John Norman (17 page)

“Your punishments,” said Gunther, “have taught you to expect humiliation and pain if you are disobedient or insubordinate.”

“You have been very thorough, Gentlemen,” smiled Hamilton.

“We have perhaps saved your life,” said Herjellsen.

“It might all have gone for naught,” said Hamilton, “if I had escaped.”

“You had no opportunity to escape,” said Herjellsen.

Hamilton looked at him, puzzled.

“You were given utensils,” he said, “that you might attempt escape.”

“Oh,” said Hamilton.

“The first time, of course, we did not permit you to escape. I used muscle reading to locate the missing utensil. This was to induce a feeling of psychological helplessness in you. We were interested to see if this would crush you. Happily, it did not. That very evening, with a second utensil, you attempted your escape. You are a brave, fine woman, intelligent and resourceful. We were proud of you.”

“I told William, that night,” she said, “that no fork had been brought with the tray.”

William smiled.

“I thought I had fooled him,” she said.

“You were an excellent actress,” said William. “I had been informed, however, that your escape attempt would take place that night. Indeed, that is why the second fork was provided with your food that evening.”

“How did you know I would try that night?” asked Hamilton.

“It was simple, my dear,” said Herjellsen. “You were anxious to escape. You did not know how long you might have, before your portion of the experiment began. You would attempt to escape as soon as possible. Further, you would know that the missing fork would be noted, at least by morning. You would know, too, that its location, if hidden, could be revealed by the technique of muscle reading. Thus your attempt to escape, and a brave one it was, to essay the bush at night, alone, would take place that night.”

“We heard you digging out,” said William.

“We even interrupted the guard in his rounds,” said Herjellsen, “that you would have time to dig under the fence.”

“I hoped you weren’t shocked too severely,” said William.

“No,” she said. She looked at Gunther. “I was clumsy to touch the wire, wasn’t I, Gunther?” she said.

Gunther shrugged.

“We thought you would strike out for the road,” said Herjellsen.

“But Gunther, with a dark lantern, followed the trail for some time, to ascertain this,” said William.

“You followed me, Gunther?” she asked.

“For a time,” he said. “I then returned to the compound”

“It was not difficult to pick you up in the Land Rover,” said William.

“I left the road,” she said. “You followed.”

She recalled the frantic flight through the bush, the headlights of the Land Rover, the searchlight on its side, the sting of the anesthetic bullet.

“You were not difficult to take,” said Gunther. “But the hunt was enjoyable.”

“I’m pleased,” she said, acidly, “that I gave you sport.”

“It is pleasant,” said Gunther, “to hunt women.”

She recalled falling in the bush, crawling, being unable to crawl further, then being captured,. her wrists dragged behind her, their being locked in Gunther’s cuffs.

She recalled being lifted, thrown, secured, over his shoulder, and being carried to the Land Rover. She had then lost consciousness.

“And, doubtless,” she said, “it is pleasant, after bringing your catch home, to make them slaves.”

“Yes,” said Gunther, “doubtless that would be pleasant.”

“You are a beast, Gunther,” she said.

He smiled. He shrugged. “I am a man,” he said.

“Finish your coffee, Doctor Hamilton,” suggested Herjellsen.

Hamilton finished the small cup of bitter, black fluid.

Brandy was brought for the men. Herjellsen, and William and Gunther, lit cigars.

“Would you like a liqueur?” asked Herjellsen.

“Yes,” said Hamilton.

It was brought. It was thick, heavily syruped, flavored with peach.

Hamilton sipped it.

“The escape phase of the experiment,” said Herjellsen, “permitted us to test your cunning and your initiative. Both proved themselves satisfactory.”

“Thank you,” said Hamilton.

“In the bush itself, of course, as we expected,” said Herjeljsen, “you behaved like a frightened, ignorant woman.”

“I suppose,” said Hamilton, sipping the liqueur, “that my `training’ was also enhanced in some way by my escape attempt?”

“Yes,” said Herjellsen. “We regarded it as important to give you the experience of being a fleeing, hunted, then captured woman.”

“It is a very helpless, frightened feeling,” said Hamilton.

“We wished you to have it,” said Herjellsen.

“The most important lesson of the escape phase, or perhaps I should say, the `failure-to-escape’ phase,” said Gunther, smiling, “was to imprint, and imprint deeply, in your consciousness the incontrovertible recognition that you had not escaped-that you had been caught-and were once again, and more securely than ever, the prisoner of men.”

Hamilton recalled the misery with which she had understood this.

She had been, thereafter, their experiment finished, shackled during the day, handcuffed to the cot at night. They had needed no more data. She was held, perfectly.

And Brenda Hamilton knew, deeply within her, that her futile escape attempt, summarily punished by a brief humiliating beating, stinging, trivial, a woman’s beating, had never been realistic. She would have left a trail. To a practiced eye it could have been followed. She knew then that, even if the Land Rover had not been used, she could have been retaken, and almost at their leisure. How female she had felt, how helpless. She was angry. And how swiftly, in a matter of days, the short rations, the bread and water, had brought her to her knees before them, promising compliance.

She had come to understand, as it had been intended that she should, that men were dominant, and, if they chose, women were at their mercy.

The room seemed dark at the edges.

She sipped again the liqueur.

She had failed to escape. She remained the captive of men.

“We had difficulty, as you may recall,” said Herjellsen, “in transmitting the leopard.”

“Yes,” said Hamilton, shaking her head.

“It is interesting,” said Herjellsen, “but I met resistance.”

“How is that?” she asked.

“I felt it,” said Herjellsen. “Earlier we had failed to transmit the beast when it was unconscious. When you observed, it was conscious-but resisting.”

Hamilton recalled the animal, twisting, growling.

“It could know nothing, of course, of what was occurring,” said Herjellsen, “but still it was distressed, angry, displeased, resistant.”

“You failed to transmit it?” said Hamilton.

“Later, when it was partially anesthetized, we managed to transmit it,” said Herjellsen, “when the resistance was lowered.”

Hamilton steadied herself with a hand on the tablecloth.

“Interesting that a beast could resist,” said Herjellsen. “Fascinating.”

“I will resist you!” suddenly cried Hamilton. “I will resist you!”

The room seemed to be growing darker.

“It seems unlikely,” said Herjellsen.

“I do not feel well,” said Hamilton.

Herjellsen appeared concerned. He glanced at William. “It is a temporary effect,” said William.

“When is your experiment to take place?” asked Hamilton.

“Tonight,” said Herjellsen. “Now.”

She shook her head.

“Strip her,” said Herjellsen.

She felt Gunther removing the pearls from the back of her neck.

She could not resist.

“The liqueur has been drugged,” explained Heriellsen. “You will not resist.” Then he spoke to Gunther and William. “Remove her clothing and clean her,” he said, “and then place her in the translation cubicle.”

“Please,” wept Brenda Hamilton. “Please!”

She felt Gunther remove the earrings from her ears.

Brenda Hamilton, raw, lay on her stomach in the translation cubicle.

She heard the men outside.

“No,” she wept. She struggled, weakly, to her hands and knees, her head down, hair falling forward. She tried to lift her head.

“Raise the power,” she heard Herjellsen say, the voice seemingly far away, on the other side of the plastic.

“No,” she wept, and again sank to her stomach. She lay on the cool, smooth plastic, almost unable to move her body. She tried to close her hand into a fist. It was difficult to do so. She only wanted to lie still, to rest, helpless, on the plastic.

“It is beginning,” she heard William say.

She opened her eyes. To her horror she saw, at one corner of the cubicle, a tracery of light, darting, swift.

Herjellsen sat before his apparatus, his head beneath the hood, his fists clenched.

Slowly, muscle by muscle, she moved her body, raising herself again to her hands and knees. She tried to lift her head.

She saw a tendril of light appear now to her right.

She lifted her head. She looked out through the plastic. It was heavy. She saw that it had been, on the outside, reinforced with metal piping.

She rose to her feet. Light played about her ankles. “No,” she whispered. She could not feel the light. She was conscious only of a tiny coolness.

A set of beads of light darted from one side to the other of the cubicle.

She stumbled against the plastic wall and, weakly, tried

to beat on it with her fists. “Please!” she wept. “Let me out! Let me out!”

Tears streamed down her face.

She saw Gunther and William, impassive, on the other side of the plastic.

“Gunther!” she wept. “William! William!”

Suddenly it seemed a tendril of light moved about her leg. She kicked wildly at it. She tried to thrust the light from her body. She could not see the floor of the cubicle now, though she felt it, as firm and cool and solid as before, beneath her bare feet.

“Let me out!” she wept.

It seemed to her suddenly that she was a little girl in a closet, crying to be let out, pounding on the wood in the darkness. The voice that seemed to cry within her was that of a child.

Then she saw again William and Gunther outside, and Herjellsen, under the hood.

She shook her head, wildly, having sensed the dissociation which as a psychological concomitant, occasionally accompanied the presence of the Herjellsen phenomenon.

She must resist, she knew. She must resist!

Her body, her will, was weakened, but she would fight. She could fight, and would!

She stood in the center of the cubicle, bent over, fists clenched, hair wild. “No!” she cried. “No! No! No! No!”

It seemed that light, wildly, swirled about her; for an instant she feared she might drown in light, but then she realized that there was no impediment to her breathing, indeed, that the very phenomenon of light itself depended on some reaction with oxygen in the cubicle.

“No!” she said.

Then she felt herself, as though being buffeted, reel in the cubicle. But she knew that no blows were struck upon her body. Yet it seemed she was struck, as though by sound that could not be heard, but felt.

She felt herself weakening, and fell to her knees at the plastic wall, almost lost in light. She piteously scratched at the plastic, trying to find a crevice, a flaw, that might admit of her access, secure her release.

Outside she saw Gunther and William.. Their faces wore no emotion.

She shook her head, and fell half backward from the wall and rolled to the center of the cubicle. Then she could see nothing, nothing but the light, which like a brilliant, luminous, sparkling golden fog almost blinded her. She shut her eyes. “No!” she said. “No!” She rose again to her knees. She clenched her fists, now tightly. “No!” she cried.

When she opened her eyes again, to her astonishment, her relief, the light was gone.

She was alone in the cubicle.

Outside she saw Herjellsen, no longer beneath the hood. He was standing outside, looking at her. Gunther and William stood to one side.

“You have failed!” she cried.

Her heart bounded with elation. They had been unable to transmit her. They had failed.

“I have resisted you!” she cried. “I have resisted you!” She laughed. “You have failed!” She looked at Gunther. “You will have to sell me, Gunther!” she cried. “You will have to sell me!”

Herjellsen, she saw, picked up a small microphone from the table, near the hood.

“Can you hear me?” he asked.

She nodded. She heard his voice, quite clearly. The speaker was fixed in the ceiling of the cubicle.

“Turn their eyes,” he said, “to the stars.”

She looked at him, puzzled.

Then she said, “You have been unable to transmit me. My will was too strong for you. You have failed.”

“Turn their eyes,” said Herjellsen, “to the stars.”

“It will not be necessary to dispose of me in the bush, Professor Herjellsen,” she said. “There is an alternative. I realize you cannot simply release me. But there is an alternative, an excellent one, to consider. I have discussed this with Gunther, and he informs me it is practical.” She drew a deep breath. “I can be sold,” she said. “Please, Professor Herjellsen,” she said, “do not kill me.” She looked at him. “Instead let me be sold.”

“We have no intention of killing you, my dear,” said Herjellsen, “nor, indeed, of having you sold.”

“I-I do not understand,” she said.

“Retrieval of living material, once transmitted,” said Herjellen, “is apparently impossible. Retrieval was attempted with the leopard. We received only certain fragments of bone. These have been identified as those of a contemporary species of leopard, but the dating has fixed the acquisition at better than twenty-eight thousand years ago.”

“I do not understand what you are saying,” said Hamilton.

“I am saying,” said Herjellsen, “that it seems that retrieval is impossible.”

“Retrieval?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Herjellsen.

“What has this to do with me?” she whispered.

“Surely you must understand,” said Herjellsen, “that the chamber is now open.”

She looked about herself, in terror. Everything seemed the same.