Chapter 3

There was no doubt of it. She was the girl in the night club, the dancing girl with the flowing black hair and the mask-like smile, who had led him to Conroe and then brought the spotlight to his face to spring the trap too soon. Frantically Jeff fought to control his excitement. He knew his face was white and he avoided the doctor’s puzzled glance. But he couldn’t control the angry fire burning in his mind, the little voice screaming out: “He’s here; he’s here, somewhere!“

But why was she here? The doctor had called her “Blackie.” He had spoken to her with familiarity. Jeff’s mind whirled. He had the strangest feeling that he had missed something somewhere along the line, that he knew the answer but couldn’t quite grasp it. What could the girl’s sudden appearance in the Center involve?

Or had her appearance at the night club been the unusual one?

A buzzer rang and the office door opened to admit a small, weasel-faced man. The doctor looked up and smiled. “Hello, Jacques. This is Jeff Meyer, the new recruit. Take him down and get him quartered in, all right? And you might brief him a little. He’s awfully green.”

The little man scratched his long nose and regarded Jeff with a nasty smile. “A new one, huh? Where are you going to line him up?”

“No telling. We’ll see where the tests put him, first. Then we’ll talk about jobs.”

The smile widened on the little man’s face, turning down the end of his long pointed nose and revealing a dirty yellow row of teeth. His eyes ran over Jeff from head to toe. “Big one too. But then, they fall just as hard as the rest. Want me to take him right down?”

Schiml nodded. “Maybe he can still get lunch.” His eyes shifted to Jeff. “This is the Nasty Frenchman,” he said, motioning toward the little man with his thumb. “He’s been around for a long time; he can show you the ropes. And don’t let him bother you too much--his sense of humor, I mean. Like I say, he’s been around here a long time. You’ll get quarters and you’ll be expected to stay with your group for meals and everything else. That means no contacts outside the hospital as long as you’re here. You’ll get the daily news reports, and there are magazines and books in the library. If you’ve got other business outside, you haven’t any business in here. Any time you leave the Center it’s considered an automatic breach of contract.”

He paused for a long moment and gave Jeff a strange look, almost a half smile. “And you’ll find that questions aren’t appreciated around here, Jeff. Any kind of questions. The men don’t like people too much when they ask questions.”

The Nasty Frenchman shuffled his feet nervously, and Jeff started out the door. Then the little man turned back to Dr. Schiml. “They brought Tinker back from the table about ten minutes ago. He’s in pretty bad shape. Maybe you should look at him?”

“This was the big job today, wasn’t it?” Schiml’s eyes were sharp.

“What did Dr. Bartel say?”

“He said no dice. It was a bust.”

“I see. Well, it may be just the diodrax wearing off now, but I’ll be down to see.”

The Nasty Frenchman grunted and turned back to Jeff. His face still wore the nasty little grin. “Let’s go, big boy,” he said, and started down the hall.

Jeff watched the corridors as they passed, counting them one by one, trying desperately to keep himself oriented. He glanced at his watch and angrily sucked in his breath. Minutes were slipping by, precious minutes, minutes that could mean success or failure. A thousand questions crowded his mind, and behind them all was the girl. She was the key, he was sure of it. She would know where Conroe was, where he could be found...

They reached an elevator, stepped aboard and shot down at such dizzying speed that Jeff nearly choked. Then, suddenly, they came to a jolting stop and stepped into a dingy, gray corridor that was dimly lit by bare bulbs in the ceiling.

The Nasty Frenchman punched a button in the wall and turned to regard Jeff. The sneering little smile was still on his lips as the far-off rumble of a jitney grew to a sharp clatter. A little car dropped down from its ceiling track. The little man hopped in nimbly and motioned Jeff in beside him. Then the car took off for the ceiling again, swinging crazily and speeding down the maze of corridors and curves.

Jeff stirred uneasily, growing more and more confused with every turn.

“Look,” he broke out finally, “where’s this thing taking us?”

The Nasty Frenchman turned pale eyes toward him. “You worried or something?”

“Well, it looks like we’re headed for the center of the Earth. I’d like to be able to find my way out sometime--”

“Why?”

The question was so blunt that it left Jeff’s jaw sagging for a moment.

“Well, I’m not planning to spend the rest of my life in here.”

The Nasty Frenchman guffawed. It was not a pleasant laugh. “Here for a nice restful vacation, huh? You wise guys are all the same. Go ahead, dream--I won’t bother you.”

The little man turned his attention to the controls and the car swung sharply to the right and headed down another corridor. Jeff scowled as he watched the lighted corridors flash by. Were they speeding so far, so deep in the depths of the building? Or was this part of a definite plan to confuse, to lose recruits in the mammoth place so completely that they could never find their way out? Jeff shrugged, finally. It really didn’t matter too much. He had one job and only one. He could worry about escape when it had been accomplished.

“That girl,” he said finally. “The doctor called her ‘Blackie.’ Is she down here where we’re going?”

“How should I know? I don’t keep her on a leash.” The little man’s face darkened and his eyes turned suspiciously to Jeff.

“I mean, is she one of the group--one of the Mercy Men?”

The Nasty Frenchman threw a switch sharply, swerving the speeding car through a long, dim passage. He ignored the question, as if he hadn’t heard it. In the dim light his skin was pasty yellow and wrinkled like a mummy. The cruelty and avarice on his face was frightening.

Jeff watched him for a moment or two, then said, “What brought you here? To the Mercy Men, I mean?”

The Nasty Frenchman’s eyes flashed poisonously, his face a horrid mask.

“Did I ask you your racket before you came in?”

“No.”

“Then don’t ask me mine. And you won’t forget that, if you’re smart.” He turned his attention sharply to the controls, ignoring Jeff for several moments. Finally he said, “You’ll share a room and you’ll eat at eight, noon and six. Tests should start tomorrow morning at eight-thirty. You’ll be in your room when the doctors come for you. You won’t have any status here until you’re tested. Then you’ll sign a release and wait for a job assignment. You won’t have any choice of work; that’s just for the older ones. Some of the work is with central nervous system, some is with sympathetic; some work concentrates on spinal cord and peripherals, but most of the interest these days is in cortical lesions and repair. That pays the best, too--couple hundred thousand at a crack, with a fairly good risk.”

“And what’s a fairly good risk in here?”

The grin reappeared on the little man’s face again. It was almost savage in its cruelty. “Ten per cent full recovery is a good risk. That means complete recovery from the work, no secondary infection, complete recovery of faculties--in other words complete success in the work. Then a fairly good risk runs slightly lower--more casualty, maybe five per cent recovery. And a high-risk job averages two per cent--”

The grin broadened. “You’ve got a better chance of living sitting under an atom bomb, my friend. And once you sign a release, relieving the hospital and the doctors of all responsibility, you’re in, and held to your contract by law. This is no vacation, but if you’re lucky enough to come through--” The little man’s eyes were bright with eagerness.

“They pay off--oh, how they pay off. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a good starter, maybe a hundred thousand, with good risk.” He scratched his nose and regarded Jeff closely. “Of course, there are incomplete recoveries, too. They have trouble keeping them out of the news, if they ever leave. Pretty messy, sometimes, too.”

Jeff felt his face paling at the cruel eagerness in the little man’s voice. What could bring a man to a place like this--especially this kind of a man? Or had he been a different kind of a man before he came in? How long had he been here, waiting from experiment to experiment, waiting to live or to die, waiting for the payoff, the Big Cash that waited at the end of a job? What could such an existence do to a man? What could there be to drive him on? Jeff shuddered, then gasped as the car gave a sudden lurch around a corner and settled to the floor.

The Nasty Frenchman hopped out, motioned to Jeff to follow. They started walking toward the escalator at the end of the passageway. Jeff searched each doorway they passed, keeping alert for a sign of the black-haired woman. “Look,” he said finally. “This girl--Blackie, I mean--who is she?”

The Nasty Frenchman stopped in his tracks, glared at Jeff. “What is she, an old family friend or something? You keep asking about her.”

“I know her from somewhere.”

“So why bother me with your questions?”

Jeff’s face darkened angrily. “I want to see her, all right? Don’t get so jumpy--”

The little man whirled on him like a cat. Jeff’s arm was wrenched behind his back until he felt the tendons rip. With unbelievable strength the Nasty Frenchman twisted the huge man back against the wall and glared up at him with blazing eyes. “You’re a smart guy, coming around here, asking questions,” he snarled, giving Jeff’s arm a vicious wrench. “You think you can fool me? You ask about this, you ask about that--why so nosey? Blackie ... me ... everything. What are you doing here? Going after the Big Cash or asking questions?”

“The Cash!” Jeff gasped. He twisted to wriggle free of the iron-like grip.

“Then don’t ask questions! We don’t like nosey people here; we like people that roll dice square and mind their own business.” The little man gave the arm a final agonizing wrench and released it. He jumped back, poised, eyes savagely eager.