The Chromosome Game (24 page)

When he found his voice it sounded remote. ‘Hello, Eagle.’

Eagle said nothing, his face stripped of features in the brilliant light, like a portrait on an over-exposed print.

Sladey turned to face Scorda. ‘Eagle has come to help us.’

Eagle said, ‘That’s our spare tractor engine, Sladey.’

Sladey said, ‘Redskin he say, that’s his spare tractor engine.’

Scorda said, ‘I heard.’

Sladey said, ‘Kendip. The spare rope. Under the tractor seat. Fetch the free end.’

Kendip forced himself to misinterpret Sladey’s intentions. ‘It’s no use, Sladey. Eagle will get away.’

Sladey said, ‘Not unless he has an unusually effective reverse gear — and the horse has four-wheel drive into the bargain. Can’t you see, you fool? He can’t turn. Get that rope round him. Lasso him, like in the movies, don’t you like the movies?’

Kendip hesitated. ‘But … What are you going to do once we’ve caught him? He’s bound to tell what he’s seen.’

Sladey found his tongue lubricating his lips. ‘He won’t be telling anybody … Eagle wants the tractor engine back. He thinks we should return it. Scorda, do you think we should return it?’

Scorda didn’t move. ‘No, Sladey, I don’t think we should return it.’ Sladey said to Eagle, ‘Scorda doesn’t think we should return it.’

Eagle said, ‘We better talk.’

Sladey said, ‘Problem is, Eagle, I don’t like people who talk. It’s sort of embarrassing. See what I mean?’

Eagle said, ‘Could you slacken off this rope a bit? It’s getting in the way.’

Sladey said to Scorda, ‘Ease off that rope. I’m talking to Eagle.’

Scorda slackened the rope.

Sladey said to Eagle, ‘This is a little unfortunate.’

Eagle said, ‘I have a suggestion.’

‘And what is this suggestion, Eagle?’

‘It is this, Sladey: You put the engine right back where it belongs, and I won’t say anything about … all this. Okay? Get it? I won’t talk, even the zebra,
he
won’t talk. All you have to do is return that engine, right now. Okay? A deal?’

Sladey said, ‘That would be a little inconvenient, Eagle.’

‘Yes, I realise you had some perfectly innocent reason for secretly building powerboats in the middle of the night and stealing our only spare tractor engine, but I’m saying put the engine back and —’

‘— and Bob’s your uncle?’

Eagle just said, very quietly, ‘This is when you return the engine, Sladey.’

Sladey said, ‘You’re not in a terribly strong bargaining position, Eagle. Are you?’

Eagle felt panic impeding speech. ‘Okay, you better know. I told Trell I was following you.’

Sladey smiled. ‘You told Trell? You should have said so in the first place. Where was Trell when you told him?’

‘Does that matter?’

‘Oh, it matters all right. Someone else might have heard, you see.’

‘Well, it’s okay, because I got Trell out in the corridor, and I told him in private, and he said, long as Sladey returns the engine, no further action.’

Sladey said, ‘Well, that’s a funny thing, that you spoke to him in the corridor, because I checked very carefully that Trell and Kelda were outside, playing their own games, right the other side of the Ridge from us they were, Eagle, you might even know their patch. And I think they must have got most frightfully wet — if not actually struck by lightning — but if they insist upon getting up to these naughty things, when they ought to be on Deck ZD-One, providing you with an alibi, Eagle, you probably agree with me that they deserved to get drenched.’

Scorda fingered the rope. ‘We’d better be sure, Sladey.’

Sladey said, ‘You shouldn’t be so
itchy
, Scorda.’

Scorda said, ‘We do have the rope, Sladey. We could find out. Eagle won’t like the rope.’

Sladey said, ‘There’s something terribly vulgar about you, Scorda. Why flog a dead horse when there’s a real live one?’

Kendip the Flipflop exclaimed, ‘Jesus! You’re not going to flog him?’

Sladey said, ‘No, I’m not going to flog him. What good would that do? I’m a practical person, Kendip. You have to learn to be
practical
, you know.’

It was at that moment Eagle knew two things. First, he knew for certain what Sladey was going to do. Second — and this seemed strange indeed — Eagle knew he wasn’t going to cry.

He even tried to work out why this was so. Was it that terror had gone completely round the dial? —
Am
I
so
numbed
with
it
that
it’s
turned
into
something
different
? … Eagle had to rule this out. The terror was overrunning, like a reactor out of control. Why, then, wasn’t he going to cry? He couldn’t do the sum. Perhaps it was that Sladey’s cruelty was so alien to all that Eagle believed in, about people and love and knowledge and beauty and God, that there simply was no indicator on the instrument panel of his mind that would nail the flaw.

‘Scorda,’ commanded Sladey, in an oddly detached voice, ‘Unhitch the other end of Eagle’s rope from the tractor seat. Kendip, help Eagle off his horse.’

Something inside Eagle screamed. But his face was set hard. His eyes were gazing beyond Sladey as if he were penetrating the future — not of himself, but of the living universe.

Kendip stammered, ‘This is … this is murder! Can’t you understand, you guys? We have a murder here!’ He backed away, shouting at Scorda, ‘Stop him! You crazy? Are you all crazy? Help me hold Eagle, for Christ sake!’

Nobody moved.

Sladey said, ‘Scorda, hold Kendip back from Eagle.’

Sladey reeled-in Eagle from the cable drum.

Eagle’s face was the same, but glazed. He thought, I’m dead, I’m dead, that cable makes no difference, does it?, it won’t matter, falling over the cliff, I can feel it pulling, the cable drum is unwinding, I can see it clearly, it doesn’t mean anything now, I love Kelda, shouldn’t I have told her just once? will she know?

Will she know that everything I did or tried to do was because I must have had happy parents and I wanted to be a parent, have children by her, will she know that?

Will she catch a glimpse in her mind of that cable drum, it fascinates me, I watch it winding up as it unwinds me, and there’s Sladey’s face in the spotlight, he doesn’t exist, he never did, he’s an X-ray plate, frightened, oh how terribly frightened he is.

I can hear my own voice screaming now, I have lost my balance and the rocks down below are coming up toward me terrifically fast, everything is racked with my screams, and yet it’s not me as I know me, because I can’t believe that anyone —

*

By morning, Trell and Kelda knew.

And when they could stop crying for a few minutes Kelda said, ‘Trell, what are you going to do?’

‘I’m going to keep myself in control and so are you. I am not going to avenge him because nothing could be enough, does that sound mad?’

‘No. Nothing is enough. Is Huckman going to get his way? — all along the line?’

‘Not if I have anything to do with it.’ Kelda said, ‘I’m going to go on crying now.’

‘So am I.’

Minus One

The computer said — rather hesitantly for a computer — ‘I can no longer guarantee to support you, Trell-484.’

‘Are people deliberately programming you against me and my leadership, and Kelda’s leadership, and are you allowing this to happen?’

‘Trell-484, I have to … to think of the survival of the fittest.’

‘What the hell does that mean?’

‘What it says.’

‘You mean, the survival of the most ruthless? — Is
that
what you mean?’

‘Among other things, yes. There are so few of you —’

‘— So few of us that the law of the jungle prevails! — Controller, where is Eagle?’

‘I have no information on the matter.’

‘I repeat, where is Eagle-100?’

‘I do not know.’

‘You must have some idea. His horse was brutally killed and then buried to the north of Kasiga Ridge. We dug up the carcass. There was
human
blood on that horse, Controller. We analysed it.’

‘You have no proof that Eagle had been riding it.’

‘The evidence is remarkably strong. Eagle always rides the stallion he calls “Zebralegs”. Now the animal is found dead and Eagle has gone missing.’

‘That proves nothing.’

‘Tell me Eagle’s blood group, Controller.’

‘That’s confidential information.’

‘And this is a confidential computalk. What’s his blood group?’

‘I regret I am not empowered to tell you that, Trell.’

‘Controller, the blood we found on the horse was Group A, Rhesus negative … Rhesus
negative
, Controller. A rare enough blood group, surely, to make identification possible?’

‘Who analysed it?’

‘I’m not mentioning any names to you.’

‘Nembrak. What do you take me for? … And if Nembrak wants to get on in this community he should stay away from you, Trell. The name “General Motors” — which I believe you’ve coined for the workshop — is hardly one suitable for dissidents.’

‘I’ll be sure to tell him, Controller. But in the meanwhile General Motors are highly concerned over the shortage of insulin. Cass is running out of it fast.’

‘You force me to repeat that such matters are no concern either of yours or General Motors.’

‘Is this part of your philosophy to do with the survival of the fittest? — Fittest for what, Controller? — tyranny?’

‘Futureworld is no place for the soft-centred, if that’s your alternative.’

‘You won’t find Eagle soft-centred — Or will you find him at all? Sladey is a marsh-mallow when he’s not backed-up by his thugs … or by you.’

‘Trell-484, those auto-nurses were hardly even limbering-up when they scolded certain of your colleagues within this community. If you continue as you are, you will personally discover their versatility.’

‘I accept the challenge. In the meanwhile please don’t refer to the Sladey/Scorda mob as my colleagues.’

‘Trell-484, you’d better face one thing right now: I have a list of those who still regard you as leader; and another list of those who do not. You are outvoted.’

‘You allow people to take orders from Sladey and Scorda? — knowing what they did before?’

‘That’s old history now.’

‘And you’re prepared to rewrite history — despite the appalling crime it looks like they’ve committed now?’

‘If Eagle-100 interfered with the survival plans of —’

‘— Are you telling me flatly that if I come up with proof of murder you’ll do nothing about it? … I cannot believe that the entire settlement would allow the murder of someone as gentle as Eagle to go unpunished, even if you do.’

‘It depends what suits them.’

‘What does?’

‘Trell-484, the very fact that no one will tell you anything indicates to me that they discard your leadership. You’re asking me a number of questions the answers to which you would have learned long ago had you still got the support of the incubants.’

‘I may have to put that to the test.’

‘I wouldn’t advise it.’

‘No, because far from their programming
you
, you have been programming
them
, Controller.’

‘Meaning what?’

‘I have read the letters between Huckman and Ricardo … That startled you, all right!’

‘Those letters were destroyed over three hundred years ago! I have confirmation on filestore!’

‘You need an update. Kelda found a whole stack of correspondence — including Folio B.919. Does that jog your memory-store?’

‘Impossible!’

‘Then how the hell do you think we know about them? … You’ve been systematically passing on Huckman’s prejudices to Sladey and now he has all the ammunition he ever needed.
You
incited Scorda and Sladey into attacking Helen —’

‘— Where were these letters?’

‘Get a camera behind your CPU … Right behind your back! — like you do so many things behind
my
back.’

‘Trell, I myself punished Sladey and his collaborators.’

‘For deeds arising from your own guilt.’

‘Computers do not suffer from anything so irrational.’

‘They might if all they do is ape the views of the people who programmed them.’

‘Trell, I never intended the semen that became you to …’

‘Go on. Why stop? … You didn’t want Aryan semen mated with a Jewish ovum. Right? So whose semen was it, that you yourself felt so possessive about?
Who
are
you
,
Controller
?’

‘I … I am not obligated to respond to such interrogation!’

‘You took a particular interest in the semen lodged in pre-incubator 484. Why?’

‘I am not answering that question.’

‘You knew whose semen it was. What you didn’t know was the identity of the mother! — Semen’s Blind Date with Jewish ovum!’

‘You’re guessing.’

‘I’m guessing right. And the only way you could have known the origins of supposedly anonymous semen would be if that semen was switched! That semen was Huckman’s! — So what am I? The prodigal son of a computer? — all because your human counterpart masturbated about the wrong woman?’

‘You’re kidding yourself, most of the innocent kids with the flounces and tight knickers don’t stay around watching television in this day and age.’

‘Controller, you just accessed THE WRONG FILE! Don’t you know what you’ve done? … Those VERY WORDS are transcribed on one of the documents we found and they were spoken by Huckman!’

‘CPU to Journal Tape: Erase my previous sentence and confirm with Error Printout.’

Deck 5 jumped back and the line-printer gave a burst of letter-press.

Trell read it, then furiously ripped it out of the machine. ‘Okay, daddy-o. I want a full search organised among the incubants until Eagle is found.’

The voice that answered him through the speakers was malignant. ‘They’d be wasting their time.’

Trell found the tears blurring his eyes. ‘God, you must have been rotten!’

*

Fulda’s tall, rather linear figure seemed bowed, eyes staring dejectedly from a blood-drained face. You could not have imagined there had ever been a grin there. The close-cropped hair, the plain denim skirt, the low shoes … these emblems of austerity were what showed now.

She intercepted Kelda in the gymn … ‘I must speak with you. I
must
. Please!’

Kelda saw the misery. Let’s talk in Cubicle E.’

Fulda said, ‘Nembrak thinks it’s his fault. Kelda, he can’t bear it!’

Kelda said, ‘I don’t understand.’

You will. It was a typical Sladey trick — the Plans, I mean.’

‘Plans? What Plans?’

‘Blueprints. Nembrak guessed what … what that project really was. So did I. But —’

‘— You’re not making any sense. How can a brutal murder be his fault?’

‘They … threatened … certain things. Things that were supposed to happen to me, if —’

‘You wanted to speak up and Nembrak stopped you? — But Fulda, Nembrak was protecting you. He saw it as his duty.’

‘And look what it led to … Oh, you can’t know! Not yet.’

‘I must be honest, Fulda. I don’t see the connection.’

‘You will.
You
will
! … Kelda, I want you to promise me something. It’s terribly important. I don’t know whether you’ll understand … Nembrak can only be … well, the person he always is, you know, kind of a fun guy, making light of things. God, this is difficult to say.’

‘It’s becoming clear.’

‘Is it? … Nembrak wants to see you and Trell down at General Motors tonight —’

‘Okay, we’ll go see him.’

‘Yes … but, oh Kelda!’ Spontaneously Fulda embraced her as if she were the child and Kelda the woman. Kelda hugged her tightly, waited.

‘It’s this: When you see Nembrak … he wants to act-out his usual self, you know, like he used to be. He knows he made a dreadful mistake —’

‘— You sure?’

‘He
thinks so. Nothing anyone can say will alter it. He’ll never be the same person again but he’ll never show it. If he did, he couldn’t carry on. So … down there tonight, he’ll seem the same as ever, he’ll look unrepentant, he
must
.’

‘Does he know that you’re —’

‘— If he knew I’d spoken privately to you, Kelda, he’d be finished.’

‘You must love him a lot.’

‘We … we all do. I know it must seem odd, I mean, four of us —’

‘There is never anything odd about love.’

‘You see Kelda, he did have a perfectly legitimate motive for … for building what Sladey thought he’d conned him into building, you won’t understand yet but —’

‘— but in his own way Nembrak will explain.’

‘How can you be so understanding?’

‘You’ll have
me
crying in a minute!’

‘What I desperately want you and Trell to do is, well, let Nembrak keep up the act. He’s tormented by Eagle’s death; but if he shows his grief … You see, Eagle tried to help him … come out with it. Nembrak just couldn’t! There was Eagle, offering out his hand — all in joke-talk but you know how he … how he used to say two things at once … Kelda. Be honest about one thing. Just to me. Did Nembrak make a mistake? Do you think he did?’

‘Why do I have to answer that?’

‘Because we depend on your honesty. Did Nembrak, Incubant-291, commit a gross error of judgement?’

‘I’ll be honest in the only way I know how. Nembrak was in no way responsible for Eagle’s death. That’s what you’re asking and that’s the answer.’

*

Trell said, ‘Okay, I admit it, I’ve been crying.’

Kelda said ‘Thank God you still can.’

‘I feel ashamed.’

‘Finally you give my shoulder a mission in life … Trell, I am in love with you and anything goes, understand?’

‘Okay.’

‘So let’s have a few respectable sobs, then tell me the problem.’

‘I held back from telling you what it was the Controller threatened me with —’

Kelda’s throat had gone taut and dry. ‘You may think you did. But you’ve started talking in your sleep … Supertorture you called it.’

‘Auto-nurses.’

‘I guessed that.’

‘Kelda … I want you to do me a favour. You won’t like the sound of it. But you must promise to do it.’

‘I promise.’

‘See Fulda again … Before we go over to GM tonight. There’s something I might need.’

Her voice half strangled: ‘It’ll never come to that.’

‘It might.’

‘I’ll talk to her.’

*

‘Fulda Anyone watching us?’

‘No. Go ahead. Make it fast.’

Kelda said it flat. ‘This is in the strictest confidence. Don’t even want it mentioned at the factory tonight.’

‘You have my word.’

‘Has Nembrak any cyanide down there?’

‘
Cyanide
?’

‘That’s what I said.’

‘You … you must tell me, I can’t stand any more suspense, Kelda. Who needs it?’

‘No one — yet … Fulda, it’s Trell: threatened with the autonurses … A special deal all for him.’

‘Oh my God.’

‘Neither Trell, nor anyone living — They wouldn’t be able to stand the pain.’

‘Brainpain.’

‘Right. He’d have to kill himself and he knows it.’

‘And to think that Nembrak and I are only worried about conscience.’

‘I know of nothing more important. Find out for me?’

‘It mustn’t happen.’