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STORY: A Sandman chases a girl who wonders if her baby was at a nearby
nursery, near a cluster of teeter swings. Her crystal was black and she was 21. Days
ago it was red, 7 years before that blue, 7 before that yellow. The Sandman fires
his gun and kills her as the homer in the gun unravels her. Citizen Sawyer is talking
to Logan 3 who is in civilian clothes now. Sawyer would like to live to 23. Logan
has semi-long thick blond hair. Sawyer wants to go to Castlemont Glasshouse and get
3 of the youngest girls in the stagroom. "I hear they'll do anything for you...to
you...on your lastday." Sawyer recalls when he was 14, he visited Fujiyama in
Japan. Logan cannot recall when he was 14. Sawyer wonders if they make mistakes but
answers his own question: the Thinker would not make that kind of mistake. He is
scared. Logan tells him most people are. The world can only support so much life,
got to keep the population down. Once fired a Homer homes in the body heat and burns
out your whole nervous system. A sleepshop is a dimly lit graveroom lined with aluminum
shelves with names and numbers. A man wears a jacket with Anarek on the back. Sawyer
could never be a Sandman...how someone can fire that into someone. Logan gets off
the moving sidewalk. Logan tried to forget the memory of hunting a runner named Nathan.
A protestor sits against a wall, called names by three boys, one in checkered shorts
and boots. The protestor, thick brown hair and long in back but up, hands Logan a
flyer, "Reject sleep, citizen." He wears a sign that says RUN. A flying
police paravane settles down and takes the protestor away. The 3rd they've arrested
this week. A girl in green mist silks joins Logan. The Tri-Dim news starts. The news
reports of a gypsy gang war near Stafford Heights resulting in the two deaths in
the Maze. The Triple Slayer, Harry 7, was apprehended today. No friends showed up
to see him. The girl near him wants to make him happy. Logan thinks, "They used
to say you can't buy happiness. You can in the year 2116." Logan goes to the
Hallucimill where Lysergic foam produces happy effects...expanded consciousness,
synthetic bliss, called LF. These were supposedly non addictive drugs administered
by professionals. Logan has a bad lift: Sawyer caught him, a runner, no a faller,
falling from a three mile high complex. A short squat man was back and Logan pulled
the trigger. Logan leaves. Blue palm youngsters were in heated debate, echoes of
the little war. One is Oriental or Spanish and has an open vest. Logan thinks, "Life,
enjoy it will you can, kids." He goes to a shop PLEASURE! SATISFACTION! RARE
DELIGHTS! The stagroom was awash in sexuality. Two girls hugging, beach girls from
Mexico and California, Japanese maidens, cool English women, slim exotics form Calcutta,
lonely, bored, oversexed, looking for something new or an escape from someone old.
Logan picks a girl who is sorry...she has other plans with another girl. Karenya
3 takes Logan. She tells him not to talk, "Why do men always want to do that?"
Each room illuminates at various intervals, with different colors. They strip. Other
couples from above, below, around could watch from the glass floors, walls, and ceilings.
They have sex every which way until dawn. Morning: Logan goes to his job where Francis
greets him, "You look ripped. Bad night, Logan?" Francis would have no
glass houses or lifts. He was sure of himself, precise, efficient, cat like. The
two go to a special container for their guns, show their palm prints. Logan thinks
that these guns kept peace in towns like Abilene, Dodge, and Fargo. Only a Sandman
could carry a gun, each gun coded to the operative's hand pattern, set to detonate
on any other human contact. Gun had load of Tangler, Ripper, Needler, Nitro, Vapor,
Homer. Stanhope is in the Field but the operator cannot locate Webster 16, a runner
is in the pavilion moving East. Kelly 4 is called. Evans 9 is called, runner destination
as Phoenix. Name: Doyle 10-14302, moving for Arcade. Firegalleries interfere with
the scopes. A citizen alarm, citizens were Sandman's best allies. Yellow, birth to
7. 7 to 14--Doyle lived as a Blue in a dozen states, roamed Europe. Red-14 to 21:
rebel. Has a twin sister--Jessica 6. Logan passes an older woman with her hand around
a young kid. Logan gets Doyle out of a lift but hesitates to kill him. Doyle takes
a girl hostage. Logan fires a tangler which gets the girl and tangles her up, silver
threads enveloping her. A paravane would take care of her. Logan runs the East Concourse
to head off an escaping Doyle. Doyle moves west to the cathedral. Logan calls Francis
to head him off at the stone bridge to the Cathedral, Logan having being tricked.
Cathedral: greater Los Angeles's festering sore: rubble, dust, and burned out buildings.
Shadow, pollution, death. Cubscout Territory. The Express belt broke at river level.
Logan took a walkway to Sutton. Transit breaks occur more frequently even though
the Thinker was supposed to be self repairing. Francis was chopped from behind. Logan
calls--the runner is on the bridge. Boys, Cubs, on muscle are after him. One wears
a tunic only, bare underneath, a head rag, bare sides from shoulder to foot, only
a rope tie holding his tunic and he holds a stick. They are on Muscle--originally
developed for combat in the Little War, the drug increases strength and reaction
time ten fold, forcing the heart to do the work of days in minutes. Using knifes,
the Cubs are cutting him to pieces. Francis will try a Vapor plug up. They fire Vapors.
The boys move back, some coughing. Francis goes to get the runner. He uses a Nitro
blast on them since they move so fast. 3 Cubs are torn apart by the blast as Logan
and Francis reach the runner. Doyle kept repeating a word, "S-s-ssanctuary..."
His head fell back, a punchkey dropping from his uncurled fingers. He is dead. Francis
eliminates the body with a zum blast from his gun. Logan kept his right hand hidden.
He didn't want Francis to see the flower in his palm was blinking. |