And it was bare. It was as clean as mine, no parasite, no sign of one. Nor any place on his body, which I made sure of before I let him up.
I helped him up and brushed him off; his clothes were filthy with ashes and so were mine. "I'm terribly sorry," I said. "I've made a bad mistake."
He was trembling with anger. "You young-" He couldn't seem to find a word bad enough for me. He looked at all of us and his mouth quivered. "I'll have the law on you. If I were twenty years younger I'd lick all three of you."
"Believe me, old timer, it was a mistake."
"Mistake!" His face broke and I thought he was going to cry. "I come back from Omaha and find my place burned, half my stock gone, and my son-in-law no place around. I come out to find out why strangers are snooping around my land and I like to get torn to pieces. Mistake! What's the world coming to?"
I thought I could answer that last one, but I did not try to. I did try to pay him for the indignity but he slapped my money to the ground. We tucked in our tails and got out.
When we were back in the car and rolling again, Davidson said to me, "Are you and the Old Man sure you know what you are up to?"
"I can make a mistake," I said savagely, "but have you ever known the Old Man to?"
"Mmm. . . no. Can't say as I have. Where next?"
"Straight in to WDES main station. This one won't be a mistake."
"Anyhow," Jarvis commented. "I got good pick-up throughout."
I did not answer.
At the toll gates into Des Moines the gatekeeper hesitated when I offered the fee. He glanced at a notebook and then at our plates. "Sheriff has a call out for this car," he said. "Pull over to the right." He left the barrier down.
"Right it is," I agreed, backed up about thirty feet and gunned her for all she was worth. The Section's cars are beefed up and hopped up, too-a good thing, for the barrier was stout. I did not slow down on the far side.
"This," said Davidson dreamily, "is interesting. Do you still know what you are doing?"
"Cut the chatter," I snapped. "I may be crazy but I am still agent-in-charge. Get this, both of you: we aren't likely to get out of this. But we are going to get those pix."
"As you say, chief."
I was running ahead of any pursuit. I slammed to a stop in front of the station and we poured out. None of "Uncle Charlie's" indirect methods-we swarmed into the first elevator that was open and punched for the top floor-Barnes's floor. When we got there I left the door of the car open, hoping to use it later.
As we came into the outer office the receptionist tried to stop us but we pushed on by. The girls looked up, startled. I went straight to Barnes's inner door and tried to open it; it was locked. I turned to his secretary. "Where's Barnes?"
"Who is calling, please?" She said, polite as a fish.
I looked down at the fit of the sweater across her shoulders. Humped. By God, I said to myself, this one has to be. She was here when I killed Barnes. I bent over and pulled up her sweater.
I was right. I had to be right. For the second time I stared at the raw flesh of one of the parasites.
I wanted to throw up, but I was too busy. She struggled and clawed and tried to bite. I judo-cut the side of her neck, almost getting my hand in the filthy mess, and she went limp. I gave her three fingers in the pit of her stomach for good measure, then swung her around. "Jarvis," I yelled, "get a close up."
The idiot was fiddling with his gear, bending over it, his big hind end between me and the pick up. He straightened up. "School's out," he said. "Blew a tube."
"Replace it-hurry!"
A stenographer stood up on the other side of the room and fired, not at me, not at Jarvis, but at the scanner. Hit it, too-and both Davidson and I burned her down. As if it had been a signal about six of them jumped Davidson. They did not seem to have guns; they just swarmed over him.
I still hung onto the secretary and shot from where I was. I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to find Barnes-"Barnes" number two-standing in his doorway. I shot him through the chest to be sure to get the slug I knew was on his back. I turned back to the slaughter.
Davidson was up again. A girl crawled toward him; she seemed wounded. He shot her full in the face and she stopped. His next bolt was just past my ear. I looked around and said, "Thanks! Now let's get out of here. Jarvis-come on!"
The elevator was still open and we rushed in, me still burdened with Barnes's secretary. I slammed the door closed and started it. Davidson was trembling and Jarvis was dead white. "Buck up," I said, "you weren't shooting people, you were shooting things. Like this." I held the girl's body up and looked down at her back myself.
Then I almost collapsed. My specimen, the one I had grabbed with its host to take back alive, was gone. Slipped to the floor, probably, and oozed away during the ruckus. "Jarvis," I said, "did you get anything up there?" He shook his head and said nothing. Neither did I. Neither did Davidson.
The girl's back was covered with a red rash, like a million pinpricks, in the area where the thing had ridden her. I pulled her sweater down and settled her on the floor against the wall of the car. She was still unconscious and likely to stay that way. When we reached street level we left her in the car. Apparently nobody noticed, for there was no hue-and-cry as we went through the lobby to the street.
Our car was still standing there and a policeman had his foot on it while making out a ticket. He handed it to me as we got in. "You know you can't park in this area, Mac," he said reprovingly.
I said, "Sorry," and signed his copy as it seemed the safest and quickest thing to do. Then I gunned the car away from the curb, got as clear as I could of traffic-and blasted her off, right from a city street. I wondered whether or not he added that to the ticket. When I had her up to altitude I remembered to switch the license plates and identification code. The Old Man thinks of everything.
But he did not think much of me when we got back. I tried to report on the way in but he cut me short and ordered us into the Section offices. Mary was there with him. That was all I needed to know; if despite my flop the Old Man had convinced the President she would have stayed.
He let me tell what had happened with only an occasional grunt. "How much did you see?" I asked when I had finished.
"Transmission cut off when you hit the toll barrier," he informed me. "I can't say that the President was impressed by what he saw."
"I suppose not."
"In fact he told me to fire you."
I stiffened. I had been ready to offer my resignation, but this took me by surprise. "I am perfectly will-" I started out.
"Pipe down!" the Old Man snapped. "I told him that he could fire me, but that he could not fire my subordinates. You are a thumb-fingered dolt," he went on more quietly, "but you can't be spared, not now."
"Thanks."
Mary had been wandering restlessly around the room. I had tried to catch her eye, but she was not having any. Now she stopped back of Jarvis's chair-and gave the Old Man the same sign she had given about Barnes.
I hit Jarvis in the side of the head with my heater and he sagged out of his chair.
"Stand back, Davidson!" the Old Man rapped. His own gun was out and pointed at Davidson's chest. "Mary, how about him?"
"He's all right."
"And him."
"Sam's clean."
The Old Man's eyes moved from one of us to the other and I have never felt closer to death. "Both of you peel off your shirts," he said sourly.
We did-and Mary was right on both counts. I had begun to wonder whether or not I would know it if I did have a parasite on me. "Now him," the Old Man ordered. "Gloves, both of you."
We stretched Jarvis out on his face and very carefully cut his clothing away. We had our live specimen.
Chapter 6
I felt myself ready to retch. The thought of that thing travelling right behind me in a closed car all the way from Iowa was almost more than my stomach could stand. I'm not squeamish-I hid once for four days in the sewers of Moscow-but you don't know what the sight of one can do to you unless you yourself have seen one while knowing what it was.