Ch 04

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter four of Advance Agent by Christopher Anvil. This LibriVox
recording is in the public domain. Advance Agent by Christopher Anvil,
Chapter four. Carefully avoiding brass plates, Dan made his way

(00:20):
along an avenue of shops devoted to exercise and physical fitness.
He came to run Fast Boulevard and located sixty one forty,
which looked like the apartment houses he had seen earlier.
He tried the outer door. It was locked. When someone
came out, Dan caught the door and stepped in as

(00:42):
the door shut. He tried it and found it was
locked again. He stood for a moment trying to understand it,
but his sleeplessness of the night before was catching up
with him. He gave up and went inside. There were
no elevators on the ground floor. Dan had his choice
of six ropes, two ladders, and a circular staircase. He

(01:04):
went up the staircase to the third floor, where he
saw a single elevator. He rode it up to the
sixth got off and found that there was a bank
of four elevators on this floor. He looked at the
elevators a minute, felt himself getting dizzy, and walked off
to locate apartment six B. A powerfully built, gray haired

(01:27):
man of middle height answered his knock. Dan introduced himself
and explained why he had come. Mister Milburn beamed and
his right hand shot forward. Dan felt like a man
with his hand caught in an airlock. Lerna called Milburn. Lerna, Mavis,
we have a guest for vacation. Dan became aware of

(01:51):
a rhythmical clinking somewhere in the back of the apartment.
Then a big, strong looking woman, obviously fresh from the kitchen,
hurried in, smiling. If she had been ill, she was
clearly recovered. Now, ah, how are you, she cried. We're
so happy to have you. She gripped his hands and
called Mayvs. The clinking stopped. A beautifully proportioned girl came in,

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wearing a sweatshirt and shorts. Mother, I simply have to
get off another pound or so. Oh, she stared at Dan.
Mavis said, mister Milburn, this is mister Dan, redman deviseman.
My daughter, Mayvs. You're going with us, she said, happily.
How wonderful, Now, said mister Milburn. I imagine his devisement

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wants to get a little rust before he goes down
to the gym. He glanced at Dan. We have a
splendid gym here, oh, said Mavis eagerly, and you can
use my weights. Thanks, said Dad. We're leaving tomorrow, Milburn
told him. The birth rate still rising here, and last

(03:01):
night the charge correction went up again a little more.
And it'll take two of us to get a door open.
It won't inconvenience you to leave tomorrow, not at all,
said Dan, splendid. Milburn turned to his wife Lerna, Perhaps
our guests would like a little something to eat. The

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food was plain, good and plentiful. Afterward, Mabe has showed
Dan to his room. He sank down gratefully on a firm,
comfortable bed. He closed his eyes. Someone was shaking him gently.
Don't you want to go down to the gym, asked
mister Milburn. Remember we're leaving tomorrow. Of course, said Dan,

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feeling that his brain was functioning in a vacuum. Dan
followed the Milbuns into the hall, climbed down six stories
on the ladder, then into the basement on a rope.
He found himself in a room with a stony dirt
track around the wall. Ropes festooning the ceiling an a
regularly shaped pool, and artificial shrubs and foliage, from behind,

(04:11):
which sprang mechanical monsters. The millbuns promptly vanished behind imitation
vine covered doors and came out again in jim clothes.
Dan went through the doorway mister Milburn had come out
of and discovered that the Savior Life Company had a
machine inside which dispensed, washed, pressed, and sterilized jim clothes

(04:32):
for a small fee. The machine worked by turning a
select or dial to the proper size, pressing a lever,
then depositing the correct fee in an open box on
the wall nearby. Dan studied this a moment in puzzlement,
guessed his proper size and put the correct payment in
the box. He put on the gym clothes and went outside.

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For forty five minutes, mechanical creatures of eye, odd and
various shapes sprang at him from behind. Shrubbery gripped him
when he passed holes in the floor, and wound themselves
around his legs. As he tried to swim in the pool,
his temper worsened. He stopped to look at Mavis as
she swayed laughing on a rope above two things like

(05:19):
mobile giant clamshells. Mister Milburn shook his head, Mavis, remember
we're leaving tomorrow. Just then, something snarled and lunged at
Dan from the side. There was a flash of teeth.
Dan whirled his fist shot out. There was a scream

(05:40):
of machinery, then a crash and a clatter. An imitation
monster with a huge jaw and giant teeth lay on
its back on the floor. Milburn let out a slow
whistle dismounted it. Boy a one bite, two breathed MAVs.

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Missus Milburn came over and looked at Dan approvingly. Dan
had been about to apologize, but checked himself when the
others smiled cheerfully and went back to what they were doing.
This consisted of dodging, tricking, or out running the various
contraptions that lunched at them, chased them, tripped them, trailed, stocked,

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and sprang out at them from very nearly every place
in the room. Finally, the gym began to fill up
with other people. The Millbuns got ready to leave and
Dan followed. Dan lay in his bed that night and
tried to summarize the points he didn't understand. First was

(06:43):
the question of vacation, but he supposed he would learn
about that tomorrow. Next was charge. Apparently one went on
vacation when his charge was low because the vacation adviser
had said the family put their vacation off from her,
and as a result, their charge has run very low.

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But just what was charge? Dan remembered the flickering bulb
in the store window, ringed by the words your corrected
charge courtesy of Savior Life Company. Apparently he had some
charge because the bulb had flickered. But where did he
get it? Then he thought of the waterfront and of

(07:25):
the little boy caught at the hole. What was the
point of that and why did that produce such an
uproar when a little later a grown man could get
dragged out of sight on a well traveled street and
never cause a single notice. Dan felt himself sinking into
a maze of confusion. He dismissed the problems and went

(07:49):
to sleep, clinging to one fact. The portions must be
honest people who would keep an agreement once made. On
what other planet could anyone find a slot machine with
no slot but just an open box for the money?
Dan fell asleep content that he had the answer to
that part of the problem, at least before it was light.

(08:13):
He awoke to an odd, familiar buzz inside his head.
Dan said, kill Guard's voice small and remote. Dan rolled
over at Leno's back and spoke subvocally. Right here, Can
you talk, yes, he said Dan, if I can stay awake,
can you give us a summary? Sure? Dan told him

(08:35):
briefly what had happened. Keeill Guard was silent a moment,
then he said, what do you think charges? I haven't
been in any condition to think. Maybe it's a surgically
implanted battery set to run down after so long, too clumsy.
What about radioactivity? Hmmm, yes, you mentioned a mine on

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the inner planet. Maybe they mine radioactive or that would
explain why I have some charge. There's residual radioactivity even
in the atmosphere of Earth. That's so, said keel Guard,
but not every planet has it. I'm wondering about this
other agent you mentioned, seeing he sounds to me like

(09:20):
someone from trans space, and that's bad. They play dirty,
Dan conceited. Worse than that, said Keelguard's tiny voice. They
recruit their agents from last and two. Maybe that's a break.
Unlike Earth last and two is nearly radiation free and

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trans space doesn't use finess. They'll pump horses full of agents,
loaded down with organo transmitters, visual, auditory, and all factory.
They'll broadcast on every wavelength, suck out as much information
in as short a time as they can, then either
pull some dirty trick or slam the portions and offer.

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That is, if everything goes according to plan. But meanwhile,
he added, one or more other agents is bound to
stand in front of a free you're charged to buy
somewhere in the city. Very likely that agent will be
radiation free, and some portion, for the first time in
his life, is going to see a bulb that doesn't

(10:24):
even flicker. If the portions are as scientifically advanced as
we think, and if transpace is as dirty as usual,
there may be a rat race on before we know it.
Dan lay gloomily still. Dan said, keelguard. Where were you
standing in relation to the other agent? Did he come

(10:46):
up from behind or was he in front of you
when you reach the statue. I was in front of him.
Why because then you were in his range of vision.
He may not have noticed you, but his organo transmitter
would The chances are you appeared on the screen Back
at trans Space headquarters. They record those scenes as they

(11:07):
come in, and their experts go over them frame by frame.
Unless you happen to be behind someone, they'll see your
image on the screen, spot you here and there in
other scenes from other agents, study your actions and recognize
you as an agent, just as surely as you recognize
their agent. Yes, said Dan wearily, of course they will.

(11:32):
He was thinking that if he had been more awake yesterday,
he would have thought of this himself and perhaps avoided it.
But he couldn't be alert without sleep, and who could
sleep in a heaving boat in a thunderstorm. This changes things.
Keel Guard was saying, I'm going to see if we
can get a little faster action. I think i'd better

(11:53):
get some more sleep. Dan answered, I may need it tomorrow,
I agree, said Keelguard. You'll have to keep your eyes open.
Good night, Dan, and good luck. Thanks. Dan rolled over
on his side. He tried for a moment to remember
how the other agent had been standing, and whether anyone

(12:15):
had been between them to block his view, but he
couldn't be sure. Dan decided that there was nothing to
do but assume the worst. He blanked his mind. Soon
a feeling of deep weariness came over him, and he
fell asleep. In the morning, Dan and the Millbuns ate
a hurried breakfast. Dan helped mister Milburn Grease's rowing machine,

(12:37):
waits springs and chinning bars so they wouldn't rust. In
his absence, Milburn worked in a somber mood. All the millbuns,
in fact, were unusually quiet for a family going on vacation.
When they went out into the hall, carrying no baggage.
They even took the elevator to the third floor. Better
save our strength, said mister Milburn. The street seemed to

(13:02):
Dan to have a different atmosphere. People were walking quietly
in groups, their eyes cool and alert. The millbuns walked
in front of the apartment houses Dan had passed the
day before, and across the street he saw the place
where the chiseled motto had read freedom, Devisement, Fraternity. It

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was gone. Some workmen nearby were lifting a stone slab
into a cart. Dan blinked. The motto now read Alertness, devisement, Vigilance.
The millbuns plainly noticed it too. They drew closer together
and looked around thoughtfully. Carefully keeping away from brass plates

(13:45):
labeled sweeper, they followed a devious route that led to
the statue. The statue had changed two. The hand that
gripped the circle was now hidden by a massive shield.
The other hands still held what looked like a magnifying glass,
and the motto was still I devise, but the shield

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gave the whole statue a look of strange menace. Across
the street, near the place where Dan had seen the
trans space agent, stood several men wearing orange capes barred
black across the shoulders. Nearby, the brass plate opened, and
a man in work clothes handed out a box and
went back in. At a store entrance up the street,

(14:29):
watching them, stood an average looking man in a purple cape.
His look intent and calculating. MAVs glanced at the statue
and took Dan's arm devisement. She said they won't take
you now, will they? Before vacation. Dan kept an uneasy silence,
and mister Milburn said, of course not, Mavis, where's the belt.

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MAVs glanced at the statue. Oh. Dan looked at the statue,
then at Mavis. Mister Milburgh said nothing and went on.
They came to a large building with a long flight
of broad, wide steps. Across the face of the building
was boldly and sternly lettered high up Hall of Truth.

(15:16):
Lower down was the motto speak the Truth, live yet
awhile with us. End of Chapter four read by Paul Hampton.