Earthbound (Winston Science Fiction Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Gus’s address scrawled on the margin of page three, tucked it away in his memory and crumpled the paper, throwing it in the disposal chute. But he did not sleep well that night.
     
    In the morning, he ate breakfast in a cafeteria just off the Midway, then walked idly into the Administration Building. There he checked the list of space-flights, marveling at the wonderful names of the ships. Mars Queen and Sky Pilot and Starchaser — each with its own particular, far-away kind of beauty. Pete snorted in disgust, told himself he was becoming incurably romantic, and started to leave Administration. But something else caught his eye on the way out, another poster on the far wall, and not knowing why, he found himself drawn to it.
    Reaching it, he found half a dozen pictures of men wanted by the police, solidograms, in full color. Curious, he let his eyes rove over them, but suddenly his attention was riveted completely.
    One of the solidograms pictured a man of about fifty, with a gaunt face, high cheekbones, deep-set eyes and sparse hair. Gus Fletcher , alias Ganymede Gus , wanted for. . . .
    The words swam before his eyes. He found himself running outside, and he didn’t know what to do.
    Ganymede Gus, the only person who knew Pete’s identity and his whereabouts, was wanted by the police!
     

Chapter 4 — Bargain with Ganymede Gus
     
    The next few days Pete moved in a haze. Everything was unreal; everything had a dream quality. He wandered about aimlessly in the mornings or dropped into the library to do some reading. Afternoons and evenings he spent at his window, collecting tickets. The faces were white blobs, he never saw any of them clearly. After work he would wander some more, only half-aware of where he went or why. It could not go on this way, and he knew it. Something would happen, something had to happen. Meanwhile he lived in a world where nothing mattered but the tickets he collected and the food he ate.
    Once he thought he’d been seen by a White Sands neighbor, and he lost himself in the Midway crowd. It could have been his imagination it probably was, but such a discovery was bound to come sooner or later. Unless he ran, and kept on running . . .
    That same night he returned to his boarding house early, fed up with the sights along the Midway. It was all so phony — Mars this and Venus that and all the tourists came gawking. Pete wanted the real thing and could not get it, and the cheap carnival imitation only made him feel worse.
    He pushed open the door to his room, slammed it shut. He flicked on the light panels, turned around. “Hello, sonny.”
    “Ganymede Gus! How did you get here?”
    “You didn’t keep your appointment with me, sonny. I waited. But you didn’t come.” Gus snickered.
    Pete found something unwholesome about the man. The reedy sound his voice made, his slumped shoulders, the dissipated look on his face. But somehow his eyes did not fit. They were old eyes and tired eyes, but they seemed more at peace with the world than the rest of Ganymede Gus. “If you don’t get out of here,” Pete cried, “I’ll call the police.”
    “Is that so?” The threat did not seem to bother Gus at all. “What for? What will you tell them? I just came on a friendly little visit, Sonny.”
    “I saw the solidograms in the Administration Building.”
    Ganymede Gus shrugged his thin shoulders. “So what? You know I’m wanted. That doesn’t mean you’re going to turn me in. Don’t jump before you think, sonny. It never pays off. You’re wanted, too.”
    “The police don’t want —”
    “Who said anything about the police? Your father wants you, doesn’t he? Would you like to go home?”
    Pete shook his head.
    “Okay. Then you’re not telling anyone I’m here, understand? It was easy to find you. I got your address from where you work; I told the landlady here I was your uncle.”
    Pete didn’t sit down. “Just tell me what you want; then you get out of here. All right, I won’t