Children of Tomorrow by A. E. van Vogt Read Free Book Online Page A

is report this to your outfit. And you’ll only get a third stage dashing.’
    If Joe heard the reassurance, it did not show. He tried to speak, but it was only a noise and not a meaningful word that came from his lips. The dark-haired girl watched his dissolution, her lips curling. ‘Typical outfit material,’ she said with a sneer.
    Nonetheless, she made her first attempt now to help him. ‘Joe,’ she said, and her voice dripped with cool assurance, ‘It’s only the word of a one-cheek-kisser against yours.’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t count, of course.’
    A pitying expression had come into Susan’s face. ‘Joe,’ she said, ^why don’t you just leave? And be sure to run. Running alters the adrenalin in your system when the pressure is this strong.’
    This time he heard; for he started off, uncertainly at first. Then, as the two girls walked after him, he actually broke into a loping run. As they emerged from the alcove, Joe was twenty feet further along the street, running.
    The dark girl called after him, ‘And don’t you ever come near me again, you coward.’ Her tone was vicious.
    ‘Ssshhh, Dolores,’ said Susan. 'You know there is no such thing as a coward.’
    Dolores was scathing. 'You outfitters have all kinds of weasel words for what people do. It didn’t stop the Red Cats from kicking me out.’
    Susan said, ‘It’s not the same thing. You wouldn’t admit you were wrong. Joe will.’
    Dolores stood there; the faint, angry smile that had been on her face faded. Only the anger remained. ‘I wasn’t wrong. I was Lee’s moocher until your sweet phony little face got to him. Look at me now. Look what you did to me.’
    Susan was suddenly uneasy. She had been in this conversation before, her expression said; and she didn’t want a repeat. ‘You know the rule,’ she said, slowly, ‘when such a shift happens. Join another outfit. They were willing. You weren’t.®
    ‘I couldn’t be that two-faced,’ Dolores snarled.
    A change came into her expression. The words, the memory 3 seemed to break through to the turmoil underneath, to the jealousy and fury that was there, always close to the surface. Without warning, she struck at the blonde girl.
    It was an awkward blow, and it landed on Susan’s arm. Susan winced, but it was obviously not too painful. She backed away, said in her steadiest voice, ‘Go to school, Dolores!’
    But the dark-haired girl came forward, her face grim, her eyes narrowed. ‘I hate your guts!’ she said. Up came her arm. Once more she tried to strike. But Susan evaded the attempt, and said, ‘You know the rule for me on this I won’t fight. My job is to prevent you from doing something that will make it necessary for something to be done about you.’
    The blonde girl was more relaxed, after an initial strong anxiety. A rescuer was coming. In the near distance on the street behind and beyond Dolores, a familiar boy’s figure had come into view. She recognised Mike Sutter. He had been sauntering, but as he saw the tableau ahead of him, he began to walk faster. And as Dolores, in a second impulse to violence, again ran at Susan and tried to hit her, Mike broke into a run.
    He was wearing soft-soled shoes; and, besides, Dolores was totally absorbed with her own anger. Her attention was so completely channeled, her purpose so violent, that it was not until Mike’s strong lean arms caught her from behind, that she even became aware that anyone else was around.
    Once more, as with her reaction when Susan interrupted her tryst with Joe, Dolores was instantly and fantastically able to meet a new situation. ‘Oh, it’s you, Mike, darling,’ she crooned. She pressed back against him, and, twisting her head far back and around, tried to lip-kiss him. ‘It’s all right, sweetheart Mike, lip-kissing is fun.’
    Mike managed to twist his head, and her mascaraed lips smeared a red path across his cheek. ‘When I start to lip-kiss,’ he said, ‘it will be with lips of my