The demolished man by Alfred Bester Read Free Book Online

are?"
    "I'm smarter," he said and left.
    As Reich had planned, the song established itself firmly in his mind and echoed
    again and again all the way down to the street. Tenser, said the Tensor. Tenser,
    said the Tensor. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun. RIFF. A
    perfect mind-block for a non-Esper. What peeper could get past that? Tension,
    apprehension, and dissension have begun.
    "Much smarter," murmured Reich, and flagged a Jumper to Jerry Church's pawnshop
    on the upper west side.
    Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.
    Despite all rival claims, pawnbroking is still the oldest profession. The
    business of lending money on portable security is the most ancient of human
    occupations. It extends from the depths of the past to the uttermost reaches of
    the future, as unchanging as the pawnbroker's shop itself. You walked into Jerry
    Church's cellar store, crammed and littered with the debris of time, and you
    were in a museum of eternity. And even Church himself, wizened, peering, his
    face blackened and bruised by the internal blows of suffering, embodied the
    ageless money-lender.
    Church shuffled out of the shadows and came face to face with Reich, standing
    starkly illuminated in a patch of sunlight slanting across the counter. He did
    not start. He did not acknowledge Reich's identity. Brushing past the man who
    for ten years had been his mortal enemy, he placed himself behind the counter
    and said: "Yes, please?"
    "Hello, Jerry."
    Without looking up. Church extended his hand across the counter. Reich attempted
    to clasp it. It was snatched away.
    "No," Church said with a snarl that was half hysterical laugh. "Not that, thank
    you. Just give me what you want to pawn."
    It was the peeper's sour little trap, and he had tumbled into it. No matter.
    "I haven't anything to pawn, Jerry."
    "As poor as that? How the mighty have fallen. But we must expect it, eh? We all
    fall. We all fall."
    Church glanced sidelong at him, trying to peep him. Let him try. Tension,
    apprehension, and dissension have begun. Let him get through the crazy tune
    rattling in his head.
    "All of us fall," Church said. "All of us."
    "I expect so, Jerry. I haven't yet. I've been lucky."
    "I wasn't lucky," the peeper leered. "I met you."
    "Jerry," Reich said patiently. "I've never been your bad luck. It was your own
    luck that ruined you. Not---"
    "You God damned bastard," Church said in a horribly soft voice. "You God damned
    eater of slok. May you rot before you die. Get out of here. I want nothing to do
    with you. Nothing! Understand?"
    "Not even my money?" Reich withdrew ten gleaming sovereigns from his pocket and
    placed them on the counter. It was a subtle touch. Unlike the credit, the
    sovereign was the coin of the underworld. Tension, apprehension, and dissension
    have begun...
    "Least of all your money. I want your heart cut open. I want your blood spilling
    on the ground. I want the maggots eating the eyes out of your living head... But
    I don't want your money."
    "Then what do you want, Jerry?"
    "I told you!" the peeper screamed. "I told you! You God damned lousy---"
    "What do you want, Jerry?" Reich repeated coldly, keeping his eyes on the
    wizened man. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun. He could still
    control Church. It didn't matter that Church had been a 2nd. Control wasn't a
    question of peeping. It was a question of personality. Eight, sir; seven, sir;
    six, sir; five, sir... He always had... He always would control Church.
    "What do you want?" Church asked sullenly.
    Reich snorted. "You're the peeper. You tell me."
    "I don't know," Church muttered after a pause. "I can't read it. There's crazy
    music mixing everything up..."
    "Then I'll have to tell you. I want a gun."
    "A what?"
    "G-U-N. Gun. Ancient weapon. It propels projectiles by explosion."
    "I haven't anything like that."
    "Yes, you do, Jerry. Keno Quizzard mentioned it to me some time ago. He saw it.
    Steel and collapsible. Very