“How?”
“They fill the cells with royal jelly. Take a look around. Isn’t all this royal jelly?”
“By God, I think you’re right.”
“First candidate out of her cell becomes the new queen. Remember what your girl’s been saying? ‘I’m out of the cell.’”
“But she means the Golem and Guff-arrest.”
“Sure. First thing she does is go from cell to cell and kill her rivals before they hatch.”
“D’you mean Gretchen’s been crowned queen by this mob?”
“Then she takes off from the hive to get herself banged by the no-good drones hanging around outside. She emits an Oxo Acid come-on that no male can resist. What’s printed on that cask where she’s taking a bath? Honey Oxo Mead.”
“Jesus! You’ve almost got me convinced.”
“You better be.”
“But do they know what they’re doing… Gretchen and all the rest?”
“No. They’re just following an instinctive pattern Nature formed ages ago.”
“For bees,” Shima objected. “Not people.”
“Uh-uh. Can’t you get it through your head that your Gretchen isn’t people; she’s the New Primal Man. She’s getting back to Nature’s basics on her way to the pinnacle, and there’s going to be hell to pay.”
Gretchen came out of the honey mead shrilling and piping. She was shaking and trembling, and clung to the side of the cask while the mob rocked around her. They embraced her, stroked her, kissed her, butted her lovingly. They rolled her off the cask.
“Uh-huh,” Leuz said. “It’s the new queen pattern all right, Shim. Now the fireworks start. Shim? Shim?” Leuz looked around in surprise. Shima was gone. Like Ind’dni, he had taken off.
Gretchen scrambled to her feet and began short, darting dashes at no one and nothing, still shrilling. She was unaware. She was frenzied. She was primal. In that vast labyrinth with its tortuous passages and corridors and apartments, hacked out of the bridge pier masonry to form the Oasis, she was the new queen and blind-driven to extinguish all rivals.
She went down the ladder to the Raxon apartment below, thrusting through swarm clusters, searching, searching for what she didn’t know, but the primal instinct would tell her when she found it. She clawed her way up to her own apartment again, still searching, seeking, shrilling. Then she came face to face with Nellie Gwyn, unrecognizable in belly-dancer costume, singing in a scream, but Gretchen recognized her. She went for her throat while the mob cheered.
When Nell was dead, Gretchen again began her darting dashes at no one and nothing, and then again began searching, seeking, out into the corridor, shoving through the excited swarms until she came upon Yenta Calienta, majestic in Delilah robes and the beard of Moses. The death-struggle carried them the length of the corridor.
When Yenta was dead and Bimmy beaten off, Gretchen went down the Oasis stairs, searching, seeking, shrilling, hunting. She found her prey in the lobby and left Sarah stiffening in a snowdrift of silver sequins. The kill had stripped off the last fragments of Gretchen’s clothes. Then she took flight out into the Guff.
She ran; her African breasts heaving, her buttocks quivering, her vulva openly inviting and compressing spasmodically with every stride. She ran blindly through the Guff. And she was madly pursued by the burning, aching, wish-dreaming drones of the Guff.
The drone is Nature’s necessary trash; merely an apparat for the manufacture of semen, all the way from the lion to the bee. The male lion is a drone, lazy, unproductive, useless outside of his one function; fed and cared for by his mate who makes the kills, produces his litters and raises the cubs. But after he has dined on the prey she had provided and lies drowsing in the sun, what does he dream he is? The King of Beasts? And what does the human drone dream he is?
“Look up in the sky!”
“It’s a bird!”
“It’s a plane!”
“It’s EAGLEMAN!”
Mysteriously hatched in an aerie by superscientists from outer space and flown to the Guff, EAGLEMAN uses his mysterious aerial powers to fight the forces of evil and injustice, meanwhile posing as Tiny Gimp, a timid, harmless cripple.
And the cripple banged Gretchen’s ass off.
“What’s riding that horse?”
“It’s a boiler!”
“It’s an ashcan!”
“It’s KNIGHTMAN!”
Welded into human form from invincible space-steel by a mysterious star blacksmith, and given the wisdom of Vulcan, KNIGHTMAN uses his mysterious powers of chivalry to fight the forces of evil and injustice, meanwhile posing as Skip Sands, a timid, harmless horse trainer.
And the trainer galloped Gretchen sidesaddle.
“Look in that bathroom!”
“It’s a sink!”
“It’s a tub!”
“It’s HONKMAN!”
Boiled up from the atomic waters of a Swedish mineral spring and mysteriously transported to the Guff by Space Guardians, HONKMAN uses his mysterious muscular superpowers to fight the forces of evil and injustice, meanwhile posing as Sven Svenson, a timid, harmless garbage collector.
And the garbage collector gave Gretchen a Swedish massage.
“Look behind that tree!”
“It’s a branch!”
“It’s a bush!”
“It’s REDMAN!”
Deposited in the last wigwam of the western plains by ecologists from outer space and heir to all the mysterious lore of the Indians, REDMAN used his mysterious tracking powers to fight the forces of evil and injustice in the Guff, meanwhile posing as Moisha Katz, a timid, harmless accountant.
And Moisha bellywhopped Gretchen.
“Look down in that cellar!”
“It’s a tank!”
“It’s a furnace!”
“It’s GORILLAMAN!”
Born in the torrid jungle of Africa and educated in the Guff by an animal trainer from outer space, GORILLAMAN uses his mysterious junglecraft to fight the forces of evil and injustice, meanwhile posing as Fido, a timid, harmless performing dog.
And Fido banged Gretchen spatchcock.
“Look in the precinct!”
“It’s the fuzz!”
“It’s the law!”
“It’s JURYMAN!”
Dictated in the law courts of outer space and heir to all super-stellar legal lore, JURYMAN was mysteriously brought to the Guff to prosecute the forces of evil and injustice with his mysterious legal powers, meanwhile posing as Ronald Pica, a timid, harmless court stenographer.
And the stenographer prosecuted Gretchen, vi et armis.
“Look up in the sky!”
“It’s a comet!”
“It’s a nova!”
“It’s NEUTRONMAN!”
Born on a collapsing star and mysteriously transported to the Guff by the supermavins of space, NEUTRONMAN secretly uses his mysterious astral powers to fight the forces of evil and injustice, meanwhile posing as Lance Languid, a timid, harmless dilettante.
And the dilettante mounted Gretchen baroque.
“Look down the street!”
“It’s a flame!”
“It’s arson!”
“It’s FIREMAN!”
Ignited from the flames of a Salem witch-burning and mysteriously delivered to the Guff by saviors from outer space, FIREMAN secretly uses his mysterious burning powers to fight the forces of evil and injustice, meanwhile posing as M. Monsieur, a timid, harmless chef.
And the chef skewered Gretchen en brochette.
“Look up at that wall!”
“It’s a bug!”
“It’s a spider!”
“It’s MANTISMAN!”
Mysteriously absorbing the superpowers of an Amazon explorer from outer space, and transported to the Guff aboard a fruit freighter, MANTISMAN uses his mysterious insect skills to fight the forces of evil and injustice, meanwhile posing as Speed Stubbs, a timid, harmless SpaceCap.
And the SpaceCap banged Gretchen stelliform.