Galaxy Science Fiction Super Pack #2. Edgar Pangborn

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ whose law book?” he asked his wife. “I was wondering the same thing.” Norris started toward the door. “By the way—find my instruments while I’m outside, will you?”

      “The dissecting instruments?” she gasped. “If you intend—”

      “Let’s call them surgical instruments, shall we? And get them sterilized.”

      He went on outside, carrying the child. Franklin was waiting for him in the kennel doorway.

      “Was that Mrs. Norris I heard screaming?”

      Norris nodded. “Let’s get this over with. I don’t stomach it so well.” He let his eyes rest unhappily on the top of Peony’s head.

      Franklin grinned at her and took a bit of candy out of his pocket. She refused it and snuggled closer to Norris.

      “When can I go home?” she piped. “I want Daddy.”

      Franklin straightened, watching her with amusement. “You’re going home in a few minutes, little newt. Just a few minutes.”

      They went into the kennels together, and Franklin headed straight for the third room. He seemed to be enjoying the situation. Norris hating him silently, stopped at a workbench and pulled on a pair of gloves. Then he called after Franklin.

      “Chief, since you’re in there, check the outlet pressure while I turn on the main line, will you?”

      Franklin nodded assent. He stood outside the gas-chamber, watching the dials on the door. Norris could see his back while he twisted the main-line valve.

      “Pressure’s up!” Franklin called.

      “Okay. Leave the hatch ajar so it won’t lock, and crack the intake valves. Read it again.”

      “Got a mask for me?”

      Norris laughed. “If you’re scared, there’s one on the shelf. But just open the hatch, take a reading, and close it. There’s no danger.”

      Franklin frowned at him and cracked the intakes. Norris quietly closed the main valve again.

      “Drops to zero!” Franklin called.

      “Leave it open, then. Smell anything?”

      “No. I’m turning it off, Norris.” He twisted the intakes.

      Simultaneously, Norris opened the main line.

      “Pressure’s up again!”

      Norris dropped his wrench and walked back to the chamber, leaving Peony perched on the workbench.

      “Trouble with the intakes,” he said gruffly. “It’s happened before. Mind getting your hands dirty with me, Chief?”

      Franklin frowned irritably. “Let’s hurry this up, Norris. I’ve got five territories to visit.”

      “Okay, but we’d better put on our masks.” He climbed a metal ladder to the top of the chamber, leaned over to inspect the intakes. On his way down, he shouldered a light-bulb over the door, shattering it. Franklin cursed and stepped back, brushing glass fragments from his head and shoulders.

      “Good thing the light was off,” he snapped.

      Norris handed him the gas-mask and put on his own. “The main switch is off,” he said. He opened the intakes again. This time the dials fell to normal open-line pressure. “Well, look—it’s okay,” he called through the mask. “You sure it was zero before?”

      “Of course I’m sure!” came the muffled reply.

      “Leave it on for a minute. We’ll see. I’ll go get the newt. Don’t let the door close, sir. It’ll start the automatics and we can’t get it open for half an hour.”

      “I know, Norris. Hurry up.”

      Norris left him standing just outside the chamber, propping the door open with his foot. A faint wind was coming through the opening. It should reach an explosive mixture quickly with the hatch ajar.

      He stepped into the next room, waited a moment, and jerked the switch. The roar was deafening as the exposed tungsten filament flared and detonated the escaping anesthetic vapor. Norris went to cut off the main line. Peony was crying plaintively. He moved to the door and glanced at the smouldering remains of Franklin.

      *

      Feeling no emotion whatever, Norris left the kennels, carrying the sobbing child under one arm. His wife stared at him without understanding.

      “Here, hold Peony while I call the police,” he said.

      “Police? What’s happened?”

      He dialed quickly. “Chief Miler? This is Norris. Get over here quick. My gas chamber exploded—killed Chief Agent Franklin. Man, it’s awful! Hurry.”

      He hung up and went back to the kennels. He selected a normal Bermuda-K-99 and coldly killed it with a wrench. “You’ll serve for a deviant,” he said, and left it lying in the middle of the floor.

      Then he went back to the house, mixed a sleeping capsule in a glass of water, and forced Peony to drink it.

      “So she’ll be out when the cops come,” he explained to Anne.

      She stamped her foot. “Will you tell me what’s happened?”

      “You heard me on the phone. Franklin accidentally died. That’s all you have to know.”

      He carried Peony out and locked her in a cage. She was too sleepy to protest, and she was dozing when the police came.

      Chief Miler strode about the three rooms like a man looking for a burglar at midnight. He nudged the body of the neutroid with his foot. “What’s this, Norris?”

      “The deviant we were about to destroy. I finished her with a wrench.”

      “I thought you said there weren’t any deviants.”

      “As far as the public’s concerned, there aren’t. I couldn’t see that it was any of your business. It still isn’t.”

      “I see. It may become my business, though. How’d the blast happen?”

      Norris told him the story up to the point of the detonation. “The light over the door was loose. Kept flickering on and off. Franklin reached up to tighten it. Must have been a little gas in the socket. Soon as he touched it—wham!”

      “Why was the door open with the gas on?”

      “I told you—we were checking the intakes. If you close the door, it starts the automatics. Then you can’t get it open till the cycle’s finished.”

      “Where were you?”

      “I’d gone to cut off the gas again.”

      “Okay, stay in the house СКАЧАТЬ