Atomic Underworld: Part One by Jack Conner Page A

might not be too
dissimilar from the one that killed the fishermen, if they were really dead, and
he didn’t see how they couldn’t be if they’d been firing on his attackers but
his attackers were still alive. He’d heard other guns, though. Maybe the people
aboard the pursuing boat had opened up with types of guns different from his
own.
    The
guards’ thinking was going along different lines, however.
    “Might
be we never saw you,” mused the first one. He eyed the briefcase speculatively.
    Tavlin
fingered the blood trickling down his arm. He didn’t have time for this.
Already he felt dizzy. “I don’t have any money. This—” he rattled the briefcase
“—there’s nothing of value here to anyone but me.” He shook his head. Spots
were starting to form in his vision.
    “Maybe
Boss Vassas is willing to fork something over,” said the second guard.
    “Yeah,”
said another, then added, “If this hume isn’t full of
shit.” He peered out into the mist. “ Hud and Wally
were out there. Wally took his son. If they’re all dead …”
    “Shit,”
said the third one. He removed his cap and placed it over his heart. To Tavlin,
he said, “If you killed Wally, I ain’t takin ’ no
bribe.”
    “ I didn’t,” Tavlin said. “The muggers
did. But just to clear up any suspicion, Boss Vassas will donate something to
your favorite local charity. He’ll even give you the money with the
understanding that you turn it to over to them yourself, if you see what I mean.
I’m sorry about the fishermen—maybe some of them made it. You should send a
patrol out to hunt the ones who did this.” He swayed. “Listen, I need a doctor.
Let’s work this out later.”
    They
exchanged more glances. The first one said, “I’ll take ‘ im to Doc Sarn and put ‘ im up
somewhere. In the morning I’ll send someone over Muscud-way and see what we can
see about Boss Vassas. If ‘ e’s game, ‘ e’s game.”
    The
others nodded. One added, “And if’s not, we’ll have
to start thinkin’ about pressin ’ charges.”
    Another
grunted. “Guess we’d better take a look at the bodies. Maybe someone’s still
alive.”
     
    *
     
    The
first guard showed Tavlin through town toward the doctor’s.
    “Welcome
to Taluush,” he said. “I’m Sergeant Wales. Of the Night Watch.”
    Tavlin
nodded. “There’s no Night Watch in Muscud. Different sectors hire their own,
ah, guards.” He’d been about to say goons. “We only have one police officer.”
    “Yeah. Mirely . I know ‘ im .” He
spat. “Straight as a hunchback.”
    “Yes.
Very different from here, I’m sure.”
    Sgt.
Wales raised a hairless eyebrow. One corner of his lips hooked upward, and a
glint of amusement shone in his eye. “ Quite different,” was all he said.
    They
passed into the town, and Tavlin beheld strange dwellings he’d never seen the
like of before. They appeared as if they had been secreted or drooled by some
insect. They comprised most of the ground level, and he felt as though he were
walking through some massive hive. They were round, yellow-gray lumpen things with no visible apertures. Thick black hoses
sprouted from their sides, and he could hear the chugging of generators.
Taluush was a vertical city, and Tavlin saw that more normal, human habitations comprised the upper
levels, with a sort of buffer of shops and hanging plazas separating this lower
level from the sections above.
    Sgt.
Wales saw his amazement. “You’ve never been to Taluush before? No? Surely
you’ve heard about it.”
    “Just
rumors. Something about one of the old races, but I never thought ...”
    Sgt.
Wales gestured expansively to the hive-like structures that occupied the first
level. They were clustered along wide canals, and they glistened in the red
light like giant cocoons. “We’re right on top of the Rifts, y’know? Whoever
built this section of the sewer used a natural system of underground rivers,
and some of them have chasms that plunge all