Without eyes but evidently not without sight, the incredible specter watched him, moved as he moved, gave him no advantage whatsoever.
“Is this really the Twenty-third Century?” Joel asked.
“Who told you that?” The voice seemed to emanate from the lower third of the featureless face, from the spot where a mouth ought to have been. Joel thought he saw the smooth flesh vibrate slightly, like the head of a snare drum trembling with a staccato rhythm.
“Harttle,” Joel said. “He told me.”
“Why should you care what year it is?'
“Tell me.”
“Time doesn't matter,” the sandman said.
“It matters to me.”
At the far end of the room, Henry Galing and the manservant Richard, walked out of the doorway from the observation chamber and started toward the pods. Joel saw them, and he knew that the man without a face was one hundred percent right: he had no chance at all, not even a slender thread of hope.
“You don't have anything to gain by resisting us,” the faceless man said.
“Self-respect,” Joel said.
“Not even that.”
Galing and Richard reached the pod and started around one end of it.
The specter came around the other end.
“You stay back. All of you.”
Richard was grinning.
“I'll kill one of you if I get the chance.”
“You won't,” Galing said.
The old man held up his right hand and showed Joel the needled glove. Richard was wearing one of them too.
They descended on him in a rush. He didn't know which of them touched him first. Darkness came quickly, in a roar of silence.
IX
He woke and found that a rat was worrying at his shoe. It was a big sonofabitch, maybe ten or twelve pounds, long, wide, low to the ground. The long, black, pebbled tail trailed from it, motionless on the floor. The fur on its haunches was dark gray, the color of summer thunderheads; but it grew progressively lighter on up the body until it was a washed out and indefinable dirty color around the neck and head. The ears were thin, pointed, laid flat: listening. The quick red eyes were intent on the shoe, and the sharp yellow teeth shaved the shoe leather like razors stropping a bar of soap. Joel watched it until, sensing that he was awake, it peered up at him. For a moment they stared hard at each other, testing each other, gauging possibilities… When he moved to strike it, the rat turned and ran into the shadows on the other side of the room.
Had it been real — or part of some new illusion?
He sat up, stretched, and groaned. He was sore all over. His neck was stiff, his shoulders knotted with pain, his back filled with a dull ache where it had come into contact with the hard mattress of the floor.
When he finally looked carefully at the room, he was surprised to find himself in a cell. The walls were made from huge blocks of stone, granite or perhaps lava rock. The mortar between the blocks was brown, thin, perfectly spread, the work of a master mason who relied more on the fitting of stone than on the glue that lay between them. The ceiling was also stone. He could see no light fixtures except for the sputtering candle propped in a shallow baking pan by the door. He had been allowed no furniture, not even a straw sleeping mat. The only door was a massive slab of oak with three iron hinges; the eight-inch-square window in the center of it was fitted with four thick iron bars which were welded into an iron frame.
He got to his feet, leaned against the wall until a brief but intense fit of vertigo passed. Circumspectly, afraid that someone might be listening for him at the other side of the oak, he went to the door and peered through the bars. Beyond lay a musty, candle-lit concrete-walled hallway. In the flickering orange light, he saw that the corridor ceiling contained lightstrips which were no longer functioning.
The hall was empty. So far as he could see, no one was guarding the door.
Hooking his fingers in the bars, he tried unsuccessfully to swing the door open. Locked. Of course. What else was he to expect of a prison cell?
He considered calling for help. But he knew there'd be no one to hear him — except those who'd put him here: Galing, Richard, the man without a face…
But what the hell? He had nothing to lose. They'd come for him sooner or later anyway. “Hey! Hey, I'm awake now.”
No one answered.
“Let's get on with it,” he said.
The hall was quiet, empty. Somewhere nearby, a steady trickle of water gurgled softly over stone.
His fingers still hooked in the bars, he tried to recall all that had happened since he'd first awakened on that hydraulic couch in the pod chamber. Maybe there was a clue in it, a pattern, some thread that would let him unravel the whole ball of yarn. First: the deserted laboratories, filmed with dust. Then: the empty labs and offices, the skeleton, the faceless man, bed, Allison, escape from the house, the shuttle wreck, waking up in the fake aquaman experimental station, the discovery of that hoax, the faceless man again… No. It was useless.
Turning away from the door, he explored his meager cell more carefully than he had first done. The only thing that he had overlooked was a two-foot-square drain in the center of the floor. It opened on a black pit and was laid over with iron grill work. The rat had probably entered and left through the drain, but that was not going to do him any good. He wasn't going to be rescued by any sewer-patroling cavalry.
Behind him a key rattled in the lock.
He turned quickly.
Henry Galing pushed open the door. He was silhouetted by the brighter glow of the corridor candles, but Joel recognized even his silhouette. Galing came into the cell where Joel could get a better look at him. He was wearing a white smock that fell to his knees, and he carried a black satchel that resembled Dr. Harttle's bag of instruments. He smiled broadly and said, “Well, well… How are we doing this morning, young man.”
Joel stared at him.
“Don't you remember me?” Galing asked. He sounded genuinely concerned. “I'm Galing. Your doctor.”
“The angel of mercy,” Joel said sarcastically. He put his back to the stone wall. His arms hung at his sides, and his hands were fisted. “What have you done to me?”
Galing did not retreat but moved farther into the room so that Richard could get by him. Richard was dressed in a hospital orderly's uniform, all soft blue cotton and as clean as new diapers. A darker blue surgeon's cap covered most of his skull. He was wearing heavy rubber-soled shoes that squeaked when he walked.
“Just be calm,” Galing said.
“Go to hell.” He knew he was being childish, but he was hungry for revenge, even for the petty revenge of minor disobedience and surliness.
“Now,” Galing said consolingly. “You don't want Richard to hurt you again.”
Richard was carrying a battery-operated electric prod. He smiled slightly as Joel stared at the ugly device. Richard wouldn't hesitate to use it.
“I asked you what you've done to me,” Joel said, turning back to Galing.
The old man looked sad, as if he had to reprimand a favorite child. “I haven't done anything yet. What I'm
Behind Galing and Richard, Allison appeared in the doorway. She paused for a moment as if she knew what a stunning picture she made even in silhouette, then stepped to her uncle's side. Her long hair was drawn back from her face and tied in a bun. She was wearing a white uniform and a peaked nurse's cap. Even in the stark
