After a while, Jamiesen looked up. “Well, I guess he's not K3. Though who knows, really? Anyhow, let's get on with it.”
“What comes next?” Blaine asked.
A hypodermic bit deeply into his arm.
“Don't worry,” a technician told him, “everything's going to be just fine.”
“Are you sure I'm not K3?” Blaine asked. The technician nodded in a perfunctory manner. Blaine wanted to ask more questions, but a wave of dizziness overcame him. The technicians were lifting him, putting him on a white operating table.
When he recovered consciousness he was lying on a comfortable couch listening to soothing music. A nurse handed him a glass of sherry, and Mr. Farrell was standing by, beaming.
“Feel OK?” Farrell asked. “You should. Everything went off perfectly.”
“It did?”
“No possibility of error. Mr. Blaine, the hereafter is yours.”
Blaine finished his sherry and stood up, a little shakily. “Life after death is mine? Whenever I die? Whatever I die of?”
“That's right. No matter how or when you die, your mind will survive after death. How do you feel?”
“I don't know,” Blaine said. It was only half an hour later, as he was returning to his apartment, that he began to react. The hereafter was his!
He was filled with a sudden wild elation. Nothing mattered now, nothing whatsoever! He was immortal! He could be killed on the spot and yet live on!
He felt superbly drunk. Gaily he contemplated throwing himself under the wheels of a passing truck. What did it matter? Nothing could really hurt him! He could berserk now, slash merrily through the crowds. Why not? The only thing the flathats could really kill was his body!
The feeling was indescribable. Now, for the first time, Blaine realized what men had lived with before the discovery of the scientific hereafter. He remembered the heavy, sodden, constant, unconscious fear of death that subtly weighed every action and permeated every movement. The ancient enemy death, the shadow that crept down the corridors of a man's mind like some grisly tapeworm, the ghost that haunted nights and days, the croucher behind corners, the shape behind doors, the unseen guest at every banquet, the unidentified figure in every landscape, always present, always waiting —
No more.
For now a tremendous weight had been lifted from his mind. The fear of death was gone, intoxicatingly gone, and he felt light as air. Death, that ancient enemy, was defeated!
He returned to his apartment in a state of high euphoria. The telephone was ringing as he unlocked the door.
“Blaine speaking!”
“Tom!” It was Marie Thorne. “Where have you been? I've been trying to reach you all afternoon.”
“I've been out, darling,” Blaine said. “Where in the hell have you been?”
“At Rex,” she said. “I've been trying to find out what they’re up to. Now listen carefully, I have some important news for you.”
“I've got some news for you, sweetheart,” Blaine said.
“Listen to me! A man will call at your apartment today. He'll be a salesman from Hereafter, Inc., and he will offer you free hereafter insurance. Don't take it.”
“Why not? Is he a fake?”
“No, he's perfectly genuine, and so is the offer. But you mustn't take it.”
“I already did,” Blaine said.
“You what?”
“He was here a few hours ago. I accepted it.”
“Have they treated you yet?”
“Yes, Was that a fake?”
“No,” Marie said, “of course it wasn't. Oh Tom, when will you learn not to accept gifts from strangers? There was time for hereafter insurance later… Oh, Tom!”
“What's wrong?” Blaine asked. “It was a grant from the Main-Farbenger Textile Corporation.”
“They are owned completely by the Rex Corporation,” Marie told him.
“Oh… But so what?”
“Tom, the directors of Rex gave you that grant. They used Main-Farbenger as a front, but Rex gave you that grant! Can't you see what it means?”
“No. Will you please stop screaming and explain?”
“Tom, it's the Permitted Murder section of the Suicide Act. They’re going to invoke it.”
“What are you taking about?”
“I'm talking about the section of the Suicide Act that makes host-taking legal. Rex has guaranteed the survival of your mind after death, you've accepted it. Now they can legally take your body for any purpose they desire. They own it. They can kill your body, Tom!”
“Kill me?”
“Yes. And of course they’re going to. The government is planning action against them for illegally transporting you from the past. If you’re not around, there's no case. Now listen. You must get out of New York, then out of the country. Maybe they'll leave you alone then. I'll help. I think that you should —” The telephone went dead.
Blaine clicked the receiver several times, but got no dial tone. Apparently the line had been cut.
The elation he had been filled with a few seconds ago drained out of him. The intoxicating sense of freedom from death vanished. How could he have contemplated berserking? He wanted to live. He wanted to live in the flesh, upon the Earth he knew and loved. Spiritual existence was fine, but he didn't want it yet. Not for a long time. He wanted to live among solid objects, breathe air, eat bread and drink water, feel flesh surrounding him, touch other flesh.
When would they try to kill him? Any time at all. His apartment was like a trap. Quickly Blaine scooped all his money into a pocket and hurried to the door. He opened it, and looked up and down the hall. It was empty.
He hurried out, ran down the corridor, and stopped.
A man had just come around the corner. The man was standing in the center of the hall. He was carrying a large projector, which was levelled at Blaine's stomach. The man was Sammy Jones. “Ah, Tom, Tom,” Jones sighed. “Believe me, I'm damned sorry it's you. But business is business.” Blaine stood, frozen, as the projector lifted to level on his chest.
“Why you?” Blaine managed to ask.
“Who else?” Sammy Jones said. “Aren't I the best hunter in the Western Hemisphere, and probably Europe, too? Rex hired every one of us in the New York area. But with beam and projectile weapons this time. I'm sorry it's you, Tom.”
“But I'm a hunter, too,” Blaine said.
“You won't be the first that got gunned. It's the breaks of the game, lad. Don't flinch. I'll make it quick and clean.”
“I don't want to die!” Blaine gasped.
“Why not?” Jones asked. “You've got your hereafter insurance.”
“I was tricked! I want to live! Sammy, don't do it!”
Sammy Jones’ face hardened. He took careful aim, then lowered the gun. “I'm growing too soft-hearted for this game,” Jones said. “All right, Tom, start moving. I guess every Quarry should have a little head start. Makes it more sporting. But I'm only giving you a little.”
“Thanks, Sammy,” Blaine said, and hurried down the hall.
“But Tom — watch your step if you really want to live. I'm telling you, there's more hunters than citizens in New York right now. And every means of transportation is guarded.”
“Thanks,” Blaine called, as he hurried down the stairs.
He was in the street, but he didn't know where to go. Still, he had no time for indecision. It was late afternoon, hours before darkness could help him. He picked a direction and began walking.
Almost instinctively, his steps were leading him toward the slums of the city.