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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3112781 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51726 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51726) diff --git a/old/51726-h.zip b/old/51726-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 5f01574..0000000 --- a/old/51726-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51726-h/51726-h.htm b/old/51726-h/51726-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 3c6c136..0000000 --- a/old/51726-h/51726-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1586 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night, by Algis Budrys. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1, .ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: xx-large; margin: .67em auto; } -.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; } -.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } -.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night, by Algis Budrys - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night - -Author: Algis Budrys - -Release Date: April 10, 2016 [EBook #51726] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WALL OF CRYSTAL, EYE OF NIGHT *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="385" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>WALL OF CRYSTAL, EYE OF NIGHT</h1> - -<p>By ALGIS BUDRYS</p> - -<p>Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Magazine December 1961.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>He was a vendor of dreams, purveying worlds<br /> -beyond imagination to others. Yet his doom was this:<br /> -He could not see what he must learn of his own!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Soft as the voice of a mourning dove, the telephone sounded at Rufus -Sollenar's desk. Sollenar himself was standing fifty paces away, his -leonine head cocked, his hands flat in his hip pockets, watching the -nighted world through the crystal wall that faced out over Manhattan -Island. The window was so high that some of what he saw was dimmed by -low clouds hovering over the rivers. Above him were stars; below him -the city was traced out in light and brimming with light. A falling -star—an interplanetary rocket—streaked down toward Long Island -Facility like a scratch across the soot on the doors of Hell.</p> - -<p>Sollenar's eyes took it in, but he was watching the total scene, not -any particular part of it. His eyes were shining.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="600" height="435" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>When he heard the telephone, he raised his left hand to his lips. -"Yes?" The hand glittered with utilijem rings; the effect was that -of an attempt at the sort of copper-binding that was once used to -reinforce the ribbing of wooden warships.</p> - -<p>His personal receptionist's voice moved from the air near his desk -to the air near his ear. Seated at the monitor board in her office, -wherever in this building her office was, the receptionist told him:</p> - -<p>"Mr. Ermine says he has an appointment."</p> - -<p>"No." Sollenar dropped his hand and returned to his panorama. When he -had been twenty years younger—managing the modest optical factory that -had provided the support of three generations of Sollenars—he had very -much wanted to be able to stand in a place like this, and feel as he -imagined men felt in such circumstances. But he felt unimaginable, now.</p> - -<p>To be here was one thing. To have almost lost the right, and regained -it at the last moment, was another. Now he knew that not only could he -be here today but that tomorrow, and tomorrow, he could still be here. -He had won. His gamble had given him EmpaVid—and EmpaVid would give -him all.</p> - -<p>The city was not merely a prize set down before his eyes. It was a -dynamic system he had proved he could manipulate. He and the city were -one. It buoyed and sustained him; it supported him, here in the air, -with stars above and light-thickened mist below.</p> - -<p>The telephone mourned: "Mr. Ermine states he has a firm appointment."</p> - -<p>"I've never heard of him." And the left hand's utilijems fell from -Sollenar's lips again. He enjoyed such toys. He raised his right hand, -sheathed in insubstantial midnight-blue silk in which the silver -threads of metallic wiring ran subtly toward the fingertips. He raised -the hand, and touched two fingers together: music began to play behind -and before him. He made contact between another combination of finger -circuits, and a soft, feminine laugh came from the terrace at the other -side of the room, where connecting doors had opened. He moved toward -it. One layer of translucent drapery remained across the doorway, -billowing lightly in the breeze from the terrace. Through it, he saw -the taboret with its candle lit; the iced wine in the stand beside it; -the two fragile chairs; Bess Allardyce, slender and regal, waiting in -one of them—all these, through the misty curtain, like either the -beginning or the end of a dream.</p> - -<p>"Mr. Ermine reminds you the appointment was made for him at the Annual -Business Dinner of the International Association of Broadcasters, in -1998."</p> - -<p>Sollenar completed his latest step, then stopped. He frowned down at -his left hand. "Is Mr. Ermine with the IAB's Special Public Relations -Office?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," the voice said after a pause.</p> - -<p>The fingers of Sollenar's right hand shrank into a cone. The -connecting door closed. The girl disappeared. The music stopped. "All -right. You can tell Mr. Ermine to come up." Sollenar went to sit behind -his desk.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The office door chimed. Sollenar crooked a finger of his left hand, and -the door opened. With another gesture, he kindled the overhead lights -near the door and sat in shadow as Mr. Ermine came in.</p> - -<p>Ermine was dressed in rust-colored garments. His figure was spare, -and his hands were empty. His face was round and soft, with long dark -sideburns. His scalp was bald. He stood just inside Sollenar's office -and said: "I would like some light to see you by, Mr. Sollenar."</p> - -<p>Sollenar crooked his little finger.</p> - -<p>The overhead lights came to soft light all over the office. The crystal -wall became a mirror, with only the strongest city lights glimmering -through it. "I only wanted to see you first," said Sollenar; "I thought -perhaps we'd met before."</p> - -<p>"No," Ermine said, walking across the office. "It's not likely you've -ever seen me." He took a card case out of his pocket and showed -Sollenar proper identification. "I'm not a very forward person."</p> - -<p>"Please sit down," Sollenar said. "What may I do for you?"</p> - -<p>"At the moment, Mr. Sollenar, I'm doing something for you."</p> - -<p>Sollenar sat back in his chair. "Are you? Are you, now?" He frowned at -Ermine. "When I became a party to the By-Laws passed at the '98 Dinner, -I thought a Special Public Relations Office would make a valuable asset -to the organization. Consequently, I voted for it, and for the powers -it was given. But I never expected to have any personal dealings with -it. I barely remembered you people had carte blanche with any IAB -member."</p> - -<p>"Well, of course, it's been a while since '98," Ermine said. "I imagine -some legends have grown up around us. Industry gossip—that sort of -thing."</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"But we don't restrict ourselves to an enforcement function, Mr. -Sollenar. You haven't broken any By-Laws, to our knowledge."</p> - -<p>"Or mine. But nobody feels one hundred per cent secure. Not under -these circumstances." Nor did Sollenar yet relax his face into its -magnificent smile. "I'm sure you've found that out."</p> - -<p>"I have a somewhat less ambitious older brother who's with the Federal -Bureau of Investigation. When I embarked on my own career, he told me -I could expect everyone in the world to react like a criminal, yes," -Ermine said, paying no attention to Sollenar's involuntary blink. "It's -one of the complicating factors in a profession like my brother's, or -mine. But I'm here to advise you, Mr. Sollenar. Only that."</p> - -<p>"In what matter, Mr. Ermine?"</p> - -<p>"Well, your corporation recently came into control of the patents -for a new video system. I understand that this in effect makes -your corporation the licensor for an extremely valuable sales and -entertainment medium. Fantastically valuable."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"EmpaVid," Sollenar agreed. "Various subliminal stimuli are broadcast -with and keyed to the overt subject matter. The home receiving unit -contains feedback sensors which determine the viewer's reaction to -these stimuli, and intensify some while playing down others in order to -create complete emotional rapport between the viewer and the subject -matter. EmpaVid, in other words, is a system for orchestrating the -viewer's emotions. The home unit is self-contained, semi-portable and -not significantly bulkier than the standard TV receiver. EmpaVid is -compatible with standard TV receivers—except, of course, that the -subject matter seems thin and vaguely unsatisfactory on a standard -receiver. So the consumer shortly purchases an EV unit." It pleased -Sollenar to spell out the nature of his prize.</p> - -<p>"At a very reasonable price. Quite so, Mr. Sollenar. But you had -several difficulties in finding potential licensees for this system, -among the networks."</p> - -<p>Sollenar's lips pinched out.</p> - -<p>Mr. Ermine raised one finger. "First, there was the matter of acquiring -the patents from the original inventor, who was also approached by -Cortwright Burr."</p> - -<p>"Yes, he was," Sollenar said in a completely new voice.</p> - -<p>"Competition between Mr. Burr and yourself is long-standing and -intense."</p> - -<p>"Quite intense," Sollenar said, looking directly ahead of him at the -one blank wall of the office. Burr's offices were several blocks -downtown, in that direction.</p> - -<p>"Well, I have no wish to enlarge on that point, Mr. Burr being an IAB -member in standing as good as yours, Mr. Sollenar. There was, in any -case, a further difficulty in licensing EV, due to the very heavy cost -involved in equipping broadcasting stations and network relay equipment -for this sort of transmission."</p> - -<p>"Yes, there was."</p> - -<p>"Ultimately, however, you succeeded. You pointed out, quite rightly, -that if just one station made the change, and if just a few EV -receivers were put into public places within the area served by that -station, normal TV outlets could not possibly compete for advertising -revenue."</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"And so your last difficulties were resolved a few days ago, when -your EmpaVid Unlimited—pardon me; when EmpaVid, a subsidiary of the -Sollenar Corporation—became a major stockholder in the Transworld TV -Network."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"I don't understand, Mr. Ermine," Sollenar said. "Why are you -recounting this? Are you trying to demonstrate the power of your -knowledge? All these transactions are already matters of record in the -IAB confidential files, in accordance with the By-Laws."</p> - -<p>Ermine held up another finger. "You're forgetting I'm only here to -advise you. I have two things to say. They are:</p> - -<p>"These transactions are on file with the IAB because they involve -a great number of IAB members, and an increasingly large amount of -capital. Also, Transworld's exclusivity, under the IAB By-Laws, will -hold good only until thirty-three per cent market saturation has been -reached. If EV is as good as it looks, that will be quite soon. After -that, under the By-Laws, Transworld will be restrained from making -effective defenses against patent infringement by competitors. Then -all of the IAB's membership and much of their capital will be involved -with EV. Much of that capital is already in anticipatory motion. So a -highly complex structure now ultimately depends on the integrity of the -Sollenar Corporation. If Sollenar stock falls in value, not just you -but many IAB members will be greatly embarrassed. Which is another way -of saying EV must succeed."</p> - -<p>"I know all that! What of it? There's no risk. I've had every related -patent on Earth checked. There will be no catastrophic obsolescence of -the EV system."</p> - -<p>Ermine said: "There are engineers on Mars. Martian engineers. They're a -dying race, but no one knows what they can still do."</p> - -<p>Sollenar raised his massive head.</p> - -<p>Ermine said: "Late this evening, my office learned that Cortwright Burr -has been in close consultation with the Martians for several weeks. -They have made some sort of machine for him. He was on the flight that -landed at the Facility a few moments ago."</p> - -<p>Sollenar's fists clenched. The lights crashed off and on, and the room -wailed. From the terrace came a startled cry, and a sound of smashed -glass.</p> - -<p>Mr. Ermine nodded, excused himself and left.</p> - -<p>—A few moments later, Mr. Ermine stepped out at the pedestrian level -of the Sollenar Building. He strolled through the landscaped garden, -and across the frothing brook toward the central walkway down the -Avenue. He paused at a hedge to pluck a blossom and inhale its odor. He -walked away, holding it in his naked fingers.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3">II</p> - -<p>Drifting slowly on the thread of his spinneret, Rufus Sollenar came -gliding down the wind above Cortwright Burr's building.</p> - -<p>The building, like a spider, touched the ground at only the points of -its legs. It held its wide, low bulk spread like a parasol over several -downtown blocks. Sollenar, manipulating the helium-filled plastic -drifter far above him, steered himself with jets of compressed gas from -plastic bottles in the drifter's structure.</p> - -<p>Only Sollenar himself, in all this system, was not effectively -transparent to the municipal anti-plane radar. And he himself was -wrapped in long, fluttering streamers of dull black, metallic sheeting. -To the eye, he was amorphous and non-reflective. To electronic sensors, -he was a drift of static much like a sheet of foil picked by the wind -from some careless trash heap. To all of the senses of all interested -parties he was hardly there at all—and, thus, in an excellent position -for murder.</p> - -<p>He fluttered against Burr's window. There was the man, crouched over -his desk. What was that in his hands—a pomander?</p> - -<p>Sollenar clipped his harness to the edges of the cornice. Swayed out -against it, his sponge-soled boots pressed to the glass, he touched his -left hand to the window and described a circle. He pushed; there was a -thud on the carpeting in Burr's office, and now there was no barrier to -Sollenar. Doubling his knees against his chest, he catapulted forward, -the riot pistol in his right hand. He stumbled and fell to his knees, -but the gun was up.</p> - -<p>Burr jolted up behind his desk. The little sphere of orange-gold metal, -streaked with darker bronze, its surface vermicular with encrustations, -was still in his hands. "Him!" Burr cried out as Sollenar fired.</p> - -<p>Gasping, Sollenar watched the charge strike Burr. It threw his torso -backward faster than his limbs and head could follow without dangling. -The choked-down pistol was nearly silent. Burr crashed backward to end, -transfixed, against the wall.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Pale and sick, Sollenar moved to take the golden ball. He wondered -where Shakespeare could have seen an example such as this, to know an -old man could have so much blood in him.</p> - -<p>Burr held the prize out to him. Staring with eyes distended by -hydrostatic pressure, his clothing raddled and his torso grinding -its broken bones, Burr stalked away from the wall and moved as if to -embrace Sollenar. It was queer, but he was not dead.</p> - -<p>Shuddering, Sollenar fired again.</p> - -<p>Again Burr was thrown back. The ball spun from his splayed fingers as -he once more marked the wall with his body.</p> - -<p>Pomander, orange, whatever—it looked valuable.</p> - -<p>Sollenar ran after the rolling ball. And Burr moved to intercept him, -nearly faceless, hunched under a great invisible weight that slowly -yielded as his back groaned.</p> - -<p>Sollenar took a single backward step.</p> - -<p>Burr took a step toward him. The golden ball lay in a far corner. -Sollenar raised the pistol despairingly and fired again. Burr tripped -backward on tiptoe, his arms like windmills, and fell atop the prize.</p> - -<p>Tears ran down Sollenar's cheeks. He pushed one foot forward ... and -Burr, in his corner, lifted his head and began to gather his body for -the effort of rising.</p> - -<p>Sollenar retreated to the window, the pistol sledging backward against -his wrist and elbow as he fired the remaining shots in the magazine.</p> - -<p>Panting, he climbed up into the window frame and clipped the harness -to his body, craning to look over his shoulder ... as Burr—shredded; -leaking blood and worse than blood—advanced across the office.</p> - -<p>He cast off his holds on the window frame and clumsily worked the -drifter controls. Far above him, volatile ballast spilled out and -dispersed in the air long before it touched ground. Sollenar rose, -sobbing—</p> - -<p>And Burr stood in the window, his shattered hands on the edges of the -cut circle, raising his distended eyes steadily to watch Sollenar in -flight across the enigmatic sky.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Where he landed, on the roof of a building in his possession, Sollenar -had a disposal unit for his gun and his other trappings. He deferred -for a time the question of why Burr had failed at once to die. -Empty-handed, he returned uptown.</p> - -<p>He entered his office, called and told his attorneys the exact times of -departure and return and knew the question of dealing with municipal -authorities was thereby resolved. That was simple enough, with no -witnesses to complicate the matter. He began to wish he hadn't been so -irresolute as to leave Burr without the thing he was after. Surely, -if the pistol hadn't killed the man—an old man, with thin limbs and -spotted skin—he could have wrestled that thin-limbed, bloody old man -aside—that spotted old man—and dragged himself and his prize back -to the window, for all that the old man would have clung to him, and -clutched at his legs, and fumbled for a handhold on his somber disguise -of wrappings—that broken, immortal old man.</p> - -<p>Sollenar raised his hand. The great window to the city grew opaque.</p> - -<p>Bess Allardyce knocked softly on the door from the terrace. He would -have thought she'd returned to her own apartments many hours ago. -Tortuously pleased, he opened the door and smiled at her, feeling the -dried tears crack on the skin of his cheeks.</p> - -<p>He took her proffered hands. "You waited for me," he sighed. "A long -time for anyone as beautiful as you to wait."</p> - -<p>She smiled back at him. "Let's go out and look at the stars."</p> - -<p>"Isn't it chilly?"</p> - -<p>"I made spiced hot cider for us. We can sip it and think."</p> - -<p>He let her draw him out onto the terrace. He leaned on the parapet, -his arm around her pulsing waist, his cape drawn around both their -shoulders.</p> - -<p>"Bess, I won't ask if you'd stay with me no matter what the -circumstances. But it might be a time will come when I couldn't bear to -live in this city. What about that?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know," she answered honestly.</p> - -<p>And Cortwright Burr put his hand up over the edge of the parapet, -between them.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Sollenar stared down at the straining knuckles, holding the entire -weight of the man dangling against the sheer face of the building. -There was a sliding, rustling noise, and the other hand came up, -searched blindly for a hold and found it, hooked over the stone. The -fingers tensed and rose, their tips flattening at the pressure as Burr -tried to pull his head and shoulders up to the level of the parapet.</p> - -<p>Bess breathed: "Oh, look at them! He must have torn them terribly -climbing up!" Then she pulled away from Sollenar and stood staring at -him, her hand to her mouth. "But he <i>couldn't</i> have climbed! We're so -high!"</p> - -<p>Sollenar beat at the hands with the heels of his palms, using the -direct, trained blows he had learned at his athletic club.</p> - -<p>Bone splintered against the stone. When the knuckles were broken -the hands instantaneously disappeared, leaving only streaks behind -them. Sollenar looked over the parapet. A bundle shrank from sight, -silhouetted against the lights of the pedestrian level and the Avenue. -It contracted to a pinpoint. Then, when it reached the brook and water -flew in all directions, it disappeared in a final sunburst, endowed -with glory by the many lights which found momentary reflection down -there.</p> - -<p>"Bess, leave me! Leave me, please!" Rufus Sollenar cried out.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3">III</p> - -<p>Rufus Sollenar paced his office, his hands held safely still in front -of him, their fingers spread and rigid.</p> - -<p>The telephone sounded, and his secretary said to him: "Mr. Sollenar, -you are ten minutes from being late at the TTV Executives' Ball. This -is a First Class obligation."</p> - -<p>Sollenar laughed. "I thought it was, when I originally classified it."</p> - -<p>"Are you now planning to renege, Mr. Sollenar?" the secretary inquired -politely.</p> - -<p>Certainly, Sollenar thought. He could as easily renege on the Ball as -a king could on his coronation.</p> - -<p>"Burr, you scum, what have you done to me?" he asked the air, and the -telephone said: "Beg pardon?"</p> - -<p>"Tell my valet," Sollenar said. "I'm going." He dismissed the phone. -His hands cupped in front of his chest. A firm grip on emptiness might -be stronger than any prize in a broken hand.</p> - -<p>Carrying in his chest something he refused to admit was terror, -Sollenar made ready for the Ball.</p> - -<p>But only a few moments after the first dance set had ended, Malcolm -Levier of the local TTV station executive staff looked over Sollenar's -shoulder and remarked:</p> - -<p>"Oh, there's Cort Burr, dressed like a gallows bird."</p> - -<p>Sollenar, glittering in the costume of the Medici, did not turn his -head. "Is he? What would he want here?"</p> - -<p>Levier's eyebrows arched. "He holds a little stock. He has entree. But -he's late." Levier's lips quirked. "It must have taken him some time to -get that makeup on."</p> - -<p>"Not in good taste, is it?"</p> - -<p>"Look for yourself."</p> - -<p>"Oh, I'll do better than that," Sollenar said. "I'll go and talk to him -a while. Excuse me, Levier." And only then did he turn around, already -started on his first pace toward the man.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>But Cortwright Burr was only a pasteboard imitation of himself as -Sollenar had come to know him. He stood to one side of the doorway, -dressed in black and crimson robes, with black leather gauntlets on -his hands, carrying a staff of weathered, natural wood. His face was -shadowed by a sackcloth hood, the eyes well hidden. His face was -powdered gray, and some blend of livid colors hollowed his cheeks. He -stood motionless as Sollenar came up to him.</p> - -<p>As he had crossed the floor, each step regular, the eyes of bystanders -had followed Sollenar, until, anticipating his course, they found Burr -waiting. The noise level of the Ball shrank perceptibly, for the lesser -revelers who chanced to be present were sustaining it all alone. The -people who really mattered here were silent and watchful.</p> - -<p>The thought was that Burr, defeated in business, had come here in some -insane reproach to his adversary, in this lugubrious, distasteful -clothing. Why, he looked like a corpse. Or worse.</p> - -<p>The question was, what would Sollenar say to him? The wish was that -Burr would take himself away, back to his estates or to some other -city. New York was no longer for Cortwright Burr. But what would -Sollenar say to him now, to drive him back to where he hadn't the -grace to go willingly?</p> - -<p>"Cortwright," Sollenar said in a voice confined to the two of them. "So -your Martian immortality works."</p> - -<p>Burr said nothing.</p> - -<p>"You got that in addition, didn't you? You knew how I'd react. You -knew you'd need protection. Paid the Martians to make you physically -invulnerable? It's a good system. Very impressive. Who would have -thought the Martians knew so much? But who here is going to pay -attention to you now? Get out of town, Cortwright. You're past your -chance. You're dead as far as these people are concerned—all you have -left is your skin."</p> - -<p>Burr reached up and surreptitiously lifted a corner of his fleshed -mask. And there he was, under it. The hood retreated an inch, and the -light reached his eyes; and Sollenar had been wrong, Burr had less left -than he thought.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Oh, no, no, Cortwright," Sollenar said softly. "No, you're right—I -can't stand up to that."</p> - -<p>He turned and bowed to the assembled company. "Good night!" he cried, -and walked out of the ballroom.</p> - -<p>Someone followed him down the corridor to the elevators. Sollenar did -not look behind him.</p> - -<p>"I have another appointment with you now," Ermine said at his elbow.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They reached the pedestrian level. Sollenar said: "There's a cafe. We -can talk there."</p> - -<p>"Too public, Mr. Sollenar. Let's simply stroll and converse." Ermine -lightly took his arm and guided him along the walkway. Sollenar noticed -then that Ermine was costumed so cunningly that no one could have -guessed the appearance of the man.</p> - -<p>"Very well," Sollenar said.</p> - -<p>"Of course."</p> - -<p>They walked together, casually. Ermine said: "Burr's driving you to -your death. Is it because you tried to kill him earlier? Did you get -his Martian secret?"</p> - -<p>Sollenar shook his head.</p> - -<p>"You didn't get it." Ermine sighed. "That's unfortunate. I'll have to -take steps."</p> - -<p>"Under the By-Laws," Sollenar said, "I cry <i>laissez faire</i>."</p> - -<p>Ermine looked up, his eyes twinkling. "<i>Laissez faire?</i> Mr. Sollenar, -do you have any idea how many of our members are involved in your -fortunes? <i>They</i> will cry <i>laissez faire</i>, Mr. Sollenar, but clearly -you persist in dragging them down with you. No, sir, Mr. Sollenar, -my office now forwards an immediate recommendation to the Technical -Advisory Committee of the IAB that Mr. Burr probably has a system -superior to yours, and that stock in Sollenar, Incorporated, had best -be disposed of."</p> - -<p>"There's a bench," Sollenar said. "Let's sit down."</p> - -<p>"As you wish." Ermine moved beside Sollenar to the bench, but remained -standing.</p> - -<p>"What is it, Mr. Sollenar?"</p> - -<p>"I want your help. You advised me on what Burr had. It's still in his -office building, somewhere. You have resources. We can get it."</p> - -<p>"<i>Laissez faire</i>, Mr. Sollenar. I visited you in an advisory capacity. -I can do no more."</p> - -<p>"For a partnership in my affairs could you do more?"</p> - -<p>"Money?" Ermine tittered. "For me? Do you know the conditions of my -employment?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>If he had thought, Sollenar would have remembered. He reached out -tentatively. Ermine anticipated him.</p> - -<p>Ermine bared his left arm and sank his teeth into it. He displayed -the arm. There was no quiver of pain in voice or stance. "It's not a -legend, Mr. Sollenar. It's quite true. We of our office must spend a -year, after the nerve surgery, learning to walk without the feel of our -feet, to handle objects without crushing them or letting them slip, or -damaging ourselves. Our mundane pleasures are auditory, olfactory, and -visual. Easily gratified at little expense. Our dreams are totally -interior, Mr. Sollenar. The operation is irreversible. What would you -buy for me with your money?"</p> - -<p>"What would I buy for myself?" Sollenar's head sank down between his -shoulders.</p> - -<p>Ermine bent over him. "Your despair is your own, Mr. Sollenar. I have -official business with you."</p> - -<p>He lifted Sollenar's chin with a forefinger. "I judge physical -interference to be unwarranted at this time. But matters must remain -so that the IAB members involved with you can recover the value of -their investments in EV. Is that perfectly clear, Mr. Sollenar? You are -hereby enjoined under the By-Laws, as enforced by the Special Public -Relations Office." He glanced at his watch. "Notice was served at 1:27 -AM, City time."</p> - -<p>"1:27," Sollenar said. "City time." He sprang to his feet and raced -down a companionway to the taxi level.</p> - -<p>Mr. Ermine watched him quizzically.</p> - -<p>He opened his costume, took out his omnipresent medical kit, and -sprayed coagulant over the wound in his forearm. Replacing the kit, he -adjusted his clothing and strolled down the same companionway Sollenar -had run. He raised an arm, and a taxi flittered down beside him. He -showed the driver a card, and the cab lifted off with him, its lights -glaring in a Priority pattern, far faster than Sollenar's ordinary -legal limit allowed.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3">IV</p> - -<p>Long Island Facility vaulted at the stars in great kangaroo-leaps of -arch and cantilever span, jeweled in glass and metal as if the entire -port were a mechanism for navigating interplanetary space. Rufus -Sollenar paced its esplanades, measuring his steps, holding his arms -still, for the short time until he could board the Mars rocket.</p> - -<p>Erect and majestic, he took a place in the lounge and carefully sipped -liqueur, once the liner had boosted away from Earth and coupled in its -Faraday main drives.</p> - -<p>Mr. Ermine settled into the place beside him.</p> - -<p>Sollenar looked over at him calmly. "I thought so."</p> - -<p>Ermine nodded. "Of course you did. But I didn't almost miss you. I -was here ahead of you. I have no objection to your going to Mars, Mr. -Sollenar. <i>Laissez faire.</i> Provided I can go along."</p> - -<p>"Well," Rufus Sollenar said. "Liqueur?" He gestured with his glass.</p> - -<p>Ermine shook his head. "No, thank you," he said delicately.</p> - -<p>Sollenar said: "Even your tongue?"</p> - -<p>"Of course my tongue, Mr. Sollenar. I taste nothing. I touch nothing." -Ermine smiled. "But I feel no pressure."</p> - -<p>"All right, then," Rufus Sollenar said crisply. "We have several hours -to landing time. You sit and dream your interior dreams, and I'll dream -mine." He faced around in his chair and folded his arms across his -chest.</p> - -<p>"Mr. Sollenar," Ermine said gently.</p> - -<p>"Yes?"</p> - -<p>"I am once again with you by appointment as provided under the By-Laws."</p> - -<p>"State your business, Mr. Ermine."</p> - -<p>"You are not permitted to lie in an unknown grave, Mr. Sollenar. -Insurance policies on your life have been taken out at a high premium -rate. The IAB members concerned cannot wait the statutory seven years -to have you declared dead. Do what you will, Mr. Sollenar, but I must -take care I witness your death. From now on, I am with you wherever you -go."</p> - -<p>Sollenar smiled. "I don't intend to die. Why should I die, Mr. Ermine?"</p> - -<p>"I have no idea, Mr. Sollenar. But I know Cortwright Burr's character. -And isn't that he, seated there in the corner? The light is poor, but -I think he's recognizable."</p> - -<p>Across the lounge, Burr raised his head and looked into Sollenar's -eyes. He raised a hand near his face, perhaps merely to signify -greeting. Rufus Sollenar faced front.</p> - -<p>"A worthy opponent, Mr. Sollenar," Ermine said. "A persevering, -unforgiving, ingenious man. And yet—" Ermine seemed a little touched -by bafflement. "And yet it seems to me, Mr. Sollenar, that he got you -running rather easily. What <i>did</i> happen between you, after my advisory -call?"</p> - -<p>Sollenar turned a terrible smile on Ermine. "I shot him to pieces. If -you'd peel his face, you'd see."</p> - -<p>Ermine sighed. "Up to this moment, I had thought perhaps you might -still salvage your affairs."</p> - -<p>"Pity, Mr. Ermine? Pity for the insane?"</p> - -<p>"Interest. I can take no part in your world. Be grateful, Mr. Sollenar. -I am not the same gullible man I was when I signed my contract with -IAB, so many years ago."</p> - -<p>Sollenar laughed. Then he stole a glance at Burr's corner.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The ship came down at Abernathy Field, in Aresia, the Terrestrial -city. Industrialized, prefabricated, jerry-built and clamorous, the -storm-proofed buildings huddled, but huddled proudly, at the desert's -edge.</p> - -<p>Low on the horizon was the Martian settlement—the buildings so -skillfully blended with the landscape, so eroded, so much abandoned -that the uninformed eye saw nothing. Sollenar had been to Mars—on -a tour. He had seen the natives in their nameless dwelling place; -arrogant, venomous and weak. He had been told, by the paid guide, they -trafficked with Earthmen as much as they cared to, and kept to their -place on the rim of Earth's encroachment, observing.</p> - -<p>"Tell me, Ermine," Sollenar said quietly as they walked across the -terminal lobby. "You're to kill me, aren't you, if I try to go on -without you?"</p> - -<p>"A matter of procedure, Mr. Sollenar," Ermine said evenly. "We cannot -risk the investment capital of so many IAB members."</p> - -<p>Sollenar sighed. "If I were any other member, how I would commend you, -Mr. Ermine! Can we hire a car for ourselves, then, somewhere nearby?"</p> - -<p>"Going out to see the engineers?" Ermine asked. "Who would have thought -they'd have something valuable for sale?"</p> - -<p>"I want to show them something," Sollenar said.</p> - -<p>"What thing, Mr. Sollenar?"</p> - -<p>They turned the corner of a corridor, with branching hallways here and -there, not all of them busy. "Come here," Sollenar said, nodding toward -one of them.</p> - -<p>They stopped out of sight of the lobby and the main corridor. "Come -on," Sollenar said. "A little further."</p> - -<p>"No," Ermine said. "This is farther than I really wish. It's dark here."</p> - -<p>"Wise too late, Mr. Ermine," Sollenar said, his arms flashing out.</p> - -<p>One palm impacted against Ermine's solar plexus, and the other against -the muscle at the side of his neck, but not hard enough to kill. Ermine -collapsed, starved for oxygen, while Sollenar silently cursed having -been cured of murder. Then Sollenar turned and ran.</p> - -<p>Behind him Ermine's body struggled to draw breath by reflex alone.</p> - -<p>Moving as fast as he dared, Sollenar walked back and reached the taxi -lock, pulling a respirator from a wall rack as he went. He flagged a -car and gave his destination, looking behind him. He had seen nothing -of Cortwright Burr since setting foot on Mars. But he knew that soon or -late, Burr would find him.</p> - -<p>A few moments later Ermine got to his feet. Sollenar's car was well -away. Ermine shrugged and went to the local broadcasting station.</p> - -<p>He commandeered a private desk, a firearm and immediate time on the IAB -interoffice circuit to Earth. When his call acknowledgement had come -back to him from his office there, he reported:</p> - -<p>"Sollenar is enroute to the Martian city. He wants a duplicate of -Burr's device, of course, since he smashed the original when he killed -Burr. I'll follow and make final disposition. The disorientation I -reported previously is progressing rapidly. Almost all his responses -now are inappropriate. On the flight out, he seemed to be staring at -something in an empty seat. Quite often when spoken to he obviously -hears something else entirely. I expect to catch one of the next few -flights back."</p> - -<p>There was no point in waiting for comment to wend its way back from -Earth. Ermine left. He went to a cab rank and paid the exorbitant fee -for transportation outside Aresian city limits.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Close at hand, the Martian city was like a welter of broken pots. -Shards of wall and roof joined at savage angles and pointed to -nothing. Underfoot, drifts of vitreous material, shaped to fit no sane -configuration, and broken to fit such a mosaic as no church would -contain, rocked and slid under Sollenar's hurrying feet.</p> - -<p>What from Aresia had been a solid front of dun color was here a facade -of red, green and blue splashed about centuries ago and since then -weathered only enough to show how bitter the colors had once been. The -plum-colored sky stretched over all this like a frigid membrane, and -the wind blew and blew.</p> - -<p>Here and there, as he progressed, Sollenar saw Martian arms and heads -protruding from the rubble. Sculptures.</p> - -<p>He was moving toward the heart of the city, where some few unbroken -structures persisted. At the top of a heap of shards he turned to look -behind him. There was the dust-plume of his cab, returning to the -city. He expected to walk back—perhaps to meet someone on the road, -all alone on the Martian plain if only Ermine would forebear from -interfering. Searching the flat, thin-aired landscape, he tried to pick -out the plodding dot of Cortwright Burr. But not yet.</p> - -<p>He turned and ran down the untrustworthy slope.</p> - -<p>He reached the edge of the maintained area. Here the rubble was gone, -the ancient walks swept, the statues kept upright on their pediments. -But only broken walls suggested the fronts of the houses that had stood -here. Knifing their sides up through the wind-rippled sand that only -constant care kept off the street, the shadow-houses fenced his way -and the sculptures were motionless as hope. Ahead of him, he saw the -buildings of the engineers. There was no heap to climb and look to see -if Ermine followed close behind.</p> - -<p>Sucking his respirator, he reached the building of the Martian -engineers.</p> - -<p>A sounding strip ran down the doorjamb. He scratched his fingernails -sharply along it, and the magnified vibration, ducted throughout the -hollow walls, rattled his plea for entrance.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3">V</p> - -<p>The door opened, and Martians stood looking. They were spindly-limbed -and slight, their faces framed by folds of leathery tissue. Their -mouths were lipped with horn as hard as dentures, and pursed, forever -ready to masticate. They were pleasant neither to look at nor, Sollenar -knew, to deal with. But Cortwright Burr had done it. And Sollenar -needed to do it.</p> - -<p>"Does anyone here speak English?" he asked.</p> - -<p>"I," said the central Martian, his mouth opening to the sound, closing -to end the reply.</p> - -<p>"I would like to deal with you."</p> - -<p>"Whenever," the Martian said, and the group at the doorway parted -deliberately to let Sollenar in.</p> - -<p>Before the door closed behind him, Sollenar looked back. But the rubble -of the abandoned sectors blocked his line of sight into the desert.</p> - -<p>"What can you offer? And what do you want?" the Martian asked. Sollenar -stood half-ringed by them, in a room whose corners he could not see in -the uncertain light.</p> - -<p>"I offer you Terrestrial currency."</p> - -<p>The English-speaking Martian—the Martian who had admitted to speaking -English—turned his head slightly and spoke to his fellows. There were -clacking sounds as his lips met. The others reacted variously, one of -them suddenly gesturing with what seemed a disgusted flip of his arm -before he turned without further word and stalked away, his shoulders -looking like the shawled back of a very old and very hungry woman.</p> - -<p>"What did Burr give you?" Sollenar asked.</p> - -<p>"Burr." The Martian cocked his head. His eyes were not multi-faceted, -but gave that impression.</p> - -<p>"He was here and he dealt with you. Not long ago. On what basis?"</p> - -<p>"Burr. Yes. Burr gave us currency. We will take currency from you. For -the same thing we gave him?"</p> - -<p>"For immortality, yes."</p> - -<p>"Im—This is a new word."</p> - -<p>"Is it? For the secret of not dying?"</p> - -<p>"Not dying? You think we have not-dying for sale here?" The Martian -spoke to the others again. Their lips clattered. Others left, like the -first one had, moving with great precision and very slow step, and no -remaining tolerance for Sollenar.</p> - -<p>Sollenar cried out: "What did you sell him, then?"</p> - -<p>The principal engineer said: "We made an entertainment device for him."</p> - -<p>"A little thing. This size." Sollenar cupped his hands.</p> - -<p>"You have seen it, then."</p> - -<p>"Yes. And nothing more? That was all he bought here?"</p> - -<p>"It was all we had to sell—or give. We don't yet know whether Earthmen -will give us things in exchange for currency. We'll see, when we next -need something from Aresia."</p> - -<p>Sollenar demanded: "How did it work? This thing you sold him."</p> - -<p>"Oh, it lets people tell stories to themselves."</p> - -<p>Sollenar looked closely at the Martian. "What kind of stories?"</p> - -<p>"Any kind," the Martian said blandly. "Burr told us what he wanted. He -had drawings with him of an Earthman device that used pictures on a -screen, and broadcast sounds, to carry the details of the story told to -the auditor."</p> - -<p>"He stole those patents! He couldn't have used them on Earth."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"And why should he? Our device needs to convey no precise details. Any -mind can make its own. It only needs to be put into a situation, and -from there it can do all the work. If an auditor wishes a story of -contact with other sexes, for example, the projector simply makes it -seem to him, the next time he is with the object of his desire, that he -is getting positive feedback—that he is arousing a similar response -in that object. Once that has been established for him, the auditor -may then leave the machine, move about normally, conduct his life as -usual—but always in accordance with the basic situation. It is, you -see, in the end a means of introducing system into his view of reality. -Of course, his society must understand that he is not in accord with -reality, for some of what he does cannot seem rational from an outside -view of him. So some care must be taken, but not much. If many such -devices were to enter his society, soon the circumstances would become -commonplace, and the society would surely readjust to allow for it," -said the English-speaking Martian.</p> - -<p>"The machine creates any desired situation in the auditor's mind?"</p> - -<p>"Certainly. There are simple predisposing tapes that can be inserted as -desired. Love, adventure, cerebration—it makes no difference."</p> - -<p>Several of the bystanders clacked sounds out to each other. Sollenar -looked at them narrowly. It was obvious there had to be more than one -English-speaker among these people.</p> - -<p>"And the device you gave Burr," he asked the engineer, neither -calmly nor hopefully. "What sort of stories could its auditors tell -themselves?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Martian cocked his head again. It gave him the look of an owl at -a bedroom window. "Oh, there was one situation we were particularly -instructed to include. Burr said he was thinking ahead to showing it to -an acquaintance of his.</p> - -<p>"It was a situation of adventure; of adventure with the fearful. And -it was to end in loss and bitterness." The Martian looked even more -closely at Sollenar. "Of course, the device does not specify details. -No one but the auditor can know what fearful thing inhabits his story, -or precisely how the end of it would come. You would, I believe, be -Rufus Sollenar? Burr spoke of you and made the noise of laughing."</p> - -<p>Sollenar opened his mouth. But there was nothing to say.</p> - -<p>"You want such a device?" the Martian asked. "We've prepared several -since Burr left. He spoke of machines that would manufacture them in -astronomical numbers. We, of course, have done our best with our poor -hands."</p> - -<p>Sollenar said: "I would like to look out your door."</p> - -<p>"Pleasure."</p> - -<p>Sollenar opened the door slightly. Mr. Ermine stood in the cleared -street, motionless as the shadow buildings behind him. He raised one -hand in a gesture of unfelt greeting as he saw Sollenar, then put it -back on the stock of his rifle. Sollenar closed the door, and turned to -the Martian. "How much currency do you want?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, all you have with you. You people always have a good deal with you -when you travel."</p> - -<p>Sollenar plunged his hands into his pockets and pulled out his -billfold, his change, his keys, his jeweled radio; whatever was there, -he rummaged out onto the floor, listening to the sound of rolling coins.</p> - -<p>"I wish I had more here," he laughed. "I wish I had the amount that man -out there is going to recover when he shoots me."</p> - -<p>The Martian engineer cocked his head. "But your dream is over, Mr. -Sollenar," he clacked drily. "Isn't it?"</p> - -<p>"Quite so. But you to your purposes and I to mine. Now give me one of -those projectors. And set it to predispose a situation I am about to -specify to you. Take however long it needs. The audience is a patient -one." He laughed, and tears gathered in his eyes.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Mr. Ermine waited, isolated from the cold, listening to hear whether -the rifle stock was slipping out of his fingers. He had no desire to -go into the Martian building after Sollenar and involve third parties. -All he wanted was to put Sollenar's body under a dated marker, with as -little trouble as possible.</p> - -<p>Now and then he walked a few paces backward and forward, to keep -from losing muscular control at his extremities because of low skin -temperature. Sollenar must come out soon enough. He had no food supply -with him, and though Ermine did not like the risk of engaging a man -like Sollenar in a starvation contest, there was no doubt that a man -with no taste for fuel could outlast one with the acquired reflexes of -eating.</p> - -<p>The door opened and Sollenar came out.</p> - -<p>He was carrying something. Perhaps a weapon. Ermine let him come -closer while he raised and carefully sighted his rifle. Sollenar might -have some Martian weapon or he might not. Ermine did not particularly -care. If Ermine died, he would hardly notice it—far less than he would -notice a botched ending to a job of work already roiled by Sollenar's -break away at the space field. If Ermine died, some other SPRO agent -would be assigned almost immediately. No matter what happened, SPRO -would stop Sollenar before he ever reached Abernathy Field.</p> - -<p>So there was plenty of time to aim an unhurried, clean shot.</p> - -<p>Sollenar was closer, now. He seemed to be in a very agitated frame of -mind. He held out whatever he had in his hand.</p> - -<p>It was another one of the Martian entertainment machines. Sollenar -seemed to be offering it as a token to Ermine. Ermine smiled.</p> - -<p>"What can you offer me, Mr. Sollenar?" he said, and shot.</p> - -<p>The golden ball rolled away over the sand. "There, now," Ermine said. -"<i>Now</i>, wouldn't you sooner be me than you? And where is the thing that -made the difference between us?"</p> - -<p>He shivered. He was chilly. Sand was blowing against his tender face, -which had been somewhat abraded during his long wait.</p> - -<p>He stopped, transfixed.</p> - -<p>He lifted his head.</p> - -<p>Then, with a great swing of his arms, he sent the rifle whirling -away. "The wind!" he sighed into the thin air. "I feel the wind." He -leapt into the air, and sand flew away from his feet as he landed. He -whispered to himself: "I feel the ground!"</p> - -<p>He stared in tremblant joy at Sollenar's empty body. "What have you -given me?" Full of his own rebirth, he swung his head up at the sky -again, and cried in the direction of the Sun: "Oh, you squeezing, -nibbling people who made me incorruptible and thought that was the end -of me!"</p> - -<p>With love he buried Sollenar, and with reverence he put up the marker, -but he had plans for what he might accomplish with the facts of this -transaction, and the myriad others he was privy to.</p> - -<p>A sharp bit of pottery had penetrated the sole of his shoe and gashed -his foot, but he, not having seen it, hadn't felt it. Nor would he -see it or feel it even when he changed his stockings; for he had not -noticed the wound when it was made. It didn't matter. In a few days it -would heal, though not as rapidly as if it had been properly attended -to.</p> - -<p>Vaguely, he heard the sound of Martians clacking behind their closed -door as he hurried out of the city, full of revenge, and reverence for -his savior.</p> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night, by Algis Budrys - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WALL OF CRYSTAL, EYE OF NIGHT *** - -***** This file should be named 51726-h.htm or 51726-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/7/2/51726/ - -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 print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night - -Author: Algis Budrys - -Release Date: April 10, 2016 [EBook #51726] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WALL OF CRYSTAL, EYE OF NIGHT *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - WALL OF CRYSTAL, EYE OF NIGHT - - By ALGIS BUDRYS - - Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Magazine December 1961. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - He was a vendor of dreams, purveying worlds - beyond imagination to others. Yet his doom was this: - He could not see what he must learn of his own! - - -Soft as the voice of a mourning dove, the telephone sounded at Rufus -Sollenar's desk. Sollenar himself was standing fifty paces away, his -leonine head cocked, his hands flat in his hip pockets, watching the -nighted world through the crystal wall that faced out over Manhattan -Island. The window was so high that some of what he saw was dimmed by -low clouds hovering over the rivers. Above him were stars; below him -the city was traced out in light and brimming with light. A falling -star--an interplanetary rocket--streaked down toward Long Island -Facility like a scratch across the soot on the doors of Hell. - -Sollenar's eyes took it in, but he was watching the total scene, not -any particular part of it. His eyes were shining. - -When he heard the telephone, he raised his left hand to his lips. -"Yes?" The hand glittered with utilijem rings; the effect was that -of an attempt at the sort of copper-binding that was once used to -reinforce the ribbing of wooden warships. - -His personal receptionist's voice moved from the air near his desk -to the air near his ear. Seated at the monitor board in her office, -wherever in this building her office was, the receptionist told him: - -"Mr. Ermine says he has an appointment." - -"No." Sollenar dropped his hand and returned to his panorama. When he -had been twenty years younger--managing the modest optical factory that -had provided the support of three generations of Sollenars--he had very -much wanted to be able to stand in a place like this, and feel as he -imagined men felt in such circumstances. But he felt unimaginable, now. - -To be here was one thing. To have almost lost the right, and regained -it at the last moment, was another. Now he knew that not only could he -be here today but that tomorrow, and tomorrow, he could still be here. -He had won. His gamble had given him EmpaVid--and EmpaVid would give -him all. - -The city was not merely a prize set down before his eyes. It was a -dynamic system he had proved he could manipulate. He and the city were -one. It buoyed and sustained him; it supported him, here in the air, -with stars above and light-thickened mist below. - -The telephone mourned: "Mr. Ermine states he has a firm appointment." - -"I've never heard of him." And the left hand's utilijems fell from -Sollenar's lips again. He enjoyed such toys. He raised his right hand, -sheathed in insubstantial midnight-blue silk in which the silver -threads of metallic wiring ran subtly toward the fingertips. He raised -the hand, and touched two fingers together: music began to play behind -and before him. He made contact between another combination of finger -circuits, and a soft, feminine laugh came from the terrace at the other -side of the room, where connecting doors had opened. He moved toward -it. One layer of translucent drapery remained across the doorway, -billowing lightly in the breeze from the terrace. Through it, he saw -the taboret with its candle lit; the iced wine in the stand beside it; -the two fragile chairs; Bess Allardyce, slender and regal, waiting in -one of them--all these, through the misty curtain, like either the -beginning or the end of a dream. - -"Mr. Ermine reminds you the appointment was made for him at the Annual -Business Dinner of the International Association of Broadcasters, in -1998." - -Sollenar completed his latest step, then stopped. He frowned down at -his left hand. "Is Mr. Ermine with the IAB's Special Public Relations -Office?" - -"Yes," the voice said after a pause. - -The fingers of Sollenar's right hand shrank into a cone. The -connecting door closed. The girl disappeared. The music stopped. "All -right. You can tell Mr. Ermine to come up." Sollenar went to sit behind -his desk. - - * * * * * - -The office door chimed. Sollenar crooked a finger of his left hand, and -the door opened. With another gesture, he kindled the overhead lights -near the door and sat in shadow as Mr. Ermine came in. - -Ermine was dressed in rust-colored garments. His figure was spare, -and his hands were empty. His face was round and soft, with long dark -sideburns. His scalp was bald. He stood just inside Sollenar's office -and said: "I would like some light to see you by, Mr. Sollenar." - -Sollenar crooked his little finger. - -The overhead lights came to soft light all over the office. The crystal -wall became a mirror, with only the strongest city lights glimmering -through it. "I only wanted to see you first," said Sollenar; "I thought -perhaps we'd met before." - -"No," Ermine said, walking across the office. "It's not likely you've -ever seen me." He took a card case out of his pocket and showed -Sollenar proper identification. "I'm not a very forward person." - -"Please sit down," Sollenar said. "What may I do for you?" - -"At the moment, Mr. Sollenar, I'm doing something for you." - -Sollenar sat back in his chair. "Are you? Are you, now?" He frowned at -Ermine. "When I became a party to the By-Laws passed at the '98 Dinner, -I thought a Special Public Relations Office would make a valuable asset -to the organization. Consequently, I voted for it, and for the powers -it was given. But I never expected to have any personal dealings with -it. I barely remembered you people had carte blanche with any IAB -member." - -"Well, of course, it's been a while since '98," Ermine said. "I imagine -some legends have grown up around us. Industry gossip--that sort of -thing." - -"Yes." - -"But we don't restrict ourselves to an enforcement function, Mr. -Sollenar. You haven't broken any By-Laws, to our knowledge." - -"Or mine. But nobody feels one hundred per cent secure. Not under -these circumstances." Nor did Sollenar yet relax his face into its -magnificent smile. "I'm sure you've found that out." - -"I have a somewhat less ambitious older brother who's with the Federal -Bureau of Investigation. When I embarked on my own career, he told me -I could expect everyone in the world to react like a criminal, yes," -Ermine said, paying no attention to Sollenar's involuntary blink. "It's -one of the complicating factors in a profession like my brother's, or -mine. But I'm here to advise you, Mr. Sollenar. Only that." - -"In what matter, Mr. Ermine?" - -"Well, your corporation recently came into control of the patents -for a new video system. I understand that this in effect makes -your corporation the licensor for an extremely valuable sales and -entertainment medium. Fantastically valuable." - - * * * * * - -"EmpaVid," Sollenar agreed. "Various subliminal stimuli are broadcast -with and keyed to the overt subject matter. The home receiving unit -contains feedback sensors which determine the viewer's reaction to -these stimuli, and intensify some while playing down others in order to -create complete emotional rapport between the viewer and the subject -matter. EmpaVid, in other words, is a system for orchestrating the -viewer's emotions. The home unit is self-contained, semi-portable and -not significantly bulkier than the standard TV receiver. EmpaVid is -compatible with standard TV receivers--except, of course, that the -subject matter seems thin and vaguely unsatisfactory on a standard -receiver. So the consumer shortly purchases an EV unit." It pleased -Sollenar to spell out the nature of his prize. - -"At a very reasonable price. Quite so, Mr. Sollenar. But you had -several difficulties in finding potential licensees for this system, -among the networks." - -Sollenar's lips pinched out. - -Mr. Ermine raised one finger. "First, there was the matter of acquiring -the patents from the original inventor, who was also approached by -Cortwright Burr." - -"Yes, he was," Sollenar said in a completely new voice. - -"Competition between Mr. Burr and yourself is long-standing and -intense." - -"Quite intense," Sollenar said, looking directly ahead of him at the -one blank wall of the office. Burr's offices were several blocks -downtown, in that direction. - -"Well, I have no wish to enlarge on that point, Mr. Burr being an IAB -member in standing as good as yours, Mr. Sollenar. There was, in any -case, a further difficulty in licensing EV, due to the very heavy cost -involved in equipping broadcasting stations and network relay equipment -for this sort of transmission." - -"Yes, there was." - -"Ultimately, however, you succeeded. You pointed out, quite rightly, -that if just one station made the change, and if just a few EV -receivers were put into public places within the area served by that -station, normal TV outlets could not possibly compete for advertising -revenue." - -"Yes." - -"And so your last difficulties were resolved a few days ago, when -your EmpaVid Unlimited--pardon me; when EmpaVid, a subsidiary of the -Sollenar Corporation--became a major stockholder in the Transworld TV -Network." - - * * * * * - -"I don't understand, Mr. Ermine," Sollenar said. "Why are you -recounting this? Are you trying to demonstrate the power of your -knowledge? All these transactions are already matters of record in the -IAB confidential files, in accordance with the By-Laws." - -Ermine held up another finger. "You're forgetting I'm only here to -advise you. I have two things to say. They are: - -"These transactions are on file with the IAB because they involve -a great number of IAB members, and an increasingly large amount of -capital. Also, Transworld's exclusivity, under the IAB By-Laws, will -hold good only until thirty-three per cent market saturation has been -reached. If EV is as good as it looks, that will be quite soon. After -that, under the By-Laws, Transworld will be restrained from making -effective defenses against patent infringement by competitors. Then -all of the IAB's membership and much of their capital will be involved -with EV. Much of that capital is already in anticipatory motion. So a -highly complex structure now ultimately depends on the integrity of the -Sollenar Corporation. If Sollenar stock falls in value, not just you -but many IAB members will be greatly embarrassed. Which is another way -of saying EV must succeed." - -"I know all that! What of it? There's no risk. I've had every related -patent on Earth checked. There will be no catastrophic obsolescence of -the EV system." - -Ermine said: "There are engineers on Mars. Martian engineers. They're a -dying race, but no one knows what they can still do." - -Sollenar raised his massive head. - -Ermine said: "Late this evening, my office learned that Cortwright Burr -has been in close consultation with the Martians for several weeks. -They have made some sort of machine for him. He was on the flight that -landed at the Facility a few moments ago." - -Sollenar's fists clenched. The lights crashed off and on, and the room -wailed. From the terrace came a startled cry, and a sound of smashed -glass. - -Mr. Ermine nodded, excused himself and left. - ---A few moments later, Mr. Ermine stepped out at the pedestrian level -of the Sollenar Building. He strolled through the landscaped garden, -and across the frothing brook toward the central walkway down the -Avenue. He paused at a hedge to pluck a blossom and inhale its odor. He -walked away, holding it in his naked fingers. - - -II - -Drifting slowly on the thread of his spinneret, Rufus Sollenar came -gliding down the wind above Cortwright Burr's building. - -The building, like a spider, touched the ground at only the points of -its legs. It held its wide, low bulk spread like a parasol over several -downtown blocks. Sollenar, manipulating the helium-filled plastic -drifter far above him, steered himself with jets of compressed gas from -plastic bottles in the drifter's structure. - -Only Sollenar himself, in all this system, was not effectively -transparent to the municipal anti-plane radar. And he himself was -wrapped in long, fluttering streamers of dull black, metallic sheeting. -To the eye, he was amorphous and non-reflective. To electronic sensors, -he was a drift of static much like a sheet of foil picked by the wind -from some careless trash heap. To all of the senses of all interested -parties he was hardly there at all--and, thus, in an excellent position -for murder. - -He fluttered against Burr's window. There was the man, crouched over -his desk. What was that in his hands--a pomander? - -Sollenar clipped his harness to the edges of the cornice. Swayed out -against it, his sponge-soled boots pressed to the glass, he touched his -left hand to the window and described a circle. He pushed; there was a -thud on the carpeting in Burr's office, and now there was no barrier to -Sollenar. Doubling his knees against his chest, he catapulted forward, -the riot pistol in his right hand. He stumbled and fell to his knees, -but the gun was up. - -Burr jolted up behind his desk. The little sphere of orange-gold metal, -streaked with darker bronze, its surface vermicular with encrustations, -was still in his hands. "Him!" Burr cried out as Sollenar fired. - -Gasping, Sollenar watched the charge strike Burr. It threw his torso -backward faster than his limbs and head could follow without dangling. -The choked-down pistol was nearly silent. Burr crashed backward to end, -transfixed, against the wall. - - * * * * * - -Pale and sick, Sollenar moved to take the golden ball. He wondered -where Shakespeare could have seen an example such as this, to know an -old man could have so much blood in him. - -Burr held the prize out to him. Staring with eyes distended by -hydrostatic pressure, his clothing raddled and his torso grinding -its broken bones, Burr stalked away from the wall and moved as if to -embrace Sollenar. It was queer, but he was not dead. - -Shuddering, Sollenar fired again. - -Again Burr was thrown back. The ball spun from his splayed fingers as -he once more marked the wall with his body. - -Pomander, orange, whatever--it looked valuable. - -Sollenar ran after the rolling ball. And Burr moved to intercept him, -nearly faceless, hunched under a great invisible weight that slowly -yielded as his back groaned. - -Sollenar took a single backward step. - -Burr took a step toward him. The golden ball lay in a far corner. -Sollenar raised the pistol despairingly and fired again. Burr tripped -backward on tiptoe, his arms like windmills, and fell atop the prize. - -Tears ran down Sollenar's cheeks. He pushed one foot forward ... and -Burr, in his corner, lifted his head and began to gather his body for -the effort of rising. - -Sollenar retreated to the window, the pistol sledging backward against -his wrist and elbow as he fired the remaining shots in the magazine. - -Panting, he climbed up into the window frame and clipped the harness -to his body, craning to look over his shoulder ... as Burr--shredded; -leaking blood and worse than blood--advanced across the office. - -He cast off his holds on the window frame and clumsily worked the -drifter controls. Far above him, volatile ballast spilled out and -dispersed in the air long before it touched ground. Sollenar rose, -sobbing-- - -And Burr stood in the window, his shattered hands on the edges of the -cut circle, raising his distended eyes steadily to watch Sollenar in -flight across the enigmatic sky. - - * * * * * - -Where he landed, on the roof of a building in his possession, Sollenar -had a disposal unit for his gun and his other trappings. He deferred -for a time the question of why Burr had failed at once to die. -Empty-handed, he returned uptown. - -He entered his office, called and told his attorneys the exact times of -departure and return and knew the question of dealing with municipal -authorities was thereby resolved. That was simple enough, with no -witnesses to complicate the matter. He began to wish he hadn't been so -irresolute as to leave Burr without the thing he was after. Surely, -if the pistol hadn't killed the man--an old man, with thin limbs and -spotted skin--he could have wrestled that thin-limbed, bloody old man -aside--that spotted old man--and dragged himself and his prize back -to the window, for all that the old man would have clung to him, and -clutched at his legs, and fumbled for a handhold on his somber disguise -of wrappings--that broken, immortal old man. - -Sollenar raised his hand. The great window to the city grew opaque. - -Bess Allardyce knocked softly on the door from the terrace. He would -have thought she'd returned to her own apartments many hours ago. -Tortuously pleased, he opened the door and smiled at her, feeling the -dried tears crack on the skin of his cheeks. - -He took her proffered hands. "You waited for me," he sighed. "A long -time for anyone as beautiful as you to wait." - -She smiled back at him. "Let's go out and look at the stars." - -"Isn't it chilly?" - -"I made spiced hot cider for us. We can sip it and think." - -He let her draw him out onto the terrace. He leaned on the parapet, -his arm around her pulsing waist, his cape drawn around both their -shoulders. - -"Bess, I won't ask if you'd stay with me no matter what the -circumstances. But it might be a time will come when I couldn't bear to -live in this city. What about that?" - -"I don't know," she answered honestly. - -And Cortwright Burr put his hand up over the edge of the parapet, -between them. - - * * * * * - -Sollenar stared down at the straining knuckles, holding the entire -weight of the man dangling against the sheer face of the building. -There was a sliding, rustling noise, and the other hand came up, -searched blindly for a hold and found it, hooked over the stone. The -fingers tensed and rose, their tips flattening at the pressure as Burr -tried to pull his head and shoulders up to the level of the parapet. - -Bess breathed: "Oh, look at them! He must have torn them terribly -climbing up!" Then she pulled away from Sollenar and stood staring at -him, her hand to her mouth. "But he _couldn't_ have climbed! We're so -high!" - -Sollenar beat at the hands with the heels of his palms, using the -direct, trained blows he had learned at his athletic club. - -Bone splintered against the stone. When the knuckles were broken -the hands instantaneously disappeared, leaving only streaks behind -them. Sollenar looked over the parapet. A bundle shrank from sight, -silhouetted against the lights of the pedestrian level and the Avenue. -It contracted to a pinpoint. Then, when it reached the brook and water -flew in all directions, it disappeared in a final sunburst, endowed -with glory by the many lights which found momentary reflection down -there. - -"Bess, leave me! Leave me, please!" Rufus Sollenar cried out. - - -III - -Rufus Sollenar paced his office, his hands held safely still in front -of him, their fingers spread and rigid. - -The telephone sounded, and his secretary said to him: "Mr. Sollenar, -you are ten minutes from being late at the TTV Executives' Ball. This -is a First Class obligation." - -Sollenar laughed. "I thought it was, when I originally classified it." - -"Are you now planning to renege, Mr. Sollenar?" the secretary inquired -politely. - -Certainly, Sollenar thought. He could as easily renege on the Ball as -a king could on his coronation. - -"Burr, you scum, what have you done to me?" he asked the air, and the -telephone said: "Beg pardon?" - -"Tell my valet," Sollenar said. "I'm going." He dismissed the phone. -His hands cupped in front of his chest. A firm grip on emptiness might -be stronger than any prize in a broken hand. - -Carrying in his chest something he refused to admit was terror, -Sollenar made ready for the Ball. - -But only a few moments after the first dance set had ended, Malcolm -Levier of the local TTV station executive staff looked over Sollenar's -shoulder and remarked: - -"Oh, there's Cort Burr, dressed like a gallows bird." - -Sollenar, glittering in the costume of the Medici, did not turn his -head. "Is he? What would he want here?" - -Levier's eyebrows arched. "He holds a little stock. He has entree. But -he's late." Levier's lips quirked. "It must have taken him some time to -get that makeup on." - -"Not in good taste, is it?" - -"Look for yourself." - -"Oh, I'll do better than that," Sollenar said. "I'll go and talk to him -a while. Excuse me, Levier." And only then did he turn around, already -started on his first pace toward the man. - - * * * * * - -But Cortwright Burr was only a pasteboard imitation of himself as -Sollenar had come to know him. He stood to one side of the doorway, -dressed in black and crimson robes, with black leather gauntlets on -his hands, carrying a staff of weathered, natural wood. His face was -shadowed by a sackcloth hood, the eyes well hidden. His face was -powdered gray, and some blend of livid colors hollowed his cheeks. He -stood motionless as Sollenar came up to him. - -As he had crossed the floor, each step regular, the eyes of bystanders -had followed Sollenar, until, anticipating his course, they found Burr -waiting. The noise level of the Ball shrank perceptibly, for the lesser -revelers who chanced to be present were sustaining it all alone. The -people who really mattered here were silent and watchful. - -The thought was that Burr, defeated in business, had come here in some -insane reproach to his adversary, in this lugubrious, distasteful -clothing. Why, he looked like a corpse. Or worse. - -The question was, what would Sollenar say to him? The wish was that -Burr would take himself away, back to his estates or to some other -city. New York was no longer for Cortwright Burr. But what would -Sollenar say to him now, to drive him back to where he hadn't the -grace to go willingly? - -"Cortwright," Sollenar said in a voice confined to the two of them. "So -your Martian immortality works." - -Burr said nothing. - -"You got that in addition, didn't you? You knew how I'd react. You -knew you'd need protection. Paid the Martians to make you physically -invulnerable? It's a good system. Very impressive. Who would have -thought the Martians knew so much? But who here is going to pay -attention to you now? Get out of town, Cortwright. You're past your -chance. You're dead as far as these people are concerned--all you have -left is your skin." - -Burr reached up and surreptitiously lifted a corner of his fleshed -mask. And there he was, under it. The hood retreated an inch, and the -light reached his eyes; and Sollenar had been wrong, Burr had less left -than he thought. - -"Oh, no, no, Cortwright," Sollenar said softly. "No, you're right--I -can't stand up to that." - -He turned and bowed to the assembled company. "Good night!" he cried, -and walked out of the ballroom. - -Someone followed him down the corridor to the elevators. Sollenar did -not look behind him. - -"I have another appointment with you now," Ermine said at his elbow. - - * * * * * - -They reached the pedestrian level. Sollenar said: "There's a cafe. We -can talk there." - -"Too public, Mr. Sollenar. Let's simply stroll and converse." Ermine -lightly took his arm and guided him along the walkway. Sollenar noticed -then that Ermine was costumed so cunningly that no one could have -guessed the appearance of the man. - -"Very well," Sollenar said. - -"Of course." - -They walked together, casually. Ermine said: "Burr's driving you to -your death. Is it because you tried to kill him earlier? Did you get -his Martian secret?" - -Sollenar shook his head. - -"You didn't get it." Ermine sighed. "That's unfortunate. I'll have to -take steps." - -"Under the By-Laws," Sollenar said, "I cry _laissez faire_." - -Ermine looked up, his eyes twinkling. "_Laissez faire?_ Mr. Sollenar, -do you have any idea how many of our members are involved in your -fortunes? _They_ will cry _laissez faire_, Mr. Sollenar, but clearly -you persist in dragging them down with you. No, sir, Mr. Sollenar, -my office now forwards an immediate recommendation to the Technical -Advisory Committee of the IAB that Mr. Burr probably has a system -superior to yours, and that stock in Sollenar, Incorporated, had best -be disposed of." - -"There's a bench," Sollenar said. "Let's sit down." - -"As you wish." Ermine moved beside Sollenar to the bench, but remained -standing. - -"What is it, Mr. Sollenar?" - -"I want your help. You advised me on what Burr had. It's still in his -office building, somewhere. You have resources. We can get it." - -"_Laissez faire_, Mr. Sollenar. I visited you in an advisory capacity. -I can do no more." - -"For a partnership in my affairs could you do more?" - -"Money?" Ermine tittered. "For me? Do you know the conditions of my -employment?" - - * * * * * - -If he had thought, Sollenar would have remembered. He reached out -tentatively. Ermine anticipated him. - -Ermine bared his left arm and sank his teeth into it. He displayed -the arm. There was no quiver of pain in voice or stance. "It's not a -legend, Mr. Sollenar. It's quite true. We of our office must spend a -year, after the nerve surgery, learning to walk without the feel of our -feet, to handle objects without crushing them or letting them slip, or -damaging ourselves. Our mundane pleasures are auditory, olfactory, and -visual. Easily gratified at little expense. Our dreams are totally -interior, Mr. Sollenar. The operation is irreversible. What would you -buy for me with your money?" - -"What would I buy for myself?" Sollenar's head sank down between his -shoulders. - -Ermine bent over him. "Your despair is your own, Mr. Sollenar. I have -official business with you." - -He lifted Sollenar's chin with a forefinger. "I judge physical -interference to be unwarranted at this time. But matters must remain -so that the IAB members involved with you can recover the value of -their investments in EV. Is that perfectly clear, Mr. Sollenar? You are -hereby enjoined under the By-Laws, as enforced by the Special Public -Relations Office." He glanced at his watch. "Notice was served at 1:27 -AM, City time." - -"1:27," Sollenar said. "City time." He sprang to his feet and raced -down a companionway to the taxi level. - -Mr. Ermine watched him quizzically. - -He opened his costume, took out his omnipresent medical kit, and -sprayed coagulant over the wound in his forearm. Replacing the kit, he -adjusted his clothing and strolled down the same companionway Sollenar -had run. He raised an arm, and a taxi flittered down beside him. He -showed the driver a card, and the cab lifted off with him, its lights -glaring in a Priority pattern, far faster than Sollenar's ordinary -legal limit allowed. - - -IV - -Long Island Facility vaulted at the stars in great kangaroo-leaps of -arch and cantilever span, jeweled in glass and metal as if the entire -port were a mechanism for navigating interplanetary space. Rufus -Sollenar paced its esplanades, measuring his steps, holding his arms -still, for the short time until he could board the Mars rocket. - -Erect and majestic, he took a place in the lounge and carefully sipped -liqueur, once the liner had boosted away from Earth and coupled in its -Faraday main drives. - -Mr. Ermine settled into the place beside him. - -Sollenar looked over at him calmly. "I thought so." - -Ermine nodded. "Of course you did. But I didn't almost miss you. I -was here ahead of you. I have no objection to your going to Mars, Mr. -Sollenar. _Laissez faire._ Provided I can go along." - -"Well," Rufus Sollenar said. "Liqueur?" He gestured with his glass. - -Ermine shook his head. "No, thank you," he said delicately. - -Sollenar said: "Even your tongue?" - -"Of course my tongue, Mr. Sollenar. I taste nothing. I touch nothing." -Ermine smiled. "But I feel no pressure." - -"All right, then," Rufus Sollenar said crisply. "We have several hours -to landing time. You sit and dream your interior dreams, and I'll dream -mine." He faced around in his chair and folded his arms across his -chest. - -"Mr. Sollenar," Ermine said gently. - -"Yes?" - -"I am once again with you by appointment as provided under the By-Laws." - -"State your business, Mr. Ermine." - -"You are not permitted to lie in an unknown grave, Mr. Sollenar. -Insurance policies on your life have been taken out at a high premium -rate. The IAB members concerned cannot wait the statutory seven years -to have you declared dead. Do what you will, Mr. Sollenar, but I must -take care I witness your death. From now on, I am with you wherever you -go." - -Sollenar smiled. "I don't intend to die. Why should I die, Mr. Ermine?" - -"I have no idea, Mr. Sollenar. But I know Cortwright Burr's character. -And isn't that he, seated there in the corner? The light is poor, but -I think he's recognizable." - -Across the lounge, Burr raised his head and looked into Sollenar's -eyes. He raised a hand near his face, perhaps merely to signify -greeting. Rufus Sollenar faced front. - -"A worthy opponent, Mr. Sollenar," Ermine said. "A persevering, -unforgiving, ingenious man. And yet--" Ermine seemed a little touched -by bafflement. "And yet it seems to me, Mr. Sollenar, that he got you -running rather easily. What _did_ happen between you, after my advisory -call?" - -Sollenar turned a terrible smile on Ermine. "I shot him to pieces. If -you'd peel his face, you'd see." - -Ermine sighed. "Up to this moment, I had thought perhaps you might -still salvage your affairs." - -"Pity, Mr. Ermine? Pity for the insane?" - -"Interest. I can take no part in your world. Be grateful, Mr. Sollenar. -I am not the same gullible man I was when I signed my contract with -IAB, so many years ago." - -Sollenar laughed. Then he stole a glance at Burr's corner. - - * * * * * - -The ship came down at Abernathy Field, in Aresia, the Terrestrial -city. Industrialized, prefabricated, jerry-built and clamorous, the -storm-proofed buildings huddled, but huddled proudly, at the desert's -edge. - -Low on the horizon was the Martian settlement--the buildings so -skillfully blended with the landscape, so eroded, so much abandoned -that the uninformed eye saw nothing. Sollenar had been to Mars--on -a tour. He had seen the natives in their nameless dwelling place; -arrogant, venomous and weak. He had been told, by the paid guide, they -trafficked with Earthmen as much as they cared to, and kept to their -place on the rim of Earth's encroachment, observing. - -"Tell me, Ermine," Sollenar said quietly as they walked across the -terminal lobby. "You're to kill me, aren't you, if I try to go on -without you?" - -"A matter of procedure, Mr. Sollenar," Ermine said evenly. "We cannot -risk the investment capital of so many IAB members." - -Sollenar sighed. "If I were any other member, how I would commend you, -Mr. Ermine! Can we hire a car for ourselves, then, somewhere nearby?" - -"Going out to see the engineers?" Ermine asked. "Who would have thought -they'd have something valuable for sale?" - -"I want to show them something," Sollenar said. - -"What thing, Mr. Sollenar?" - -They turned the corner of a corridor, with branching hallways here and -there, not all of them busy. "Come here," Sollenar said, nodding toward -one of them. - -They stopped out of sight of the lobby and the main corridor. "Come -on," Sollenar said. "A little further." - -"No," Ermine said. "This is farther than I really wish. It's dark here." - -"Wise too late, Mr. Ermine," Sollenar said, his arms flashing out. - -One palm impacted against Ermine's solar plexus, and the other against -the muscle at the side of his neck, but not hard enough to kill. Ermine -collapsed, starved for oxygen, while Sollenar silently cursed having -been cured of murder. Then Sollenar turned and ran. - -Behind him Ermine's body struggled to draw breath by reflex alone. - -Moving as fast as he dared, Sollenar walked back and reached the taxi -lock, pulling a respirator from a wall rack as he went. He flagged a -car and gave his destination, looking behind him. He had seen nothing -of Cortwright Burr since setting foot on Mars. But he knew that soon or -late, Burr would find him. - -A few moments later Ermine got to his feet. Sollenar's car was well -away. Ermine shrugged and went to the local broadcasting station. - -He commandeered a private desk, a firearm and immediate time on the IAB -interoffice circuit to Earth. When his call acknowledgement had come -back to him from his office there, he reported: - -"Sollenar is enroute to the Martian city. He wants a duplicate of -Burr's device, of course, since he smashed the original when he killed -Burr. I'll follow and make final disposition. The disorientation I -reported previously is progressing rapidly. Almost all his responses -now are inappropriate. On the flight out, he seemed to be staring at -something in an empty seat. Quite often when spoken to he obviously -hears something else entirely. I expect to catch one of the next few -flights back." - -There was no point in waiting for comment to wend its way back from -Earth. Ermine left. He went to a cab rank and paid the exorbitant fee -for transportation outside Aresian city limits. - - * * * * * - -Close at hand, the Martian city was like a welter of broken pots. -Shards of wall and roof joined at savage angles and pointed to -nothing. Underfoot, drifts of vitreous material, shaped to fit no sane -configuration, and broken to fit such a mosaic as no church would -contain, rocked and slid under Sollenar's hurrying feet. - -What from Aresia had been a solid front of dun color was here a facade -of red, green and blue splashed about centuries ago and since then -weathered only enough to show how bitter the colors had once been. The -plum-colored sky stretched over all this like a frigid membrane, and -the wind blew and blew. - -Here and there, as he progressed, Sollenar saw Martian arms and heads -protruding from the rubble. Sculptures. - -He was moving toward the heart of the city, where some few unbroken -structures persisted. At the top of a heap of shards he turned to look -behind him. There was the dust-plume of his cab, returning to the -city. He expected to walk back--perhaps to meet someone on the road, -all alone on the Martian plain if only Ermine would forebear from -interfering. Searching the flat, thin-aired landscape, he tried to pick -out the plodding dot of Cortwright Burr. But not yet. - -He turned and ran down the untrustworthy slope. - -He reached the edge of the maintained area. Here the rubble was gone, -the ancient walks swept, the statues kept upright on their pediments. -But only broken walls suggested the fronts of the houses that had stood -here. Knifing their sides up through the wind-rippled sand that only -constant care kept off the street, the shadow-houses fenced his way -and the sculptures were motionless as hope. Ahead of him, he saw the -buildings of the engineers. There was no heap to climb and look to see -if Ermine followed close behind. - -Sucking his respirator, he reached the building of the Martian -engineers. - -A sounding strip ran down the doorjamb. He scratched his fingernails -sharply along it, and the magnified vibration, ducted throughout the -hollow walls, rattled his plea for entrance. - - -V - -The door opened, and Martians stood looking. They were spindly-limbed -and slight, their faces framed by folds of leathery tissue. Their -mouths were lipped with horn as hard as dentures, and pursed, forever -ready to masticate. They were pleasant neither to look at nor, Sollenar -knew, to deal with. But Cortwright Burr had done it. And Sollenar -needed to do it. - -"Does anyone here speak English?" he asked. - -"I," said the central Martian, his mouth opening to the sound, closing -to end the reply. - -"I would like to deal with you." - -"Whenever," the Martian said, and the group at the doorway parted -deliberately to let Sollenar in. - -Before the door closed behind him, Sollenar looked back. But the rubble -of the abandoned sectors blocked his line of sight into the desert. - -"What can you offer? And what do you want?" the Martian asked. Sollenar -stood half-ringed by them, in a room whose corners he could not see in -the uncertain light. - -"I offer you Terrestrial currency." - -The English-speaking Martian--the Martian who had admitted to speaking -English--turned his head slightly and spoke to his fellows. There were -clacking sounds as his lips met. The others reacted variously, one of -them suddenly gesturing with what seemed a disgusted flip of his arm -before he turned without further word and stalked away, his shoulders -looking like the shawled back of a very old and very hungry woman. - -"What did Burr give you?" Sollenar asked. - -"Burr." The Martian cocked his head. His eyes were not multi-faceted, -but gave that impression. - -"He was here and he dealt with you. Not long ago. On what basis?" - -"Burr. Yes. Burr gave us currency. We will take currency from you. For -the same thing we gave him?" - -"For immortality, yes." - -"Im--This is a new word." - -"Is it? For the secret of not dying?" - -"Not dying? You think we have not-dying for sale here?" The Martian -spoke to the others again. Their lips clattered. Others left, like the -first one had, moving with great precision and very slow step, and no -remaining tolerance for Sollenar. - -Sollenar cried out: "What did you sell him, then?" - -The principal engineer said: "We made an entertainment device for him." - -"A little thing. This size." Sollenar cupped his hands. - -"You have seen it, then." - -"Yes. And nothing more? That was all he bought here?" - -"It was all we had to sell--or give. We don't yet know whether Earthmen -will give us things in exchange for currency. We'll see, when we next -need something from Aresia." - -Sollenar demanded: "How did it work? This thing you sold him." - -"Oh, it lets people tell stories to themselves." - -Sollenar looked closely at the Martian. "What kind of stories?" - -"Any kind," the Martian said blandly. "Burr told us what he wanted. He -had drawings with him of an Earthman device that used pictures on a -screen, and broadcast sounds, to carry the details of the story told to -the auditor." - -"He stole those patents! He couldn't have used them on Earth." - - * * * * * - -"And why should he? Our device needs to convey no precise details. Any -mind can make its own. It only needs to be put into a situation, and -from there it can do all the work. If an auditor wishes a story of -contact with other sexes, for example, the projector simply makes it -seem to him, the next time he is with the object of his desire, that he -is getting positive feedback--that he is arousing a similar response -in that object. Once that has been established for him, the auditor -may then leave the machine, move about normally, conduct his life as -usual--but always in accordance with the basic situation. It is, you -see, in the end a means of introducing system into his view of reality. -Of course, his society must understand that he is not in accord with -reality, for some of what he does cannot seem rational from an outside -view of him. So some care must be taken, but not much. If many such -devices were to enter his society, soon the circumstances would become -commonplace, and the society would surely readjust to allow for it," -said the English-speaking Martian. - -"The machine creates any desired situation in the auditor's mind?" - -"Certainly. There are simple predisposing tapes that can be inserted as -desired. Love, adventure, cerebration--it makes no difference." - -Several of the bystanders clacked sounds out to each other. Sollenar -looked at them narrowly. It was obvious there had to be more than one -English-speaker among these people. - -"And the device you gave Burr," he asked the engineer, neither -calmly nor hopefully. "What sort of stories could its auditors tell -themselves?" - - * * * * * - -The Martian cocked his head again. It gave him the look of an owl at -a bedroom window. "Oh, there was one situation we were particularly -instructed to include. Burr said he was thinking ahead to showing it to -an acquaintance of his. - -"It was a situation of adventure; of adventure with the fearful. And -it was to end in loss and bitterness." The Martian looked even more -closely at Sollenar. "Of course, the device does not specify details. -No one but the auditor can know what fearful thing inhabits his story, -or precisely how the end of it would come. You would, I believe, be -Rufus Sollenar? Burr spoke of you and made the noise of laughing." - -Sollenar opened his mouth. But there was nothing to say. - -"You want such a device?" the Martian asked. "We've prepared several -since Burr left. He spoke of machines that would manufacture them in -astronomical numbers. We, of course, have done our best with our poor -hands." - -Sollenar said: "I would like to look out your door." - -"Pleasure." - -Sollenar opened the door slightly. Mr. Ermine stood in the cleared -street, motionless as the shadow buildings behind him. He raised one -hand in a gesture of unfelt greeting as he saw Sollenar, then put it -back on the stock of his rifle. Sollenar closed the door, and turned to -the Martian. "How much currency do you want?" - -"Oh, all you have with you. You people always have a good deal with you -when you travel." - -Sollenar plunged his hands into his pockets and pulled out his -billfold, his change, his keys, his jeweled radio; whatever was there, -he rummaged out onto the floor, listening to the sound of rolling coins. - -"I wish I had more here," he laughed. "I wish I had the amount that man -out there is going to recover when he shoots me." - -The Martian engineer cocked his head. "But your dream is over, Mr. -Sollenar," he clacked drily. "Isn't it?" - -"Quite so. But you to your purposes and I to mine. Now give me one of -those projectors. And set it to predispose a situation I am about to -specify to you. Take however long it needs. The audience is a patient -one." He laughed, and tears gathered in his eyes. - - * * * * * - -Mr. Ermine waited, isolated from the cold, listening to hear whether -the rifle stock was slipping out of his fingers. He had no desire to -go into the Martian building after Sollenar and involve third parties. -All he wanted was to put Sollenar's body under a dated marker, with as -little trouble as possible. - -Now and then he walked a few paces backward and forward, to keep -from losing muscular control at his extremities because of low skin -temperature. Sollenar must come out soon enough. He had no food supply -with him, and though Ermine did not like the risk of engaging a man -like Sollenar in a starvation contest, there was no doubt that a man -with no taste for fuel could outlast one with the acquired reflexes of -eating. - -The door opened and Sollenar came out. - -He was carrying something. Perhaps a weapon. Ermine let him come -closer while he raised and carefully sighted his rifle. Sollenar might -have some Martian weapon or he might not. Ermine did not particularly -care. If Ermine died, he would hardly notice it--far less than he would -notice a botched ending to a job of work already roiled by Sollenar's -break away at the space field. If Ermine died, some other SPRO agent -would be assigned almost immediately. No matter what happened, SPRO -would stop Sollenar before he ever reached Abernathy Field. - -So there was plenty of time to aim an unhurried, clean shot. - -Sollenar was closer, now. He seemed to be in a very agitated frame of -mind. He held out whatever he had in his hand. - -It was another one of the Martian entertainment machines. Sollenar -seemed to be offering it as a token to Ermine. Ermine smiled. - -"What can you offer me, Mr. Sollenar?" he said, and shot. - -The golden ball rolled away over the sand. "There, now," Ermine said. -"_Now_, wouldn't you sooner be me than you? And where is the thing that -made the difference between us?" - -He shivered. He was chilly. Sand was blowing against his tender face, -which had been somewhat abraded during his long wait. - -He stopped, transfixed. - -He lifted his head. - -Then, with a great swing of his arms, he sent the rifle whirling -away. "The wind!" he sighed into the thin air. "I feel the wind." He -leapt into the air, and sand flew away from his feet as he landed. He -whispered to himself: "I feel the ground!" - -He stared in tremblant joy at Sollenar's empty body. "What have you -given me?" Full of his own rebirth, he swung his head up at the sky -again, and cried in the direction of the Sun: "Oh, you squeezing, -nibbling people who made me incorruptible and thought that was the end -of me!" - -With love he buried Sollenar, and with reverence he put up the marker, -but he had plans for what he might accomplish with the facts of this -transaction, and the myriad others he was privy to. - -A sharp bit of pottery had penetrated the sole of his shoe and gashed -his foot, but he, not having seen it, hadn't felt it. Nor would he -see it or feel it even when he changed his stockings; for he had not -noticed the wound when it was made. It didn't matter. In a few days it -would heal, though not as rapidly as if it had been properly attended -to. - -Vaguely, he heard the sound of Martians clacking behind their closed -door as he hurried out of the city, full of revenge, and reverence for -his savior. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night, by Algis Budrys - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WALL OF CRYSTAL, EYE OF NIGHT *** - -***** This file should be named 51726.txt or 51726.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/7/2/51726/ - -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 print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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