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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..e7c1b9e --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51832 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51832) diff --git a/old/51832-h.zip b/old/51832-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 67ed79a..0000000 --- a/old/51832-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51832-h/51832-h.htm b/old/51832-h/51832-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index f11ea83..0000000 --- a/old/51832-h/51832-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2012 +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 The Place Where Chicago Was, by Jim Harmon. - </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 The Place Where Chicago Was, by Jim Harmon - -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: The Place Where Chicago Was - -Author: Jim Harmon - -Release Date: April 22, 2016 [EBook #51832] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLACE WHERE CHICAGO WAS *** - - - - -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="386" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>THE PLACE WHERE CHICAGO WAS</h1> - -<p>By JIM HARMON</p> - -<p>Illustrated by COWLES</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Magazine February 1962.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="347" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>Well, they finally got rid of war. For the first<br /> -time there was peace on Earth—since the only<br /> -possible victims were the killers themselves!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>It was late December of 1983. Abe Danniels knew that the streets and -sidewalks of Jersey City moved under their own power and that half the -families in America owned their own helicopters. He was pleased with -these signs of progress. But he was sweating. He thought he was getting -athlete's foot instead of athletic legs from walking from the New -Jersey coast to just outside of Marshall, Illinois.</p> - -<p>The heat was unbearable.</p> - -<p>The road shimmered before him in rows of sticky black ribbon, on which -nothing moved. Nothing but him.</p> - -<p>He passed a signal post that said "Caution—Slow" in a gentle but -commanding voice. He staggered on toward a reddish metallic square set -on a thin column of bluish concrete. It was what they called a sign, he -decided.</p> - -<p>Danniels drooped against the sign and fanned his face with his -sweat-ringed straw cowboy hat. The thing seemed to have something to -say about the mid-century novelist, James Jones, in short, terse words.</p> - -<p>The rim of the hat crumpled in his fist. He stood still and listened.</p> - -<p>There <i>was</i> a car coming.</p> - -<p>It would almost <i>have</i> to stop, he reasoned. A man couldn't stand much -of this Illinois winter heat. The driver might leave him to die on the -road if he didn't stop. Therefore he would stop.</p> - -<p>He jerked out the small pouch from the sash of his jeans. Inside the -special plastic the powder was dry. He rubbed some between his hands -briskly, to build up the static electricity, and massaged it into his -hair.</p> - -<p>The metal of the Jones plaque was fairly shiny. Under the beating noon -sun it cast a pale reflection back at Danniels. His hair looked a -reasonably uniform white now.</p> - -<p>He started to draw the string on the pouch, then dipped his hand in and -scooped his palm up to his mouth. He chewed on the stuff while he was -securing the nearly flat bag in his sash. He swallowed the dough; the -powder had been flour.</p> - -<p>Danniels took the hat from beneath his arm, set it to his head and at -last faced the direction of the engine whine.</p> - -<p>The roof, hood and wheels moved over the curve of the horizon and -Danniels saw that the car was a brandless classic which probably still -had some of the original, indestructible Model A left in it.</p> - -<p>He pondered a moment on whether to thumb or not to thumb.</p> - -<p>He thumbed.</p> - -<p>The rod squealed to a stop exactly even with him. A door unfolded and a -voice like a stop signal said flatly, "Get in."</p> - -<p>Danniels got in. The driver was a teen-ager in a loose scarlet tunic -and a spangled W.P.A. cap. The youth wouldn't have been bad-looking -except for a sullen expression and a rather girlish turn of cheek, -completely devoid of beard line. Danniels wrote him off as a -prospective member of the Wolf Pack in a year or two.</p> - -<p>But not just yet, he fervently hoped.</p> - -<p>"Going far? I'm not," said the driver.</p> - -<p>Danniels adjusted the knees of his trousers. "I'm going to—near where -Chicago used to be."</p> - -<p>"Huh?"</p> - -<p>Danniels had forgotten the youth of his companion. "I mean I'm going to -where you can't go any further."</p> - -<p>The driver nodded smugly, relieved that the threat to the vastness of -his knowledge had been dismissed. "I get you, Pop. I guess I can take -you close to where you're headed."</p> - -<p>They rode on in silence, both relieved that they didn't have to try to -span the void between age and position with words.</p> - -<p>"You aren't anywhere near starvation, are you?" the driver said -suddenly, uneasy.</p> - -<p>"No," Danniels said. "Anyway I've got money."</p> - -<p>"Woodrow Wilson! I'll pull in at the next joint."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The next joint was carved out of the flat cross-section of hill that -looked unmistakably like a strip ridge of a Colorado copper mine, but -wasn't ... even barring the fact that this was Illinois. The rectangle -of visible dinner was color-fused aluminum from between No. Two and -Korea.</p> - -<p>Danniels was glad to get into the shockingly cold air-conditioning. -It was constant, if unhealthy. The chugging unit in the car failed a -heartbeat every now and then for a sickening wave of heat.</p> - -<p>The two of them pulled up wire chairs to a linoleum-top table in a -mirrored corner. A faint purple hectographed menu was stuck between -appropriately colored plastic squeeze bottles labeled MUSTARD and BLOOD.</p> - -<p>Danniels knew what the menu would say but he unfolded it and checked.</p> - -<p class="ph4"><i>Steaks</i><br /> -Plankton .90<br /> -Juicy, rich-red tantalizing hamburger .17</p> - -<p class="ph4"><i>Accessories</i><br /> -Mashed potatoes .40<br /> -Delectable oysters, all you can eat .09<br /> -Peas .35<br /> -Rich, fragrant cheese, large slice .02</p> - -<p class="ph4"><i>Drinks</i><br /> -Coke .50<br /> -Milk, the forbidden wine of nature .01<br /> -Coffee (without) .50<br /> -Coffee (with) .02</p> - -<p>A fat girl in white came to the table.</p> - -<p>Danniels tossed the menu on the table. "I'll take the meat dinner," he -said.</p> - -<p>The teen-ager stared hard at the table top. "So will I."</p> - -<p>"Good citizens," the waitress said, but the revulsion crept into her -voice over the professional hardness.</p> - -<p>Danniels looked carefully at his companion. "You aren't used to -ordering meat."</p> - -<p>"Pop," the youth began. Danniels waited to be told that being short of -cash was none of his business. "Pop, on my leg. Kill it, kill it!"</p> - -<p>Danniels leaned over the table startled and curious. A cockroach was -feeling its way along a thin meridian of vari-colored jeans. Danniels -pinched it up without injuring it and deposited it on the floor. It -scurried away.</p> - -<p>"Your kind make me sick," the driver said in lieu of thanks. "You act -like a Fanatic but you're a Meat-Eater. How do you blesh that?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Danniels shrugged. He did not have to explain anything to this kid. He -couldn't be stranded.</p> - -<p>The kid was under the same encephalographic inversion as the rest of -the world. No human being could directly or indirectly commit murder, -as long as the broadcasting stations every nation on earth maintained -in self-defense continued to function.</p> - -<p>These mechanical brain waves coated every mind with enforced pacifism. -They could have just as easily broadcast currents that would have made -minds swell with love or happiness. But world leaders had universally -agreed that these conditions were too narcotic for the common people to -endure.</p> - -<p>Pacifism was vital to the survival of the planet.</p> - -<p>War could not go on killing; but governments still had to go on winning -wars. War became a game. The International War Games were held every -two years. With pseudo-H bombs and mock-germ warfare, countries still -effectively eliminated cities and individuals. A "destroyed" city -was off-limits for twenty years. Nothing could go in or out for that -period. Most cities had provided huge food deposits for emergencies.</p> - -<p>Before the Famine.</p> - -<p>Some minds were more finely attuned to the encephalographic inversion -than others. People so in tune with the wavelength of pacifism could -not only not kill another human being, they could not even kill an -animal. Vegetarianism was thrust upon a world not equipped for it. -Some—like Danniels—who could not kill, still found themselves able -to eat what others had killed. Others who could not kill or eat <i>any</i> -once-living thing—even plants—rapidly starved to death. They were -quickly forgotten.</p> - -<p>Almost as forgotten as the Jonahs.</p> - -<p>The War Dead.</p> - -<p>Any soldier or civilian "killed" outside of a major disaster area -(where he would be subject to the twenty years) became a man without -a country—or a world. They were tagged with green hair by molecular -exchange and sent on their way to starve, band together, reach a -disaster area (where they would be accepted for the duration of the -disaster), or starve.</p> - -<p>Anyone who in any way communicated with a Jonah or even recognized the -existence of one automatically became a Jonah himself.</p> - -<p>It was harsh. And if it wasn't better than war it was quieter.</p> - -<p>And more permanent.</p> - -<p>The counterman with a greasy apron and hairy forearms served the -plates. The meat had been lightly glazed to bring out the aroma and -flavor but the blood was still a pink sheen on the ground meat. There -were generous side dishes of cheese and milk. Even animal by-products -were passed up by the majority of vegetarians. Eggs had been the first -to be dropped—after all, every egg was a potential life. Milk and -associated products came to be spurned through sheer revulsion by -association. Besides, milk was intended only to feed the animal's own -offspring, wasn't it?</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Danniels squirted blood generously from its squeeze bottle. Even -vegetarians used a lot of it. It gave their plankton the gory look the -human animal craved. Of course it was not really blood, only a kind of -tomato paste. When Danniels had been a boy people called it catsup.</p> - -<p>He tried to dig into his steak with vengeance but it tasted of ashes. -Meat was his favorite food; he was in no way a vegetarian. But the -thought of the Famine haunted him. Vegetable food was high in price -and ration points. Most people were living on 2500 calories a day. It -wasn't quite starvation and it wasn't quite a full stomach. It was -hard on anybody who did more than an average amount of work. It was -especially hard on children.</p> - -<p>The Meat-Eaters helped relieve the situation. Some, with only the -minimum of influence from the Broadcasters, ate nothing but meat. -They were naturally aggressive morons who were doing no one favors, -potential members of a Wolf Pack.</p> - -<p>Danniels knew how to end the Famine.</p> - -<p>The mob that was the men he had commanded had hunted him in the hills -below Buffalo, and he had been hungry, with no time to eat, or rest, or -sleep. Only enough time to think. He couldn't stop thinking. Panting -over a smothered spark of campfire, smoldering moss and leaves, he -thought. Drinking sparkling but polluted water from a twisting mountain -stream and trying unsuccessfully to trap silver shavings of fish with -his naked hands, he thought.</p> - -<p>His civilian job was that of a genopseudoxenobeastimacroiologist, a -specialized field with peacetime applications that had come out of the -War Games—specialized to an almost comic-opera intensity. He knew -virtually everything about almost nothing at all. Yet, delirious with -hunger, from this he fashioned in his mind a way to provide food for -everybody. Even Jonahs.</p> - -<p>After they caught him—weeks before the Tag spot would have faded -off—he wasn't sure whether his idea had been a sick dream or not. But -he intended to find out. He wouldn't let any other mob stop him from -that.</p> - -<p>Danniels had decided he was against mobs, whether their violence and -stupidity was social or anti-social. People are better as individuals.</p> - -<p>The driver of the hot-rod was also picking at his food uncertainly. -Probably a social vegetarian, Danniels supposed. An irresponsible -faddist.</p> - -<p>The counterman stopped staring and cleared his throat apologetically. -"This ain't the Ritz but it don't look good for customers to sit with -hats on."</p> - -<p>Danniels knew that applied to only non-vegetarians, but he put his -Stetson, reluctantly, on an aluminum tree.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The teen-ager looked up. And did not go back to the food. Danniels knew -that he had been found out.</p> - -<p>The counterman went back to wiping down the bar.</p> - -<p>The youth was still looking at Danniels.</p> - -<p>"You better eat if you don't want me to be discovered," Danniels said -gently.</p> - -<p>Young eyes moved back and forth, searching, not finding.</p> - -<p>"It won't do you any good to run," Danniels continued. "The waitress -and the counterman will swear they had nothing to do with me. But you -were driving me, eating with me."</p> - -<p>"You can't let even a Jonah die," the youngster said in a hoarse -whisper that barely carried across the table.</p> - -<p>Danniels shook his head sadly. "It won't work. You might have slowed -down enough to let me grab onto the rear bumper or tossed me out some -food. But you took me into your car, sat down at a table with me."</p> - -<p>"And this is the thanks I get!"</p> - -<p>Danniels felt his face flush. "Look, son, this isn't a game where you -can afford to play by good sportsmanship. That's somebody else's rules, -designed to make sure you get at least no better a break than anyone -else. You have to play by your rules—designed to give <i>you</i> the best -possible break. Let's get out of here."</p> - -<p>He wolfed the last bite and jammed his hat back on his head, pulling it -down about his ears. The sweat band had rubbed the flour off his hair -in a narrow band. A band of green. The mark of the Jonah.</p> - -<p>In the last war games, Danniels had come into the sights of a -Canadian's diffusion rifle. For six months he had worn a cancerous -badge of luminosity over his heart. Until his comrades had trapped him -and through a system similar to the one their rifles employed turned -his hair to green and cast him out.</p> - -<p>Danniels scooped up both checks and with deep pain paid both of them to -save time. He wanted to get his companion out of there before he broke.</p> - -<p>The heat struck at their faces like jets of boiling water. The -authorities said nuclear explosion had had nothing to do with changing -climatic conditions so radically, but <i>something</i> had.</p> - -<p>The two of them were walking towards the parked car when the Wolf Pack -got to them.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph4">II</p> - -<p>The horrible part was that Danniels knew they wouldn't kill him. No one -could kill.</p> - -<p>But the members of the Wolf Packs wanted to. They were the professional -soldiers, policemen, prizefighters and gangsters of a society that had -rejected them. They were able to resist some of the pacifism of the -Broadcasters. In fact, they were able to resist quite a lot.</p> - -<p>The first one was a round-shouldered little man with silver spectacles. -He kicked Danniels in the pit of the stomach with steel-shod toes. A -clean-cut athletic boy grabbed the running teen-ager and ripped the -red tunic halfway off. From the pavement Danniels at last isolated the -doubt that had been nagging him. His companion wore a tight tee-shirt -under the coat. She was a girl.</p> - -<p>Danniels saw a heavy shoe aimed at his face but it went far afield. -Running feet went past him completely.</p> - -<p>He was left alone, unharmed, with only the breath knocked out of him -momentarily.</p> - -<p>They were closing in on the girl who had picked him up.</p> - -<p>This Pack was all men, although there were female and co-ed groups -just as vicious. Beating up a girl, Danniels knew, would give an added -sexual kick to their usual masochosadism.</p> - -<p>They were a Pack. A mob. They were like the soldiers who had hunted him -down and had him permanently tagged a Jonah. His men had been looked -upon favorably by his society, while the Wolf Pack was so ill-favored -it was completely ignored in absolute contempt. But they were the same -in the essentials: a mob.</p> - -<p>And once again Danniels, who was incapable of harming the smallest -living creature, wanted to kill men. But he couldn't.</p> - -<p>All his life he had experienced this mad fury of desire and it shamed -him. He wanted to destroy men of stupidity, greed and brutality on -sight. Any other kind of conflict with them was weak compromise.</p> - -<p>At times, he wondered if this atavistic if pro-survival trait had -not shamed him so much that he over-compensated for it by violently -refusing to take any kind of life. Like all men of his time, he asked -himself: how much of my mind is the Broadcasters' and how much me?</p> - -<p>If he couldn't destroy, he could defend.</p> - -<p>With the idea still only half-formed, he lurched to his feet and -stumbled into the side of the hot-rod. He fumbled open the heated metal -door and slid under the wheel.</p> - -<p>He thumbed the drive on savagely and roared down on the mob.</p> - -<p>Rubber screamed, whined and smelled as he applied the brakes just soon -enough for the men to jump out of the way—away from the girl.</p> - -<p>He folded back the door he hadn't latched, leaned down, grabbed the -teen-ager by the leg and dragged her bruised form bumping up into the -car.</p> - -<p>The little man with silver glasses tried to reach into the car.</p> - -<p>Danniels swung the door back into his face.</p> - -<p>The glasses didn't break; but everything else did.</p> - -<p>With one foot under the girl and the other on her, Danniels tagged the -illegal acceleration wire most cars had rigged under the dashboard and -raced away into the brassy sunshine.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She was slouched against his shoulder when the stars blazed out in the -moonless night.</p> - -<p>Tires hummed beneath them and their headlights ate up the white-striped -typewriter ribbon before them.</p> - -<p>The girl opened her eyes, hesitated as they focused on the weave -pattern of denim in his shirt, and said, "Where are they?"</p> - -<p>"Back there some place," Danniels told her. "They followed in their -cars, a couple on motorcycles. But they must have been scared of -traffic cops on the main highway. They dropped out."</p> - -<p>She sat up and ran her fingers through her cropped mouse-colored hair. -Her quick glance at him was questioning; but she answered her own -question and reluctantly absorbed the truth of it. She knew he knew.</p> - -<p>The girl huddled in the tatters of her bright tunic.</p> - -<p>"Just what do you expect to get out of helping me?" she asked.</p> - -<p>Danniels kept his eyes on the road. "A free trip to Chicago."</p> - -<p>"You'll get us both arrested!" she shrilled. "Nobody can get past those -roadblocks."</p> - -<p>He nodded to himself, not caring if she saw the gesture in the -uncertain light from the auto gauges.</p> - -<p>"All right," she admitted. "I know what Chicago is. That's no crime."</p> - -<p>"You ought to," Danniels said. "You're from there."</p> - -<p>She was tired. It was a moment before she could continue fighting. -"That's foolish—"</p> - -<p>He hadn't been sure. If she hadn't hesitated he might have given up the -notion.</p> - -<p>"That getup was what was foolish," Danniels snorted. "Anybody would -know you were trying to hide something as soon as they found out the -masquerade."</p> - -<p>"You wouldn't have found it out," she said, "if one of that Pack hadn't -torn my jacket off."</p> - -<p>"I really don't know. It might be animal magnetism, if there is such a -thing. But I can't be around a woman for long without knowing it. I -repeat: why?"</p> - -<p>"I—I didn't know what they would do to a girl outside."</p> - -<p>"For Peace sake, why did you have to come out at all?"</p> - -<p>The girl was silent for a mile.</p> - -<p>"Most Chicagoans think the rest of the world has reverted to -barbarism," she told him.</p> - -<p>"A common complaint of city dwellers," he observed.</p> - -<p>"Don't joke!" she demanded. "Our food is running out. We have enough to -last five more years if the present birth-death cycle maintains itself."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Danniels whistled mournfully.</p> - -<p>"And you have—let's see—about seven more years to go."</p> - -<p>She nodded.</p> - -<p>"I came out to see what chance there was of ending this senseless -blockade."</p> - -<p>"None at all," he snapped. "No one is going to risk breaking the rules -of the War Games just to save a few million lives."</p> - -<p>"But they will have to! The Broadcasters will make them."</p> - -<p>"You would be surprised at how much doublethink people can practice -about not killing," he assured her from bitter, personal experience. -"They don't <i>know</i> for certain that you will be starving in there, so -they will be free to keep you inside."</p> - -<p>The girl straightened her shoulders, emphasizing the femininity of her -slender form.</p> - -<p>"We'll tell them," she said. "<i>I'll</i> tell them."</p> - -<p>Danniels almost smiled, but not quite. His hands tightened on the -steering wheel and he kept his eyes to the moving circle of light -against the night.</p> - -<p>"You open your mouth about Chicago to the authorities or anyone else -and they will slap you under sedation and keep you there until you -die of old age. They used to drop escapees back into the cities by -parachute. But too many of them were inadvertently killed; they are -more subtle these days. By the way," he said very casually, "how <i>did</i> -you escape?"</p> - -<p>She told him where to go in a primitive, timeless fashion.</p> - -<p>"No," Danniels said. "I'm going to Chicago."</p> - -<p>"Not with me," the girl assured him quietly. "We have enough to feed -without bringing in another Jonah. Besides you might be an F.B.I. man -or something trying to find our escape route."</p> - -<p>"I'd be a Mountie then. The F.B.I. has deteriorated pretty badly. Spent -itself on political security. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police lends -us men and women during peacetime. Up until the War Games anyway—even -though Britain would like to see us <i>constantly</i> disrupted. But," he -said heavily, "I am not a government agent of any kind. Just the Jonah -I appear to be."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She shivered. "I can't take the responsibility. I can't either expose -our escape route—or bring in another mouth, to bring starvation a -moment closer."</p> - -<p>"Look, what can I call you?" he demanded in exasperation.</p> - -<p>"Julie. Julie Amprey."</p> - -<p>"Abe Danniels. Look, Julie—"</p> - -<p>"You were named after Lincoln?" she asked quietly.</p> - -<p>"A long time after. Look, Julie, I want to get into Chicago because of -the old Milne Laboratories." He caught his breath for a long second. -"They are still standing?"</p> - -<p>Julie nodded and looked ahead, through the insect-spotted windscreen. -"Partial operation, when I left."</p> - -<p>Danniels gave a low whistle. "Lord, after all these years!"</p> - -<p>"We manage."</p> - -<p>"Fine! Julie, I'm sure that if I can get back in a laboratory I can -find a way of ending this condemned Famine—inside Chicago and outside."</p> - -<p>"That sounds a little like delusions of grandeur to me," the girl said -uncertainly.</p> - -<p>"It was my field for ten years. Before the last War Games. I had time -to think while my platoon was hunting me down, after I had been tagged -out. I thought faster than I ever thought before."</p> - -<p>Julie studied his face for a long moment.</p> - -<p>"What was your idea?"</p> - -<p>"The encephalographic inversion patterns of the Broadcasters," he said -quickly, "can be applied to animals as well as human beings, on the -right frequencies. Even microscopic animals. Bacteria. If you control -the actions of bacteria, you control their reproduction. They could -be made to multiply and assume different forms—the form of food, for -example."</p> - -<p>Danniels took a deep breath and plunged into his idea as they drove on -through the deepening night. He talked and explained to her, and, in -doing so, he clarified points that he hadn't been sure of himself.</p> - -<p>He stopped at last because his throat was momentarily too dry to -continue.</p> - -<p>"It's too big a responsibility for me," Julie said.</p> - -<p>Defeat stung him so badly he was afraid he had slumped physically. But -it won't be permanent defeat, he told himself. I've come this far and -I'll find some other way into Chicago.</p> - -<p>"I haven't the right to turn down something this big," Julie said. -"I'll have to let you put it to the mayor and the city council."</p> - -<p>He relaxed a trifle, condemning himself for the weak luxury. He -couldn't afford it yet. He ran his fingers through his flour-dusted -green hair and the electricity of the movement dragged off much of the -whiteness. His skin, like that of most people, had been given a slight -negative charge by molecularization to repell dirt and germs. The -powder was anxious to remove itself and dye or bleach refused to take -at all.</p> - -<p>"We're nearing the rim of the first blockade zone," Danniels told the -girl. "Where to?"</p> - -<p>"Circle around to first unrestricted beach of the lake shore."</p> - -<p>"And then."</p> - -<p>"Underwater."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Illegal traffic in and out of Disaster Areas was not completely unheard -of. There was a small but steady flow both ways that the authorities -could not or would not completely check. The patrols seemingly were -as alert as humanly possible. Capture meant permanent oblivion for -Disaster Residents under sedation, while Outsiders got prescribed -periods of Morphinvert-induced antipode depression of the brain, a -rather sophisticated but effective form of torture. A few minutes -under the drug frequently had an introspective duration of years. -Therefore, under the typical sentence of three months, a felon lived -several lifetimes in constant but varying stages of acute agony and -post-hysteric terror.</p> - -<p>While few personalities survived, many useful human machines were later -salvaged by skillful lobotomies.</p> - -<p>Lake Michigan beaches were pretty good, Danniels observed. Better than -at Hawaii. This one had been cleaned up for a sub-division that had -naturally never been completed. It had been christened Falstaff Cove, -although it was almost a mathematically straight half mile of off-white -sand.</p> - -<p>He had shifted to four-wheel drive at the girl's direction and bored -through the sand to the southernmost corner of the beach, where it -blurred into weeds, rocks, dirt and incredible litter. He braked. The -car settled noticeably.</p> - -<p>"There's a two-man submarine out there in the water under the -overhang," Julie said without prompting. "We got it from the Armed -Forces Day display at Soldier's Field."</p> - -<p>"What I'd like to know is how you get the car in and out of it?" -Danniels said.</p> - -<p>Anger, disgust and fatigue crossed the girl's face. It was after all, -a very young face, he thought. "We have Outside contacts of sorts," she -said. "Nobody trusts them very much."</p> - -<p>He nodded. There was a lot of money in the Federal Reserve Vaults -inside the city.</p> - -<p>The two of them got out of the car.</p> - -<p>Julie stripped off her jeans, revealing the bottom half of a swimsuit -and nicely turned, but pale, legs. "We'll have to wade out to the sub."</p> - -<p>"What about the car?" Danniels asked. "Is your friend going to pick it -up?"</p> - -<p>"No! They don't know about this place."</p> - -<p>He reached in the window and turned the ignition. "Want me to run -it off into the water? You don't want to tag this spot for the -authorities."</p> - -<p>"No, I—I guess not. I don't know what to do! I'm not used to this kind -of thing. I don't know why I <i>ever</i> come. We paid an awful lot for the -car...."</p> - -<p>He found the girl's wailing unpleasant. "It's your car, but take my -advice. Let me get rid of it for you."</p> - -<p>"But," she protested, "if you run it into the water they can see from -the air in daylight. I know. They used to spot our sub. Why not run it -off into those weeds and little trees? They'll hide it and maybe we -could get it later."</p> - -<p>It wasn't a bad idea but he didn't feel like admitting it. He gunned -the rod into the tangle of undergrowth.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Danniels came back to the girl with his arms and face laced with -scratches from the limbs.</p> - -<p>He tried to roll his trousers up at the cuff but they wouldn't stay. So -he would spend a soggy ten minutes while they dried.</p> - -<p>He told the girl to go ahead and he went after her, marking the spongy -wet sand and slapping into the white-scummed, very blue water.</p> - -<p>The tiny submarine was just where Julie had said it would be. He waited -impatiently as she worked the miniature airlock.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="343" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>They squeezed down into the metallic hollowness of the interior and -Julie screwed the hatch shut, a Mason lid inappropriately on a can of -sardines.</p> - -<p>There were a lot of white-on-black dials that completely baffled -Danniels. He had never been particularly mechanically minded. His field -was closer to pure science than practical engineering. Because of this, -rather than in spite of it, he had great respect for engineering.</p> - -<p>It bothered him being in such close quarters with a woman after the -months of isolation as a Jonah, but he had enough of the conventions -of society fused into him and enough other problems to attempt easing -his discomfort.</p> - -<p>"It isn't much further," Julie at last assured him.</p> - -<p>He was becoming bored to the point of hysteria. For the past several -months he hadn't had much diversion but he had not been confined to -what was essentially an oil drum wired for light and sound.</p> - -<p>One of the lights changed size and pattern.</p> - -<p>He found himself tensing. "That?" He pointed.</p> - -<p>"Sonadar," Julie hissed. "Patrol boat above us. Don't make any noise."</p> - -<p>Danniels pictured the heavily equipped police boat droning past above -them and managed to keep quite silent.</p> - -<p>Something banged on the hull.</p> - -<p>It came from the outside and it rang against the port side, then the -starboard. The rhythm was the same, unbroken. Danniels knew somehow the -noise from both sides were made by the same agency. Something with a -twelve-foot reach.</p> - -<p>Something that knew the Morse code.</p> - -<p>Da-da-da. Dit-dit-dit. Da-da-da.</p> - -<p>S. O. S.</p> - -<p><i>Help.</i></p> - -<p>"It's not the police," Julie said. "We've heard it before." She added, -"They used to dump non-dangerous amounts of radioactives into the -lake," as she decided the police boat had gone past and started up the -engines again.</p> - -<p>Danniels never forgot that call for help. Not as long as he lived.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph4">III</p> - -<p>The electron microscope revealed no significant change in the pattern -of the bacteria.</p> - -<p>Danniels decided to feed the white mice. He got out of his plastic -chair and took a small cloth bag of corn from the warped, sticking -drawer of the lab table.</p> - -<p>Rationing out a handful of the withered kernels, he went down the rows -of cages. A few, with steel instead of aluminum wiring, were flecked -with rust. The mice inside were all healthy. Danniels was not using -them in experiments; he was incapable of taking their lives. But -some experimenter after him might use them. In any case, he was also -incapable of letting them starve to death.</p> - -<p>He had been out of jail less than two weeks.</p> - -<p>The city council had thrown him into the Cook County lockup until they -decided what to do with him. He hadn't known what happened to the girl, -Julie Amprey, for bringing him back with her.</p> - -<p>He was surprised to see Chicago functioning as well as it was after -thirteen years of isolation. There were still a few cars and trucks -running here and there, although most people walked or rode bicycles. -But the atmosphere seemed heavy and the buildings dirtier than ever. -The city had the aura of oppression and decay he thought of as -belonging to nineteenth century London.</p> - -<p>Danniels had waited out New Year's and St. Valentine's in a cell -between a convicted burglar and an endless parade of drunks. Finally, -two weeks ago the mayor himself came, apologizing profusely but without -much feeling. Danniels was escorted to the old Milne Laboratory -buildings and told to go to work on his idea. He had, they said, two -weeks to produce. And he was getting nowhere.</p> - -<p>His deadline was up. The deadline of the real world. But the one he had -given himself was much, much more pressing.</p> - -<p>"You'll kill yourself if you don't get some sleep," the girl's voice -said behind his back.</p> - -<p>Danniels closed the drawer on the nearly depleted sack of grain. It was -the girl. Julie Amprey. He had been expecting her but not anticipating -her. He didn't like her very much. The only reason he could conceive -for her venture Outside was a search for thrills. It might be -understandable, if immature, in a man; but he found it unattractive in -a woman. He had no illusions about masculine superiority, but women -were socially, if not physically and emotionally, ill-equipped for -simple adventuring.</p> - -<p>Julie was more attractive dressed in a woman's clothes, even if they -were a dozen years out of style. Her hair had a titian glint. She was -perhaps really too slender for the green knit dress.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"It's a big job," he said. "I'm beginning to think it's a lifetime job."</p> - -<p>He half-turned and motioned awkwardly at the lab table and the naked -piece of electronics.</p> - -<p>"That's the encephalographic projector I jury-rigged," he explained.</p> - -<p>"You can spare me the fifty-cent tour," Julie said.</p> - -<p>He wondered how she had managed to get so irritating in such a short -lifetime. "There's not much else to see," Danniels grunted. "I've got -some reaction out of the bacteria, but I can't seem to control their -reproduction or channel them into a food-producing cycle."</p> - -<p>Julie tossed her head.</p> - -<p>"Oh, I can tell you why you haven't done that," she said.</p> - -<p>He didn't like the way she said that. "Why?"</p> - -<p>"You don't <i>want</i> to control them," Julie said simply. "If you really -control them, you'll cause some to be recessive. You'll breed some -strains out of existence. You'll <i>kill</i> some of them. And you don't -want to kill any living thing."</p> - -<p>She was wrong.</p> - -<p>He wanted to kill her.</p> - -<p>But he couldn't. She was right about the bacteria. He should have -realized it before. He had planned for almost a year, and worked for -two weeks; and this girl had walked in and destroyed everything in five -minutes. But she was right; he spun towards the door.</p> - -<p>"Where are you going?" she demanded.</p> - -<p>"I'm leaving. See what somebody else can do with the idea."</p> - -<p>"But where are you going?" Julie repeated.</p> - -<p>"Nowhere."</p> - -<p>And he was absolutely right.</p> - -<p>Danniels walked aimlessly through the littered streets for the rest of -the day and night. He couldn't remember walking at night, but neither -could he remember staying anywhere when he discovered dawn in the sky.</p> - -<p>It was that time of dawn that looks strangely like an old two-color -process movies that they show on TV occasionally—all orange and green, -with no yellow to it at all, when even the truest black seems only an -off-brown or a sinister purple.</p> - -<p>He shivered in the chill of morning and decided what to do.</p> - -<p>He would have to walk around for a few hours even yet.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The drink his friend, Paul, placed before him was not entirely -distinct. Neither were the bills he had in his hand. It was money the -mayor's hireling had given him to use for laboratory supplies. Danniels -peeled off a bill of uncertain denomination and gave it to his friend. -Paul seemed pleased. He put it into the pocket of his white shirt, the -pocket eight inches below and slightly to the left of the black bow -tie, and polished the bar briskly.</p> - -<p>Danniels picked up the glass and sipped silently until it was empty.</p> - -<p>"Do you want to talk about anything, Abe?" Paul asked solicitously.</p> - -<p>"No," Danniels said cheerfully. "Just give me another drink."</p> - -<p>"Sure thing."</p> - -<p>Danniels studied his green hair in the glass. Here, the mark of the -Jonah wasn't important. Not yet. But he would be unwelcome even here -after the time of Disaster ran out. He would have to move on sooner or -later. Eventually—why not now? That slogan went better than the one in -pink light over the mirror—The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous. There -hadn't been any Milwaukee beer here for thirteen years. Most of the -stuff came out of bathtubs.</p> - -<p>Why not now?</p> - -<p>He smoothed another bill on the damp polished wood and negotiated his -way through the hazy room.</p> - -<p>Outside, he turned a corner and the city dropped away from him. He -seemed to be in a giant amusement park with acres of empty ground -patterned off in squares by unwinking dots of light.</p> - -<p>He grinned to himself, changed direction with great care, and started -down the one-way street to the lake front.</p> - -<p>He heard the footsteps behind him.</p> - -<p>Danniels put his palm to the brick wall, scaling posters, and turned.</p> - -<p>The clean-cut young man smiled disarmingly. "I saw you in at Paul's. -You'll never make it home under your own power. Better let me take you -in my cab."</p> - -<p>Danniels knocked him out on his feet with a clean right cross.</p> - -<p>He blinked down at the boy. Self-preservation had become instinctive -with him during his months as a wandering Jonah.</p> - -<p>Gnawing at his under lip, he studied the twisted way the supposed -cabbie lay. If he really were.... Danniels patted the man down and -brought something out of a hip pocket.</p> - -<p>He inspected the leather blackjack, weighing it critically in his hand.</p> - -<p>It slid out of his palm and thudded heavily on the cracked sidewalk.</p> - -<p>Danniels shrugged and grinned and moved unsteadily away. Towards the -lake.</p> - -<p>The lake looked gray and winterish.</p> - -<p>There was no help for it.</p> - -<p>Danniels swung his leg over the rust-spotted railing and looked down -to where the water lapped at crumbling bricks blotched with green. He -peered out over the water. Only a few miles to the beach where he had -left the car parked in the undergrowth. He would have preferred to use -the little sub, but he could swim it if he had to.</p> - -<p>The surface below showed clearly in the globe lights.</p> - -<p>Danniels dived.</p> - -<p>Before he hit the water, he remembered that he should have taken off -some of his clothes.</p> - -<p>When he parted the icy foam with his body, he knew he had committed -suicide. And he realized that that had been what he intended to do all -along.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>There was something in the lake holding him, and it had a twelve-foot -reach.</p> - -<p>It kept holding on to him under the surface of green ice and begging -him for help. He couldn't breathe, and he couldn't help. Of the two, -not being able to help seemed the worse. Not breathing wasn't so -bad.... It hurt to breathe. It choked him. It was very unpleasant to -breathe. He had much preferred not breathing to this....</p> - -<p>Some time later, he opened his eyes.</p> - -<p>A small, round-faced man was staring down at him through slender-framed -spectacles. For a moment he thought it was the man in whose face he -had smashed the car door at the diner weeks before. But this man was -different—among other things his glasses were gold, not silver. Yet he -was also the same. Danniels knew the signs of the Wolf Pack.</p> - -<p>"How's your foot?" the little man asked in a surprisingly full-bodied -voice.</p> - -<p>Danniels instantly became aware of a dull sub-pain sensation in the -toes of his left foot. He looked over the crest of his chest and saw -the foot, naked below the cuff of his wrinkled trousers. The three -smaller toes were red. No, maroon. A red so dark it was almost black. -Fainter streaks of red shot away from the toes, following the tendon.</p> - -<p>Danniels swallowed. "The foot doesn't <i>feel</i> so bad, but I think it -<i>is</i>."</p> - -<p>"We may have to operate," the small man said eagerly.</p> - -<p>"How did I get out of the lake?"</p> - -<p>"Joel. The man you knocked out. He came to and followed you. Naturally, -he had to save your life. He banged your foot up dragging you ashore."</p> - -<p>Or afterwards, Danniels thought.</p> - -<p>Abruptly, the stranger was gone and a door was closing and latching on -the other side of the room.</p> - -<p>Danniels tried to rise and fell back, his head floating around -somewhere above him. Maybe a Wolf Pack member would have to save his -life but he wouldn't have to bring him home and nurse him back to -health.</p> - -<p>Why?</p> - -<p>He fell asleep without even trying to guess the answer.</p> - -<p>He woke when they brought food to him.</p> - -<p>Danniels finished with the tray and sat it aside.</p> - -<p>The small man who had identified himself as Richard beamed. "I think -you are strong enough to attend the celebration tonight."</p> - -<p>Danniels did feel stronger after rest and food, but at the same time he -felt vaguely dizzy and his leg was beginning to hurt. "What kind of a -celebration?" he asked.</p> - -<p>Richard chuckled. "Don't worry. You'll like it."</p> - -<p>Danniels had seen the same expression of the faces of hosts at stag -dinners; but with a Wolf Pack it was hard to know what to expect.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph4">IV</p> - -<p>The place he was in did not seem to be a house after all.</p> - -<p>Danniels leaned on the shoulder of Richard, who helped him along -solicitously. They entered a large chamber nearly a hundred feet wide. -There were people there. It wasn't crowded but there were many people -standing around the walls. A lot of them were holding three-foot -lengths of wood.</p> - -<p>Richard led him to a chair, the only one apparent in the room.</p> - -<p>"I'll go tell we're ready now," the small man said, chuckling.</p> - -<p>Danniels looked around slowly at the shadowed faces. Of those holding -clubs, he knew only the man Richard had told him was Joel, the man -who had pulled him from Lake Michigan. Apparently the ones with clubs -were members of the Pack, while the others were observers and potential -members. Among these, he spotted a member of the city council.</p> - -<p>And Julie.</p> - -<p>She stood in a loose sweater and skirt, her hands hugging her elbows, -eyes intent on the empty center of the room. Danniels was reminded of -some of the women he had seen at unorthodox political meetings.</p> - -<p>Danniels was surprised to find that he wanted to talk to her. He might -try hobbling over to her or calling her over to him. But with the -instinct he had developed while being hunted, he knew it was wrong to -call attention to the two of them together.</p> - -<p>He noticed that he was in line with the door. Julie would have to pass -by him when she left ... after the celebration.</p> - -<p>"The celebration begins in five minutes."</p> - -<p>Someone he hadn't seen had shouted into the big room. The words bounced -back slightly and hung suspended.</p> - -<p>The people's waiting became an activity. Tension lived in the room.</p> - -<p>And then the cat was released.</p> - -<p>The Pack members moved apart from the rest and struck at the scrawny -yellow beast. The cat didn't make it very far down the line. The men -from the other end of the room moved up quickly to be in on the kill.</p> - -<p>The clubs rose and fell even after it was clear there was no reason for -it.</p> - -<p>Their ranks parted and they left their handiwork where it could be -admired.</p> - -<p>It must be hard to find animals in a closed city like this, Danniels -thought. It must be quite a treat to find one to beat to death.</p> - -<p>He sat and waited for them to leave. But he found the Celebration was -just beginning. The group was laughing and talking. Now that it was -over they wanted to talk about it the rest of the evening. They had -created death.</p> - -<p>He searched out Julie Amprey again. She was looking at what they did. -He thought she was sick at first. His lips thinned. Yes, she was sick.</p> - -<p>Her eyes suddenly met his. Shock washed over her face, and in the next -moment she was moving to him.</p> - -<p>"So," she said coolly, "you found out my little secret. This is where I -get my kicks."</p> - -<p>He nodded, thinking of nothing to say.</p> - -<p>"Did you ever read them?" she asked breathlessly. "All the old banned -books—Poe and Spillane and Proust. The pornography of death. I grew up -on them, so you see there's no harm in them. Look at me."</p> - -<p>"You want to kill?" Danniels asked her.</p> - -<p>She lit an expensive king-size cigarette. "Yes," she exhaled. "I -thought I might join a Pack on the Outside. But, you'll remember, I -didn't quite make it. I couldn't even kill a cockroach. I want to, but -the damned Broadcasters keep interfering with me."</p> - -<p>Richard came back, smiling broadly. "Well, Abe, has Miss Amprey been -telling you of our plans to ruin the planet?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Danniels was incredibly tired. He had been listening and arguing for -hours.</p> - -<p>"You're a scientist," Joel persisted. "Help us."</p> - -<p>"There are different kinds of scientists," Danniels repeated. "I'm not -a nuclear physicist."</p> - -<p>"Right there." Richard tapped the pink rubber of his pencil against the -map of Cook County. "Right there. An Armory no one else knows anything -about. Enough H-bombs to wipe out human life on the planet. And rockets -to send them in."</p> - -<p>"The councilman may be lying," Danniels said. "How do you think he -should happen to find it and no one else?"</p> - -<p>"The information was in the city records," Richard said patiently, "but -buried and coded so it would take twenty years to locate. Bureaucracy -is an insidious evil, Abe."</p> - -<p>Danniels rubbed his face with his palms. "I'm not even sure if I -understand what you mean to do. You want to rocket the H-bombs out -almost but not quite beyond Earth's gravitation and explode them so the -fallout will be evenly distributed over the surface of the planet. You -think it will cause no more than injury and destruction—"</p> - -<p>"That's all," Joel said sharply.</p> - -<p>Richard gave an eager nod.</p> - -<p>They had had to convince themselves of that, he knew. "But why do you -want to do anything as desperate as that?"</p> - -<p>"Simple revenge." Richard's tone was even and cold. "And to show them -what we can do if they don't cut off the Broadcasters." The small -man's liquid brown eyes softened. "You've got to understand that we -really don't want to kill people. Our actions are merely necessary -demonstrations against insane visionary politics. I only want the -Broadcasters shut off so I can do efficient police work—Joel, so that -he can fight in the ring with the true will to win of a sportsman. The -rest of us have equally good reasons."</p> - -<p>"I think I understand," Danniels said. "I'll do what I can to help you."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Danniels was not surprised when Julie Amprey was in the raiding party. -He was past the capacity for surprise.</p> - -<p>He was getting around on his own today only because he was learning to -stand the pain. It was worse. And he was weak and dizzy from a fever.</p> - -<p>They had all managed to produce bicycles. Richard had even managed to -find one for him with a tiny engine powered by solar-charged batteries.</p> - -<p>Julie looked crisp and attractive in sweater and jeans. Joel was -strikingly handsome in the clear sun, and even Richard looked like a -jolly fatherly type.</p> - -<p>As they wheeled down the street, Danniels was afraid only he with his -wet, tossed green hair and drooping cheeks warped the holiday mood of -those who in some other probability sequence were happy picnickers.</p> - -<p>When they reached the place, Richard giggled nervously.</p> - -<p>"It takes a code to open the hatch," he explained. "If Aldrich didn't -decode it correctly there will be a small but effective chemical -explosion in this area."</p> - -<p>Danniels leaned against a maple, watching. The bicycles were parked -in the brush and a shallow hole had been dug at an exact spot in the -suburban park. Only a few inches below ground was the gray steel door -flush with the level of grass.</p> - -<p>Richard hummed as he worked a prosaic combination dial.</p> - -<p>Finally there was a muffled click and a churning whine began.</p> - -<p>The hatch raised jerkily and latched at right angles.</p> - -<p>The Pack milled about the opening, excited. Joel got the honor of going -down first. Richard seemed to fumble his chance for the glory, Danniels -observed. The other men went down, one and one. And finally only Julie -and Richard were left. He supposed that this meant the girl had been -accepted as a full member of the Wolf Pack. That would change the whole -character of the organization. He vaguely wondered who her sponsor was. -Joel?</p> - -<p>Julie and the little man came to him. They started to help him down -into the opening and suddenly he was at the bottom of a ladder. Things -were beginning to seem to him as if they were taking place underwater.</p> - -<p>They walked down a corridor of shadow, lit only by tarnished yellow -from red sparks caught on the tips of silver wire inside water-clear -bulbs recessed in the concrete ceiling.</p> - -<p>When they passed a certain point sparks showered from slots in opposite -walls. They burned out ineffectively before they reached the floor of -cross-hatched metallic mats.</p> - -<p>"Power failing," Richard observed with a chuckle. "Congress should -investigate the builders."</p> - -<p>There was a large, sliding door many feet thick but so well-balanced it -slid open easily. And they were there.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was a big room full of many little rooms. Each little room had a -door that a man could enter by stooping and a chair-ledge inside for -him to sit and read or adjust instruments. The outside of the rooms -were finished off cleanly in shining metal with large, rugged objects -fitted to all sides. These were hydrogen bombs.</p> - -<p>The Wolf Pack ranged joyously through the maze.</p> - -<p>Danniels found one of several stacks of small instruments and sat down -on it. The things looked like radios but obviously weren't.</p> - -<p>Richard came to him, wringing his hands. "These bombs seemed to be -designed to be dropped from bombers. There are supposed to be rockets -here too. I hope the H-bombs will fit. They seem so bulky...."</p> - -<p>"Perhaps the rockets have self-contained bomb units," Danniels -suggested.</p> - -<p>"Perhaps. We're all going off and try to find the rockets. You'd be -amazed at all the cutoffs down here. I'll leave Joel here to look after -you."</p> - -<p>Danniels sat on the instruments. Joel stayed several hundred feet away, -an uncertain shadow in the light, smoking a red dot of a cigarette. -Somehow Danniels associated fire and munitions instead of atomics and -felt uneasy.</p> - -<p>He discovered Julie Amprey at his side. She didn't say anything. She -seemed to be sulking. Like a spoiled brat, he thought.</p> - -<p>He fingered one of the portable instruments from an open crate beside -him. "Wonder what these are?" he said to break up the heavy silence.</p> - -<p>"Pseudo-H Bombs," the girl snapped.</p> - -<p>Of course. Just as money had to be backed by gold or silver reserves, -every pseudo bomb or mock-gas had to be backed by the real thing which, -after its representative had been used, was dismantled, neutralized or -retired. International inspection saw to that.</p> - -<p>"There's enough here to blow up the whole world ... if they were -real," Danniels said.</p> - -<p>The girl pointed out into the chamber. "Those <i>are</i> real."</p> - -<p>Each nation had many times over the nuclear armament necessary to -destroy human life. There was enough for that right in this vault—both -in reality and in the Games.</p> - -<p>Danniels stopped drifting and took a course. He stopped observing and -began to act. There was a mob in action.</p> - -<p>Even if they did somehow manage not to kill off the population with the -fallout they were engineering, they would ruin farmland, create new -recessive mutations.</p> - -<p>Famine would cease to be a psychological affliction for half the world -and become a physiological reality instead ... for all the world.</p> - -<p>He had failed in his plans to end the psychological Famine because of -his own attunement to the Broadcasters. He wouldn't fail in stopping -the new physiological Famine.</p> - - -<p>V</p> - -<p>"Put that thing down," Joel said. "I don't trust you any further than -I can spit, and that looks like a radio. You trying to warn the city -council?"</p> - -<p>Danniels put down the instrument. One wouldn't do it, and he could -tell from Joel's eyes that he would get a very bad experience out of -disobeying him.</p> - -<p>"You were going to do something," Julie said. "What were you trying to -do with that pseudie?"</p> - -<p>"How do you know so much about this stuff?" Danniels demanded.</p> - -<p>"My father told me all he found out from the records. He's Councilman -Aldrich."</p> - -<p>He rested his eyes for a second. "But your name—?" he heard himself -say.</p> - -<p>"My stepfather, I should have said. Mother married him when I was two. -<i>What were you going to do?</i>"</p> - -<p>"I," he said, "intended to end it all. All of this. All of it Outside. -End everything."</p> - -<p>The girl turned from him.</p> - -<p>"Then why don't you do it?"</p> - -<p>"You mean you don't want our friends to succeed in torturing a sick -world?"</p> - -<p>"I don't like pain," she said. "There's something clean, positive -and challenging about killing. I'd like to kill. But pain seems so -pointless. If you can stop them, go ahead. I'll help you."</p> - -<p>He was exhausted and in fever. "Joel won't let me."</p> - -<p>"Then—kill him," she said.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He knew it was all useless, tired, stale, unrewarding. It was done. -He was nothing, and the girl was less. The Pack would succeed and a -tortured world would die of a greater famine because he had failed all -down the line. And he blamed himself for making a mistake that actually -was unimportant. For a moment, he had trusted the girl.</p> - -<p>"You <i>can</i> kill him." Julie turned back and faced him. "How much do you -think those Broadcasters can really control human beings? We aren't -fighting wars because we don't want to. We've finally seen what war can -do and we're scared. We've retreated. The human race is hiding just -like you are now."</p> - -<p>Danniels laughed.</p> - -<p>She lunged forward, tense. For a moment he thought she had actually -stamped her foot. "It's true, you fool! Doesn't the actions of these -men prove it to you? They are going to risk destroying the planet. If -pacifism really controlled them do you think they could do that?"</p> - -<p>He mumbled something about Wolf Pack members.</p> - -<p>"There's never been any law or moral credo that human beings couldn't -break and justify within themselves some way," Julie intoned carefully. -"People can do the same with the induced precepts of the Broadcasters. -If you really want to stop them, you can—by killing Joel and going -ahead."</p> - -<p>"Maybe later," Danniels mumbled. "I'll think about it."</p> - -<p>Julie slapped his face. He wondered why he didn't feel it.</p> - -<p>"You don't have much time left," Julie whispered. "Don't you know -what's wrong with your foot? <i>Gangrene.</i> You have to get those toes -amputated soon or you'll die."</p> - -<p>"Yes," he said numbly. "Must get amputation." But it didn't seem -urgent. He felt he should get some rest first.</p> - -<p>"It's too bad you can't allow the operation," the girl said sweetly. -"You can't allow lives to be destroyed just to save your own -personality."</p> - -<p>"What lives?" he demanded.</p> - -<p>"All the cells and microorganisms in your toes," Julie told him. "You -know they'll <i>die</i> if you are operated on. Are they any worse than the -little bacteria you refused to murder? I suppose it's just as well that -you die. How can you stand it on your conscience to breathe all the -time and burn up innocent germs in your foul breath?"</p> - -<p>Danniels understood. To live was to kill.</p> - -<p>Every instant he lived his old cells were dying and new ones being -born. So Danniels, who thought he could not kill any living thing, -finally accepted himself as a killer. It wasn't human life he was -taking ... but it was life.</p> - -<p>If he could be wrong about taking any life at all—and he had always -believed himself unable to kill anything—he might be wrong about being -able to kill men. In spite of everything he had been taught and what he -believed about the influence of the Broadcasters.</p> - -<p>He studied Joel in the gloom. The man represented everything he -loathed—stupidity, brutality, the mob. If I can kill anyone, he told -himself, it should be Joel.</p> - -<p>He could try. Yes, he could. And that was a victory in itself.</p> - -<p>He moved, and that was another triumph over the physical defeat that -was already upon him.</p> - -<p>Joel looked up, narrow eyes widened, as Danniels came down on him.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Danniels caught him in the stomach with the flat of his palm and shoved -up.</p> - -<p>Joel gargled in the back of his throat and rammed his thumbs for the -prisoner's eyes. Danniels nodded and caught the balls of the thumbs on -his forehead. He brought his fist up sharply and hit Joel on the point -of the chin. His head snapped but righted itself slowly. He lashed into -Danniels' body with both eager hands and Danniels, weakened, went down -before he had time to think about it.</p> - -<p>From the crazy angle of the floor he saw far above him Joel's lips curl -back and closer, further down, a shoe was lifted to kick. It was aimed -at Danniels' swollen foot.</p> - -<p>Danniels smiled. He shouldn't have done that. If he had acted like a -man instead of an animal he would have been fine. But now ... Danniels -rolled over quickly against the one leg of Joel's firmly on the floor. -Off balance, Joel fell backwards with a curse, the back of his skull -ringing against the side of one of the bombs.</p> - -<p>Exertion was painting red lines across his vision but Danniels climbed -to his knees, put his hands to Joel's corded throat and squeezed.</p> - -<p>Yes. He knew he could kill. A few more seconds and he would be dead.</p> - -<p>Danniels stopped.</p> - -<p>There was no need to kill the boy. He would be unconscious long enough -for him to do his job. And he found that fear had left him. He was no -longer afraid of killing small things, because he was no longer afraid -of killing men.</p> - -<p>He had been able to kill when he had to, but more important, he had -been able to keep from killing when it wasn't needed. He didn't need to -be afraid of the old blood-lust—because he knew now he could best it.</p> - -<p>And Julie had seen. She had seen something she had never believed -was possible. That a man could keep from being a savage without the -restraints of the Broadcasters or of society.</p> - -<p>He limped to the stacked pseudies and sat down. "Now we can make it -clean, Julie. We can end the whole mess. Ready?"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="345" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Yes," she told him.</p> - -<p>He picked up a pseudie and threw the switch.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The radio signal went out, and all over the world receivers noted -a pseudo explosion in the heart of a Disaster Area. Danniels could -imagine the men in the council room in the heart of the city seeing the -flash and feeling the doom of a renewed twenty years of isolation and -heading for the exact spot of the flash.</p> - -<p>More signals flashed. And flashed. And flashed.</p> - -<p>And he thought of the people all over the world wondering about the -devastating sneak attack on the United States, and the incredible -readings of the instruments.</p> - -<p>"Keep working," Danniels said. "The Wolf Pack or the officials from -the city will be here soon. I hope it's a dead heat. But," he said, "I -think we've done it. But we can keep working on the safety margin."</p> - -<p>"What have we done, Abe?" Julie asked trustingly.</p> - -<p>He was going to feel foolish saying it. "We have just blown up the -world according to the official records of the War Games."</p> - -<p>"Then they'll have to start over," she said.</p> - -<p>"Maybe," Danniels whispered. "If they do, we'll all start even. -Everybody's a Jonah. The world is a Disaster Area. Maybe they'll start -the War Games over. Or maybe they'll try the real thing again, now that -they've seen how easy it is with pseudies."</p> - -<p>He felt the numb foot and knew he would have to have an emergency -operation if he survived the mobs that were coming. But he had a way of -surviving mobs. He looked at Julie. He would see that their children -could eat.</p> - -<p>"At least," he said, triggering another H-bomb for the world's records, -"it isn't a bad day when the world has been given a fresh slate, a new -start."</p> - -<p>There were footsteps outside, coming closer.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Place Where Chicago Was, by Jim Harmon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLACE WHERE CHICAGO WAS *** - -***** This file should be named 51832-h.htm or 51832-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/8/3/51832/ - -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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Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/51832-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/51832-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 29725a2..0000000 --- a/old/51832-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51832-h/images/illus1.jpg b/old/51832-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 810274c..0000000 --- a/old/51832-h/images/illus1.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51832-h/images/illus2.jpg b/old/51832-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 8f3e8bc..0000000 --- a/old/51832-h/images/illus2.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51832-h/images/illus3.jpg b/old/51832-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4ea8b17..0000000 --- a/old/51832-h/images/illus3.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51832.txt b/old/51832.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 888300c..0000000 --- a/old/51832.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1894 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Place Where Chicago Was, by Jim Harmon - -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: The Place Where Chicago Was - -Author: Jim Harmon - -Release Date: April 22, 2016 [EBook #51832] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLACE WHERE CHICAGO WAS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - THE PLACE WHERE CHICAGO WAS - - By JIM HARMON - - Illustrated by COWLES - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Magazine February 1962. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - Well, they finally got rid of war. For the first - time there was peace on Earth--since the only - possible victims were the killers themselves! - - -It was late December of 1983. Abe Danniels knew that the streets and -sidewalks of Jersey City moved under their own power and that half the -families in America owned their own helicopters. He was pleased with -these signs of progress. But he was sweating. He thought he was getting -athlete's foot instead of athletic legs from walking from the New -Jersey coast to just outside of Marshall, Illinois. - -The heat was unbearable. - -The road shimmered before him in rows of sticky black ribbon, on which -nothing moved. Nothing but him. - -He passed a signal post that said "Caution--Slow" in a gentle but -commanding voice. He staggered on toward a reddish metallic square set -on a thin column of bluish concrete. It was what they called a sign, he -decided. - -Danniels drooped against the sign and fanned his face with his -sweat-ringed straw cowboy hat. The thing seemed to have something to -say about the mid-century novelist, James Jones, in short, terse words. - -The rim of the hat crumpled in his fist. He stood still and listened. - -There _was_ a car coming. - -It would almost _have_ to stop, he reasoned. A man couldn't stand much -of this Illinois winter heat. The driver might leave him to die on the -road if he didn't stop. Therefore he would stop. - -He jerked out the small pouch from the sash of his jeans. Inside the -special plastic the powder was dry. He rubbed some between his hands -briskly, to build up the static electricity, and massaged it into his -hair. - -The metal of the Jones plaque was fairly shiny. Under the beating noon -sun it cast a pale reflection back at Danniels. His hair looked a -reasonably uniform white now. - -He started to draw the string on the pouch, then dipped his hand in and -scooped his palm up to his mouth. He chewed on the stuff while he was -securing the nearly flat bag in his sash. He swallowed the dough; the -powder had been flour. - -Danniels took the hat from beneath his arm, set it to his head and at -last faced the direction of the engine whine. - -The roof, hood and wheels moved over the curve of the horizon and -Danniels saw that the car was a brandless classic which probably still -had some of the original, indestructible Model A left in it. - -He pondered a moment on whether to thumb or not to thumb. - -He thumbed. - -The rod squealed to a stop exactly even with him. A door unfolded and a -voice like a stop signal said flatly, "Get in." - -Danniels got in. The driver was a teen-ager in a loose scarlet tunic -and a spangled W.P.A. cap. The youth wouldn't have been bad-looking -except for a sullen expression and a rather girlish turn of cheek, -completely devoid of beard line. Danniels wrote him off as a -prospective member of the Wolf Pack in a year or two. - -But not just yet, he fervently hoped. - -"Going far? I'm not," said the driver. - -Danniels adjusted the knees of his trousers. "I'm going to--near where -Chicago used to be." - -"Huh?" - -Danniels had forgotten the youth of his companion. "I mean I'm going to -where you can't go any further." - -The driver nodded smugly, relieved that the threat to the vastness of -his knowledge had been dismissed. "I get you, Pop. I guess I can take -you close to where you're headed." - -They rode on in silence, both relieved that they didn't have to try to -span the void between age and position with words. - -"You aren't anywhere near starvation, are you?" the driver said -suddenly, uneasy. - -"No," Danniels said. "Anyway I've got money." - -"Woodrow Wilson! I'll pull in at the next joint." - - * * * * * - -The next joint was carved out of the flat cross-section of hill that -looked unmistakably like a strip ridge of a Colorado copper mine, but -wasn't ... even barring the fact that this was Illinois. The rectangle -of visible dinner was color-fused aluminum from between No. Two and -Korea. - -Danniels was glad to get into the shockingly cold air-conditioning. -It was constant, if unhealthy. The chugging unit in the car failed a -heartbeat every now and then for a sickening wave of heat. - -The two of them pulled up wire chairs to a linoleum-top table in a -mirrored corner. A faint purple hectographed menu was stuck between -appropriately colored plastic squeeze bottles labeled MUSTARD and BLOOD. - -Danniels knew what the menu would say but he unfolded it and checked. - - _Steaks_ - - Plankton .90 - - Juicy, rich-red tantalizing hamburger .17 - - - _Accessories_ - - Mashed potatoes .40 - - Delectable oysters, all you can eat .09 - - Peas .35 - - Rich, fragrant cheese, large slice .02 - - - _Drinks_ - - Coke .50 - - Milk, the forbidden wine of nature .01 - - Coffee (without) .50 - - Coffee (with) .02 - -A fat girl in white came to the table. - -Danniels tossed the menu on the table. "I'll take the meat dinner," he -said. - -The teen-ager stared hard at the table top. "So will I." - -"Good citizens," the waitress said, but the revulsion crept into her -voice over the professional hardness. - -Danniels looked carefully at his companion. "You aren't used to -ordering meat." - -"Pop," the youth began. Danniels waited to be told that being short of -cash was none of his business. "Pop, on my leg. Kill it, kill it!" - -Danniels leaned over the table startled and curious. A cockroach was -feeling its way along a thin meridian of vari-colored jeans. Danniels -pinched it up without injuring it and deposited it on the floor. It -scurried away. - -"Your kind make me sick," the driver said in lieu of thanks. "You act -like a Fanatic but you're a Meat-Eater. How do you blesh that?" - - * * * * * - -Danniels shrugged. He did not have to explain anything to this kid. He -couldn't be stranded. - -The kid was under the same encephalographic inversion as the rest of -the world. No human being could directly or indirectly commit murder, -as long as the broadcasting stations every nation on earth maintained -in self-defense continued to function. - -These mechanical brain waves coated every mind with enforced pacifism. -They could have just as easily broadcast currents that would have made -minds swell with love or happiness. But world leaders had universally -agreed that these conditions were too narcotic for the common people to -endure. - -Pacifism was vital to the survival of the planet. - -War could not go on killing; but governments still had to go on winning -wars. War became a game. The International War Games were held every -two years. With pseudo-H bombs and mock-germ warfare, countries still -effectively eliminated cities and individuals. A "destroyed" city -was off-limits for twenty years. Nothing could go in or out for that -period. Most cities had provided huge food deposits for emergencies. - -Before the Famine. - -Some minds were more finely attuned to the encephalographic inversion -than others. People so in tune with the wavelength of pacifism could -not only not kill another human being, they could not even kill an -animal. Vegetarianism was thrust upon a world not equipped for it. -Some--like Danniels--who could not kill, still found themselves able -to eat what others had killed. Others who could not kill or eat _any_ -once-living thing--even plants--rapidly starved to death. They were -quickly forgotten. - -Almost as forgotten as the Jonahs. - -The War Dead. - -Any soldier or civilian "killed" outside of a major disaster area -(where he would be subject to the twenty years) became a man without -a country--or a world. They were tagged with green hair by molecular -exchange and sent on their way to starve, band together, reach a -disaster area (where they would be accepted for the duration of the -disaster), or starve. - -Anyone who in any way communicated with a Jonah or even recognized the -existence of one automatically became a Jonah himself. - -It was harsh. And if it wasn't better than war it was quieter. - -And more permanent. - -The counterman with a greasy apron and hairy forearms served the -plates. The meat had been lightly glazed to bring out the aroma and -flavor but the blood was still a pink sheen on the ground meat. There -were generous side dishes of cheese and milk. Even animal by-products -were passed up by the majority of vegetarians. Eggs had been the first -to be dropped--after all, every egg was a potential life. Milk and -associated products came to be spurned through sheer revulsion by -association. Besides, milk was intended only to feed the animal's own -offspring, wasn't it? - - * * * * * - -Danniels squirted blood generously from its squeeze bottle. Even -vegetarians used a lot of it. It gave their plankton the gory look the -human animal craved. Of course it was not really blood, only a kind of -tomato paste. When Danniels had been a boy people called it catsup. - -He tried to dig into his steak with vengeance but it tasted of ashes. -Meat was his favorite food; he was in no way a vegetarian. But the -thought of the Famine haunted him. Vegetable food was high in price -and ration points. Most people were living on 2500 calories a day. It -wasn't quite starvation and it wasn't quite a full stomach. It was -hard on anybody who did more than an average amount of work. It was -especially hard on children. - -The Meat-Eaters helped relieve the situation. Some, with only the -minimum of influence from the Broadcasters, ate nothing but meat. -They were naturally aggressive morons who were doing no one favors, -potential members of a Wolf Pack. - -Danniels knew how to end the Famine. - -The mob that was the men he had commanded had hunted him in the hills -below Buffalo, and he had been hungry, with no time to eat, or rest, or -sleep. Only enough time to think. He couldn't stop thinking. Panting -over a smothered spark of campfire, smoldering moss and leaves, he -thought. Drinking sparkling but polluted water from a twisting mountain -stream and trying unsuccessfully to trap silver shavings of fish with -his naked hands, he thought. - -His civilian job was that of a genopseudoxenobeastimacroiologist, a -specialized field with peacetime applications that had come out of the -War Games--specialized to an almost comic-opera intensity. He knew -virtually everything about almost nothing at all. Yet, delirious with -hunger, from this he fashioned in his mind a way to provide food for -everybody. Even Jonahs. - -After they caught him--weeks before the Tag spot would have faded -off--he wasn't sure whether his idea had been a sick dream or not. But -he intended to find out. He wouldn't let any other mob stop him from -that. - -Danniels had decided he was against mobs, whether their violence and -stupidity was social or anti-social. People are better as individuals. - -The driver of the hot-rod was also picking at his food uncertainly. -Probably a social vegetarian, Danniels supposed. An irresponsible -faddist. - -The counterman stopped staring and cleared his throat apologetically. -"This ain't the Ritz but it don't look good for customers to sit with -hats on." - -Danniels knew that applied to only non-vegetarians, but he put his -Stetson, reluctantly, on an aluminum tree. - - * * * * * - -The teen-ager looked up. And did not go back to the food. Danniels knew -that he had been found out. - -The counterman went back to wiping down the bar. - -The youth was still looking at Danniels. - -"You better eat if you don't want me to be discovered," Danniels said -gently. - -Young eyes moved back and forth, searching, not finding. - -"It won't do you any good to run," Danniels continued. "The waitress -and the counterman will swear they had nothing to do with me. But you -were driving me, eating with me." - -"You can't let even a Jonah die," the youngster said in a hoarse -whisper that barely carried across the table. - -Danniels shook his head sadly. "It won't work. You might have slowed -down enough to let me grab onto the rear bumper or tossed me out some -food. But you took me into your car, sat down at a table with me." - -"And this is the thanks I get!" - -Danniels felt his face flush. "Look, son, this isn't a game where you -can afford to play by good sportsmanship. That's somebody else's rules, -designed to make sure you get at least no better a break than anyone -else. You have to play by your rules--designed to give _you_ the best -possible break. Let's get out of here." - -He wolfed the last bite and jammed his hat back on his head, pulling it -down about his ears. The sweat band had rubbed the flour off his hair -in a narrow band. A band of green. The mark of the Jonah. - -In the last war games, Danniels had come into the sights of a -Canadian's diffusion rifle. For six months he had worn a cancerous -badge of luminosity over his heart. Until his comrades had trapped him -and through a system similar to the one their rifles employed turned -his hair to green and cast him out. - -Danniels scooped up both checks and with deep pain paid both of them to -save time. He wanted to get his companion out of there before he broke. - -The heat struck at their faces like jets of boiling water. The -authorities said nuclear explosion had had nothing to do with changing -climatic conditions so radically, but _something_ had. - -The two of them were walking towards the parked car when the Wolf Pack -got to them. - - -II - -The horrible part was that Danniels knew they wouldn't kill him. No one -could kill. - -But the members of the Wolf Packs wanted to. They were the professional -soldiers, policemen, prizefighters and gangsters of a society that had -rejected them. They were able to resist some of the pacifism of the -Broadcasters. In fact, they were able to resist quite a lot. - -The first one was a round-shouldered little man with silver spectacles. -He kicked Danniels in the pit of the stomach with steel-shod toes. A -clean-cut athletic boy grabbed the running teen-ager and ripped the -red tunic halfway off. From the pavement Danniels at last isolated the -doubt that had been nagging him. His companion wore a tight tee-shirt -under the coat. She was a girl. - -Danniels saw a heavy shoe aimed at his face but it went far afield. -Running feet went past him completely. - -He was left alone, unharmed, with only the breath knocked out of him -momentarily. - -They were closing in on the girl who had picked him up. - -This Pack was all men, although there were female and co-ed groups -just as vicious. Beating up a girl, Danniels knew, would give an added -sexual kick to their usual masochosadism. - -They were a Pack. A mob. They were like the soldiers who had hunted him -down and had him permanently tagged a Jonah. His men had been looked -upon favorably by his society, while the Wolf Pack was so ill-favored -it was completely ignored in absolute contempt. But they were the same -in the essentials: a mob. - -And once again Danniels, who was incapable of harming the smallest -living creature, wanted to kill men. But he couldn't. - -All his life he had experienced this mad fury of desire and it shamed -him. He wanted to destroy men of stupidity, greed and brutality on -sight. Any other kind of conflict with them was weak compromise. - -At times, he wondered if this atavistic if pro-survival trait had -not shamed him so much that he over-compensated for it by violently -refusing to take any kind of life. Like all men of his time, he asked -himself: how much of my mind is the Broadcasters' and how much me? - -If he couldn't destroy, he could defend. - -With the idea still only half-formed, he lurched to his feet and -stumbled into the side of the hot-rod. He fumbled open the heated metal -door and slid under the wheel. - -He thumbed the drive on savagely and roared down on the mob. - -Rubber screamed, whined and smelled as he applied the brakes just soon -enough for the men to jump out of the way--away from the girl. - -He folded back the door he hadn't latched, leaned down, grabbed the -teen-ager by the leg and dragged her bruised form bumping up into the -car. - -The little man with silver glasses tried to reach into the car. - -Danniels swung the door back into his face. - -The glasses didn't break; but everything else did. - -With one foot under the girl and the other on her, Danniels tagged the -illegal acceleration wire most cars had rigged under the dashboard and -raced away into the brassy sunshine. - - * * * * * - -She was slouched against his shoulder when the stars blazed out in the -moonless night. - -Tires hummed beneath them and their headlights ate up the white-striped -typewriter ribbon before them. - -The girl opened her eyes, hesitated as they focused on the weave -pattern of denim in his shirt, and said, "Where are they?" - -"Back there some place," Danniels told her. "They followed in their -cars, a couple on motorcycles. But they must have been scared of -traffic cops on the main highway. They dropped out." - -She sat up and ran her fingers through her cropped mouse-colored hair. -Her quick glance at him was questioning; but she answered her own -question and reluctantly absorbed the truth of it. She knew he knew. - -The girl huddled in the tatters of her bright tunic. - -"Just what do you expect to get out of helping me?" she asked. - -Danniels kept his eyes on the road. "A free trip to Chicago." - -"You'll get us both arrested!" she shrilled. "Nobody can get past those -roadblocks." - -He nodded to himself, not caring if she saw the gesture in the -uncertain light from the auto gauges. - -"All right," she admitted. "I know what Chicago is. That's no crime." - -"You ought to," Danniels said. "You're from there." - -She was tired. It was a moment before she could continue fighting. -"That's foolish--" - -He hadn't been sure. If she hadn't hesitated he might have given up the -notion. - -"That getup was what was foolish," Danniels snorted. "Anybody would -know you were trying to hide something as soon as they found out the -masquerade." - -"You wouldn't have found it out," she said, "if one of that Pack hadn't -torn my jacket off." - -"I really don't know. It might be animal magnetism, if there is such a -thing. But I can't be around a woman for long without knowing it. I -repeat: why?" - -"I--I didn't know what they would do to a girl outside." - -"For Peace sake, why did you have to come out at all?" - -The girl was silent for a mile. - -"Most Chicagoans think the rest of the world has reverted to -barbarism," she told him. - -"A common complaint of city dwellers," he observed. - -"Don't joke!" she demanded. "Our food is running out. We have enough to -last five more years if the present birth-death cycle maintains itself." - - * * * * * - -Danniels whistled mournfully. - -"And you have--let's see--about seven more years to go." - -She nodded. - -"I came out to see what chance there was of ending this senseless -blockade." - -"None at all," he snapped. "No one is going to risk breaking the rules -of the War Games just to save a few million lives." - -"But they will have to! The Broadcasters will make them." - -"You would be surprised at how much doublethink people can practice -about not killing," he assured her from bitter, personal experience. -"They don't _know_ for certain that you will be starving in there, so -they will be free to keep you inside." - -The girl straightened her shoulders, emphasizing the femininity of her -slender form. - -"We'll tell them," she said. "_I'll_ tell them." - -Danniels almost smiled, but not quite. His hands tightened on the -steering wheel and he kept his eyes to the moving circle of light -against the night. - -"You open your mouth about Chicago to the authorities or anyone else -and they will slap you under sedation and keep you there until you -die of old age. They used to drop escapees back into the cities by -parachute. But too many of them were inadvertently killed; they are -more subtle these days. By the way," he said very casually, "how _did_ -you escape?" - -She told him where to go in a primitive, timeless fashion. - -"No," Danniels said. "I'm going to Chicago." - -"Not with me," the girl assured him quietly. "We have enough to feed -without bringing in another Jonah. Besides you might be an F.B.I. man -or something trying to find our escape route." - -"I'd be a Mountie then. The F.B.I. has deteriorated pretty badly. Spent -itself on political security. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police lends -us men and women during peacetime. Up until the War Games anyway--even -though Britain would like to see us _constantly_ disrupted. But," he -said heavily, "I am not a government agent of any kind. Just the Jonah -I appear to be." - - * * * * * - -She shivered. "I can't take the responsibility. I can't either expose -our escape route--or bring in another mouth, to bring starvation a -moment closer." - -"Look, what can I call you?" he demanded in exasperation. - -"Julie. Julie Amprey." - -"Abe Danniels. Look, Julie--" - -"You were named after Lincoln?" she asked quietly. - -"A long time after. Look, Julie, I want to get into Chicago because of -the old Milne Laboratories." He caught his breath for a long second. -"They are still standing?" - -Julie nodded and looked ahead, through the insect-spotted windscreen. -"Partial operation, when I left." - -Danniels gave a low whistle. "Lord, after all these years!" - -"We manage." - -"Fine! Julie, I'm sure that if I can get back in a laboratory I can -find a way of ending this condemned Famine--inside Chicago and outside." - -"That sounds a little like delusions of grandeur to me," the girl said -uncertainly. - -"It was my field for ten years. Before the last War Games. I had time -to think while my platoon was hunting me down, after I had been tagged -out. I thought faster than I ever thought before." - -Julie studied his face for a long moment. - -"What was your idea?" - -"The encephalographic inversion patterns of the Broadcasters," he said -quickly, "can be applied to animals as well as human beings, on the -right frequencies. Even microscopic animals. Bacteria. If you control -the actions of bacteria, you control their reproduction. They could -be made to multiply and assume different forms--the form of food, for -example." - -Danniels took a deep breath and plunged into his idea as they drove on -through the deepening night. He talked and explained to her, and, in -doing so, he clarified points that he hadn't been sure of himself. - -He stopped at last because his throat was momentarily too dry to -continue. - -"It's too big a responsibility for me," Julie said. - -Defeat stung him so badly he was afraid he had slumped physically. But -it won't be permanent defeat, he told himself. I've come this far and -I'll find some other way into Chicago. - -"I haven't the right to turn down something this big," Julie said. -"I'll have to let you put it to the mayor and the city council." - -He relaxed a trifle, condemning himself for the weak luxury. He -couldn't afford it yet. He ran his fingers through his flour-dusted -green hair and the electricity of the movement dragged off much of the -whiteness. His skin, like that of most people, had been given a slight -negative charge by molecularization to repell dirt and germs. The -powder was anxious to remove itself and dye or bleach refused to take -at all. - -"We're nearing the rim of the first blockade zone," Danniels told the -girl. "Where to?" - -"Circle around to first unrestricted beach of the lake shore." - -"And then." - -"Underwater." - - * * * * * - -Illegal traffic in and out of Disaster Areas was not completely unheard -of. There was a small but steady flow both ways that the authorities -could not or would not completely check. The patrols seemingly were -as alert as humanly possible. Capture meant permanent oblivion for -Disaster Residents under sedation, while Outsiders got prescribed -periods of Morphinvert-induced antipode depression of the brain, a -rather sophisticated but effective form of torture. A few minutes -under the drug frequently had an introspective duration of years. -Therefore, under the typical sentence of three months, a felon lived -several lifetimes in constant but varying stages of acute agony and -post-hysteric terror. - -While few personalities survived, many useful human machines were later -salvaged by skillful lobotomies. - -Lake Michigan beaches were pretty good, Danniels observed. Better than -at Hawaii. This one had been cleaned up for a sub-division that had -naturally never been completed. It had been christened Falstaff Cove, -although it was almost a mathematically straight half mile of off-white -sand. - -He had shifted to four-wheel drive at the girl's direction and bored -through the sand to the southernmost corner of the beach, where it -blurred into weeds, rocks, dirt and incredible litter. He braked. The -car settled noticeably. - -"There's a two-man submarine out there in the water under the -overhang," Julie said without prompting. "We got it from the Armed -Forces Day display at Soldier's Field." - -"What I'd like to know is how you get the car in and out of it?" -Danniels said. - -Anger, disgust and fatigue crossed the girl's face. It was after all, -a very young face, he thought. "We have Outside contacts of sorts," she -said. "Nobody trusts them very much." - -He nodded. There was a lot of money in the Federal Reserve Vaults -inside the city. - -The two of them got out of the car. - -Julie stripped off her jeans, revealing the bottom half of a swimsuit -and nicely turned, but pale, legs. "We'll have to wade out to the sub." - -"What about the car?" Danniels asked. "Is your friend going to pick it -up?" - -"No! They don't know about this place." - -He reached in the window and turned the ignition. "Want me to run -it off into the water? You don't want to tag this spot for the -authorities." - -"No, I--I guess not. I don't know what to do! I'm not used to this kind -of thing. I don't know why I _ever_ come. We paid an awful lot for the -car...." - -He found the girl's wailing unpleasant. "It's your car, but take my -advice. Let me get rid of it for you." - -"But," she protested, "if you run it into the water they can see from -the air in daylight. I know. They used to spot our sub. Why not run it -off into those weeds and little trees? They'll hide it and maybe we -could get it later." - -It wasn't a bad idea but he didn't feel like admitting it. He gunned -the rod into the tangle of undergrowth. - - * * * * * - -Danniels came back to the girl with his arms and face laced with -scratches from the limbs. - -He tried to roll his trousers up at the cuff but they wouldn't stay. So -he would spend a soggy ten minutes while they dried. - -He told the girl to go ahead and he went after her, marking the spongy -wet sand and slapping into the white-scummed, very blue water. - -The tiny submarine was just where Julie had said it would be. He waited -impatiently as she worked the miniature airlock. - -They squeezed down into the metallic hollowness of the interior and -Julie screwed the hatch shut, a Mason lid inappropriately on a can of -sardines. - -There were a lot of white-on-black dials that completely baffled -Danniels. He had never been particularly mechanically minded. His field -was closer to pure science than practical engineering. Because of this, -rather than in spite of it, he had great respect for engineering. - -It bothered him being in such close quarters with a woman after the -months of isolation as a Jonah, but he had enough of the conventions -of society fused into him and enough other problems to attempt easing -his discomfort. - -"It isn't much further," Julie at last assured him. - -He was becoming bored to the point of hysteria. For the past several -months he hadn't had much diversion but he had not been confined to -what was essentially an oil drum wired for light and sound. - -One of the lights changed size and pattern. - -He found himself tensing. "That?" He pointed. - -"Sonadar," Julie hissed. "Patrol boat above us. Don't make any noise." - -Danniels pictured the heavily equipped police boat droning past above -them and managed to keep quite silent. - -Something banged on the hull. - -It came from the outside and it rang against the port side, then the -starboard. The rhythm was the same, unbroken. Danniels knew somehow the -noise from both sides were made by the same agency. Something with a -twelve-foot reach. - -Something that knew the Morse code. - -Da-da-da. Dit-dit-dit. Da-da-da. - -S. O. S. - -_Help._ - -"It's not the police," Julie said. "We've heard it before." She added, -"They used to dump non-dangerous amounts of radioactives into the -lake," as she decided the police boat had gone past and started up the -engines again. - -Danniels never forgot that call for help. Not as long as he lived. - - -III - -The electron microscope revealed no significant change in the pattern -of the bacteria. - -Danniels decided to feed the white mice. He got out of his plastic -chair and took a small cloth bag of corn from the warped, sticking -drawer of the lab table. - -Rationing out a handful of the withered kernels, he went down the rows -of cages. A few, with steel instead of aluminum wiring, were flecked -with rust. The mice inside were all healthy. Danniels was not using -them in experiments; he was incapable of taking their lives. But -some experimenter after him might use them. In any case, he was also -incapable of letting them starve to death. - -He had been out of jail less than two weeks. - -The city council had thrown him into the Cook County lockup until they -decided what to do with him. He hadn't known what happened to the girl, -Julie Amprey, for bringing him back with her. - -He was surprised to see Chicago functioning as well as it was after -thirteen years of isolation. There were still a few cars and trucks -running here and there, although most people walked or rode bicycles. -But the atmosphere seemed heavy and the buildings dirtier than ever. -The city had the aura of oppression and decay he thought of as -belonging to nineteenth century London. - -Danniels had waited out New Year's and St. Valentine's in a cell -between a convicted burglar and an endless parade of drunks. Finally, -two weeks ago the mayor himself came, apologizing profusely but without -much feeling. Danniels was escorted to the old Milne Laboratory -buildings and told to go to work on his idea. He had, they said, two -weeks to produce. And he was getting nowhere. - -His deadline was up. The deadline of the real world. But the one he had -given himself was much, much more pressing. - -"You'll kill yourself if you don't get some sleep," the girl's voice -said behind his back. - -Danniels closed the drawer on the nearly depleted sack of grain. It was -the girl. Julie Amprey. He had been expecting her but not anticipating -her. He didn't like her very much. The only reason he could conceive -for her venture Outside was a search for thrills. It might be -understandable, if immature, in a man; but he found it unattractive in -a woman. He had no illusions about masculine superiority, but women -were socially, if not physically and emotionally, ill-equipped for -simple adventuring. - -Julie was more attractive dressed in a woman's clothes, even if they -were a dozen years out of style. Her hair had a titian glint. She was -perhaps really too slender for the green knit dress. - - * * * * * - -"It's a big job," he said. "I'm beginning to think it's a lifetime job." - -He half-turned and motioned awkwardly at the lab table and the naked -piece of electronics. - -"That's the encephalographic projector I jury-rigged," he explained. - -"You can spare me the fifty-cent tour," Julie said. - -He wondered how she had managed to get so irritating in such a short -lifetime. "There's not much else to see," Danniels grunted. "I've got -some reaction out of the bacteria, but I can't seem to control their -reproduction or channel them into a food-producing cycle." - -Julie tossed her head. - -"Oh, I can tell you why you haven't done that," she said. - -He didn't like the way she said that. "Why?" - -"You don't _want_ to control them," Julie said simply. "If you really -control them, you'll cause some to be recessive. You'll breed some -strains out of existence. You'll _kill_ some of them. And you don't -want to kill any living thing." - -She was wrong. - -He wanted to kill her. - -But he couldn't. She was right about the bacteria. He should have -realized it before. He had planned for almost a year, and worked for -two weeks; and this girl had walked in and destroyed everything in five -minutes. But she was right; he spun towards the door. - -"Where are you going?" she demanded. - -"I'm leaving. See what somebody else can do with the idea." - -"But where are you going?" Julie repeated. - -"Nowhere." - -And he was absolutely right. - -Danniels walked aimlessly through the littered streets for the rest of -the day and night. He couldn't remember walking at night, but neither -could he remember staying anywhere when he discovered dawn in the sky. - -It was that time of dawn that looks strangely like an old two-color -process movies that they show on TV occasionally--all orange and green, -with no yellow to it at all, when even the truest black seems only an -off-brown or a sinister purple. - -He shivered in the chill of morning and decided what to do. - -He would have to walk around for a few hours even yet. - - * * * * * - -The drink his friend, Paul, placed before him was not entirely -distinct. Neither were the bills he had in his hand. It was money the -mayor's hireling had given him to use for laboratory supplies. Danniels -peeled off a bill of uncertain denomination and gave it to his friend. -Paul seemed pleased. He put it into the pocket of his white shirt, the -pocket eight inches below and slightly to the left of the black bow -tie, and polished the bar briskly. - -Danniels picked up the glass and sipped silently until it was empty. - -"Do you want to talk about anything, Abe?" Paul asked solicitously. - -"No," Danniels said cheerfully. "Just give me another drink." - -"Sure thing." - -Danniels studied his green hair in the glass. Here, the mark of the -Jonah wasn't important. Not yet. But he would be unwelcome even here -after the time of Disaster ran out. He would have to move on sooner or -later. Eventually--why not now? That slogan went better than the one in -pink light over the mirror--The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous. There -hadn't been any Milwaukee beer here for thirteen years. Most of the -stuff came out of bathtubs. - -Why not now? - -He smoothed another bill on the damp polished wood and negotiated his -way through the hazy room. - -Outside, he turned a corner and the city dropped away from him. He -seemed to be in a giant amusement park with acres of empty ground -patterned off in squares by unwinking dots of light. - -He grinned to himself, changed direction with great care, and started -down the one-way street to the lake front. - -He heard the footsteps behind him. - -Danniels put his palm to the brick wall, scaling posters, and turned. - -The clean-cut young man smiled disarmingly. "I saw you in at Paul's. -You'll never make it home under your own power. Better let me take you -in my cab." - -Danniels knocked him out on his feet with a clean right cross. - -He blinked down at the boy. Self-preservation had become instinctive -with him during his months as a wandering Jonah. - -Gnawing at his under lip, he studied the twisted way the supposed -cabbie lay. If he really were.... Danniels patted the man down and -brought something out of a hip pocket. - -He inspected the leather blackjack, weighing it critically in his hand. - -It slid out of his palm and thudded heavily on the cracked sidewalk. - -Danniels shrugged and grinned and moved unsteadily away. Towards the -lake. - -The lake looked gray and winterish. - -There was no help for it. - -Danniels swung his leg over the rust-spotted railing and looked down -to where the water lapped at crumbling bricks blotched with green. He -peered out over the water. Only a few miles to the beach where he had -left the car parked in the undergrowth. He would have preferred to use -the little sub, but he could swim it if he had to. - -The surface below showed clearly in the globe lights. - -Danniels dived. - -Before he hit the water, he remembered that he should have taken off -some of his clothes. - -When he parted the icy foam with his body, he knew he had committed -suicide. And he realized that that had been what he intended to do all -along. - - * * * * * - -There was something in the lake holding him, and it had a twelve-foot -reach. - -It kept holding on to him under the surface of green ice and begging -him for help. He couldn't breathe, and he couldn't help. Of the two, -not being able to help seemed the worse. Not breathing wasn't so -bad.... It hurt to breathe. It choked him. It was very unpleasant to -breathe. He had much preferred not breathing to this.... - -Some time later, he opened his eyes. - -A small, round-faced man was staring down at him through slender-framed -spectacles. For a moment he thought it was the man in whose face he -had smashed the car door at the diner weeks before. But this man was -different--among other things his glasses were gold, not silver. Yet he -was also the same. Danniels knew the signs of the Wolf Pack. - -"How's your foot?" the little man asked in a surprisingly full-bodied -voice. - -Danniels instantly became aware of a dull sub-pain sensation in the -toes of his left foot. He looked over the crest of his chest and saw -the foot, naked below the cuff of his wrinkled trousers. The three -smaller toes were red. No, maroon. A red so dark it was almost black. -Fainter streaks of red shot away from the toes, following the tendon. - -Danniels swallowed. "The foot doesn't _feel_ so bad, but I think it -_is_." - -"We may have to operate," the small man said eagerly. - -"How did I get out of the lake?" - -"Joel. The man you knocked out. He came to and followed you. Naturally, -he had to save your life. He banged your foot up dragging you ashore." - -Or afterwards, Danniels thought. - -Abruptly, the stranger was gone and a door was closing and latching on -the other side of the room. - -Danniels tried to rise and fell back, his head floating around -somewhere above him. Maybe a Wolf Pack member would have to save his -life but he wouldn't have to bring him home and nurse him back to -health. - -Why? - -He fell asleep without even trying to guess the answer. - -He woke when they brought food to him. - -Danniels finished with the tray and sat it aside. - -The small man who had identified himself as Richard beamed. "I think -you are strong enough to attend the celebration tonight." - -Danniels did feel stronger after rest and food, but at the same time he -felt vaguely dizzy and his leg was beginning to hurt. "What kind of a -celebration?" he asked. - -Richard chuckled. "Don't worry. You'll like it." - -Danniels had seen the same expression of the faces of hosts at stag -dinners; but with a Wolf Pack it was hard to know what to expect. - - -IV - -The place he was in did not seem to be a house after all. - -Danniels leaned on the shoulder of Richard, who helped him along -solicitously. They entered a large chamber nearly a hundred feet wide. -There were people there. It wasn't crowded but there were many people -standing around the walls. A lot of them were holding three-foot -lengths of wood. - -Richard led him to a chair, the only one apparent in the room. - -"I'll go tell we're ready now," the small man said, chuckling. - -Danniels looked around slowly at the shadowed faces. Of those holding -clubs, he knew only the man Richard had told him was Joel, the man -who had pulled him from Lake Michigan. Apparently the ones with clubs -were members of the Pack, while the others were observers and potential -members. Among these, he spotted a member of the city council. - -And Julie. - -She stood in a loose sweater and skirt, her hands hugging her elbows, -eyes intent on the empty center of the room. Danniels was reminded of -some of the women he had seen at unorthodox political meetings. - -Danniels was surprised to find that he wanted to talk to her. He might -try hobbling over to her or calling her over to him. But with the -instinct he had developed while being hunted, he knew it was wrong to -call attention to the two of them together. - -He noticed that he was in line with the door. Julie would have to pass -by him when she left ... after the celebration. - -"The celebration begins in five minutes." - -Someone he hadn't seen had shouted into the big room. The words bounced -back slightly and hung suspended. - -The people's waiting became an activity. Tension lived in the room. - -And then the cat was released. - -The Pack members moved apart from the rest and struck at the scrawny -yellow beast. The cat didn't make it very far down the line. The men -from the other end of the room moved up quickly to be in on the kill. - -The clubs rose and fell even after it was clear there was no reason for -it. - -Their ranks parted and they left their handiwork where it could be -admired. - -It must be hard to find animals in a closed city like this, Danniels -thought. It must be quite a treat to find one to beat to death. - -He sat and waited for them to leave. But he found the Celebration was -just beginning. The group was laughing and talking. Now that it was -over they wanted to talk about it the rest of the evening. They had -created death. - -He searched out Julie Amprey again. She was looking at what they did. -He thought she was sick at first. His lips thinned. Yes, she was sick. - -Her eyes suddenly met his. Shock washed over her face, and in the next -moment she was moving to him. - -"So," she said coolly, "you found out my little secret. This is where I -get my kicks." - -He nodded, thinking of nothing to say. - -"Did you ever read them?" she asked breathlessly. "All the old banned -books--Poe and Spillane and Proust. The pornography of death. I grew up -on them, so you see there's no harm in them. Look at me." - -"You want to kill?" Danniels asked her. - -She lit an expensive king-size cigarette. "Yes," she exhaled. "I -thought I might join a Pack on the Outside. But, you'll remember, I -didn't quite make it. I couldn't even kill a cockroach. I want to, but -the damned Broadcasters keep interfering with me." - -Richard came back, smiling broadly. "Well, Abe, has Miss Amprey been -telling you of our plans to ruin the planet?" - - * * * * * - -Danniels was incredibly tired. He had been listening and arguing for -hours. - -"You're a scientist," Joel persisted. "Help us." - -"There are different kinds of scientists," Danniels repeated. "I'm not -a nuclear physicist." - -"Right there." Richard tapped the pink rubber of his pencil against the -map of Cook County. "Right there. An Armory no one else knows anything -about. Enough H-bombs to wipe out human life on the planet. And rockets -to send them in." - -"The councilman may be lying," Danniels said. "How do you think he -should happen to find it and no one else?" - -"The information was in the city records," Richard said patiently, "but -buried and coded so it would take twenty years to locate. Bureaucracy -is an insidious evil, Abe." - -Danniels rubbed his face with his palms. "I'm not even sure if I -understand what you mean to do. You want to rocket the H-bombs out -almost but not quite beyond Earth's gravitation and explode them so the -fallout will be evenly distributed over the surface of the planet. You -think it will cause no more than injury and destruction--" - -"That's all," Joel said sharply. - -Richard gave an eager nod. - -They had had to convince themselves of that, he knew. "But why do you -want to do anything as desperate as that?" - -"Simple revenge." Richard's tone was even and cold. "And to show them -what we can do if they don't cut off the Broadcasters." The small -man's liquid brown eyes softened. "You've got to understand that we -really don't want to kill people. Our actions are merely necessary -demonstrations against insane visionary politics. I only want the -Broadcasters shut off so I can do efficient police work--Joel, so that -he can fight in the ring with the true will to win of a sportsman. The -rest of us have equally good reasons." - -"I think I understand," Danniels said. "I'll do what I can to help you." - - * * * * * - -Danniels was not surprised when Julie Amprey was in the raiding party. -He was past the capacity for surprise. - -He was getting around on his own today only because he was learning to -stand the pain. It was worse. And he was weak and dizzy from a fever. - -They had all managed to produce bicycles. Richard had even managed to -find one for him with a tiny engine powered by solar-charged batteries. - -Julie looked crisp and attractive in sweater and jeans. Joel was -strikingly handsome in the clear sun, and even Richard looked like a -jolly fatherly type. - -As they wheeled down the street, Danniels was afraid only he with his -wet, tossed green hair and drooping cheeks warped the holiday mood of -those who in some other probability sequence were happy picnickers. - -When they reached the place, Richard giggled nervously. - -"It takes a code to open the hatch," he explained. "If Aldrich didn't -decode it correctly there will be a small but effective chemical -explosion in this area." - -Danniels leaned against a maple, watching. The bicycles were parked -in the brush and a shallow hole had been dug at an exact spot in the -suburban park. Only a few inches below ground was the gray steel door -flush with the level of grass. - -Richard hummed as he worked a prosaic combination dial. - -Finally there was a muffled click and a churning whine began. - -The hatch raised jerkily and latched at right angles. - -The Pack milled about the opening, excited. Joel got the honor of going -down first. Richard seemed to fumble his chance for the glory, Danniels -observed. The other men went down, one and one. And finally only Julie -and Richard were left. He supposed that this meant the girl had been -accepted as a full member of the Wolf Pack. That would change the whole -character of the organization. He vaguely wondered who her sponsor was. -Joel? - -Julie and the little man came to him. They started to help him down -into the opening and suddenly he was at the bottom of a ladder. Things -were beginning to seem to him as if they were taking place underwater. - -They walked down a corridor of shadow, lit only by tarnished yellow -from red sparks caught on the tips of silver wire inside water-clear -bulbs recessed in the concrete ceiling. - -When they passed a certain point sparks showered from slots in opposite -walls. They burned out ineffectively before they reached the floor of -cross-hatched metallic mats. - -"Power failing," Richard observed with a chuckle. "Congress should -investigate the builders." - -There was a large, sliding door many feet thick but so well-balanced it -slid open easily. And they were there. - - * * * * * - -It was a big room full of many little rooms. Each little room had a -door that a man could enter by stooping and a chair-ledge inside for -him to sit and read or adjust instruments. The outside of the rooms -were finished off cleanly in shining metal with large, rugged objects -fitted to all sides. These were hydrogen bombs. - -The Wolf Pack ranged joyously through the maze. - -Danniels found one of several stacks of small instruments and sat down -on it. The things looked like radios but obviously weren't. - -Richard came to him, wringing his hands. "These bombs seemed to be -designed to be dropped from bombers. There are supposed to be rockets -here too. I hope the H-bombs will fit. They seem so bulky...." - -"Perhaps the rockets have self-contained bomb units," Danniels -suggested. - -"Perhaps. We're all going off and try to find the rockets. You'd be -amazed at all the cutoffs down here. I'll leave Joel here to look after -you." - -Danniels sat on the instruments. Joel stayed several hundred feet away, -an uncertain shadow in the light, smoking a red dot of a cigarette. -Somehow Danniels associated fire and munitions instead of atomics and -felt uneasy. - -He discovered Julie Amprey at his side. She didn't say anything. She -seemed to be sulking. Like a spoiled brat, he thought. - -He fingered one of the portable instruments from an open crate beside -him. "Wonder what these are?" he said to break up the heavy silence. - -"Pseudo-H Bombs," the girl snapped. - -Of course. Just as money had to be backed by gold or silver reserves, -every pseudo bomb or mock-gas had to be backed by the real thing which, -after its representative had been used, was dismantled, neutralized or -retired. International inspection saw to that. - -"There's enough here to blow up the whole world ... if they were -real," Danniels said. - -The girl pointed out into the chamber. "Those _are_ real." - -Each nation had many times over the nuclear armament necessary to -destroy human life. There was enough for that right in this vault--both -in reality and in the Games. - -Danniels stopped drifting and took a course. He stopped observing and -began to act. There was a mob in action. - -Even if they did somehow manage not to kill off the population with the -fallout they were engineering, they would ruin farmland, create new -recessive mutations. - -Famine would cease to be a psychological affliction for half the world -and become a physiological reality instead ... for all the world. - -He had failed in his plans to end the psychological Famine because of -his own attunement to the Broadcasters. He wouldn't fail in stopping -the new physiological Famine. - - -V - -"Put that thing down," Joel said. "I don't trust you any further than -I can spit, and that looks like a radio. You trying to warn the city -council?" - -Danniels put down the instrument. One wouldn't do it, and he could -tell from Joel's eyes that he would get a very bad experience out of -disobeying him. - -"You were going to do something," Julie said. "What were you trying to -do with that pseudie?" - -"How do you know so much about this stuff?" Danniels demanded. - -"My father told me all he found out from the records. He's Councilman -Aldrich." - -He rested his eyes for a second. "But your name--?" he heard himself -say. - -"My stepfather, I should have said. Mother married him when I was two. -_What were you going to do?_" - -"I," he said, "intended to end it all. All of this. All of it Outside. -End everything." - -The girl turned from him. - -"Then why don't you do it?" - -"You mean you don't want our friends to succeed in torturing a sick -world?" - -"I don't like pain," she said. "There's something clean, positive -and challenging about killing. I'd like to kill. But pain seems so -pointless. If you can stop them, go ahead. I'll help you." - -He was exhausted and in fever. "Joel won't let me." - -"Then--kill him," she said. - - * * * * * - -He knew it was all useless, tired, stale, unrewarding. It was done. -He was nothing, and the girl was less. The Pack would succeed and a -tortured world would die of a greater famine because he had failed all -down the line. And he blamed himself for making a mistake that actually -was unimportant. For a moment, he had trusted the girl. - -"You _can_ kill him." Julie turned back and faced him. "How much do you -think those Broadcasters can really control human beings? We aren't -fighting wars because we don't want to. We've finally seen what war can -do and we're scared. We've retreated. The human race is hiding just -like you are now." - -Danniels laughed. - -She lunged forward, tense. For a moment he thought she had actually -stamped her foot. "It's true, you fool! Doesn't the actions of these -men prove it to you? They are going to risk destroying the planet. If -pacifism really controlled them do you think they could do that?" - -He mumbled something about Wolf Pack members. - -"There's never been any law or moral credo that human beings couldn't -break and justify within themselves some way," Julie intoned carefully. -"People can do the same with the induced precepts of the Broadcasters. -If you really want to stop them, you can--by killing Joel and going -ahead." - -"Maybe later," Danniels mumbled. "I'll think about it." - -Julie slapped his face. He wondered why he didn't feel it. - -"You don't have much time left," Julie whispered. "Don't you know -what's wrong with your foot? _Gangrene._ You have to get those toes -amputated soon or you'll die." - -"Yes," he said numbly. "Must get amputation." But it didn't seem -urgent. He felt he should get some rest first. - -"It's too bad you can't allow the operation," the girl said sweetly. -"You can't allow lives to be destroyed just to save your own -personality." - -"What lives?" he demanded. - -"All the cells and microorganisms in your toes," Julie told him. "You -know they'll _die_ if you are operated on. Are they any worse than the -little bacteria you refused to murder? I suppose it's just as well that -you die. How can you stand it on your conscience to breathe all the -time and burn up innocent germs in your foul breath?" - -Danniels understood. To live was to kill. - -Every instant he lived his old cells were dying and new ones being -born. So Danniels, who thought he could not kill any living thing, -finally accepted himself as a killer. It wasn't human life he was -taking ... but it was life. - -If he could be wrong about taking any life at all--and he had always -believed himself unable to kill anything--he might be wrong about being -able to kill men. In spite of everything he had been taught and what he -believed about the influence of the Broadcasters. - -He studied Joel in the gloom. The man represented everything he -loathed--stupidity, brutality, the mob. If I can kill anyone, he told -himself, it should be Joel. - -He could try. Yes, he could. And that was a victory in itself. - -He moved, and that was another triumph over the physical defeat that -was already upon him. - -Joel looked up, narrow eyes widened, as Danniels came down on him. - - * * * * * - -Danniels caught him in the stomach with the flat of his palm and shoved -up. - -Joel gargled in the back of his throat and rammed his thumbs for the -prisoner's eyes. Danniels nodded and caught the balls of the thumbs on -his forehead. He brought his fist up sharply and hit Joel on the point -of the chin. His head snapped but righted itself slowly. He lashed into -Danniels' body with both eager hands and Danniels, weakened, went down -before he had time to think about it. - -From the crazy angle of the floor he saw far above him Joel's lips curl -back and closer, further down, a shoe was lifted to kick. It was aimed -at Danniels' swollen foot. - -Danniels smiled. He shouldn't have done that. If he had acted like a -man instead of an animal he would have been fine. But now ... Danniels -rolled over quickly against the one leg of Joel's firmly on the floor. -Off balance, Joel fell backwards with a curse, the back of his skull -ringing against the side of one of the bombs. - -Exertion was painting red lines across his vision but Danniels climbed -to his knees, put his hands to Joel's corded throat and squeezed. - -Yes. He knew he could kill. A few more seconds and he would be dead. - -Danniels stopped. - -There was no need to kill the boy. He would be unconscious long enough -for him to do his job. And he found that fear had left him. He was no -longer afraid of killing small things, because he was no longer afraid -of killing men. - -He had been able to kill when he had to, but more important, he had -been able to keep from killing when it wasn't needed. He didn't need to -be afraid of the old blood-lust--because he knew now he could best it. - -And Julie had seen. She had seen something she had never believed -was possible. That a man could keep from being a savage without the -restraints of the Broadcasters or of society. - -He limped to the stacked pseudies and sat down. "Now we can make it -clean, Julie. We can end the whole mess. Ready?" - -"Yes," she told him. - -He picked up a pseudie and threw the switch. - - * * * * * - -The radio signal went out, and all over the world receivers noted -a pseudo explosion in the heart of a Disaster Area. Danniels could -imagine the men in the council room in the heart of the city seeing the -flash and feeling the doom of a renewed twenty years of isolation and -heading for the exact spot of the flash. - -More signals flashed. And flashed. And flashed. - -And he thought of the people all over the world wondering about the -devastating sneak attack on the United States, and the incredible -readings of the instruments. - -"Keep working," Danniels said. "The Wolf Pack or the officials from -the city will be here soon. I hope it's a dead heat. But," he said, "I -think we've done it. But we can keep working on the safety margin." - -"What have we done, Abe?" Julie asked trustingly. - -He was going to feel foolish saying it. "We have just blown up the -world according to the official records of the War Games." - -"Then they'll have to start over," she said. - -"Maybe," Danniels whispered. "If they do, we'll all start even. -Everybody's a Jonah. The world is a Disaster Area. Maybe they'll start -the War Games over. Or maybe they'll try the real thing again, now that -they've seen how easy it is with pseudies." - -He felt the numb foot and knew he would have to have an emergency -operation if he survived the mobs that were coming. But he had a way of -surviving mobs. He looked at Julie. He would see that their children -could eat. - -"At least," he said, triggering another H-bomb for the world's records, -"it isn't a bad day when the world has been given a fresh slate, a new -start." - -There were footsteps outside, coming closer. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Place Where Chicago Was, by Jim Harmon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLACE WHERE CHICAGO WAS *** - -***** This file should be named 51832.txt or 51832.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/8/3/51832/ - -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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