CHAPTER 5

If only the R.A. had arrived a little earlier was all that Comstock was able to think. Five minutes earlier and his convictions would have been safe. He'd have been able to throw himself into the R.A.'s protection and tell all. That way would have meant safety and perhaps a reward.

But now?

Bowdler's bulky body moved toward the door. He yelled, "All right, keep your halo cool, I'm coming."

How, Comstock wondered, could anyone be so brave? No fear showed on Bowdler's granite-like face. None at all. His hand on the door knob, he paused and called back over his shoulder, "Grundy, come here, stand at this side of the door, you, Comstock, stand on the other side. I'll stall him, and if my plan works, you two beat it! Fast! Grundy, you know where to take Comstock!"

"Sure, to Helen's," Grundy said and took up a position at the side of the door. Comstock, knees wobbling, hands sweating, stomach writhing, took up the position indicated for him.

Then Bowdler opened the door. He bowed derisively and said, his tones steady, the words ironical. "Won't you come in and make yourself comfortable?"

It was the same R.A. whose small features and lean hand had menaced them in the saloon.

His halo was bright with anger. His hand had the stun-gun at the ready. The words that came from his mouth were bright with menace. He said, "I want you three to know that my gun is set to kill!"

Now sweaty-footed fear was walking down Comstock's back. Never had he heard of an R.A. using the death control on his gun. Ordinarily just the threat of nervous stunning was enough to make the most irate submissive.

Long legs spread wide apart, hands on his hips, Bowdler said, "By what right do you enter the sanctum of a Gantry?"

"By the right invested in me by the Fathers and by my warrant from The Grandfather!" The R.A.'s reedy voice was cold.

Throwing his big head back, Bowdler laughed in the man's face. He said, "Well, now, that sounds real important. But does it mean anything?"

Spread in a straight line, as the three men were, the R.A. could only menace one of them at a time. His gun went back and forth in a slow arc.

He said, "Put your hands behind your backs and come quietly."

"Throw ourselves into the broad lap of The Grandfather, eh?" Bowdler asked and he seemed to be enjoying himself tremendously.

"Of course. He understands and He will judge your case according to its merits!"

"And having understood our case, and having judged it in advance, He will have us 'removed' for the good of society?" Bowdler asked, but it was more of a statement than a question.

"That remains to be seen," the R.A. said.

"Humph," Bowdler grinned, "if we play it your way, our remains will be all that will be seen. No, thank you. I don't think I like that method at all!"

With no warning and with no change of expression, Bowdler waited till the R.A.'s gun was pointed at Grundy at one end of its slow arc, then threw himself in a berserk charge straight at the R.A.

The R.A. hurriedly swung his gun back and pulled the trigger. He missed, and by that time Bowdler's long arms were around his knees and he was being dragged down to the soft carpet on the floor.

* * * * *

At the precise moment that the R.A. began to fall, Grundy gestured for Comstock to follow him and ran through the door. It took a second or so for Comstock's frozen muscles to obey his frightened brain, but then as the R.A. brought the gun up level with Bowdler's forehead and pulled the trigger, he ran.

The last sight he saw, as he chanced a look over his shoulder, was the sight of all intelligence draining out of Bowdler's face. The charge had hit him.

Slamming the door on the scene, Comstock ran, and as he ran he screamed to Grundy, "The R.A. killed him! He killed Bowdler."

Ten feet away the news made Grundy pause and almost stumble, but Comstock saw him recover and then run on. He yelled back to Comstock. "Tough. He was a good guy. But we gotta keep goin' or we'll be killed too."

The endless corridor through which they were running was dank and it was dark. There was no curve, no up or down. It was simply a black hole through which they ran and ran, and kept on running. When Comstock thought that he would never be able to breathe again, that his muscles could no longer bear his weight, that he must slump in a helpless heap and wait for death, he heard Grundy snap, "Ten feet more."

The words shot a new charge of adrenalin into Comstock. With a last surge of strength he darted after his friend's back. As a matter of fact he lunged full tilt into it because the darkness was so complete he could not see his hand before his face.

Grundy grunted, "Hold everything. I have to find the latch."

Another moment that seemed to stretch out far beyond the end of eternity and then, just as Comstock's strained ears heard footsteps running behind him in the dark. Grundy said, "There it is." And a door opened. Beyond was further darkness, but it was not as complete as the stygian blackness they were leaving. Falling through the doorway, Comstock fell to his face as Grundy slammed the door behind them.

"That'll hold the R.A. for a minute and that's all we need."

Lifting his head, forcing his trunk upwards from the ground, Comstock saw that they had come out on a street ... he looked at it while his breath raced in and out of his tortured lungs ... the street was familiar. It was the one that housed the b.....l to which he repaired once a month.

At the curb waiting, was an R.A.'s carriage. The team of astrobats waited patiently in harness, their too-pointed faces and four ears heavy with menace towards anyone who dared to approach them.

Staggering to his feet, Comstock felt Grundy's arm go around his shoulders. Grundy half carried, half pushed him into the carriage.

"But ... we can't go in this!" Comstock gasped. "You know the penalty for even going near an R.A.'s carriage!"

A final push shoved Comstock onto the seat. Grabbing the wicked metal electro-whip, Grundy forced the recalcitrant astrobats into what those crotchety animals considered a gallop.

"The first person who sees us will call for help! We're not even dressed like R.A.'s!" Comstock said.

Grundy was kind. He said patiently, "Our halos will protect us."

* * * * *

Looking at Grundy's head, Comstock half expected to see the silvery sheen of the mark of an R.A. But there was no sign of one.

"Are you insane? We have no halos. Only the R.A. has them."

Whipping the team expertly, Grundy said, and his words were a sigh, "You have much to learn, Comstock. There are no halos except in the eye of the beholder."

"What does that mean?"

The carriage was racing by the b.....l now and Comstock was amazed to see the madame, who was standing in the doorway, make the sign of reverence and obeisance as they raced by.

"The halos don't exist. They're just post-hypnotic suggestion implanted in our minds when we're kids. We're conditioned to see the halos when we see an R.A. We're in an R.A.'s carriage now and so anyone seeing us will see our halos. It's as simple as that. But then, you don't know what hypnotism is, do you?"

"No." Comstock said this humbly and at the moment he felt that he knew nothing at all. He turned and looked backwards.

Down the street behind them, the R.A., his halo shining brightly, like a good deed in an evil world, was pointing his gun at them. Comstock said, "The R.A. found the door. He's going to shoot us!"

Wordlessly, Grundy flicked the whip over the beasts' backs. The carriage swerved and carried them around the corner. Comstock could not tell if the R.A. had fired and missed, or had held his fire, for of course a stun-gun is silent as the grave, and only affects the human nervous system.

Careening along the quiet streets Comstock found time to feel deep and real sorrow for Bowdler. It still did not seem possible that anyone could have been as brave as all that. Aloud he said, "Bowdler sacrificed himself for us, didn't he?"

Grundy nodded, his eyes alert, scanning the road ahead, for what? Comstock wondered.

"When you are daring what we are, you must be prepared for instant sacrifice," Grundy said.

"Hadn't we better give up?" Comstock asked. "Two of us against the entire world seems ridiculous. What chances have we?"

"None if you feel that way. But if you feel as Bowdler did and as I do, that it is worth anything to be a man, then it is worth while. Any chance is worth taking."

Grundy's tone changed. He said, "When I turn the next corner I'll slow the team down. When I do, jump out."

Jump out? What new madness was this? But before he had a chance to argue, Grundy had pulled hard on the bits and snapped, "Now!"

Rolling free of the carriage on his side, Comstock saw even as he fell to the ground, that Grundy had thrown himself out of the other side of the carriage.

The team raced on, dragging the empty carriage banging and clattering at their multiple heels.

* * * * *

Shaken, bruised, sore from head to foot, Comstock said as Grundy pulled himself to his feet. "Why did you do that?"

"Let the R.A.'s keep their radio tail on the carriage. A lot of good it'll do them!"

Grundy again helped him to his feet, and then said, "Follow me."

Comstock's mind was a whirl again. What was a radio?

The street was even quieter than most in Comstock's city. Small houses, a decent distance apart, lined the lawns where the purplish grass sparkled in the light of the twin moons.

The house that Grundy stopped in front of was identical with all the others. He took a key from his pocket and opened the door. Then he called out, "Helen!"

* * * * *

Comstock had come a long way at that moment when he had waited futilely for The Grandfather's wrath to strike him dead, but he had not come to the point where he could watch the indecency of the scene that followed. Averting his eyes as the young girl entered the room, he wished desperately that he might be struck deaf so as not to have to hear what followed their entry.

In the first place she was obscenely young, not more than twenty-five. In the second place her ugly young skin was completely without wrinkles. In the third place she threw her round young arms around Grundy's neck, and in the fourth place she k....d him hard and long on the l..s and in the fifth place she crooned to him l..e words that no one should ever be forced to hear.

"Darling, darling, darling," she said over and over again. "I've missed you so terribly, I've been so worried ... but it's over and you're near me again."

"Dearest," Comstock could not help hearing Grundy say and his opinion of the man descended sharply, "My loveliest sweetheart."

Then their l.ps met again in a sustained and prolonged bit of pornographic action that left Comstock weak. Worse perhaps than the way they were pushing their l..s against each other was the way they had glued their bodies together.

He coughed trying to bring them back to their senses.

Grundy broke away from the girl. "Thank The Grandfather," Comstock thought, and then bit his lip as he realized that he no longer had the right to call on that name....

The girl said, "But where's Bowdler? Darling, what's happened ... he hasn't been ... he isn't hurt?"

"Worse, dear." And the man touched her hair. The sight made little horripilations go up and down the hair on the back of Comstock's head.

"He's not dead?"

"Yes, my darling, but he died bravely trying to save us."

She bent her head reverently and Comstock was pleased to see that even so brazen a hussy was still not lost to all the common decencies.

Grundy cleared his throat and made an obvious effort to change the subject. He said, "I'm sorry, I've forgotten to have you meet our new friend." Grundy introduced them.

Horror piled on horror. Comstock's face whitened as the young girl walked to him, took his hand, shook it, and then impulsively k....d him on the cheek.

Thank Grandfather she stopped after an interminable moment and turned back to Grundy. She asked, her voice low and shaken, "But dearest, oh my dearest, what are we to do now? Bowdler was so strong, so sure of himself; he knew so much more than we do of what is really happening in this sick world of ours ... what are we to do?"

There, it was happening again. Comstock averted his shocked eyes as Grundy put his hand on the girl's w...t and said, "You are to do nothing, my love. You'll stay here in safety. You know that Bowdler and I decided that this is a man's job, and it must stay that way. I'll take no chance of risking your lovely skin...."

Then he turned to Comstock and said decisively. "There's no use waiting any longer, taking chances, risking death the longer we wait. We'll eat, rest a bit, and then, we'll risk all!"

"You mean...." The girl let her voice fade away.

"Tonight, in half an hour," Grundy said, his face set and stern, "Comstock and I will go before the Board of Fathers and challenge The Grandfather!"

Some of his resolution faded and he said more quietly, "But how I wish Bowdler were with us. We three might have stood a better chance. But he had set the time as tonight, and I'll not be false to his trust."

Half an hour, Comstock thought dully. It wasn't long to live ... not long enough at all....