Roadside Picnic

1

REDRICK SCHUHART, AGE 23, BACHELOR, LABORATORY ASSISTANT AT THE HARMONT BRANCH OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE EOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL CULTURES

The night before, he and I were in the repository—it was already evening, all I had to do was throw off my lab suit and I could head for the Borscht to put a drop or two of the stiff stuff into my system. I was just standing there, holding up the wall, my work all done and a cigarette in my hand. I was dying for a smoke—it was two hours since I’d had one, and he was still puttering around with his stuff. He had loaded, locked, and sealed one safe and was loading up the other one—taking the empties from the transporter, examining each one from every angle (and they’re heavy little bastards, by the way, fifteen pounds each), and carefully replacing them on the shelf.

He had been struggling with those empties forever, and the way I see it, without any benefit to humanity or himself. In his shoes, I would have said screw it long ago and gone to work on something else for the same money. Of course, on the other hand, if you think about it, an empty really is something mysterious and maybe even incomprehensible. I’ve handled quite a few of them, but I’m still surprised every time I see one. They’re just two copper disks the size of a saucer, about a quarter inch thick, with a space of a foot and a half between them. There’s nothing else. I mean absolutely nothing, just empty space. You can stick your hand in them, or even your head, if you’re so knocked out by the whole thing—just emptiness and more emptiness, thin air. And for all that, of course, there is some force between them, as I understand it, because you can’t press them together, and no one’s been able to pull them apart, either.

No, friends, it’s hard to describe them to someone who hasn’t seen them. They’re too simple, especially when you look close and finally believe your eyes. It’s like trying to describe a glass to someone: you end up wriggling your fingers and cursing in frustration. OK, let’s say you’ve got it, and those of you who haven’t get hold of a copy of the institute’s Reports—every issue has an article or the empties with photos.

Kirill had been beating his brains out over the empties for almost a year. I’d been with him from the start, but I still wasn’t quite sure what it was he wanted to learn from them, and, to tell the truth, I wasn’t trying very hard to find out. Let him figure it out for himself first, and then maybe I’d have a listen. For now, I understood only one thing: he had to figure out, at any cost, what made one of those empties tick—eat through one with acid, squash it under a press, or melt it in an oven. And then he would understand everything and be hailed and honored, and world science would shiver with ecstasy. For now, as I saw it, he had a long way to go. He hadn’t gotten anywhere yet, and he was worn out. He was sort of gray and silent, and his eyes looked like a sick dog’s—they even watered. If it had been anyone else, I would have gotten him roaring drunk and taken him over to some hard-working girl to unwind. And in the morning I’d have boozed him up again and taken him to another broad, and in a week he would have been as good as new—bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Only that wasn’t the medicine for Kirill. There was no point in even suggesting it—he wasn’t the type.

So there we were in the repository. I was watching him and seeing what had happened to him, how his eyes were sunken, and I felt sorrier for him than I ever had for anyone. And that’s when I decided. I didn’t exactly decide, it was like somebody opened my mouth and made me talk.

“Listen,” I said. “Kirill.”

And he stood there with his last empty on the scales, looking like he was ready to climb into it.

“Listen,” I said, “Kirill! What if you had a full empty, huh?”

“A full empty?” He looked puzzled.

“Yeah. Your hydromagnetic trap, whatchamacallit … Object 77b. It’s got some sort of blue stuff inside.”

I could see that it was beginning to penetrate. He looked up at me, squinted, and a glimmer of reason, as he loved to call it, appeared behind the dog tears.

“Hold on,” he said. “Full? Just like this, but full?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”

“Where?”

My Kirill was cured. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. “Let’s go have a smoke.”

He stuffed the empty into the safe, slammed the door, and locked it with three and a half turns, and we went back into the lab. Ernest pays 400 in cash for an empty empty, and I could have bled him dry, the son of a bitch, for a full one, but believe it or not, I didn’t even think about it, because Kirill came back to life before my eyes and bounded down the steps four at a time, not even letting me finish my smoke. In short, I told him everything: what it was like, and where it was, and the best way to get at it. He pulled out a map, found the garage, put his finger on it, and stared at me. Of course, he immediately figured it out about me—what was there not to understand? “You dog, you,” he said and smiled. “Well, let’s go for it. First thing in the morning. I’ll order the passes and the boot for nine and we’ll set off at ten and hope for the best. All right?”

“All right,” I said. “Who’ll be the third?”

“What do we need a third for?”

“Oh no,” I said. “This is no picnic with ladies. What if something happens to you? It’s in the Zone,” I said. “We have to follow regulations.”

He gave a short laugh and shrugged. “As you wish. You know better.”

You bet I did! Of course, he was just trying to humor me. The third would be in the way as far as he was concerned. We would run down, just the two of us, and everything would be hunky-dory, no one would suspect anything about me. Except for the fact that I knew that people from the institute didn’t enter the Zone in two’s. The rule is: two do the work and the third watches, and when they ask him about it later, he tells.

“Personally, I would take Austin,” Kirill said. “But you probably don’t want him. Or is it all right?”

“Nope,” I said. “Anybody but Austin. You can take Austin another time.”

Austin isn’t a bad guy, he’s got the right mix of courage and cowardice, but I feel he’s doomed. You can’t explain it to Kirill, but I can see it. The man thinks he knows and understands the Zone completely. That means he’s going to kick off soon. He can go right ahead, but without me, thanks.

“All right, then,” Kirill said. “How about Tender?”

Tender was his second lab assistant. An all-right kind of guy, on the quiet side.

“He’s a little old,” I said. “And he has kids.”

“That’s all right. He’s been in the Zone before.”

“Fine,” I said. “Let’s take Tender.”

He stayed to pore over the map and I made a beeline for the Borscht, because I was starving and my throat was parched.

I got back to the lab in the morning as usual, around nine, and showed my pass. The guard on duty was the lanky bean pole of a sergeant that I beat the hell out of last year when he made a drunken pass at Guta.

“Fine thing,” he said to me. “They’re looking for you all over the institute, Red.”

I interrupted him right there, polite-like.

“I’m not Red to you,” I said. “Don’t try that palsy-walsy stuff on me, you Swedish dolt.”

“God, Red! Everybody calls you that.”

I was all wound up before going into the Zone and cold sober to boot. I hauled him up by his shoulder belt and told him in precise detail just what he was and what maternal line he was descended from. He spat on the floor, returned my pass, and said without any of the niceties:

“Redrick Schuhart, your orders are to appear immediately before Chief of Security Captain Herzog.”

“That’s better,” I said. “That’s the ticket. Keep plugging away, sergeant, you’ll make lieutenant yet.”

Meanwhile I was thinking, what was this curve coming my way? What did Captain Herzog need me for during working hours? All right, I went off to make my appearance. His office was on the third floor, a nice office, with bars on the windows just like a police station. Willy was sitting at his desk, puffing on his pipe, and typing some kind of gibberish. Some little sergeant was digging through the metal file cabinet in the corner. A new guy I’d never seen. We have more sergeants at the institute than at division headquarters. They’re all well-built healthy fellows. They don’t have to go into the Zone and they don’t give a damn about world issues.

“Hello,” I said. “You called for me?”

Willy looked right through me, moved away from the typewriter, laid a hefty file on the desk, and started leafing through it.

“Redrick Schuhart?”

“The same,” I answered, feeling a nervous laugh welling up. I couldn’t help it, it was funny.

“How long have you been with the institute?”

“Two years, starting my third.”

“Family?”

“I’m alone,” I said. “An orphan.”

Then he turned to his little sergeant and gave him an order in a stern tone.

“Sergeant Lummer, go to the files and bring back case number one-fifty.”

The sergeant saluted and disappeared, and Willy slammed the file shut and asked gloomily:

“Up to your old tricks again?”

“What old tricks?”

“You know what tricks. There’s new material on you here.”

So, I thought.

“Where from?”

He frowned and banged his pipe against the ashtray in irritation.

“That doesn’t concern you,” he said. “As an old friend, I’m warning you. Knock it off, knock it off for good. If they get you a second time, you won’t get off with six months. And they’ll kick you out of the institute once and for all, understand?”

“I understand,” I said. “That I can understand. I just don’t understand what bastard could have squealed.”

But he was looking through me again, puffing on his empty pipe and flipping through the file. That meant that Sergeant Lummer had returned with case #150.

“Thank you, Schuhart,” said Capt. Willy Herzog, also known as the Hog. “That’s all I wanted cleared up. You’re free to go.”

So I went to the locker room, pulled on my lab clothes and lit up. All along I kept thinking where the rumor could have come from. It had to be all lies if it came from within the institute, because nobody there knew anything about me and there was no way that anyone could. If it had been a report from the police—again, what could they know there except for my old sins? Maybe they had gotten Buzzard? That bastard, he’d drown his own grandmother to save his skin. But even Buzzard didn’t know anything about me now. I thought and thought and didn’t come up with anything very pleasant. So I decided the hell with it. The last time I had gone into the Zone at night was three months ago, and I had gotten rid of most of the stuff and had spent almost all of the money. They hadn’t caught me with the goods, and I was too slippery for them to catch me now.

But then, just as I was heading up the stairs, I suddenly saw the light, and saw it so well that I had to go back to the locker room, sit down, and have another cigarette. It meant that I couldn’t go into the Zone today. Nor tomorrow, nor the day after. It meant that those toads had their eye on me again, that they hadn’t forgotten me, or if they had forgotten, then somebody had reminded them. And now it no longer mattered who had done the reminding. No stalker, unless he was completely off his rocker, would go near the Zone even at gunpoint, not if he knew that he was being watched. I should have been burrowing into the deepest, darkest corner at that very moment. Zone? What Zone? I hadn’t been in any Zone, even with a pass, for months! What are you harassing an honest lab worker for?

I thought the whole thing through and even felt a sense of relief that I wouldn’t be going into the Zone that day. But what would be the nicest way of informing Kirill of the fact?

I told him straight out.

“I’m not going into the Zone. What instructions do you have?”

At first, of course, he just stared at me bug-eyed. Then he seemed to understand. He led me by the elbow into his little office, sat me down at his desk, and sat on the windowsill facing me. We lit up. Silence. Then he asked me, careful-like:

“Has something happened, Red?”

What could I tell him?

“No,” I said. “Nothing happened. Yesterday I blew twenty bills at poker—that Noonan is a great player, the louse.”

“Wait a minute,” he said. “Have you changed your mind?”

I made a choking noise from the tension.

“I can’t,” I said to him through clenched teeth. “I can’t, do you understand? Herzog just had me up in his office.”

He went limp. He got that pathetic look again and his eyes looked like they were a sick poodle’s again. He shuddered, lit a new cigarette with the butt of the old one, and spoke softly.

“You can trust me, Red. I didn’t breathe a word to anyone.”

“Skip it,” I said. “Nobody’s talking about you.”

“I haven’t even told Tender yet. I made out a pass in his name, but I haven’t even asked him if he’ll go.”

I said nothing and went on smoking. It was funny and sad. The man didn’t understand a thing.

“What did Herzog say to you?”

“Nothing in particular,” I said. “Someone squealed on me, that’s all.”

He looked at me kind of strange, hopped off the sill, and started walking up and down. He ran around his office and I sat blowing smoke rings in silence. I was sorry for him, of course, and I felt bad that things hadn’t worked out better. Some cure I came up with for his melancholy. And whose fault was it? My own. I tempted a baby with a cookie, but the cookie was in a hiding place, and the hiding place was guarded by mean men … Then he stopped pacing, came up close to me, and looking off to the side somewhere, asked awkwardly:

“Listen, Red, how much would a full empty cost?”

At first I didn’t understand him. I thought at first that he was hoping to buy one somewhere. Where would you buy one? Maybe it was the only one in the world and besides he couldn’t possibly have enough dough for that. Where would he get the money from? He was a foreign scientist, and a Russian one at that. And then the thought struck me. So the bastard thinks that I’m doing it for the greenbacks? You so and so, I thought to myself, what do you take me for? I opened my mouth to tell him off. And I shut up. Because, actually, what else could he take me for? A stalker is a stalker. The more green stuff the better. He trades his life for greenbacks. And so it looked to him that yesterday I had cast my line and today I was reeling him in, trying to raise my price.

The thought made me tongue-tied. And he kept staring at me intently, without blinking. And in his eyes I saw not contempt but a kind of understanding, I guess. Then I calmly explained it to him.

“No one with a pass has ever gone to the garage before. They haven’t laid the tracks to it yet. You know that. So here we come back from the Zone and your Tender brags to everybody how we headed straight for the garage, picked up what we needed, and came right back. Like we just went down to the warehouse or something. And it will be perfectly clear to everyone,” I said, “that we knew ahead of time what we wanted there. And that means that someone set us on to it. And which of us three that could have been—well, there’s no point in spelling it out for you. Do you understand what’s in store for me here?”

I finished my little speech. We sat staring into each other’s eyes, saying nothing. Suddenly he clapped his hands, rubbed his palms together, and announced in a hearty tone:

“Well, if you can’t, you can’t. I understand you, Red, and I can’t pass judgment. I’ll go alone. Maybe it’ll go fine. It won’t be the first time.”

He spread out the map on the windowsill, leaned on his hands, and bent over it. All his heartiness seemed to evaporate before my eyes. I could hear him muttering.

“Forty yards, maybe forty-one, another three in the garage itself. No, I won’t take Tender along. What do you think, Red? Maybe I shouldn’t take Tender? He does have two kids, after all.”

“They won’t let you out alone,” I said.

“They will,” he muttered. “I know all the sergeants and all the lieutenants. I don’t like those trucks! They’ve been exposed to the elements for thirty years and they’re just like new. There’s a gasoline carrier twenty feet away and it’s completely rusted out, but they look like they’ve just come off the assembly line. That’s the Zone for you!”

He looked up from the map and stared out the window. And I stared out the window, too. The glass in our windows is thick and leaded. And beyond the windows—the Zone. There it is, just reach out and you can touch it. From the thirteenth floor it looks like it could fit in the palm of your hand.

When you look at it, it looks like any other piece of land. The sun shines on it like on any other part of the earth. And it’s as though nothing had particularly changed in it. Like everything was the way it was thirty years ago. My father, rest his soul, could look at it and not notice anything out of place at all. Except maybe he’d ask why the plant’s smokestack was still. Was there a strike or something?

Yellow ore piled up in cone-shaped mounds, blast furnaces gleaming in the sun, rails, rails, and more rails, a locomotive with flatcars on the rails. In other words, an industry town. Only there were no people. Neither living nor dead. You could see the garage, too: a long gray intestine, its doors wide open. The trucks were parked on the paved lot next to it. He was right about the trucks—his brains were functioning. God forbid you should stick your head between two trucks. You have to sidle around them. There’s a crack in the asphalt, if it hasn’t been overgrown with bramble yet. Forty yards. Where was he counting from? Oh, probably from the last pylon. He’s right, it wouldn’t be further than that from there. Those egghead scientists were making progress. They’ve got the road hung all the way to the dump, and cleverly hung at that! There’s that ditch where Slimy ended up, just two yards from their road. Knuckles had told Slimy: stay as far away from the ditches as you can, jerk, or there won’t be anything to bury. When I looked down into the water, there was nothing. This is the way it is with the Zone: if you come back with swag—it’s a miracle; if you come back alive—it’s a success; if the patrol bullets miss you—it’s a stroke of luck. And as for anything else—that’s fate.

I looked at Kirill and saw that he was secretly watching me. And the look on his face made me change my mind. The hell with them all, I thought. After all, what can those toads do to me? He really didn’t have to say anything, but he did.

“Laboratory Assistant Schuhart,” he says. “Official—and I stress official—sources have led me to believe that an inspection of the garage could be of great scientific value. I am suggesting that we inspect the garage. I guarantee a bonus.” And he beamed like the June sun.

“What official sources?” I asked, and smiled like a fool myself.

“They are confidential. But I can tell you.” He frowned. “Let’s say, I found out from Dr. Douglas.”

“Oh,” I said. “From Dr. Douglas. What Dr. Douglas?”

“Sam Douglas,” he said drily. “He died last year.”

My skin crawled. You so-and-so fool. Who talks about such things before setting out? You can beat these eggheads over the head with a two-by-four and they still don’t catch on. I stabbed the ashtray with my cigarette butt.

“All right. Where’s your Tender? How long do we have to wait for him?”

In other words, we didn’t touch on the subject again. Kirill phoned PPS and ordered a flying boot. I looked over his map to see what was on it. It wasn’t bad. It was a photographic process—aerial and highly enlarged. You could even see the ridges on the cover that was lying by the gates to the garage. If stalkers could get their hands on a map like that … but it wouldn’t be of great use at night when the stars look down on your ass and it’s so dark you can’t even see your own hands.

Tender made his entrance. He was red and out of breath. His daughter was sick and he had gone for the doctor. Apologized for being late. Well, we gave him his little present: we’re off into the Zone. He even stopped puffing and wheezing at first, he was so scared. “What do you mean the Zone?” he asked. “And why me?” However, talk of a double bonus and the fact that Red Schuhart was going too got him breathing again.

So we went down to the “boudoir” and Kirill went for the passes. We showed them to another sergeant, who handed us special outfits. Now they are handy things. Just dye them any other color than their original red, and any stalker would gladly pay 500 for one without blinking an eye. I swore a long time ago that one of these days I would figure out a way to swipe one. At first glance it didn’t seem like anything special, just an outfit like a diving suit with a bubble-top helmet with a visor. Not really like a diver’s—more like a jet pilot’s or an astronaut’s. It was light, comfortable, without binding anywhere, and you didn’t sweat in it. In a little suit like that you could go through fire, and gas couldn’t penetrate it. They say even a bullet can’t get through. Of course, fire and mustard gases and bullets are all earthly human things. Nothing like that exists in the Zone and there is no need to fear things like that in the Zone. And anyway, to tell the truth, people drop like flies in the special suits too. It’s another matter that maybe many many more would die without the suits. The suits are 100 percent protection against the burning fluff, for example, and against the spitting devil’s cabbage … All right.

We pulled on the special suits. I poured the nuts and bolts from the bag into my hip pocket, and we trekked across the institute yard to the Zone entrance. That’s the routine they have here, so that everyone will see the heroes of science laying down their lives on the altar of humanity, knowledge, and the holy ghost. Amen. And sure enough—all the way up to the fifteenth floor sympathetic faces watched us off. All we lacked were waving hankies and an orchestra. “Hup two,” I said to Tender. “Suck in your gut, you flabby platoon! A grateful mankind will never forget you!”

He looked at me and I saw that he was in no shape for joking around. And he was right, this was no time for jokes. But when you’re going out into the Zone you can either cry or joke—and I never cried, even as a child. I looked at Kirill. He was holding up under the strain, but was moving his lips, like he was praying.

“Praying?” I asked. “Pray on, pray. The further into the Zone the nearer to Heaven.”

“What?”

“Pray!” I shouted. “Stalkers go to the head of the line into Heaven.”

He broke out in a smile and patted me on the back, as if to say don’t be afraid, nothing will happen as long as you’re with me, and if it does, well, we only die once. He sure is a funny guy, honest to God.

We turned in our passes to the last sergeant, only this time, for a change of pace, it was a lieutenant. I know him, his father sells grave borders in Rexopolis. The flying boot was waiting for us, brought by the fellows from PPS and left at the passageway. Everyone else was waiting, too. The emergency first-aid team, and firemen, and our valiant guards, our fearless rescuers—a bunch of overfed bums with a helicopter. I wish I had never set eyes on them!

We got up into the boot, and Kirill took the controls and said: “OK, Red, lead on.”

Coolly, I lowered the zipper on my chest, pulled out a flask, took a good long tug, and replaced the flask. I can’t do it without that. I’ve been in the Zone many times, but without it—no, I just can’t. They were both looking at me and waiting.

“So,” I said. “I’m not offering any to you, because this is the first time we’re going in together, and I don’t know how the stuff affects you. This is the way we’ll do things. Anything that I say you do immediately and without question. If someone starts fumbling or asking questions I’ll hit whatever I reach first. I’ll apologize now. For example, Mr. Tender, if I order you to start walking on your hands you will immediately hoist your fat ass into the air and do what I tell you. And if you don’t, maybe you’ll never see your sick daughter again. Got it? But I’ll make sure that you do get to see her.”

“Just don’t forget to give me the order,” Tender wheezed. He was all red and sweating and chomping his lips. “I’ll walk on my teeth, not just on my hands, if I have to. I’m not a greenhorn.”

“You’re both greenhorns as far as I’m concerned,” I said. “And I won’t forget to give the orders, don’t worry. By the way, do you know how to drive a boot?”

“He knows,” Kirill said. “He’s a good driver.”

“All right then,” I said. “Then we’re off, Godspeed. Lower your visors. Low speed ahead along the pylons, altitude three yards. Halt at the twenty-seventh pylon.”

Kirill raised the boot to three yards and went ahead in low gear. I turned around without being noticed and spit over my left shoulder. I saw that the rescue squad had climbed into their helicopter, the firemen were standing at attention out of respect, the lieutenant at the door of the passage was saluting us, the jerk, and above all of them fluttered the huge, faded banner: “Welcome, Visitors.” Tender looked like he was about to wave to them, but I gave him such a jab in the ribs that he immediately dropped all ideas of such ceremonious bye-byes. I’ll show you how to say good-bye. You’ll be saying good-bye yet!

We were off.

The institute was on our right and the Plague Quarter on our left. We were traveling from pylon to pylon right down the middle of the street. It had been ages since the last time someone had walked or driven down this street. The asphalt was all cracked, and grass had grown in the cracks. But that was still our human grass. On the sidewalk on our left there was black bramble growing, and you could tell the boundaries of the Zone: the black growth ended at the curb as if it had been mown. Yeah, those visitors were well-behaved. They messed up a lot of things but at least they set themselves clear limits. Even the burning fluff never came to our side of the Zone—and you would think that a stiff wind would do it.

The houses in the Plague Quarter were chipped and dead. However, the windows weren’t broken. Only they were so dirty that they looked blind. At night, when you crawl past, you can see the glow inside, like alcohol burning with blue tongues. That’s the witches’ jelly breathing in the cellars. Just a quick glance gives you the impression that it’s a neighborhood like any other, the houses are like any others, only in need of repair, but there’s nothing particularly strange about them. Except that there are no people around. That brick house, by the way, was the home of our math teacher. We used to call him The Comma. He was a bore and a failure. His second wife had left him just before the Visitation, and his daughter had a cataract on one eye, and we used to tease her to tears, I remember. When the panic began he and all his neighbors ran to the bridge in their underwear, three miles nonstop. Then he was sick with the plague for a long time. He lost all his skin and his nails. Almost everyone who had lived in the neighborhood was hit, that’s why we call it the Plague Quarter. Some died, mostly the old people, and not too many of them. I, for one, think that they died from fright and not from the plague. It was terrifying. Everyone who lived here got sick. And people in three neighborhoods went blind. Now we call those areas: First Blind Quarter, Second Blind, and so on. They didn’t go completely blind, but got sort of night blindness. By the way, they said that it wasn’t any explosion that caused it, even though there were plenty of explosions; they said they were blinded from a loud noise. They said it got so loud that they immediately lost their vision. The doctors told them that that was impossible and they should try to remember. But they insisted that it was a powerful thunderbolt that blinded them. By the way, no one else heard the thunder at all.

Yes, it was as though nothing had happened here. There was a glass kiosk, unharmed. A baby carriage in a driveway—even the blankets in it looked clean. The antennas screwed up the effect though—they were overgrown with some hairy stuff that looked like cotton. The eggheads had been cutting their teeth on this cotton problem for some time. You see, they were interested in looking it over. There wasn’t any other like it anywhere. Only in the Plague Quarter and only on the antennas. And most important, it was right there, under their very windows. Finally they had a bright idea: they lowered an anchor on a steel cable from a helicopter and hooked a piece of cotton. As soon as the helicopter pulled at it, there was a pssst! We looked and saw smoke coming from the antenna, from the anchor, and from the cable. The cable wasn’t just smoking—it was hissing poisonously, like a rattler. Well, the pilot was no fool—there was a reason why he was a lieutenant—he quickly figured what was what and dropped the cable and made a quick getaway. There it was, the cable, hanging down almost to the ground and overgrown with cotton.

So we made it to the end of the street and the turn nice and easy. Kirill looked at me: should he turn? I signaled: as slow as possible! Our boot turned and inched over the last feet of human earth. The sidewalk was coming closer and the boot’s shadow was falling on the bramble. That’s it. We were in the Zone! I felt a chill. Each time I feel that chill. And I never know if that’s the Zone greeting me or my stalker’s nerves acting up. Each time I think that when I get back I’ll ask if others have the same feeling or not, and each time I forget.

All right, so there we were crawling quietly over what used to be gardens. The engine was humming evenly under our feet, calmly—it didn’t care, nothing was going to hurt it here. Then old Tender broke. We hadn’t even gotten to the first pylon when he started gabbing. All the greenhorns usually run off at the mouth in the Zone: his teeth were chattering, his heart thumping, his memory fading, and he was embarrassed and yet he couldn’t control himself. I think it’s like a runny nose with them. It doesn’t depend on the person at all—it just flows and flows. And what nonsense they babble! They flip out over the landscape or they express their views on the Visitors, or they talk about things having no relation to the Zone—like Tender, who got all wound up over his new suit and couldn’t stop. How much he had paid for it, how fine the wool was, how the tailor changed the buttons for him …

“Shut up.”

He looked at me pitifully, flopped his lips, and went on: how much silk it took for the lining. The gardens had ended by now, the clayey lot that used to be the town dump was under us. And I felt a light breeze. Except there was no wind at all, and suddenly there was a gust and the tumbleweed scattered, and I thought I heard something.

“Shut up, you bastard!” I said to Tender.

No, he couldn’t shut himself up. He was on the pockets now. I had no choice.

“Stop the boot!” I said to Kirill.

He braked immediately. Good reflexes, I was proud of him. I took Tender by the shoulder, turned him toward me, and smacked him in the visor. He cracked his nose, poor guy, against the glass, closed his eyes, and shut up. And as soon as he was quiet, I heard it. Trrr, trrr, trrr … Kirill looked over at me, jaws clenched, teeth bared. I motioned for him to be still. God, please be still, don’t move a muscle. But he also heard the crackle, and like all greenhorns, he had the urge to do something immediately, anything. “Reverse?” he whispered. I shook my head desperately and waved my fist right under his visor—cut it out. Honest to God, with these greenhorns you never know which way to look, at the field or at them. And then I forgot about everything. Over the pile of old refuse, over broken glass and rags, crawled a shimmering, a trembling, sort of like hot air at noon over a tin roof. It crossed over the hillock and moved on and on toward us, right next to the pylon; it hovered for a second over the road—or did I just imagine it?—and slithered into the field, behind the bushes and the rotten fences, back there toward the automobile graveyard.

Damn those eggheads! Some thinking to lay the road over the dump! And I had been really sharp myself—what was I thinking of when I raved over their stupid map? “Low speed forward,” I said to Kirill.

“What was that?”

“The devil knows. It was, and now it’s gone. Thank God. And shut up, please, you’re not a human being now, do you understand? You are a machine, my steering wheel.”

I suddenly realized that I was running off at the mouth. “Enough. Not another word.”

I wanted another drink. Let me tell you, these diving suits were nonsense. I lived through so much without a damn suit and will live through so much more, but without a big glug at a moment like this—well, enough of that!

The breeze seemed to have died down and I didn’t hear anything bad. The only sound was the calm, sleepy hum of the motor. It was very sunny and it was hot. There was a haze over the garage. Everything seemed all right, the pylons sailed past, one after the other, Tender was quiet, Kirill was quiet. The greenhorns were getting a little polish. Don’t worry, fellows, you can breathe in the Zone, too, if you know what you’re about. We got to Pylon 27; the metal sign had a red circle with the number 27 in it. Kirill looked at me, I nodded, and our boot stopped moving.

The blossoms had fallen off and it was the time for berries. Now the most important thing for us was total calm. There was no rush. The wind was gone, the visibility good. It was as smooth as silk. I could see the ditch where Slimy had kicked off. There was something colored in it—maybe his clothes. He was a lousy guy, God rest his soul. Greedy, stupid, and dirty. Just the type to get mixed up with Buzzard Burbridge. Buzzard sees them coming a mile away and gets his claws into them. In general, the Zone doesn’t ask who the good guys are and who the bad ones are. So thanks to you, Slimy. You were a damned fool, and no one remembers your real name, but at least you showed the smart people where not to step … Of course, our best bet would have been to get onto the asphalt. The asphalt is smooth and you can see what’s on it, and I know that crack well. I just didn’t like the looks of those two hillocks! A straight line to the asphalt led right between them. There they were, smirking and waiting. Nope, I won’t go between them. A stalker commandment states that there should be at least a hundred feet of clear space either on your left or your right. So, we can go over the left hillock. Of course, I didn’t know what was on the other side. There didn’t seem to be anything on the map, but who trusts maps?

“Listen, Red,” whispered Kirill, “why don’t we jump over? Twenty yards up and then straight down, and we’re right by the garage. Huh?”

“Shut up, you jerk,” I said. “Don’t bother me.”

He wants to go up. And what if something gets you at twenty yards? They’ll never find all your bones. Or maybe the mosquito mange would appear somewhere around here, then there wouldn’t even be a little damp spot left of you. I’ve had it up to here with these risk-takers. He can’t wait: let’s jump, he says. It was clear how to get to the hillock. And then we’d stay there for a bit and think about the next move. I pulled out a handful of nuts and bolts from my pocket. I held them in my palm and showed them to Kirill.

“Do you remember the story of Hansel and Gretel? Studied it in school? Well, we’re going to do it in reverse. Watch!” I threw the first nut. Not far, just like I wanted, about ten yards. The nut got there safely. “Did you see that?”

“So?” he said.

“Not ‘so.’ I asked if you saw it?”

“I saw it.”

“Now drive the boot at the lowest speed over to the nut and stop two feet away from it. Got it?”

“Got it. Are you looking for graviconcentrates?”

“I’m looking for what I should be looking for. Wait, I’ll throw another one. Watch where it goes and don’t take your eyes off it again.”

The second nut also went fine and landed next to the first one.

“Let’s go.”

He started the boot. His face was calm and clear. Obviously he understood. They’re all like that, the eggheads, the most important thing for them is to find a name for things. Until he had come up with a name, he was too pathetic to look at—a real idiot. But now that he had some label like graviconcentrate, he thought that he understood everything and life was a breeze.

We passed the first nut, and the second, and a third. Tender was sighing and shifting from foot to foot and yawning nervously—he was feeling trapped, poor fellow. It would do him good. He’d knock off ten pounds today, this was better than any diet. I threw a fourth nut. There was something wrong with its trajectory. I couldn’t explain what was wrong, but I sensed that it wasn’t right. I grabbed Kirill’s hand.

“Hold it,” I said. “Don’t move an inch.”

I picked up another one and threw it higher and further. There it was, the mosquito mange! The nut flew up normally and seemed to be dropping normally, but halfway down it was as if something pulled it to the side, and pulled it so hard that when it landed it disappeared into the clay.

“Did you see that?” I whispered.

“Only in the movies.” He was straining to see and I was afraid he’d fall out of the boot. “Throw another one, huh?”

It was funny and sad. One! As though one would be enough! Oh, science. So I threw eight more nuts and bolts until I knew the shape of this mange spot. To be honest, I could have gotten by with seven, but I threw one just for him smack into the middle, so that he could enjoy his concentrate. It crashed into the clay like it was a ten-pound weight instead of a bolt. It crashed and left a hole in the clay. He grunted with pleasure.

“OK,” I said, “we had our fun, now let’s go. Watch closely. I’m throwing out a pathfinder, don’t take your eyes off it.”

So we got around the mosquito mange spot and got up on the hillock. It was so small that it looked like a cat turd. I had never even noticed it before. We hovered over the hillock. The asphalt was less than twenty feet away. It was clear. I could see every blade of grass, every crack. It looked like a snap. Just throw the nut and be on with it.

I couldn’t throw the nut.

I didn’t understand what was happening to me, but I just couldn’t make up my mind to throw that nut.

“What’s the matter?” asked Kirill. “Why are we just standing here?”

“Wait,” I said. “Just shut up.”

I thought I’d toss the nut and then we’ll quietly move along, like coasting on melted butter, without disturbing a blade of grass. Thirty seconds and we’re on the asphalt. And suddenly I broke out in a sweat! My eyes were blinded by it. And I knew that I wouldn’t be throwing the nut there. To the left, as many as you want. The road was longer that way, and there was a bunch of pebbles that didn’t seem too cozy, but I was ready to throw in that direction. But not straight ahead. Not for anything. So I threw the nut to the left. Kirill said nothing, turned the boot, and drove up to the nut. Then he looked over at me. I must have looked pretty bad because he looked away immediately.

“It’s all right,” I said. “The path around is faster.” I tossed the last nut onto the asphalt.

It was a lot simpler after that. I found the crack, and it was still clean, not overgrown with any garbage, and unchanged in color. I just looked at it and rejoiced in silence. It led us to the garage door better than any pylons or signposts.

I ordered Kirill to descend to four feet. I lay flat on my belly and looked into the open doors. At first I couldn’t see anything because of the bright sunlight. Just blackness. Then my eyes grew accustomed and I saw that nothing seemed to have changed in the garage since the last time. The dump truck was still parked over the pit, in perfect shape, without any holes or spots. And everything was still the same on the cement floor—probably because there wasn’t too much witches’ jelly in the pit and it hadn’t splashed out since that time. There was only one thing that I didn’t like. In the very back of the garage, near the canisters, I could see something silvery. That hadn’t been there before. Well, all right, so there was something silvery, we couldn’t go back now just because of that! I mean it didn’t shine in any special way, just a little bit and in a calm, even a gentle way. I just got up, brushed myself off, and looked around. There were the trucks on the lot, just like new. Even newer than they had been the last time I was here. And the gasoline truck, the poor bastard was rusted through and ready to fall apart. There was the cover on the ground, just like on that map of theirs.

I didn’t like the looks of that cover. Its shadow wasn’t right. The sun was at our backs, yet its shadow was stretching toward us. Well, all right, it was far enough away from us. It seemed OK, we could get on with our work. But what was the silvery thing shining back there? Was it just my imagination? It would be nice to have a smoke now and sit for a spell and mull it all over—why there was that shine over the canisters, why it didn’t shine next to them, why the cover was casting that shadow. Buzzard Burbridge told me something about the shadows, that they were weird but harmless. Something happens here with the shadows. But what was that silvery shine? It looked just like cobwebs on the trees in a forest. What kind of spider could have spun it? I had never seen any bugs in the Zone. The worst part was that my empty was right there, two steps from the canisters. I should have stolen it that time. Then we wouldn’t be having any of these problems now. But it was too heavy. After all, the bitch was full, I could pick it up all right, but as for dragging it on my back, in the dark, on all fours … If you haven’t carried an empty around, try it: it’s like hauling twenty pounds of water without a pail. It was time to go. I wished I had a drink. I turned to Tender.

“Kirill and I are going into the garage now. You stay here. Don’t touch the controls without my orders, no matter what, even if the earth catches fire under you. If you chicken out, I’ll find you in the hereafter.”

He nodded at me seriously, as if to say, I won’t chicken out. His nose looked like a plum, I had really given him a solid punch. I lowered the emergency pulley ropes carefully, checked out the silvery glow one more time, waved Kirill on, and started down. On the asphalt, I waited for him to come down the other rope.

“Don’t rush,” I said. “No hurry. Less dust.”

We stood on the asphalt, the boot swaying next to us, and the ropes wriggling under our feet. Tender stuck his head over the rail and looked at us. His eyes were full of despair. It was time to go.

“Follow me step for step, two steps behind me, keep your eyes on my back, and stay alert.”

I went on. I stopped in the doorway to look around. It’s a hell of a lot easier working in the daylight than at night! I remember lying in that same doorway. It was pitch black and the witches’ jelly was shooting tongues of flame up from the pit, pale blue, like burning alcohol. It didn’t make things any lighter. In fact, the bastards made it seem even darker. And now, it was a snap! My eyes had gotten used to the murky light, and I could even see the dust in the darkest corners. And there really was something silvery over there—there were silvery threads stretching to the ceiling from the canisters. They sure looked like a spider’s web. Maybe that’s all it was, too, but I was going to keep away from it. That’s where I made my mistake. I should have stood Kirill right next to me, waited for his eyes to grow accustomed to the light, too, and then pointed out the web to him. Point it out to him. But I was used to working alone. I saw what I had to see, and I forgot all about Kirill.

I stepped inside and went straight for the canisters. I crouched over the empty. There didn’t seem to be any web on the empty. I picked up one end and said to Kirill:

“Here, grab one, and don’t drop it—it’s heavy.”

I looked up and felt a catch in my throat. I couldn’t utter a sound. I wanted to shout “Stop! Freeze!” but I couldn’t. And I probably wouldn’t have had time, anyway, it all happened so fast. Kirill stepped over the empty, turned his back to the canisters, and got his whole back into the silver web. I shut my eyes. I went numb and the only thing I heard was the web tearing. It was a weak crackly noise. I was crouched there with my eyes shut, unable to feel my arms or my legs, when Kirill spoke.

“Well, shall we get on with it?”

“Let’s go.”

We picked up the empty and headed for the door, walking sideways. It was terrifically heavy, the bitch, it was hard for the two of us to drag it. We came out into the sun and stopped by the boot. Tender reached out for it.

“OK,” said Kirill. “One, two … ”

“No,” I said. “Let’s wait a sec. Put it down first.”

We set it down.

“Turn around. Let’s see your back.”

He turned without a single word. I looked—there was nothing on his back. I turned him this way and that, but there was nothing. I looked back at the canisters, and there was nothing there either.

“Listen,” I said to Kirill, still looking at the canisters. “Did you see the spider web?”

“What web? Where?”

“All right. We were lucky.”

But to myself I thought: actually, there’s no way of knowing that yet.

“All right, let’s heave-ho.”

We stuffed the empty into the boot and fixed it so that it wouldn’t move around. There it was, the pussycat, shiny new and clean, the copper gleaming in the sun. Its blue filling sifted cloudily in slow streams between the disks. We could see that it wasn’t an empty at all, but something like a vessel, like a glass jar with blue syrup. We looked at it some more and then clambered into the boot and set off on the return trip without messing around.

These scientists sure have it easy! First of all, they work in daylight. And second, the only hard part is getting into the Zone. On the way back, the boot drives itself. In other words, it has a mechanism, a coursograph, I guess you’d call it, that controls the boot and drives it exactly along the course it took coming in. As we floated back, it repeated all our maneuvers, stopping and hovering for a bit, and then continuing. We went over each of my nuts and bolts. I could have gathered them up if I had wanted to.

My greenhorns were in a great mood, of course. They were turning their heads every which way and their fear was almost all gone. They started gabbing. Tender was waving his arms around and threatening to come right back after dinner to lay the road to the garage. Kirill plucked at my sleeve and started explaining his graviconcentrate phenomenon to me—that is, the mosquito mange spot. Well, I set them straight, but not right away. I calmly told them about all the jerks who blew it on the way back. Shut up, I told them, and keep your eyes peeled, or the same thing will happen to you that happened to Shorty Lyndon. That worked. They didn’t even ask what had happened to Shorty Lyndon. We floated along in silence and I only thought about one thing. How I would unscrew the cap. I was trying to picture my first gulp, but the web kept glistening before my eyes.

In short, we got out of the Zone, and we were sent into the delouser—the scientists call it the medical hangar—along with the boot. They washed us in three different boiling vats and in their alkaline solutions, smeared us with some gunk, sprinkled us with some powder, and washed us again, then dried us off and said, OK, friends, you’re free! Tender and Kirill dragged the empty. There were so many people who had come to gawk that you couldn’t push your way through them. And it was so typical. They were all just watching and grunting words of welcome, but not one was brave enough to lend a hand to the tired returnees. All right, that was none of my business. Now nothing concerned me any more.

I pulled off my special suit, threw it on the floor—let the bastard sergeants pick it up—and headed straight for the showers, because I was sopping wet from head to toe. I locked myself in a stall, got my flask, unscrewed the cap, and attached myself to it like a lamprey. I sat on the bench, my knees empty, my head empty, my soul empty. Gulping down the strong stuff like it was water. Alive. The Zone had let me out. It let me out, the bitch. The damn, treacherous bitch. I was alive. The greenhorns could never appreciate that. Only a stalker could. Tears were streaming down my cheeks, from the booze or what, I don’t know. I sucked the flask dry. I was wet, and the flask was dry. It didn’t have that one last gulp that I needed, of course. But that could be fixed. Everything could be fixed now. Alive. I lit a cigarette. I sat there and felt that I was coming round. The bonus pay came into my mind. That was a good deal we had at the institute. I could go right now and pick up the envelope. Or maybe they’d bring it to me here in the showers.

I started undressing slowly. I took off my watch, and saw that we had spent five hours in the Zone. My God! Five hours. I shuddered.

God, there really is no time in the Zone. Five hours. But if you think about it, what’s five hours to a stalker? A snap. How about twelve? Or how about two days? If you don’t manage in one night, you spend the whole day face down on the ground. And you don’t even pray, but mutter deliriously, and you don’t know if you’re dead or alive. And then you finish up the second night and get to the patrol point with your swag. The guards are there with their machine guns. And those bastards, those toads really hate you. There’s no great joy in arresting you, they’re terrified that you’re contaminated. All they want to do is bump you off and they’ve got all the aces—go prove that you were killed illegally. So that means you bury your face in the dirt again and pray until dawn and until dark again. And the swag lies next to you and you don’t know whether it’s just lying there or slowly killing you. Or you could end up like Knuckles Itzak, who got stuck at dawn in an open space. He got off the track and ended up between two ditches. He couldn’t go right or left. They shot at him for two hours, but couldn’t hit him. For two hours he made believe he was dead. Thank God, they finally believed it and left. I saw him after that. I couldn’t even recognize him. He was a broken man, no longer human.

I wiped my tears and turned on the water. I showered for a long time. First hot, then cold, then hot again. I used up a whole bar of soap. Then I got bored. I turned off the shower. Someone was banging on the door. Kirill was shouting:

“Hey, you stalker! Come on out of there! There’s a scent of the green around here.”

Greenbacks, that’s always good. I opened the door. He was standing there, half naked, in his shorts. He was ecstatic, his melancholy gone. He handed me the envelope.

“Here,” he said. “From a grateful humanity.”

“I spit on your humanity. How much is there?”

“In view of your bravery beyond the call of duty, and as an exception, two months’ pay!”

Yes, I could live on that kind of money. If I could get two months’ pay for every empty, I could have sent Ernest packing a long time ago.

“Well, are you pleased?” He was glowing, positively radiant, grinning from ear to ear.

“Not bad. And you?”

He didn’t answer. He hugged my neck, pressed me to his sweaty chest, pushed me away, and disappeared into the next stall.

“Hey!” I shouted after him. “How’s Tender? Washing out his underpants, I bet?”

“No way. Tender is surrounded by reporters. You should see him. He’s such a big shot. He’s telling them authoritatively … ”

“How is he telling them?”

“Authoritatively.”

“OK, sir. Next time I’ll bring my dictionary along, sir.” Then it was like an electric shock. “Wait, Kirill. Come out here.”

“I’m naked.”

“Come out. I’m not a dame.”

He came out. I took him by the shoulders and turned his back toward me. Nope. I must have imagined it. His back was clean. The rivulets of sweat dried up.

“What’s with you and my back?” he asked.

I kicked him in his bare can and dove into my stall and locked the door. Damn my nerves. I was seeing things there, and now I was seeing them here. The hell with it all! I’d get tanked up tonight. I’d really like to beat Richard, that’s what I’d like. That bum can really play cards. Can’t beat him with any hand. I tried reshuffling, even blessing them under the table.

“Kirill,” I shouted. “Are you going to the Borscht tonight?”

“It’s not the ‘Borscht,’ it’s pronounced ‘Borshch.’ How many times do I have to tell you.”

“Skip it. It’s spelled B-O-R-S-C-H-T. Don’t bug us with your customs. Are you going or not? I’d love to beat Richard.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Red. You simple soul, you don’t understand what it is we’ve brought back.”

“And I suppose you do?”

“Well, I don’t either. That’s true. But now for the first time we know what the empties are for, and if my bright idea works, I’ll write a monograph. I’ll dedicate it to you personally: To Redrick Schuhart, honored stalker, with respect and gratitude.”

“And they’ll put me away for two years.”

“But you’ll go down in science. That’s what they’ll call it, ‘Schuhart’s Jar.’ Like the sound of it?”

While we were bulling, I dressed. I put the empty flask in my pocket, counted my money, and left.

“Good luck, you complicated soul.”

He didn’t answer. The water was making a lot of noise.

There was Tender in person in the corridor. Red and puffed up like a turkey. Surrounded by coworkers, reporters, and a couple of sergeants (fresh from eating and picking their teeth), he was babbling on and on. “The technology that we command,” he blathered, “almost completely guarantees success and safety.” Then he saw me and dried up a bit. He smiled and made little waving motions with his hand. Well, I’d better split, I thought. I made for the door, but they caught me. I heard footsteps behind me.

“Mr. Schuhart! Mr. Schuhart! A few words about the garage!”

“No comment.” I broke into a run. But there was no getting away. There was one with a mike on my right, and another with a camera on my left.

“Did you see anything strange in the garage. Just two words!”

“No comment!” I said, trying to keep the back of my head to the camera. “It’s just a garage.”

“Thank you. How do you feel about turboplatforms?”

“Most wonderful.” I started edging toward the John.

“What do you think about the Visitation?”

“Ask the scientists,” I said, and slid behind the bathroom door.

I could hear them scratching at the door. So I called out: “I heartily recommend that you ask Mr. Tender how his nose came to look like a beet. He’s too modest to bring it up, but that was our most interesting adventure there.”

They shot down the corridor. Faster than racehorses. I waited a minute. Silence. Stuck out my head. Nobody. And I went on my way, whistling a tune. I went down to the lobby, showed my pass to the bean-pole sergeant, and saw that he was saluting me. I guess I was the hero of the day.

“At ease, sergeant,” I said. “I’m pleased.”

He showed so many teeth, you’d think I was flattering him beyond all reason.

“Well, Red, you sure are a hero. I’m proud to know you,” he said.

“So now you’ll have something to tell the girls about back in Sweden?”

“You bet! They’ll just melt in my arms!”

I guess he’s right. To tell the truth, I don’t like guys who are that tall and rosy-cheeked. Women go nuts over them, and I don’t know why. Height is not the important thing. I was walking down the street and thinking along these lines. The sun was shining and there was no one around. And suddenly I wanted to see Guta right then and there. Just like that. To look at her and hold her hand a while. After the Zone that’s about all you can manage—to hold hands. Especially when you think of those stories about what stalkers’ children turn out like … Who needs Guta now? What I really needed was a bottle, at least a bottle, of the hard stuff.

I went past the parking lot. There was a checkpoint there. There were two patrol cars in all their glory—low-slung and yellow, armed with searchlights and machine guns, the toads. And of course, the cops had blue helmets, too. They were blocking the whole street. There was no way to get through. I kept walking with my eyes lowered, because it would be better for me not to see them right now. Not in daylight. There’s two or three characters there that I’m afraid to recognize, because if I do, that’ll be the end of them. It was a good thing for them that Kirill lured me into working for the institute. Otherwise, by God, I would have found the snakes and finished them off.

I shouldered my way through the crowd, I was almost past it when I heard someone shout “Hey, stalker!” Well, that had nothing to do with me, so I went on, rummaging for a cigarette in my pocket. Someone caught up with me and took me by the sleeve. I shook off the hand and half turned toward the man and said politely:

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, mister?”

“Hold it, stalker,” he said. “Just two questions.”

I looked up at him. It was Captain Quarterblad. An old friend. He was all dried up and kind of yellow.

“Ah, greetings, captain. How’s the liver?”

“Don’t try to talk your way out of this, stalker.” He was angry and his eyes bored into me. “You’d be better off telling me why you don’t stop immediately when you’re called.”

And right behind him were two blue helmets, hands on holsters. You couldn’t see their eyes, just their jaws working under the helmets. Where in Canada do they find these guys? Have they been sent out here to breed? In general I have no fear of the patrol guards in daytime, but they could search me, the toads, and I wasn’t too crazy about the idea just then.

“Were you calling me, captain?” I said. “You were calling some stalker.”

“Are you trying to tell me that you’re not a stalker?”

“Once the time I spent thanks to you was over, I went straight. Quit stalking. Thanks to you, captain, my eyes were opened. If it hadn’t been for you … ”

“What were you doing in the Prezone Area?”

“What do you mean, what? I work there. Two years now.” To bring the unpleasant conversation to a close, I showed Captain Quarterblad my papers. He took my book and examined it page by page, sniffing and smelling every stamp and seal on it. He returned the book and I could see how pleased he was. His eyes lit up and there was color in his cheeks.

“Forgive me, Schuhart,” he said. “I didn’t expect it of you. I’m glad to see that my advice wasn’t wasted on you. Why, that’s marvelous. You can believe me or not, but even back then I knew that you would turn out all right. I just couldn’t believe that a fellow like you … ” He went on and on like a record. Looked like I had saddled myself with another cured melancholic. Of course, I listened, eyes lowered modestly, nodding, spreading my arms innocently, and if I recall, shyly scuffing the sidewalk with my foot. The gorillas behind the captain’s back listened a bit, and then got bored and went off some place more exciting. Meanwhile the captain was painting glorious vistas for my future: education was the light, ignorance was darkness, and the Lord loves and appreciates honest labor, and so on and so forth. He was slinging the same bull the priest used to give us in prison every Sunday. And I really needed a drink—my thirst wouldn’t wait. All right, I thought to myself, Red, you can put up with this too. You have to, so be patient. He can’t keep it up for much longer. Look, he’s losing his breath already. A lucky break. One of the patrol cars started signaling. Captain Quarterblad looked around, heaved a sigh of dismay, and gave me his hand.

“Well, I’m glad I met you, Honest Mr. Schuhart. I would have been happy to drink to this acquaintance. I can’t have whiskey, doctor’s orders, but I would have enjoyed a beer. But, duty calls. We’ll meet again,” he said.

God forbid. But I shook his hand and blushed and shuffled my feet, just like he wanted me to. He finally left me and I headed swift as an arrow for the Borscht.

It’s always empty that time of day in the Borscht. Ernest was behind the bar, wiping glasses, and holding them up to the light. It’s amazing, by the way, that whenever you come in, bartenders are always wiping glasses, as though their salvation depended on it or something. He’ll just stand there all day—pick up a glass, squint at it, hold it up to the light, breathe on it, and start rubbing. He’ll rub and rub, look it over again (this time from the bottom) and then rub some more.

“Hi, Ernie! Leave the poor thing alone. You’ll rub a hole through it.”

He looked at me through the glass, muttered something indistinct and without a further word poured me four fingers of vodka. I climbed up on a stool, took a sip, made a face, shook my head, and had another sip. The refrigerator was humming, the jukebox was playing something soft and low, Ernest was laboring over another glass. It was peaceful. I finished my drink and put the glass back down on the bar. Ernest immediately poured me another four fingers.

“A little better?” he muttered. “Coming round, stalker?”

“Stick to your wiping, why don’t you. You know, one guy rubbed until he got a genie. Ended up on easy street.”

“Who was that?” Ernest asked suspiciously.

“It was another bartender here. Before your time.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing. Why do you think the Visitation happened. It was all his rubbing. Who do you think the Visitors were?”

“You’re a bum,” Ernie said with approval.

He went to the kitchen and came back with a plate of grilled hot dogs. He put the plate in front of me, moved the catsup over toward me, and went back to his glasses. Ernest knows his stuff. His trained eye recognizes a stalker returned from the Zone with swag and he knows what a stalker needs after a visit to the Zone. Good old Ernie. A humanitarian.

I finished the hot dogs, lit a cigarette, and started calculating how much Ernie must make on us. I’m not sure of the prices the loot goes for in Europe, but I’d heard that an empty can get almost 2,500, and Ernie only gives us 400. Batteries there cost at least 100 and we’re lucky if we can get 20 from him. Of course, shipping the loot to Europe must cost plenty. Grease this palm and that one … and the stationmaster must be on his payroll too. When you think about it, Ernest really doesn’t make that much, maybe fifteen or twenty percent, no more. And if he gets caught, it’s ten years at hard labor.

Here my honorable meditations were interrupted by some polite type. I hadn’t even heard him walk in. He announced himself next to my elbow, asking permission to sit down.

“Don’t mention it. Please do.”

He was a skinny little guy with a sharp nose and a bow tie. His face looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. He climbed up on the stool next to me and said to Ernest:

“Bourbon, please!” And then turned to me. “Excuse me, but don’t I know you? You work in the International Institute, don’t you?”

“Yes. And you?”

He speedily whipped out his business card and set it in front of me. “Aloysius Macnaught, Agent Plenipotentiary of the Emigration Bureau.” Well, of course, I knew him. He bugs people to leave the city. As it is, there’s hardly half the population left in Harmont, yet he has to clear the place of us completely. I pushed away his card with my fingernail.

“No thanks. I’m not interested. My dream is to die in my hometown.”

“But why?” he jumped in quickly. “Forgive my indiscretion, but what’s keeping you here?”

“What do you mean? Fond memories of childhood. My first kiss in the municipal park. Mommy and daddy. My first time drunk, right here in this bar. The police station so dear to my heart … ” I took a heavily used handkerchief from my pocket and dabbed my eyes. “No, I can’t leave for any amount!”

He laughed, took a tiny sip of bourbon, and spoke in a thoughtful way.

“I just can’t understand you Harmonites. Life is tough in the city. There’s military control. Few amenities. The Zone right next to you—it’s like sitting on a volcano. An epidemic could break out any day. Or something worse. I can understand the old people. It’s hard for them to leave. But you, how old are you? Twenty-two, twenty-three? Can’t you understand that the bureau is a charitable organization, we don’t profit by this in any way. We just want people to leave this hellhole and get back into the mainstream of life. We underwrite the move, find you work. For young people like you, we pay for an education. No, I just don’t understand!”

“Do you mean nobody wants to leave?”

“Not nobody. Some are leaving, particularly the ones with families. But the young folk and the old people—what do you people want in this place? It’s a hick town, a hole.”

I let him have it.

“Mr. Aloysius Macnaught! You’re absolutely right. Our little town is a hole. It always has been and still is. But now it is a hole into the future. We’re going to dump so much through this hole into your lousy world that everything will change in it. Life will be different. It’ll be fair. Everyone will have everything that he needs. Some hole, huh? Knowledge comes through this hole. And when we have the knowledge, we’ll make everyone rich, and we’ll fly to the stars, and go anywhere we want. That’s the kind of hole we have here.”

I broke off here, because I noticed Ernest watching me in amazement. I felt uncomfortable. I don’t usually like using other people’s words, even when I agree with them. Besides, it was coming out kind of funny. When Kirill speaks, you listen and forget to close your mouth. And even though I seem to be saying the same things, it doesn’t come out the same. Maybe it’s because Kirill never slipped Ernest any loot under the counter …

Ernie snapped to attention and hurriedly poured me six fingers of booze at once, as if to bring me back to my senses. The sharp-nosed Mr. Macnaught took another sip of his bourbon.

“Yes, of course. Eternal batteries, the blue panacea. But do you really believe things will be the way you described them?”

“It’s none of your business what I really believe. I was speaking for the city. As for myself, what do you have in Europe that I haven’t seen? I know about your boredom. You knock yourself out all day, and watch TV all night.”

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be Europe.”

“It’s all the same, except that it’s cold in Antarctica.”

The amazing part was that I believed it in my guts as I said it to him. Our Zone, the bitch, the killer, was a hundred times dearer to me at that second than all of their Europes and Africas. And I wasn’t drunk yet, I had just pictured for a minute how I would drag myself home in a herd of cretins just like myself, how I would be pushed and squeezed in the subway, and how I was sick and tired of everything.

“And what about you?” he asked Ernest.

“I have a business,” he replied self-importantly. “I’m no punk. I’ve invested all my money in this business. The base commander himself comes in once in a while, a general, you understand? Why should I leave here?”

Mr. Aloysius Macnaught tried to make some point, quoting a lot of figures. But I wasn’t listening. I took a good long gulp, pulled out a lot of change from my pocket, got off the stool and pumped the jukebox. There’s a song on there: “Don’t Come Back If You’re Not Sure.” It has a good effect on me after a trip to the Zone. The jukebox was howling and rocking. I had taken my glass into the corner where I was hoping to even old scores with the one-armed bandit. And time flew like a bird. I was putting in my last nickel when Richard Noonan and Gutalin crashed into the hospitable arms of the bar. Gutalin was blotto, rolling his eyes and looking for a place to rest his fist. Richard Noonan was tenderly holding him by the elbow and distracting him with jokes. A pretty pair! Gutalin is a huge black ape with knuckles down to his knees, and Dick is a small round pink creature that all but glows.

“Hey!” shouted Dick. “There’s Red! Come over and join us!”

“R-r-right!” roared Gutalin. “There are only two real men in this whole city—Red and me! All the rest are pigs or Satan’s children. Red, you also serve the devil, but you’re still human.”

I came over with my glass. Gutalin peeled off my jacket and seated me at the table.

“Sit down, Red! Sit down, Satan’s servant. I like you. Let’s have a cry over the sins of mankind. A good long bitter wail.”

“Let’s wail,” I said. “Let’s drink the tears of sin.”

“For the day is nigh,” Gutalin announced “For the white steed is saddled and his rider has put his foot in the stirrup. And the prayers of those who have sold themselves to Satan are in vain. Only those who have renounced him will be saved. You, children of man who were seduced by the devil, who play with the devil’s toys, who dig up Satan’s treasures—I say unto you: you are blind! Awake, you bastards, before it’s too late! Trample the devil’s trinkets!” He stopped, as though he had forgotten what came next. “Can I get a drink here?” he suddenly asked in a different voice. “You know, Red, I’ve been canned again. Said I was an agitator. I keep explaining to them: Awake, blind ones, you’re falling into the pit and taking others with you! They just laughed. So I punched the shop leader in the nose and split. They’ll arrest me now. And for what?”

Dick came over and put the bottle on the table.

“It’s on me today!” I called to Ernest.

Dick gave me a sidelong look.

“It’s perfectly legal,” I said. “We’re drinking my bonus check.”

“You went into the Zone?” Dick asked. “Bring anything out?”

“A full empty,” I said. “For the altar of science. Are you going to pour that or not?”

“An empty!” Gutalin echoed in sorrow. “You risked your life for some empty! You survived, but you brought another devil’s artifact into the world. How do you know, Red, how much of sorrow and sin … ”

“Can it, Gutalin,” I said severely. “Drink and rejoice that I came back alive. To success, my friends.”

It went over well, the toast to success. Gutalin fell apart completely. He was weeping, the tears streaming like water from a spout. I know him well. It’s just a phase. Weeping and preaching that the Zone is the devil’s temptation. That we should take nothing out of it and return everything that we’ve taken. And go on living as though the Zone were not there. Leave the devil’s things to the devil. I like him. Gutalin, I mean. I usually like weirdos. When he has money, he buys up the swag without haggling, for whatever price the stalkers ask, and totes it back at night into the Zone and buries it. He was waiting. But he would be stopping soon.

“What’s a full empty?” Dick asked. “I know what a plain empty is, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a full one.”

I explained it to him. He nodded and smacked his lips.

“Yes, that’s very interesting. Something new. Who did you go with? The Russian?”

“Yes, with Kirill and Tender. You know, our lab assistant.”

“They must have driven you crazy.”

“Nothing of the kind. They behaved quite well. Especially Kirill. He’s a born stalker. He just needs a little more experience, to break him of his hurrying, and I’d go into the Zone every day with him.”

“And every night?” he asked with a drunken smirk.

“Drop it. A joke’s a joke.”

“I know. A joke’s a joke, but it can get me into a lot of trouble. I owe you one.”

“Who gets one?” Gutalin got excited. “Which one is it?”

We grabbed him by the arms and got him back in his chair. Dick stuck a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. We calmed him down. Meanwhile more and more people were coming in. The bar was crowded and many of the tables were taken. Ernest had gotten his girls and they were bringing drinks to the customers—beer, cocktails, vodka. I noticed that there were a lot of new faces in town lately, mostly young punks with long bright scarves hanging to the floor. I mentioned it to Dick. Dick nodded.

“What do you expect? They’re starting a lot of construction. The institute is putting up three new buildings and besides that they’re planning to wall off the Zone from the cemetery to the old ranch. The good times are over for the stalkers.”

“When were the good old days for stalkers?” I said. There you go, I thought, what’s all this new stuff? I guess I won’t be able to make a few bucks on the side any more. Maybe it’s for the best. Less temptation. I’ll go into the Zone in the daytime, like a decent citizen. The money’s not the same, of course, but it’s a lot safer. The boot, the special suit, and so on, and no worries with the border patrol. I can live on my salary, and I’ll booze it up on the bonuses. Then I got really depressed. Penny-pinching again: I can afford this, I can’t afford that. I’d have to save up to buy Guta the crummiest rag, no more bars, just cheap movies. It was bleak. Every day was gray, and every evening, and every night.

I was sitting there thinking, and Dick was yelling in my ear.

“Last night at the hotel I went into the bar for a nightcap. There were some new guys there. I didn’t like their looks at all. One comes over to me and starts a conversation in a roundabout way, lets me know that he knows me, knows what I do, where I work, and hints that he’s ready to pay good money for various services.”

“An informer,” I said. I wasn’t very interested. I’ve had my fill of informers and little talks about services.

“No, buddy, not an informer. Listen. I chatted for a bit, carefully, of course, led him on. He’s interested in certain objects in the Zone. Serious ones, at that. Batteries, itchers, black sprays, and other such baubles do nothing for him. He only hinted at what he did want.”

“What was it?”

“Witches’ jelly, as far as I could understand,” Dick said and looked at me strangely.

“Oh, so he wants the witches’ jelly, does he? How about some death lamps while he’s at it?”

“I asked him the same thing.”

“And?”

“Would you believe that he wants some, too.”

“Yes?” I said. “Well, let him go get it himself. It’s a snap. There are cellars full of witches’ jelly. Let him take a bucket and bail out as much as he wants. It’s his funeral.”

Dick said nothing and watched me without even smiling. What the hell was he thinking? Was he thinking of hiring me? And then I got it.

“Hold on,” I said. “Who was that guy? You’re not allowed to study the jelly even at the institute.”

“Right.” Dick was speaking slowly and watching me. “It’s research that holds potential danger for mankind. Now do you understand who that was?”

I understood nothing.

“The Visitors, you mean?”

He laughed, patted my hand, and said:

“Why don’t we just have a drink instead. You’re such a simple soul!”

“OK by me,” I said. But I was angry. The sons of bitches think I’m such a simpleton, eh? “Hey, Gutalin,” I said. “Gutalin! Wake up, let’s drink!”

Gutalin was fast asleep. His black cheek lay on the black tabletop and his hands drooped down to the floor. Dick and I had a drink without him.

“All right, now,” I said. “Simple soul or complicated, I’ll tell you what I would do about that guy. You know how much love I have for the police, but I’d turn him in.”

“Sure. And the police would ask you why this guy turned to you rather than someone else. Then what?”

I shook my head.

“It doesn’t matter. You, you fat jerk, you’ve only been in the city three years and haven’t been in the Zone once. You’ve only seen the witches’ jelly in the movies. You should see it in real life and what it does to a human being. It’s a horrible thing and it shouldn’t be brought out of the Zone. You know yourself that stalkers are a rough bunch, all they want is money and more money, but even the late Slimy wouldn’t have gone in on a deal like that. Buzzard Burbridge wouldn’t go for it either. I hate to think who would need witches’ jelly and for what.”

“Well, you’re right about all that,” said Dick. “But you see, I’d hate to be found one morning in bed having committed suicide. I’m not a stalker, but I am a practical person anyway, and I like living, you know. I’ve been doing it for a long time and I’ve gotten into the habit.”

Ernest shouted from the bar:

“Mr. Noonan! Telephone!”

“What the hell!” Dick said angrily. “Must be Shipping Adjustment again. They find you everywhere. Excuse me, Red.”

He got up and went to the phone. I stayed behind with Gutalin and the bottle, and since Gutalin was of no help at all, I attacked the bottle on my own. Goddamn that Zone. You can’t get away from it. Wherever you go, whoever you talk to, it’s always the Zone, the Zone, the Zone. It’s easy for Kirill to talk about the eternal peace and harmony that will come from the Zone. Kirill is a fine fellow and no fool—on the contrary, he’s really bright—but he doesn’t know a damn thing about life. He can’t even imagine what kind of scum and criminals hang around the Zone. Now somebody wants to get his hands on the witches’ jelly. Gutalin may be a drunk and a religious nut, but maybe he’s got something there. Maybe we should leave the devil’s things to the devil? Hands off.

Some punk in a bright scarf sat in Dick’s chair.

“Mr. Schuhart?”

“So what?”

“My name is Creon. I’m from Malta.”

“So how are things in Malta?”

“Things are fine in Malta, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about. Ernest put me on to you.”

So, I thought. That Ernest really was a bastard. Not a drop of pity in him. Here’s this young guy—tan, and clean, and pretty. Hasn’t ever shaved or kissed a girl. But Ernest doesn’t care. He just wants to send more people into the Zone. One out of three will come back with swag, and that’s money for him.

“So how’s old Ernest?” I asked.

He looked over at the bar.

“He looks well. I wouldn’t mind trading places with him.”

“I would. Want a drink?”

“Thanks, I don’t drink.”

“A smoke?”

“Forgive me, but I don’t smoke, either.”

“Damn you then. What the hell do you need the money for?”

He blushed and stopped smiling.

“Probably,” he said in a low voice, “that concerns only me, doesn’t it, Mr. Schuhart?”

“You’re absolutely right,” I said and poured myself another four fingers. My head was beginning to buzz and I was feeling a nice looseness in my limbs. The Zone had let go of me completely. “I’m drunk right now. I’m celebrating, as you can see. I went into the Zone and came back alive and with money. It doesn’t happen very often that people come back alive and even more rarely that they come back with money. So why don’t we postpone any serious discussions.”

He jumped up and excused himself. I saw that Dick was back. He was standing by his chair and I could see in his face that something had happened.

“Your tanks losing their vacuum again?”

“Yep,” he said. “Again.”

He sat down, poured himself a drink, freshened mine, and I could see that whatever it was, it had nothing to do with faulty goods. To tell the truth, he couldn’t care less about the shipments—a model worker!

“Let’s have a drink, Red.” Without waiting for me he gulped down his drink and poured himself another. “You know Kirill Panov died.”

I was so stoned that I didn’t quite understand. Someone died. So what.

“Well, let’s drink to the departed.”

He looked at me with his round eyes and only then did I feel as if a string had snapped inside my body. I remember that I got up and leaned against the table. I looked down at him.

“Kirill?” The silver web was before my eyes and I could hear it cracking again as it tore. And through the eerie sound of the cracking I could hear Dick’s voice as though he were in another room.

“Heart attack. They found him in the shower, naked. Nobody knows what’s happened. They asked about you. I told them you were in perfect shape.”

“What’s to understand? It’s the Zone.”

“Sit down. Sit down and have a drink.”

“The Zone,” I repeated. I couldn’t stop saying it. “The Zone, the Zone … ”

I couldn’t see anything around me except for the silver web. The whole bar was caught in the web and as people moved around, the web crackled softly as they touched it. The Maltese boy was standing in the middle. His childlike face was surprised—he didn’t understand a thing.

“Little boy,” I said gently. “How much do you need? Will a thousand be enough? Here, take it. Take it!” I shoved the money at him and started shouting: “Go to Ernest and tell him that he’s a bastard and scum. Don’t be afraid! Tell him! He’s a coward, too. Tell him and then go straight to the station and buy a ticket for Malta! Don’t stop anywhere.”

I don’t remember what else I shouted. I do remember ending up in front of the bar and Ernest giving me a glass of soda.

“You’re in the money today?” he asked.

“Yes, I’ve got some.”

“How about a little loan? I have to pay my taxes tomorrow.”

I realized that I had a bundle of money in my hand. I looked at the wad and muttered:

“That means he didn’t take it. Creon of Malta is a proud young man, it seems. Well, it’s out of my hands. Whatever happens now is fate.”

“What’s the matter with you?” my pal Ernie asked. “Had a little too much?”

“Nope, I’m fine,” I said. “Perfect shape. Ready for the showers.”

“Why don’t you head on home? You’ve had a little too much.”

“Kirill died.” I said to him.

“Which Kirill? The one-armed one?”

“You’re one-armed yourself, you bastard. You couldn’t make one man like Kirill from a thousand like you. You rat, you son of a bitch, you lousy scum bastard. You’re dealing in death, you know that? You bought us all with your dough. You want to see me tear your little shop apart?”

And just when I reared back to lay a good one on him I was grabbed and hauled off somewhere. I couldn’t understand anything then and I didn’t want to. I was shouting and fighting and kicking and when I came to I was in the John, all wet, and my face was in lousy shape. I didn’t even recognize myself in the mirror. My cheek was twitching, I’d never had that before. Outside I could hear a racket, dishes breaking, the girls squealing, and Gutalin roaring louder than a grizzly: “Repent, you good-for-nothings! Where’s Red? What have you done with him, you seeds of the devil?” And the wail of the police siren.

As soon as I heard it, everything became crystal clear in my brain. I remembered everything, knew everything, and understood everything. And there was nothing left in my soul but icy hatred. So, I thought, I’ll give you a party! I’ll show you what a stalker is, you lousy bloodsucker! I pulled out an itcher from my watch pocket. It was brand new, never used. I squeezed it a couple of times to get it going, opened the door into the bar and tossed it quietly into the spittoon. Then I opened the window and climbed out into the street. I really wanted to stick around and see it all happen, but I had to get out of there as fast as possible. The itchers give me nosebleeds.

I ran across the backyard. I could hear my itcher working full blast. First all the dogs in the neighborhood started howling and barking—they sense the itcher before humans do. Then someone in the bar started yelling so loud that my ears clogged even at that distance. I could just see the crowd going wild in there—some fall into deep depression, others freak out, and some panic with fear. The itcher is a terrifying thing. Ernest will have a long wait before he can get a full house in his place again. The bastard will guess of course that it was me, but I don’t give a damn. It’s over. There is no more stalker named Red. I’ve had enough. Enough of risking my own life and teaching other fools how to risk theirs. You were wrong, Kirill, my old buddy. I’m sorry, but you were wrong and Gutalin was right. This was no place for humans. The Zone was evil.

I climbed over the fence and headed home. I was biting my lip. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. All I saw was emptiness and sadness. Kirill, my buddy, my only friend, how could it have happened? How will I get on without you? You painted vistas for me, about a new world, a changed world. And now what? Someone in far-off Russia will cry for you, but I can’t. And it was all my fault. No one else but me, a good-for-nothing. How could I take him into the garage when his eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dark? I’d lived my whole life like a wolf, caring only about myself. And suddenly I decided to be a benefactor and give him a little present. Why the hell did I ever mention that empty to him? When I thought about it, I felt a pain in my throat and I wanted to howl. Maybe I did. People were avoiding me on the street. And then things got easier: I saw Guta coming.

She was coming toward me, my beauty, my darling girl, walking with her pretty little feet, her skirt swaying over her knees. Eyes followed her from every doorway. But she was walking a straight line, looking at no one, and I realized that she was looking for me.

“Hello,” I said. “Guta, where are you going?”

She took me in in one glance—my bashed-in face, my wet jacket, my scraped hands—but she didn’t say a thing.

“Hello, Red. I was just coming to see you.”

“I know. Let’s go to my place.”

She turned away and said nothing. Her head is so pretty on her long neck, like a young mare’s, proud but submissive to her master.

“I don’t know, Red. You may not want to see me any more.”

My heart contracted. What now? But I spoke calmly.

“I don’t understand what you’re getting at, Guta. Forgive me, I’m a little drunk today, so I’m not thinking straight. Why wouldn’t I want to see you any more?”

I took her hand and we walked slowly toward my place. Everybody who had been eyeing her before was hurrying to hide his mug now. I’ve lived on this street all my life and everybody knows Red very well. And anyone who doesn’t will get to know me fast enough, and he can sense that.

“Mother wants me to have an abortion,” she said suddenly. “I don’t want to.”

I had walked several steps before I understood what she was saying.

“I don’t want an abortion. I want to have your child. You can do what you want, go off to the four corners of the world. I won’t keep you.”

I listened to her and watched her get heated up. And I was feeling more and more stunned. I just couldn’t make head or tail of it. There was this nonsensical thought buzzing in my head: one man less, one man more.

“She keeps telling me that a baby by a stalker will be a freak, that you’re a wanderer, that we’ll have no real family. Today you’re free, tomorrow you’re in jail. But I don’t care, I’m ready for anything. I can do it alone. I’ll have him alone, I’ll raise him alone, and make him into a man alone. I can manage without you, too. But don’t you come around to me any more. I won’t let you through the door.”

“Guta, my darling girl,” I said. “Wait a minute … ” I couldn’t go on talking. A nervous, idiotic laugh was welling and breaking me up. “My honeypie, why are you chasing me away then?”

I was laughing like a village idiot, and she was bawling on my chest.

“What will happen to us now, Red?” she asked through her tears. “What will happen to us now?”