Keith Laumer 48 min read

He's a sort of taxi-driver, delivering a commuter to the city, but the tank traps and armored cars are the hazards of the trade, and portal-to-portal escort costs two thousand credits.

Keith Laumer's 1961 story is a taut dystopian space opera of a ruined, lawless future. Sharp, gritty golden-age SF. Read it for a hard-edged tale where crossing a decayed, battle-torn city is a deadly commute, and a hired escort must fight his way through to earn his fee.

In its time

Published in 1961, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

48 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Virgil Finlay