Roger Zelazny - To Die In Italbar

"This is it," he said softly. "I know who he is."

_I feel him!_ said Shind. _Your find excited him and he gave himself away!_

Malacar whirled, dropping the case and extinguishing the light. He whipped the subgun from his shoulder.

"Peace!" cried a voice from above him. "I'm not pointing anything at you!"

Jackara's light went out at that moment, and he heard the safety catch _snick_ on her pistol.

Through the hole in the ceiling, suddenly silhouetted against stars, he saw the form of a man.

"You make a good target," Malacar said.

"I exposed myself to show good faith, when I saw that you would hold your fire. I want to talk."

"Who are you?"

"What difference does it make? I know what you know now. Heidel von Hymack is the name I came here to verify."

While the man was speaking, a faint illumination appeared on the wall to the right. Malacar glanced at it. It was one of the glassite plates. It had begun glowing, giving off a faint green light. It bore the picture of a naked man, holding a thundercloud in one hand and a bow in the other. The face was partly hidden by the raised arm. At his hip hung a quiver of thunderbolts that matched the yellow sky above him.

"So you know his name," said Malacar. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Find the man it fits."

"Why?"

"He represents a very great danger to a large number of people."

"I know that. That is why I want him."

"And I know you, Malacar. You are a man I once admired very much--still admire. You are making a mistake in this matter, though. Heidel cannot be used the way you want to use him. If you try it, he will become uncontrollable. The DYNAB itself will be in danger, not just the CL."

"Who the hell are you?"

"Enrico Caruso," he replied.

_He is lying_, said Shind. _His name is Francis Sandow_.

"You are Francis Sandow," Malacar said aloud, "and I can see why you want to stop me. You are one of the wealthiest men in the galaxy. If I were to hurt the CL badly, I would be stepping on a lot of your interests, wouldn't I?"

"That is correct," said Sandow. "But that is not why I am here. I generally deal through representatives on all matters. This is an exception because of the nature of the case. You are a doctor of medicine. You are aware that there are many conditions which are not purely physical in origin."

"So?"

"You have been exploring down there for a long while. Did you find any indication that anyone else has been inside recently?"

"No, I didn't."

"All right, then. Without being able to see it, I will tell you something that I could not know by any ordinary means. --You are standing near to the place where you made your discovery, next to a wall. Have your woman keep me covered and turn your light onto that wall, up rather high. Above, or very near to the place where you located the thing, you will see a glassite plate. I will describe it: You will see the head and shoulders of a blue-skinned woman. She has two faces, one looking in either direction. The one to the left is attractive and there are flowers on that side of the picture--blue flowers. The gal on the right has pointed teeth and a sinister expression. Near to her there is a framework of blue snakes. Directly above, there will be a blue circle."

Malacar switched on the light.

"You're right," he said. "How did you know?"

"It is a representation of the goddess Mar'i-ram, the queen of healing and of disease. It was doubtless beneath her picture that von Hymack lay, somewhere between life and death. He bears, in a strange way, the blessing and the curse of that entity."

"You've lost me. Are you trying to say that the goddess is real?"

"In a sense, yes. There is a complex of energies which somehow possesses the attributes ascribed to that Strantrian deity. Call it what you would. It now inhabits the man we seek. I have been presented with satisfactory evidence that this is true. Now that I am aware of the identity of the individual involved, I must seek him."

"What will you do if you find him?"

"Cure him--or failing that, kill him."

"No!" said Malacar. "I need him alive."

"Don't be a fool," Sandow cried, as Malacar swung the light and it fell upon him.

Hand raised to shield his eyes, Sandow threw himself backward as Malacar fired--not at him, but through the ceiling.

With a rattling and a crash, a section of roofing gave way. It seemed that a body fell.

"Hit it!" cried Malacar, falling flat and dragging Jackara with him.

He crawled forward and lay behind a low hedge of stone, subgun at ready.

_He's alive! He's conscious! He's got a gun!_

Malacar embraced the floor as a laser beam melted a stone near his left shoulder.

"Let a man finish talking, will you?"

"We've nothing to say to each other."

"Judge it after you hear it! I'll hold fire if you will!"

"Don't shoot," he said to Jackara. "We'll hear him out."

He drew a bead, then said, "All right, Sandow. What is it?"

"You know what I want. I want von Hymack. I will not argue the morality of what you are planning, since you have already made up your mind. I read it there. I would like to offer you a deal, however. --Damn it! Stop sighting in on me! No tricks involved here! You live on a dead, stinking, radioactive cinder--the Earth, the home planet of our species. How would you like to see it clean and green again? All those volcanoes dampened, the radioactives neutralized, dark soil, trees, fish in the oceans, the original continental configurations? I can do it, you know."

"That would cost a fortune."

"So? Is it a deal, then? The Earth the way that it was before the war, in return for you forgetting about von Hymack?"

"You're lying!"

_He is not lying_, said Shind.

"It would be another habitable world for the DYNAB," he was saying, "which you claim means so much to you."

All the while Sandow was speaking, Malacar attempted to control his thoughts--to operate automatically, as under battle conditions--and not to let any intention or desire pass through his consciousness. Carefully, soundlessly, he inched his way to the right, fixing on the voice. Now almost touching the wall, he could see the dim outline of the man's head and left shoulder. Gently, he squeezed the trigger.

His arm was numbed to the elbow with the force of the blow that struck him; and he saw his shot go wild, scoring the masonry high on the far wall.

With his left hand, he protected his eyes against the flying shards. Almost instantly he lowered it, however, to seize the gun and continue its upward arc.

The fires fell upon the ceiling and the ceiling upon the man.

Sandow was finally silent.

They lay there for a long while, listening to their breathing, their heartbeats.

_Shind?_

_Nothing. You have killed him_.

Malacar rose to his feet.

"Come on, Jackara. We had better be going," he said.

Later, before they broke camp, when she looked at him in the light, she said, "You are bleeding, Malacar," and she touched his cheek with her fingertips.

He jerked his head away.

"I know. I got cut when that damned picture of the green man fell on me."

He tightened his saddle cinch.

"Could he really have restored the Earth, Malacar?"

"Probably, but that would not have solved anything."

"You said you need more worlds for League status. Earth could have counted for one."

"To gain it, I would have had to surrender my weapon."

"How did he know about that picture of the goddess-- Mar'i-ram?"

"All Strantrian shrines are laid out alike. He knew approximately where we were standing. Anyone who knows how their stations are set up could have said what was on the wall."

"Then he was making all that part up?"

"Of course. It was a ridiculous story. His interest in the matter was purely economic."