Cybernetic Controller Read online

  “W-where are we? The rats—”

  She shuddered, scrambled to her feet so suddenly that it startled him, and stood still for a moment, listening.

  “Where are they?”

  “Somewhere over there,” Lin waved vaguely. “I carried you a good way.”

  “Oh, Lin!” Her voice trembled, and she reached out a small hand to touch his arm. “I’ve never been so terribly frightened in my life. But those things—and Chayce—”

  “We’ve got to find somewhere safe,” he said, quickly. Anything to stop her thinking about those minutes in the cellar. “Is there somewhere we can go, or can we get back to the city-block?”

  She peered through the blackness, then at the glittering sky.

  “I think I know where we are, the city-block will be over—there,” she pointed. “But if we got to the city safely, the little-known block which our organisation uses is the old storerooms near West 5-37 apartments, and you know how busy they are even in the middle of the night. And in these clothes . . .”

  She looked at her own torn tunic, at Lin’s bloodstained clothes. “But there is a place quite near. We gathered together several gangs of wanderers there and were trying to persuade the brightest to join us. We helped the others, too, and I’m sure they’ll help us in return.”

  “You can find the way in the dark?”

  “Oh, yes. We’ve the stars for direction and there’s quite a tall structure near the camp. They stored a kind of gas in it before the War. It’s mostly girders now, but it shows up.”

  “We’d better be moving, then.” Lin shivered. “I never realized it could get so cold in the open air.”

  “This is fairly warm, compared with midwinter nights.” She started to walk into the ruins again, looking up occasionally at the sky.

  After a few minutes she asked: “Haven’t you ever been Outside before?”

  “Mind that rafter—no, I’ve worked in the city-block, but mostly in the new tunnels, labouring. I had a friend who went out on the active-waste disposal unit, but he was in the protected cabin of a car and didn’t see much.”

  A dislodged brick started a small avalanche down the side of a shallow crater, and for a few moments the night was filled with its noise. As it died there was another sound. An indistinguishable shout from ahead.

  Merryl turned excitedly. “It must be the others! They must be out looking for me! Shout for me, Lin, please.”

  Lin filled his lungs with cool night air, gave a bellow. There was an answering shout, nearer, and they moved towards it.

  They reached a rubble-strewn road and figures appeared from the ruins on its border. Merryl cried out thankfully, ran forward, with Lin close behind.

  “Thank goodness you’ve found us, the rats—"

  Powerful torches suddenly blazed in their faces. A command rang out.

  “Halt! Put up your hands!”

  Beyond the lights their dazzled eyes could just discern the revolvers and uniforms of the City Guard.

  Chapter Three

  NUMBED, sick at heart, Lin was forced along by the City Guards. He put his arm protectively around Merryl, feeling her slim body quivering, sensing her despair. As they pushed rapidly across rubble and broken masonry, torch lights flashing over the desolation, he could foresee only too well the grim questioning that would drag from Merryl the secrets of her group.

  A cube of concrete bulked ahead against the stars, corners rounded from acid rains. Lin recognised the typical outlines of a service lock. The captain in charge spoke laconically into a protected communicator mouthpiece on the wall and lead covered valves opened ponderously. Arc lights blazed through the widening opening, dazzling their eyes.

  Merryl had said nothing since their capture and Lin, seeing her face drawn tightly and lips set, did not dare venture any comment. Anything he could say would be superfluous.

  “Get inside, you two. We don’t like the Outside as much as you do.” Gun barrels prodding their backs, they entered. Lin felt the concrete strike chill, the air tasted dank and unwholesome after the Outside atmosphere.

  He was aware of the outer doors closing, then the interior of the lock came to incandescent life. Crackling surges of power sparked from every metallic object, vibrations wrenched at his muscles as the ultra-sonics cut in.

  Radiation Control took no chances on radio-active materials finding their way inside the city-block. As the inner doors slowly opened, the Whole party had been thoroughly decontaminated.

  The Guards closed tightly round their prisoners and marched them through into the Fifth Level of the city-block, the section nearest the surface where lived those of least intelligence, Lin’s labouring companions and the myriads engaged on menial tasks. Down in the bowels of the city, safely hidden from any stray radiations, were the quarters of the Firsts, hydroponic gardens and the complex rambling machinery of the Cybernetic Controller.

  “We’ll ride down in No. 3 elevator, four guards and the prisoners. The rest of you in No. 4.” The captain detailed his men off briskly and marched Lin and Merryl, four guards crowding them, towards the bank of elevator shafts.

  To either side stretched a long curving ramp of concrete. Behind them the lock doors shut with a sigh. Under the arc lights nothing moved apart from the two groups entering their elevator cages. No. 4 elevator containing the main body of guards sank from view.

  The captain cursed and punched buttons. No. 3 elevator remained idly at the top of its shaft.

  “These darned break-downs! Always we have trouble. This wouldn’t have been tolerated when I was a youngster. Get along to No. 5 now, sharp!”

  Guns big in their fists, the guards herded Lin and Merryl from the cage. The captain turned to gesture them to hurry. His arm remained raised, then his whole body sagged. He hit the concrete, thudding softly, his accoutrements and weapons making sharp clanking sounds.

  A mob of men wearing black masks burst from No. 7 elevator, weapons spouting flame. Lin tightened his grasp on Merryl and threw her to the ground. Bullets whined overhead. In the clamour of shouting and cursing, with guns going off all round, he seized the leg of the nearest guard, pulled him down and rolled on top.

  A blind fury constricted all his muscles. Images of Grota floated before his eyes, and he smashed his fists again and again into the guard. He was not aware of pulling hands, and struggled to continue pulverising the guard.

  “All right, spitfire. Lay off. We’ve got to get out of here, and fast.”

  A lean, bronzed face, red beard jutting stiffly beneath a cracked black mask, swam into focus. Lin became conscious of arms around him, pinioning his flying fists.

  He was hustled into an elevator, dazed, feeling pain flow up his arms from bruised knuckles. The grill clanged shut and the bottom of the elevator fell away. Men crowded him and he heard the deep mutter and laughter of men satisfied with their work.

  “Right between the eyes.”

  “Just a lot of yellow rats.”

  “All right, men, we’re not safe yet.” That was the bearded one talking, his voice cutting into the buzz like a scalpel. Lin suddenly realized the strangeness of a bronzed face in the underground whiteness of the city. “As soon as we hit Third Level, out fast. Shoot first and don’t wait to ask questions.”

  The floor pressed against Lin’s trembling feet, the cage slid to a standstill, the grille opened and silently the men crowded out. They moved in a solid body along a corridor precisely similar to the one above, past vacant elevator shafts, moving softly, yet with a pantherish tread that told Lin this was old habit with them.

  Just as they pushed into elevator No. 37, Lin realized Merryl was not in the group.

  He struggled to regain the door, to look for her.

  “Where is she? Where’s the girl who was with me?”

  “Don't fret, youngster. She’s away with others of us. You’ll see her soon enough.” Masked faces turned his way and mouths opened in good-natured grins. The bearded leader patted Lin on the back. “She’s a tidy
piece, too. You’ll tell us all about it when we get back to HO.”

  Lin allowed himself to relax a trifle. If Merryl was with as efficient a group as this, she should be safe. He began wondering what the HQ referred to was, how it fitted in with the new facts he had discovered. Perhaps this group was allied with Merryl’s mysterious scientists; these were the fighting men, raiding and killing and then fading back into normal Fifth Level obscurity. All except red-beard; he was far too conspicuous.

  The cage jerked to a stop and the masked men spilled out, guns ready. Far away down the curving length of corridor five small heaps lay untidily outside shaft No. 5, black in the pitiless arc-light glare.

  Lin was rushed along in the opposite direction. Running to keep up with the mob he had little time to notice various corridors and tunnels they traversed. This was the quietest hour of all in the city-block, when not even the busy Fifth Levels stirred. In an hour these quiet passages would be echoing to the turmoil of hurrying crowds going to their daily labours, preparing to open up the multifarious activities of the city. Far below Seconds and First still slept, would awaken only when the Fifths, under Third and Fourth direction, had suitably prepared the city.

  Lin pushed his way up alongside the bearded leader. The whole party slowed to a rapid walk and Lin had breath left to gasp questions.

  “Where are we going? What group are you? What—?”

  “Save it. Save it,” snapped the leader, curtly. “Keep your eyes open. We’ve about ten minutes before all these rabbits scuttle underfoot. Do this, do that, don’t do this.” He sounded bitter, with the sort of bitterness that sees little in the future to cheer. “I wonder if we’ll ever be able to make them see just what slaves they are.”

  “Aren’t you a Fifth, then?”

  “Yes.”

  “So am I. We don’t appear to be the same as these— these rabbits. Perhaps—” Lin broke off, his thoughts chaotic. How could he liken himself to a First, even if a girl and a dead scientists had mistaken him for one? The concept was too huge for him to face at this moment.

  The leader halted before a door marked “Service.” He pressed his open palm against a glazed window and the door swung silently open. Lin knew that body heat had operated a thermionic control, a simple device much used throughout the city-block.

  They all passed through and the door sighed shut.

  It was dark and the men’s breathing sounded hoarse and uneven. Lin felt a hand grip his arm, then he almost went over backwards as the floor moved smoothly away. He was on a transway, a moving corridor connecting various caverns in the outer underground city. He had no means of judging the distance covered, air. beat against his face and the transway drive was almost completely silent.

  Ahead a dot of yellow light grew and soon they rolled out into a transway junction. Lin stepped off the strip smartly as it dived into a slot in the floor and stood blinking in the glare, wondering what would happen next.

  No arc lights here, naked filament-bulbs dangled at odd intervals from a domed ceiling, blackened and pitted. He looked across at a glassed-in control box.

  The man inside jerked his head.

  “All right. Come on, we can go straight in.” The red-bearded leader seized Lin’s arm and propelled him diagonally across the floor, avoiding the termini of angling transways. They pushed through an archway draped in sombre curtains thick with dust.

  Masked men lounged towards them, guns loose in holsters.

  “Hi, Brush. What you caught there?” asked one.

  “A queer fish. Any of the boys brought in a girl lately?”

  “No. You’re the first back from raid D12.”

  Sudden panic clawed at Lin. He pulled free from the bearded man, Brush, and lunged forward.

  “Are you sure? A small girl, black hair—”

  “Sure we’re sure. You’re the first back.” Turning to Brush, the man added, “Better get inside quick, Victor ain’t exactly appreciative of being kept waiting.”

  “Come on, then,” Brush snapped, and walked rapidly towards a plain oak door. He knocked respectfully and waited.

  The door opened complainingly, hinges squealing.

  “You men stay here.” ordered Brush. “You—” to Lin, “with me.”

  Suddenly afraid, Lin followed Brush into a small room.

  He had no eyes for the bare shabbiness of the room. The man seated behind a massive, old-fashioned desk dominated all his attention. Craggy, completely bald head shining in the neon-tube’s glow, eyes startlingly blue, hunched shoulders bulking a shabby robe, he radiated brute force.

  “How did it go, Brush?” His voice was taut and hoarse.

  “Well, Victor. Very well. We wrecked control post D12 and got the stuff from the food store.”

  “And this?” The blue eyes flickered at Lin.

  “On our way back we saw a party of guards bringing him in from Outside. We disposed of them and brought him along. I thought he might be useful, claims to be a Fifth, but looks like a First. If you don’t want to see him we can get rid—”

  “I’ll make the decisions around here.” Victor’s eyes smouldered.

  There was a moment’s silence as Victor made a note on a scratch pad. Lin saw that the paper was almost torn with the violence of his writing. The bald head rose.

  “You—what’s your name?”

  “Lin.”

  “Fifth?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why were you under arrest?”

  Lin felt Fifth Level submissiveness to authority almost submerge him under the barrage. Almost, but not quite. The things that had happened this night had started a change in him, and the thought of Merryl, concern for her, washed out all other worries. He had to know whether she was safe, or—

  “Before I tell you that I’d like to know what happened to my companion. A girl called Merryl.”

  Victor’s bald head jerked towards Brush, who shuffled his feet.

  “A girl was with him when we broke up the guards. She was taken by another section and they haven’t reported yet. They should be here any minute.”

  “You have the impudence to report to me that everything is ‘very well,’ and you haven’t made certain everyone has returned!” Stubby fingers clenched into a heavy fist.

  Victor turned blazing eyes on Lin. “By Sissy, you imbeciles deserved to be dropped Outside and left to rot. You heard this moron. I’ll overlook your own attitude. Why were you under arrest?”

  Lin sketched his night’s activities. He left little out; he had no means of knowing what was valuable information and what would be mere repetition to Victor, but he played down the significance of the group of scientists mentioned by Merryl. If Victor did not know of them it would be as well for Merryl’s sake to keep him in ignorance.

  He was finished at lasts and the little room was blurring before his eyes. He wanted to sleep for twenty-four hours and he answered Victor’s final questions almost at random.

  At long last Victor nodded and sat back in his chair.

  “All right. That will be enough for now. Get some sleep. I’ll send when I want you. Brush, fix him up with a room, and keep your eye on him. He may prove useful. Now get out ”

  The bald head bent, over the desk and Lin had the conviction that Victor had wiped the memory of them both from his mind.

  Lin woke with the sub-conscious feeling of having slept many hours over his usual period and he jerked his eyes open in startled surprise that the apartment intercommuni-catoi; had failed to rouse him before his normal shift. Then he remembered. The tunnel, Merryl, the rats, Victor.

  He sat up slowly, stretching his arms out and feeling the muscles pull. The room was similar to his own, but larger, and dust and dirt showed that Cleaning Squads had never passed through here on their weekly inspection. He wondered if these men cared about the disease that might be spread in such an enclosed area as the city-block through unhygienic ways. Well, he could hardly hope to be part of that regulated, orderly life again, and probably his
viewpoint, too, would change.

  “Good morrow.” The ancient greeting, revived in a culture that had lost much of the significance of ‘good day’ and ‘goodnight,’ brought his head round sharply. Sitting on the other bunk in the room was one of Victor’s group, a tall, solidly-built young man. Lin noticed his strange eyes, pale, colourless, almost transparent; he remembered seeing them before, when he was being taken by Brush to see Victor, how long ago was it—?

  “You’ve been asleep for about fifteen hours straight,” continued the other, pleasantly. “I thought it was about time you woke up, even though I hear you’ve had a busy time.” He grinned. “The name is Wray. You’ve been billeted with me.”

  Lin stretched out a hand. “Lin. Lately one of the Fifth Level rabbits.” The mention of a level suddenly reminded him of Merryl.

  “Wray, have they brought in a girl who was with me?” Small, dark haired—”

  He stopped. Wray was slowly shaking his head.

  “Sorry. She got away.”

  “Got away?”

  “Either that, or she was picked up by the guards again. The section she was with ran into a crowd of shift workers from hydroponics. There was a small riot, and the section came in singly.”

  “But—I’ve got to find her!” Lin fumbled with the straps of the clean tunic and trousers lying by his bunk, thrust his feet into a solid pair of work boots.

  “Take it easy. We lost a man in the riot and had three wounded. Victor’s in a bad mood and if you start worrying him—” He gave an exaggerated shudder and rose to his feet. “Come along and have some food. You probably need it and you can tell me all about it whilst we’re eating.”

  Lin nodded reluctantly. Whatever had happened to Merryl, there was nothing he could do at the moment.

  It would be better to learn what he could of this strange new life he was embarked on. Then he could find her— or avenge her.

  During the meal and later he was questioned over and over again about his life, his thoughts, the act of resistance that had turned him into an outlaw. In return he learnt the history of this strange group in revolt against the Cybernetic Controller.