Chapter 7: Electioneering

As Bruce Gordon came out from the precinct house, he noticed the sounds first. Under the huge dome that enclosed the main part of the city, the heavier air pressure permitted normal travel of sound; and he’d become sensitive to the voice of the city after the relative quiet of the Nineteenth Precinct. But now the normal noise was different. There was an undertone of hushed waiting, with the sharp bursts of hammering and last-minute work standing out sharply through it. Voting booths were being finished here and there, and at one a small truck was delivering ballots. Voting by machine had never been established here. Wherever the booths were being thrown up, the nearby establishments were rushing gates and barricades in front of the buildings.

Most of the shops were already closed--even some of the saloons. To make up for it, stands were being placed along the streets, carrying banners that proclaimed free beer for all loyal administration friends. The few bars that were still open had been blessed with the sign of some mob, and obviously were well staffed with hoodlums ready to protect the proprietor. Private houses were boarded up. The scattering of last-minute shoppers along the streets showed that most of the citizens were laying in supplies to last until after election.

Gordon passed the First Marsport Bank and saw that it was surrounded by barbed wires, with other strands still being strung, and with a sign proclaiming that there was high voltage in the wires. Watching the operation was Jurgens; it was obvious that his hoodlums had been hired for the job.

Toward the edge of the dome, where Mother Corey’s place was, the narrower streets were filling with the gangs, already half-drunk and marching about with their banners and printed signs. Curiously enough, all the gangs weren’t working for Wayne’s re-election. The big Star Point gang had apparently grown tired of the increasing cost of protection from the government, and was actively campaigning for Nolan. Their home territory reached nearly to Mother Corey’s, before it ran into the no man’s land separating it from the gang of Nick the Croop. The Croopsters were loyal to Wayne.

Gordon turned into his usual short-cut, past a rambling plastics plant and through the yard where their trucks were parked. He had half expected to find it barricaded, but apparently the rumors that Nick the Croop owned it were true; it would be protected in other ways, with the trucks used for street fighting, if needed. He threaded his way between two of the trucks.

Then a yell reached his ears, and something swished at him. An egg-sized rock hit the truck behind him and bounced back, just as he spotted a hoodlum drawing back a sling for a second shot.

Gordon was on his knees between heartbeats, darting under one of the trucks. He rolled to his feet, letting out a yell of his own, and plunged forward. His fist hit the thug in the elbow, just as the man’s hand reached for his knife. His other hand chopped around, and the edge of his palm connected with the other’s nose. Cartilage crunched, and a shrill cry of agony lanced out.

But the hoodlum wasn’t alone. Another came out from the rear of one of the trucks. Gordon ducked as a knife sailed for his head; they were stupid enough not to aim for his stomach, at least. He bent down to locate some of the rubble on the ground, cursing his folly in carrying his knife under his uniform. The new beat had given him a false sense of security.

He found a couple of rocks and a bottle and let them fly, then bent for more.

Something landed on his back, and fingernails were gouging into his face, searching for his eyes!

Instinct carried him forward, jerking down sharply and twisting. The figure on his back sailed over his head, to land with a harsh thump on the ground. Brassy yellow hair spilled over a girl’s face, and her breath slammed out of her throat as she hit. But the fall hadn’t been enough to do serious damage.

Bruce Gordon jumped forward, bringing his foot up in a savage swing, but she’d rolled, and the blow only glanced against her ribs. She jerked her hand down for a knife, and came to her knees, her lips drawn back against her teeth. “Get him!” she yelled. Then he recognized her--Sheila Corey.

The two thugs had held back, but now they began edging in. Gordon slipped back behind another truck, listening for the sound of their feet. He’d half-expected another encounter with the Mother’s granddaughter.

They tried to outmaneuver him; he stepped back to his former spot, catching his breath and digging frantically for his knife. It came out, just as they realized he’d tricked them.

Sheila was still on her knees, fumbling with something, and apparently paying no attention to him. But now she jerked to her feet, her hand going back and forward.

It was a six-inch section of pipe, with a thin wisp of smoke, and the throw was toward Gordon’s feet. The hoodlums yelled, and ducked, while Sheila broke into a run away from him. The little homemade bomb landed, bounced, and lay still, with its fuse almost burned down.

Gordon’s heart froze in his throat, but he was already in action. He spat savagely into his hand, and jumped for the bomb. If the fuse was powder-soaked, he had no chance. He brought his palm down against it, and heard a faint hissing. Then he held his breath, waiting.

No explosion came. It had been a crude job, with only a wick for a fuse.

Sheila Corey had stopped at a safe distance; now she grabbed at her helpers, and swung them with her. The three came back, Sheila in the lead with her knife flashing.

Gordon side-stepped her rush, and met the other two head-on, his knife swinging back. His foot hit some of the rubble on the ground at the last second, and he skidded. The leading mobster saw the chance and jumped for him. Gordon bent his head sharply, and dropped, falling onto his shoulders and somersaulting over. He twisted at the last second, jerking his arms down to come up facing the other.

Then a new voice cut into the fracas, and there was the sound of something landing against a skull with a hollow thud. Gordon got his head up just in time to see a man in police uniform kick aside the first hoodlum and lunge for the other. There was a confused flurry; then the second went up into the air and came down in the newcomer’s hands, to land with a sickening jar and lie still. Behind, Sheila Corey lay crumpled in a heap, clutching one wrist in the other hand and crying silently.

Bruce Gordon came to his feet and started for her. She saw him coming, cast a single glance at the knife that had been knocked from her hands, then sprang aside and darted back through the parked trucks. In the street, she could lose herself in the swarm of Nick’s Croopsters; Gordon turned back.

The iron-gray hair caught his eyes first. Then, as the solidly built figure turned, he grunted. It was Captain Murdoch--now dressed in the uniform of a regular beat cop, without even a corporal’s stripes. And the face was filled with lines of strain that hadn’t been there before.

Murdoch threw the second gangster up into a truck after the first one and slammed the door shut, locking it with the metal bar which had apparently been his weapon. Then he grinned wryly, and came back toward Gordon.

“You seem to have friends here,” he commented. “A good thing I was trying to catch up with you. Just missed you at the Precinct House, came after you, and saw you turn in here. Then I heard the rumpus. A good thing for me, too, maybe.”

Gordon blinked, accepting the other’s hand. “How so? And what happened?” He indicated the bare sleeve.

“One’s the result of the other,” Murdoch told him. “They’ve got me sewed up, and they’re throwing the book at me. The old laws make me a citizen while I wear the uniform--and a citizen can’t quit the Force. That puts me out of Earth’s jurisdiction. I can’t even cable for funds, and I guess I’m too old to start squeezing money out of citizens. I was coming to ask whether you had room in your diggings for a guest--and I’m hoping now that my part here cinches it.”

Murdoch had tried to treat it lightly, but Gordon saw the red creeping up into the man’s face. “Forget that part. There’s room enough for two in my place--and I guess Mother Corey won’t mind. I’m damned glad you were following me.”

“So’m I, Gordon. What’ll we do with the prisoners?”

“Leave ‘em; we couldn’t get a Croopster locked up tonight for anything.”

He started ahead, leading the way through the remaining trucks and back to the street that led to Mother Corey’s. Murdoch fell in step with him. “This is the first time I’ve had to look you up,” he said. “I’ve been going out nights to help the citizens organize against the Stonewall gang. But that’s over now--they gave me hell for inciting vigilante action, and confined me inside the dome. The way they hate a decent cop here, you’d think honesty was contagious.”

“Yeah.” Gordon preferred to let it drop. Murdoch was being given the business for going too far on the Stonewall gang, not for refusing to take normal graft.

They came to the gray three-story building that Mother Corey now owned. Gordon stopped, realizing for the first time that there was no trace of efforts to protect it against the coming night and day. The entrance was unprotected. Then his eyes caught the bright chalk marks around it--notices to the gangs to keep hands off. Mother Corey evidently had pull enough to get every mob in the neighborhood to affix its seal.

As he drew near, though, two men edged across the street from a clump watching the beginning excitement. Then, as they identified Gordon, they moved back again. Some of the Mother’s old lodgers from the ruin outside the dome were inside now--obviously posted where it would do the most good.

Corey stuck his head out of the door at the back of the hall as Gordon entered, and started to retire again--until he spotted Murdoch. Gordon explained the situation hastily.

“It’s your room, cobber,” the old man wheezed. He waddled back, to come out with a towel and key, which he handed to Murdoch. “Number forty-two.”

His heavy hand rested on Gordon’s arm, holding the younger man back. Murdoch gave Gordon a brief, tired smile, and started for the stairs. “Thanks, Gordon. I’m turning in right now.”

Mother Corey shook his head, shaking the few hairs on his head and face, and the wrinkles in his doughy skin deepened. “Hasn’t changed, that one. Must be thirty years, but I’d know Asa Murdoch anywhere. Took me to the spaceport, handed me my yellow ticket, and sent me off for Mars. A nice, clean kid--just like my own boy was. But Murdoch wasn’t like the rest of the neighborhood. He still called me ‘sir, ‘ when my boy was walking across the street, so the lad wouldn’t know they were sending me away. Oh well, that was a long time ago, cobber. A long time.”