Young Bleys - Childe Cycle 09 (13 page)

information that might begin to translate it into something he could understand more.

Dahno had slowed, now, for they were in the city streets themselves; and the local speed law applied. The section they had entered was dingier than any one Bleys had ever seen in that city—or elsewhere for that matter. It was a section of office buildings, warehouses, and every so often an apartment building reaching as high as five or six stories—which for a city on this world was fairly extravagant.

It was before one of these apartment houses that Dahno finally pulled the hovercar to the curb.

"Out we get," he said, glancing over at Bleys.

CHAPTER
11

Dahno let himself
out his side of the hovercar and Bleys opened the door on his side and also got out. As he turned to come around the car to the sidewalk where Dahno already stood, he heard the locks snick on the door of the hovercar.

He followed his older half-brother into the apartment building. There was a small, musty anteroom, long rather than wide and with its two long walls covered with postal boxes. An old man, one of the building attendants that were usually found on this world—but not in places as cheap-looking as this—sat at a desk.

His eyes met Dahno's. He did not say anything nor did Dahno. There was a moment of recognition between them and that was all. Dahno went over to three lift tubes along the wall, and pressed the stubby round cylinder of a key into the slot at the innermost one. Its doors slid open. They stepped in onto a disk; and the doors closed behind them.

The disk lifted them up the cylinder of the lift tube.

Bleys was watching Dahno closely. He was wondering why

they should come to a place like this. Such an apartment building, and the kind of an apartment it would probably have in it, was not his brother's style at all, on the basis of what he knew of the man so far.

He waited for Dahno to offer some sort of explanation, but his brother said nothing. The lift stopped at the top level of the building, its doors opening on a short hallway with faded carpet and wall decoration, and a single door in the wall before them.

Once more Dahno used a key. He took it from his pocket and Bleys could not tell whether it was the same key that had operated the elevator or not. At a guess, it was. In any case, at the touch of it in the lock socket, the door before them slid back; and they stepped through into a large lounge-style room; with at least a dozen men sitting about it in overstuffed chair-floats, some talking to each other, some reading, a few with partially-filled glasses beside them.

As the door closed and locked behind them, Bleys had a single glimpse of the men there relaxed in their chairs. A moment later, they had all scrambled to their feet.

"Well, good morning, Vice-Chairmen," said Dahno, genially, "Vice-Chairmen-in-training, I should probably say. Sit down, gentlemen, sit down."

They all took their seats again. This time Bleys got a longer and better look at them. They were all large, active-looking men; none younger than the mid-twenties, and none probably older than thirty, all of them exceedingly well-dressed, in a casual style. Their clothes were rich but not flamboyant. At the same time they were not the kind of clothes that Bleys had come to associate with this world and its people. For all their size, not one of them but looked like a stripling, compared to Dahno. Standing, as usual, he dominated the room.

"This is my brother, Bleys," said Dahno, waving a hand at Bleys. "I'd like you all to take a good look at him."

He paused; and the pause gave emphasis to his next words.

"I want you all to remember him," he went on slowly, "so that you'll know him anywhere. He'll grow up in the next few years, but you're always to recognize him at a glance. You're to take good care of him, future Vice-Chairmen. Unless I tell you otherwise, you're to guard him with your lives; at any time, in any place, under any situations you see him."

He paused to smile again. His voice lightened and became playful.

"That's because he's more valuable than any of you—or all of you, together," he said. "You'll remember that, as loyal trainees should. So, you'll guard him at all times, whenever it's necessary; and if I tell you to get him for me, you'll go get him. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Mr. Chairman." It was a chorus of voices from the men.

"Good," said Dahno. He turned to Bleys. "There should always be at least one of them here. There're others who aren't here now that you'll have to meet in the future. Meanwhile, we'll leave them to their well-earned relaxation; and I'll show you around the place."

He strode ahead through the room. Bleys went with him, feeling the eyes of all of the men in the room upon him. It was not a pleasant sensation. He had more the feeling of an enemy being pointed out as a possible target, than of a valuable friend to be taken care of, as Dahno had implied.

They passed through a further door that slid open as they approached, and slid shut again behind them. They were in a room which seemed to be a kitchen with an entrance to its left into what was either a large boardroom or a large dining room. Dahno paused to wave at the room with its long table through the open doorway.

"The room in which my future Vice-Chairmen practice being Vice-Chairmen," he said to Bleys, "we needn't spend any time there. Come along and I'll show you first through their private quarters. They've all got a room apiece, with private bath, back here. In fact, this arrangement
takes up this whole top floor—
"

As he talked, they were walking down a central corridor, with open doorways on either side showing rooms in which the bed had been made. Within each, things were more or less neatly arranged, but that was as much as Bleys could say for them.

In fact, trained now as he was by his cleanings and scrubbings at Henry's, Bleys found the place very shoddily housekept. There was no lack of dust in corners or on sills, which snowed that cleaning was either careless or infrequent; and overall, although the rooms had the best of furniture and other appointments, they also had a slovenly look.

But Dahno was already leading them through a further door into a very large room indeed that rose up the height of at least another floor above their heads. This was clearly necessary, for it was set up like a gymnasium. It had exercise mats on the floors and several climbing ropes hung from the ceiling. One corner of the floor space was taken up by a swimming pool that was not as small as Bleys had first thought", judging it in relationship to the whole open area.

"Here my trainees exercise," said Dahno. He was still walking forward. "I've got a number of people coming in to train them in various skills. People from all the other worlds who're willing to teach."

He led the way along the length of the gymnasium and through a further sliding door into what was obviously a lecture hall or classroom. Here, at last, he stopped. Lights had gone on overhead and in the walls automatically when they had stepped through; although there was no one else there.

"Here," he said, "is where the other part of their education takes place. Primarily, there're several teachers from our mother's world, from the Exotics, to teach them. This is most necessary; because eventually, when they're full Vice-Chairmen, they're going to go out to other worlds and set up their own groups, in which each one of those you just saw will become a local Chairman and recruit his own Vice-Chairmen. What do you think of it all, Bleys?"

"Those men in the front room," said Bleys, "they're all from this world?"

"Oh yes, all but one or two of them," answered Dahno, "but you could hardly tell it on those who aren't now. In addition, they're all hand-picked, by me. You'll learn about that as the years go on. The great thing I want you to get from this little visit now, is that they're learning to be leaders. So they can spread the word—my word. Do you understand yet, Bleys?"

"Only partly," answered Bleys.

Dahno laughed.

"Good!" he said, and then his voice became unusually serious. "I want you to make up your own mind about this. Keep your eyes open and come to your own conclusions. And remember, you've got to grow up yet. That gives us a few years for you to mull things over."

He turned abruptly about.

"All right," he said, "I've shown you this place, let's get on to other things."

He led the way back out through the various rooms—the men in the front room were on their feet again as he came through, but he waved them back down. He led Bleys through the door and they descended in the elevator, back to the hovercar.

"Now," Dahno's voice was cheerful and openly friendly, "we'll go to my place. I think you'll find at least one thing there that suits you better than the place you were just in."

He drove out of the neighborhood they had been in and into another mat was completely different. Here, it was all high-rise apartments, but these were obviously the kind of buildings that housed individuals and couples and families with wealth. The hovercar ducked down a ramp into a basement underneath one of them; and they took an elevator up several floors to a landing, richly carpeted in midnight blue; and with flowering plants around the walls everywhere but in front of a tall, church-like window. This gave on a small glimpse of a wooded area, so i
t seemed that they had left the
city behind entirely and were looking out into open forest.

Once more Dahno used a key to let them into a different set of rooms. They stepped into a bright apartment, the entry way lit by a skylight right over its head. Windows, seen through the large lounge area straight ahead of them, completely filled one wall. To the right there seemed to be a sort of conservatory, filled with plants—and oddly enough, with chirping of birds coming cheerfully from it.

To their left was a hall that gave on a good-sized, although not enormous dining room that could possibly seat twelve people; and a glimpse of further rooms off the hallway beyond. The carpeting here was dull gold and unusually deep and soft, under a white ceiling, pierced here and there with skylights that let the sunlight in.

The walls were a sunlight yellow, with a picture of some outdoor scene hanging here and there. Listening closely, Bleys thought he could now pick up the tinkle of water, as of a stream or small waterfall from the conservatory area.

All in all, it was remarkably like the reproductions Bleys had seen of the sort of place that might be found on either of the two Exotic Worlds.

"Well?" demanded Dahno. "Do you see what I meant when I said there'd be at least one thing you'd like?"

Bleys knew instantly what he meant. It was not merely the Exotic flavor, even over and above the general luxury and good taste of the apartment. It was also the fact that it was spotlessly clean—the walls, floor, ceiling, every surface within sight. Everything gleamed as if it had been dusted or polished just a few moments before. Henry's house could have been no cleaner.

"Yes, I do," said Bleys.

He had come here, he realized now, with a chip on his shoulder, ready to resent whatever Dahno showed him. Now, that chip fell away. This was a pleasant and attractive place to live in; and there was no denying it. If it reflected the attitudes of its inhabitant, he had been more mistrustful of Dahno than he should have been.

"I like your apartment, Dahno," he told his massive brother.

He felt the light touch of one of the huge hands on his shoulder.

"I'm glad to hear you say that," said Dahno. His voice was serious again. "Come along, then, we'll have something to eat in someplace other than a restaurant."

Behind a false wall in the dining room that slipped into the floor at the touch of a marker was a small, neat, automatic kitchen that apparently seemed capable of providing just about anything. In this case it provided sandwiches and drinks—a very good imitation of the New Earth orange juice, to which Bleys had become accustomed in the years he was there, and some sort of dark ale for Dahno; plus a plate of little sandwiches—all done within about three minutes.

"Here's to celebrate the gathering of the family," said Dahno, lifting his glass. "If you were a little older, Bleys, we'd both be having drinks on it. Not that I care whether you drink now or later or whenever, but this week while you're with me I want your wits about you and I don't want your brain muddled with alcohol, even a little."

Bleys smiled internally but kept his face straight. He had discovered, more than a few years back with his mother, that for some reason he was particularly resistant to the alcohol in most of the alcoholic liquors. Not that he couldn't get drunk—he had experimented and done so; but it had taken a remarkable amount for a boy who had then been barely six years old. This was a piece of knowledge which it might be advantageous to keep to himself.

"I just made us a snack," said Dahno, "because we'll be eating dinner out later. This will just see us through until about then."

They ate, Dahno dumped dishes and all down the disposal slot and they left the apartment.

"I'll get a key for you at the office," Dahno said, as he closed the door to the apartment behind them, "since you'll be staying here the next few days. We're on our way to the office now."

They went back to the hovercar.

Bleys had wondered about the source of Dahno's income; but he was too wary of Dahno's ability to do any subtle probing for clues. He had imagined a number of things; but none of them had approached what they actually entered, which was a suite in an office building.
A
bronze plaque simply said
Dahno Ahrens, Investment Counselor
on the heavy, dark-wood door.

They stepped into another office in which two women were