Space For Hire (Seven For Space) (19 page)

"Not if I destroy both of you here and now," I said.

"Ah, but you lack the will to destroy anything or anybody. I saw to that when I had my synthos drug you. F. greatly admires you, Mr. Space. He wanted you in on the final moments to witness his master triumph."

"How do you unite with the girl?" I asked. Nicole had fallen into a chair, still sobbing."Simple. We merely press our left hands together and the substances are joined. Thus!"He reached for Nicole's limp hand. She offered no resistance."Say goodbye to your solar system, Mr. Space. F. has won!"And, at the moment, it looked as if he had.

Nate was surprised to see me. He asked me what I was doing in Chicago.

"Saving our solar system," I told him.

"That's some reason to be in Chicago!"

I explained the whole situation to him, filling him in on what had happened back on Venus.

"Then you managed to destroy the Kane and Nicole robots before they could touch hands?"

"Obviously," I said, "or we wouldn't be here right now. The no-will drug wore off at the last possible second and I was able to put them both out of action. But I haven't stopped F. He'll be triggering the operation from beyond the System. No telling where that would be. Without you, there's no way to stop him."

"I'm reconstructing Charles Laughton's stomach right now," said Nate. "Then I have John Wayne's buttocks to refurbish."

"Forget all that stuff," I snapped. "The whole System depends on you now."

"Keep talking," said Nate as we walked into his lab.

"At the moment, F. is totally beyond my reach," Sam said. "He's holed up somewhere in deep space. But, with you behind me, I know how to nail him."

"Another time jump I bet!"

I nodded. "Yeah. I need to have you pop me back to where I was before I left for Venus this last time. That way I can still grab F. before he leaves for deep space. You get me?"

"Oh, I get you all right," Nate said. "Fact is, I'm pretty handy with time jumps now. Got all the bugs out."

"Great," I said, climbing into his time rig. "You'll be remembered as the man who saved our solar system, Nate!"

The last thing I saw was Nate's pink blush of pleasure as I was zapped into the recent past.

* * *

Mars.

Umani's lab just before I cut for Venus.

Perfect.

"Well, don't just stand there, Sam," said Esma. "Aren't you going to Venus to stop Kane?"

"I've been there — and I've stopped Kane. Now I'm stopping the evil genius behind Ronfoster Kane."

Esma raised three sets of eyebrows. "I don't understand."

"You wouldn't, baby. You never have. If you had understood what was really happening around you, Esma, you'd never have allowed yourself to become an unwitting pawn in the slimy hands of F."

"What are you saying to me?"

Doc Umani pressed the cold round barrel of a Spanner-Wassleman .420 FJ whipcharge prober into the small of my back. "Sam is telling you that you've been played for a silly little three-headed fool, my dear." He chuckled. "Correct," Mr. Space?"

"Correct," I said tightly.

"But I don't see —" Esma blinked rapidly, unable to put it all together.

"Even you, his adopted daughter, were totally unaware that the brain you kept switching safely from body to body was that of Sir Henry Fasterfaster, otherwise known as F. It looks as if you had us all fooled, Sir Henry."

Esma slumped down onto a research stool. "But — if Daddy is F. why was he working on an experiment to counteract his own plan to destroy the System?"

"Can you answer her, Space?"

"Of course. He only told us that the work he was doing involved saving the System. It was what they call in my biz a cover story — allowing him to work openly on his real plan of total destruction."

"Why was he always under attack? Who was attacking him?"

"Sir Henry built Kane and empowered the robot to simulate attacks against him. Note I said simulate — for your pseudo-Daddy was never entirely dead. You were always able to effect a safe brain-switch. He kept you around for that purpose. The rest was all fakery to avoid possible suspicion from other legit scientists who might have cracked wise to him."

"But — why did he hire you?"

"For the same reason. By sending his own hired detective on a wild goose chase around the System he maintained his innocent image, leaving him free to continue his work. Also, don't overlook the fact that Sir Henry is a fiendish sadist. He got a sick kind of kick out of seeing me chasing my tail."

"Indeed I did," chuckled Sir Henry. "And Nicole's detailed reports of your colorful lovemaking delighted me immensely. Nicole was a
perfect
robot, was she not, Mr. Space!"

This time it was my turn to blush. And I don't blush easy.

"Why did he kill Verlag?"

"Because ole Verlag got onto his real work — and was threatening to expose him to me. F. faked insanity and killed Verlag to shut him up."

Esma glared at him with her six green eyes. "I'm glad I'm no bloodkin of yours!" she spat. "At least my real three-headed Venusian daddy was honest and good."

"Pah!" snorted Sir Henry. "Goodness makes me puke! Being evil is all kinds of fun. Like blowing up solar systems. Sheer fun all the way!"He prodded me with the prober. "To properly satisfy my evil impulses, Mr. Space, I shall ask you to personally strangle my goody-goody adopted daughter. I have no further use for her and I'm sick of her prattle. You may begin with the neck on the left."

I tensed my fighting muscles. "And why should I do what you tell me to do?"

"If you don't, I blast you where you stand."

I turned to face him. My voice was ice; my fists were balled and ready. "That's easy to say, you evil bastard! But you build robots to do your killing for you. Man to man, when the chips are down, I say you haven't got the guts to pull a trigger!"

I was wrong about that. He
had
the guts.

He pulled the trigger.

And I was dead.

But, in almost the same Earthinstant, so was F.

A .38 nitrocharge Colt-Wesson thundered from the door, exploding Sir Henry's evil brain. The distinguished body from West Redding, Connecticut, proved to be his last abode.

"Sam!" cried Esma, throwing herself into my eager arms.

Yeah, it was me. I'd arrived in time to do a chill job on F. — thanks to ole Nate.

I mean, the me that's telling you this story arrived. The
other
me, the very dead one, was also zapped here by Nate but he played it dumb and got himself knocked off. It was up to me to save Esma.

Obviously I'm not dead, or I wouldn't be telling this story.

But, in another sense, they're
all
me. All the Sam Spaces out there gunning their way through all those alternate universes. Some of them buy the big sleep, some don't. You play the odds.

Esma was still plenty confused.

"I don't think you've tied up all the loose ends," she said.

"I'm sure I haven't," I said, holstering the .38 and squeezing her waist.

She was warm and willing in my arms.

Making it with a three-headed babe is no cinch. But like I said way back in the beginning, a lush Venusian triplehead turns me on.

"Sam, you are remarkable," she admitted. "I just hope no more of you show up."

"Right now, sister, one of me's enough," I said. And proved it.

FICTION
By William F. Nolan

NOVELS

Logan's Run (1967); Death Is For Losers (1968); The White Cad Cross-up (1969); Space For Hire (1971); Logan's World (1977); Logan's Search (1980); Look Out For Space (1985); Rio Renegades (1989); Helltracks (1991); The Black Mask Murders (1994); The Marble Orchard (1996); Sharks Never Sleep (1998); The Winchester Horror (1998); Demon! (2006); Logan's Quest (in progress)

COLLECTIONS

Impact-20 (1963); Alien Horizons (1974); Wonderworlds (1977); Things Beyond Midnight (1984); Logan: A Trilogy (1986); 3 For Space (1992); Night Shapes (1995); The Brothers Challis (1996); Down The Long Night (2000); William F. Nolan's Dark Universe (2001); The Logan Chronicles (2003); Have You Seen The Wind? (2003); Nightworlds (2004); Ships In The Night (2005); Far Out (2005); Ill Met By Moonlight (2005); Wild Galaxy (2005); Nightshadows (2007); Seven For Space (2007)

CHAPBOOKS

The Dandelion Chronicles (1984); Blood Sky (1991); Helle On Wheels (1992); Simply An Ending (2002); With Marlowe In L.A. (2003)