Un-Man by Poul Anderson

Author:Poul Anderson [Anderson, Poul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jerry eBooks
Published: 2020-05-18T21:00:00+00:00

IX.

Most of the Brothers had, of course, been given disguises early in their careers. Plastic surgery had altered the distinctive countenance and the exact height, false fingerprints and retinals been put in their ID records—each of them had a matching set of transparent plastic “tips” to put on his own fingers when he made a print for any official purpose. These men should temporarily be safe, and there was no justification for calling on their help yet. They were sitting tight and wary, for if the deadly efficiency of Hessling’s organization came to suspect them and pull them in, an elementary physical exam would rip the masquerade wide open.

That left perhaps a hundred undisguised Brothers in the United States when word came for them to go underground. Identical physique could be too useful—for example, in furnishing unshakable alibis, or in creating the legend of a superman who was everywhere—to be removed from all. Some of these would be able to assume temporary appearances and move in public for a while. The rest had to cross the border or hide.

The case of Juho Lampi was especially unfortunate. He had made enough of a name as a nucleonic engineer in Finland to be invited to America, and his disguise was only superficial. When Fourre’s warning went out on the code circuit, he left his apartment in a hurry. A mechanic at the garage where he hired an airboat recognized the picture that had been flashed over the entire country. Lampi read the man’s poorly hidden agitation, slugged him, and stole the boat, but it put the S-men on his trail. It told them, furthermore, that the identical men were not only American.

Lampi had been given the name and address of a woman in Iowa. The Brothers were organized into cells of half a dozen, each with its own rendezvous and contacts, and this was to be Lampi’s while he was in the States. He went there after dark and got a room. Somewhat later, Naysmith showed up—he, being more nearly a full-time operative, knew where several cells had their meeting places. He collected Lampi and decided not to wait for anyone else. The Phobos was coming to Earth in a matter of hours. Naysmith had gone to Iowa in a selfdriver boat hired from a careless office in Colorado; now, through the woman running the house, the two men rented another and flew back to Robinson Field.

“I have my own boat—repainted, new number, and so on—parked near here,” said Naysmith. “We’ll take off in it—if we get away.”

“And then what?” asked Lampi. His English was good, marked with only a trace of accent. All the Brothers were born linguists.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know.” Naysmith looked moodily about him.

“We’re being hunted as few have ever been hunted.” He murmured half to himself:

“I heard myself proclaim’d;

And by the happy hollow of a tree

Escap’d the hunt. No port is free; no place,

That guard and most unusual vigilance

Does not attend my taking.”

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