screamed, "pay him what he asks and don't haggle!" - -"All right," Keats agreed. "The lady will wait for me here," he told -the Vinzz. - -The extraterrestrial quivered indecisively. "Most irregular," it -murmured. "However, I cannot refuse a slight favor for such an old -customer. This way, madam." - - * * * * * - -Gabriel Lockard opened Gabriel Lockard's eyes. - -"Well," the Vinzz who stood above him lisped, "how does it feel to be -back in your own body again?" - -Gabriel got up and stretched. He stretched again, and then an -expression of wonderment came over his handsome features. "I feel ... -exactly the way I felt in ... any of the others," he said haltingly. -"I'm not comfortable in this one either. It's not right--it doesn't -fit. My own body...." - -"You've grown out of it," the green one told him, not unkindly. "But -you will be able to adjust to it again, if you'll give it a chance...." - -"There's that word again." Gabriel winced. "I'm beginning to respond -to it the way my ... predecessor did. Do we ever really get another -chance, I wonder?" - -"Take my advice." The Vinzz' face became almost human. "This is -costing my people money, but we've made enough out of you and -your--shall we say?--friends. It is a shame," it murmured, "to prey -upon unsophisticated life-forms, but one must live. However, I'll tell -you this: The compulsion will come over you again and again to play -the game--your body will torment you unbearably and you will long for -relief from it, but you must conquer that desire or, I warn you, you -will be lost to yourself forever. It's a pattern that's enormously -difficult to break, but it can be broken." - -Gabriel smiled down at the little green creature. "Thanks, colleague. -I'll remember that advice. And I'll take it." - -"The other is still asleep," the Vinzz told him. "This time I thought -it best to let you awaken first. Good-by, and ... good luck." - -"Thanks, fellow-man," Gabriel said. The Vinzz' tendrils quivered. - - * * * * * - -Helen awaited him in an anteroom, her veil flung back so that he could -see her poor, marred face. Anger rose hotly in him, but he pushed it -down. Her suffering had not been meaningless and revenge was already -consummated. - -"Gabriel!" Her voice was taut. "... Jed!" - -"Gabriel," he smiled. "The genuine, original Gabriel--accept no -substitutes." - -"I'm so glad." Her lips formed the words, for she had no voice with -which to make them. - -"Come." He took her arm and led her out into the quiet street. It -was almost daylight and the sky was a clear pearl gray. Again a star -detached itself from the translucent disk of the Moon and sped out into -the Galaxy. - -_Soon_, he thought, _we'll be on a starship like that one, leaving this -played-out planet for the new worlds up in the sky._ - -"You're going to let Gabe--the other Gabriel--go?" she asked. - -He bent his head to look at her swollen face. "You're free, Helen; I -have my body back; why should we concern ourselves with what happens to -him? He can't hurt us any more." - -"I suppose you're right," she muttered. "It seems unfair...." She -shivered. "Still, you have no idea of the things he did to me--the -things he made me do...." She shivered again. - -"You're cold. Let's get started." - -"But where are we going?" She placed her hand on his arm and looked up -at him. - -"Back to the hotel to pick up your luggage. And then--I still think -Proxima is a good idea, don't you? And then perhaps farther out still. -I'm sick of this old world." - -"But, Je--Gabriel, you must be mad! The police will be waiting for you -at the hotel." - -"Of course they'll be waiting, but with a citation, not handcuffs." - -She looked at him as if he had gone extradimensional. He laughed. "What -your ex-husband didn't know, my dear, was that there was a reward out -for Jed Carmody, _dead or alive_." - -Her face was blank for a moment. "A reward! Oh, G-G-G-Gabriel!" The -girl erupted into hysterical laughter. - -"Shhh, darling, control yourself." He put his arm around her, -protectively, restrainingly. "We'll be conspicuous," for already the -Sun's first feeble rays were beginning to wash the ancient tired -streets with watery gold. "Think of the reward we're going to get--five -thousand credits, just for us!" - -She wiped her eyes and pulled down her veil. "Whatever will we do with -all that money!" - -"I think it would be nice if we turned it over to the hotel," he -smiled. "I made rather a shambles of their lobby when, pursuant to my -duty as a solar citizen, I exterminated the killer Carmody. Let's give -it to them and leave only pleasant memories behind us on our journey -to the stars." And he couldn't help wondering whether, if things got -really tough, somewhere up in those stars he could find another zarquil -game. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bodyguard, by Christopher Grimm - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BODYGUARD *** - -***** This file should be named 50988.txt or 50988.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/9/8/50988/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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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