John Brunner by Meeting at Infinity

Author:Meeting at Infinity
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-08-26T21:19:25+00:00

11

CURDY WAS running low on franks; he felt the raw saw-edge of nervousness cutting through his armored mind, bit by bit, but he didn't know how long his supply would have to last, so lie dared not chew another pad yet. About the time the group of captives he was with was driven through the Tacket portal into the franchise beyond, Nevada's moaning had got on his nerves much too much, and he had slipped the hysterical man a couple of pads. They had worked, all right. Now he sat in the pew-like seat beside Curdy, his face long and blank, his fingers toying nervously with the chain that was still ringed to his wrist, but not crying any longer.

What they had been through, it occurred to Curdy, had a lot in common with being processed in a factory. A lot in common!

Obviously, Lyken had a system set up and well drilled to cope with such a situation. It started with the kidnapping of people off the streets; it went on with the near-automated precision of the chaining up and the conveyer belt delivery of the chained groups to the Tacket portals. It was at that stage —in the hall where the portals stood—that most of the captives who were going to break down, did. Curdy had decided he wasn't going to, but with Nevada howling close behind him and a bunch of other hysterics a few yards ahead, he had had a tough time. The tranks he had slipped to Nevada were a sort of insurance against next time.

He kept himself calm partly with tranks, partly by thinking of problems Lyken must be facing. That was useful; he might exploit one of the problems and get away. Curdy was determined not to yield easily. He'd almost got away from the pug who woke him in the paddy wagon on delivery at Lyken's base; only the officer with the energy gun had stopped him. There would be another chance, for sure—even if it was the other side of the portal. He wasn't sure about the technique of dispossession of a concessionary, but if that was what was going on, it seemed fairly sure that he'd get an opportunity to desert to the invaders.

There was one of the problems he was turning over in his mind. He'd heard cries and curses from ahead of him in the chained line of captives which suggested that one or two cultists had been brought in among the rest. How did Lyken expect to keep cultists loyal, especially under these circumstances? What earthly good would they be, hysterical with fear at having been taken into one of the abominable Tacket worlds?

But that problem didn't last very long. He found out its answer direcdy after passing through the portal.

That was an experience he'd expected to find shattering. In spite of everything, his heart had pounded and his breath had come and gone in gasps as his chained wrist led him towards the portal, which shimmered slightly like a vast soap bubble sketched on a wire frame.

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