Logan's Run Read Online Free PDF Page A

.helpful.” The screen died.
    Logan let out a breath. It sounded like a word. The word it sounded like was “Sanctuary.”

    The party in unit 2582 was getting into full stride when Logan arrived. The door was opened by a mouse-faced man in orange trims. He was quite intoxicated.
    “The tree of cruelty often blooms in the fertile soil of love,” he said
    “I’m sure it does,” said Logan, scanning the crowded room for Lilith.
    “The boy seeks, the man finds. That’s a poem. I write them, you know.”
    “I didn’t know,” said Logan. The girl was not in the crowd. Perhaps she’d been delayed or had changed her mind about meeting him.
    “One of my poems was read on TD. Called ‘Womb Wood.’ Like to hear it?”
    Logan said nothing.

    “In the woods of the womb, 
    She walked.
    In a whirl of red wounds,
    She fell.
    Heart bursting like a plum 
    In the bracelets of her breasts.”

    Logan sat down on a flowcouch built into the wall. The poet continued to talk, obviously determined to elicit praise.
    “That poem received a great deal of very favorable comment. I’m quite famous, you know.” “Fine,” said Logan.
    A toad of a man scuttled up with a foaming mug in his hand. “Try this,” he said. Logan caught the slightly sour odor of fermentation. “It’s Volney’s home brew. We’ve got a whole keg of it. It’s nothing like the beer from the slots. He’s a real artist, Volney is. Puts musk raisins in it.”
    “I prefer Scotch.”
    “That’s your loss, citizen.”
    Logan dialed a Scotch. It was taken from him by a red-haired girl in slashvelvets. She downed it hurriedly.
    “Wonderful!” she said Her green eyes were alcohol flushed. She offered Logan a cigarette.
    “No, thanks.”
    “Don’t be afraid to,” she urged him. “There’s a police payoff in this area. No tobacco raids. Go ahead.”
    “No, thanks.”
    The girl took offense. “Afraid to smoke, aren’t you? You men! Cowards. Every one of you cowards. I was on pairup with a merchantman until last week. Then we broke it. Know why?”
    “Why?” asked Logan.
    “Because. Because he lacked the essentials. He was content. Content to be content. He had his business and he had me and that’s all he wanted. I need a man who wants what he doesn’t have. That make sense to you, citizen?”
    “Maybe you don’t need a man. Maybe you need a boy.”
    “I tried a boy. Eleven. He was good for a while, but I got so I hated his young face. I’m fifteen—and a woman needs a man. How old are you?”
    “Old enough,” said Logan, keeping his right hand closed. The flower blinked warmly in palmflesh. He could feel its heat against his fingertips.
    “How about a pairup?”
    “No. No, thanks.”
    The green eyes chilled. “Is that all you can say—’no, thanks’?” 
    The girl stood up, weaved away. 
    Logan sighed. Where was Lilith?
    The door slid open and a fat bellied man eased in, bearing a double armload of clothing and accessories. Hs voice shrilled in falsetto. “Hail, fellow lungblasters and glassmasters and livefasters! Hail, fellow peepers! The gear is here.” The fatman pasted a talk puppet grin on his face and began strutting the room in high-pumping steps. “Gear up! Everybody gear up!”
    “Been waiting long?” Lilith 4 grinned down at Logan; a pink cigarette dangled smoke from her glitter-coated lips. She was bare-hipped in silver snakeskins.
    “Let’s talk,” said Logan. “You know why I’m here.”
    The fatman bustled importantly up to them. He thrust a black knit bodystocking and crepe stretchsoles at them. “Gear up, you two,” he said, clapping his meaty hands. “Let’s peep!”
    “We’ll be partners,” declared Lilith. “You said you were up to it.”
    Logan took the clothing, moved to a changeroom and slipped out of his grays. He’d have to stow the Gun somewhere; no place to conceal it in the skintight bodysuit. At least he’d left the spare ammo packs in his unit; figuring that the six charges in the