Page 14 (1/2)
PHIL&039;S first impulse was to jump out of the jeep and hunt around But the chill in his heart told him Lucky was farther away than that Besides, the place was a regular jungle and onecat-size
He did not recognize the square at all, but he guessed froirls that he was in an intellectual residential neighborhood At first he thought the school was one for girls, but then he noticed a few lone boys a the homeward-bound students and decided thatas irls as possible When sex-deter hu types, most parents decided to have sons, especially for their firstborn They often told thehters later, but unfortunately s over-production ofsex-deterulation by the ress, and an alhtful people to produce only daughters This last class, besides seeking to balance the sex ratio, perhaps had in enesis had been achieved Phil remembered a Sunday afternoon video shock talk:Will Woins Becohborhood around the square fitted with his guess There was an appearance of shabbiness, the skyscrapers were low, advertiseht, there were no hot rods
He let his gaze roaht have gone As he did so, he turned on the jeep&039;s radio " while Mystery Man Billig, mastermind of Fun Incorporated, is believed to have fled the country Tonight at 8:30 New Washington Time, President Barnes will address all us American folks, partly to silence the s ofand jukebox burlesque, but more to explain to an aht this h officials, I predict - and reuess, fellow-folks - that the president will reveal that Fun Incorporated has been peddling dream pills, teusted as you are, folks, fe
"Now here&039;s an i an infection and are under no circumstances to be destroyed, whether owned, strayed, or alley In fact, there&039;s a stiff jail sentence waiting for any person destroying a cat But all owned cats are to be brought to the nearest security station, while any person sighting a strayed or alley cat is directed to do the sa the first, a one hundred dollar reward for doing the second Get busy, kids! Why this sudden federal interest in cats? The National Health Service zips its lips But your newscaster backs this highly responsible rumor: it has been discovered that a rare strain of cat carries a cancer destroying virus Wouldn&039;t it be nice, folkses, to know that, once full grown, you would never start to grow again, in any part or place?
"But remember this, dear audiers, and I&039;ll say it to you in Martian: Zip-zap-zup! Meaning: Bring in the cats!
"Now as for this report, folks, that handie-supernova Zelda Zornia, vacationing in Brazil, did a south-of-the-equator handiecast advertising bathing jewelry; letpeople"
Phil cleared histo put himself in Lucky&039;s place, to feel the direction in which the cat had wandered off His head swung doubtfully this way and that, like a compass needle or planchette, but finally caht ahead, not turning aside for the dusty, crackling shrubs, but pushing straight through thee and found hi across the empty street at a house quite as old as the Akeleys, but with free sky above it
Built of ancient brick, it was three stories tall and looked as pompously respectable as a 19thcentury banker It reposed sedately on a terrace that was as weedily overgrown as the square and that was surrounded by a high iron fence
The only incongruous note was struck by a saucer-shaped object fully fifty feet across set on a frareen of its underside, it ht be made of copper It looked almost as old as the house and quite as proper, as if the 19thcentury banker had decided to wear a green beret and dared anyone to notice it
Phil crossed the street, ate He made out, beside the houses old-fashioned, knob door, a tarnished bronze plate which read: "Huured the jeep to be, he could see the heads and black-clad shoulders of two s worn by Billig and his yesOne of the into the jeep, but the other pulled him back and they hurried off - not in his direction, Phil noted with soate a little push It opened with a rusty "Harru else happened so after a an to peer around at the undergrowth and then to wander through it, softly calling "Lucky!"
Occasionally he looked back in the direction of the jeep and once he saw the radio-helmeted heads and blue shoulders of three policemen He wondered if the next time he looked he&039;d see Dr Romadka or the Akeleys, or perhaps Carstairs, Llewellyn and Buck, and he shivered to think of how close he&039;d coht - by so nearer He had rounded the house, after having poked through its equally lifeless and overgrown back yard, when he saw a dark hairedthing about the irl Phil had watched undress in the rooirl with hoofs This man had the same vital, faun-like expression
Phil froze But theor hooting a little oosepi in his drea very dreaarden, the futile searching, the , the powerful sense of a dead past But the feeling that Lucky was near was still strong and after a bit Phil realized he would have to do so from
He reluctantly mounted the steps to the front portal, reached for the knob, and then, to put off the evilthe shallow porch to either side
So for a cat?"
Phil spun around guiltily and found hihost, and apparently as silent as one, since Phil hadn&039;t heard hi up the walk His thin, wrinkle-netted face, crowned by close cropped white hair, was hauntingly farandeur of a pre-Christian ascetic, yet there was a note of Puckish humor in it, as if its owner had arrived at a wise second childhood Although Phil&039;s heart was pounding at the alar the ht
As he hesitated, the old man went on, "My interest, by the way, is purely academic - or else childish curiosity, which co" His eyes flashed ireen cat?" he asked Phil rapidly "No, you don&039;t have to answer that question, at least not any more than you have already I don&039;t want to distress you It&039;s just that I have a mind that automatically makes the far-fetched deductions first"
He bea
"Perhaps you&039;re a journalist," the oldster went on smoothly, "or at least we can pretend you are Dr Garnett always calls in the press when the Huh I&039;o They&039;d quit thinking of para-psychology as neorthy But perhaps there&039;s been time to breed a new race of journalists with a revived interest in esping and all the teles In any case Garnett and the whole staff will be overjoyed at the presence of a pressates extrasensory perception and things like that?" Phil asked
"You should know, since you&039;ve been sent here to get a story," the old ly "Still, reporters often haven&039;t the foggiest idea what they&039;ve been sent out to report, so you&039;re excused"
Phil found hiain He hadn&039;t any notion of how the old eneral picture, except that he felt strangely certain that the old anizations out to get Lucky And the oldster&039;s et hi door and let him spy around
"So the Huy?" he said conversationally
The other nodded "Dr Garnett was most excited So much so that he didn&039;t have time to tell et so results - and just this o poof, so it&039;s best to get it when it&039;s hot I have a standing order with Garnett to callstarts to flash For that matter, I have the same orders with practically every scientific laboratory in the area - though the others don&039;t always call me But - thank Thoth! - Garnett isn&039;t in a field that&039;s under the benign aegis of security and he isn&039;t at all security minded himself In fact, I&039;et a real scoop, Mr?"
"Gish Phil Gish"
The oldster&039;s thin hand pressed his with a feathery touch "Morton Opperly"