He was also alone. The girl in the Porsche was gone. The door of the
TWA building had latched itself behind him. He stared around him,
swore, shrugged and circled the building to the parking lot at back, on
the chance that a car might be there for him to borrow.
Luckily, there was. There were four, in fact, all with keys in them. He
selected a Ford, puzzled out the likeliest road back to Honolulu and
turned the key in the starter.
It was fortunate, he thought, that there had been several cars; if
there had been only one he would not have dared to take it, for fear of
stranding Koitska or some other exec who might easily blot him out in
annoyance. He did not wish to join the wretches at the Monument.
It was astonishing how readily fear had become a part of his life.
The trouble with this position he had somehow secured--one of the
troubles--was that there was no union delegate to settle employee
grievances. Like no transportation. Like no clear idea of working
hours, or duties. Like no mention at all--of course--of wages. Chandler
had no idea what his rights were, if any at all, or of what the
penalties would be if he overstepped them.
The maimed victims at the Monument supplied a clue, of course. He could
not really believe that that sort of punishment would be applied for
minor infractions. Death was so much less trouble. Even death was not
really likely, he thought, for a simple lapse.
He _thought_.
He could not be sure, of course. He could be sure of only one thing:
He was now a slave, completely a slave, a slave until the day he
died. Back on the mainland there was the statistical likelihood of
occasional slavery-by-possession, but there it was only the body that
was enslaved, and only for moments. Here, in the shadow of the execs,
it was all of him, forever, until death or a miracle turned him loose.
* * * * *
On the second day following he returned to his room at Tripler after
breakfast, and found a Honolulu city policeman sitting hollow-eyed on
the edge of his bed. The man stood up as Chandler came in. "So," he
grumbled, "you take so long! Here. Is diagrams, specs, parts lists,
all. You get everything three days from now, then we begin."
The policeman, no longer Koitska, shook himself, glanced stolidly
at Chandler and walked out, leaving a thick manila envelope on the
pillow. On it was written, in a crabbed hand: _All secret! Do not show
diagrams!_
Chandler opened the envelope and spilled its contents on the bed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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