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“How nice.My name is really Angela. I think it was done as a horrid joke by my father, which is one of the reasons I enjoyed seeing him die.”
“Why haven’t you killed me?” I asked, having a fairly good idea of how father had passed on.
“Why should I, darling?” she asked, and her light, empty tone was gone. “We’ve both made mistakes in the past and it has taken us a dreadfully long time to find out that we are just alike. I might as well ask you why you haven’t arrested me—that’swhat you started out to do isn’t it?”
“It was—but…”
“But, what?You must have come here with that idea in mind, but you were fighting an awful battle with yourself. That’s why I hid the fact that I knew who you really were. You were growing up, getting over whatever idiotic notions ever involved you with the police in the first place. I had no idea how the whole thing would come out, though I did hope. You see I didn’t want to kill you, not unless I had to. I knew you lovedme, thatwas obvious from the begi
“We are not the same,” I insisted, but there was no conviction in my voice. She only smiled. “You kill—and enjoy killing—that’s our basic difference. Don’t you see that?”
“Nonsense!”She dismissed the idea with an airy wave. “You killed last night—rather a good job too—and I didn’t notice any reluctance on your part. In fact, wasn’t there a certain amount of enthusiasm?”
I don’t know why, but I felt as if a noose was tightening around my neck. Everything she said was wrong—but I couldn’t see where it was wrong. Where was the way out, the solution that would solve everything?
“Let’s leave Freibur,” I said at last. “Get away from this monstrous and u
“We’ll go—if we go someplace where we can do just as well,” Angela said, and there wasa hardnessback in her voice. “That’s not the major point though. There’s something you are going to have to settle in your own mind before you will be happy. This stupid importance you attach to death. Don’t you realize how completely trivial it is? Two hundred years from now you, I and every person now living in the galaxy will be dead. What does it matter if a few of them are helped along and reach their destination a bit quicker? They’d do the same to you if they had the chance.”
“You’re wrong,” I insisted, knowing that there is more to living and dying than just this pessimistic philosophy, but unable in this moment of stress to clarify and speak my ideas. Angela was a powerful drug and my tiny remaining shard of compassionate reserve didn’t stand a chance, washed under by the flood of stronger emotions. I pulled her to me, kissing her, knowing that this solved most of the problems although it made the final solution that much more difficult.
A thin and irritating buzz scratched at my ears, and Angela heard it too. Separating was difficult for both of us. I sat and watched unseeingly while she went to the vidiphone. She blanked the video circuits and snapped a query into it. I couldn’t hear the answer because she had the speaker off and listened through the earpiece. Once or twice she said yes, and looked up suddenly at me. There was no indication of whom she was talking to, and I hadn’t the slightest interest. There were problems enough around.
After hanging up she just stood quietly for a moment and I waited for her to speak. Instead she walked to her dressing table and opened the drawer. There were a lot of things that could have been concealed there, but she took out the one thing I was least suspecting.
A gun.Big barreled and deadly, pointing at me.
“Why did you do it, Jim?” she asked, tears in the corners of her eyes. “Why did you want to do it?”
She didn’t even hear my baffled answer. Her thoughts were on herself—though the recoilless never wavered from a point aimed midway in my skull. With alarming sudde
“You didn’t do anything,” she said with the old hard chill on her words. “I did it myself because I let myself believe that one man could be any different from the others. You have taught me a valuable lesson, and out of gratitude I will kill you quickly, instead of in the way I would much prefer.”
“What the bell are you talking about,” I roared, completely baffled.
“Don’t play the i
“If I told you I was i
“Hooray for the Boy Space Scout,” Angela said with bitter mockery. “Why don’t you admit the truth, since you will be dead in twenty seconds no matter what yousay.”
“I’ve told you the truth.” I wondered if I could reach her before she fired, but knew it was impossible.
“Good-by, James diGriz.It was nice knowing you—for a while. Let me leave you with a last pleasant thought. All this was in vain. There is a door and an exit behind me that no one knows about. Before your police get here I shall be safely gone. And if the thought tortures you a bit, I intend to go on killing and killing and killing and you will never be able to stop me.”
My Angela raised the gun for a surer aim as she touched a switch in the molding. A panel rolled back revealing a square of blackness in the wall.
“Spare me the histrionics, Jim,” she said disgustedly, her eyes looking into mine over the sight of the gun. Her finger tightened.“ Iwouldn’t expect that kind of juvenile trick from you, staring over my shoulder and widening your eyes as if there were someone behind me. I’m not going to turn and look. You’re not getting out of this one alive.”
“Famous last words,” I said as I jumped sideways. The gun boomed but the bullet plowed into the ceiling. Inskipp stood behind her, twisting the gun into the air, pulling it out of her hand. Angela just stared at me in horror and made no move to resist. There were handcuffs locked on her tiny wrists and she still didn’t struggle or cry out. I jumped forward, shouting her name.
There were two burly types in Patrol uniforms behind Inskipp, and they took her. Before I could reach the door he stepped through and closed it behind him. I stumbled to a halt before it, as unable to fight as Angela had been a minute ago.