The stone clattered upon the pavement. It had glanced off his shoulder, inflicting no real damage. Still, a bad sign.
Now that he had begun the thing, however, he could not halt. The speed dictated more speed. He shed his pack and raced ahead.
The stones came clattering around him.
One touched his scalp, mussed his hair.
"Murderer! Killer!"
What will they take? he wondered.
He reviewed his assets and thought of possible bribes. He had been able to buy his way out of some tight situations in the past. This one, though, did not seem of a negotiable nature.
A small stone missed him and struck against the side of a building. The next one did not; it hit him on the arm, causing considerable pain.
He carried no weapons. There was nothing he could do to avert their madness; and mad was what he judged them.
Another stone passed by his ear. He shook his head.
"Bastard!" someone called.
"You don't know what you're doing!" he cried out. "It was an accident!"
He felt moisture on his neck. He touched it, and his fingertips came away bloody. Another stone struck him.
Could he dash into a store? Might he seek sanctuary in some place of business? He looked about, but could discover none that seemed to be open. Where were the police?
Several rocks fell against his back. He swayed, for they were thrown with some force and he felt sharp pains.
"I came here to be of help..." he began.
"Murderer!"
Then they rained against him, knocking him to his knees. He rose and ran. More of them hit him, but he stumbled on.
He continued to look for some place of refuge--any place--saw none, lengthened his strides.
There were more things thrown, and he fell. This time he did not rise so quickly. He felt several kicks, and someone spat into his face.
"Killer!"
"Please ... Listen to me! I can explain."
"Go to hell!"
He crawled, huddling finally against a wall, and now they came in close. There were kicks, spit, stones.
"Please! I'm clean again!"
"Bastard!"
Then came the fury. It was not right that they use him so, he felt. He had come to their town for a humanitarian purpose. He had undergone hardship to reach Italbar. Now he was bleeding on its streets and being cursed. Who were they to judge him as they had done, to call him names and abuse him? This thing rose up within him, and he knew that, had he the power, he would have reached out and crushed them all.
Hatred, that thing nearly unknown to him, suddenly filled his body with cold fire. He wished that he had not undergone catharsis. He would be the plague-bearer, infecting them all.
The kicks and missiles continued.
He drew his arms across his abdomen, hands before his face, and suffered them.
You'd better kill me, he said to himself. Because if you don't, I'll be back.
Where had he felt this way before? He did not seek the memory, but it returned.
The church. The Strantrian shrine. That was where he had experienced something akin to this hatred. Now he saw that it was right. Strange not to have realized it back then .
His ribs felt broken, his right kneecap dislodged. He was missing several teeth, and the blood and sweat kept filling his eyes. The crowd continued to abuse him, and he was never certain when it was that it let up.
Perhaps they thought that they had killed him, for he lay there very still. Or perhaps it was that they grew tired or ashamed. He never knew.
He lay there, huddled on the pavement, his back against the wall that had not opened to give him refuge. He was alone.
Something, like a dream of mumbling and cursing and receding footsteps, flickered through his consciousness.
He coughed and spat blood.
All right, he said. You tried to kill me. Probably think you did. You made a mistake. You let me live. Whatever your intentions were, don't ever ask me for forgiveness, or for mercy. You made a mistake.
Then he passed out again.
The rain fell gently upon his face. This was what had awakened him. It was into the afternoon of the day, and somehow he had been transported into an alley. He had no memory of having crawled to the place, but then he was certain that no one would have assisted him in achieving it.
Again there was a lapse of consciousness, and when it returned the sky was dark.
He was drenched now, and the rain still fell--or perhaps it had just begun again; he had no way of telling. He licked his lips.
How much time had passed? He drew his chrono near. It was broken, of course. His body insisted, though, that he had endured the ages.
All right.
They had harmed him. They had cursed him.
All right.
He spat and tried to see whether it was blood that mixed with the rainslick.
Do you know who I am?
I came here to help. I _did_ help. If I inadvertently caused some deaths while trying to be of assistance, do you seriously think that this was intentional?
No?
Then why this?
I know.
We do things because we _feel_ that we must. Sometimes we get hooked by our emotions, our humanity--as I did the other day. I probably did infect one or all of the people I was with.
But to die ... Would I cause another human being to do it, intentionally?
Not then. Not a while ago.
Now, though, you've showed me another side of life.
I have emotions, too, and they have turned. You beat the hell out of me while I was simply trying to make it to the airfield. Okay.
You have me for an enemy now. Let us see whether you can take it the way that you give it.
_Do you know everything that I am?_
_I am walking death_.
_You think that now you have done with me?_
_If you do, you are mistaken_.
_I came to help_.
_I will stay to slay_.
He lay there for long hours before he could rise and move on.
Dr. Pels regarded the world.
They had had something for him. They had given him a lead.
Deiban fever. That had been the beginning. It had served to put him onto the trail of H. Now as the night without end containing days without number wore on about him, certain other thoughts came and went, remained longer and longer, stayed.
H.
H was more than the key to _mwalakharan khurr_ ...
The very presence of H had served to remedy many unusual conditions.
Is this the real reason, he asked himself, that I abandoned twenty years' labor in favor of this line of attack? H cannot live forever, whereas I may--like this. Am I being completely scientific about this one?
He prepared the B Coli for distance-hopping. Then he reread the notice he had received.
The sounds of _Death and Transfiguration_ moved about him.
Heidel woke once again. He was lying in a ditch. There was no one near. It was still night. The ground was damp, muddy in places. But the rain had stopped.
He crawled, got to his feet, staggered.
He continued on, toward the field where he had been headed. He remembered something of its layout. He had seen it while strolling, later on on that day when he had given the blood--when?
When he arrived, near to its perimeter, he sought the shed he had seen.
There ...
It was unlocked and there was a warm corner. Covers for some sort of equipment had been thrown there. They were heavy with dust, but it did not matter. By then he was coughing again, anyhow.
A couple days, he told himself. Let the scar tissue start. That's all.
Malacar kept abreast of the news. He pulled it in, listened, turned it off. He thought about it, digested it, turned it back on again.
_The Perseus_ slid beneath the suns ...
He drowsed through weather reports for one hundred twelve planets. He grew bored while listening to News Central. He meditated sleepily upon sex while hearing a program out of Pruria.
He rushed on. His ship was in hd, and it would not stop till he was home again.