Entities: The Selected Novels of Eric Frank Russell (73 page)

Leeming sighed and persisted patiently, “A live victim would help but not conclusively. The most incontrovertible proof of a cause is a demonstration that it creates the characteristic effect. I cannot demonstrate contagion with the aid of a subject already riddled with it.”

“Perhaps not,” agreed Conway. “But such a subject, being more communicative than a dog, can be compelled to identify the cause himself. It should not be beyond your wit to devise a suitable technique for enforcing what might be termed self-betrayal.”

“Offhand I can think of only one way to achieve that,” Leeming said. “And the trouble with it is that it’s likely to be long and tedious and it will mean considerable working in the dark.”

“What method?”

“Assuming that this virus is the true cause—which is still a matter of doubt— we must seek an effective antigen. Our proof will then rest upon our ability to cure the live specimen. If we fail—”

“A cure has
got
to be found,” asserted Conway, in manner making it final and beyond all dispute. “Somehow, anyhow. The only alternative is longterm, systematic extermination of all victims on an eventual scale that none dare contemplate. Indeed, we could well be faced by a majority problem far too large for a minority to overcome, in which case the minority is doomed and humanity along with it.”

“And you think that the life of one hardened criminal is too high a price to pay for freedom from that fate?” asked Leeming shrewdly.

“I think nothing of the sort,” Conway contradicted. “I would unhesitatingly sacrifice the entire population of our prisons had I the power to do so and were I convinced that it was our only hope. But I have not the power and I am not convinced of the necessity. ”

“Let me speak to him,” urged Harper, seeing Leeming’s look of despair. He got the phone, gazed belligerently at the face in the screen knowing that it was now looking at his own. “General Conway, you say you lack the power and you’re not persuaded?”

“That is correct,” Conway agreed.

“The President, if consulted, might think differently. He has the necessary authority or, if not, can obtain it. Aren’t you usurping his right to make a decision about this?”

“Usurping?” Conway repeated the word as if it were the ultimate in insults. He gathered himself together with visible effort, spoke in tones of restraint, “The President cannot work more than twenty-four hours per day. Therefore he deputes certain of his powers and responsibilities. I am now exercising some of the authority so assigned.”

“By virtue of which you have his ear while others have not,” Harper riposted. “So how about putting the matter to him?”

“No.”

“All right. I am no longer asking you to do so. I am telling you to do so.”

“Telling me?” The other registered incredulity.

“That’s what I said: I am telling you. Refusal to cooperate is a game at which two can play. You can take Leeming’s proposition to the President or count me out of this fracas as from now.”

“You cannot do that.”

“I can.”

“You know full well that we're dependent upon you to make positive identification where opportunity arises. You cannot possibly stand idly by knowing what’s happening, watching it happen and doing nothing.”

“I can. And what’s more, I shall. You aren’t the only one who can make like a mule.”

“This is outrageous!” General Conway exploded.

“It’s mutinous, too,” endorsed Harper, showing indecent relish. “It’s barefaced treachery. You could have me shot for it. Try it and see what good it does you. I’d be even less useful dead than dumb.”

Conway breathed heavily while his face showed exasperation, then he said, “Against my better judgment I will take this up with the President and do my best to persuade him. I promise to try to get the required action with minimum of delay but I offer no guarantee of success.”

“Your word is plenty good enough for me,” said Harper. “You’re an officer and a gentleman. And in our antagonistic ways we’re both working for the same end, aren’t we?”

He got a grunt of irritation for that, put down the phone, eyed Leeming. “He’ll do it. He’s the sort who sticks to a promise like grim death once it’s been forced out of him.”

“You’ve got a nerve,” offered Leeming, showing a touch of envy. “You’ve got so much nerve I wonder you’ve any friends. Someday you’ll push it too far and somebody will slap your skull into its underlying mess.”

“What are you talking about? Conway’s a man and I’m a man. We both get haircuts, both wear pants. Once upon a time we both bawled and had our diapers changed. And we’ll both smell as bad a month after we’re dead. Am I supposed to kiss his feet in between times?”

“No, I suppose not.”

“Then we’re in sweet agreement.” He consulted his wristwatch. “Before I go there’s one thing I’d like to know, if you can tell me.”

“What’s that?”

“How does this progressive disease become epidemic? How is it passed from one to another?”

“The same way as the dog got it,” Leeming informed. “That girl Joyce Whittingham had received an injection in the upper arm, presumably with the blood of a victim.”

“We can’t say for certain that the dog has got it.”

“No, but we do know the Whittingham girl had it. And we know she’d received an injection. So had two others. The fourth corpse had a plaster-covered cut that told the same story. My guess is that their reactions were the same as the dog’s, a few minutes’ confusion, collapse into a brief fit, rapid recovery.”

“Well, the fact that contact alone evidently is not sufficient helps a little,” mused Harper. “It means a prospect can’t be taken just by sneezing in his direction. He has to be grabbed and held long enough to receive and get over a shot, eh?”

Leeming nodded and went on, “If this virus is not the actual cause it’s a definite by-product, and if it’s not the cause, well”—he spread hands expressively— “we’re at a complete loss for any other.”

“Anything else you can tell me about it?”

“Yes. It locates itself in the brain and spinal column. That is its natural habitat. The rest is theory and you can have it for what it’s worth. I believe that the virus increases until it overflows into the bloodstream and thereby creates an urge to transmit the surplus, to seek another circulatory system leading to another brain and spinal column. You can think of it as the non-human equivalent of sexual desire, the actual transference being a substitute for copulation. It’s the irresistible response to the universal law: Be fruitful and multiply.”

“Humph!” Harper stewed that a while. He was curious about how transmission from creature to creature was accomplished on the world of origin. Did the preferred hosts on Venus take the shape of a lifeform high enough to manufacture and manipulate hypodermic needles? Or were they something lower in the scale of life, something peculiarly fanged and able to transmit impregnated blood with a single bite?

He suspected the latter. No matter how alien from the terrestrial viewpoint, this plague was born of Nature, designed to exist in masterful symbiosis with a similarly evolved partner. Therefore the mode of increase was likely to be natural rather than artificial and the injection-technique used on Earth was nothing but a substitute justified by proving satisfactory.

If all these bald assumptions happened to be correct, that imprisoned dog might well be capable of creating its own rescuer and much-wanted ally by getting in one good snap at an unwary leg or by licking a hand on which was a minute cut. The presence of virus in its saliva could open the gates to freedom and a wholesale conversion of human forms. Theoretically the animal was more dangerous than a cobalt bomb.

“If you want my advice,” he said to Leeming, “you’d do well to put an end to that dog before it puts an end to you.”

“Don’t worry. We’re used to coping with such matters here. Nobody goes near enough to be spat upon, much less touched.”

“You know your own business. And it’s high time I resumed tending to mine. I am going home, back to the trap that Conway hopes will catch a live one.” Harper let go a harsh chuckle. “If I’m dead out of luck they may bring you a struggling zombie that will prove to be me.”

“What d’you mean?” inquired Leeming, wide-eyed.

“Never mind. Let’s find the escort. If I return without them there’ll be the deuce to pay.” He glanced at the ceiling as if appealing to heaven. “What a world!”

Rausch was hanging around the office when Harper arrived in the morning. He said, “We stayed put until eight last evening thinking you’d be sure to return here. If your guard hadn’t advised us that they’d delivered you safely home we’d have been stuck in this dump all night.”

“What with one thing and other, including three stops
en route,
I got back too late.” Hanging his hat, Harper sat at his desk, reached for the mail. “Where’s Norris? How come you’re here? I thought you were making an ambush of the Baum place?” “We’ve abandoned hope of catching anyone there. The news about the Baums appeared in yesterday’s last editions and got reported as an automobile smash. A pic on the wrecked car being towed away was shown in the pane’s midnight summary. Despite the cover-up it’s more than enough to warn off the Baums’ playmates. We’ll grab nobody there if we try for a year.”

“Well, all I can say is that some people appear pretty good at thwarting the Feds.” Harper tore open a couple of envelopes, rapidly scanned their contents. “They’re much too sharp for my liking. And they’re playing hob with my pet theory that basically all criminals are dopes.” Then he glanced up from a letter, added thoughtfully, “If this bunch can properly be called criminals.”

“How else can you describe them?”

“As a menace. A red-hot menace. Like a gang of dogs with rabies. Or a group of smallpox carriers hiding from the health authorities. But worse than that, infinitely worse.” He reread the letter, dumped it into a wire basket. “Where did you say Norris has gone?”

“I didn’t say. If it’s any satisfaction to you he has dashed out on what is probably another fruitless trip.”

“What do you mean by another’?”

“Yesterday, while you were absent,” explained Rausch, “the boys picked up no less than eight alleged McDonalds. It would have been a top notch performance if any of them had turned out to be McDonald. But none were. Half an hour ago Norris rushed away for a look at number nine.”

“How’s he checking?”

“Easily enough. He has mug-shots, prints and so forth. He’s got sufficient to pin down the right one beyond all shadow of doubt. We’ve not yet laid hands on the right one.”

“I’d give much to know how he’s keeping out of reach,” Harper observed. “The technique might be extremely useful to me some day.”

Rausch stared at him. “What’s on your mind?”

“Embezzlement.” Then he gave a false laugh. “But of course. How silly of me. If I abscond with this outfit’s money I’m merely taking my own. Which proves yet again that an employer can do no wrong. Think it over.”

“I am thinking,” informed Rausch suspiciously. “And I think you’re kidding me. I also think it isn’t funny.”

“It wasn’t intended to be.” He grabbed more mail, ripped off the covers. “Anything else happened that I ought to know about?”

“Your police friend Riley called in the afternoon, became nosey about where you’d gone.”

“Did you tell him?”

“How could we? We didn’t know ourselves. And even if we’d possessed the information we wouldn’t have given it. He is not entitled to be told.”

“Did he state the purpose of his visit?”

“No. I got the impression that it was just a casual drop-in for a gab. He said he’d call again today. He fooled around trying to make your secretary, then went.” Harper dropped the letter he was holding, eyed Rausch sharply “Say that again, the bit about my secretary.”

“Riley horsed about with her a bit, then departed.”

“Never! Never in a month of Sundays! He wouldn’t make a pass at Moira if she begged him to eat her. That’s why I kid him about it. He’s so solidly married that it’s boring.”

“He did,” asserted Rausch. “Maybe the solidity is becoming slightly undermined. You wouldn’t know about that. You don’t sleep with him.”

Harper relaxed, said, “You’ve made a point there. Moira is due to arrive in about ten minutes. I’ll ask her about this.”

“I don’t see the need. Not unless you’ve a lien on her love-life.”

“The bond between us is firmly based upon a mutual affection for hard cash,” Harper informed. “That and no more.”

“Have it your own way,” said Rausch, shrugging. He mooched into the workshop, amused himself watching micromanipulators being assembled, came back when Moira appeared.

Waiting until she had settled herself behind her typewriter, Harper asked, “What is this about you and Riley?”

She was taken aback. “I don’t understand, Mr. Harper.”

“I’m told the lumbering elephant made a play for you.”

“Oh no, not really.” She gained a slight flush. “He only joshed me a bit. I knew he meant nothing by it.”

“But he’s never done that before, has he?”

“No, Mr. Harper. I think he was just filling in time, not finding you here.” Harper leaned forward, gazing at her but not picking her mind. “Did he try to date you?”

She was shocked and a little indignant. “Certainly not. He did offer me a theater ticket someone had given him. He said he wasn’t able to use it and I could have it.”

“Did you accept it?”

“No. It was for last night. I had a date already and couldn’t go.”

“Was he disappointed when you refused the ticket?”

“Not that I noticed.” Her attention shifted to the listening Rausch, then back to Harper, her features expressing bafflement. “What is all this, anyway?”

“Nothing much, Lanky. I am trying to determine whether Riley was drunk or sober yesterday afternoon. It’s an interesting speculation because never in my life have I known him to get stinko.”

“A person doesn’t have to be drunk to notice my existence,” she gave back more than pointedly.

“That’s the baby!” approved Rausch, coming in on her side. “You landed that one right on the button.”

“Keep your beak out of my domestic affairs,” ordered Harper. He picked up a letter. “Forget it, Moira. Let’s get down to business. Take this reply to the Vester Clinic. Replacement titanium-alloy needles for Model Fourteen are immediately available in sets of six. We quote you—”