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The German was much thinner than the last time he had seen him.
Goring said, `I don't know how long I've been here. What time is it?'
`About an hour until dawn, I'd say. It's the day after Resurrection
Celebration.'
'Then I've been here three days. Could I have a drink of water? My
throat's dry as a sarcophagus.'
`No wonder. You're a living sarcophagus if you're addicted to
dreamgum.' Burton stood up, gesturing with the assegai at a fired-clay pot
on a little bamboo table nearby. `You can drink if you want to. But don't try
anything.'
Goring rose slowly and staggered to the table. `I'm too weak to give
you a fight even if I wanted to.' He drank noisily from the pot and then
picked up an apple from the table. He took a bite, and then said, `What're
you doing here? I thought I was rid of you.'
`You answer my question first,' Burton said, `and be quick about it.
You pose a problem that I don't like, you know.'
20
Goring started chewing, stopped, stared, then said, `Why should I?
I don't have any authority here, and I couldn't do anything to you if I did. I'm
just a guest here. Damned decent people, these; they haven't bothered me
at all except to ask if I'm all right now and then. Though I don't know how
long they'll let me stay without earning my keep.'
`You haven't left the hut?' Burton said. `Then who charged your
grail for you? How'd you get so much dreamgum?' Goring smiled slyly. `I
had a big collection from the last place I stayed; somewhere about a
thousand miles up The River.'
`Doubtless taken forcibly from some poor slaves,' Burton said. `But
if you were doing so well there, why did you leave?' Goring began to weep.
Tears ran down his face, and over his collarbones and down his chest, and
his shoulders shook.
`I . . . I had to get out. I wasn't any good to the others. I was losing
my hold over them spending too much time drinking, stroking marihuana,
and chewing dreamgum. They said I was too soft myself. They would have
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killed me or made me a slave. So I sneaked out one night ... took the boat.
I got away all right and kept going until I put into here. I traded part of my
supply to Sevier for two weeks' sanctuary.' Burton stared curiously at
Goring.
`You knew what would happen if you took too much gum,' he said.
`Nightmares, hallucinations, delusions. Total mental and physical
deterioration. You must have seen it happen to others.'
`I was a morphine addict on Earth!' Goring cried. `I struggled with it,
and I won out for a long time. Then, when things began to go badly for the
Third Reich and even worse for myself when Hitler began picking on
me, I started taking drugs again!' He paused, then continued, `But here,
when I woke up to a new life, in a young body, when it looked as if I had an
eternity of life and youth ahead of me, when there was no stern God in
Heaven or Devil in Hell to stop me, I thought I could do exactly as I pleased
and get away with it. I would become even greater than the Fuehrer! That
little country in which you first found me was to be only the beginning! I
could see my empire stretching for thousands of miles up and down The
River, on both sides of the valley. I would have been the ruler of ten times
the subjects that Hitler ever dreamed of!' He began weeping again, then
paused to take another drink of water, then put a piece of the dreamgum in
his mouth. He chewed, his face becoming more relaxed and blissful with
each second.
Goring said, `I kept having nightmares of you plunging the spear
into my belly. When I woke up, my belly would hurt as if a flint had gone
into my guts. So I'd take gum to remove the hurt and the humiliation. At
first, the gum helped. I was great. I was master of the world, Hitler,
Napoleon, Julius Caesar, Alexander, Genghis Khan, all rolled into one. I
was chief again of Von Richthofen's Red Death Squadron; those were
happy days, the happiest of my life in many ways. But the euphoria soon
gave way to hideousness. I plunged into hell; I saw myself accusing myself
and behind the accuser a million others. Not myself but the victims of that
great and glorious hero, that obscene madman Hitler, whom I worshipped
so. And in whose name I committed so many-crimes.'
`You admit you were a criminal?' Burton said. `That's a story
different than the one you used to give me. Then you said you were
justified in all you did, and you were betrayed by the...' He stopped,
realizing that he had been sidetracked from his original purpose. `That you
should be haunted with the specter of a conscience is rather incredible. But
perhaps that explains what has puzzled the puritans why liquor, tobacco,
marihuana, and dreamgum were offered in the grails along with food. At
least, dreamgum seems to be a gift booby-trapped with danger to those
who abuse it.' He stepped closer to Goring: The German's eyes were half-
closed, and his jaw hung open.
`You know my identity. I am traveling under a pseudonym, with
good reason. You remember Spruce, one of your slaves? After you were
killed, he was revealed, quite by accident, as one of those who somehow
resurrected all the dead of humanity. Those we call the Ethicals, for lack of
a better term. Goring, are you listening?' Goring nodded.
`Spruce killed himself before we could get out of him all we wanted
to know. Later, some of his compatriots came to our area and temporarily
put everybody to sleep probably with a gas intending to take me away to
wherever Their headquarters are. But They missed me. I was off on a
trading trip up The River. When I returned, I realized They were after me,
and I've been running ever since. Goring, do you hear me?' Burton slapped
him savagely on his cheek. Goring said, 'Ach!' and jumped back and held
the side of his face. His eyes were open, and he was grimacing.
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