Second Variety and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick Read Free Book Online Page B

finished... and
climbed the ladder to start back. From the ridge, we saw. There they were, all around the bunker.
Fighting was still going on. David and his bear. Hundreds of them. Klaus took the pictures."
    Klaus tied up the photographs again.
    "And it's going on all along your line?" Hendricks said.
    "Yes."
    "How about our lines?" Without thinking, he touched the tab on his arm. "Can they --"
    "They're not bothered by your radiation tabs. It makes no difference to them, Russian, American,
Pole, German. It's all the same. They're doing what they were designed to do. Carrying out the original
idea. They track down life, wherever they find it."
    "They go by warmth," Klaus said. "That was the way you constructed them from the very start.
Of course, those you designed were kept back by the radiation tabs you wear. Now they've got around
that. These new varieties are lead-lined."
    "What's the other variety?" Hendricks asked. "The David type, The Wounded Soldier -- what's
the other?"
    "We don't know." Klaus pointed up at the wall. On the wall were two metal plates, ragged at the
edges. Hendricks got up and studied them. They were bent and dented. "The one on the left came off a
Wounded Soldier," Rudi said. "We got one of them. It was going along towards our old bunker. We got
it from the ridge, the same way we got the David tagging you."
    The plate was stamped: I-V. Hendricks touched the other plate. "And this came from the David
type?"
    "Yes."
    The plate was stamped: III-V.
    Klaus took a look at them, leaning over Hendricks' broad shoulder. "You can see what we're up
against. There's another type. Maybe it was abandoned. Maybe it didn't work. But there must be a
Second Variety. There's One and Three."
    "You were lucky," Rudi said. "The David tagged you all the way here and never touched you.
Probably thought you'd get it into a bunker, somewhere."
    "One gets in and it's all over," Klaus said. "They move fast. One lets all the rest inside. They're
inflexible. Machines with one purpose. They were built for only one thing." He rubbed sweat from his lip.
"We saw."
    They were silent.
    "Let me have another cigarette, Yank," Tasso said. "They are good. I almost forgot how they
were."
    It was night. The sky was black. No stars were visible through the rolling clouds of ash. Klaus
lifted the lid cautiously so that Hendricks could look out. Rudi pointed into the darkness. "Over that way
are the bunkers. Where we used to be. Not over a half a mile from us. It was just chance Klaus and I
were not there when it happened. Weakness. Saved by our lusts."
    "All the rest must be dead," Klaus said in a low voice. "It came quickly. This morning the
Politburo reached their decision. They notified us -- forward command. Our runner was sent out at once.
We saw him start towards the direction of your lines. We covered him until he was out of sight."
    "Alex Radrivsky. We both knew him. He disappeared about six o'clock. The sun had just come
up. About noon Klaus and I had an hour relief. We crept off, away from the bunkers. No one was
watching. We came here. There used to be a town here, a few houses, a street. This cellar was part of a
big farmhouse. We knew Tasso would be here, hiding down in her little place. We had come here
before. Others from the bunkers came here. Today happened to be our turn."
    "Alex Radrivsky. We both knew him. He disappeared about six o'clock. The sun had just come
up. About noon Klaus and I had an hour relief. We crept off, away from the bunkers. No one was
watching. We came here. There used to be a town here, a few houses, a street. This cellar was part of a
big farmhouse. We knew Tasso would be here, hiding down in her little place. We had come here
before. Others from the bunkers came here. Today happened to be our turn."
    "They're not so much when you catch them alone. We moved faster than they did. But they're
inexorable. Not like living things. They came right at us. And we blasted