Dead Weight

by E.C. Tubb

Genres: Science Fiction; Sci-fi Action & Adventure; Space Opera

Synopsis

Sam Falkirk, Captain of the World Police and stationed at the World Council building in New York, has a special interest in investigating the sudden and inexplicable death of Angelo Augustine, the brother of his girl friend. A messenger employed by the Council, Augustine was also a spy in the pay of Senator Rayburn, a fanatical Nationalist who is fighting both to retain his power and to destroy the Orient before they, as he believes, turn against the Occident. Augustine had died while delivering a parcel containing a statue of a Buddha for an employee of Senator Sucamari of the Japanese Legation, and who, in his own way, is as fanatical as Rayburn himself. Sucamari wants to gain living room for the teeming millions of the Orient, and his secret plan involves the releasing of a deadly bacterial plague across the Americas. The bacteria is contained in a special coating on the Buddha statue, but when the statue is stolen by a petty criminal, millions of people hover on the brink of agonizing death, unless Falkirk can find the criminal in time . . .

Release date: January 30, 2014

Publisher: Gateway

Print pages: 328

Sample

THE trouble started in Nations Square. A corner-prophet had climbed the plinth of Blue’s statue and was haranguing a small crowd. He was a gaunt man with sunken eyes and a straggling beard. He wore a tattered suit that had once been mauve but was now a dark brown with dirt and wear. Sandals covered his bare feet and his speech was interrupted by bouts of violent coughing. He was about sixty years old and should have had better sense than to stand thinly clad in the open at the beginning of winter. He was also wasting his time.

Sam Falkirk eased his weight from one foot to the other as he stood at the edge of the crowd and listened to the thin, strident voice of the corner-prophet. It was the usual tirade; a plea for the Blues to be allowed civil rights and representation, an attack against society for not permitting them to offer their labour in the open market, and a complaint that, though legally dead, they still had to pay taxes on everything they bought.

Sam had heard it all before and only stayed because he had ten minutes to kill before returning to duty. Behind the statue the soaring bulk of the World Council buildings lifted towards the sky, framing the end of the square and facing on the Hudson. Within the buildings air-conditioning kept the offices at a comfortable temperature, but Sam liked to feel the incipient bite of winter in. the fresh air.

Also the speaker amused him. Sam could guess at his exact progress. He would rant and rave, shake his fist and make tremendous demands while all the time the crowd would watch with apathetic contempt. Some might heckle him a little, others might shout personal abuse, but mostly the corner-prophets were tolerated as sort of modern-age clowns. Sam had overlooked the teenagers.

They had joined the crowd so quietly that he wasn’t aware of their presence until they started business. There were about twenty of them, all males, all wearing tight black jerseys, tight black pants, thick-soled shoes and long-peaked caps pulled over their eyes. The jerseys were marked front and back with a white, grinning skull. Each of them carried a long walking stick. Sam had seen similar sticks before. They were lead-loaded and could snap a shin or crush a skull as if the bone were made of eggshell.

Sam was no coward, but he knew his limitations. The crowd would be no help; they wouldn’t want to get hurt. The corner-prophet, the obvious target for the young hooligans, was surrounded. At best he could expect a beating; at worst he could be killed or so crippled that life would be a torment. And Sam, if he tried anything on his own, would receive the same treatment. Gently he eased himself from the crowd.

The nearest videophone booth was occupied. Sam jerked open the door, pulled out a protesting woman, and shut himself in the booth. He pressed the emergency button, and identified himself as the screen flashed to life.

“Captain Sam Falkirk of the World Police. Emergency call to local police. Trouble due at Nations Square. Blue’s statue. Teenagers, about twenty of them, on a Blue-hunt.”

“I’ll handle it.” The screen went blank as the operator cut the connection.

Outside the booth the woman was still fuming with outraged dignity. Sam hesitated, about to apologize, then changed his mind as he saw what was happening around the statue. The teenagers had moved in, swinging their sticks against legs and heads to clear a path to where the corner-prophet huddled in helpless terror. Sam reached the plinth just too late. A dozen of the toughs laughed and joked as they poked and prodded at the prophet writhing and screaming on the ground. Sam dodged a stick swinging at his skull, snatched at it and, at the same time, kicked its owner in the stomach. The stick in his hands, he jumped forward to straddle the prostrate man, felt something hit his shoulder and just managed to parry a vicious thrust at his eyes.

The next few seconds were a blur of motion as he lashed desperately at the ring of hooligans. Their clothing was padded and Sam, a grown man, couldn’t bring himself to hit full-strength at the youngsters. They had no such compunction. Sam would have been beaten to a pulp but for the arrival of the police.

They came whining up on their crash bikes, over a dozen of them, and at the sound of their approach the teenagers melted away, running lightly for the substrips where they would be safe.

“You hurt?” A burly sergeant, recognising Sam by his uniform, halted by his side.

“No.” Sam examined himself to make sure. “No, I’m all right. I wouldn’t have been though if you hadn’t arrived so soon.” He looked to where two officers stooped over the prophet. “How is he?”

“He’ll live.” One of the men straightened. “Needs hospitalization, though.”

“Send for the ambulance.” The sergeant returned his attention to Sam. “Did you recognize any of them?”

“The teenagers?” Sam shook his head. “Not personally. They all wore skull-markings though; that should help.”

“It won’t.” The sergeant was pessimistic. “I know that bunch; they’ll cover each other up no matter what.” He shrugged. “Well, it’s just another of those things. Thanks, anyway, captain. No need for you to hang around if you’re busy.”

It was, as the sergeant had said, just another of those things. There was no surprise or horror at the thought of a gang of young hooligans beating a man almost to death for the sheer fun of it. No explanation, either, though the psychologists had tried. They said the Blue-baiting was due to a need for excitement, a desire on the part of the youngsters to assert themselves or a breaking through of the primitive. For private consumption they had a different reason. They said that it was due to a conditioned hatred of all Blues and anything appertaining to them. It was, they said, a natural revolt of youth against age.

Which didn’t really account for the teenagers having chosen the corner-prophet as a victim, though, with his white hair and beard and unhealthy pallor he could have passed for a Blue. None of them, apparently, had bothered to check for the star he should have had tattooed on the back of his left hand.

A man was waiting for Sam as he entered the vestibule. He was a plump man, wearing a suit of lime green edged with white piping. His face was round and smooth but his hair was touched with grey and the skin beneath his eyes was soft and flaccid. He carried a brief case in one hand. He stepped forward with an ingratiating smile.

“Captain Falkirk?”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to speak with you for a moment if I may.” He produced a card. “Frank Perbright, Acme Insurance.”

“Not interested.” Sam brushed past the man and headed for the elevators. Perbright, not to be dissuaded, scurried at his side

“Please, captain, this is important.” He looked at the humming activity all around them. “If we could go somewhere quiet? Your office, perhaps?”

“Is this official business?” Sam stared at the plump man. “If it is, you’d better come up to my office. If it isn’t, then we can speak down here. Well?”

“It isn’t official business,” admitted Perbright. He didn’t sound happy about it. “But it is important.”

“To whom?” Sam felt that he could guess the answer but he didn’t feel like arguing. He led the way to a lecture room, peeped inside and gestured to Perbright. The room was occupied by a visiting class of schoolchildren and the lecturer was telling them about the greatest discovery of all time. He was a good speaker, his words clear and distinct, and his command of the students was absolute. He was a good instructor. He was a hundred and twenty years old.

“Doctor Edward Henry Clarence Blue discovered his serum ninety-five years ago now, back in 2016. The serum is a combination of radioactive isotopes, which in some way, wash the body free of age-poisons and arrest the advance of old age. It does more than that. It partially restores youth, in that it allows the body to rebuild itself without hindrance from those poisons. An old man will grow more youthful. His arteries will regain their elasticity, his joints lose their accumulations of uric deposits and his bones become less brittle. And, for some reason, he will also be proof against disease. He will, in effect, be immortal.”

Sam edged his way into the room as the instructor paused, Perbright following him. They sat down at the back of the lecture room. The instructor glanced towards them, then resumed his discourse.

“Just why that should be so no one quite knows. No one knows why, by some freak action of the serum, all melanin is bleached from the body so that Blues, as those who take the treatment are popularly called, are always albinos.” The instructor lifted his left hand and showed the star tattooed on the back, above the fingers. “The second identifying mark is this star.” He didn’t, Sam noticed, explain the purpose of the star. Many Blues had tried to disguise themselves with make-up and dye and so take and hold jobs normally reserved for non-Blues. The compulsory tattoo was a way of preventing such deception. He turned as Perbright called to him.

“Captain Falkirk.”

“What is it?”

“Just this,” the plump man drew coloured folders from his briefcase, “captain, I’d like to explain the details of our new policy. I feel that it is one of the most beneficial ever offered to the public, and is of special interest to those in your position…”

“I thought you said that this was important,” interrupted Sam irritably. “I’m already insured.”

“But only against sickness and the cost of treatment when it becomes necessary,” said Perbright quickly. “But what of the future, captain? Have you ever thought of that?” He riffled the folders. “Now, for just one fifth of your income during the term of your natural life we guarantee to provide you with Restezee facilities after you have taken the treatment.”

“Not interested,” said Sam curtly.

“But, captain!” Perbright sounded desperate. “You just can’t afford not to be interested. “Let me point out that…”

Sam sat back, relaxing and letting the plump man’s words pass over his head. He wasn’t interested in insurance, though, apparently, the insurance companies were in him. They were probably still trying to recoup the money they had lost in paying out annuities and pensions long after they had expected. When Blue had announced his discovery they had been the ones to immediately suffer. Life policies and endowments had stopped and everyone had turned to annuities. The tardy legislation that had legally killed all Blues had been engineered by the insurance companies as a matter of sheer self defence. Something Perbright said attracted his attention.

“Now, wait a minute,” said Sam. “This doesn’t make sense. You say that for one fifth of my income I’ll be taken care of for long as I want. Right?”

“That’s perfectly right, captain.”

“Well, how can you do it? Even if I manage to last another thirty years that still only enables you to keep me for six at my accustomed standard. What’s the catch?”

“No catch, captain.” Perbright became more persuasive. “Naturally, you will be expected to help out by doing some work, but that’s to be expected.”

“Is it?” Sam was thoughtful. “I think that I’d better have the department look into this. If your company is thinking of starting a Blue sweat-shop it had better be investigated.”

“It’s legal,” protested Perbright.

“And what can you lose? The way things are you’ve got no future. You’re unmarried, without children and all on your own.”

“That’s enough.” Sam was annoyed. “I don’t like being investigated by cheapskate operators. You’d better go before I have you thrown out.”

“I’m going.” Perbright grabbed at his briefcase. “But think it over, captain. If you want me you can find me in the book.”

Alone, Sam sat and tried to control his anger. He didn’t like being taken for a fool, and Perbright had pulled something too raw to stomach. That part about children, for example.

Sam blinked as he heard his name. The instructor, smiling from where he stood on the dais, beckoned to him.

“Now for a few words from Captain Falkirk of the World Police. I want you to pay great attention to what he has to say. Captain Falkirk.”

Sam rose, feeling a little foolish beneath the steady stare of sixty pairs of eyes. It wouldn’t have been so bad had he been a heroic character, someone over six feet tall, say, with wide shoulders and he profile of a tv star. But he was just an ordinary, quiet-seeming man with brown hair and brown eyes and a sensitive mouth. His figure, thanks to gymnastics, was good, and he had a certain appeal to women. A cheeky-faced tot winked at him as he climbed the dais and he felt a lot better.

He knew, too, what he was expected to say; he had done this at odd times before. He rested his hands on the table in unconscious imitation of the instructor, leaned a little towards he microphone and came straight to the point.

“You have heard your instructor tell you something of the past and how is has affected the present. You may be wondering what I have to say to you. The answer is this. I want to remind you that we all live in one world, that we are one people and that the youth of today is the old person of tomorrow.”'

He paused, staring at them, wondering what impression he was making. Probably none; children have short memories.

“Soon you will be teenagers,” he continued. “You may have heard some of the things which teenagers are supposed to do. Some of them actually do such things, but it isn’t funny or clever to do them. It isn’t funny to go on a Blue-bait, it isn’t clever to gang up against a man old enough to be your great-great-great-grandfather, it isn’t amusing to deride old people for being old. Most of you have Blues living at home. You may have heard your parents, at times, talking about them as if they were a nuisance. Some of you may even feel that life would be much easier if they weren’t around. That is the wrong attitude.”

Wrong, but who could blame them? Unless they had special qualifications, Blues were in a bad way. Some were protected by the government, a few scientists and others of value, but the great majority, able to find only casual work, were mostly objects of charity. Work was found for them when possible, but no Blue could be legally or morally employed while a non-Blue needed work.

For the young had their own lives to live, families to raise and relations to support. Each new generation had the task of helping to support those who had gone before. A man now raised a large family so that, when he took the treatment, the children he had raised could support him. Some did, others didn’t. Some meekly bore the filial yoke, while others cut free from responsibility and started out fresh on their own. No one could blame them; they committed no crime, but unsupported Blues, crippled by their lack of legal rights, became pitiful objects.

It was better for society if the Family bond remained strong. But the young, at times, are thoughtlessly cruel. At all times they are impatient.

“Be kind,” ended Sam. “Be patient. Be understanding. At all times remember that, one day, you, too, will be a Blue. Always think of that when you are with them. What they are, you will be. Treat them as such.”

The i. . .