No Shield from the Dead, Page 2

ruthless game to eliminate thegovernor in your mad dash up the ladder."

  "I never touched her!" cried Terri, his voice cracking. "I swear it."

  "Who said you did? The type of mind that stoops to murder would neverhave gotten you this far. But you were the one who hired her, knowingthe governor's tendencies. You were the one that gave her work thatkept her, night after night, alone with the man. You preyed upon herfear of losing her job. You threw the sin in her face after she hadcommitted it. You told her what she might have been, and what she was,and what she would be. You broke her, day after day. In the sterileprivacy of the office you reviled her, scorned her, brought her tobelieve that she was what she was not, a creature of filth anddishonor. You blocked off all avenues of escape but the one that ledthrough one high window. _You killed her!_"

  "No!"

  "Yes!"

  * * * * *

  Terri brought his quivering hands together and clenched them in hislap. He stared at the old man. "Who are you?"

  "I was a friend of hers. We lived in the same hotel-apartment. She hadno family. I believe you knew that when you hired her."

  "I see," said Terri. He drew a long, deep, shuddering breath, andleaned back in the chair. "So that's the story," he said, his voicestrengthening, "I might have known it. Blackmail. There are alwaysfools that want to try blackmail."

  "No," said the old man. "Not Blackmail, Comptroller. I want yourlife."

  Terri laughed shortly, contemptuously. "No knowledge that you have canthreaten my life."

  "They will come," said the old man, leaning wearily back against hiscushions. "As you said, the Bureau Guards will come; and I think Ishall kill myself when I hear them starting to crack the shield aroundthis room. They will come in and find you with a dead man. What willyou tell them, Terri?"

  "Tell them? Anything I choose. They won't question _me_."

  "No. The guards won't. But the Bureau will. How can they raise a manto the fourth level when there is a two-hour mystery in hisbackground? They will want to know what you were doing here."

  "I was kidnapped," said Terri.

  "By whom? Can you prove it? And why?"

  "I've been held a prisoner here."

  "By a dead man? No, no, Terri. The circumstances are suspicious. Youwalk away from the embassy under your own power. You disappear and arefound in a shielded room with a man who has committed suicide. Thismust be explained, and in the end you will have to tell them thetruth."

  "And what if I do?" said Terri, truculently.

  "But the truth is so fantastic, Terri. So uncheckable. I am dead, andI am the only one who could have supported your story. These peoplewho were here when you came in are common actors. They have no ideawhy I wanted you decoyed here. These are my rooms. And there is noobvious connection between me and the dead Kilaren. And perhaps I willdecide to live just long enough to denounce you as a traitor when theyenter."

  Ashen-faced, Terri stared.

  "The Bureau will have to question you. They will clamp a block on yourmind so that you can't operate the reflex that stops your heart. Andthey will question you over and over again, because the Bureau cannotafford to take chances. You will go into a private hell of your own,Terri Mac. You will tell the story of your own evil to that girl overand over again, pleading to be believed. And they will not believeyou. And in the end they will kill you, just to be on the safe side.Because, you see, you _might_ have been doing something traitorous inthese two shielded hours."

  Terri's head bobbed limply, like a drunken man's. He made one lasteffort. "Why?" he said. "Why do you do this? Your life. For a girl whowas no connection to you?"

  The old man folded his hands.

  "I was a little like your governor," he said. "We all have our sins. Iloved Kilaren and the shock of her death wrecked my health." He cockedhis head suddenly on one side. "Listen," he said.

  From beyond the closed door of the room, a high-pitched humming wasbarely audible. It grew in volume, going up the scale. Terri leaped tohis feet; and for the space of a couple of seconds, he lunged firstthis way then that, like a wild animal beating against its trap. Then,as if all will had at last gone out of him, he stopped in the middleof the room and closed his eyes. For a fraction of a moment he stoodthere, before a faint convulsion seized him and he fell.

  With a faint smile on his face, the old man reached out to a hiddenswitch and cut the shield about the room. Uniformed guards tumbledthrough the door, to pull up in dismay at the sight of the body on thefloor.

  "I'm sorry," said the old man, "I must have turned the shield on bymistake. I was trying to signal someone. The Comptroller seems to havehad a heart attack."

  THE END

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