Read Online The Missing Man (v4.1) by Katherine Maclean - Free Book Online Page B

was serious and persuasive in trying to
convince George that the world had too many technicians. “They don’t know
how to be human beings. They like to read about being Tarzan, or see old movies
and imagine they are Humphrey Bogart and James Bond, but actually all they have
the guts to do is read and study. They make money that way, and they make more
gadgets and they run computers that do all the thinking and take all the
challenge and conquest out of life. And they give a pension to all the people
who want to go out into the woods, or surf, instead of staying indoors pushing
buttons, and they call the surfers and islanders and forestfarmers Free
Loaders, and make sure they are sterilized and don’t have children. That’s
genocide. They are killing off the real people. The race will be descended from
those compulsive button pushers, and forget how to live.”
    It was a good speech. George was uneasy, because
it sounded right, and he was sure no man was smart enough to refute the killer,
but he tried.
    “Couldn’t a guy who really wanted children
earn enough money to get a breeding permit for himself and an operation for his
wife?”
    “There aren’t that many jobs anymore. The
jobs that are left are button-pusher jobs, and you have to study for twenty
years to learn to push the right button. They’re planning to sterilize everyone
but button pushers.”
    George had nothing to say. It made sense, but
his own experience did not fit. “I’m not sterilized, Larry, and I’m a real
dope. I didn’t get past the sixth grade.”
    “When did your childhood support run
out?”
    “Last year.”
    “No more free food and housing. How about
your family—they support you?”
    “No family. Orphan. I got lots of good
friends, but they all took their pensions and shipped out. Except one. He got a
job.”
    “You didn’t apply for the unemployable
youth pension yet?”
    “No. I wanted to stay around the city. I
didn’t want to be shipped out. I figured I could get a job.”
    “That’s a laugh. Lots of luck in getting a
job, George. How are you planning to eat?”
    “Sometimes I help out around communes and
share meals. Everyone usually likes me in the Brotherhood communes.”
George shifted positions uneasily on the floor and sat up. This was almost
lying. He had a job now, but he wasn’t going to talk about Rescue Squad, because
Larry might call him a cop and try to shoot him. “But I don’t bum
meals.”
    “When’s the longest you’ve gone without
meals?”
    “I don’t feel hungry much. I went two days
without food once. I’m healthy.”
    The kid sat cross-legged on the bed and laughed.
“Really healthy! You got muscles all over. You’ve got muscles from ear to
ear. So you’re trying to beat the system! It was built just to wipe out
muscleheads like you. If you apply for welfare, they sterilize you. If you take
your unemployable support pension, they sterilize you. If you are caught
begging, they sterilize you. Money gets all you muscleheads sooner or later.
It’s going to get you too. I’ll bet when you are hungry you think of the bottle
of wine and the big free meal at the sterility clinic. You think of the chance
of winning the million dollar sweepstakes if the operation gives you the right
tattoo number, don’t you?”
    George didn’t answer.
    “Maybe you don’t know it, but your
unemployable pension is piling up, half saved for every week you don’t claim
it. You’ve been avoiding it a year almost? When it piles high enough, you’ll go
in and claim your money and let them sterilize you and ship you out to the
boondocks, like everyone else.”
    “Not me.”
    “Why not?”
    George didn’t answer. After a while he said,
“Are you going to let them sterilize you?”
    Larry laughed again. He had a fox face and big
ears. “Not likely. There are lots of ways for a smart guy to beat the
system. My descendants are going to be there the year the sun runs down and we
hook drives to Earth and cruise