“How
do you mean?”
“I
mean—killing them, with knives or guns or poison?”
“You are an odd joker!” The man giggled
awkwardly.
“I’m
going to kill you,” said Lantry.
“Nobody
kills anybody,” said the man.
“Not
any more they don’t. But they used to, in the old days.”
“I
know they did.”
“This
will be the first murder in three hundred years. I just killed your friend. I
just shoved him into the fire lock.”
That
remark had the desired effect. It numbed the man so completely, it shocked him
so thoroughly with its illogical aspects that Lantry had time to walk forward.
He put the knife against the man’s chest. “I’m going to kill you.”
“That’s
silly,” said the man, numbly. “People don’t do that.”
“Like
this,” said Lantry. “You see?”
The
knife slid into the chest. The man stared at it for a moment. Lantry caught the
falling body.
III
The Salem flue exploded at six that morning. The
great fire chimney shattered into ten thousand parts and flung itself into the
earth and into the sky and into the houses of the sleeping people. There was
fire and sound, more fire than autumn made burning in the hills.
William
Lantry was five miles away at the time of the explosion. He saw the town
ignited by the great spreading cremation of it. And he shook his head and
laughed a little bit and clapped his hands smartly together.
Relatively
simple. You walked around killing people who didn’t believe in murder, had only
heard of it indirectly as some dim gone custom of the old barbarian races. You
walked into the control room of the Incinerator and said, “How do you work this
Incinerator?” and the control man told you, because everybody told the truth in
this world of the future, nobody lied, there was no reason to lie, there was no
danger to lie against . There was only
one criminal in the world, and nobody knew HE existed yet.
Oh,
it was an incredibly beautiful setup. The Control Man had told him just how the
Incinerator worked, what pressure gauges controlled the flood of fire gases
going up the flue, what levers were adjusted or readjusted. He and Lantry had
had quite a talk. It was an easy, free world. People trusted people. A moment
later Lantry had shoved a knife in the Control Man also and set the pressure
gauges for an overload to occur half an hour later, and walked out of the
Incinerator halls, whistling.
Now
even the sky was palled with the vast black cloud of the explosion.
“This
is only the first,” said Lantry, looking at the sky. “I’ll tear all the others
down before they even suspect there’s an unethical man loose in their society.
They can’t account for a variable like me. I’m beyond their understanding. I’m
incomprehensible, impossible, therefore I do not exist. My God, I can kill
hundreds of thousands of them before they even realize murder is out in the
world again. I can make it look like an accident each time. Why, the idea is so
huge, it’s unbelievable!”
The
fire burned the town. He sat under a tree for a long time, until morning. Then,
he found a cave in the hills, and went in, to sleep.
He
awoke at sunset with a sudden dream of fire. He saw himself pushed into the
flue, cut into sections by flame, burned away to nothing. He sat up on the cave
floor, laughing at himself. He had an idea.
He
walked down into the town and stepped into an audio booth. He dialed
do you mean?”
“I
mean—killing them, with knives or guns or poison?”
“You are an odd joker!” The man giggled
awkwardly.
“I’m
going to kill you,” said Lantry.
“Nobody
kills anybody,” said the man.
“Not
any more they don’t. But they used to, in the old days.”
“I
know they did.”
“This
will be the first murder in three hundred years. I just killed your friend. I
just shoved him into the fire lock.”
That
remark had the desired effect. It numbed the man so completely, it shocked him
so thoroughly with its illogical aspects that Lantry had time to walk forward.
He put the knife against the man’s chest. “I’m going to kill you.”
“That’s
silly,” said the man, numbly. “People don’t do that.”
“Like
this,” said Lantry. “You see?”
The
knife slid into the chest. The man stared at it for a moment. Lantry caught the
falling body.
III
The Salem flue exploded at six that morning. The
great fire chimney shattered into ten thousand parts and flung itself into the
earth and into the sky and into the houses of the sleeping people. There was
fire and sound, more fire than autumn made burning in the hills.
William
Lantry was five miles away at the time of the explosion. He saw the town
ignited by the great spreading cremation of it. And he shook his head and
laughed a little bit and clapped his hands smartly together.
Relatively
simple. You walked around killing people who didn’t believe in murder, had only
heard of it indirectly as some dim gone custom of the old barbarian races. You
walked into the control room of the Incinerator and said, “How do you work this
Incinerator?” and the control man told you, because everybody told the truth in
this world of the future, nobody lied, there was no reason to lie, there was no
danger to lie against . There was only
one criminal in the world, and nobody knew HE existed yet.
Oh,
it was an incredibly beautiful setup. The Control Man had told him just how the
Incinerator worked, what pressure gauges controlled the flood of fire gases
going up the flue, what levers were adjusted or readjusted. He and Lantry had
had quite a talk. It was an easy, free world. People trusted people. A moment
later Lantry had shoved a knife in the Control Man also and set the pressure
gauges for an overload to occur half an hour later, and walked out of the
Incinerator halls, whistling.
Now
even the sky was palled with the vast black cloud of the explosion.
“This
is only the first,” said Lantry, looking at the sky. “I’ll tear all the others
down before they even suspect there’s an unethical man loose in their society.
They can’t account for a variable like me. I’m beyond their understanding. I’m
incomprehensible, impossible, therefore I do not exist. My God, I can kill
hundreds of thousands of them before they even realize murder is out in the
world again. I can make it look like an accident each time. Why, the idea is so
huge, it’s unbelievable!”
The
fire burned the town. He sat under a tree for a long time, until morning. Then,
he found a cave in the hills, and went in, to sleep.
He
awoke at sunset with a sudden dream of fire. He saw himself pushed into the
flue, cut into sections by flame, burned away to nothing. He sat up on the cave
floor, laughing at himself. He had an idea.
He
walked down into the town and stepped into an audio booth. He dialed
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