Looking för en kort historia om en man som heter "The Bad Man"

Det är från 1960, inte på 1970-talet, men du har beskrivit John Brunner s novell < a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?62780"> "Badman" ; först publicerad i New Worlds Science Fiction nr 92, mars 1960 , tillgängligt på Internetarkiv .

Det handlade om killen som heter The Bad Man,

The mayor was on screen now. He seemed to have difficulty choosing his words. He got as far as, "Citizens of Greenstown—" and had to pause and reflect. At last he plunged on. "There have been rumours that we are to have a visit from—from the person popularly known as the Badman. In order to quiet the very natural anxiety caused by these rumours, I am making this special announcement. The—the Badman is due."

och de skulle ge honom en parad,

Badman och hans band gjorde sin egen parad:

The sound of the approaching cavalcade rose to a roar. The first outrider swung into the High Street, followed by two side by side, then three, then four, and at last five, in the familiar flying wedge. It brought back sudden memories of how he had used to play Badman and Citizens with the other kids along the street when he was eight or ten years old.

The outriders all seemed to be squat, ugly men. Their faces were masked by thick tinted perspex visors; they wore black metal helmets which protected their skulls, and black nylon bullet-proof armour covered their bodies. They had light machine-guns slung on their shoulders; revolvers in slick patent leather holsters glistened wetly at their hips. Even their machines seemed designed for sudden violence. Throttled back into low gear, their four-cylinder engines made a unison noise like distant thunder, and the handlebars were enclosed behind high armoured-glass shields.

They looked neither to right nor left as they rolled down the street. The watchers’ faces were stony, but the aura of hate which surrounded them was almost tangible. The blonde girl who had cried out raised tear-swollen eyes and gazed mutely at the visitors.

Then the outriders were past, and he could see the car. That was black, too, and armoured. The top was transparent, but he knew it was tough—enough people had tried to shoot the Badman in his time to have tested its strength.

och under paraden slänger ett barn en granat på honom

Now! he thought, and with the thought came the action. The firing pin was out, and he had launched the bomb into the road between the last of the outriders and the nose of the car. For one frightful moment he thought it was going to roll, but it dropped fair, and the case did not crack on the hard paving. The front of the car was about to pass over it when he turned and ran.

och det går inte av,

In the act of lighting a cigarette, the Badman jerked a thumb at Niles. "He dropped a grenade under the car from a shop window in the High Street. Lord knows where he got it from. It wasn't a dud, either. If Macartney hadn’t slapped the nullifier on it before it had a chance to disrupt, you'd have been looking for a new man for the job."

så blir han tagit av den dåliga mannen och får veta att han blir den nästa dåliga mannen.

"Welcome to the band of brothers," said Raistrick dryly.

"You mean me?" said Niles.

"Oh yes!" The Badman smiled. His face seemed much less foreboding now. "We can't let you get away with this, you know. We have to preserve the legend of the Badman's badness. I'm afraid we can’t even let your family know you're still alive. It's always hard on a new recruit, but anyone who has the determination to take action against the personification of evil has to be on our side. Has to. You've started young. But Raistrick started younger, and he stood it all right. You have a pretty good chance of getting to be a Badman yourself, or if it’s more in your line you may follow Nick Andray here and get planted in a town somewhere to be elected mayor."