The Simulacra

15

The hard-eyed, middle-aged and utterly professional NP man said to Maury Frauenzimmer and Chic Strikerock, ‘You're both under arrest. Come along with me.'

‘You see?' Maury said with scalding accusation to Chic.

‘I told you so! The bastards have it in for us. We're the fall-guys in this. The lowest dupes on the ladder -- the ultimate simps.'

With Maury, Chic left the small, familiar, cluttered office of Frauenzimmer Associates, the NP man immediately behind them. He and Maury trudged gloomily, in silence, to the parked police car.

‘A couple of hours ago,' Maury burst out suddenly, ‘we had everything. Now, on account of your brother, look what we've got. Nothing.'

Chic did not respond. There was no answer he could make.

‘I'm going to get you, Chic,' Maury said as the police car started up and moved towards the autobahn. ‘So help me god.'

‘We'll get out of this,' Chic said. ‘We've had troubles before. They've always passed. Somehow.'

‘If only you had emigrated,' Maury said.

And I wish I had, too, Chic thought to himself. Right now Richard Kongrosian and I would be -- where? In deep space, on our way to our frontier farm, beginning a chaste, new life. And instead ... this. He wondered where Kongrosian was, right now. Doing just as badly? Hardly likely.

‘Next time when you start to leave the firm -- ‘ Maury began.

‘Okay!' Chic said savagely. ‘Let's forget it. What can be done now?' The one I'd like to get, he thought, is my brother Vince. And, after him, Anton and old Felix Karp.

The NP man seated next to him all at once said to the NP man driving, ‘Hey look, Sid. A roadblock.'

The police car slowed. Peering, Chic saw, at the roadblock, an army mobile weapons carrier; on it, a big gun pointed eerily at the lines of cars and wheels halted by the barricade across the eight lanes.

Beside Chic the NP man drew his hand weapon. So did the driver.

‘What's going on?' Chic asked, his heart labouring.

Neither NP man answered; their gaze was riveted on the army unit blocking the autobahn in effective, trained fashion. Both men had become acutely tense; Chic could sense it. It permeated the interior of the car.

At that moment, as the police car crept along almost touching the car ahead, a Theodorus Nitz commercial slipped in through the open window.

‘Do people seem able to see right through your clothing?' it squeaked at them, bat-like, as it slithered into concealment under the front seat. ‘In public, does your fly seem to be unzipped and do you need to glance down -- ‘

It died into silence as the NP man driving venomously shot it with his pistol. ‘Jeez, I hate those things,' he spat out with aversion.

At the sound of the shot the police car was immediately surrounded by soldiers, all armed and all hair-trigger alert.

‘Put your weapons down!' the sergeant in charge barked.

Reluctantly, the two NP men tossed their guns aside. A soldier plucked the car door open; the two NP men stepped warily out, their arms raised.

‘Whom were you shooting at?' the sergeant demanded, ‘At us?'

‘A Nitz commercial,' one of the NP men said shakily.

‘Look in the car, under the seat; we weren't shooting at you -- honest!'

‘He's telling the truth,' a soldier said finally, after poking about in the car. ‘There is a dead Theodoras Nitz commercial under the seat.'

The sergeant reflected and then decided. ‘You can go on. But leave your weapons with us.' He added, ‘And your prisoners. And from now on you take all your orders from GHQ, not from the higher police.'

At once the two NP men hopped back into their car; the doors slammed shut as they drove off into traffic as rapidly as possible, through the opening in the army barricade. Chic and Maury watched them go.

‘What's up?' Chic asked.

‘You're free to go,' the sergeant informed him. ‘Return to your homes and stay inside. Don't participate in anything going on in the streets; no matter what seems to be happening.' The squad of soldiers moved off then, leaving Chic and Maury standing alone.

‘It's a revolt,' Maury said, his jaw hanging. ‘By the army.'

‘Or by the police,' Chic said, thinking rapidly. ‘We're going to have to hitch hike back to town.' He hadn't hitch hiked since he was a kid; it seemed odd to be doing it now, in his adult years. It was almost refreshing. He began to walk down the stalled lines of traffic, his thumb out. Wind blew in his face; it smelled of land and water and big cities.

He took a deep, full breath of it.

‘Wait for me!' Maury yelled, and hurried after him.

In the sky, to the north, an immense, grey, mushroom-like cloud all at once formed. And a rumble stirred through the earth, jarring Chic and making him jump. Shielding his eyes he peered to see; what had happened? An explosion, perhaps a small, tactical A-bomb. Now he inhaled the reek of ashes and knew definitely what it was.

A soldier, striding past him, said over his shoulder, ‘The local branch of Karp und Sohnen Werke.' He grinned starkly at Chic and hurried on.

Maury said in a soft voice, ‘They blew it up. The army blew up Karp.'

‘I guess so,' Chic said, dazed. Again, reflexively, he stuck out his thumb, searching for their ride.

Above, two army rockets streaked in pursuit of an NP ship; Chic watched them until they were gone from sight.

It's a full-scale war, he said to himself, awed.

‘I wonder if they're going to blow us up, too,' Maury said.

‘I mean the factory. Frauenzimmer Associates.'

‘We're too small,' Chic said.

‘Yeah, I guess you're right,' Maury said, nodding hopefully.

It's good to be small, Chic realized, in times like this. And the smaller the better. Right down to the vanishing point.

Ahead of him and Maury a car had stopped. They walked towards it.

Now, to the east, another fungus-shaped mass of cloud material expanded to fill the sky, and again the ground shook. That would be A.G. Chemie, Chic decided as he got into the waiting car.

‘Where you boys headed for?' the driver of the car, a plump, red-haired man, inquired.

Maury said, ‘Anywhere and everywhere, mister. Just so it's away from all this trouble.'

‘I agree,' the plump, red-haired man said, and started the car into motion. ‘Oh, how I agree.' It was an old, out-of-style car but it was good enough. Chic Strikerock sat back and made himself comfortable.

Beside him, visibly relieved, Maury Frauenzimmer did the same.

‘I guess they're getting them big cartels,' the red-headed man said as he drove slowly forward, following the car ahead of him through the barricade's narrow aperture and out the far side.

‘Sure are,' Maury said.

‘About time,' the red-headed man said.

‘Right,' Chic Strikerock said. ‘I'm with you there.'

The car, gathering speed, moved on.

In the large old wooden building, full of dust and echoes, the chuppers moved about, talking with one another, drinking Cokes, and a few of them were dancing. It was the dancing which interested Nat Flieger, and he led the portable Ampek F-a2 in that direction.

‘Dancing, no,' Jim Planck said to him, ‘singing, yes. Wait until they begin to sing again. If you can dignify it by calling it that.'

Nat said, ‘The sounds of their dancing are rhythmic. I think we ought to try to pick that up, too.'

‘Technically you're head of this venture,' Jim admitted.

‘But I've done an awful lot of recording in my time and I say this is useless. It'll be there on the tape, admittedly, or rather in that wormy of yours. But it'll sound like nothing. Nothing at all.' He glared remorselessly at Nat.

But I intend to try anyhow, Nat said to himself.

‘They're so bent,' Molly said, standing beside him. ‘All of them ... and they're so short. Most of them aren't even as tall as I am.'

‘They lost,' Jim said, with a laconic shrug. ‘Remember? What was it, two hundred thousand years ago? Three hundred thousand? Anyhow it was quite a while ago. I doubt if they'll survive very much longer this time either. They just don't look like they have it. They look -- burdened.'

That was it, Nat realized. The chuppers -- the Neanderthals -- looked weighed down, and by an impossible task, that of survival itself. Jim was absolutely correct; they just were not equipped for that task. Meek, small and hunched, apologetic, shuffling and mumbling, they lurched along their meagre life-track, getting nearer each moment to the end.

So we'd better record this while we can, Nat decided. Because it probably won't be long now, from the looks of it.

Or ... could I be wrong? A chupper, an adult male wearing a plaid shirt and light grey work pants bumped against Nat and muttered an inarticulate apology.

‘That's okay,' Nat assured him. He felt, then, the desire to test his theory, to try to cheer up this failing life form, this throwback. ‘Let me buy you a beer,' he said to the chupper.

‘Okay?' There was, he knew, a bar of sorts in the rear of the building, this large, central recreation hall which the chuppers seemed to possess collectively.

The chupper, glancing at him shyly, mumbled a no thanks.

‘Why not?' Nat demanded.

‘ ‘Cause -- ‘ The chupper seemed unable to meet Nat's gaze; he regarded the floor, clenched and unclenched his fists in a closed-circuit-like but passing spasm. ‘I can't,' the chupper finally managed to say. However, he did not go. He remained standing in front of Nat, still staring down and still grimacing. Probably he was frightened, Nat decided.

Embarrassed in a frightened, obliterating way.

To the chupper Jim Planck said drawlingly, ‘Hey, can you sing any good chupper songs? We'll record you.' He winked at Nat.

‘Leave him alone,' Molly said. ‘You can see he can't sing. He can't do anything -- that's obvious.' She walked away, clearly angry at both of them. The chupper glanced after her listlessly, drooping in his chupper fashion; his eyes were dull.

Would anything, Nat wondered, make those dull eyes light up? Why did the chuppers want to survive, if life meant so little to them? He thought suddenly, maybe they're waiting. For something that hasn't happened yet, but which they know -- or hope -- will occur. That would explain their manner, their -- emptiness.

‘Leave him alone,' Nat said to Jim Planck. ‘She's right.'

He put his hand on Jim's shoulder but the recording expert pulled away.

‘I think they can do a lot more than they appear to be able to,' Jim said. ‘It's almost as if they're marking time, not expending themselves. Not trying. Hell, I'd like to see them try.'

‘So would I,' Nat said. ‘But we're not going to be able to get them to try.'

Off in a corner of the hall a television set boomed loudly, and a number of chuppers, both male and female, had wandered over to it to stand inertly in front of it. The TV set, Nat realized, was giving news of some urgent sort. At once he turned his attention that way; something had happened.

‘You hear what the newscaster is saying?' Jim said in his ear. ‘My god, some damn thing about a war.'

The two of them edged through the throng of chuppers, shoving their way up to the TV set. Molly was already there, already absorbed in listening.

‘It's a revolution,' she said stonily to Nat, above the hollow, booming uproar emanating from the TV set's audio system. ‘Karp -- ‘ Her face was drenched with disbelief. ‘The Karps and A.G. Chemie, they tried to seize power, along with the National Police.'

The TV screen showed a smoking, virtually disintegrated ruin, the remains of buildings, an industrial installation of great magnitude that had been all but obliterated. It was, to Nat, unrecognizable.

‘That's Karp's Detroit branch,' Molly managed to tell Nat, above the racket. ‘The military got it. Honest to god, that's what the announcer just said.'

Jim Planck, studying the screen impassively, said, ‘Who's winning?'

‘Nobody yet,' Molly said. ‘Evidently. I don't know. Listen and see what he says. It's just broken out, just getting underway.'

The chuppers, listening and watching, had become silent.

The phonograph which had played background music for them to shuffle to had become silent, too. The chuppers, almost all of them now, stood clustered around the TV set, rapt and attentive as they witnessed the scenes of fighting between the armed forces of the USEA and the issue from the barracks of the National Police backed up by the cartel system.

‘ ... in California,' the announcer was spluttering, ‘the West Coast Division of the NP surrendered intact to the Sixth Army under General Hoheit. However in Nevada -- ‘

The set showed a street scene, downtown Reno; an army barricade had been hastily erected, and police snipers were firing at it from the windows of the nearby buildings. ‘Ultimately,' the newscaster said, ‘the fact that the armed forces possess a virtual monopoly in atomic weapons would seem to guarantee them victory. But for the present, we can only ... ‘ The newscaster rattled excitedly on, as all over the USEA the mechanical reporting machines coasting about in the areas of conflict gathered data for him.

‘It's going to be a long fight,' Jim Planck said suddenly to Nat. He looked grey and tired. ‘I guess we're darn lucky we're here, out of the way,' he murmured, half to himself. ‘It's a good time to lay low.'

The screen showed a clash between a police patrol and an army unit, now; the two fired rapidly at each other, scurrying for cover as shots zinged from their automatic small arms. A soldier pitched forward on his face and then so did a grey NP man.

Next to Nat Flieger a chupper, watching absorbedly, nudged the chupper standing beside him. The two chuppers, both males, smiled at each other. A covert, meaningful smile. Nat saw it, saw the expression of their two faces. And then he realized that all the chuppers had become brighteyed with the same secret pleasure.

What's going on here? Nat wondered.

Beside him, Jim Planck said softly, ‘Nat, my god. They've been waiting for this.'

So this is it, Nat realized with a thrill of fear. The emptiness, the dull listlessness; that had gone. The chuppers were alert now as they viewed the flickering TV image and listened to the excited news announcer. What does this mean to them? Nat wondered as he studied their emotion-laden, eager faces. It means, he decided, that they have a chance.

This might be their opportunity.

We're destroying each other before their eyes. And -- it may provide room for them, a space to squeeze into. Room, not cooped up here in this dreary, tiny enclave, but out in the world itself. Everywhere.

Grinning knowingly at one another the chuppers continued avidly to watch. And listen.

Nat's fear grew.

The plump, red-headed man who had given Maury and Chic the ride said, ‘This is as far as I'm going, boys. You'll have to hop out.' He slowed the car, stopped at the curb. They were in the city, now, off the autobahn. On every side, men and women scampered in panic, seeking shelter. A police car, its windshield shattered, nosed forward cautiously, the men inside bristling with weapons. ‘Better get indoors,' the red-headed man advised.

Warily, Chic and Maury emerged from the car.

‘My place, The Abraham Lincoln,' Chic said, ‘is near here. We can walk it. Come on.' He waved big, overweight Maury ahead and the two of them joined the running mob of frightened, confused people. What a mess, Chic said to himself. I wonder how it'll wind up. I wonder if our society, our style of life, will survive this.

‘I feel sick at my stomach,' Maury groaned, puffing along beside him, his face grey from the exertion. ‘I'm -- not used to this.'

They reached The Abraham Lincoln. It was undamaged.

At the doorway their sergeants of arms, with a gun, stood beside Vince Strikerock, their identification reader; Vince was checking each person in turn, busy at his official task.

‘Hi, Vince,' Chic said, when he and Maury arrived at the station.

His brother jerked, raised his head; they regarded each other in silence. At last Vince said, ‘Hi, Chic. Glad to see you're alive.'

‘Do we get in?' Chic said.

‘Sure,' Vince said. He looked away, then; nodding to the sergeant of arms he said to Chic, ‘Go ahead. I'm sure glad the NP didn't manage to corner you.' He did not look once at Maury Frauenzimmer; he pretended that Maury was not there.

‘What about me?' Maury said.

In a strangled voice Vince said, ‘You -- can go inside too. As Chic's special invited guest.'

Behind them the next man in line said with urgent peevishness, ‘Hey, hurry up, will you! It isn't safe out here.' He bumped Chic, nudging him on.

Quickly Chic and Maury passed on inside The Abraham Lincoln. A moment later they were ascending by a familiar means: a building elevator. To Chic's top-floor apartment.

‘I wonder what he got out of it,' Maury said musingly.

‘Your kid brother, I mean.'

‘Nothing,' Chic said shortly. ‘Karp is gone. He and a lot of people are finished, now.' And Vince isn't the only one I know of that group, he said to himself.

‘Including us,' Maury said. ‘We're no better off. Of course I guess a lot depends on who wins.'

‘It doesn't matter who wins,' Chic said. Not as far as he could make out, at least. The destruction, the great national disaster, was still there. That was the terrible thing about civil war; no matter how it came out it was still bad. Still a catastrophe. And for everyone.

When they reached the apartment they found the door unlocked. With massive caution Chic opened the door. And peeped inside.

There stood Julie.

‘Chic!' she said, starting a step or so towards him. Beside her were two big suitcases. ‘I've been packing. I've made arrangements for you and me to emigrate. I've got the tickets ... and don't ask me how because I'll never tell you.'

Her face was pale but composed; she had dressed up quite a bit and looked, he thought, exceptionally fine. Now she saw Maury. ‘Who is this?' she asked, faltering.

‘My boss,' Chic said.

‘I just have two tickets,' Julie said hesitantly.

‘That's okay,' Maury said to her. He beamed at her, to reassure her. ‘I have to stay on Earth. I've got a major business enterprise to preside over.' to Chic he said, ‘I think she's got a good idea. So this is the girl you told me about on the phone. The reason you were late to work, that morning.'

He slapped Chic genially on the back. ‘Lots of luck to you, old buddy. I guess you've proved you're still young -- young enough, anyhow. I envy you.'

Julie said, ‘Our ship leaves in forty-five minutes; I was praying like hell you'd show up here. I tried to get hold of you at work -- ‘

‘The NP picked us up,' Chic told her.

‘The army has control of the space field,' Julie said. ‘And they're supervising the arrivals and departures of deep-space ships. So if we can just make it to the field we'll be all right.' she added, ‘I put all your money and mine together to buy the tickets; they were incredibly expensive. And with those jalopy jungles gone -- ‘

‘You two guys better get started,' Maury said. ‘I'll stay here in the apartment, if it's okay with you. It appears to be reasonably safe here, all things considered.' He seated his weary, overstuffed body on the couch, managed to cross his legs, got out a Dutch Masters cigar and lit up.

‘Maybe I'll see you again, one of these days,' Chic said to him, awkwardly. He did not know exactly how to make the break, to leave.

‘Maybe so,' Maury grunted. ‘Anyhow, drop me a line from Mars.' He picked up a magazine from the coffee table and leafed through it, his attention turned to it.

‘What are we going to do on Mars to stay alive?' Chic asked Julie. ‘Farm? Or had you thought about that?'

‘Farm,' she said, ‘Claim a piece of good land get started irrigating it. I have relatives there. They'll help us get started.' She picked up one of the suitcases; Chic took it away from her and then hoisted the other.

‘So long,' Maury said, in a contrived, overly-light tone. ‘I wish you two luck scratching around in that red, dusty soil.'

‘Good luck to you, too,' Chic said. I wonder who'll need it the most, he wondered. You here on Earth or us on Mars.

‘Maybe I'll send you a couple of sims,' Maury said, ‘to keep you company. When this all blows over.' Puffing on his cigar, he watched the two of them go.

The blaring music had arrived once more now, and some of the hunched, massive-jawed chuppers had resumed their shuffling dancing. Nat Flieger turned away from the TV set.

‘I think we've got enough on the Ampek,' he said to Molly. ‘We can start back to the Kongrosians' house. We're through, finally.'

Molly said sombrely, ‘Maybe we're through everywhere, Nat. You know, just because we've been the dominant species for a few tens of thousands of years it doesn't ensure that -- ‘

‘I know,' Nat said to her. ‘I saw their faces, too.' He led her back to where they had left the Ampek F-a2. Jim Planck followed and the three of them stood together, by the portable recording apparatus. ‘Well?' Nat said. ‘Shall we start back? Is it really over? ‘It's over, Jim Planck said, nodding.

‘But I think,' Molly said, ‘we should stay here in the Jenner area until the fighting lets up. It wouldn't be safe to try to fly back down below to Tijuana right now. If Beth Kongrosian will let us stay, let's stay. Right there in the house.'

‘All right,' Nat said. He agreed with her. Completely.

Jim Planck said abruptly, ‘Look. There's a woman coming over here towards us. Not a chupper but a -- you know, what we are, the same as us.'

The woman, slender and young, with short-cropped hair, wearing blue-cotton trousers and moccasins and a white shirt, threaded her way through the shuffling gangs of chuppers.

I know her, Nat said to himself. I've seen her a million times. He knew her and yet he did not; it was terribly strange. So incredibly damn pretty, he thought. Almost grotesquely, unnaturally beautiful. How many women that attractive do I know? None. No one in our world, in our lives, is that attractive except … Except Nicole Thibodeaux.

‘Are you Mr Flieger?' she called, coming up close to him, then, gazing up into his face; she was very small, he discovered. That had not been apparent over the TV transmissions. In fact he had always thought of Nicole Thibodeaux as looming large, even ominous; it was a distinct shock to find her otherwise. He could not exactly understand it.

‘Yes,' he said.

Nicole said, ‘Richard Kongrosian put me here and I want to get back where I belong. Can you take me out of here in your auto-cab?'

‘Sure,' Nat said, nodding. ‘Anything.'

None of the chuppers paid any attention to her; they seemed neither to know nor care who she was. Jim Planck and Molly, however, gaped in mute disbelief.

‘When are you leaving?' Nicole asked.

‘Well,' Nat said, ‘we were going to stay. Because of the fighting. It seemed safer here.'

‘No,' Nicole insisted, at once. ‘You have to go back; you have to do your part. Do you want them to win?'

‘I don't even know who you're talking about,' Nat said. ‘I can't make out exactly what's going on, what the issues are or who's fighting whom. Do you know? Maybe you can tell me.' But I doubt it, he thought. I doubt if you can turn it into something sensible for me -- or for anyone else. Because it is just not sensible.

Nicole said, ‘What would it require to get you to take me back or at least out of here?'

Shrugging, Nat said, ‘Nothing.' All at once he had made up his mind; he saw things clearly. ‘Because I won't do it. I'm sorry. We're going to wait this out, this event that's going on. I don't know how Kongrosian managed to put you here, but maybe he's right; maybe this is the best place to be, for you and for us. For a long time to come.' He smiled at her. Nicole did not smile back.

‘Damn you,' Nicole said.

He continued to smile.

‘Please,' she said. ‘Help me. You were going to; you started to.'

Speaking up huskily. Jim Planck said, ‘Maybe he is helping you, Mrs Thibodeaux. By doing this, by keeping you here.'

‘I think Nat's right, too,' Molly said. ‘I'm sure it's unsafe for you at the White House right now.'

Nicole looked around fiercely at the three of them. Then, resignedly, she sighed. ‘What a place to be stuck in. Damn that Richard Kongrosian, too; it's basically his fault. What are these creatures?' She gestured at the shuffling line of adult chuppers and the small, neo-chupper children who lined both sides of the great dusty, wooden hall.

‘I'm not quite certain,' Nat said. ‘Relatives of ours, you could say. Progeny, very possibly.'

‘Forefathers,' Jim Planck said, correcting him.

Nat said, ‘Time will tell which it is.'

Lighting a cigarillo, Nicole said vigorously, ‘I don't like them; I'll feel a lot happier when we get back to the house. They make me just dreadfully uncomfortable.'

‘They should,' Nat said. Certainly he shared her extreme reaction.

Around the four of them the chuppers danced their monotonous dance, paying no attention to the four human beings.

‘I think, however,' Jim Planck said thoughtfully, ‘we're going to have to get accustomed to them.'