To the Stars Trilogy Part 38

"Shut up. We ask the questions..."

The man's voice broke off as someone else entered the room. There were footsteps and muttered voices. They came toward him-and his face burned with pain as the adhesive tape that covered his eyes was torn away. He gasped with shock and kept his eyes shut against the searing light.

"What was the registration number of the last car you owned in England?"

"How the h.e.l.l do I know? That was a long time ago. He blinked at the three men standing before him.

Two of them were the ones from the restaurant. "If you're Securi-ty then you know all about me. So why these games?"

The newcomer, a scrawny man with a head as natu-rally bald as Jan's shaved one, answered him.

"We're not Security. But maybe you are. A plant. To find our people. So you should answer our questions. We can help you-if you are what you say you are. If not, we'll kill you."

Jan looked at their faces, then nodded slowly.

'I feel the same hesitancy on my own part. You could be Security no matter what you say. So I will tell you only what is in my record. I'll not compromise others."

'Agreed." The bald man looked at a sheaf of printout. "What was your phone number in London?"

Jan closed his eyes, tried to think. It was another age, really another life. He visualized his apartment, the door-man, the lift. Going into his flat, picking up the phone...

"Oh one... two three six... treble one two. That's it."

There were more questions like this. He answered them more quickly as memory flooded back That must be his security file they held-but how had they obtained it?

Only Security would have that. Were they just playing with him?

"That's enough," the bald man said, throwing aside the accordion-folded paper. "Cut him loose. We'll just have to take a chance that he's telling th& truth."

They had to hold Jan up when the ropes were re-moved. Until feeling-and pain-returned to his numbed body. He rubbed at his sore legs. "Fine," he said. "You're satisfied. But as far as I know you are still Security."

"For our job, we don't carry ID's," baldy said, smiling for the first time. "So you will just have to act as though we are. If you are a Security plant let me tell you, truthfully, that we know no others in the underground. That's why we were picked for this job. There must be one of the brotherhood in the police-that's where this printout came from. My party name is Shiny." He pointed to his hairless skull and smiled again. This time Jan smiled in return.

"I hope that you're telling the truth, Shiny. If you are Security you can find out everything that I know without all this rigmarole. I know. I've been through it."

'And you've been to the other worlds?" one of the men blurted out, unable to contain himself further.

"The rebellion. Tell us about it. All we know is the official propaganda."

"What do they say?"

"Nothing. Hogwash. Misled few... rebellion put down. Saboteurs have destroyed food crops, so there will be rationing. All of the rebels captured or destroyed.."

"Hogwash-just like you said. They wouldn't dare tell you that we've won! They have been kicked off every world and have fled back here to Earth."

Their stern faces changed while he talked, relaxing, smiling-then shouting with glee.

"You mean it-you actually mean it?"

"I've no cause to lie. They rule here in the solar system-but nowhere else."

It was Christmas, holiday time, all of the pleasures of the world rolled into one. If they are faking this, Jan thought, they are the best actors in the world. He was sure now that he had fallen into the hands of the resistance instea& of the police. He told them all that he knew, then finally interrupted the flow of questions.

"It's my turn," he said. "How was it that you got to me ahead of Security?"

"Just luck," Shiny told him. "Or maybe there are more of us. As soon as they began broadcasting that flash about you the word came down to try and find you. We have more sympathizers than members.

One of them saw you here and got through to us. The rest you know."

"S~what comes next?"

"You can be very important to the cause, Jan. If you agree to work with us."

There was a wry twist in Jan's answering smile. "That's how I got into this trouble in the first place. I don't see why not. My future will be short with a very unhappy ending if I don't have help from someone.

"Good. Then we're getting you out of here at once. Before they discover that you're being helped. I don't know how it's being done-nor do I want to. We have some clothes here for you. Put them on while I make a call."

Jan pulled on the sleazy cotton slacks and shirt. He was glad to be rid of the military boots which were hurting even more now. The open sandals were a relief. One of the men went out and brought back a peaked cap that had Dodgers printed on it in yellow script letters.

"Take this," he said. "Cover that shaven head until your hair grows back in. Got some rotgut bourbon here. Be mighty pleased if you would drink with us."

"My pleasure," Jan said, taking a plastic beaker of the pale fluid. It was very strong. "Here's to freedom.

May Earth some day share it with the stars."

"That's something to drink to."

Jan was on his third gla.s.s of bourbon-it tasted better and he felt better with each gla.s.s-by the time Shiny came back.

"Gotta move fast," he said. "Someone's waiting for you. We'll have to walk. Everything on wheels is being searched."

It wasn't far, and the night air cleared Jan's head. Through dark back streets all the way. Shiny kept looking at his watch and made them run the last few blocks.

"Got to be there at a certain time. I'll leave you in front of a door. As soon as I'm out of sight, you knock on it. You'll be let in. Good luck, Jan. This is the place."

It appeared to be a small side entrance in a very large building. He shook hands quickly and moved away. Jan knocked once, lightly, and the door opened. It was dark inside.

"Co me on, quick," a voice whispered. The darkness was even deeper when the door closed behind him.

"Listen carefully," the unseen man said. "You go through that door and you're in a garage. Full of trailers.

They're all going out tonight. Every one of them is sealed because they been in bond. They won't be searched. The third one from the door, the back is opened. Go there and get in. We got seals so they'll never know it's been opened. Get in, I'll come and close it. It's important you shouldn't see my face.

Someone will get you out the other end, in LA. Look natural now when you go out there. Maybe others around, but no one will bother you if you lQok natural. And don't let them see you getting into the thing or you have had it. Stand there while I take a look."

Another door opened a crack and Jan could see the outline of a man's head against the light. He looked for a short time, them moved aside.

"Quick now," the voice said. 'And good luck."

The building was gigantic, echoing with the distant hammer of a loud exhaust. Rows of trailers, each with a large shipping container secured to it, stretched into the distance. Re walked toward the nearest one, slowly as though he belonged there. The sound of the exhaust died away to be replaced by the clang of metal upon metal. He looked around casually when he reached the third trailer; there was no one in sight.

He pulled open the heavy door and climbed in. As he pulled the door shut behind him he had a quick glimpse of stacked boxes filling most of the body of the trailer, leaving an area just big enough for him. A few minutes later the door was slammed all the way shut from the outside and locked into place.

It was dark, warm and slightly musty. He sat down with his back against the wall, but found that this was hard and uncomfortable. Lying down was better and he pillowed his head on his arm. He was asleep without knowing it, nor did he stir when a tractor backed into place and sealed itself to the trailer. The big rig lurched into easy motion and out onto the road; Jan slept on. Waking only when they shuddered to a stop, air brakes hissing. Jan was pulled awake, blinking into the darkness, feeling a cold stab of fear until he remembered what had happened, where he was. He caught his breath as someone outside ratfied the bars that sealed the door. When they opened it he would be caught and that would be the end of every-thing. He crouched there in the darkness, waiting-and relaxed only when the rig lurched into motion again. If that had been the checkpoint, then they were safely through. Tension drained away as they kept rolling, not stopping again. The motion lulled him to sleep and he welcomed it gladly, did not fight against it.

Jan stirred on the hard surface but did not waken completely until the next time the truck stopped. There was a short wait, then they started up again. A police check before entering a city? This was what would have been done in Britain; there was a good chance the same security procedures might be used here.

The next time they stopped Jan could hear rattling again at the door seals next to him and he was ready when the door swung open. He shielded his eyes with his hand under the onslaught of tropical light.

"Come on out, Buster, this is the end of the line for you," a hoa.r.s.e voice said. Jan slid to the ground and squinted through the glare at the uniformed policeman who stood in front of him. Captured! He turned, started to run, and the man's large hand seized him by the arm and swung him about.

"No games! Just get into the back of the black and white and lie on the floor. They made me break my cover for you, Buster, and it had better be worth it." He pulled Jan forward as he talked, then shoved him in the direction of a black and white car that was heavily festooned with lights and sirens, parked behind the tractor trailer in the narrow alleyway. The rear door was open and Jan got in and dropped to the floor as the door was slammed behind him. A moment later the policeman climbed into the front and they reversed out of the alley at high speed, braked to a squealing stop, then shot off down the road.

Once they were moving the driver relaxed and looked over his shoul-der at Jan.

"Is it true, what you told them, that all of the planets are, like, what do you call it ~"

"Free. Yes, they are. It was a rebellion that could not be stopped."

"Well that's good to hear. Maybe it's catching and we'll get a bit of it here on old mother Earth. They could sure use some of it where you're going. I'm turning you over to the spooks. I don't know how comfortable you're going to be there, but you'll be safe enough for awhile."

Spooks? Jan thought. Ghosts? What was the man talking about? "I'm afraid that I'm not acquainted with the term."

"You sound like a Limey. Are you? A Brit?"

"Yes, I was born in England. I left there some time ago.

"You sounded like one, you know, the way they talk in the flicks. Well I don't know how things work over where you come from, Mr. Limey, but over here, well, things I guess are different. We're going to New Watts. When you see it you'll know what I'm talking about. Take a look. I'll stop and you just lift your nose up and see for yourself."

They drove on, slowly, then eased to a stop. 'All right, now," the policeman said.

Jan rose up carefully to see that they had parked beside a row of small homes. They had been attractive once, but now they were collapsed and tumbledown, win-dows knocked out and roofs sagging. On the other side of the street was a high wire fence with a wasteland behind it, mounds of burned earth with only the occasional bit of gra.s.s or weed growing there. A good hundred meters beyond was another, identical fence. On the other side of this were buildings, homes and office blocks. Jan couldn't see any details clearly but they definitely had a ramshackle look.

"Get back down," the policeman ordered. "That's where you're going. Don't look so ba~d from here He laughed, not humorously but more of an ironic comment. "Going through a checkpoint now. But all the guys there know ne and they'll just wave. I'll give him a blast so they'll think that it's a call."

The car surged forward and~the sirenbegan to wail. They turned, picked up speed, and b.u.mped over some-thing hard in the road, then went on. After a bit the siren was killed and their headlong pace slowed.

"Get ready," the policeman said. "I'm going to go alon~ real easy, but not stop all the way. You bail out when I tel you to. You'll be next to a kind of little back alley between some yards. Walk down it nice and slow and you'll be met."

"Thanks for the help."

"Don't thank me until you see what you got into. Now!"

Jan pulled the handle and pushed the door open. He stepped out and it was torn from his hand as the car accelerated, the sudden motion slamming the door shut. The police car spun around the next corner and vanished from sight. Jan looked at the wooden, rickety fences stretched away on both sides of a packed dirt lane. He followed instructions and ~alked down it, feeling that he was being watched, but seeing no one. There were doors let into the fencing and as he pa.s.sed one it swung open.

"Get in here," a rough voice said.

Jan turned to look at the man, at the two others with him. All three carried pistols, pointing at him. All three of them had coal-black skins.

Eight.

'Are you the one they say come in the starship?" the nearest man asked. Jan nodded and the man waved the gun. "Then come on in so's you can tell us all about it."

They; crowded around him, pushing him into the house and down a dank corridor to an interior room.

Behind him, he heard bolts rattling shut. The room had sealed windows and was airless, unfurnished except for a round wooden table surrounded by ra~shackle chairs.

One of the men pulled him by the arm, dragging him to a chair, then waved his long and well-worn pistol in Jan's face.

"You a spy," he said angrily, grating the words through his clamped teeth. "You ofay spy...

"Come away now, nuf of dat," an older man said, pulling gently at the angry man's shoulder. He moved away reluctantly and the older man sat down across from Jan.

"Trouble is the bolly dogs brung you here, he don' like it. Who does~ I'm w.i.l.l.y. You called Jan, saw your picture on television."

Jan nodded, straining to understand the other man's words. He was speaking in dialect, as thick and incompre-hensible to him as Glaswegian.

"The teevee say you from the stars. If that true, you tell us what happening out there."

Once again Jan told about the success of the rebellion, and while he spoke the man leaned forward, listening intensely, making him repeat things; apparently his accent was equally difficult for them to understand. Fatigue be-gan to catch up with him again and his throat grew dry. When he asked for some water, w.i.l.l.y signaled to one of the men.

"You hungry too?" he asked. Jan nodded and w.i.l.l.y called instructions through the open door.

The food was unfamiliar but filling. Boiled greens of some kind, white beans with black spots on them, and a slab of some sort of highly seasoned meat subst.i.tute. The men watched him while he ate and talked excitedly among themselves.

"What they wants to know," w.i.l.l.y asked. "Is they any brothers in the star people."

"I don't understand."

"Black. Black people like us. Or is this more whitey fightin' an killin' each one the other."

This was the important question and the room was silent as Jan finished his meal and pushed the dish away.

"Thank you, I was very hungry." He thought for a moment. "First, just one question myself. Is everyone here in, what's the name? New Watts? Are they all black."

"You better believe it!"

"That's not the way on the planets. I mean I have never before seen people separated by their skin color. Here on Earth, yes, there are different skin colors among the indigenous populations of Africa and Asia. That is, there are divisions by racial types on a purely geographical basis. But once people have been transported to the plan-ets these separations break down. They don't matter. There are enough other things to worry about..."

"You talking a little fast," w.i.l.l.y said. "Do I catch you saying they all color blind out there? All kind of skins mix together?"

"Yes. Of course. Skin color doesn't matter, you see.