HERO FROM YESTERDAY

The day Lugert's criminals gunned down three citizens in a bold broad-daylight robbery, Domnas Karson, Third Speaker of the Council, said, "I think I've got the answer."

"Answer? To what?" asked Murgon Darell Fourth Speaker.

"To Lugert," said Karson. "The weapon we can use against that throwback who's terrorizing us all."

Darell sighed wearily. "There is no answer to Lugert, I'm afraid. We're peaceful people; he's a throwback to a more violent age. There's no way to cope with him. Would you want to be the one to shoot him down?"

Karson shuddered and said, "No, not me. Of course not. I'm no more capable of violence than anyone else. But Lugert can be stopped. We can get help."

"From where?"

"From the past," said Karson. "From the ugly crime-ridden world we've evolved out of. Dr. Lorence of the Science Council has developed a time-net which...."

"Of course!" Darell exclaimed. "Bring a man out of the past! A man who won't be inhibited by our innate hatred of violence, a man who'll be able to deal with Lugert as he deserves!" He rose and strode around the long councilroom in quick, nervous steps. "Call Lorence, Karson. Get him at work on the project at once. We can't waste any more time. There's no telling when Lugert might...."

The visiphone chimed three times. Karson crossed the room and depressed the receiving stud. On the screen the features of a thick-faced, stocky man appeared.

"Lugert! What do you want?"

"I'm pleased you recognize me so quickly, Speaker Karson," said the stocky man in a slow, deep voice. "My fame must be spreading, then."

"You didn't call to chat with us, Lugert. What is it you want?"

Lugert's face hardened slowly.

"You're right. I didn't call to chat. I called to tell you to get out."

"What's that?"

"I said, get out. Pack up your records and papers and clear out of the Government Building, Karson. You and all the rest of you. I'm taking over."

Karson paled. "Taking over—the government? How far do you think you can go, Lugert?"

Again the confident, cheerful, steel-hard grin that had become the Lugert trademark in such an astonishingly brief time. "How far? Why, Karson, I can go as far as I like. There isn't one of you who dares say No to anything I ask. And now I'm asking for the government. Go ahead; refuse. Get indignant. Threaten me. All this easy winning bores me, Karson."

Karson stared at the thick-featured face framed by the visiscreen. "You've won again," he said after a pause. "We can't fight you, Lugert. How much time do we have to evacuate the Government Building?"

"How much do you need?"

Karson thought for a moment. "A week, at least. Is that all right?"

"One week, no more," Lugert agreed. "My men and I will come up to take over things at noon on 7 September." He chuckled. "7 September, 2531. A day to go down in history, eh, Karson?"

He broke the contact.

Karson turned from the dead screen and looked at Speaker Darell. "Well, there's our ultimatum," he said. "One week to get out and then Lugert takes over."

"That means we'll have to move fast," said Darell. "You'd better call Dr. Lorence. Only a week...."

Karson was already busy punching out Lorence's code number on the visiphone. When the scientist appeared Karson quickly sketched out the situation as it stood. Lorence's eyes widened when Karson told of Lugert's threat. Then the Speaker went on to outline the part Lorence and his time-net would play in the attempt to defeat Lugert.

"I'll see what I can do," Lorence promised. "I'll try to find the man you're looking for."

"Can you do it in two days or less?"

"I hope so," Lorence said.

It took two days. Then Lorence rang the Office of the Council and told Karson, "It's worked!"

"The time-net? You've got the man?"

"I have. I'll bring him right over."

Lorence entered the council room a while later, followed by a tall, thin, lean-faced man dressed in archaic clothing. Karson's heart thumped excitedly; here was the man, he thought! Here was the hero from yesteryear who would put an end to the threat Lugert represented.

"This is Speaker Karson and Speaker Darell of our governing Council," Lorence said.

The man from the past nodded curtly. "You can call me Jack." His voice was cold, flat, with a curious twang of regional accent in it; the vowel-pronunciation was odd, as was to be expected.

Karson eyed the hard-faced stranger. He didn't seem to have an ounce of fat on him; he looked tough, uncompromising. "I think you'll do," he said after a moment's study. "You've got the stuff."

"Thanks," Jack said in a wry voice. "Suppose you line the program out for me now. Give me the picture; tell me what I'm here for."

Karson frowned. "You're here to help us, because we're helpless ourselves. Did Dr. Lorence tell you what the characteristics of this world are?"

"He said a few things. You fill me in."

"It's 300 years since we last had a war of any sort. Crime had been extinct 150 years—until Lugert.

"Lugert. I heard of him. Who is he?"

"He's the man you're going to kill for us," Karson said bluntly.

The man named Jack grinned. "Oh? A rub-out job?"

"I think that's the term," said Karson. "Lugert's a throwback—a man out of the past. A man out of your time, suddenly reborn in our era for God knows what reason. He's cold and hard and utterly ruthless. Nothing stops him; we're powerless. The compulsion against violence is too strong in us."

"Just a bunch of patsies," Jack said. "Lugert snaps the whip and you all lie down and play dead when he says so. That it?"

It took Karson a few moments to digest the strange idioms. Finally he said, "Right. He began small, with petty thefts and burglaries—he took anything he wanted. Then he began branching out. He compelled a scientist to create a serum for him that would instill absolute loyalty to him in anyone who took it; using that serum, he's built up a band of henchmen who shares his violent ways. Two days ago he decided to make the ultimate grab for power: he ordered us to evacuate the Government Building and let him take over."

"And you said yes," Jack remarked.

"What else could we do? But we have a weapon: you. You share Lugert's way of life; we don't. We can strike at him indirectly, through you."

"You want me to kill this Lugert. What's in it for me?"

"What?"

"I said, what's in it for me? What do I get out of it besides the risk of a punctured hide? I don't do these things for my health, Karson."

Karson thought about that for a moment. "Of course; there would have to be some reward, wouldn't there? Well, what would you want? We can supply virtually anything, if you'll do the job properly. Osmiridium? Sapphires? Books? Women?"

The man named Jack shook his head. "Gold," he said.

Karson was startled. "Gold? But why would you want—oh, very well. Gold was the reigning object of value in your day, wasn't it? Would 25 pounds be enough?"

The man from the past smiled unwarmly. "Quite enough," he said. "You got yourself a deal."

The man named Jack cautiously approached the big building that served as headquarters for Lugert until the time when he would move into the sprawling area of the Government Building.

Jack wore modern clothes; his own shabby ancient ones were carefully stored away in a laboratory closet. His hair was close-cropped in the current fashion.

But inside his skull was the mind of a 20th-century man. And hidden in the folds of his vest was a 20th-century automatic, a snubnosed .38 ready to spit death.

The day was 5 September 2531; he had been in this strange world of the future three days and if all went well he would return to his own time today. He had spent the three days studying the approach to Lugert's headquarters, familiarizing himself with the layout, readying himself for the killing that had to be done.

He was thinking, Funny old duck, that Karson. They all are. Imagine, letting someone like Lugert push them all over the place because all the fight's been bred out of them!

Well, in 600 years a lot could happen. He shrugged. It wasn't his business to worry about the doings of his remote descendants.

His business was to kill.

He knew that Lugert's personal suite was on the eighth floor of the building, that he was guarded by one man outside the door, one at the elevator entrance, and several in the lobby. He didn't have to worry about the ones in the lobby. He didn't really have to worry about any of them on the way in: they wouldn't be expecting anyone dangerous. The only dangerous people in this world were Lugert and his henchmen and they'd probably be off-guard when he came by.

His forearm itched where Lorence had inserted the sliver of metal. The old scientist had been very apologetic.

"I'm sorry, Jack, but we have to do this. We can't risk having another Lugert. This is to make sure you don't get delusions of power once you've finished off Lugert."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we can control you hypnotically through this generator I'm embedding in your arm. Just in case you decide not to go back to your own time when you're through here."

"Don't worry. I wouldn't want to run this place."

But he couldn't blame them for being cautious. Not at all. They'd be even more helpless before him than they would be under Lugert, after all.

He drew near the big building. The guard in front said, "Who are you, and where are you going?"

Jack made his voice as subservient-sounding as he could. He said, "I'm from Speaker Karson. I'd like to see Lugert."

The guard frowned. "How come Karson didn't just phone the boss?"

"Beats me," Jack said. "Must be top-secret."

The guard frowned at Jack's strange language, shrugged, and sent him on in. He passed rapidly through the lobby and reached the elevator.

A guard inside the elevator wanted to know where he was going. "I'm from Speaker Karson," he said. "I have an urgent message to deliver to Lugert."

The guard held out his hand. "Let's have it. I'll take it up to him; the boss doesn't like to meet strangers."

Smiling coldly, Jack fumbled in his pocket and withdrew the .38. It fired once; the silencer muffled the sound down to a squirt! A neat hole appeared in the elevator operator's head.

Still smiling, Jack pressed Eight and waited for the door to close.

Three minutes and two killings later he stood outside the office of Lugert himself. The elevator was clear, now, and the floor was empty of henchmen. That would make the getaway easier, Jack thought.

He knocked.

"Who's there?" a voice growled.

"Mr. Lugert?"

"Yeah. Who's there and what do you want?"

"Urgent message from Speaker Karson, sir. Very important that I see you, Mr. Lugert."

After a considerable pause the door swung open. Lugert stood there, wearing a glittering plastic robe. He hadn't shaved; he was short and squat and fierce-looking. Jack smiled and drew the gun.

"Please step inside and keep your hands in the air," he said quietly. "And don't make a fuss. This gun happens to kill people when it goes off."

Lugert stepped back. Jack noticed the man didn't seem frightened and wondered whether it was because Lugert just didn't believe another man could possibly offer danger or because Lugert was without fear.

He said, "I've killed three of your henchmen. I'm figuring on killing you, now. Speaker Karson is paying me to do it, Lugert."

Quietly Lugert said, "Who are you? Where'd you come from?"

"You can call me Jack. You don't know me."

"I can see there's a toughness about you," Lugert said. "You're like me. I didn't think there were any others like me in the world. Where did Karson find you?"

"In the past, Lugert. In yesterday. He dredged me up from the 20th-Century. There were lots like you and me then, Lugert."

For the first time fear showed in Lugert's face. A driblet of perspiration snaked down the side of his fleshy jaw. Paler than he had been before, he said, "From the past? Then—then you can really kill me?"

Jack nodded. "I'm going to. Karson's paying me 25 pounds of gold for it."

"Gold? But that stuff's worthless! You can find it anywhere. What do you want gold for?"

"In my time," said Jack, "the stuff wasn't so common. It was worth plenty. Times change."

A crafty glint showed in Lugert's eyes. "You're just a hired killer, then. A man without conscience. Suppose I offer you 30 pounds of gold not to kill me. Fifty pounds? A hundred?"

The generator in Jack's arm twitched warningly. He knew Karson and Lorence were listening in. "No," he said. "There's no percentage in it. You don't have the time-net. You can't send me back to my own time. I'll stick with their offer."

"No! Look, we can be partners! You're the kind of man I can get to like, Jack. We'll work together, you and me. Fifty-fifty! An even split!"

Again the generator twitched. Jack sighed. "Sorry, Lugert. Can't do it. I made an agreement and I'm going to stick to it. I'm going to kill you."

Sweat streamed down Lugert's face. "It's not fair," he said. "I had this world under my thumb—and then they had to find you somewhere! Why? Why'd they have to mess everything up?"

"Sorry, Lugert. It's just a lousy break for you," Jack said emotionlessly. "This is the way it's gonna be."

"No!" Lugert yelled.

Jack raised the .38. Lugert threw up his hands as if to protect himself but Jack's finger tightened anyway. The gun went squirt!

Lugert toppled heavily to the floor. He lay there on the heavy-pile rug, his blood spilling out and staining the brown carpet a deep red.

Jack looked at him calmly. Then he turned and left the room.

The floor was still empty. Quietly he got into the untended elevator, rode it to the lobby, and stepped out into the street. The whole job had taken 10 minutes. Ten minutes and four killings, and he hadn't even raised a sweat.

Darell and Karson and Dr. Lorence were waiting for him in the councilroom of the Government Building when he got back.

"Great work," Karson said. He looked pale and shaken. "We watched the whole thing over the transmitter Lorence built into you. Every step. It—it was well done."

"Thanks," Jack said. "Is the gold ready?"

Lorence handed him a heavy satchel. "It's here. Twenty-five pounds. Plus five pounds extra for your cooperation."

"Thanks again," Jack said. "Glad to be of help." He didn't mention the moments when he wavered, when he had nearly gone over to Lugert's side—probably would have if it hadn't been for the generator planted in his arm.

He wondered briefly how it would have been, living here with all these quiet philosophical types.

He said, "I suppose you're going to send me back to my own time now."

Lorence nodded.

The four of them went to Lorence's office and Jack climbed back into the elaborate harness.

Lorence bustled around him, making adjustments carefully. "We want to gauge this thing to the minute, you know," he explained. "No mistakes."

"I appreciate the care," Jack said. He held tightly to his satchel.

"We owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude," Karson said. "A debt that no satchel of gold could ever repay. You've done us a great service. You're a hero, Jack. A savior of humanity. We'd never have beaten Lugert without you."

"Ready to go," Lorence said. He threw the switch.

Time began to swirl around the killer from the past. As 2531 started to fade away from him he grinned for the last time and said, "Imagine that. Me, a hero! I like that, Me, John Dillinger—a savior of humanity!"

And then he was gone.