He shook his head sharply and grunted to his feet, wriggling shoulders and back until the throbbing in his muscles faded into the background of the noises from the kitchen.

  He looked at his watch and saw it was 0935.

  Confound it, he thought as he hurried from the room, why did they let me sleep so late?

  Ike was at the ovenwall, pulling from its small mouth steaming silvered platters of a dinnertime meal. He was dressed as he had been and smiled broadly when Parric came in.

  “Enjoy, doc,” he said, sweeping a hand toward the place already set at the crowded table. “It’s a beautiful day and, by God, we’re still alive.”

  Jessica was already seated, had changed into a shirt exactly like Parric’s; the billows, however, did little to camouflage her figure, or her youth. Her mouth was full and she didn’t speak, but smiled, nodded to the empty chair and began choking. Ike laughed, slapped her on the back, and seated himself.

  “ Come on, doc,” he said. “Will you sit down, for crying out loud?”

  “I don’t believe it,” Parric said when sleep finally made room for annoyance. “You’re acting like there’s a picnic going on out there. Has anyone thought to check the trivid for news? Did anyone check outside to see if the androids are up and around? Why didn’t you get me up? What’s—”

  “Hold it,” Ike said. “Relax an hour or two, will 'you?”

  “But—”

  “Frank,” Jessica said, leaning back to stare as though distance would give her a sharper focus on his face. "We didn’t wake you because we all needed sleep after yesterday. Nobody’s a hero around here, you know, and we haven’t got the resources to play at being supermen. What’s the hurry, anyway?”

  “I don’t believe it,” Parric said, was all he could say.

  “Eat,” Ike said.

  "Later. I’m going down to the clinic to be sure none of the others have tried fooling around with last night’s operations. And," he added before turning away, "one of you might try the comunit and trivid to see if we have any power. It went off last night after . . . after you went to bed. We could be completely cut off for all I know.”

  Gaining little satisfaction from their astonishment, he nodded once at them and left the house.

  It was, as they had said, a beautiful day, but he spent little time grading it against days past. The clinic, as far as he could tell, had been untouched by the previous night’s revelry, and when he glanced out the back door he saw the better part of the Town’s population exactly as he had left them. He relaxed, then, and leaned against the door, watching the androids, convincing himself that what had happened was not the result of a petrifying nightmare. The simulacra had lost their specter aura, were now nothing more than characterless mannequins waiting to be summoned back into their roles, posing as people in a peopleless community. He laughed at himself, permitted the laugh to show as a crooked smile, and was amazed that he had allowed them to frighten him that much. They were nothings, and they would remain so until he decided otherwise.

  “Fine,” he said to them. ‘‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  On the way back to the house, however, his uneasiness returned. Under the open lamp of the sun, the Town seemed normal, but before he had traveled two blocks he knew the malady had not been removed by some magical, all-encompassing nigh twitch. There was quiet without motion, silence without birdsong or children’s play. The houses could have been shells or plastic facades propped up by the wind. Nothing moved, no one called; porches were deserted and the curtains in the windows remained tightly closed.

  He tried, once, clapping his hands, but there was less than an echo.

  He stayed on the sidewalk, deliberately coming down hard on his heels to create a racket, a marching call for the androids to live.

  He whistled, groping for and sometimes finding the meandering tune that Dix had composed for the insanity ball of the dark morning hours.

  He considered knocking on a few doors to see what the response would be. Perhaps Mrs. Keller would invite him in to breakfast, or Dorski would challenge him to four-level chess. Perhaps, he thought, but didn’t leave the walk. There was still too much of a chance that he would find nothing but the cracked mirror laugh he had heard during his sleep; that, he decided, would be a bit too much to take so early in the day.

  “Hey!”

  He looked up from staring at his shoes and saw a figure with a deformed head backing away from him. A blink, and it was Ike with his camera. Parric shook his head, wondering what would make a man react so when the world outside was collapsing in tears.

  “History?” he asked.

  “You got it,” Ike said, taking the unit from his shoulder and resting it against his hip. When Parric caught up with him, he was already scanning the neighborhood for his next shot.

  “Why don’t you use the little one?” Parric said when Ike again hefted the bulky cylinder to his eye.

  “You mean like old Jess carries? I don’t know. It does the same things, but ... a feel, let’s say. I don’t know.”

  Parric didn’t either, and did not pretend he understood. He left Lupozny walking toward the end of the street nearest the barrier and returned inside where, goaded by Jessica, he ate. Little, but enough to convince himself he was sated and could take in no more.

  “No wonder you’re skinny,” she said, clearing the table. “I checked, and the comunit’s still out. Nothing but static. For all we know, we’re the last ones alive on the whole planet.”

  “Don’t,” Parric said. “That’s no way to talk.”

  “Wouldn’t you like it better that way?”

  She followed him into the living room, adjusting the strap of a recorder over her shoulder. He turned but she had already moved past him to the trivid wall where she flipped a toggle and pointed. “See?” she said when sufficient time brought them what they were looking for. “Nothing.”

  “Okay, I believe you,” he said, suddenly confused. "I don’t get it, Jessica. One minute you’re nice and the next you act like I was still at Everlasting and had called in your policy. I don’t understand.”

  “I promised Floyd I’d be nice to you,” she said, heading for the door. “Sometimes I forget.”

  When she had left, he straddled the lounge and watched her progress down the steps and off in the direction Ike had taken. She had pinned a mikedisc to her shirt and her head was slightly inclined as she spoke into it.

  Make it good, he thought, and be sure to tell them what it’s all about in my mechanical Eden. And while you’re at it, be sure to spell my name right. Some people think it’s Parrish.

  “Damn it,” he said, and punched at the lounge’s fabric, wincing when his knuckles came away burned.

  He noticed then the dull red ring around his wrist and, as he cautiously twisted it from side to side, remembered the grip that had vised it.

  Listen, Frankie, Coates had told him once, those little beasties are composed of some of the most delicate machinery the world has ever come across. You should see the ones the whitecoats have working around their labs: four and five eyes, micro- and macroscopic, screw off a hand and plug in a scapel or a laser . . . but let me tell you something, son, those little bastards can tear your head off if they've a mind to. If you ’re ever in trouble with a maverick, get him where it hurts. Fast.

  Where it hurts, Parric thought. Easier said than done.

  Determined to find something, anything, that would reconnect him to any sector of humanity, he returned to the comunit and was ready to take off the protective panel to probe its insides when he heard someone calling him.

  “What?” he said, rushing to the porch, thinking the androids had finally turned against them.

  “Company.” It was Ike, and his camera was gone.

  "People company."

  Parric hesitated a moment, then started to grin until Ike scowled it away.

  “Don’t get your hopes up, brother. They’ve brought along some bad presents.”

  Quickly they moved the two blocks to the edge of the Town. The last house and its yard gave way to an area that had not been totally cleared when the excavations had been made. This patch of unchecked growth continued to the slope of the hill like a dry moat with nothing in its way, but some fifteen meters into it were large rectangular cases bolted onto concrete slats embedded in the ground. Boundaries, air shafts, and the housings for the barrier’s minor controls and alarm systems.

  Jessica was standing next to one, turning her head only when she heard the men approach, then looking back toward the rise beyond the transparent wall. Parric saw there were a score, perhaps more, of men standing in a ragged line, waiting.

  “From Oraton,” he said when she could hear his whisper. “It’s about seventeen, maybe twenty kilometers from here. Only a couple of renegade hunters have ever come across this place, and not often what with game practically nonexistent. I told them we were testing computerized transsubstantial immortality.” He grinned at her confusion. “It doesn’t mean a thing, but it sounded good and kept them away.” He looked up at their visitors. “At least, I thought it did.”

  One of the strangers took a step forward, waving. He, like the others, wore a hunter’s tight-fitting costume, splotched green and brown in an odd but effective attempt at camouflage.

  “You the boss?” the man said, raising his voice to not quite a shout.

  “That’s you, doc,” Ike said when Parric didn’t answer.

  “I suppose I am,” Parric called back, ignoring the jibe. “What do you want?”

  “Then your place is the one with the plague.”

  Parric saw immediately what had happened, what was likely to. The trivid had not retreated to its pacification program rapidly enough for some, and the men from Oraton were going to eradicate what was believed to be a source of death before they were infected. Unless they were already, Parric thought 'uncomfortably. He debated, then climbed to the top of the casing and lifted a hand to block the glare of the sun.

  "Look, there’s nothing here for you," he said. "Just me and my friends. We don’t have any—”

  “Don’t tell us what you’ve got, mister,’’ the man said, glancing back at his friends, who nodded. “We’ve been watching you for a long time. We know what’s going on here. You got andies in there, and you killed them with that plague. I saw their bodies myself. Now we want in so we can clean the place out before it gets to our people." He pointed behind him to several men who were standing alongside containers Parric guessed carried some sort of flammable liquids. He shook his head.

  “Sorry,’’ he said. “I can’t let you in. I have my orders from the government—’’

  The man laughed, shortly, more like coughing. “Well, we got our orders, too, mister. You and your people have damn near wrecked this country and we aren’t going to let it all happen around here. So why don’t you let us in and no one’ll get hurt.’’

  Jessica grabbed a handful of Parric’s shirt and tugged. He kept his eyes on the shifting men and bent down.

  “They can’t get in, can they?’’

  "No, and they know it. You saw it when you came in yourself. The barrier has three sections, a couple of meters apart. Where they are now is as close as they can get. Unless they have a patchkey, which is next to impossible.’’

  “They have guns, though,’’ Ike said.

  “I can see that, Lupozny. What I don’t understand is how they think they can threaten us. If they shoot us, they can’t get in. If they don’t, we won’t let them in.’’

  “Yeah,” Ike said, “but we can’t get out.”

  “Can they shoot through that?” Jessica said.

  Panic nodded. “The barrier can absorb some of the energy of whatever they have to throw at us, but not all of it. If they stay where they are and we sit here staring at them—”

  “Hey, mister, you going to let us in?”

  Panic felt a laugh slide into his throat. He tried, but couldn’t stop it and knew he wasn’t helping by showing his disdain. Stepping down from the casing, he faked a cough and told Jessica and Ike to head back toward the house, which they did without question.

  “Listen,” he said as he backed slowly away, “you can’t get in and we’ve enough supplies to last for years. Why don’t you just forget it and go on back to Oraton?”

  “Mister,” the man shouted back, “just don’t stick your head outdoors again. We’re thinking maybe you don’t settle any less easy in our stomachs than those andies. ” Immediately, he raised his weapon and fired. Parric sprawled onto the ground as a shell fountained earth where he had been standing. Projectiles, he thought, as he got up to run before the crest of their laughter. Small favors. At least they haven’t got hold of any lasers.

  Using the trees for cover, he darted from bole to bole until he reached the house, then dashed up the walk, his skin feeling as though it were puckering in anticipation of being punctured. By the time he had fumbled with the front door latch and had stumbled inside, he was also feeling more than a little foolish.

  “Nice run,” Ike said, offering him a drink, shrugging when it was refused.

  “It’s silly,” Parric said, straining to keep from panting in front of Jessica. “They couldn’t have reached me, not from there.”

  “I’d guess they have the Town surrounded,” Ike said. “They might have gotten lucky.”

  “Ike!”

  Parric, pleased at Jessica’s outburst, suddenly felt his legs’ ability to hold him up drain, fill with lead. He quickly dropped into the nearest chair and said, “Now what?”

  “What’s to worry?” said Lupozny. “We’ve got enough food for an army. I’ll bet there’s enough power in that generator to keep the place running practically forever. You said it before: they can’t get in unless we let them in. Stalemate. We win.”

  “Maybe,” Jessica said, “but I’m more confused now than ever. Frank, if there’s such a horrible plague going around the country, the world, why aren’t those men sick?”

  “I don’t know. You’re asking me?”

  Ike laughed and waved a glass in their direction. “Listen, what’s to worry? They’re not, and that’s the point. Maybe they’re already immunized. Maybe they’re naturally immune. Who knows?”

  “Maybe,” Parric said, “they’re sick and don’t know it yet. ” He tried not to sound smug, but Lupozny was getting on his nerves. “I may be dumb, but I’m not all that stupid. Coates said there was a spillover. If that thing has a life of, what did he say, less than forty-eight hours? Well, incubation might be at least that. The androids started acting strange yesterday morning—” “So long ago,” Jessica said quietly, not interrupting.

  “—and their insides are a great deal more sensitive than ours. According to Floyd, we’re fairly well protected, but if those people out there haven’t been attended to, then they’re dying on their feet and don’t know it.”

  There was nothing for Lupozny to say, but his face left little for translation. Even if they had the opportunity to escape, they dared not; infection was still too dangerous a possibility. He grumbled, began complaining that he had left his camera outside, and started making noises about fetching it until Jessica told him to shut up and find a place to sit and count the blades of grass in the lawn.

  Parric walked out to the kitchen to escape their bickering. Standing at the slit of a window, he tried peering through the deep and thick undergrowth that carpeted the hill beneath the trees, looking for signs of movement that might betray his . . . what, he wondered, should I call them? Attackers? Not likely, since they could hardly do much damage as long as the barrier remained powered. In a distorted sense, they might be called his guardians, keeping him inside, stifling any temptations he might have had to leave the Town and thus expose himself to the plague.

  He chewed on his lower lip, then fisted a hand and scraped his teeth with one knuckle.

  What if he were wrong in estimating the time of the plague’s effective infection? What if the androids had exhibited the only signs of disturbance there would be in this area?

  Then they were trapped. Those men wouldn’t fall ill and leave them alone. Trapped. He thought it ironically funny that up until now he had never had any desire to return to something that once promised nothing more than the same drab passing of hours; but once his way out was taken from him, it was all he could think of.

  I wish I were smarter, he thought. Maybe I wouldn’t be so confused.

  “Trouble?”

  It was Lupozny, standing on the far side of the back door, his eyes narrowed in an attempt to follow Parric’s line of sight.

  “No, no trouble. Just thinking is all.”

  “Relax, brother Parric,” Ike said. “There’s not much any of us can do about it. We’re all of us stuck. Us with our funny dummies and them with their fear and pride.”

  Parric looked at the smaller man, but Ike found nothing fascinating in staring at trees and left the room.

  Fear. Sure, he thought, that’s it right in the head. The question is, who’s afraid the most? Or did it really matter?

  He watched the morning glare into noon, shrink the shadows toward him. He tried keeping his mind a blank to goad the time into moving faster toward night, but images of maps with spreading red, mourning black, intruded and made him think in spite of himself of the disasters his people had inflicted upon themselves in the name of faith, salvation, and the glory of the greater good.

  If there was anything that should have truly united the race, it was the Alpha, but starships take too long going and coming. Though the crew was multinational, all countries claimed it for their own, the idea of sharing nebulous glory apparently as alien as the stars Alpha would hopefully visit.

 

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