SOS the Rope (17 page)

    She was so little, more like a doll than a woman. Her concern was quite touching, but it was hard to know what to say. She was hardly half his weight. What could she know of the way of men and women?

    "Oh, is that so!" she exclaimed, flashing, though he had not spoken. "Well, let's go back to your room right now and I'll show you I don't just climb ladders!"

    He smiled at her vehemence. "No, keep it. I guess you know what you're doing." And he guessed he liked being chased, too.

    She had guided him through right-angled corridors illuminated by overhead tubes of incandescence and on to another large room. These seemed to be no end to this odd enclosed world. He had yet to see honest daylight since coming here. "This is our cafeteria. We're just in time for mess.

    There was a long counter with plates of food set upon it-thin slices of bacon, steaming oatmeal, poached eggs, sausage, toasted bread and other items he did, not recognize. Farther down he saw cups of fruit juice, milk and hot drinks, as well as assorted jellies and spreads. It was as though someone had emptied the entire larder of a hostel and spread it out for a single feast. There was more than anyone could eat.

    "Silly. You just take anything you want and put it on your tray," she said. "Here." She lifted a plastic tray from a stack at the end and handed it to him. She took one herself and preceded him down the aisle, selecting plates as she moved. He followed, taking one of each.

    He ran out of tray space long before the end of the counter. "Here," she said, unconcerned. "Put some on mine."

    The terminus opened into an extended dining area, square tables draped with overlapping white cloths. People were seated at several, finishing their meals. Both men and women wore coveralls and smocks similar to what he had seen already, making him feel out of place though he was normally dressed. Sosa led him to a vacant table and set the array of food and beverage upon it.

    "I could introduce you to everyone, but we like to keep meals more or less private. If you want company you leave the other chairs open; if you want to be left alone, tilt them up, like this." She leaned the two unused chairs forward against the sides of the table. "No one will bother us."

    She viewed his array. "One thing, Sos-we don't waste anything. You eat everything you take."

    He nodded. He was ravenous.

    "We call this the underworld," she said as he ate, "but we don't consider ourselves criminals," She paused, but he didn't understand the allusion. "Anyway, we're all dead here. I mean, we all would have been dead if we hadn't- well, the same way you came. Climbing the mountain. I came last year. Just about every week there's someone- someone who makes it. Who doesn't turn back. So our population stays pretjy steady."

    Sos looked up over a mouthful. "Some turn back?"

    "Most do. They get tired, or they change their minds, or something, and they go down again."

    "But no one ever returns from the mountain!"

    "That's right," she said uncomfortably.

    He didn't press the matter, though he filed it away for future investigation.

    "So we're really dead, because none of us will ever be seen in the world again. But we aren't idle. We work very hard, all of us. As soon as we're finished eating, I'll show you."

    She did. She took him on a tour of the kitchen, where sweaty cooks worked full time preparing the plates of food and helpers ran the soiled dishes and trays through a puffing cleaning machine. She showed him the offices where accounts were kept. He did not grasp the purpose of such figuring, except that it was essential in some way to keep mining, manufacturing and exporting in balance. This made sense; he remembered the computations he had had to perform when training Sol's warriors, and this underworld was a far more complex community.

    She took him to the observation deck, where men watched television screens and listened to odd sounds. The pictures were not those of the ordinary sets in the cabins, however, and this attracted his immediate interest.

    "This is Sos," she said to the man in charge. "He arrived forty-eight hours ago. I took him in charge."

    "Sure-Sosa," the man replied, glancing at -the bracelet.

    He shook Sos's hand. "I'm Tom. Glad to know you. Matter of fact, I recognize you. I brought you in. You certainly gave it a try!"

    "Brought me in?" There was something strange and not altogether likeable about this man- with the unusual name, despite his easy courtesy.

    "I'll show you." Tom walked over to one of the screens that was blank. "This is a closed-circuit teevee covering the east slope of Helicon, down below the snowline." He turned it on, and Sos recognized the jumbled terrain he had navigated with the help of his rope. He had never seen a real picture on the television before-that is, one that applied to the present world, he corrected himself, and it fascinated

    "Helicon-the mountain?" he asked, straining to remember where he had read of something by that name. "The home of. . . the muses?"

    Tom faced him, and again there was a strangeness in his pale eyes. "Now how would you know that? Yes-since we remember the things of the old world here, we named it after-" He caught a signal from one of the others and turned quickly to the set. "There's one coming down now. Here, I'll switch to him."

    That reminded Sos. "The ones that come down-where do they go?" He saw that Sosa had withdrawn from their conversation and was now showing off her bracelet to the other workers.

    "I'm afraid you're about to find out, though you may not like it much," Tom said, watching him with a peculiar eagerness. Sos was careful not to react; these people obviously did not contest in the circle, but had their methods of trial. He was about to be subjected to something unpleasant.

    Tom found his picture and brought the individual into focus. It was a middle-aged staffer, somewhat flabby. "He probably lost his woman to a younger warrior and decided to make the big -play," Tom remarked without sympathy. "A lot are like that. There's something about a broken romance that sends a man to the mountain." Sos's stomach tightened, but the man wasn't looking at hint. "This one ascended to the snowline, then turned about when his feet got cold. Unless he changes his mind again pretty soon-"

    "They do that?"

    "Oh yes. Some waver half a dozen times. The thing is, the mountain is real. Death looks honorable from a distance, but the height and snow make it a matter of determination. Unless a man is really serious about dying, that climb will make him reconsider. He wonders whether things back home are quite so bad as he thought, whether he couldn't return and try again. If he's weak, he vacillates, and of course we don't want the quitters. It's natural selection, really, not that that would mean anything to you."

    Sos refused to be drawn out by the condescending tone and assumptions of ignorance. It occurred to him that his general knowledge could be a hidden asset, in case things got ugly here.

    "A man who carries his conviction all the way to the end is a man worth saving," Tom continued as the picture, evidently controlled by the motions of his fingers on the knobs, followed the staffer unerringly. "We want to be sure that he really has renounced life, and won't try to run back at the first opportunity. The ordeal of the mountain makes it clear. You were a good example-you charged right on up and never hesitated at all. You and that bird-too bad we couldn't save it, but it wouldn't have been happy here anyway. We saw you try to scare it away, and then it froze. I thought for a moment you were going to turn back then, but you didn't. Just as well, I liked your looks."

    So all the agonies of his private demise had been observed by this cynical voyeur? Sos maintained the slightly stupid expression he had adopted since becoming suspicious, and watched the staffer pick his way along the upper margin of the projecting metal beams. There would be some later occasion, perhaps, to repay this mockery.

    "How did you-fetch me?"

    "Put on a snowsuit and dragged you into the nearest hatch. Took three of us to haul the harness. You're a bull of a man, you know. After that-well, I guess you're already familiar with the revival procedure. We had to wait until you were all the way under; sometimes people make a last-minute effort to start down again. We don't bring them in if they're facing the wrong way, even if they freeze to death. It's the intent that counts. You know, you almost made it-to the top. That's quite something, for an inexperienced climber."

    "How did you know I wouldn't kill myself when I woke up?"

    "Well, we can never be sure. But generally speaking, a person doesn't choose the mountain if he's the suicidal type. That sounds funny, I know, but it's the case. Anyone can kill himself, but only the mountain offers complete and official oblivion. When you ascend Helicon, you never come back. There is no news and no body. It's as though you have entered another world-perhaps a better one. You're not giving up, you're making an honorable departure. At least, that's the way I see it. The coward kills himself; the brave or devout man takes the mountain."

    Much of this made sense to Sos, but he didn't care to admit it yet. "But you said some turn back."

    "Most turn back.- They're the ones who are doing it for bravado, or as a play for pity, or just plain foolishness. We don't need that kind here."

    "What about that staffer out there now? If you don't take him in, where will he go?"

    Tom frowned. "Yes, I'm afraid he really means to give up." He raised his voice. "Bill, you agree?"

    "'Fraid so," the- man addressed called back. "Better finish it; there's another at the base. No sense having him see it."

    "This is not a pleasant business," Tom said, licking his lips with an anticipation that seemed to be, if not pleasure, a reasonable facsimile. "But you can't maintain a legend on nothing. So-" He activated another panel, and wavy crosshairs appeared on the screen. As he adjusted the dials the cross moved to center on the body of the staffer. He pulled a red handle.

    A column of fire shot out from somewhere offscreen and engulfed the man. Sos jumped, but realized -that he could do nothing. For a full minute the terrible blaze seared on the screen; then Tom lifted the handle and it stopped.

    A blackened mound of material was all that remained.

    "Flamethrower," Tom explained pleasantly.

    Sos had seen death before, but this appalled him. The killing had been contrary to all his notions of honor; no warning, no circle, no sorrow. "You mean-if I had?-?"

    Tom faced him, the light from the screen reflecting from the whites of his eyes in miniature skull-shapes. This was the question he had been waiting for. "Yes."

    Sosa was tugging at his arm. "That's enough," she said. "Come on, Sos. We had to show you. It isn't all bad."

    "What if I decide to leave this place?" he demanded, sickened by such calculated murder.

    She pulled him on. "Don't talk like that. Please."

    So that was the way it stood, he thought. They had not been joking when they named this the land of the dead. Some were dead figuratively, and some dead inside. But what had he expected when he ventured upon the mountain? Life and pleasure?

    "Where are the women?" he inquired as they traveled the long passages.

    "There aren't many. The mountain is not a woman's way. The few we have are-shared."

    "Then why did you take my bracelet?"

    She increased her pace. "I'll tell you, Sos, really I will, but not right now, all right?"

    They entered a monstrous workshop. Sos bad been impressed by the crazies' "shop," but this dwarfed it as the underworld complex dwarfed an isolated hostel. Men were laboring with machines in long lines, stamping and shaping metal objects. "Why," he exclaimed, "those are weapons!"

    "Well, someone has to make them, I suppose. Where did you think they came from?

    "The crazies always-"

    "The truth is we mine some metals and salvage some, and turn out the implements. The crazies distribute them and send us much of our food in return. I thought you understood about that when I showed you the accounting section. We also exchange information. They're what you call the service part of the economy, and we're the manufacturing part. The nomads are the consumers. It's all very nicely balanced, you see."

    "But why?" It was the same question he had asked at the school.

    "That's something each person has to work out for himself."

    And the same answer. "You sound like Jones."

    "Jones?"

    "My crazy instructor. He taught me how to read."

    She halted, surprised. "Sos! You can read?"

    "I was always curious about things." He hadn't meant to reveal his literacy. Still, he could hardly have concealed it indefinitely.

    "Would you show me how? We have so many books here-"

    "It isn't that simple. It takes years to learn."

    "We have years, Sos. Come, I want to start right away." She fairly dragged him in a new direction, despite the disparity in their sizes. She had delightful energy.

    It was easy to recognize the library. In many respects the underworld resembled the crazies' building. "Jim, this is Sos. He can read!"

    The spectacled man jumped up, smiling. "Marvelous!" He looked Sos up and down, then, a trifle dubiously. "You look more like a warrior than a scholar. No offense."

    "Can't a warrior read?"

    Jim fetched a book. "A formality, Sos-but would you read from this? Just a sample passage, please."

    Sos took the volume and opened it at random. "BRUTUS: Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius, To cut the head off and then to hack the limbs, Like wrath in death and envy afterwards; for Anthony is but a limb of Caesar; Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius. We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar; And in the spirit of men there is no blood; Oh! that we then-"

    "Enough! Enough!" Jim cried. "You can read, you can read, you certainly can. Have you been assigned yet? We must have you in the library! There is so much to-"