Starblood

But it had all the force of the small man"s arm behind it-and was therefore unmoved by the ESP talent.

Kealy depressed the syringe plunger; icewater flushed Into Ti"s hip.

He wanted to scream.

And he wondered if it were too late to bother...

CHAPTER 7.

His body was no longer a smoothly functioning machine, but twitched and shivered as the drug flushed through it. He felt strangely hot and cold at the same time. He fancied he could even feel his blood surging through the tight walls of his veins and arteries; it was icy, nearly frozen, and the flesh it moved through was dry and hot as if it had been baked in an oven. His facial features seemed numb and twisted so that his countenance must have been more horrible than usual. He knew, if he had had feet and hands, those limbs would have been immobile, useless, semi-paralyzed as was his face.

He tried to ask them what they had done to him.

The words would not come; there seemed to be fingers around his throat, crushing it shut...

Kealy rose, gripped him, and began to turn him around, away from the fountain. Ti tried desperately to order his servos to attack the little man, but the artificial hands just floated to either side of him, locked to their "hold" pattern. They would go wherever his grav-ball went, but would not follow his directions. Then he tried to flip switches inside his grav-plate mechanism, to make it lift up and up, to its limit of eighty feet, up where they couldn"t touch him. But there was no response from the ball when he tried this.

It was then that he realized they had given him something that blanked out his psionic ability...

He was helpless as he had not been since he had left that hospital and had been educated by the weapons-hungry generals. He wanted to scream and kick and shout and swing his servos, not so much to attack those who had done this to him, but to work off some of the energy of terror that adrenalin was pumping through his twisted hulk.

Kealy turned him completely about and started pushing him toward the trees. Ahead, the young couple stood, watching them. Ti wanted to shout, cry out, scream at them for help. He concentrated on saying something, anything that would clue them in to what was happening. He stopped resisting with his body, stopped trying to control the grav-plate mechanism, stopped trying to use his servos. With every ounce of strength in him, he managed to shatter the drug"s control long enough to issue a weak cry for help.

The young couple came forward, grabbed hold of him, and for a moment he was set to rejoice.

Then Kealy let go of him, hurried ahead toward the woods, and said to the young couple: "Make it fast before anyone comes around from the other side of the pool."

The sweet kids propelled him toward the trees and into the forest, moving quickly along a footpath that twisted and wound. Soon they were out of sight of the fountain and the midway and anyone who might possibly help him.

The footpath ended at a small lane along which a darkly painted grav-car rested on its rubber rim. When Kealy opened the door, the girl and boy muscled him into the backseat, arranging themselves on either side of him, fencing him in in and keeping anyone outside from looking through the windows and getting a good look at him. and keeping anyone outside from looking through the windows and getting a good look at him.

Kealy and Polly London sat up front, the dark man behind the wheel. In a moment, they lifted and hummed down the dirt path, the trees flashing swiftly by on all sides. Reluctantly, Polly turned and looked at him, her face lined and tired, as if she had been up all night. "Don"t be scared," she said.

He wanted to scream at her.

He could not.

"Don"t be frightened. Really. It"s nothing that can hurt you very badly. It"s only PBT. They aren"t going to kill you. You might have a few bad delusions, since it was a ma.s.sive dose, but that"s the worst of it. Do you believe me?"

He did not respond. She could not know that the PBT had paralyzed that section of his brain that gave him his psionic ability-and that without his ESP he was not a man, not anything but a helpless, useless hulk. She could never conceive of how terrified that made him. Without his ESP, he might just as well be dead.

Kealy took the car onto a main highway, punched out to traffic control for an upper level pathway, received one, and took the craft soaring into the perfectly cloudless blue day.

As they rose, the PBT illusions struck Ti with the force of a hammer blow and catapulted him from the real world into a never-never land of surreal fantasies which he could taste and touch and smell and feel...

There were women, at first, an abundance of them that made the dreams good and thrilling. In the dream, he drifted down a river of wine on a gra.s.s mat that was cool and green. He had arms and legs just as any normal man, had a face that was not twisted and perverted but wonderfully handsome. He was whole, and the world was perfect. As he progressed down the winding waterway, dipping his hands into the fluid to obtain sweet refreshing drinks, the women began to descend from the lightly clouded sky. At first, they were leaves on the wind, nothing more than bits of autumn scattered by a breeze. Then each of the leaves underwent a metamorphosis.

The first to approach his raft was a hugely breasted, long-legged blonde who looked strikingly like Polly London. She circled over him, lighter than air, then sank onto the raft with him. She was naked, and her tanned flesh quivered enticingly before him.

He touched her: his hands sang along her flesh as they picked up the subtle harmony of her warm body.

He kissed her: and felt for the first time the sweet commingling of tongue and tongue...

He made love to her as the wine burbled against the rocks on either sh.o.r.e.

Then other women drifted down, changing from leaves into stunningly attractive bedmates who came to him willingly, hungrily. The world was flesh and to h.e.l.l with the devil. Every piece of the world, from the gra.s.s of the raft to the air itself was sensual in touch and smell and taste.

Then the women began to change...

Their arms stretched into wings, leathery appendages that spread around the raft, blocking out the sunlight. Their lushness gave way to a bony toughness; their beauty rapidly withered into an ugliness that sparked some unspeakable horror in him. Their faces became long, wolflike, their eyes, sunken beneath shelves of bone. Their mouths split wide and were crammed with razor-edged teeth that glittered yellowly.

He screamed, tried to rise up; they fell upon him, ripping and tearing...

It was a night of ugly dreams interspersed with short stretches of sound, deep sleep in which his body attempted to recover from the spasms that shook it while awake-and during which his mind fought to gain a hold on sanity after the mad visions that fled through it in moments of wakefulness.

Dark things chased him down long corridors, things that loped and gibbered, things that had blood-reddened eyes and howled eerily in the confines of the stone-walled hallways. Some of them flew, and some of them crawled along the walls like spiders, amber eyes flashing and hair-feathered limbs trembling in antic.i.p.ation of the moment when they would leap upon him. In one of these nightmares, as he was running from a slavering, featureless creature that groaned like a man and yet very much unlike a man, one of his legs began to dissolve under him. In moments, he was hobbling on a single leg-when that disappeared and he crashed to the floor. He tried crawling, but both arms vanished. Helplessly immobile, the smell of the slimed floor in his nostrils, he listened to the faceless beast gibbering and chuckling insanely as it approached him at its leisure...

He woke from that dream screaming louder than ever, his throat cracking and sore, trickling blood down to his stomach from dry, rasped membranes.

He dreamed the same thing several times, always waking into another drug "reality" of a different nature just before the beast pounced. The dream following might be horrible in its own right, but it offered some degree of succor before he had to repeat that worst one again.

Finally, only two hours before dawn, better than half a day since the delusions had begun in the grav-car on the way from the amus.e.m.e.nt park, the dreams ceased abruptly, leaving him dizzy, exhausted, and nauseated. With his senses at least partially restored, he found he floated above a bed, his servos swaying back and forth before him. He reached into the ball of the grav-plate system, shut it down, and dropped to the soft mattress where he found instant and protracted sleep of the same deep nature of the transitory moments of rest he had gotten throughout the ordeal. It never once became clear to him that his psi power had returned.

Some five hours later he was awakened by something prodding his neck, something blunt and cold. For a moment, he was afraid to open his eye for fear that one of the creatures from the drug-delusions would be kneeling next to him, poking him with its snout, its teeth gleaming wickedly in a demonic smile. But the prodding grew harder and more insistent until he decided it would be worse not knowing what manner of creature this was than opening his eye and coming face-to-face with it. But his eye was gummed with sleep, and he had to blink it several times to be able to see clearly.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," a heavy voice said.

He looked up into a heavily jowled face that bore the scars of a number of fights that had not been waged in friendly camaraderie. His eyes were small and squinting, and they were veiled with the dull sheen of dimwittedness. This man was not a drug-delusion, but he might be far more dangerous than a snouted demon if he were turned loose on anyone.

"You"ve judged him correctly," a smooth, well-modulated voice said, a voice that spoke of education, of self-a.s.surance that transcended mere ego.

Timothy shifted his gaze to the right, behind the brute, and saw a tall, slender man in his mid-thirties: lots of dark hair combed over his ears, a square lantern-jawed face, impeccable clothes dark and sharply cut. In short, this was a man of authority, not a muscleman.

"He likes to hurt people," the gentleman said. "Name"s Baker. He doesn"t like films and books, as you and I might. He prefers physical excitement."

"You"ve scared me," Ti said. He was being perfectly honest. "You can stop now."

"Good," the gentleman said, smiling and rocking a little on his heels.

Baker held the projectile gun, slapping it from one palm to another, grinning. Timothy was not certain whether the man had been born with a low IQ and little interest in anything but violence, or whether the Brethren had taken a healthy man and done this to him. Such things were possible. The military had experimented with brain operations in which a man"s interests in life were restricted to obeying authority and conforming to the norm-and killing. Such men made magnificent soldiers. And the Brethren would certainly have access to those surgical techniques, considering the money available to them with which they could bribe surgeons or researchists a.s.sociated with the project.

"What do you want with me?" Timothy asked the gentlemanly one.

"Out of our hair. You made a mistake going to Miss London for this. She just has no concept of how to be devious. Sure, Kealy hates me, but he fears me more. There were other men who would have sold me out. You have to be taken care of so you won"t find one of them next time."

At first Ti was intensely pleased at the implication that they were not going to kill him. Then he realized that they would forgo that alternative only if Jon Margle had come up with something even more frightening. "You"re not killing me?" he asked, hoping he would hear the alternative now, would not have to lie here and wonder about it.

"That was the original intention. But you seem adept at thwarting the most sophisticated techniques. And if we were to kill you here, we might be implicated. The only other possibility is to addict you to PBT."

Instantly, Ti flicked on his grav-plates and sent a servo streaking at the gentleman. Baker rammed a fist into Ti"s chest. He crashed backward against the wall, banging his head on the windowsill set high in the part.i.tion. The servo stopped a dozen feet from the Brother as Timothy forgot about controlling it and fought to maintain consciousness.

"Foolish," the Brother said. "You won"t be given a killing addiction. With some people, we"ve put them on it until they need it in ma.s.sive doses and their bodies begin to deteriorate. It"s a slow and painful way to go. But you don"t have to fear that."

Ti hung over the bed, drifting, trying to regain his wits and think of some way out of this. Addiction to PBT meant a loss of his ESP and a return to the helplessness of his childhood. Inside, he was screaming...

"Not as light doses as your friend Taguster took, though. Somewhere in between, so you won"t run to the police to swap information for legalized status as an addict Now and then, we"ll hold out until you"re screaming for it-just to keep you aware of who is master here."

Timothy shot toward the ceiling, turning on his side in the same manuever. He directed the silver ball of his mobility system across the room, toward the open door. But though Baker looked stupid and slow, he was faster than any of them; he reached the door a second before Ti, slamming and locking it, grasping the old-fashioned key in his hand.

Ti hit him full force with the silver mobility cap, smashing him backward against the wall, cracking his head. Baker slid to the floor, unconscious. The key dropped from his hand and made a ringing noise on the stone floor. As Ti picked it up with a servo, the gentleman called from behind in a calm voice, "Stop right there, or you"re dead."

Ti directed the servo to put the key in the lock and continue opening the door.

"A knife is too heavy for your psionic power to deflect, you know."

Timothy turned, looked at the garishly decorated throwing knife the Brother held in his right palm. He seemed to know how to use it.

"Throw me the key," the Brother said. When Ti hesitated, he drew his arm back for the throw.

Ti plucked the key from the lock and threw it to the Brother. It landed at the man"s feet, and he did not stoop to retrieve it. Timothy was angry for even considering such a simple trick would work. It would only make the man more observant of future movements.

"Return to your bed, please," the gentleman said.

Ti obliged. There was little else he could do. Addiction to the drug might be worse than death, but if he died now there was no chance of ever escaping; he would be forfeiting the future and any better opportunities that might arise. He shut off his mobility system at the Brother"s suggestion and sank onto the mattress; now he was in the thrall of gravity.

"I believe," the gentleman said, "that you may even be the type to cooperate with police after you become a medium-range addict. But that would be folly. In the event you do manage to destroy the Brethren, you gain nothing. They could supply you with the confiscated stores of the drug, but they would soon run out of those. And only we know where it comes from. You understand? No one else will ever be able to synthesize it-or even come close. We are the only source. When we go, so does that source. And then you would find yourself with a craving you couldn"t fill-one that would become quite deadly in time. I think you see the wisdom here, no?"

Timothy said nothing.

Against the far wall, Baker stirred, then pushed groggily to his feet. A small amount of blood ran out his nose, but he seemed otherwise unscathed. When he had his feet properly under him, he charged Ti.

"Baker!" the gentleman shouted.

The brute stopped and stood glowering at Timothy. Because of the way he had obeyed his master, Ti knew he was a surgically altered man. For the first time, he felt a bit pleased that the Army had indulged in such debased and inhumane research...

The gentleman approached with a hypodermic case, he had withdrawn from his inside coat pocket. He sat on the edge of Ti"s bed while he filled the measured tube from a bottle of amber fluid. He found a vein on Timothy"s hip, stabbed the needle in, drained the tube, and put the instruments away again. "That should be taking effect shortly," he said, getting to his feet.

Timothy felt his psi talent slipping away just as before, though this dose was not so ma.s.sive as to deny him speaking powers. "I won"t let you do this to me," he said. He wanted to to scream about the inhumanity of taking away his third hand, for that was equal to dismembering a healthy man. But he thought it might be better to remain silent about the loss of his ESP. If Baker or others like him realized the mutant was totally helpless, there was little chance of his escaping repeated beatings. scream about the inhumanity of taking away his third hand, for that was equal to dismembering a healthy man. But he thought it might be better to remain silent about the loss of his ESP. If Baker or others like him realized the mutant was totally helpless, there was little chance of his escaping repeated beatings.

"You have little choice," the gentleman said. "We"ll be around twice a day. I"ll administer these myself. I"d call it sweet revenge, but it"s chiefly to please those in the organization who were close to Klaus, to keep them content."

"Revenge?" he asked. In his mind there was a ghost river, a gra.s.s raft, and drifting autumn leaves...

"What else?" the gentleman asked.

He was no longer grinning.

There was a river of wine, wine, wine...

"I don"t understand," Timothy said with an effort, trying to hold on to the concrete reality here before the ethereal illusions swept him away into drunken, chaotic madness...

"Of course you do," the gentleman said. "My name is is Jon Margle." Jon Margle."

Ti fell down into the surging wine river...

CHAPTER 8.

Ti had no more nightmares under the PBT, for they were no longer giving him the ma.s.sive doses that Kealy had used in the amus.e.m.e.nt park. Instead, he coasted through illusions of a heavy, sensual nature, through idyllic paradises from which he hated more and more to be withdrawn when the drug began to lose its influence on his mind. When he was clearheaded and had none of the stuff in him, he realized that his delight in the dreams meant he was losing hold of reality. He was accepting fantasy for experience, and that horrified him. He was quite aware that he yearned for the dreams because they were the only way he could ever know s.e.xuality; they were an entire world he had never envisioned or expected to experience. But this alone, he argued, was no reason to give in to them. His life had been built on battles, and: if he were to lose one to a mere chemical substance when he had won so many against tough human adversaries, it was all a sham.

Yet he did give in to them. Again and again.

And when he did not have the drug, he found himself often lying listlessly on his bed, wishing they would hurry with the next dose.

And then he would know fear...

On the third morning in the house, Margle and Baker broke the routine when they brought his dose. He was not surprised when he realized he was about to get a beating from Baker. Nothing Jon Margle could do would surprise him now. He knew the man for what he was-a coward and a s.a.d.i.s.t. And that was the deadliest of all combinations. Klaus Margle had a limit to what he would order a man to do. Because he had been a brave man, he would not have a man perform that which he feared himself. But in his cowardice, there was no limit to what Jon Margle would ask of Baker. He could not instill fear in his Brethren subordinates through his own personality, but he could create a proxy fear by making them understand that his own dementia had no limits, that his own sadism could request and enjoy anything.

"Baker brought up an interesting point," Margle said. "Addiction may eventually burden you, but you are getting off lightly now-even enjoying yourself, not suffering at all for Brother Klaus"s murder. Baker said it less fluently, of course, but he made sense."

Baker laughed unpleasantly.

"So Baker wonders why we don"t make you suffer now instead of letting you enjoy the PBT without a counterbalancing discipline. I tend to think he has a point. Besides, he needs a workout."

Timothy rose on his grav-plate system, terrified-but he balanced that terror with hate, which he had found it prudent to begin cultivating again.

"Yes, yes!" Margle said almost gleefully. "Fight like h.e.l.l! It will be interesting to see what Baker can withstand when he has a grudge driving him."

The quasi-neanderthal moved in with uncanny swiftness and delivered a jab to Timothy"s neck that left the mutant gagging and gasping for air, his throat afire.

"Open-hand blows, Baker," Margle ordered the henchman. "He may be as freaky inside as outside, and we don"t want a corpse this time."

Baker grunted acknowledgment and angled for another blow. He swung his beefy hands and slapped Ti"s head several times until Timothy heard bells in his ears and his eye refused to focus.

Ti twisted his body and shot forth with his mobility ball ahead of him. He caught Baker on the side, spinning him around. Baker snapped his head against the paneling, looked groggy for a moment. But the giant"s quest for revenge was stronger than his body"s urge to pa.s.s out, and he rose, staggered toward Ti, and swung a heavy fist that barely missed the mutant"s face.

Ti rolled onto his side again, accelerated, and rushed the brute. This time Baker leaped sideways. Ti skimmed past him, sliding noisily along the wall, his metal mobility cap rattling and clanging like a bell with a broken clapper. When he turned, Baker was on him, punching and stabbing with open hands at ribs and shoulders and face. Margle stood by the door, laughing...