Wheels Within Page 3
"That would be fine."
The rest of the day dragged slowly. At four o'clock Bennett left hisoffice and took the elevator to the ground floor. Under his arm heclutched the briefcase which might spell death for him.
A moment after he left his office building, he knew he had made amistake--a fatal one!
Idly, at first, his mind's eye watched the driver of a long graysedan, parked at the curb, start up its motor as he approached. Thecar pulled away from the curb when he came alongside it.
Through an open rear window, Bennett saw a man with a dark, broodingface--with black eyebrows that joined over the bridge of thenose--glowering at him. At the same instant he saw the blunt nose ofan automatic resting on the lowered glass of the window, just belowthe chin of the frowning man.
Incredibly, even as he realized that he was about to die, Bennett'sfirst thought was not one of fear, but rather that this dark man wasthe other person he had seen in his hallucinations of the city ofThone!
Then, as one part of his mind drew back in terror at what it knew wasabout to happen, another part wondered at the mystery of Thone and thepeople in it. Where did that hallucination fit in this mist of lifewhich was about to end?
He felt three hard, solid blows punch shockingly into his body. Therewas pain, but greater than that was the terror that whipped hispanicked mind.
"Lima," Bennett whispered with his last stark thought as he dropped tohis knees.
He groped for the sidewalk with one hand, to steady himself, and neverreached it.
* * * * *
"It's over now," Bennett heard the mystic say. "Please try to relax."
He found himself fighting with awful exertion to raise himself fromthe sidewalk--which had turned into a couch. His clothes clung to himwith a clammy wetness that chilled him.
He flung his arms out in a frantic gesture that knocked a lamp from anend-table and sent it crashing to the floor.
Not until then did he feel the mystic's firmly gentle hands on hisshoulders, urging him down, and know that he was not actually dying.He lay back for a moment, gasping great gulps of welcome air into hislungs.
"I think you will be all right now," Lima said.
"You were right when you said the experience would not be pleasant,"Bennett said, still battling for breath. "I hope the results will beworth it."
"I believe you will find that they are," Lima told him reassuringly."Also, it can be of assistance to you in still another way. Thesequence your dream followed--being a natural, perhaps even aprobable, aftermath of your past decisions and movements--couldactually happen. Therefore it would be wise to avoid such decisionsin real life."
* * * * *
At the end of two weeks, Bennett had collected all the information heneeded on Tournay's illegal activities. The investigator he hired wasvery thorough, and unearthed several other incriminating schemes inTournay's past. With the evidence he had on hand, Bennett was certainthat Tournay would be convicted in any court.
This time he intended to evade the fate he had suffered in the dreamby acting differently. He hired a shrewd lawyer--the bestobtainable--had him draw up the evidence in legal form, and presentedit to the district attorney, with the demand for Tournay's immediatearrest. He knew that immediate action would be his best protection.
That evening, when he left his office building, he felt the peace of aman whose task has been well done.
It took almost a full second before the sight of the long gray carjerked his thoughts from their pleasant introspection and back todread reality. Tournay's black-browed face leered at him as it had inthe dream and he felt his body tense as it waited for the pistol slugsto strike.
His mind scurried in its trap within his head and, strangely, itturned to the mystic for help.
"Lima!" he called desperately.
* * * * *
Again Bennett felt himself struggling with that awful exertion to draghis body from the couch on which it lay.
"It's all over now," he heard Lima say.
He sat up. "What happened?"
"This will be hard to believe," Lima said, "and I will not try toprove it to you, but it is true. The mind has many powers which cannoteven be imagined by anyone who has not lived with those powers as Ihave. When you called me, your mind attuned itself with mine, and itsneed and its demand were so powerful that together we turned timebackward. You are now back in my dressing room, and it is the exacttime at which you originally came out of your dream."
"That's impossible!" Bennett protested.
"Nevertheless, it happened. I only ask you to keep in mind one thing.Someday, when your mind has been made more facile, you will understandhow I am able to do this. It will even appear logical to you. Now,however, the only thing I can tell you is _believe it_!"
* * * * *
Bennett had no intention of muffing this second chance. After he hadcollected the information about Tournay's criminal activities, healso dug into his past for a man who had cause to hate the contractor.He found the man he sought, a man as ruthless and unscrupulous asTournay himself, one who could fight him on his own ground.
Roger Clarkson had been the controller of a string of bookie joints,before he had been framed by Tournay, and convicted, to serve tenyears in prison.
Clarkson had been released from prison six days before. He found thatTournay had gained control of his former criminal empire. Everyone,including Tournay, knew that the only thing preventing Clarkson fromtaking revenge was the opportunity.
Bennett sent his information to Clarkson and sat back to await theresults. That evening, as he was about to leave his office building,some inner caution warned him to take no chances. He steppedcautiously out into the street, looked both ways for the gray sedan,and saw that the street was empty, before he walked to the corner.
He arrived there just in time to meet the long gray sedan as it droveup.
* * * * *
Once more he fought the awful exertion on the mystic's couch. Thistime he came out of the blackness with his mind clear. "You've savedme again," he said to Lima. "Have you turned time backward again?"
"Yes," she replied. "But I have given you all the help I can. The nextattempt you make, you will have nothing on which to lean except yourown strength."
"But why do I always arrive at the point where I'm being shot byTournay, regardless of what course I choose? Is there no way I canbeat him?"
"If you believe in fate as strongly as I do, you will accept thatconclusion as inevitable. The long gray sedan is the symbol of yourdeath. You cannot avoid it--at least not as long as you persist inpassive action."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Just this. You wish to see Tournay punished--your sense of justicedemands it. But each time you try to have someone else administer thatpunishment. It appears to me that the only possibility of yourbreaking this fateful progression of events is for you to administerthe punishment yourself. You probably realize the danger of tryingthat. But I can't see where you have any other choice."
"In other words, you feel that the only chance I have of preventingTournay from killing me--is to kill him first?"
"Yes," Lima said. "Are you strong and hard enough to do it?"
Bennett thought for only a brief moment before he nodded. "I'mdesperate enough, at any rate."
This time he did not leave immediately. He had to find out somethingfirst. He put his arms around Lima's shoulders and drew her towardhim. She put her face up and he kissed her waiting lips. They weresweet and, if she did not return the ardor of his kiss, he did notnotice it.
* * * * *
"Mr. Tournay is not in," the girl at the desk told Bennett. "You mighttry his home."
At a pay-booth in the lobby, Bennett called Tournay's home. The voicethat answered was t
hat of a tired woman, one who has given up hope."Mr. Tournay called me a short time ago and said that he would be inthe office of a Mr. Leroy Bennett, in the Lowry building, if anyonecalled," the tired voice said.
Bennett hung up and caught a cab. His quarry had walked into an idealplace for their meeting. For better or for worse, he would soon bringthis conflict to an end.
In his office, Bennett found that Tournay had been there and gone. Hehad left a message: "Tell Mr. Bennett that Lima sent me!"
So that was it--Lima had used Bennett as a dupe! He could not figureout her purpose, but he knew that he could never trust her again. Shehad been against him from the first. Perhaps even she, rather thanTournay, was the prime menace. He decided that he must kill them both,before they had the chance to kill him. Touching the small flat