Fugitives from justice -- Fiction; Human-alien encounters -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
Minnn felt a crash in the Perfesser's shoulder and the tall body
swayed. A bit of lead had entered the clavicle. Minnn strained and
the ends of the veins constricted, slowing the loss of blood. The
Perfesser's heart and lungs were behaving alarmingly but Minnn kept the
body running. He was gaining on the truck.
The truck gained speed and so did the Perfesser. Ancient arteries,
brittled with deposits, strained and began to give. The Perfesser's
arm raised as he drew alongside the truck. The umbrella-tip neared the
driver.
* * * * *
A bullet grazed the Perfesser's side--Minnn suddenly realized they were
not shooting to kill: and also the shaky frame he had taken would not
be able to run much longer. With a surge of concentration he pushed the
body forward. The umbrella-tip touched the driver, Minnn drove himself
down the metal ferrule, somewhere an artery burst, and the body of the
Perfesser sagged, wobbled, and, still carried forward by momentum,
smashed into a wall and toppled over. It lay there on its back. Being
front-man for a Ravian had been Perfesser Frye's last falsehood.
The truck got out of the alley, going fast, and kept going fast until
it came to the asylum. The driver did not go to the back door--there
might be people waiting for him. He walked in the front door, up to the
receptionist, and touched her. Then he discovered himself standing
there, and walked embarrassedly out again.
The receptionist remained at her desk. A visitor was moving toward her;
as he passed, the receptionist touched his hand.
Down a hallway opening into the reception room came a little group of
men--three attendants from the hospital and the hospital director; a
talking-attendant and Chester Forge, and the truck driver. All were
gloved and clad in mento-insulation but the talking-attendant.
"I was standing right here," said the driver excitedly. "Right here in
front of this desk."
The talking-attendant rested his hand on the receptionist's forehead.
"Not there now," he declared.
"Have any of you seen anyone near this desk?" called the director to
the room at large. A woman pointed to the visitor the receptionist had
touched. "He was!"
The visitor began to run.
"We've got to get him before he gets into a patient!" yelled Chester.
"In an unbalanced mind even Monnn can't find him! Get him."
They went plunging after the visitor.
Minnn was pleased. He had a head start, and this human had good running
potential. He would have fun. An interne stepped out of a door, the
visitor touched his hand, the interne stepped back through the door,
rapidly. The searchers swirled down the hall and grabbed the visitor
and Monnn made his test. "Not here now," he reported.
The interne strolled into an elevator, went up a story, walked quietly
down another corridor. Excitement was percolating through the place
almost as though the inmates breathed it. There were many inmates on
this floor; he could force into one almost at leisure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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