The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You

people like yours come along and try to turn the clock back twenty thousand years or so. There is no need for killing as a tool of government. Ever.”

“There must be the rule of law. If a man kills he be killed in return.”

“Nonsense. That does not bring the dead back to life. And the society doing the killing then becomes no more than a murderer itself. And I see your mouth open for the next argument. Capital punishment is no deterrent to others, that has been proven. Violence breeds violence, killing breeds killing.”

Hanasu paced back and forth the length of the room, trying to understand these—to him—alien concepts. I scraped the plate again and licked off the spoon. He sighed and dropped back into his chair.

“These things you tell me—they are beyond understanding. I must study them, but that is not important now. What is important is that I have made my mind up. I have been thinking about it for years and have decided. The Kekkonshiki plans must be stopped. There has been too much killing. It is only fit that it end by all of us being killed. You have told me this will not happen and I would like to believe you. But it does not matter. The message must be sent to your League.”

“How?”

“You must tell me. Don’t you think I would have contacted them well before this if I had the means?”

“Yes, of course.” Now I was pacing the floor. “No mail service to other planets, of course. No psimen here—or are there? Not that it’s important. They wouldn’t send this message. Radio?”

“The nearest League base is 430 light years away.”

“Yes, well, we don’t want to wait that long. I’ll just have to find a way to get aboard one of the ships when they leave.”

“I think that will be next to impossible.”

“I’m sure of it. So what do you suggest. I know—you just asked me that same question. But there has to be a way. Maybe I had better sleep on it. Is there any place safe…”

I was interrupted by a high warbling sound. My eyebrows shot up. “It is the communicator. An outside call. Stand against that wall where you will be out of range of the eye.”

He seated himself at the desk and switched on.

“Hanasu,” he said, face and voice frozen.

“A squad will reach you in a few minutes. They will seal all exits from the school. The foreigner has been traced in your direction and may be hiding there. Transportation is on the way now with six more squads. The school will be searched and he will be found.”

Fourteen

“What evidence do you have that he is at the school?” Hanasu asked.

“Footprints in the snow. Going in your direction. He is either hidden in your school or he is dead.”

“The students will aid in the search. They know the school buildings well.”

“Issue that order.”

Hanasu turned off the communicator and looked at me coldly. “We will not be able to carry out our plans after all. After they capture you they will use the axion feed to uncover my part in this. Do you wish to commit suicide to protect me?”

All of this was delivered deadpan with no change in tone. Although the room was chill I felt small prickles of sweat breaking out.

“Not so fast! All is not lost yet. Let us sort of save the suicide bit as a last resort. There must be someplace I can hide?”

“No. They will look in every place.”

“What about here? In your quarters. Tell them you searched and I’m not there.” “You do not understand our people. Whatever I—or anyone—might say the search will still go on as planned. We are very thorough.”

“But unimaginative. I’ll out-think them.” I was feeling very unimaginative myself at the moment. Only the spurt of adrenalin generated by the suicide offer kept my engines chugging away at all. I looked around with a feeling of desperation. “The window! I can go through it, hide…”

“It does not open. It is fixed in place.”

“Never opens? Not even in the summer?”

“It is summer.”

“I was afraid you would say that. All is not lost yet!” There was a tinge of desperation in my voice because I had the awful feeling that everything was lost. “I know. If not inside I’ll hide outside. There must be a way to get up onto the roof. Make repairs, nail down loose shingles.”

“There are no shingles.”

I resisted the urge to tear out a handful of hair. “Look—I don’t mean it literally. But is there a way to get on the roof from inside the building?”

“There might be.”

I fought hard with myself not to shake him by the neck until he gave me the right answers. “Are there plans? Blueprints of the school?”

“Yes. There in the file.”

“Then get them. Quickly if you please.” How long would it be before the search squads arrived? I cracked my knuckles and chewed my thumb and grabbed the sheets when he produced them. Flipping through them rapidly. Trying to ignore Hanasu’s cheery observations.

“This is a waste of time. There is no escape. I do not wish to be interrogated with the axion feed. Therefore if you will not commit suicide I will…”

“Stop with the gloom already!” I snarled. It was depressing. My finger stabbed down. “There! What is that, that symbol?”

Hanasu held the sheet at arm’s length, adjusted the light, squinted at it. My pulse rate doubled. “Yes, I see it,” he finally said. “It is a door.”

I clapped him on the back. “We’re home free! If you do just as I say. First—order everyone in the school to get together. Not just the students but the teachers, cooks, gardeners, torture specialists. Everyone.”

“We don’t have any gardeners.”

“I don’t care!” My voice was beginning to crack and I had to fight a measure of control back into it. “Just get them all together—now–to help in the search. Talk first and I’ll explain later.”

He obeyed without question. Good old Kekkonshiki discipline. By the time he had made the announcement I knew what came next.

“I can’t risk being seen, so you will have to get what I need from the labs. I want a power tool—make sure it’s fully charged—at least ten long nails or screws, fifty meters of 500-kilo test line, a battery light and a lubricator. Where is the safest place for me to wait while you get them?”

“Here. There will be people in the corridors. By the time I return they will all be in the assembly hall.”

“That was sort of my idea too.”

“I do not know what you are planning but I will help you. There will be time for me to commit suicide after you are captured.”

“That’s it, Hanasu boy, always look on the bright side. Now go!”

He went and I prowled the carpet and looked for an unchewed fingernail to chew. I jumped when the communicator buzzed, but I stayed far away from it. Hanasu was gone all of four minutes. It felt like four days.

“You had a call,” I said, grabbing the goods from him. I stowed them about my person while he went to the communicator.

“They are all assembled and the search squads are here,” he said.

“That’s good news. Go down and organize them. See that they do a good and thorough job and work upwards from the bottom to the top. I’ll need all the time I can get since I have no idea what I will find.”

“You are going on to the roof?”