with them. Maybe they'd
been broken too soon to act. He could act. Tomorrow, during the work
period, he would take a grain of the poison. Put the capsule back in the
tooth. The poison would work slowly, painlessly, paralyzing the nervous
system, finally the heart. Sometime during the beginning of the next
sleep period he would be dead. That would leave six or seven hours of
darkness and isolation for him to remain dead, so they couldn't get to
him in time to bring him back.

He mentioned suicide to the girl during the next work period. She moaned
a little and curled up like a fetus on the floor. After an hour, she got
up and began inserting punch cards into the big machine again. She
avoided Marquis.

Marquis looked around, went into a corner with his back to the room,
slipped the capsule out and let one of the tiny, almost invisible
grains, melt on his tongue. He replaced the capsule and returned to the
machine. A quiet but exciting triumph made the remainder of the work
period more bearable.

Back on his bed, he drifted into sleep, into what he knew was the final
sleep. He was more fortunate than the others. Within an hour he would be
dead.

* * * * *

Somewhere, someone was screaming.

The sounds rose higher and higher. A human body, somewhere ... pain
unimaginable twisting up through clouds of belching steam ... muscles
quivering, nerves twitching ... and somewhere a body floating and
bobbing and crying ... sheets of agony sweeping and returning in waves
and the horror of unescapable pain expanding like a volcano of
madness....

Somewhere was someone alive who should be dead.

And then in the dark, in absolute silence, Marquis moved a little. He
realized, vaguely, that the screaming voice was his own.

He stared into the steamy darkness and slowly, carefully, wet his lips.
He moved. He felt his lips moving and the whisper sounding loud in the
dark.

_I'm alive!_

He managed to struggle up out of the bed. He could scarcely remain
erect. Every muscle in his body seemed to quiver. He longed to slip down
into the darkness and escape into endless sleep. But he'd tried that.
And he was still alive. He didn't know how much time had passed. He was
sure of the poison's effects, but he wasn't dead. They had gotten to him
in time.

Sweat exploded from his body. He tried to remember more. Pain. He lay
down again. He writhed and perspired on the bed as his tortured mind
built gro