It was quite a party that the men walked into. Most of the important men of the Haijac were gathered upon the front lawn. Their wives and mistresses were with them; all were in hunting costume. Leif was met by Dannto and Halla and introduced to everybody. His reputation as a brain surgeon was widespread, and most of them knew of him.
Then he was given hunting clothes and rifle and ammo. While he dressed behind a screen, he gave to the Sandalphon and others who could crowd into the room the same story he’d told Candleman. At its end, Dannto said, “You were lucky they didn’t kill you afterwards.”
He turned to Candleman and said, “I suppose you still insist this Jim Crew is Jacques Cuze? How ridiculous can you get? Anybody who wasn’t a monomaniac could see his initials stand for Jude Changer.”
There was a murmur of agreement, for the majority were Urielites. Candleman did not turn expression, but Leif got the feeling of resentment on his part.
Leif examined the man.
Not too long ago, he thought, the governors of the Haijac were men built like Candleman, tall, bony, with long narrow faces and dour lips. They burned day and night with zeal for the Sturch, nor at any time could you have caught them in an unreal act.
Now they had been replaced with men like Dannto, the shorter, much stouter and more garrulous executive. Though they discussed abstract principles, they were more likely to be found dealing with the immediate and the knowable. And, as now, you could smell the aroma of very good liquor, and you could see they had chosen their women, not for the old fashioned virtues of frigidity and fertility and faithfulness to the Sturch, but for their red lips and full figures and devotion to their men.
Leif went back out onto the lawn. There he got a chance to talk for a moment with Ava and Halla. The only one near was the Uzzite, and he was out of earshot.
“Did Zack Roe or anybody else say anything about my having gone underground with Crew?” asked Leif.
Ava smiled strangely. “No. Nobody knew where you were.”
“I couldn’t contact you over the OB. You know that.”
“Leif, I wouldn’t be in your shoes. And all because of her.”
Ava gestured at the woman.
Halla said, “You needn’t look so contemptuous.”
“What’s this?” asked Leif.
“I wondered about her,” replied Ava, “so, while you were gone and she was still sleeping, I examined her. That was enough to lead me to making X-rays of her. When she awoke, I made her tell me what she was.”
“So I did,” said Halla, speaking very low but very fast. “And Ava recoiled as if I were a poisonous spider. She acted as though she hated me and would like to see me dead. It was then that she told me my sister was dead.”
“Why did you do that?” demanded Leif. He felt his face getting hot and his hands cold.
Ava shifted uneasily, but finally looked him straight in the eye.
“I wanted to discharge her grief then. If she found out by accident about the real Halla, she might be overcome at a time when there’d be no explaining it. I gave her a grief-runner. She had no deeprooted anxieties holding her sorrow in, so she got rid of it in about half an hour. Now there’s nothing to worry about.”
“You lie in your teeth,” snapped the redhead. “You loathe me because of what I have been doing. Yet it’s been for our country. You told me about my sister so you could hurt me. I won’t forget that.”
“Watch it,” said Leif. “Candleman’s coming.”
He whispered to Ava, “First chance you get, tell me all about it.” Ava nodded and glanced at Halla and said, “You won’t even want to touch her when I explain, Leif. Or maybe you will, being what you are.”
Halla turned away suddenly, but not before Leif saw the tears...
His chance to talk to Ava came after they’d been transported some hundred miles to the hunting lodge.
Chapter 18
BEFORE SETTING OUT for the hunting, the party was briefed by Lwi Rulo, the chief guide. He told them that their quarry would be Neanderthaloids imported from the third planet of the star Gemma. The Neanderthaloids were the dominant life form of Gemma III, and were potentially as intelligent as Terrestrials. But at the time the first spaceship from the Haijac Union landed, the Gemmans were in a stage of culture roughly corresponding to the Bronze Age of Earth. That is, the highest culture of Gemma was at that point. But a great part of the planet was in the Old and/or New Stone Age, and the Gemmans imported for the hunt were of the Neolithic stage. Unarmed, they had been released several hours ago. But flint and chert were available in this region, and the Gemmans could in a very short time chip out spear and arrow heads and arm themselves. Thus, though equipped with inferior weapons, they were dangerous game, not to be treated with contempt.
“Only last year two of our hunting party were killed and one wounded,” said Lwi Rufo. “The Urielite Gundarsson was pierced with an arrow. The Uzzite Smith was disemboweled with a spear, and his wife was wounded in the shoulder.”
Leif smiled. The Urielite Gundarsson had been killed by a March CWC-man disguised as a Gemman. The Marcher had shot the Jack with a wooden-shafted flint-tipped arrow, but the bow was of laminated maple and fiberglas. The Marcher was standing in the bushes a hundred yards off when he had sent the arrow crashing through the man’s chest. Then the bowman had faded away into the Canadian woods and been picked up by a plane. Later, a Marcher in the hierarchy had stepped up into the shoes of the dead man, where he was in a better position to do more damage to the Haijac Union.
Lwi Rulo ended his instructions by warning the group that they must not string out but must stay close together. There would be no beaters going ahead of them to flush the game.
The party set out, laughing, chattering as if they were going to hunt rabbits. The hot summer sun burned down, the trees were tall and green, birds sang, everything seemed all right in the world. In a short time they had forgotten Rulo’s words and had separated into small groups and couples that gradually drifted away from each other.
Leif had been waiting for this to happen. He gestured Ava to one side.
“All right!” he said fiercely. “Tell me what you found out from Halla?”
“Halla—or, rather, Erica, for that is her real name— is one of us—though I hate to say it. She belongs to the CWC. So did her twin sister. They were part of a group trained to do their work among the hierarchy. And very successfully, too, though I despise them for what they’re doing. War is a dirty business, Leif, but I didn’t think it would become this dirty! Or that we’d be the ones who’d stoop so low!”
“Doing what?” said Leif. “Why’re you so bitter? Is Halla an extraterrestrial? What’s wrong with using them if they can help us? Come on, tell me.”
“No, they’re not XT’s,” said Ava through clenched teeth.”I wish they weren’t human! Then there’d be some excuse for their doing their filthy work!”
“They’re not XT’s then? Then why those alien organs? I don’t understand.”
“Apparently biological science in our country is even more advanced than we thought. You’ve been among the Jacks too long to keep up with the latest developments in March. Though I doubt if even you would have heard of this, for it must be a super hush-hush project.”
“Are you saying that these organs were developed in our laboratories and that they were surgically implanted in Halla and the other women?”
“Shib.”
“But what are those organs for?”
“Walk slower,” said Ava. “We’re catching up with the Danntos.”
Leif slowed his pace. He looked ahead, where Dannto and Halla and several other Urielites and their women were. These had halted while a guide searched the thick brush to make sure no Gemmans were hiding there.
Ava spoke softly, “I can’t explain everything in one or two sentences. But I will try to be brief. Though I may not seem to you to be getting to the point as fast as I should.
“You know that one of the bases of Haijac cult
ure is the repression of sexual instincts, the deliberate training of children, and hence the adults, to regard sex as a necessary evil. There must be no joy in the act, even when it’s done with one’s spouse. Of course, I agree with the Jacks up to a point. It is an evil act if it’s done outside the bounds of matrimony. But it is holy between man and wife...”
“I know your beliefs. Tell me about these women.”
“First, I have to tell you why these women exist. The Jack theory is that very sexually repressed people are more subservient and hence amenable to totalitarian government. They are, in effect, castrated. And they have a personality which the Sturch desires. Narrow-minded. Upright. Dedicated to the Sturch. Suspicious. Ready to betray any suspected deviationist to the Sturch. Unfortunately for the people involved, one of the results of such repression is frigidity, impotency.
“By impotency I don’t mean so much an incapability perform the sexual act as an inability to have a complete or satisfactory orgasm. Orgasm is a thing to be ashamed of. In fact, as you know, the Sturch approves of artificial insemination. But powerful as the Sturch is, it hasn’t dared to make artificial insemination a law. It has had to recommend it and to arrange that only those who practice it gain success in the Union. Theoretically, you can’t be a lamech-wearer unless you renounce the sex act. But...
“Get to the point!” snapped Leif.
“Shib. I’m trying. If the sexual drive is distorted, it must have an outlet somewhere. And it does. Sex is sublimated into fanaticism and hate. Hence the willingness of the Jack to betray his fellows. Hence the government-sponsored pogroms of the so-called unrealists.”
“Wait a minute!” said Leif. He had been watching a clump of heavily-leaved bushes, some of whose branches were moving in a suspicious manner. Determined though he was to hear Ava out, he did not want Halla to be jumped by a Gemman.
A guide stopped the party again while he explored the bushes. After a few minutes he waved to the hunters to come ahead.
“Candleman is watching us,” said Leif. “He’ll be over here before long, and we’ll have no chance to talk.”
“Some evil genius in the Cold War Corps,” said Ava, “conceived an idea to take advantage of the frigidity of the Haijac male. Some biological genius. He created that organ you found in the dead woman. You know we’ve been able to create low forms of life. This organ wasn’t as difficult to grow in the laboratory as the layman might think. Especially since it was designed for a simple purpose.”
Ava stopped, for somewhere to their right was a commotion. The wind brought shouts and a scream. Then, the rapid firing of rifles.
“They found one of the poor devils,” said Leif. “I hope he made them pay dearly.”
“Candleman is edging this way,” said Ava. “I’d better get this over with.”
Ava continued in a very low voice, “This organism was designed to be a bio-electrical battery. It released a flow of electrical current during excitation of the woman in whom it was implanted.”
“Ah, I see!” said Leif. “And caused the male to have a complete orgasm. The current flowed from the highly charged body—the woman’s—to the less highly charged body—the man’s! And the current was strong enough to break down the conditioned reflexes which caused the frigidity of the male. Willynilly, he had, for the first time in his life, a complete and natural reaction to sexual intercourse! And, of course...
“Of course, he wasn’t going to allow the woman responsible to get away from him. The woman would have great influence over him. And the woman, of course, was a March agent.”
“What a brilliant idea!” said Leif.
“It’s just like you to admire it,” said Ava bitterly. “I think it’s evil and abhorrent.”
For one of the few times in his life, Leif was flabbergasted.
“You’re objecting on moral grounds? Why? This is war! You don’t object to killing in war. God knows you’ve murdered enough Jacks in the past ten years!”
“Killing for your country is one thing,” said Ava. “But this—this use of fornication as a weapon—it’s unspeakable!”
Leif threw his hands up in a gesture of despair and disgust.
“I give up!”
He paused and frowned as if he were thinking deeply. Then he reddened and said, “Something just occurred to me. The CWC may not have thought of it. Is Halla a virgin? K she is, how is she going to explain her virginity to Dannto?”
Ava veiled big black eyes and said, “I took care of that.”
Leif grabbed the slender arm and squeezed so hard Ava cried with pain and dropped the rifle.
“You... you!” Leif choked. “How?”
“Surgically, of course. What did you think?”
“You know what I’m thinking”
“What’s the matter, Leif? Were you planning—”
“Quiet. Here comes Candleman.”
Ava stooped and picked up the rifle. The Uzzite, carrying his in the crook of his arm, walked up to them with his habitual crouch. He opened his mouth to say something, when he was interrupted by a scream.
All three whirled. The voice had been Haila Dannto’s; now, she was speechless. Paralyzed, she held her throat with one hand and pointed with the other.
Leif took one look at the brutish, skinclad figure charging at her with a spear and brought his rifle up. Until then he’d had no intention of shooting down the Gem-mans imported for this sport of Neros. He’d hoped that some of the Neanderthaloids might maim or kill some of their Jack hunters; it would serve them right.
Now, he didn’t hesitate, but in one fluid motion brought the barrel up, aiming it a trifle ahead of the gorilla chest, and squeezed the trigger. His was a .45 recoilless; he scarcely felt the jar; before he could place another shot, he heard Candleman’s blast, only a trifle later than his, and he saw the Gemman fall sideways.
Dannto had stepped in front of Haila. Now, seeing the apeman jerking on the ground, he stood there, pale and quivering. Candleman, however, ran up and placed his muzzle against the upturned face and blew it apart with dumdum after dumdum.
Leif could see that Haila was unhurt. He didn’t waste time asking her if she were all right, as Dannto was doing. Instead, he bent over the corpse.
Ava, following, said, “Where did he get those leather thongs to bind the spear head to the shaft? And, if you’ll notice, the shaft is of seasoned wood.”
Candleman came back in time to hear the last of these remarks.
“One of the Sandalphon’s enemies undoubtedly did that,” he said. “I’ll order an immediate investigation of the servants who handle these Gemmans.”
The Danntos walked up and looked at the corpse. Haila was white. Her lips were scarlet spatters.
Leif looked at the others. None of them seemed to see what he had seen. He decided to keep silent. However, to satisfy completely his curiosity, he knelt down and examined the body more carefully. He lifted the animal skin wrapped around the torso, saw something he’d not expected, and dropped it. When he rose, his lips were tightly pressed, as if he were having trouble containing himself.
Ava, sensitive to his actions, saw he was concerned, but she said nothing until they were again a little separate from the others.
“What did you see, Leif?”
He said, “Didn’t you observe the proportions of the corpse’s legs and arms? A Gemman’s arms, compared to a man’s, are short, as are the legs. The bones of the forearms are bowed out to serve as attachments for the mighty muscles. The neck-vertebrae are curved so that the Gemman, like the ape, can’t bend his neck back to look upwards. There are other differences, but I won’t go into detail.
“That fellow had longer arms and legs than he should have had. His radius and ulna were straight as a man’s. His neck, though so thick it almost didn’t exist, was quite capable of bending back. In short, he was a man. I’ll bet that if his face hadn’t been destroyed, we’d have seen that pseudoskin had been built up on it to make it look Neanderthal.
“
But that wasn’t all. Somebody wanted to disguise his real purpose. A small J.C. had been tattoed on his belly.”
Ava took it calmly.
“Obviously, if he were killed, Cuze or Changer would get the blame. But what if he’d not been?”
“Five gets you one he had the usual poison tooth. You’ll notice he made for Halla. Does that tie in with the ‘accident’ her sister was in?”
“What do you think? The question is, why these attempts on her life? Why is Jacques Cuze being blamed?”
“Tune in on the next chapter and find out,” said Leif.
“Be serious! Why didn’t you tell the rest of them what you found out?”
“Listen, whoever put that man up to an assassination attempt on Halla must have been nearby. He wanted to be able to kill the man so that if he were caught, he could stop his mouth. Perhaps he planned on doing it anyway.
Corpses don’t talk. Whoever wanted Halla murdered was premeditatedly close.”
“That would include only two dozen people. What about Candleman? He ran up and destroyed the man’s face. It looks to me as if he was trying to hide the fellow’s identity.”
“Candleman shot almost the same time I did. If he were behind the affair, he would have waited until the spear was in Halla. And butchering the face wouldn’t conceal anything. There’s always the fingerprints. I’m planning on getting those later and doing some checking up from there. Besides—getting back to Candleman— though he doesn’t like Halla, he is very devoted to Dannto.”
“Leif, the man who killed the first Halla was in Paris. This is Canada. He’d have to come here when we did. Who came with Dannto? Who came with you?”
“There are at least twenty big brass who came from Europe at the Metatron’s invitation. Do you want me to question them all?”
“All we can do is wait for another attempt.”
“That ought to make you happy. You hate Halla, anyway.”
“Yes, but she’s CWC.”
“Don’t forget that,” said Leif. “You hang around and get those fingerprints, if you can. As for me, I’ve work to do.”