Man in a Cage Read online

  EARLY BIRD BOOKS

  FRESH EBOOK DEALS, DELIVERED DAILY

  LOVE TO READ?

  LOVE GREAT SALES?

  GET FANTASTIC DEALS ON BESTSELLING EBOOKS

  DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX EVERY DAY!

  The Galaxy’s Greatest Newsletter

  Delivered to Your Inbox

  Get awesome tales of fantasy and science fiction once a week.

  Visit us at www.theportalist.com

  The Web’s Creepiest Newsletter

  Delivered to Your Inbox

  Get chilling stories of

  true crime, mystery, horror,

  and the paranormal,

  twice a week.

  Man in a Cage

  Brian M. Stableford

  Dedication:

  For Katharine Madge and Chris Macrae

  Contents

  Madman’s Dance

  Genesis

  Titan Nine

  There and Back Again

  Cage of Darkness

  Chapter One. Introductory Note

  Madman’s Dance

  Sensual Experiences in a Virgin Universe

  Titan Nine

  Security

  Cage of Darkness

  Claustrophobia

  Madman’s Dance

  Tempus Fugitive

  Titan Nine

  Letter to Canaan

  Cage of Darkness

  The Bottom Falling Out of the World

  Madman’s Dance

  Mime to Silent Music

  Titan Nine

  Horizons

  Madman’s Dance

  A Question of Characterization

  Cage of Darkness

  Me and My Shadow

  Madman’s Dance

  Recombinations in the Kaleidoscope

  Titan Nine

  Sobieski’s Shield

  Cage of Darkness

  An Innocent Man

  Madman’s Dance

  The Acquired Taste of Desolation

  Titan Nine

  I’m Writing a Letter to Daddy, His Address Is Heaven Above

  Madman’s Dance

  Embracing Oblivion

  Cage of Darkness

  “The Secondhand Life of Harker Lee” Chapter Six: How to Be a Successful Schizophrenic

  Madman’s Dance

  Crying in the Wilderness

  Titan Nine

  The Titans

  Cage of Darkness

  Survival

  Madman’s Dance

  While the Gods Sleep Restfully, the World Is Free from Nightmares

  Titan Nine

  Five-Card Stud

  Madman’s Dance

  Lost in the Metaplastic Maze

  Titan Nine

  The Waiting Game

  Madman’s Dance

  In the Prison of My Dreams

  Titan Nine

  The Man Who Came Back

  Cage of Darkness

  Contacts

  Madman’s Dance

  Eternity in the Balance

  Titan Nine

  Just Lie Down and Relax — This Isn’t Going to Hurt a Bit

  Cage of Darkness

  We All Need Somebody to Look Down On

  Madman’s Dance

  Vanished from My Hand, Left Me Blindly Here to Stand

  Titan Nine

  Standing on the Brink of Infinity, Looking at My Watch

  Cage of Darkness

  Time Isn’t on My Side

  Madman’s Dance

  Specific Spatiotemporal Patterns of Neuronal Activity

  Titan Nine

  Tomorrow Morning Is the Beginning of the Rest of Your Life

  Cage of Darkness

  Strategies

  Madman’s Dance

  You Can Drive a Horse to Water, but a Pencil Must Be Lead

  Titan Nine

  Where No Man Has Gone Before, Beyond the Split Infinitive

  Madman’s Dance

  Adeste Fideles, Laete Triumphantes

  Madman’s Dance

  Genesis

  In the beginning, you create the heaven and the earth. That’s the first thing you do, every time — build cages. And the second thing you do is to pin the labels on.

  And the earth is without form, and void; and darkness is upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit moves upon the face of the waters.

  And you say, Let there be light: and there is light.

  And you see the light, that it is good: and you divide the light from the darkness, and the pattern of light and darkness is one of the cages.

  And you call the light Day, and the darkness you call Night. And the evening and the morning are the first day. And you rest. You’re not attempting the record. That’s right. Play it safe. Play it by the book. Easy now.

  And you say, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

  And you make the firmament and divide the waters which are under the firmament from the waters which are above the firmament: and it is so.

  And you call the firmament a cage of darkness. And the evening and the morning are the second day. That’s right. A cage of darkness. Face it. Make it what it is. Start with a clean sheet. No hypocrisy. You and I, Titan. Never forget that. Come the time, we go running home, right back into the cage of darkness. Don’t forget the door. Face the facts. You’re not God, you’re just playing the game. Come the time, the game ends. You and I, we have the sense to go home, whether it rains or not. It’s a game, only a game.

  And you say, Let the waters under the cage of darkness be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it is so.

  And you call the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters you call Seas: and you see that it is good.

  And you say, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself the earth: and it is so.

  And the earth brings forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself, after his kind: and you see that it is good.

  And the evening and the morning are the third day. Careful now, it’s taking shape. Think carefully, when you fill these cages, is there anything you could well do without? If there is, should you? How much self-indulgence can you permit yourself? How much can you permit yourself in your image? If anything. Dare you tamper with the script? Dare you get more than a few little words — just a label — out of line? How much can you give yourself? It’s only a game. You have to remember that. You have to go back. The door is open now, and you’re free. But you’re on parole. You’ve got to leave that door where it is. You’ve got to carry that door with you wherever you are. And if you’re everywhere, then that door has to be everywhere, too. You have to have that door. Don’t make a world for yourself which will shut that door, which won’t permit that door to be open, and to be with you. Be careful. Be careful. The book is safe. You know the book.

  And you say, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons and for days, and years.

  And let them be for lights in the firmament of the cage of darkness to give light upon the earth: and it is so.

  And you make two great lights; the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night: you make the stars also. />
  And you set them in the firmament of the cage of darkness to give light upon the earth.

  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and you see that it is good.

  And the evening and the morning are the fourth day. You have to have the stars. The stars are necessary. Without the stars there’s nothing to laugh at you from beyond the bars of the cage. Without something to laugh at you from beyond, how are you going to remind yourself of the cage, while you are yourself beyond? Look at the stars, Titan, look at the stars.

  And you say, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open sky.

  And you create great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the water brings forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and you see that it is good.

  And you bless them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

  And the evening and the morning are the fifth day. No sweat. But the difficult bit is right around the corner. Tread softly, for you trespass on my dreams. Play it by ear, but play it well. This passage is the crucial one. Slip here and you can kiss good-bye to that cage which caresses you with such exquisite claustrophobia. Count your motives, and keep time. Whatever you do, keep time.

  And you say, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind; and it is so.

  And you make the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and you see that it is good.

  And you say, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

  So you create man in your own image, in the image of yourself create you him; male and female create you them.

  And you say unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

  And you say, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the first of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it is so.

  And you see every thing that you have made, and, behold it is very good. And the evening and the morning are the sixth day. Thus the cage of darkness and the earth which it contains are finished, and all the host of them. And you have to live with this, and in this, and for this. You just don’t know what you might have done. How can you?

  In your image.

  And mine, because don’t kid yourself that your image isn’t mine. In our own image, you have created man. You have created Sam Mastervine and Luis Dalquier and Nathan Petrie. And Judas Dancer. In our image.

  Was there something wrong with Adam and Eve? This is a game, you know. A game of God, but a game just the same. You, of all people, cannot afford delusions of grandeur. You cannot afford to be a vain god. You have that door to carry behind you, in your pocket, in your hand, on your back. You can’t close that door on the whole damn human race. You’re not Lindquist — you know better than he did. You know about that door. When Lindquist went into the labyrinth he didn’t have any way back, but if you get lost it’s you and you alone. We have to go back, you and I. Back into captivity, back into that cage of darkness with all the rest of the animals. You know that. I know what you have up your sleeve. Adam carried the can: he took the responsibility that should never have been his, and he caged humanity in blood, sweat, and tears. But you can’t do that, because I won’t let you. You can’t hand over the responsibility and the blame to Judas Dancer. I won’t let you. Judas won’t let you. He doesn’t have to take that from you, and he won’t. We’re free, Judas and I, and we’re free to go back to our cage. You can’t stop us. We’re not going to let you carry this game into all eternity.

  We’ll keep that door open if you can’t. If you won’t.

  You sleep, you dream. But I’ll be awake inside your dream, and come the time I’m going to sound an alarm like you never heard, and I’ll take you through that door if I have to blast your universe apart!

  Titan Nine

  There and Back Again

  It was as hot as hell inside the Chevy, but I wasn’t complaining. It could have been a lot worse — an armored van with blacked-out windows, for instance. Plus manacles. I was privileged, and it was advisable to be seen to be appreciating it. No time off for good behavior, of course, but easier time — and you can’t appreciate how much that means.

  The desert looked like a well-kept woman — all powder and rouge on the surface, but pleasantly shaped and good looking in spite of it all. I appreciated that, too — you get a taste for dead space eventually.

  We could see the tower above the big iron gates from a good few miles away.

  “That it?” the driver asked me. How the hell was I supposed to know? I told him I guessed so. The guy beside me grinned, but he didn’t say anything. We’d already been through all the banal remarks like how much I was looking forward to a change of scene and how the project was shut up so tight it would be just like Block C except the personnel would be crazier. We’d ridden most of the way in silence. How can you build up a conversation out of idiot cracks like that? Not that these guys were idiots, mind — just that we didn’t exactly have a lot in common.

  The driver reined in the car about ten yards short of the gates. He looked expectantly toward the guardhouse, but he didn’t make a move. Neither did I. There’s protocol to be observed at times like this. They could come out and fetch me.

  There was a pause before the gateman came out. He’d been on the phone. He looked us all over, with speculative contemplation, as if he were playing on a panel game on TV. Spot the loony. It wasn’t difficult. The honor guard were in uniform. I wasn’t.

  My companion leaned across to unlock the near-side front door. The gateman opened it and held it while I pushed the seat forward and climbed out. The security man followed me. The titan man was a corporal — just the commissionaire. Titan obviously thought it was too hot to leave a reception committee kicking their heels in the guardhouse. There would be time to waste while they got out here so that I could be handed over with all due ceremony.

  I looked up at the tower, where the Pfc. was pointing his beady eye down the barrel of his machine gun, sighting on the end of my nose. I didn’t know whether it was idle amusement or regulations — I sure as hell wasn’t contemplating violence and/or escape.

  “Just stand where you are and take it easy,” said the corporal. He was drawling slowly, to cover up his uneasiness. His eyes drifted to the light moccasins on my feet, and he shook his head slightly as he raised them slowly past the old denims and the red corduroy shirt.

  “Sorry, son,” I said. “Just seems like I hadn’t got a damn thing to wear.” It had been ten years and more. Perhaps the soldier expected that the powers that be would let me keep my nice prison uniform for occasions like this one. No chance. Government property.

  I took a few deep breaths of clean air and let my eyes roam around the far horizon.

  “You’re taking a chance making me stand here,” I said, to no one in particular. “I’m not used to it. I could drop dead of agoraphobia any second.”

  “Like hell,” said my guardian angel. “You ain’t been away from empty space so long that you’ve forgotten what it looks like.”

  “Looks like, no,” I conceded. “Feels like, yes
.”

  “You can’t go inside,” said the corporal. His eyes flicked sideways and slightly upward. There was a remote-control camera mounted on the guardhouse side of the gate. The lens was staring at me with frank curiosity. It’s not me, fella, it’s the camera. I could have died laughing.

  “This is my best side,” I said, turning away from the lens altogether to transfix my pet security man with a gaze of injured innocence. He opened his mouth to say something nasty, but his thoughts caught up with his tongue, and he permitted himself to make allowances for the fact that I was crazy. He didn’t like me, but he wasn’t a bad guy by any means.

  The soldier simply stared. Eventually, I went back to grinning at the lens. There was a buzz from the corporal’s cubbyhole. He backed up to it and pulled a phone receiver from its hiding place like a rabbit from a hat.

  “You got the papers,” he said to the security man. He had to come forward and take them, because my traveling companion had strict orders to stay behind me every possible moment. Nobody turns his back on Harker Lee. I wonder why not.

  “The captain’ll be here any moment,” muttered the corporal, turning an anxious eye back on the road which led away from the gate. That was a pointless exercise, because the road ridged about two hundred yards beyond the guardhouse, and the whole of titan base was hidden in a crater.

  “You get lonely out here?” I asked him, helping to pass the time. “Or do you talk to him?” I jerked a thumb toward the kid in the tower, who was still playing make-believe games with his machine gun. I hoped the safety catch was on. Do machine guns have safety catches?

  “It’s not so bad,” the guard replied. “I can read.”

  “Clever boy,” I said, and he colored slightly.

  More silence.

  “We could unload my luggage,” I commented idly. But my guardian angel just handed me the briefcase without having to move. He had it ready all the time. There was nothing in it but paper. I travel light. Not even an alarm clock.

  A jeep roared over the hill and swooped down the long, dusty curve to the guardhouse. The driver deliberately skidded it when he slowed it around to a halt at right angles to the gate. Fancy man, I thought.