Page 53 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

High Tex and the Orbies

Tex muttered imprecations, invoking the wrath of impotent deities
against persons unknown. He put down the weapon on the desk, but
left it pointed at his guest. The office had no chairs other than the
Provisioner’s. He lowered himself into it. Yes, it was an unoiled
spring that cried for lubrication, not the joints of a man plagued by
early-onset osteoarthritis. Tex, Ottley enviously observed, was
wrapped in rags trimmed with oilcloth—widely believed by the
increasingly-superstitious survivors of the Ecospasm to provide
almost supernatural protection against the unmasked sun’s scorching
rays. But the Provisioner’s face and hands were just as mottled and
burned as his Ottley’s; nobody ever revealed more epidermis than
that, not even in the most intimate situations, so the belief would
have to find other empirical verification. Ottley did possess more
than average curiosity. And sufficient reticence to stay out of danger.
“No matter. If you’re not Ottley D. Nye, I’ll soon find out. Your
past.”
“The part of it you want is my youth. High school student planning
to be a pharmacist when the dominoes fell. Had worked one summer
in a drug store in Austin—that was the capital, then. Did well for a
few years in the healing arts—trading, prescribing, chasing rumors of
hidden dispensaries and buried inventory. After the last expiration
date passed, and all the pills and ointments oxidized or disintegrated
beyond anyone’s gullibility, I became the same as the rest of the
survivors. I’m still alive because of the contacts I made when I had a
profession and a pack full of real drugs. Most people don’t want to
go beyond their safety zone, and the only law still in effect is supply
and demand.”
Tex grimaced. “You’ll do for this job—if you can lie through your
teeth and spout scientific nonsense to my next visitor, if called upon.
I could have managed without you, but the scene will play better with
another actor. There’s an unopened box of Saltines and a tin of Spam
after you do your part. That is acceptable.”
“Acceptable. What is the gaff?”
“You will be facing someone who knows more than you do, and
knows it. Except for the story we will tell him about something he
does not know. He need believe nothing of what you tell him but the
belief you have in the telling. In the next room is a boy I am going to
trade for a consideration that does not concern you.” Tex reached

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