That was Kane's initial advantage. The Staff seemed incapable of
understanding that anyone would do what Kane was doing. Kane hit number
two four times before number two covered up his face with his hands and
started to cry. Kane ran him into the closet and locked the door.
Number three swung his briefcase at Kane's head, fluttering his other
hand wildly. Kane was heavier than he should have been because he
was accustomed to the Moon. But he was desperate and that was some
compensation. He had some experience, a very little, as a boxer in
college, but that had been years ago. But as little experience as he
had at this sort of thing, he was way ahead of number three. Number
three kept swinging his briefcase, and Kane hit him on the chin and
then in the stomach and then on the back of the neck. Number three lay
unconscious on the floor.
Kane stared at his bleeding knuckles a moment, then dragged Number one
up onto his feet.
"You're going to help me," Kane said. "We're getting a saucer and then
we're going to Sunny Hill. You know where Sunny Hill is?"
Number one ran his hand nervously through his dark brushcut. He had a
boyish face that seemed deeply insulted by what Kane had done. Insulted
and shocked as though he had been a good boy all his life and then
someone had slapped his hand--for no reason at all.
Kane doubled his fists. Number one winced and looked shocked again, and
very frightened. A great deal more frightened than anyone would be who
was afraid only of physical injury.
"Yes, that's part of a big Group Housing Project downtown."
"Where can we get a saucer?"
"The roof."
"Unlock the door," Kane said. "And just pretend everything is happy and
that we're relating beautifully to one another. Now listen--I'll kill
you if you try anything else. I hope you believe it because I really
will. What you fellows intend doing with me, as far as I'm concerned,
is worse than murder."
They stepped onto one of several saucers decorating the roof of the
Midtown Hotel. The rotary blades in the ten foot platform whirred under
them, and Kane felt the saucer rise up to a thousand feet, then dip
downtown. The air was full of them and only some kind of sixth-sense
seemed to keep them from jamming into one another.
There was never less than two on a saucer. And Kane noticed that most
of the saucers were flying in Groups like aimless geese.
Kane jumped from the saucer and ran across the roof landing of the
Sunny Hill project building. There were a number of them like huge
blocks arranged in some incomprehensible plan.
Kane glanced back to see number one leaping from the saucer and running
in the opposite direction. Kane ran on toward the elevator. He knew he
didn't have much time, but what bothered him was the authority he was
running against. Public opinion was a general attitude, not a cop car,
or a squad of officers with guns. Getting out of line, Kane figured,
was usually its own punishment--isolation, loneliness, social ostracism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account