As the chair toppled and before he realized his own danger, the old
man cried the code word that triggered the wall blasters. He was
instantly caught in the deadly cross-fire.
As the weapons slid back into the wall slots, Hunter leaped for the
door, and passed quickly through it. The outer hall was empty. He
sprinted for the walk-way, the echoes of the blast still ringing in
his ears.
A destination marker glowed above a nearby metro-entry. It told him he
was on the Twenty-eighth level of center-city. On a large, public
Tri-D screen Hunter saw a picture of the strike mob in the industrial
area. That was all the data he needed. If the mob was still in the
streets, Eric Young was still manipulating the transmitter.
Hunter took an unchartered autojet and dialed as his destination the
U.F.W. clinic. It was the largest structure in the industrial area,
made from luminous, pink, Martian stone, which had been imported at
great cost--and with a blaze of publicity.
Completed only three years before, the U.F.W. clinic had been given a
continuous flood of publicity. Numerous Tri-D public service programs
had explored its wards, its laboratories, and its service centers, and
even in a distant spaceship Hunter had not remained in ignorance of
the build-up. The knowledge served to his advantage now, for he knew
just where Young's personal penthouse was located and exactly how to
reach it.
There were no armed guards or automatic probes in the clinic. Such an
outward display of force wouldn't have jibed with Young's public
personality. He was the much-loved official head of a union whose
membership totaled millions.
Any protective device would have distorted the illusion and destroyed
the legend completely.
Young's penthouse, thirty floors above street level, was the modest
garden cottage which had been so widely publicized and that, too, was
a part of his illusion. When Hunter saw the tiny house he was able to
appreciate Young's showmanship, his insight into the mental processes
of the credulous.
Hunter moved toward the door. Light glowed inside the cottage, but
through the broad, front window he could see no one. He felt a
momentary doubt. Had he guessed wrong? Was Young holding Ann somewhere
else?
But Hunter was sure Young had not taken that precaution. It would have
involved risks he would not have to contend with at the clinic, unless
he had been reasonably certain he would be found out. And Young had
expected to prevent that by keeping Consolidated and United at each
other's throats.
Hunter kicked open the door. The three small rooms in the cottage were
empty--until a man wearing a union smock emerged from the narrow
galley. He hadn't been there a moment before when Hunter examined the
cubicle, and there was no rear entry to the cottage.
"Mr. Young isn't here, sir." The man said, gliding swiftly toward him.
"If you wish to leave a message--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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