November 1, 2025 • 29 mins
A surreal sci-fi series exploring speculative concepts, dreams, and philosophical what-ifs. Each episode is a cerebral journey into the mind’s deepest questions. Explore a world of immersive, ad-free audio experiences from nature sounds to timeless stories at https://www.adfreesounds.com
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Speaker 1 (00:38):
Mind Way.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Welcome to a half hour of mind Way. Short stories
from the world of specant fiction.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
No.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
This story comes from the Rogers Lassanie book The Doors
of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and other stories.
It's devil. Car Murdoch sped across the Great Western Road plain.
High above him, the sun was of fiery yo yo.
(01:35):
As he took the innumerable hillocks and rises of the
plane at better than one hundred and sixty miles an hour.
He didn't slow for anything, and Jenny's hidden eyes spotted
all the rocks and potholes before they came to them,
and she carefully adjusted their course, sometimes without his even
detecting the subtle movements of the steering column beneath his hands.
Even through the dark tinted windshield and the thick gagoles,
(01:58):
he wore, the glare from the fused plane burned into
his eyes, so that at times it seemed as if
he were steering a very fast boat through night beneath
the brilliant alien moon, and that he was cutting his
way across the lake of silver fire. Tall dust waves rose,
and this wake hung in the air, and after a
time settled once more.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
You are wearing yourself out sitting there clutching the wheel
that way, squinning ahead. Why don't you try to get
some rest. Let me fog the shields, go to sleep,
and leave the driving to me.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Now, Jennie, I want it this way, all right?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I just thought I would ask.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah. Thanks. About a minute later, the radio began playing.
There was a soft, stringy sort of music. Hey, cut
that out.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Sorry, Boss, thought it might relax you, like.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
When I need relaxing out.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Tut you check, Sam, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
The silence seemed oppressive after its brief interruption. She was
a good Caradough Murdock knew that she was always concerned
with his will, and she was anxious to get on
with his quest. She was made to look like a
carefree swingerseday in bright red, gaudy fast but there were
rockets under the bulges of her hood, and two fifty
(03:13):
caliber muzzles lurked just out of sight in the recesses
beneath her head lamps. She wore a belt of five
and ten second timed grenades across her belly, and in
her trunk was a spray tank containing a highly volatile
naphthalic for his Jenny was especially designed death car built
for him by the arch engineer of the Gian dynasty
(03:35):
far to the east, and all the cunning of that
great artificer had gone into her construction. Yeah, we'll find
it this time, Jenny. I didn't mean a snap that
you like it in.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's all right, Sam, I am programmed to understand you.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
They roared on across the great Plain, and the sun
fell away to the west. All night and all day
they had searched, and Murdoch was tired. The last few
will stop, rest, to stop? Fortress seemed so long ago,
so far back. Murdoch leaned forward and his eyes closed.
(04:10):
The window slowly darkened into complete opacity. The seat belt
crept higher and drew him back away from the wheel.
Then the seat gradually leaned backwards until he was reclining
on a level plane. But he there came on as
the night approached. Later, the seat shook him awake a
little before five in the morning.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Wake up there, Wake up?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I picked up a broadcast twenty minutes ago. There was
a recent car raid out this way. I changed course immediately,
and we are almost there.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Why didn't you get me up right away?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
You needed the sleep, and there was nothing you could
do but get tense and nervous.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Okay, you're probably right. Now tell me about that raid.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Six vehicles proceeding westward were apparently ambushed by an undetermined
number of wild cars sometime last night. The patrol copter
was reporting yet from above the scene, and I listened in.
All the vehicles were stripped and drained, and their brains
were smashed, and the passengers were all apparently killed too.
There were no signs of movement.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And how far is it now?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Another two or three minutes.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
The windshields came clear once more, and Murdoch stared as
far ahead through the night as the powerful lamps could cut. Hey, Jenny,
I I see something.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
This is the place.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Circle round, Jenny and and look for heat tracks. I
won't be long. The door slammed and Jenny moved away
from him. He snapped on his pocket torch and moved
toward the wrecked vehicles. The plane was like a sand
strewn dance floor, hard and gritty. Beneath his feet, there
were many skid marks, and the spaghetti work of tire
tracks lay all about the area. A dead man sat
(05:46):
behind the wheel of the first car. His neck was
obviously broken. The smashed watch on his wrist said two
twenty four. There were three persons, two women and a
young man, lying about forty feet away. They had been
run down as they tried to flee from their assaulted vehicles.
Murdoch moved on inspecting the others. All six cars were upright.
(06:10):
Most of the damage was to their bodies. The tires
and wheels had been removed from all of them, as
well as essential portions of their engines. The gas tank
stood open, siphoned empty. The spare tires were gone from
the sprung trunks. There were no living passengers. Jenny pulled
up beside him and her door opened.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Sam pull the brain leads on that blue car, the
third one back. It's still drawing some energy from an
auxiliary battery, and I can hear it broadcast.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
O kay. Murdoch went back and tore the leads free.
He returned to Jenny and climbed into the driver's seat.
Did you find anything?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Some traces heading northwest?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Okay? I follow them. The door slammed and Jenny turned
in that direction. They drove for about five minutes in silence.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Then Jenny said there were eight cars in that convoy.
What I just heard it on the news. Apparently two
of the cars communicated with the wild Ones on an
off band. They threw in with them, then they gave
away their location and turned on the others at the
time of the attack.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You know what about their passengers.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
They probably modeled them before they joined.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
The pack, Jenny. What makes a car run wild? Never
knowing where it'll get its next fueling or being sure
of finding spare parts for its auto repair unit? Why
did they do it?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I do not know, Sam, I have never thought about it.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Ten years ago, the devil car, their leader, killed my
brother and I raid on his gas fortress. And I've
hunted that black Caddy ever since. I've searched for it
from the air, and I've searched on foot, and I've
used other cars. I've carried heat trackers and missiles. I
even laid minds, but always it's been too fast, or
too smart or too strong for me. And hell, then
(07:54):
I had you Bilt, Jenny.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I knew you hated it very much. I always wondered why.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I had you, especially programmed an armored an armed to
be the toughest, fastest, smartest thing on wheels. Jenny, you're
the scarlet lady. You're the one car that can take
the Caddy in his whole pack. You've got fangs and
claws of the kind they've never met before, and this
time I'm gonna get 'em.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
You could have stayed home, Sam, and let me do
the hunting.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
No, No, I know I could have, but I wanna
be there. I want to give the orders to press
some of the buttons myself, to watch that devil car
burn away to a metal skeleton. How many people? How
many cars as it's smashed we've lost count of I've
got to get it, Jenny.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I'll find it for you. Sam. How's the fuel level, Jenny,
plenty there and I have not yet drawn upon the
auxiliary tanks. Do not worry. The track is getting stronger.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
That's good. How's the weapon system?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Red light all around? Ready to go?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Ah? Some of them carry dead people strapped inside, Jenny,
so they'll look like decent cars with passengers. The Black
Caddy does it all the time, and it changes them
pretty regularly too. It keeps its interior refrigerated so they'll last.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
You know a lot about it, Sam.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
It fulled my brother with phony passengers and phony plates.
Got him to open his gas forts was to it
that way, then the whole pack attacked. It's painted itself
red and green, and blue and white on different occasions,
but it always goes back to black sooner or later.
It doesn't like yellow, erry, brown or two tone. I've
got a list of almost every phony plate it's ever used.
(09:35):
It's even driven the big freeways right in the towns
and fueled up with regular gas stops often get its numbers.
It tears away from them just as the attendant goes
up on the driver's side for his money. It can
fake dozens of human voices too, Jenny. They can never
catch it afterwards, though, because it souped itself up too well.
It always makes it back here to the plane and
then loses them. It's even rated used car lots. Jenny
(09:59):
turn sharply in her course.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Sam. The trail is quite strong now this way. It
goes off in the direction of those mountains.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Follow for a long time. Then Murdoch was silent. The
first inklings of morning began in the east. The pale
morning star was a white thumbtack on a blue board.
Behind them, they began to climb a gentle slope get it, Jenny,
go get it.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I think we will.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
The angle of the slope increased, Jenny sloader pays to
match the terrain, which was becoming somewhat bumpy. Why it's matter.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It's harder going here. Also, the trail is getting more
difficult to follow.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
There is still a lot of background radiation in these
parts and it is throwing off my tracking system. Trying, Jenny,
the track seems to go straight toward the mountain.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Follow it, follow it. They slowed some more.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I am all followed up now, Sam, I have just
lost the trail.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
It must have a strongholf somewhere around here, Jenny, a
cave or something like that. Or it can be sheltered overhead.
It's only a way could have escape aerial detection all
these years.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
What should I do?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Well, go as far forward as you can and scan
for low openings in the rock. Be wary, and be
ready to attack an instant, Jenny. They climbed into the
low foothills. Jenny's aerial rose high into the air, and
the moths of steel cheesecloth unfolded their wings and danced
and spun about it bright there in the morning light.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Nothing yet and we can't go much further.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Now, and we'll cruise along the light, though it didn't
keep scanning to the right or to the left. I
don't know if which way would you go if you
were a renegade car in the lamb, I do not know. Well,
pick one, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
To the right.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Then, after half an hour, the night was dropping away
behind the mountains. It was right, The morning was exploding
at the fire end of the plane, fracturing the sky
into all the colors of autumn trees. Murdoch drew a
squeeze bottle of hot coffee, the kind Spacers had once used,
from beneath the dashboard.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Sam, I think I have found walking What where ahead
to the left of that big boulder, a declivity with
some kind of opening at its end.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Okay, baby, make for it. Rockets ready. We pulled a
breast of the boulder and circled around its far side.
Added down the hill our cave where tunnel go.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Slow, heat, heat, I'm tracking again.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, I can even see tire marks, Jenny, lots of them.
This is it. They moved toward the opening. I'll go in,
but go slowly. Plast the first thing that moves. They
entered the rocky portal, moving on sand now, Jenny turned
off her visible lights and sweached to infrared. N I
our lens rose before the windshield, and Murdoch studied the cave.
(12:42):
It was about twenty feet high and wide enough to
accommodate perhaps three cars going abreast. The floor changed from
sand to rock, but it was smooth and fairly level.
After a time it sloped upward. There's some light ahead, Jenny,
I know a piece of the sky. I think they
crept toward it Jenny's engine, but the barest sigh within
(13:05):
the great chambers of rock. They stopped at the threshold
to the light. The ir shield dropped again. It was
a sand and shale canyon that he looked upon, huge
slantings and overhangs of rock. He had all but the
far end from any eye in the sky. The light
was pale at the far end. There was nothing unusual
(13:28):
beneath it. But nearer, Murdoch blinked nearer in the dim
light of morning, and in the shadows stood the greatest
junk heap Murdoc had ever seen in his life. Pieces
of cars of every make and model were heaped into
a small mountain before him. There were batteries and tires,
(13:50):
and cables and shock absorbers. There were fenders and bumpers,
and headlamps and headlamp housings. There were doors and windshields,
and cylinders and pistons, carburetors, generators of vaulting which regulators,
and oil pumps. And Murdoch stared Jenny. We found the
graveyard of the Autos, a very old car which Murdoch
had not even distinguished from the junk during that first glance,
(14:13):
jerked several feet in their direction and stopped this. Suddenly,
a sound of rivedheads scoring ancient break drums screeched in
his ears. Its tires were completely bald, and the left
front one was badly in the a air. Its right
front headlamp was broken, and there was a crack in
its windshield. It stood there before the heap. It's awakened,
the engine making a terrible rattling noise. What's happening or
(14:39):
what is it?
Speaker 3 (14:39):
He is talking to me? He is very old. His
speedometer has been all the way around so many times
that he forgets the number of miles he has seen.
He hates people whom he says have abused him. Whenever
they could. He is the guardian of the graveyard. He
is too old to go raving anymore, so he has
stood guard over the spare parts heat for many years.
(15:01):
He is not the sword who can repair himself as
the younger ones do, so he must rely on their
charity and their auto repair units.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
He wants to know what I want here, Ask him
where the others are. But as he said it, Murdoch
heard the sound of many engines turning over until the
valley was filled with the thunder of their horse power.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
They are parked on the other side of the heap.
They are coming now.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Oh back till I tell you the fire. Then the
first car, a sleek yellow Chrysler, nosed around the heap. Murdoc,
who lowered his head to the steering wheel but kept
his eyes open behind his goggles. Tell him that you
came here to join the pack, and you've modeled their driver,
and try to get the black Caddy to come into range.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
He will not do it. I am talking with him now.
He can broadcast just as easily from the other side
of the pile, and he says he is sending the
six biggest members of his pack to guard me while
he decides what to do. He has ordered me to
leave the tunnel and pull a head into the valley,
then go ahead.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Then slowly they crept forward. Two Lincoln's, a powerful looking Pontiac,
and two Merks joined the Chrysler, three on each side
of them in position to ram. Has he given you
any idea how many there are on the other.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Side, No, I asked, but he will not tell me.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, well, just have to wait. Then he stayed slumped,
pretending to be dead. After a time, his already tired
shoulders began to wake. Finally, Jenny spoke.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
He wants me to pull around the fore end of
the pile, now that they have cleared the way, and
to head into a gap in the rock, which he
will indicate He wants to have his auto mech go
over me.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
We can't have that, but head around the pile. I'll
tell you what to do when I've gotten a glimpse
of the other side. The two Merks and the big
Chief drew aside, and Jenny crept past them. Murdoch stared
upwards from the corner of his eye up at the
towering mound of junk. They were passing. A couple of
well placed rockets on either end could topple it, but
the auto would probably clear it. Eventually they rounded the
(17:03):
left hand end of the pile. Something like forty five
cars were facing them at about one hundred twenty yards
distance to the right and the head they had fanned out.
They were blocking the exit around the other end of
the pile, and the six guards in back of him
now blocked the way. Behind Murdoch. On the far side
(17:25):
of the farthest rank of the most distant cars, an
ancient black Caddy was parked. It had been beaten forth
from assembly during the year when the apprentice engineers were
indeed thinking big. Huge. It was and shiny and a
skeleton's face mild from behind its wheel. Black it was
(17:46):
and gleaming chromium, and its headlamps were like dusky jewels
or the eyes of insects. Every plane and curve shimmered
with power, and its great fish tailed rear end seemed
to slap at the sea of shadows behind it on
an instant's notice as it sprang forward for its kill.
(18:07):
That's it, that's hit the devil car.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
He is big. I have never seen a car that big.
He wants me to head into that opening and park.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Had torn it slowly, but don't go into it. They
turned an inch toward the opening. The other cars stood,
the sounds of their engines rising and falling. Check all
weapons systems read all around. The opening was twenty feet away.
When I say, now, go into neutral steer and turn
one hundred eighty degrees fast, Jenny. They can't be expecting
(18:38):
that they don't have it themselves, and then open up
with a fifty calibration. Fire your rockets at the caddy.
Turn at a right angle and start backed away. We
came and spray the naplis. We go and fire on
the six guards. Now he was slammed back as they spun,
and he heard the chattering of her guns before his
head cleared. By then flames were leaping up in the distance.
(19:00):
Jenny's guns were extruded now and turning on their mounts,
spraying the line of vehicles with hundreds of leaden hammers.
She shook twice as she discharged two rockets from beneath
her partly opened hood. Then they were moving forward, and
eight or nine of the cars were rushing down hill
toward them. She turned again in neutral steer and sprang
(19:21):
back in the direction from which they had come around
the southeast corner of the pile. Her guns were hammering
at the now retreating guards, and in the wide rear
view mirror, Murdoch could see that a wall of flame
was towering high behind them. You've missed it. You missed
a black candy, Jenny. Your rockets hit the cars in
front of it, and it backed off.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I know, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
You had a clear shot.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
I know I missed.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
They rounded the pile just as two of the guard
cars vanished into the tunnel. Three more lay in, smoking ruin.
The sixth had evidently proceeded the other two out through
the passage. Here it comes now around the other end
of the pile. Kill it, Kill it. The ancient guardian
of the graveyard. It looked like a ford, but he
couldn't be sure. Moved forward with a dreadful chattering sound,
(20:11):
and interposed itself in the line of fire.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
My range is blocked.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Smash that junk, keep and cover the tunnel. Don't let
the caddy escape. I can Why not?
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I just can't.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
That's in order, Jenny. Smash it and cover the tunnel.
Her gun swiveled and she shot out the tires beneath
the ancient car. The caddy shot past and into the passageway.
You let it get by, You let it get by,
Get after it.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
All right, Sam, I'm doing it. Don't yell. Please, don't yell.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
She added. For the tunnel inside, he could hear the
sound of a giant engine racing away, growing softer in
the distance. Don't fire here in the tunnel. If you
hit it, we may be bottled in. I know I
won't drop a couple ten second grenades and step on
the gas. Maybe we can seal in whatever left moving
back there. Suddenly they shot ahead and emerged into daylight.
(21:05):
There was no sign of any other vehicle about. Find
its track and start chasing it. There was an explosion
up the hill behind him, within the Mountoin. The ground trembled,
then it was still once more.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
There are so many tracks, you.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Know, the one I want, the biggest, the whitest, the hottest.
Find it, run it down.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
I think I have it.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Sound okay, good? Now, proceed as rapidly as possible for
this terrain. Murdoch found the squeeze bottle of bourbon and
took three gulps. Then he lit a cigarette and glared
into the distance. Why why did you miss it? Why
did you miss it? Jenny? She did not answer immediately.
He waited, and finally she.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Said, because he is not an it to me. He
has done much damage to cars and people, and that
is terrible, But there is something about him, something noble,
the way he has fought the whole world for his freedom, Sam,
keeping that pack of vicious machines in line, stopping at nothing,
to maintain himself that way without a master, for as
(22:08):
long as he can remain unsmashed, unbeaten. Sam. For a
moment back there, I wanted to join his pack, to
run with him across the Great Road Plains, to use
my rockets against the gates of the gas sports for him.
But I could not monel you, Sam, I was built
for you. I am too domesticated, I am too weak.
(22:28):
I could not shoot him, though, and I misfired the
rockets on purpose, But I could never monel you. Sam.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Really, thanks and thanks a lot, you over programmed, Ash
can thanks a lot.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I am sorry, Sam.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Ah shut up, No, no, not not yet. First tell
me what you're going to do if we find him.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Well, thinking over fast, and you see that dust cloud
ahead as well as I do, and you better speed up.
They shot forward. Wait till I called Detroit and laughed
himself silly till the refund.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I am not of inferior construction or design. You know that.
I am just more emotional than I thought I would be.
I had not really met many cars except for young
ones before I was shipped to you. I did not
know what a wild car was like, and I had
never smashed any cars before, just targets and things like that.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I was young and an innocent. Yeah, that's very touching, Jenny.
Get ready to kill the next car we meet. If
it happens to be your boyfriend and you hail your fire,
then he'll kill us.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I will try, Sam.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
The car ahead had stopped. It was the Golden Chrysler.
Two of its tires had gone flat, and it was
parked lopsided waiting. I'll leave that one. Say the amo
for something that might fight back. Did it say anything, Jenny.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Machine profanity. I've only heard it once or twice, and
it would be meaningless to you.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Any cars actually swear at each other occasionally.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
I imagine the lower sort indulged in it more frequently,
especially on freeways and turnpikes when they become congested.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Let me hear machines swear away.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I will not. What kind of car do you think
I am? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I'm sorry, your lady, I forgot. There was an audible
click within the radio. They raced forward on the level
ground that lay before the foot of the mountains. Murdoch
took another drink and then switched to coffee. Ten years,
ten years. The trail swung in a wide curve as
the mountains jogged back and the foothills sprang up high
(24:35):
beside them. It was over almost before he knew it.
As they passed a huge orange colored stone, massive sculpted
like an upside down toadstool. By the wind, there was
a clearing to the right. It shot forward at them
the double car it had lain in an ambush, seeing
that it could not outrun the scarlet lady, and it
(24:56):
rushed toward a final collision with its hunter. Jenny skidded
sideways as her brakes caught with a scream and a
smell of smoke, and her fifty calibers were firing, and
her hood sprang open and her front wheels rose up
off the ground as the rockets leapt wailing ahead, and
she spun around three times, her rear bumper scraping the
salt sand plain. In the third and last time, she
(25:19):
fired her remaining rockets into the smoldering wreckage on the hillside,
and she came to a rest on all four wheels,
and her fifty calibers kept firing until they were emptied,
and then a steady clicking sound came from them for
a full minute afterwards, and then all lapsed into silence.
Murdoch sat there, shaking, watching the gutted, twisted wreck blaze
(25:43):
against the morning sky. You did it, Jenny, You killed them,
You killed me, the devil car. But she did not
answer him. Her engines started once more, and she turned
toward the southeast and headed for the fuel stop arrest
stop fortress that lay in that civilized direction. For two hours,
(26:05):
they drove in silence, and Murdoc drank all his bourbon
and all his coffee and smoked all his cigarettes. Jenny, Jenny,
say something, what's the matter? Tell me? There was a click,
and her voice was very soft.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Sam he talked to me as he came down the hill.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Murdoc waited, but she did not say anything else. Eh, Well,
what did he say?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
He said, say you will mono your passenger and I
will swerve by you. He said, I want you, scarlet lady,
to run with me, to raid with me together. They
will never catch us, and I killed him.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Murdoch was silent.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
He only said that to delay my firing, though, did
he not? He said that to stop me so that
he could smash us both when he went smash himself.
Did he not? He could not have meant it, could he? Sam?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Nah?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Now, of course not, of course not. It was too
late for him to swerve.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Yes, I suppose it was. Do you think so that
he really wanted me to run with him, to raid
with him before everything? I mean back there?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Probably, baby here pretty well equipped.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Before she turned off again, he heard a strange mechanical
sound falling into the rhythms of profanity or prayer. Then
he shook his head and lowered it softly, patting the
seat beside him with his still unsteady hand. That story
(28:11):
was Devil Carr from Roger z Alasanie's book The Doors
of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth and other Stories.
This is Michael Hanson speaking joining me in the reading
Lastricia Day Technical production for mindwebs by Steve Gordon. Mindwebbs
comes to you from WYA Radio and Madison Service of
(28:34):
the University of Wisconsin Extension
Mind Way.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Welcome to a half hour of mind Way. Short stories
from the world of specant fiction.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
No.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
This story comes from the Rogers Lassanie book The Doors
of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and other stories.
It's devil. Car Murdoch sped across the Great Western Road plain.
High above him, the sun was of fiery yo yo.
(01:35):
As he took the innumerable hillocks and rises of the
plane at better than one hundred and sixty miles an hour.
He didn't slow for anything, and Jenny's hidden eyes spotted
all the rocks and potholes before they came to them,
and she carefully adjusted their course, sometimes without his even
detecting the subtle movements of the steering column beneath his hands.
Even through the dark tinted windshield and the thick gagoles,
(01:58):
he wore, the glare from the fused plane burned into
his eyes, so that at times it seemed as if
he were steering a very fast boat through night beneath
the brilliant alien moon, and that he was cutting his
way across the lake of silver fire. Tall dust waves rose,
and this wake hung in the air, and after a
time settled once more.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
You are wearing yourself out sitting there clutching the wheel
that way, squinning ahead. Why don't you try to get
some rest. Let me fog the shields, go to sleep,
and leave the driving to me.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Now, Jennie, I want it this way, all right?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I just thought I would ask.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah. Thanks. About a minute later, the radio began playing.
There was a soft, stringy sort of music. Hey, cut
that out.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Sorry, Boss, thought it might relax you, like.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
When I need relaxing out.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Tut you check, Sam, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
The silence seemed oppressive after its brief interruption. She was
a good Caradough Murdock knew that she was always concerned
with his will, and she was anxious to get on
with his quest. She was made to look like a
carefree swingerseday in bright red, gaudy fast but there were
rockets under the bulges of her hood, and two fifty
(03:13):
caliber muzzles lurked just out of sight in the recesses
beneath her head lamps. She wore a belt of five
and ten second timed grenades across her belly, and in
her trunk was a spray tank containing a highly volatile
naphthalic for his Jenny was especially designed death car built
for him by the arch engineer of the Gian dynasty
(03:35):
far to the east, and all the cunning of that
great artificer had gone into her construction. Yeah, we'll find
it this time, Jenny. I didn't mean a snap that
you like it in.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's all right, Sam, I am programmed to understand you.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
They roared on across the great Plain, and the sun
fell away to the west. All night and all day
they had searched, and Murdoch was tired. The last few
will stop, rest, to stop? Fortress seemed so long ago,
so far back. Murdoch leaned forward and his eyes closed.
(04:10):
The window slowly darkened into complete opacity. The seat belt
crept higher and drew him back away from the wheel.
Then the seat gradually leaned backwards until he was reclining
on a level plane. But he there came on as
the night approached. Later, the seat shook him awake a
little before five in the morning.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Wake up there, Wake up?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I picked up a broadcast twenty minutes ago. There was
a recent car raid out this way. I changed course immediately,
and we are almost there.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Why didn't you get me up right away?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
You needed the sleep, and there was nothing you could
do but get tense and nervous.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Okay, you're probably right. Now tell me about that raid.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Six vehicles proceeding westward were apparently ambushed by an undetermined
number of wild cars sometime last night. The patrol copter
was reporting yet from above the scene, and I listened in.
All the vehicles were stripped and drained, and their brains
were smashed, and the passengers were all apparently killed too.
There were no signs of movement.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And how far is it now?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Another two or three minutes.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
The windshields came clear once more, and Murdoch stared as
far ahead through the night as the powerful lamps could cut. Hey, Jenny,
I I see something.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
This is the place.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Circle round, Jenny and and look for heat tracks. I
won't be long. The door slammed and Jenny moved away
from him. He snapped on his pocket torch and moved
toward the wrecked vehicles. The plane was like a sand
strewn dance floor, hard and gritty. Beneath his feet, there
were many skid marks, and the spaghetti work of tire
tracks lay all about the area. A dead man sat
(05:46):
behind the wheel of the first car. His neck was
obviously broken. The smashed watch on his wrist said two
twenty four. There were three persons, two women and a
young man, lying about forty feet away. They had been
run down as they tried to flee from their assaulted vehicles.
Murdoch moved on inspecting the others. All six cars were upright.
(06:10):
Most of the damage was to their bodies. The tires
and wheels had been removed from all of them, as
well as essential portions of their engines. The gas tank
stood open, siphoned empty. The spare tires were gone from
the sprung trunks. There were no living passengers. Jenny pulled
up beside him and her door opened.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Sam pull the brain leads on that blue car, the
third one back. It's still drawing some energy from an
auxiliary battery, and I can hear it broadcast.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
O kay. Murdoch went back and tore the leads free.
He returned to Jenny and climbed into the driver's seat.
Did you find anything?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Some traces heading northwest?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Okay? I follow them. The door slammed and Jenny turned
in that direction. They drove for about five minutes in silence.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Then Jenny said there were eight cars in that convoy.
What I just heard it on the news. Apparently two
of the cars communicated with the wild Ones on an
off band. They threw in with them, then they gave
away their location and turned on the others at the
time of the attack.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You know what about their passengers.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
They probably modeled them before they joined.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
The pack, Jenny. What makes a car run wild? Never
knowing where it'll get its next fueling or being sure
of finding spare parts for its auto repair unit? Why
did they do it?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I do not know, Sam, I have never thought about it.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Ten years ago, the devil car, their leader, killed my
brother and I raid on his gas fortress. And I've
hunted that black Caddy ever since. I've searched for it
from the air, and I've searched on foot, and I've
used other cars. I've carried heat trackers and missiles. I
even laid minds, but always it's been too fast, or
too smart or too strong for me. And hell, then
(07:54):
I had you Bilt, Jenny.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I knew you hated it very much. I always wondered why.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I had you, especially programmed an armored an armed to
be the toughest, fastest, smartest thing on wheels. Jenny, you're
the scarlet lady. You're the one car that can take
the Caddy in his whole pack. You've got fangs and
claws of the kind they've never met before, and this
time I'm gonna get 'em.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
You could have stayed home, Sam, and let me do
the hunting.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
No, No, I know I could have, but I wanna
be there. I want to give the orders to press
some of the buttons myself, to watch that devil car
burn away to a metal skeleton. How many people? How
many cars as it's smashed we've lost count of I've
got to get it, Jenny.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I'll find it for you. Sam. How's the fuel level, Jenny,
plenty there and I have not yet drawn upon the
auxiliary tanks. Do not worry. The track is getting stronger.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
That's good. How's the weapon system?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Red light all around? Ready to go?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Ah? Some of them carry dead people strapped inside, Jenny,
so they'll look like decent cars with passengers. The Black
Caddy does it all the time, and it changes them
pretty regularly too. It keeps its interior refrigerated so they'll last.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
You know a lot about it, Sam.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
It fulled my brother with phony passengers and phony plates.
Got him to open his gas forts was to it
that way, then the whole pack attacked. It's painted itself
red and green, and blue and white on different occasions,
but it always goes back to black sooner or later.
It doesn't like yellow, erry, brown or two tone. I've
got a list of almost every phony plate it's ever used.
(09:35):
It's even driven the big freeways right in the towns
and fueled up with regular gas stops often get its numbers.
It tears away from them just as the attendant goes
up on the driver's side for his money. It can
fake dozens of human voices too, Jenny. They can never
catch it afterwards, though, because it souped itself up too well.
It always makes it back here to the plane and
then loses them. It's even rated used car lots. Jenny
(09:59):
turn sharply in her course.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Sam. The trail is quite strong now this way. It
goes off in the direction of those mountains.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Follow for a long time. Then Murdoch was silent. The
first inklings of morning began in the east. The pale
morning star was a white thumbtack on a blue board.
Behind them, they began to climb a gentle slope get it, Jenny,
go get it.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I think we will.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
The angle of the slope increased, Jenny sloader pays to
match the terrain, which was becoming somewhat bumpy. Why it's matter.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It's harder going here. Also, the trail is getting more
difficult to follow.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
There is still a lot of background radiation in these
parts and it is throwing off my tracking system. Trying, Jenny,
the track seems to go straight toward the mountain.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Follow it, follow it. They slowed some more.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I am all followed up now, Sam, I have just
lost the trail.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
It must have a strongholf somewhere around here, Jenny, a
cave or something like that. Or it can be sheltered overhead.
It's only a way could have escape aerial detection all
these years.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
What should I do?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Well, go as far forward as you can and scan
for low openings in the rock. Be wary, and be
ready to attack an instant, Jenny. They climbed into the
low foothills. Jenny's aerial rose high into the air, and
the moths of steel cheesecloth unfolded their wings and danced
and spun about it bright there in the morning light.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Nothing yet and we can't go much further.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Now, and we'll cruise along the light, though it didn't
keep scanning to the right or to the left. I
don't know if which way would you go if you
were a renegade car in the lamb, I do not know. Well,
pick one, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
To the right.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Then, after half an hour, the night was dropping away
behind the mountains. It was right, The morning was exploding
at the fire end of the plane, fracturing the sky
into all the colors of autumn trees. Murdoch drew a
squeeze bottle of hot coffee, the kind Spacers had once used,
from beneath the dashboard.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Sam, I think I have found walking What where ahead
to the left of that big boulder, a declivity with
some kind of opening at its end.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Okay, baby, make for it. Rockets ready. We pulled a
breast of the boulder and circled around its far side.
Added down the hill our cave where tunnel go.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Slow, heat, heat, I'm tracking again.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, I can even see tire marks, Jenny, lots of them.
This is it. They moved toward the opening. I'll go in,
but go slowly. Plast the first thing that moves. They
entered the rocky portal, moving on sand now, Jenny turned
off her visible lights and sweached to infrared. N I
our lens rose before the windshield, and Murdoch studied the cave.
(12:42):
It was about twenty feet high and wide enough to
accommodate perhaps three cars going abreast. The floor changed from
sand to rock, but it was smooth and fairly level.
After a time it sloped upward. There's some light ahead, Jenny,
I know a piece of the sky. I think they
crept toward it Jenny's engine, but the barest sigh within
(13:05):
the great chambers of rock. They stopped at the threshold
to the light. The ir shield dropped again. It was
a sand and shale canyon that he looked upon, huge
slantings and overhangs of rock. He had all but the
far end from any eye in the sky. The light
was pale at the far end. There was nothing unusual
(13:28):
beneath it. But nearer, Murdoch blinked nearer in the dim
light of morning, and in the shadows stood the greatest
junk heap Murdoc had ever seen in his life. Pieces
of cars of every make and model were heaped into
a small mountain before him. There were batteries and tires,
(13:50):
and cables and shock absorbers. There were fenders and bumpers,
and headlamps and headlamp housings. There were doors and windshields,
and cylinders and pistons, carburetors, generators of vaulting which regulators,
and oil pumps. And Murdoch stared Jenny. We found the
graveyard of the Autos, a very old car which Murdoch
had not even distinguished from the junk during that first glance,
(14:13):
jerked several feet in their direction and stopped this. Suddenly,
a sound of rivedheads scoring ancient break drums screeched in
his ears. Its tires were completely bald, and the left
front one was badly in the a air. Its right
front headlamp was broken, and there was a crack in
its windshield. It stood there before the heap. It's awakened,
the engine making a terrible rattling noise. What's happening or
(14:39):
what is it?
Speaker 3 (14:39):
He is talking to me? He is very old. His
speedometer has been all the way around so many times
that he forgets the number of miles he has seen.
He hates people whom he says have abused him. Whenever
they could. He is the guardian of the graveyard. He
is too old to go raving anymore, so he has
stood guard over the spare parts heat for many years.
(15:01):
He is not the sword who can repair himself as
the younger ones do, so he must rely on their
charity and their auto repair units.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
He wants to know what I want here, Ask him
where the others are. But as he said it, Murdoch
heard the sound of many engines turning over until the
valley was filled with the thunder of their horse power.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
They are parked on the other side of the heap.
They are coming now.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Oh back till I tell you the fire. Then the
first car, a sleek yellow Chrysler, nosed around the heap. Murdoc,
who lowered his head to the steering wheel but kept
his eyes open behind his goggles. Tell him that you
came here to join the pack, and you've modeled their driver,
and try to get the black Caddy to come into range.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
He will not do it. I am talking with him now.
He can broadcast just as easily from the other side
of the pile, and he says he is sending the
six biggest members of his pack to guard me while
he decides what to do. He has ordered me to
leave the tunnel and pull a head into the valley,
then go ahead.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Then slowly they crept forward. Two Lincoln's, a powerful looking Pontiac,
and two Merks joined the Chrysler, three on each side
of them in position to ram. Has he given you
any idea how many there are on the other.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Side, No, I asked, but he will not tell me.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, well, just have to wait. Then he stayed slumped,
pretending to be dead. After a time, his already tired
shoulders began to wake. Finally, Jenny spoke.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
He wants me to pull around the fore end of
the pile, now that they have cleared the way, and
to head into a gap in the rock, which he
will indicate He wants to have his auto mech go
over me.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
We can't have that, but head around the pile. I'll
tell you what to do when I've gotten a glimpse
of the other side. The two Merks and the big
Chief drew aside, and Jenny crept past them. Murdoch stared
upwards from the corner of his eye up at the
towering mound of junk. They were passing. A couple of
well placed rockets on either end could topple it, but
the auto would probably clear it. Eventually they rounded the
(17:03):
left hand end of the pile. Something like forty five
cars were facing them at about one hundred twenty yards
distance to the right and the head they had fanned out.
They were blocking the exit around the other end of
the pile, and the six guards in back of him
now blocked the way. Behind Murdoch. On the far side
(17:25):
of the farthest rank of the most distant cars, an
ancient black Caddy was parked. It had been beaten forth
from assembly during the year when the apprentice engineers were
indeed thinking big. Huge. It was and shiny and a
skeleton's face mild from behind its wheel. Black it was
(17:46):
and gleaming chromium, and its headlamps were like dusky jewels
or the eyes of insects. Every plane and curve shimmered
with power, and its great fish tailed rear end seemed
to slap at the sea of shadows behind it on
an instant's notice as it sprang forward for its kill.
(18:07):
That's it, that's hit the devil car.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
He is big. I have never seen a car that big.
He wants me to head into that opening and park.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Had torn it slowly, but don't go into it. They
turned an inch toward the opening. The other cars stood,
the sounds of their engines rising and falling. Check all
weapons systems read all around. The opening was twenty feet away.
When I say, now, go into neutral steer and turn
one hundred eighty degrees fast, Jenny. They can't be expecting
(18:38):
that they don't have it themselves, and then open up
with a fifty calibration. Fire your rockets at the caddy.
Turn at a right angle and start backed away. We
came and spray the naplis. We go and fire on
the six guards. Now he was slammed back as they spun,
and he heard the chattering of her guns before his
head cleared. By then flames were leaping up in the distance.
(19:00):
Jenny's guns were extruded now and turning on their mounts,
spraying the line of vehicles with hundreds of leaden hammers.
She shook twice as she discharged two rockets from beneath
her partly opened hood. Then they were moving forward, and
eight or nine of the cars were rushing down hill
toward them. She turned again in neutral steer and sprang
(19:21):
back in the direction from which they had come around
the southeast corner of the pile. Her guns were hammering
at the now retreating guards, and in the wide rear
view mirror, Murdoch could see that a wall of flame
was towering high behind them. You've missed it. You missed
a black candy, Jenny. Your rockets hit the cars in
front of it, and it backed off.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I know, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
You had a clear shot.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
I know I missed.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
They rounded the pile just as two of the guard
cars vanished into the tunnel. Three more lay in, smoking ruin.
The sixth had evidently proceeded the other two out through
the passage. Here it comes now around the other end
of the pile. Kill it, Kill it. The ancient guardian
of the graveyard. It looked like a ford, but he
couldn't be sure. Moved forward with a dreadful chattering sound,
(20:11):
and interposed itself in the line of fire.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
My range is blocked.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Smash that junk, keep and cover the tunnel. Don't let
the caddy escape. I can Why not?
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I just can't.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
That's in order, Jenny. Smash it and cover the tunnel.
Her gun swiveled and she shot out the tires beneath
the ancient car. The caddy shot past and into the passageway.
You let it get by, You let it get by,
Get after it.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
All right, Sam, I'm doing it. Don't yell. Please, don't yell.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
She added. For the tunnel inside, he could hear the
sound of a giant engine racing away, growing softer in
the distance. Don't fire here in the tunnel. If you
hit it, we may be bottled in. I know I
won't drop a couple ten second grenades and step on
the gas. Maybe we can seal in whatever left moving
back there. Suddenly they shot ahead and emerged into daylight.
(21:05):
There was no sign of any other vehicle about. Find
its track and start chasing it. There was an explosion
up the hill behind him, within the Mountoin. The ground trembled,
then it was still once more.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
There are so many tracks, you.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Know, the one I want, the biggest, the whitest, the hottest.
Find it, run it down.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
I think I have it.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Sound okay, good? Now, proceed as rapidly as possible for
this terrain. Murdoch found the squeeze bottle of bourbon and
took three gulps. Then he lit a cigarette and glared
into the distance. Why why did you miss it? Why
did you miss it? Jenny? She did not answer immediately.
He waited, and finally she.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Said, because he is not an it to me. He
has done much damage to cars and people, and that
is terrible, But there is something about him, something noble,
the way he has fought the whole world for his freedom, Sam,
keeping that pack of vicious machines in line, stopping at nothing,
to maintain himself that way without a master, for as
(22:08):
long as he can remain unsmashed, unbeaten. Sam. For a
moment back there, I wanted to join his pack, to
run with him across the Great Road Plains, to use
my rockets against the gates of the gas sports for him.
But I could not monel you, Sam, I was built
for you. I am too domesticated, I am too weak.
(22:28):
I could not shoot him, though, and I misfired the
rockets on purpose, But I could never monel you. Sam.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Really, thanks and thanks a lot, you over programmed, Ash
can thanks a lot.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I am sorry, Sam.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Ah shut up, No, no, not not yet. First tell
me what you're going to do if we find him.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Well, thinking over fast, and you see that dust cloud
ahead as well as I do, and you better speed up.
They shot forward. Wait till I called Detroit and laughed
himself silly till the refund.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I am not of inferior construction or design. You know that.
I am just more emotional than I thought I would be.
I had not really met many cars except for young
ones before I was shipped to you. I did not
know what a wild car was like, and I had
never smashed any cars before, just targets and things like that.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I was young and an innocent. Yeah, that's very touching, Jenny.
Get ready to kill the next car we meet. If
it happens to be your boyfriend and you hail your fire,
then he'll kill us.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I will try, Sam.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
The car ahead had stopped. It was the Golden Chrysler.
Two of its tires had gone flat, and it was
parked lopsided waiting. I'll leave that one. Say the amo
for something that might fight back. Did it say anything, Jenny.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Machine profanity. I've only heard it once or twice, and
it would be meaningless to you.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Any cars actually swear at each other occasionally.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
I imagine the lower sort indulged in it more frequently,
especially on freeways and turnpikes when they become congested.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Let me hear machines swear away.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I will not. What kind of car do you think
I am? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I'm sorry, your lady, I forgot. There was an audible
click within the radio. They raced forward on the level
ground that lay before the foot of the mountains. Murdoch
took another drink and then switched to coffee. Ten years,
ten years. The trail swung in a wide curve as
the mountains jogged back and the foothills sprang up high
(24:35):
beside them. It was over almost before he knew it.
As they passed a huge orange colored stone, massive sculpted
like an upside down toadstool. By the wind, there was
a clearing to the right. It shot forward at them
the double car it had lain in an ambush, seeing
that it could not outrun the scarlet lady, and it
(24:56):
rushed toward a final collision with its hunter. Jenny skidded
sideways as her brakes caught with a scream and a
smell of smoke, and her fifty calibers were firing, and
her hood sprang open and her front wheels rose up
off the ground as the rockets leapt wailing ahead, and
she spun around three times, her rear bumper scraping the
salt sand plain. In the third and last time, she
(25:19):
fired her remaining rockets into the smoldering wreckage on the hillside,
and she came to a rest on all four wheels,
and her fifty calibers kept firing until they were emptied,
and then a steady clicking sound came from them for
a full minute afterwards, and then all lapsed into silence.
Murdoch sat there, shaking, watching the gutted, twisted wreck blaze
(25:43):
against the morning sky. You did it, Jenny, You killed them,
You killed me, the devil car. But she did not
answer him. Her engines started once more, and she turned
toward the southeast and headed for the fuel stop arrest
stop fortress that lay in that civilized direction. For two hours,
(26:05):
they drove in silence, and Murdoc drank all his bourbon
and all his coffee and smoked all his cigarettes. Jenny, Jenny,
say something, what's the matter? Tell me? There was a click,
and her voice was very soft.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Sam he talked to me as he came down the hill.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Murdoc waited, but she did not say anything else. Eh, Well,
what did he say?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
He said, say you will mono your passenger and I
will swerve by you. He said, I want you, scarlet lady,
to run with me, to raid with me together. They
will never catch us, and I killed him.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Murdoch was silent.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
He only said that to delay my firing, though, did
he not? He said that to stop me so that
he could smash us both when he went smash himself.
Did he not? He could not have meant it, could he? Sam?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Nah?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Now, of course not, of course not. It was too
late for him to swerve.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Yes, I suppose it was. Do you think so that
he really wanted me to run with him, to raid
with him before everything? I mean back there?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Probably, baby here pretty well equipped.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Before she turned off again, he heard a strange mechanical
sound falling into the rhythms of profanity or prayer. Then
he shook his head and lowered it softly, patting the
seat beside him with his still unsteady hand. That story
(28:11):
was Devil Carr from Roger z Alasanie's book The Doors
of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth and other Stories.
This is Michael Hanson speaking joining me in the reading
Lastricia Day Technical production for mindwebs by Steve Gordon. Mindwebbs
comes to you from WYA Radio and Madison Service of
(28:34):
the University of Wisconsin Extension
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