captain hunter left the municipal building and stood on the transit platform. it was blazing hot in the noon sun, and he considered chartering an autojet to the city, as he always had before. but though a jet was faster than the monorail it was also more expensive. acutely mindful that he had left the service and would earn no more juicy credit bonuses, he took the monorail instead.
he had only a ten-minute wait before a crowded car screamed to a stop at the port station. hunter went aboard, along with four passengers from recent inbound flights—laboring class tourists returning from vacations on one of the planetoid resorts. since a majority of the people who passed through the spaceport were executives or professionals, they used the autojets.
hunter's uniform set him apart. a spaceman was expected to live high, to throw away credits like the glamor heroes on the tri-d space dramas.
the monorail car was crowded, primarily with afternoon-shift workers on their way to the industrial area. they all wore on their tunics the discs of the union of free workers. the four tourists who went aboard at the spaceport with hunter pulled out their u.f.w. badges and pinned them on. they belonged. hunter didn't.
he found an empty chair at the rear of the car, beside a gaudily attired woman, whose union disc proclaimed her a member of local 47, the recreational companion union. what miracles we perform, hunter thought, with a judicial selection of innocuous words!
he glanced at the woman. she was past the first bloom of youth and her face, under her makeup, was heavily lined, her eyes shrewd and observing. had he known that she had been shadowing him almost from the instant of his arrival in los angeles, and had been awaiting his return to earth in obedience to carefully formulated instructions he would not have regarded her so complacently.
the monorail shot up toward the palms-pine pass of the san jacinto mountains. from the crest of the grade hunter could look back at the flat, cemented field of the spaceport and the ragged teeth of the launching tubes rearing high on the mojave. ahead of him, misted by the blue haze of industrial smog, was los angeles, the capital city of sector west—and indirectly the capital of the entire planet.
almost indistinct against the horizon were the soaring, babel towers, the tangled network of walk-levels, jet-ways and private landing flats, which was the center-city. the lower, bulky factory buildings squatted under the towers and spreading outward from them, like concentric rings made by a stone hurled into a quiet pool, was the monotonous clutter of the minimum-housing.
the city sprawled from san diego to santa barbara, and it lapped against the arid mojave to the east. beyond were the suburban homes of laborers and low-echelon executives who had carved brass-knuckled niches for themselves in the medium-income bracket.
hunter saw the panoramic view of sector west for only a split-second before the monorail car screamed down through the layer of gray haze. for thirty minutes the car shot across the minimum-housing area, stopping from time to time at high-platformed stations.
in the industrial district the car emptied rapidly. only hunter and his faded seat companion got out at the turnaround terminal and took the slideway to center-city. in the metro-entry at the top of the stairs they went through a security check station manned by six blaster-armed police guards.
half of the guards wore the insignia of consolidated solar industries and half of united research, the two titan cartels which were locked in deadly battle for the empire beyond the stars.
the government played it safe, hunter thought with bitterness, using an equal number of police from each organization. on earth the pacific balance of commercial power was never disturbed—not, at least, on the surface. the two imperial giants lived side by side in a tactful display of peace.
on the frontier the real conflict raged, fought with all the weapons of treachery and an arsenal of highly refined atomic weapons—the blaster which could tear a man into component elements, and the l-bombs that were capable of turning a young sun into a nova.
the woman passed through the security check with no trouble. the men knew her and made only a perfunctory examination of her cards. but hunter again had difficulty because of the blaster in his bag. his registered permit carried no weight with the guards. it was not their duty to execute existing law, but to protect their private employers.
however, the consolidated insignia on hunter's jacket made the three consolidated guards ready to honor his permit. eventually they persuaded the opposition to pass hunter into the city, on the ground that the captain's zero-zero adjustment index indicated that it was safe for him to carry arms.
when hunter went through the probe, he found the woman waiting for him. during the half-hour ride from the spaceport, he had tried twice to start a conversation with her, and failed. now, abruptly, her face was animated with interest. she put her arm through his and walked with him to the lift shaft.
"so you got away with it, captain." since it was long-standing fashion, she had trained her voice to sound low-pitched and husky. "i mean, bringing a blaster into center-city."
"why all this fuss about a gun?" hunter asked.
"it's a new government regulation," she told him.
"the government doesn't make the law," he reminded her. "the cartels do."
"the last fiscal mental health report showed the percentage of maladjusted—" she laughed throatily. "i wish we'd use words honestly! the survey showed the lunatic percentage is still increasing. the cartels are using that report as an excuse to keep the people unarmed."
hunter was regarding her steadily. "why?" he asked.
"we're not as content with our world as we're supposed to be," she said. "eric young can't keep all of us in line forever. captain, we could use your blaster. it's next to impossible to get one these days. i could make it worth your while—"
"it's registered to me," hunter pointed out.
"i'll change the serial," was her instant reply. "your name wouldn't be involved."
"no, i want to keep it."
"to use yourself?"
"don't talk nonsense," he said. "this isn't the frontier."
he made the denial vehemently, but deep in his mind he had an uncertain feeling that her guess was right. earth was not the battle-ground, but it had spawned the conflict. the appearance of peace was a sham. here the battle was fought with more subtlety, but the objective remained the same.
if ann saymer had somehow been caught in the no-man's-land between the two cartels—it was the first time that thought had occurred to hunter, and it filled him with a dread foreboding.
the woman sensed his feeling. he saw a smile on her curving lips. she said softly, "so even a spaceman sometimes has his doubts."
"i left the service this morning," he said. suddenly he was telling her all about himself and ann. it was unwise, perhaps even dangerous. but he had to unburden himself to someone or run the risk of losing his emotional control.
"so now you've lost this—this ambitious woman of yours," she said when he had finished.
"no," he protested. "i won't let myself believe that. once i did—"
"as well as her interesting invention—the exorciser," she went on relentlessly. "have you ever wondered, captain hunter, what might happen if the platinum grid was not removed from a patient's brain?"
"no, but i suppose—i suppose he'd remain in control of the operator of the transmitter."
she nodded. "he'd become a perfectly adjusted specimen with a zero-zero index, but—he'd also become a human robot with no will of his own."
"but ann wouldn't—"
"not ann, captain. not the girl you've waited so long to marry. all she wants is a clinic of her own so that she can help the maladjusted. but don't forget—she holds a priceless patent. keep your blaster, my friend. i've an idea you may need it."
he gripped her wrist. "you know something about this?"
"i know the world we live in—nothing more."
"but you're guessing—"
"later, captain, after you start putting some facts together on your own." she pulled away from him. "if you want to find me again—and i think you will—look for me in number thirty-four on the amusement level. ask for dawn."
suddenly, for no reason that he could explain, he had for her a great sympathy. she was no ordinary woman. her discernment was extraordinary, and she possessed, in addition, a strangely elusive charm.
they rode the lift as it moved up through the city level in its transparent, fairy-world shaft. dawn got out first, at the mid-city walk-way where the cheapest shops and the gaudiest entertainment houses were crammed together. dazzling in the glare of colored lights, the mid-city never slept. it was always thronged. it was the only area of the heartland—except for the top level casinos—open to every citizen without restriction.
on the levels immediately above it were the specialty shops, dealing in luxuries for the suburbanites who had fought, schemed and bribed their way out of the minimum housing. higher still was the sector given over to the less expensive commercial hotels.
the upper levels were occupied by cartel executive offices and at the top, high enough to escape the smog and feel the warmth of the sun, were the fabulous casino resorts, the mansions built by the family dynasts who controlled the cartels, and the modest, limestone building housing the mockery which passed as government.
