Dayworld

The other man, a tall thin fellow with burning black eyes, circled around to cut Ohm off. He was drawing the rapier from the scabbard at his belt and would be in the path to the exit door before Ohm could get past him.

"I told Hetman ... the chief ... that you'd fall for it," Mudge said. He had stopped and was removing the long moustaches and the feathered hat and wig. His right hand was on the grip of the rapier at his left.

"Fall for it?" Ohm said.

Wyatt Repp's voice seemed to come faintly to him, telling him that this scene was right out of one of his dramatic-admittedly, corny-empathorium works. "You're the hero," the fading voice said.

"Yes. It wasn't any accident that you saw Snick. There was a subliminal flashing just above her head. You couldn't have missed her. Hetman 1mm- ... the chief ... put her there to test you. He wanted to find out if you really were mentally unstable, if you could be a traitor. Now we know!"

"I wanted to find out if you killed her," Ohm said. He moved toward a splendidly dressed male courtier on his right.

"What does it matter to you?" Mudge said. "You were getting away free, and the family was safe."

His rapier whispered as it was pulled from the scabbard.

"Come quietly with us, Ohm. There's no one else here, and you can't fight us. If you do, I'll have an excuse to kill you here and now."

"Is she dead?"

Mudge smiled and said, "You'll never know."

"The hell I won't!" Charlie yelled. He sprang forward, reached across his stomach with his left hand, and snatched the blade from the scabbard of the courtier dummy. "En garde, you son of a bitch!"

Mudge's smile became even broader. "You stupid weedie, it's two against one. You may be a pretty good fencer, Bela said you were, but you're a drunk and even a world champion couldn't stand against two good fencers. I'm not bad, and Bela he's an Olympic silver medalist. Put the sword down, Ohm, and take your medicine like a man."

Mudge looked as if he were enjoying the coming attraction of combat to the death. The other man also seemed to be relishing it. So much for seven generations of government conditioning against the impulses and use of violence.

It would take five seconds, maybe more, for Bela to rзach him. By that time, his intended victim should be even further away. Yelling, his voice seemingly reinforced by the shouts of the others in him-especially Jim Dunski and Jeff Caird-he pushed over the figure from which he had taken the sword. It fell toward Mudge, causing him to step back. Then Ohm had leaped over the figure and was on Mudge. Moving swiftly in the position required, he thrust for Mudge's face. This was a target forbidden in fencing, but he hoped that Mudge, not being used to such an attack, would not react in time. Mudge, however, parried and then thrust for his enemy's upper sword arm. Ohm riposted and leaped back out of the seventeenth-century exhibit area. Mudge advanced. With his right arm, Ohm toppled another figure, The Stockbroker, at Mudge.

He ran toward the railing and vaulted over it with his right arm to the escalator. Bela Wang Horvath and Janos Ananda Mudge stood side by side for a moment. Horvath said something to his partner, who nodded, turned, and ran toward the corner of the recess. Horvath ran toward the opposite corner. They were going to cut him off and move in on him from his front and back.

He went over the railing back into the recess and ran toward Mudge past the figures of The Mail Carrier, The Bald Man, and The Diplomat. Mudge stopped, whirled, and assumed a defensive position.

Mudge was gri

Their blades clashed and rang again and again. Though the rapier was heavier and stiffer than the foil, it felt to Ohm as light as balsa and as supple as a feather. Cold fury and the combined self-survival drive of seven men powered him. Mudge was an excellent fencer. But he had several disadvantages, one being that it was difficult for a right-handed fencer to duel with a left-handed fencer. The lines of target were changed, making it hard to aim at them. The sinister-handed fencer was also in the same reversed position, but he was more used to it.

After a brief engagement, Ohm leaped back, transferred the rapier to his right hand to confuse Mudge, attacked, was beaten back, was nicked in the shoulder, and transferred the rapier to his left hand. Mudge attacked. Ohm parried with a slight movement of the bell guard, deflecting Mudge's point. At the same time, Ohm directed his point so that Mudge, who kept moving forward, received the point in his right forearm. It slid under the ulna, or outer bone, and came out beyond it.

Ohm stepped back, yanking the sword from the wound. Mudge's hand opened. His rapier dropped. Ohm moved forward. Mudge staggered back into the figure of The Senator. It toppled over, and Mudge fell backward over it. He started to get up, but Ohm stepped up to him and ran his sword through Mudge's other forearm.

Hearing the sounds of boots behind him, Ohm whirled. He brought the tip of the sword up and then down into a defensive position, ready to meet Horvath's attack. He had turned so swiftly and whipped his rapier around so fast that it acted like a whip. A drop of blood was flicked from its end into Horvath's right eye, disorienting him for a split-second. That was enough for Ohm, who seemed to see everything as if it were in a slow-motion film. He noted every meaningful detail; he was prepared by years of training to take advantage of every weakness or off-balance of his opponent. His rapier beat Horvath's aside just far enough and long enough for him to send his blade through the man's thigh.

Horvath jumped back, Ohm's blade withdrawing from the flesh, followed by a gush of blood. Ohm attacked but could not for a moment get past Horvath's desperate but effective parries. Coolly, knowing that Horvath was weakening with every pump of blood, Ohm pressed him. Horvath, as was inevitable, bumped into a figure. The Soldier fell over, causing Horvath to fall onto the floor on his back. The Soldier knocked over The Oil Driller, which toppled The Insurance Salesperson, which knocked over The Mafia Gangster, which felled The Publisher, which toppled The Loan Shark, which knocked over The Marxist. The last in the domino series to crash to the floor was The Capitalist.

The wound in the thigh and the injury to his elbow in the fall seemed to put Horvath out of the combat. Ohm had thought that Mudge would be helpless, too, but the clomping of boots and a deep sobbing told him that that was not so. Howling, Ohm whirled just in time to meet Mudge's attack. It was weak, however, and especially ineffective because Mudge was using his left hand to hold the rapier. He was brave-Ohm had to give him credit for that-but he was also stupid. He did not have a chance. Ohm's point drove through Mudge's left shoulder, sticking out behind it for at least three inches.

Mudge crumpled. Ohm whirled again. But Horvath was not making another incredible attack. He was crawling, groaning, trailing much blood, toward the elevator. Charlie watched him until he collapsed, face down, on the floor. His arms and legs moved, responding only partly to his will to get up and go.

Ohm turned and walked, breathing hard but feeling exultant, to Mudge. The man sat on the floor, holding his shoulders with his hands and glaring at Ohm.

"You were lucky, you bastard!"

"Don't whine," Ohm said, gri

"I don't have it!"

"Just how were you pla