Master of Space and Time by Rudy Rucker Page A

riot guns—they all had round shoulders. Serena started to ask a question; Nancy stuffed another fritter in her mouth. We crouched lower, barely daring to watch.
    Bang, bang, bang . Pounding our door. One of the cops circled around to our backyard and noticed the kitchen door open. He went right in and opened the front. They stomped around in there for a while, shouting my name. I wondered if they’d gotten Harry yet. This was bad, this was very bad.
    â€œYou think they have those brains on their backs?” whispered Nancy.
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œWhat can we do?”
    â€œShhhhh.”
    One of the police cars was driving around on the grass now, shining its lights this way and that. We pressed ourselves down into the underbrush. Serena started to whimper. I got my mouth against her and whispered to her. “Be quiet, honey. The bad men are after us. Be quiet like Mommy and Daddy. Real quiet.”
    She obeyed. The police tried pounding on some of our neighbors’ doors. No one knew where we were. An hour went by before they finally gaveup. The cop with the motorcycle stayed in our house and the others all left.
    â€œWhy don’t you shoot him through the window,” suggested Nancy. She’d noticed my flare ray.
    â€œKilling a cop is a pretty serious crime. If people don’t understand about the Gary-brains, I could end up in jail.”
    â€œCouldn’t you focus it to just kill the slug? I don’t want to stay in the woods all night. The mosquitoes are eating me alive.”
    A plan occurred to me. “Okay, Nancy, let’s try this.”
    A few minutes later we were at our back door. Nancy laid the sleeping Serena down under a porkchop bush. I peered in the kitchen window. There was a tired cop with a sawed-off shotgun in his lap. He had a big bump on his back under his police shirt, and he was staring blankly at the front door.
    â€œExcuse me,” I said, walking right in. “We’d better have a conference.” Nancy had stuffed a lot of leaves under my shirt, so it looked as if I too had a spine-rider.
    The policeman whirled and started to raise his gun.
    â€œTake it easy,” I said, smiling and walking forward. “I got my Gary-brain already.” I would have been scared to chance this if I hadn’t known that Nancy was right outside the window with our flare ray aimed at the cop’s head. “Come on, slide your shirt up and we’ll let the masters talk.”
    The policeman nodded and began pulling his shirt up. He had to set his gun down to do it. I came closer, pulling at my own shirt. Now thecop’s back was exposed, a big, strong back with the parasitic brain nestled between the shoulder blades. I made my move.
    With one swift gesture, I slid my hand up under the brain, caught hold of the soft probes where they sank into the policeman’s spine, and ripped the thing free. The policeman screamed and slumped forward. The loose Gary-brain twisted and tried to sink its tendrils into my arm. Surprisingly strong, it was more than just a brain; it had muscles. I tried to fling it across the room, but couldn’t get it free of my arm. It began slithering up toward my shoulder and I cried for help.
    Then Nancy was in the kitchen with me. Aiming carefully, she sizzled the Gary-brain with our flare ray. It released its grip on me and fell to the floor.
    â€œIs he going to be all right?” Nancy asked, jerking her head at the policeman. There was a raw, bloody patch on his naked back.
    â€œI don’t know.” I got some water and poured it over the man’s head.
    He moaned a little and then sat up. “What happened?”
    â€œYou’ve been under the control of a mind-parasite. How did it happen?”
    â€œI—I haven’t been myself. We were chasing a gray car, and when we stopped it, Muldoon started acting funny. He stuck his head into the gray car and something happened to him. I went over to see, and