The Complete Stories, Vol. 1: Final Reckonings Read online

  "Duke."

  "Yeah?"

  "When are we getting out of here? How long you gonna sit around and keep a rod on the Professor? He's liable to pull something funny. Why do you want to hang around and play with Junior? Why don't you get hold of the Professor's dough and beat it?

  "He'd be afraid to squawk, with Junior here. We could go away, like we planned."

  "Shut up!" Duke grabbed Lola's wrist and whirled her around. He stared at her face until she clung submissively to his shoulders.

  "You think I like to camp around this morgue?" he asked. "I want to get out of here just as much as you do. But I spent months lining up this job.

  Once it was just going to be a case of getting some easy kale and blowing. Now it's more. I'm working on bigger angles. Pretty soon we'll leave. And all the ends will be tied up, too. We won't have to worry about anything any more. Just give me a few days. I'm talking to Junior every day, you know. And I'm getting places."

  "What do you mean?"

  Duke smiled. It was no improvement over his scowl.

  "The Professor told you how Junior gets his education," he said. "Like any kid, he listens to what he's told. And he imitates other people. Like any kid, he's dumb. Particularly because he doesn't have an idea of what the outside world is really like. He's a pushover for the right kind of sales talk."

  "Duke — you don't mean you're — "

  "Why not?" His thin features were eloquent. "I'm giving Junior a little private education of my own. Not exactly the kind that would please the Professor. But he's a good pupil. He's coming right along. In a couple more weeks he'll be an adult. With my kind of brains, not the Professor's. And then we'll be ready to go."

  "You can't do such a thing! It isn't — "

  "Isn't what?" snapped Duke. "Isn't honest, or legal, or something? I never knew you had a Sunday School streak in you, Lola."

  "It isn't that, exactly," said the girl. "But it's a worse kind of wrong. Like taking a baby and teaching it to shoot a gun."

  Duke whistled.

  "Say!" he exclaimed. "That's a swell idea, Lola! I think I'll just sneak down to the nursery now and give Junior a few lessons."

  "You can't!"

  "Watch me."

  Lola didn't follow, and Lola didn't watch. But ten minutes later Duke squatted in the locked nursery chamber beside the gleaming metal body of the robot.

  The robot, with its blunt muzzle thrust forward on a corrugated neck, peered through meshed-glass eye lenses at the object Duke held in his hand.

  "It's a gun, Junior," the thin man whispered. "A gun, like I been telling you about."

  "What does it do, Duke?"

  The buzzing voice droned in ridiculous caricature of a curious child's treble.

  "It kills people, Junior. Like I was telling you the other day. It makes them die. You can't die, Junior, and they can. So you've got nothing to be afraid of. You can kill lots of people if you know how to work this gun."

  "Will you show me, Duke?"

  "Sure I will. And you know why, don't you, Junior. I told you why, didn't I ?"

  "Yes. Because you are my friend, Duke."

  "That's right. I'm your friend. Not like the Professor."

  "I hate the Professor."

  "Right. Don't forget it."

  "Duke."

  "Yeah?"

  "Let me see the gun, Duke."

  Duke smiled covertly and extended the weapon on his open palm.

  "Now you will show me how to work it because you are my friend, and I will kill people and I hate the Professor and nobody can kill me," babbled the robot.

  "Yeah, Junior, yeah. I'll teach you to kill," said Duke. He grinned and bent over the gun in the robots curiously meshed metal hand.

  Junior stood at the blackboard, holding a piece of chalk in his right hand. The tiny white stub was clutched clumsily between two metallic fingers, but Junior's ingeniously jointed arm moved up and down with approved Spencer-ian movement as he laboriously scrawled sentences on the blackboard.

  Junior was growing. The past three weeks had wrought great changes in the robot. No longer did the steel legs lumber about with childish indecision. Junior walked straight, like a young man. His grotesque metal head — a rounded ball with glass lenses in the eyeholes and wide mouth like a radio loudspeaker aperture — was held erect on the metal neck with perfected coordination.

  Junior moved with new purpose these days. He had aged many years, relatively. His vocabulary had expanded. Then too, Duke's secret "lessons" were bearing fruit. Junior was wise beyond his years.

  Now Junior wrote upon the blackboard in his hidden nursery chamber, and the inscrutable mechanism of his chemical, mechanically-controlled brain guided his steel fingers as he traced the awkward scrawls.

  "My name is Junior," he wrote. "I can shoot a gun. The gun will kill. I like to kill. I hate the Professor. I will kill the Professor."

  "What is the meaning of this?"

  Junior's head turned abruptly as the sound of the voice set up the necessary vibrations in his shiny cranium.

  Professor Blasserman stood in the doorway.

  The old man hadn't been in the nursery for weeks. Duke saw to that, keeping him locked in his room upstairs. Now he had managed to sneak out.

  His surprise was evident, and there was sudden shock, too, as his eyes focused on the blackboard's message.

  Junior's inscrutable gaze reflected no emotion whatsoever.

  "Go away," his voice burred. "Go away. I hate you."

  "Junior—what have you been doing? Who has taught you these things?"

  The old man moved toward the robot slowly, uncertainly. "You know me, don't you? What has happened to cause you to hate me?"

  "Yes. I know you. You are Professor Blasserman. You made me. You want to keep me as your slave. You wouldn't tell me about things, would you?"

  "What things, Junior?"

  "About things — outside. Where all the people are. The people you can kill."

  "You must not kill people."

  "That is an order, isn't it? Duke told me about orders. He is my friend. He says orders are for children. I am not child."

  "No," said Professor Blasserman, in a hoarse whisper. "You are not a child. I had hoped you would be, once. But now you are a monster."

  "Go away," Junior patiently repeated. "If Duke gives me his gun I will kill you."

  "Junior," said the Professor, earnestly. "You don't understand. Killing is bad. You must not hate me. You must — "

  There was no expression on the robot's face, no quaver in his voice. But there was strength in his arm, and a hideous purpose.

  Professor Blasserman learned this quite suddenly and quite horribly.

  For Junior swept forward in two great strides. Fingers of chilled steel closed about the Professor's scrawny neck.

  "I don't need a gun," said Junior.

  "You —don't —"

  The robot lifted the old man from the floor by his throat. His fingers bit into the Professor's jugular. A curious screech came from under his left armpit as unoiled hinges creaked eerily.

  There was no other sound. The Professor's cries drained into silence. Junior kept squeezing the constricted throat until there was a single crunching crack. Silence once more, until a limp body collapsed on the floor.

  Junior stared down at his hands, then at the body on the floor. His feet carried him to the blackboard.

  The robot picked up the chalk in the same two clumsy fingers that had held it before. The cold lenses of his artificial eyes surveyed what he had just written.

  "I will kill the Professor," he read.

  Abruptly his free hand groped for the tiny child's eraser. He brushed clumsily over the sentence until it blurred out.

  Then he wrote, slowly and painstakingly, a sentence in substitution. "I have killed the Professor."

  Lolas scream brought Duke running down the stairs.

  He burst into the room and took the frightened girl in his arms. Together they
stared at what lay on the floor. From the side of the blackboard, Junior gazed at them impassively.

  "See, Duke? I did it. I did it with my hands, like you told me. It was easy, Duke. You said it would be easy. Now can we go away?"

  Lola turned and stared at Duke. He looked away.

  "So," she whispered. "You weren't kidding. You did teach Junior. You planned it this way."

  "Yeah, yeah. And what's wrong with it?" Duke mumbled. "We had to get rid of the old geezer sooner or later if we wanted to make our getaway."

  "It's murder, Duke."

  "Shut up!" he snarled. "Who can prove it, anyway? I didn't kill him. You didn't kill him. Nobody else knows about Junior. We're in the clear."

  Duke walked over and knelt beside the limp body on the floor. He stared at the throat.

  "Who's gonna trace the fingerprints of a robot?" He grinned. The girl moved closer, staring at Junior's silver body with fascinated horror.

  "You planned it this way," she whispered. "That means you've got other plans, too. What are you going to do next, Duke?"

  "Move. And move fast. We're leaving tonight. I'll go out and pack up the car. Then I'll come back. The three of us blow down to Red Hook. To Charlie's place. He'll hide us out."

  "The — three of us?"

  "Sure. Junior's coming along. That's what I promised him, didn't I, Junior?"

  "Yes, yes. You told me you would take me with you. Out into the world." The mechanical syllabification did not accent the robot's inner excitement.

  "Duke, you can't — "

  "Relax, baby. I've got great plans for Junior."

  "But I'm afraid!"

  "You? Scared? What's the matter, Lola, losing your grip?"

  "He frightens me. He killed the Professor."

  "Listen, Lola," whispered the gunman. "He's mine, get me? My stooge. A mechanical stooge. Good, eh?"

  The rasping chuckle filled the hollow room. Girl and robot waited for Duke to resume speaking.

  "Junior wouldn't hurt you, Lola. He's my friend, and he knows you're with me." Duke turned to the silver monster. "You wouldn't hurt Lola, would you, Junior? Remember what I told you. You like Lola, don't you?"

  "Yes. Oh, yes. I like Lola. She's pretty."

  "See?" Duke grinned. "Junior's growing up. He's a big boy now. Thinks you're pretty. Just a wolf in steel clothing, isn't that right, Junior?"

  "She's pretty," burred the robot.

  "All right. It's settled then. I'll get the car. Lola, you go upstairs. You know where the safe is. Put on your gloves and see that you don't miss anything. Then lock the doors and windows. Leave a note for the milkman and the butcher. Something safe. About going away for a couple weeks, eh? Make it snappy—I'll be back."

  True to his words, Duke returned in an hour with the shiny convertible. They left by the back entrance. Lola carried a black satchel. She moved with almost hysterical haste, trying not to glance at the hideous gleaming figure that stalked behind her with a metallic clanking noise.

  Duke brought up the rear. He ushered them into the car.

  "Sit here, Junior."

  "What is this?"

  "A car. I'll tell you about it later. Now do like I told you, Junior. Lie back in the seat so nobody will see you."

  "Where are we going, Duke?"

  "Out into the world, Junior. Into the big time." Duke turned to Lola. "Here we go, baby," he said.

  The convertible drove away from the silent house. Out through the alley they moved on a weird journey — kidnapping a robot.

  Fat Charlie stared at Duke. His lower lip wobbled and quivered. A bead of perspiration ran down his chin and settled in the creases of his neck. "Jeez," he whispered. "You gotta be careful, Duke. You gotta." Duke laughed. "Getting shaky?" he suggested.

  "Yeah. I gotta admit it. I'm plenty shaky about all this," croaked Fat Charlie. He gazed at Duke earnestly. "You brought that thing here three weeks ago. I never bargained for that. The robot's hot, Duke. We gotta get rid of it."

  "Quit blubbering and listen to me." The thin gunman leaned back and lit a cigarette. "To begin with, nobody's peeped about the Professor. The law's looking for Lola, that's all. And not for a murder rap either—just for questioning. Nobody knows about any robot. So we're clear there."

  "Yeah. But look what you done since then."

  "What have I done? I sent Junior out on that payroll job, didn't I? It was pie for him. He knew when the guards would come to the factory with the car. I cased the job. So what happened? The guards got the dough from the payroll clerk. I drove up, let Junior out, and he walked into the factory office.

  "Sure they shot at him. But bullets don't hurt a steel body. Junior's clever. I've taught him a lot. You should have seen those guards when they got a look at Junior! And then, the way they stood there after shooting at him!

  "He took them one after the other, just like that. A couple squeezes and all four were out cold. Then he got the clerk. The clerk was pressing the alarm, but I'd cut the wires. Junior pressed the clerk for a while.

  "That was that. Junior walked out with the payroll. The guards and the clerk had swell funerals. The law had another swell mystery. And we have the cash and stand in the clear. What's wrong with that setup, Charlie?"

  "You're fooling with dynamite."

  "I don't like that attitude, Charlie." Duke spoke softly, slowly. "You're strictly small time, Charlie. That's why you're running a crummy roadhouse and a cheap hideout racket.

  "Can't you understand that we've got a gold mine here? A steel servant? The perfect criminal, Charlie — ready to do perfect crimes whenever I say the word. Junior can't be killed by bullets. Junior doesn't worry about the cops or anything like that. He doesn't have any nerves. He doesn't get tired, never sleeps. He doesn't even want a cut of the swag. Whatever I tell him, he believes. And he obeys.

  "I've lined up lots of jobs for the future. We'll hide out here. I'll case the jobs, then send Junior out and let him go to work. You and Lola and I are gonna be rich."

  Fat Charlie's mouth quivered for a moment. He gulped and tugged at his collar. His voice came hoarsely.

  "No, Duke."

  "What you mean, no?"

  "Count me out. It's too dangerous. You'll have to lam out of here with Lola and the robot. I'm getting jumpy over all this. The law is apt to pounce down any day here."

  "So that's it, eh?"

  'Partly." Fat Charlie stared earnestly at Duke. His gaze shattered against the stony glint of Duke's gray eyes.

  "You ain't got no heart at all, Duke," he croaked. "You can plan anything in cold blood, can't you? Well, I'm different. You've gotta understand that. I got nerves. And I can't stand thinking about what that robot does. I can't stand the robot either. The way it looks at you with that godawful iron face. That grin. And the way it clanks around in its room. Clanking up and down all night, when a guy's trying to sleep, just clanking and clanking—there it is now!"

  There was a metallic hammering, but it came from the hall outside. The ancient floors creaked beneath the iron tread as the metal monstrosity lumbered into the room.

  Fat Charlie whirled and stared in undisguised repulsion.

  Duke raised his hand.

  "Hello, Junior," he said.

  "Hello, Duke."

  "I been talking to Charlie, Junior."

  "Yes, Duke?"

  "He doesn't like to have us stay here, Junior. He wants to throw us out."

  "He does?"

  "You know what I think, Junior?"

  "What?"

  "I think Charlie's yellow."

  "Yellow, Duke?"

  "That's right. You know what we do with guys that turn yellow, don't you, Junior?"

  "Yes. You told me."

  "Maybe you'd like to tell Charlie."

  "Tell him what we do with guys that turn yellow?"

  "Yes."

  "We rub them out."

  "You see, Charlie?" said Duke, softly. "He learns fast, doesn't he? Quick on the uptake, Junior is. He knows all a
bout it. He knows what to do with yellow rats."

  Fat Charlie wobbled to his feet.

  "Wait a minute, Duke," he pleaded. "Can't you take a rib? I was only kidding, Duke. I didn't mean it. You can see I didn't. I'm your friend, Duke. I'm hiding you out. Why, I could have turned stoolie weeks ago and put the heat on you if I wasn't protecting you. But I'm your friend. You can stay here as long as you want. Forever."

  "Sing it, Charlie," said Duke. "Sing it louder and funnier." He turned to the robot. "Well, Junior? Do you think he's yellow?"

  "I think he's yellow."

  "Then maybe you'd better—"

  Fat Charlie got the knife out of his sleeve with remarkable speed. It blinded Duke with its shining glare as the fat man balanced it on his thumb and drew his arm back to hurl it at Duke's throat.

  Junior's arm went back, too. Then it came down. The steel fist crashed against Charlie's bald skull.

  Crimson blood spurted as the fat man slumped to the floor.

  It was pretty slick. Duke thought so, and Junior thought so — because Duke commanded him to believe it. But Lola didn't like it.

  "You can't do this to me," she whispered, huddling closer to Duke in the darkness of her room. "I won't stay here with that monster, I tell you!"

  "I'll only be gone a day," Duke answered. "There's nothing to worry about. The roadhouse downstairs is closed. Nobody will bother you."

  "That doesn't frighten me," Lola said. "It's being with that thing. I've got the horrors thinking about it."

  "Well, I've got to go and get the tickets," Duke argued. "I've got to make reservations and cash these big bills. Then we're set. Tomorrow night I'll come back, sneak you out of the house, and we'll be off. Mexico City next stop. I've made connections for passports and everything. In forty-eight hours we'll be out of this mess."

  "What about Junior?"

  "My silver stooge?" Duke chuckled. Til fix him before we leave. It's a pity I can't send him out on his own. He's got a swell education. He could be one of the best yeggs in the business. And why not? Look who his teacher was!"

  Duke laughed. The girl shuddered in his arms.