The cosmic eye uc, p.13
The Cosmic Eye (UC), page 13
He groaned, "All right, I've had it."
Edgeworth came to his feet and gave the other a quick kick in the ribs in a fury. "That was a fool trick," he snarled. "I've got fifty pounds on you and the training of a Security effective as well. Another couple of minutes and you'd have been enjoying a set of broken bones, Techno . . ."
The big Security official's voice suddenly fell away. His eyes glazed. He froze in his standing position, j Rex Morris stood up, allowed himself another brief groan for the sake of heavy blows taken. He looked at the stricken Edgeworth and muttered, "Thanks Dad, although I doubt if you ever figured on that instant anesthetic discovery of yours ever being used for this purpose."
He hurried to the bathroom, washed his fingers quickly. It took time, but it was possible for the paralyzing drug to seep through even the heaviest skin.
He returned to the living room, moving rapidty. He took up Matt Edgeworth's hand weapon and stuffed it into his belt. He felt the other over and emerged with a wallet. Inside was an identification card for the Security F.S. Technician. Rex Morris hesitated momentarily, then pocketed it.
. He had about thirty minutes to go before Edgeworth snapped out of the coma. For a long moment he stared at the Security man, even got to the point of taking the gun out again and thumbing back the safety release.
But no. A life time's conditioning isn't to be fluffed away that quickly. He pushed the weapon back into his belt and hurriedly left the room.
Within the half hour, the search would be under way. He was in the clutch now. He was on the run.
There are few places to which to run in a completely integrated society.
Chapter Eighteen
There had been something that Edgeworth had said. It hadn't struck a spark by itself, but it had combined with other combustible material. Possibly, just possibly, Rex Morris had the time to check. To what end, he wasn't sure.
Before the apartment house in which he had established his ineffectual hideout, he trotted to the closest Transport FS call box and summoned a hover cab. He made no effort to use the manual controls, they were slower than the automated robo guidance of the vehicle. He dialed the entertainment area of town that Paula Klein had taken him to several days before.
He wasn't going to be able to use Transport FS hover cars once the pursuit got under way. Security would be able to monitor every one in the cty, but for the present he felt still safe. He dismissed the car half a block from his destination and proceeded to the effective class speakeasy on foot.
He found even less difficulty in entering than he had expected. He simply stood before the tell-screen and a voice said, "You are recognized Techno Morris. You may enter."
He pushed through into the speakeasy rooms beyond and a few heads went up at his entrance. He forced himself to take it easy and drifted to a table where an ani-mated discussion was taking place. He made himself listen for a few minutes, his facial expression registering interest, although he was tensed like a spring, inside.
Rex recognized one or two of the debaters from his 'former visit. One was the heavy-set junior effective who had been railing against motherhood the last time. Now he was saying, "It's an antiquated institution. It fitted the conditions that applied a thousand years ago, possibly even a couple of centuries ago but now it hangs on through sheer inertia."
From the side of his mouth, Rex said to the man standing next to him, "What're they discussing?"
"Marriage," the other said, and turned back to the debaters.
"This is how it sums up," the speaker said. "To quote an old jingle:
"Higamous hogamous, woman's monogamous
"Hogamous higamous, man is polygamous
"That's the way it is in nature. It's a man's instinct to impregnate as many females of the species as he can. Keeps the race going. It's a woman's to secure herself a protector and provider to take care of her and her infant during the period she is incapacitated. That keeps the race going too. Very good. In primitive clan society it was pretty well figured out. The community as a whole took care of all its members, and society was a matriarchy in which the women made the rules and regulations. However, with the coming of metal tools and weapons—which women weren't capable of using to the extent men were—and of privately owned property, the matriarchy gave way to the patriarchy, and women took a back seat. Man, now head of his own individual family, wanted to make sure the children he supported were his own, wanted to make sure his property descended to his sons. So what did he invent in the way of insurance? Virginity and adultery. In entering marriage, women were forced to have the one, to refrain from the other. And that's the basis of marriage as we know it still today."
"Well, what's wrong with it?" somebody demanded.
"It no longer applies," the plump speaker said reason-ably. "Neither woman nor child depends on the father as a provider. Society takes care of both. Nor is the inheritance of property of a great deal of importance aside from family keepsakes and such. The institution of marriage is antiquated and so are such corollaries of it as a woman's virginity and prohibitions against adultery." , "So what do you propose as an alternative?" Rex Morris* neighbor asked skeptically.
"Complete promiscuity," the other told him, his voice indicating that nothing was more obvious. "Let two—or more, for that matter—people live together just so long as they're happy together. Then let them split, as soon as one, or both, are no longer happy."
"Fine," said somebody else, "but how do you keep any record of children at all? How do you know who belongs to who? Who your father is, who your relatives are?"
"Go back to the matriarchal system. Take your mother's name instead of your father's," the junior effective-said reasonably. "It always has been said that it's a wise man who knows his father. But everybody knows his mother."
"Great Scott," Rex Morris muttered under his breath. He had stopped being of any interest at all to anyone in the room, so he sauntered on, trying to remember the route over which Paula Klein had taken him on the day of the raid.
It wasn't too big a problem, since one room led off the other and he finally found himself in the corridor which led to the small office and the senior effective known as Mike. He didn't bother to announce himself at the door but pushed his way through.
The florid faced effective looked up from the desk, scowled for a moment in lack of recognition. Then he said, "Rex Morris, Paula Klein's friend. How'd you make out the other day?"
Rex found a chair on the other side of the desk and sat down in it. "What interests me," he said coldly, "is how you made .out. How you're back here in business again so soon."
Mike scowled again, in puzzlement over the tone of voice. "Oh, I got released after the usual routine."
"That's what I meant," Rex said. "What usual routine are you talking about?"
The other stared at him for a long moment. He said finally, "What did you want, Techno Morris?"
Rex Morris brought from his pocket the orange colored identity cum credit card he had taken from Matt Edgeworth. He held it up negligently knowing that at the distance involved neither name nor identity photo could be made out. "The name is Technician Morris," he said, "and although my appointment is in the western section of the Technate, my rank holds here. We don't put up with speakeasies where I'm from and this whole atmosphere disgusts me. I'm arresting you and taking you in. And this time, Mike, you won't be released after a usual routine."
The other's expression of surprise had turned to one of contempt.
"Listen," he said, "why don't you do a little thinking before jumping into something you don't know anything about? I'm telling you, you wouldn't have me down at headquarters for ten minutes. Do you think a place like this could operate for a single day without connections, without protection?"
Rex Morris let his face register disbelief and then suspicion.
He said, "You're lying. What you're suggesting is that higher-ups are protecting this… this nonconformist, controversial hotbed."
Mike looked at him in open wonderment. "And you're the son of Leonard Morris, eh? The guy who got such a name for sounding off. How things can change." He leaned forward and his voice got harder. "Look here, Technician. Things might be different out west, but here in the capital we got protection. Plenty of it. You know who I'd go to if somebody with your rank gave me any guff?"
Rex said softly, "No, who?"
Mike told him.
Rex stared for a long, unbelieving moment Then he said, "Then why the raid the other day? Where was your protection then?"
Mike spread his hands. "Atmosphere. Who'd want to come to a speakeasy if it wasn't forbidden, illegal, under the table? Makes it romantic, I suppose." :
On the wall the tell-screen lit up and Matt Edgeworth's grim face looked out at them. Momentarily startled, Rex Morris at first thought it was a personal call, rather than a general city-wide broadcast.
Edgeworth bit out, "We of the Security FS have flushed one of the nihilists who have been committing acts of violence including assassination. This dangerous criminal is still at large, after fighting his way out of a trap. He is desperate and armed. All security ranks are ordered to fire first and upon sight. The nihilist mentality is such that he may attempt to take his own life, upon threat of capture by blowing himself up, with his captors. He is known to be in the possession of bombs. I repeat, fire first and on sight. All citizens belonging to other functional sequences, upon sighting this man, should immediately report him to the nearest Security officer. The following photos are of the criminal Rex Morris."
The screen began flashing moving shots of Rex, taken from different angles and from varying distances. Rex wondered briefly where Edgeworth had been able to dig them up so quickly.
Even as the photographs were showing, Matt Edge-worth's voice went on urgently. "Patriotic citizens are urged to stand firm against this menace. Indications are that high ranking names are involved in the nihilist conspiracy. No one's life or position is safe until the plot has been completely exposed and dealt with." • The fat was in the fire now. When the broadcast ended, Rex sighed and brought the gun from his pocket and trained it on Mike who was watching him nervously.
"Stand up," Rex commanded, coming to his own feet
Mike stood, his hands raised. "Now look here…" he began. .
"Quiet," Rex told him, "and possibly I won't have to kfllyou."
Mike paled. "Look, I gotta wife and…"
"I'll keep that in mind," Rex said. "Now turn your back."
"You're not gonna…"
"Turn around," Rex snapped. When the other did so, he clipped him with the butt of the gun on the back of the head. The senior effective collapsed forward to the floor.
Rex Morris turned his eyes up briefly in another short prayer—to whatever diety agnostics call upon in stress—this time that the man wasn't seriously hurt. He had no time to check.
He opened the door to the closet, fumbled around to find the door by which he and Paula Klein had escaped during the other day's raid. He pushed through it and into the narrow corridor beyond, retracing the route of a few days before. In a few minutes he was out on the street before the hotel.
He summoned a hover car as quickly as possible, knocked out its tell-screen with the butt of his gun, threw it onto manual control and made his way across the city.
He wasn't up on the abilities of the Security FS. He knew they had of recent years had little opportunity, little need to exercise, the ultra-measures they probably had at their command. It had been a long time since crime, political or otherwise, had been a major item. He was hoping the SFS was rusty. That the sort of dragnet that must be part of their arsenal would take time, the more the better, to put into operation. However, he was aghast at the speed with which Edgeworth had gotten on the air.
On top of the urgency under which he was operating, his mind was awhirl. He couldn't reconcile the developments of the past few hours with lifetime beliefs and experiences. He was in far over his head.
He pulled down a wide boulevard near the river, left the air cushion hover car and took to his feet. The broken tell-screen was going to be automatically reported to the Transport FS and possibly Security was already monitof-ing all cars. It behooved him to get out of the vicinity with as much speed as he could manage without attracting attention.
He reasoned that at this stage, comparatively few pedestrians would have seen the broadcast that Matt Edgeworth had made. He had no doubt that after it had been repeated a few times, a few score times, over the next few hours that everyone in the city would be a potential danger to him, but not quite yet
He found the apartment house he wanted and took the appropriate elevator to the top floor. At the door of Lizzy Mihm's residence he pushed the little black button as he had seen his uncle do the day of the cocktail party. He realized glumly that this was one of the few places in town he dare visit Had he announced himself in the ordinary manner, and had Lizzy Mihm seen that broadcast, as she almost surely had…
The door opened and the hefty, short statured Lizzy was beaming at him. "Why… Rex. William's dear,* dear nephew from the west."
As the door opened, Rex Morris had slid his right foot forward to block its closing, but on the face of things, Lizzy Mihm hadn't seen Matt Edgeworth's broadcast He wondered why. The Security Technician had been able to utilize the emergency facilities to go on every tell-screen in the area, whether or not it was turned on, and whether or not it had been in use at the time for some other purpose. However, there was no point in questioning good fortune.
"Do come in," Lizzy was saying. She had a beefy, several ringed hand on his sleeve as she led him into one of her living rooms. She giggled archly. "I don't believe I had the chance to tell you before that your father used to be one of my best beaux back before I met Freddy."
"Freddy?" Rex said blankly.
"My husband. I'm afraid your father was much too… well, disputatious for little me. Gracious, the terrible reputation he did bring on himself."
They were in the living room. Lizzy Mihm bustled about like a chickless biddy hen, insisting on getting a pil-low to stuff behind him in the already overstuffed chair. She bustled some more at the autobar, brought him a long drink of unknown ingredients.
Finally she wound up across from him, her face beaming. "Now, what is it, Rex?—now you must call me Elizabeth. A young man doesn't call on a, well, practically middle-aged woman like me unless he has something important in mind. Now does he?"
Silently he thanked her for allowing him to get to the point without unseeming haste.
"Techna Mihm…"
"Elizabeth, now!"
"Well, yes… Elizabeth. Uncle Bill said something the other day that just came to mind a little while ago. He said that on occasion you've entertained the Supreme Technician here."
"Jack? Why of course, my dear, dear boy. Jack was…" she giggled here…" why Jack was one of my boyfriends. Before I met Freddy, of course." She put a finger to her lips and thought a moment "Jack was just before I met your lovely, lovely father."
Rex winced. He had never heard his father so misaptly described.
He said, "Uh… Elizabeth, it's very important for me to talk to the Supreme Technician."
She bunked at him. "Oh, dear. It is?" She looked at her watch. "Well, you mean today?"
"Just as soon as possible." He made his voice very ear—nest, not that it took much of an effort.
She put.a hefty hand to her mouth and went, "Teh, tch,tch.'f
He said urgently, "This is very important, Elizabeth."
"Of course, my dear, dear boy, I believe you. You look quite like your father in his most urgent mood. Let me see, I suppose there's just nothing for it. We'll have to break in on his dinner. He'll never be in his office this time of day."
He stared at her. "You mean you know John Mc-Farlane well enough to intrude… uh, that is, visit him, well, just any time?" He had been thinking only in terms of a tell-screen conversation, at the very best.
She fluttered at him. "Rex, do let me tell you a secret Men with ranks such as Jack's aren't nearly as busy as everyone supposes. I know that you'll think this is just awful of me, and controversial, but these days such offices are mostly, well, figurehead positions. And sometimes I suspect that's been true—now you'll think this just awful of me—practically all through history. When a position gets so big that one man simply can't handle it—why then one man simply stops handling it. No matter if his job is king, president or supreme technician."
He didn't know if he quite followed that or not He said, "Well, then…"
"Wait just a moment until I get into something, well, more -flattering. You see Rexie…"
Rex Morris inwardly flinched again.
"… Jack is still one of my dearest boy friends. Now that Freddy has passed away of course." She swept from the room, giggling archly over her shoulder.
"Great Scott," Rex muttered softly.
Lizzy Mihm was evidently one of the few persons still in town who bothered to have a privately owned limousine. She flutteringly explained as they stepped into it in the servo-term in the basement of her building that she was just too nervous to go about the trouble of dialing a Transport FS garage and having one sent when she wished to go somewhere.
*I'm always in such a hurry," she twittered.
Rex murmured something and climbed in beside her. It was a lucky break for him. At least this vehicle wouldn't be monitored. Surely there weren't many cars of this antiquity still in existence. He suspected it was an old electro model, although he had never seen one before. Trust Lizzy Mihm to have an antique like this.
She dialed the White House and settled back to her gushing chatter while the car merged into the traffic. She must have had private coordinates, Rex decided, when the vehicle went through the guarded entry gates without pause. Four uniformed sentries snapped to the salute at the ancient vehicle's approach.
Lizzy Mihm giggled. "They all know my car," she said happily. "Now that's one value of having your own, all your very own."
