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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Impersonator, by Robert Wicks
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+Title: The Impersonator
+
+Author: Robert Wicks
+
+Release Date: December 19, 2019 [EBook #60963]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IMPERSONATOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                          _THE IMPERSONATOR_
+
+                            By ROBERT WICKS
+
+                  _First he had to know what he was,
+                  then who he was and why he was--but
+                   who was relying on the answers?_
+
+           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
+             Worlds of If Science Fiction, November 1960.
+         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+
+He opened his eyes. He couldn't remember having ever seen humans
+before, but he recognized them instantly. Nor could he remember having
+seen anything before, yet he felt a warm familiarity with all that fell
+into view--the light panels set flush with the ceiling, the gleaming
+laboratory paraphernalia erected around the table on which he lay,
+electronic scanners probing his mind with invisible beams--but, most of
+all, the two men in white lab coats bending over him.
+
+"Clench your fingers," ordered the shorter of the two humans.
+
+Muscles tightened. Fingers clenched.
+
+"Blink your eyes."
+
+A quick reflex action.
+
+The taller man leaned closer. "What is your name?"
+
+Something tripped deep inside. "Paul Chandler."
+
+The tall man smiled, but somehow the smile never reached his eyes.
+"Occupation?"
+
+Again something tripped. "Geophysicist."
+
+"And your specialty?"
+
+"Glaciology."
+
+"Your present assignment?"
+
+"I have been appointed by the President of the World Council to head up
+Project Ice Thaw."
+
+"Which is?"
+
+"A program of weather control to combat the extensive glaciation
+threatening to plunge the Earth into another ice age. We meet next
+month in New San Francisco to get final approval on a plan of action."
+
+"And if the project fails?" asked the tall man.
+
+"Catastrophe."
+
+"Clench your fingers," said the shorter man.
+
+Chandler could feel the energy pulse from his brain to his fingers.
+
+"Blink your eyes."
+
+He did so.
+
+"Sit up."
+
+Stiffly he obeyed.
+
+"What manner of creature are you?" asked the tall man.
+
+Something whirred deep in the recesses of Chandler's mind. "A man," he
+said at last. But he knew he was not.
+
+The tall man depressed a series of buttons on a master control panel.
+There was a rushing in Chandler's ears, a blurring before his eyes.
+
+The voice of the shorter man floated across a gray void.
+
+"Clench your fingers," it said. "Blink your eyes."
+
+The odd sensation passed and Paul Chandler found himself looking
+into the eyes of Marta Neilson. She half stood at the far end of the
+conference table.
+
+"Are you sure you're all right?" she asked.
+
+"Just a moment's dizziness," he said, "It's gone now."
+
+Marta, partially reassured, sat down again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Chandler poured himself a glass of water, he studied her clean
+features as he would a mathematical problem in topology. Add in her
+blue eyes and white skin, subtract her hair pulled back in a severe bun
+and her lack of makeup, and she approached the Swedish ideal of beauty.
+
+Her natural magnetism and physical attractions had always stirred an
+emotion in Chandler, but, strangely enough, not now. She smiled and,
+automatically, he returned the smile.
+
+"Mr. Chairman." The delegate from Canada frowned at Chandler. "We've
+debated the problem of causes for nearly two hours and seem to have
+reached an impasse."
+
+A lean Britisher pushed his chair back. "If you were to solicit my
+opinion, I'd say we'd reached an impasse before we entered this room."
+
+A stocky Russian with weathered features shot a glance at the
+Englishman. "Was that remark directed at me?"
+
+"I was under the impression," returned the Englishman, "that we
+were here to determine an immediate course of action. My government
+instructed me to work to that end. I do not know what your instructions
+were."
+
+"My dear Dr. White--" the Russian began, but Chandler's gavel rapped
+firmly on the table.
+
+"Surely," he said, "Professor Kotenko is willing to concede that a cold
+climate is not enough in itself to cause glaciation."
+
+"I did not mean to imply that it was."
+
+"There must be snowfall, and snowfall demands a source," Chandler
+continued.
+
+"And that source is the Arctic Ocean," the Britisher threw in.
+
+The Russian stood up. "Gentlemen," he said, "would you undo a century
+and a half of Soviet weather control? Would you destroy the Bering
+Strait Dam and the North Atlantic pumping stations?"
+
+Dr. White stood up to face Kotenko. "If it would stop that infernal ice
+sheet, yes, by God!"
+
+"It is easy for you to talk," the Russian fired back. "It is not
+British science that is being impugned."
+
+"And it's not Soviet territory that's being threatened."
+
+"A tribute to Soviet science," the Russian replied, smiling.
+
+The Englishman's neck reddened.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chandler rapped his gavel again. All eyes turned his way.
+
+"We want Soviet and British science working hand-in-hand with the rest
+of us on this project. Anything less might spell disaster."
+
+A murmur of approval greeted his words and the Englishman sat down.
+Professor Kotenko remained standing.
+
+"You have the Soviet plan before you," he directed at Chandler.
+
+"I've read it," said Chandler, glancing down at the document neatly
+bound in manuscript covers. "An interesting idea--increasing the
+greenhouse effect by adding carbon dioxide to the upper atmosphere.
+But the amount that could be added would only raise the temperature
+by a few degrees. Since snowfall increases considerably at the warmer
+temperatures close to the freezing point, we would only be compounding
+our problem."
+
+Kotenko's features stiffened. "The plan also includes changing the
+albedo of the ice by coating it with coal dust. Not only would this
+raise the mean temperature, it would melt the--"
+
+"What happens when it snows over your precious coal dust?" the
+Britisher cut in.
+
+"We are suggesting a continuous dusting program." The Russian took his
+seat.
+
+"The plan is not without merit," Chandler said. "However, we've
+received almost as many plans as there are members on this commission."
+
+"Why not try all of them?" asked the Indonesian delegate.
+
+"Or, at least, a program involving several," Marta Neilson modified.
+"Atomic heat and possibly infra-red radiation."
+
+"We can't spread our efforts that thin," Chandler explained to the
+young woman. "Any one of these plans demands a concentration of money
+and effort such as the world has never known."
+
+"And one thing strikes me," Dr. White put in. "None of these plans hits
+at the basic cause. They all treat symptoms, save for the Canadian
+proposal, which is quite out of the question."
+
+"Are you getting back to freezing the Arctic Ocean again?" Kotenko
+challenged.
+
+"One X-bomb on the Bering Strait Dam," the Englishman said.
+
+"My dear Dr. White," returned the Russian, "the X-factor is best left
+under international ban."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Englishman turned to the Canadian delegate. "Is it? Perhaps this
+is the time to screen your stop-motion studies of the destruction of
+Ottawa."
+
+"What purpose could that possibly serve?" Kotenko protested. "We've all
+seen the glacier first-hand."
+
+"It might well underscore the need for more action and less talk."
+
+"Then," said the Indian delegate, "by all means, let's see them." Again
+there was a murmur of approval.
+
+As the delegates rearranged their chairs to face the view-wall at the
+far end of the conference room, the Canadian pushed a button on a
+control console in front of him. The room lights dimmed.
+
+"This study was recorded at the rate of one frame a day by the Canadian
+Glacial Control Commission. Tonight it will be released over the World
+Video Network. While everyone has seen pictures of what is happening in
+Ottawa, nothing quite so dramatic as this has been shown." He pushed
+another button.
+
+The wall disappeared and Chandler felt he was actually looking across
+the rooftops of Ottawa, once the capital of Canada. At the edge of the
+business district loomed a massive wall of gray ice. It was pushing a
+ridge of boulders and dirt before it as it bore down on the city.
+
+The scene dissolved to a closer view of the glacier. As Chandler
+watched, fascinated, the glacier ground the city under like a huge
+bulldozer. And still it came on and, for a moment, looked as if it
+might flow right into the conference room.
+
+The lights came up and the wall became whole again. A few delegates
+swiveled their chairs back to the table; others continued gazing at the
+wall.
+
+"Now," said the Canadian, "you can see why our plan calls for a
+dramatic approach."
+
+"Tilting the Earth on its axis is quite out of the question," Dr. White
+said. "But freezing the Arctic and removing the source of the snow is
+practical."
+
+"And time-consuming," the Canadian added.
+
+But Chandler wasn't listening. A sudden dizziness swept over him. He
+felt strangely detached.
+
+"I don't think we're capable of reversing the warm currents flowing
+into the Arctic," he found himself saying. "The Bering Strait Dam is
+one thing, but a dam across the North Atlantic...."
+
+"Then what have you in mind?" asked the Russian.
+
+"How would you react to a little suggestion of my own?" Again all eyes
+were on him. "Suppose we were to tap the heat right from the Earth's
+core?"
+
+The reaction was dead silence. Finally the Englishman spoke.
+
+"Mr. Chairman, in one breath you suggest the impracticability of
+damming off the waters of the Atlantic, and in the next you suggest
+drilling into the depths of the Earth!"
+
+"Surely you are jesting," the Russian added. "Why not tilt the Earth,
+as the Canadians suggest, if we must lean to the sensational?"
+
+"If I were not acquainted with your reputation, Dr. Chandler," the man
+from India said, "I would not for a moment entertain such a thought."
+
+"Possibly," said the Englishman, "you mean pockets of magma near the
+surface."
+
+"I mean the core itself," Chandler insisted.
+
+"Gentlemen," Marta Neilson said. "As you know, I have been working
+rather closely with Dr. Chandler on the plans that have been suggested.
+However, tapping the core comes as a surprise even to me. But because
+I am acquainted not only with his reputation"--she acknowledged the
+Hindu with a nod--"but with his ability as well, I move that we allow
+Dr. Chandler to pick a committee to consider the feasibility and the
+consequences of such a plan."
+
+"And what sort of magical drill is going to accomplish this?" the
+Russian demanded.
+
+"The edge of the core is 1,800 miles down--" the Englishman started to
+say.
+
+Chandler rapped his gavel once. "I believe there is a motion before
+us," he said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Unlike the days before the threat of avalanches, the tubeway over
+the Sierra Nevada range was not heavily traveled. Twice in the past
+year avalanches had dislodged the tube, once resulting in a number of
+deaths--something that hadn't happened on American highways for nearly
+fifty years. But it was the most direct route to the Detroit Glacier
+Control Center.
+
+"I'm not sure you made a wise choice in Kotenko," Marta said. She sat
+next to Chandler on the rear observation deck, occupying Professor
+Kotenko's seat while he chose to mingle with the passengers in the main
+lounge.
+
+"Why?" asked Chandler.
+
+"Well, I'm not much of a politician." She glanced around before
+continuing. "It'll be another century before Europe forgets World War
+III. Maybe you thought Kotenko's selection would appease the Eastern
+Union or maybe you were simply trying to get him out of the role of
+principal opponent, but--"
+
+"I picked him because I needed him."
+
+Marta frowned slightly. "Now it's my turn to ask why."
+
+"Kotenko isn't just another glaciologist or meteorologist," Chandler
+said. "His forte is pure science--creative science."
+
+"But he's impractical." Marta sat back in her chair. "You were the
+first to point out the weaknesses of his greenhouse plan. In fact, you
+were rather vehement about it before the conference. What happened to
+change your mind?"
+
+Chandler didn't answer. Instead, he stared disinterestedly at the snowy
+moonlit peaks distorted by the curvature of the transparent tubeway
+walls. Marta touched his arm.
+
+"I don't mean to get personal," she said. "But you seem to have changed
+a great deal quite suddenly. You're colder, as if you had lost your
+sense of humor somehow."
+
+Chandler met Marta's gaze. "In a way, I suppose I did."
+
+"Paul," she started to say, but Professor Kotenko strode down the aisle
+and plopped into the seat on the other side of Chandler.
+
+"I'm afraid these were the best cigars they had in the lounge," he
+said, holding one out for Chandler.
+
+"They'll do," Chandler said.
+
+The two men lit up. Kotenko, through a haze of blue smoke, started
+picking at Chandler's brain like a surgeon undertaking an exploratory
+operation.
+
+"Now then, my dear Dr. Chandler, what will this magic drill be?"
+
+"I was thinking of super-dense metals from Pluto and, maybe later, from
+the depths of the Earth itself."
+
+"You are thinking in terms of conventional drilling?"
+
+"I have been, yes."
+
+Kotenko settled back in his chair, his bull neck against the padded
+head rest. "I don't wish to insult your intelligence by asking if you
+have any idea of the pressures at those depths."
+
+Chandler rolled his cigar in his fingers but said nothing.
+
+"The drill cores we've removed from the crust under the Pacific bear
+out our mathematics on pressures," Kotenko continued. "But heat is
+something else again. There will be hot pockets, semi-molten strata,
+finally molten material of great density. We can only guess at the
+temperatures. Your drill casing must not only stand up against
+fantastic pressures but also temperatures that will make the toughest
+alloys run like quicksilver."
+
+"There have been lab experiments removing heat-conductivity entirely
+from metals," Marta offered.
+
+"What is to keep the pressure from blowing the casing right out of the
+molten rock?" Kotenko asked.
+
+"Pressure traps built into the solid strata wherever we find it,"
+Chandler said.
+
+Kotenko digested this thought for a moment. "Then your drilling must be
+fully automated and not physically directed from the surface."
+
+"It can be done," countered Chandler.
+
+"And I suppose you will use some sort of thermocouple or heat transfer
+pump to direct the heat against the ice."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chandler nodded. "And pump it into the air to raise the mean
+temperature in the glacial areas."
+
+"That will cause some unusual weather aberrations," mused Kotenko.
+
+"Nothing that the weather control boys can't handle."
+
+"Are you sure," said Kotenko, drawing on his cigar, "that the core of
+the Earth is made of molten metal?"
+
+"I've been working on that assumption."
+
+"There are those who feel it might consist of compacted hydrogen atoms."
+
+"Would it make much difference as long as we can use the heat?" Marta
+asked.
+
+"If we are not careful in tapping such a core--" Kotenko paused for a
+moment, considering the consequences--"we could turn the Solar System
+into a binary system."
+
+"I doubt that," Chandler said. "Besides, I don't plan to set off an
+X-bomb in the core."
+
+"The immediate problem," said Kotenko, "is to drill such a hole."
+
+"It will take some real engineering," Chandler admitted.
+
+"It will take more than engineering." Kotenko looked directly into
+Chandler's eyes. "Will you listen to a suggestion of mine?"
+
+"That's why I singled you out for the committee."
+
+"Forget a drill of super-dense metal." He leaned forward. "Use a device
+that will melt anything it comes into contact with, fuse the material
+into a casing and remove the heat conductivity from it so that it
+will remain solid. This device would sink toward the center of the
+Earth on a gravity drive principle. Your pressure traps would be force
+fields--controlled to allow surplus debris to spew out the top like an
+oil gusher." Kotenko settled back against the head rest.
+
+"Where would we get the energy to drive this device?" Chandler asked.
+
+"Thermo-nuclear power developing heat and thermo-electricity."
+
+"Then I would be taking a fusion bomb into the core of the Earth."
+
+"Yes, you would. You would have to maintain careful control from the
+surface."
+
+"And suppose the core is made of compacted hydrogen atoms?" Marta asked.
+
+Kotenko blew a long ribbon of smoke. "I doubt if there would be any
+danger unless we add the X-factor to the device."
+
+Marta started to speak, but an insistent electronic chiming interrupted.
+
+"Emergency deceleration," Chandler said calmly.
+
+Even before the "Fasten Your Seatbelts" sign flashed on, Chandler,
+Kotenko and Marta had the buckles clamped tight and were braced against
+the head rests of their chairs. Light beam generators whirred. The
+tubecar shuddered and lurched to a stop. The lights went out and a
+woman screamed somewhere.
+
+"There is no danger," the reassuring voice of the driver said over the
+speaker system. "There seems to be some trouble ahead." The lights
+flickered on dimly.
+
+"We are on our own power," Kotenko said. "The tube must be out up
+ahead."
+
+"Another avalanche?" asked Marta.
+
+A private car pulled up behind them and cushioned to a stop on their
+force field bumper. Chandler swiveled his chair around and looked
+through the front viewdome at the scene ahead. The tubeway was
+illuminated with faint emergency light panels for about two hundred
+feet. A Greyhound Tubecar and several private cars were stalled at
+that point. Beyond was blackness.
+
+Marta unbuckled her seat belt and stood up to see better. Chandler
+gazed up the slope of a towering peak alongside them. Deep snow
+glistened in the soft reflected light of the tube.
+
+"We have just received word of an avalanche," the voice of the driver
+reported. "There is no immediate danger. However, we may be forced to
+turn back to--" A sound as of rolling thunder drowned him out.
+
+"What--" Kotenko started to say, and then a gigantic mass of snow
+shuddered down the side of the mountain and broke against the tube like
+a foaming tidal wave engulfing the shore. Marta screamed and fell into
+Chandler's arms as the tubeway lifted, twisted, then slid with the snow
+into the valley below.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was like the dissolve on the video screen. Marta's terror-filled
+eyes were replaced by the penetrating eyes of the short man in the
+gleaming laboratory.
+
+"Clench your fingers."
+
+Paul did.
+
+"Blink your eyes."
+
+Paul did that, too.
+
+The tall man turned from the control panel and looked down at Chandler.
+
+"That was close," he said. "Everything could have been lost in that
+one moment."
+
+"Marta," Chandler murmured. "What happened to Marta?"
+
+The short man looked up at the taller one. "Let's skip-time him three
+or four hours to avoid the possibility of losing him in the avalanche."
+
+"If that doesn't work," the tall man returned, "we'll have to go all
+the way back to the conference and start again."
+
+"I don't know what this is all about," Chandler said.
+
+"How could you?" said the tall man. "Under your present programming,
+all memories have been canceled out."
+
+"What is my purpose?"
+
+"You know that." The tall man fingered a series of switches.
+
+"Think we'll have to clear him?" Chandler heard the short man ask.
+
+"No, I think we're just under the critical level."
+
+The short man leaned over Chandler and watched closely. There was
+another dissolve. The man's eyes were replaced by Professor Kotenko's,
+sparkling with alertness.
+
+"You fainted," Kotenko said. "Like a woman, you closed your eyes and
+fainted."
+
+"What about Marta?" Chandler asked.
+
+Kotenko smiled. "_She_ didn't faint."
+
+"Then she's all right?"
+
+"Everyone in the last three cars lived--a few broken bones, that's
+all. The tube separated and the front cars and some of the other
+vehicles were carried down into the valley. This would not be permitted
+in the Soviet Union."
+
+Chandler sat up. He was on the floor of a gymnasium. A brightly painted
+poster on the wall extolled the virtues of the Reno Union High School
+basketball team. Perhaps thirty others were on the floor covered with
+blankets and tended by doctors and nurses.
+
+"We were brought in by verti-plane," Kotenko explained.
+
+"How long has it been?" Chandler asked.
+
+"Three or four hours. A long time to be unconscious. They want to X-ray
+that skull of yours."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chandler frowned. "No need of that."
+
+Again Kotenko smiled. "That's what I told them, but medical men
+sometimes get carried away with their importance in these emergencies."
+
+Chandler tossed the blanket from his legs and stood up. "I feel fine,"
+he said.
+
+He led Kotenko down a makeshift aisle between the rows of injured. At
+the front entrance, he was intercepted by Marta.
+
+"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded.
+
+"To the center."
+
+"But--"
+
+"No arguments. We've got a lot of work to do."
+
+"You make it sound as though there's no time," she said.
+
+"There's much less than most people think."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Kotenko.
+
+Chandler hesitated. There was something filed away in the back of his
+mind, but he knew he'd have difficulty explaining how he knew what he
+knew.
+
+"You saw the video tapes of Ottawa," he said. "Montreal will be next,
+then Toronto, Chicago, Buffalo, Detroit, Toledo and, at the same time,
+Norway, Sweden, Ireland and eventually all of northeastern Europe."
+
+"Ah," the Russian grinned. "Excellent strategy. Set a deadline. Let
+everyone know you are working against time and you'll have much less
+opposition and much stronger backing."
+
+"What sort of a deadline?" Marta asked Chandler.
+
+"A month to test the feasibility, then one year to develop the drill."
+
+"I can hardly wait to see the faces of the committee when we tell them
+that," said Kotenko.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But Kotenko showed little interest in the surprised faces of the
+committee when Chandler announced his deadline one month later in
+Detroit. Chandler knew that it was another aspect of his report that
+deeply concerned the Russian.
+
+Marta supported Chandler's contention that the job could be done--and
+in a year. She produced carefully detailed studies of non-conductive
+metals that she had painstakingly prepared.
+
+Finally it was Kotenko's turn.
+
+"Yes, Dr. Chandler, with his rather remarkable mental resources, has
+clearly shown that the drill can be produced by modern technology. And
+I believe that Dr. Neilson--" he smiled at Marta--"can lead the way to
+a system of non-conductive conduits to pump the heat anywhere it is
+needed. Only the one hole with its inexhaustible supply of heat will be
+necessary. On only one point do I disagree with Dr. Chandler."
+
+Paul Chandler was doodling unconcernedly on the edge of his notepad.
+
+"And that," continued Kotenko, "is on the need for the X-factor."
+
+Dr. White demanded the floor and Chandler acknowledged him without
+looking up from his notepad.
+
+"For years," the Englishman said, "the Russian government has
+steadfastly refused to agree to the use of the X-factor. I can
+appreciate their feeling, since it was the X-factor that tipped the
+scales in favor of the West during World War III."
+
+"Tipped the scales?" Kotenko said. "I was a very young boy, but the
+sight of the vaporized cities of Russia is burned into my memory."
+
+"I believe I have the floor." Dr. White looked from one face to another
+as he addressed his remarks to each delegate seated at the conference
+table. "If we had been free to use the X-factor, we could now have
+reached the stars with no need to concern ourselves with the time
+barrier. Instead we are virtually confined to the barren planets of the
+Solar System. Right here on our own planet, the X-factor could have
+rebuilt the world almost overnight following the war."
+
+"There is an ancient saying," Kotenko interrupted. "Those who play with
+fire--"
+
+"The time has come," Dr. White pushed on, "to reappraise our position
+with regard to the X-factor capsules lying unused in the Swiss
+stockpile."
+
+"We are hardly in a position to act on that matter," said the delegate
+from Greater Germany. "This is a matter for the Council itself."
+
+Chandler tossed his pencil aside and stood up. "Nor is there any need
+to get a decision at this moment. The drill--with or without the
+capsule--will be basically the same. I'd like to see a motion for work
+to proceed on the drill. The matter of the X-factor can be decided
+later."
+
+"I make such a motion," said the Canadian.
+
+The motion was passed.
+
+It was Marta who selected the site. She chose a grassy meadow in
+northern Michigan that stood directly in the path of the advancing
+glacier. But long before the first fingers of the glacier could search
+out the site, searing billows of heat would spread like a spider web
+across the mountain heights and northern reaches of North America, the
+north Atlantic and northwestern Europe.
+
+Only Marta's stubborn insistence that this was the most central
+location had worn down a number of European delegates who had wanted
+operations to begin on their side of the Atlantic.
+
+Kotenko, with a green light from Chandler, ordered three long-abandoned
+automotive plants into action in Michigan. Scientists and technicians
+from many nations of the World Council were brought together in the old
+General Motors Technical Center in Detroit. Plans were drawn, models
+constructed and a test vehicle sent to the center of Saturn's moon,
+Mimas.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chandler carefully studied Kotenko's report of the Mimas probe, then
+met with the Russian in the latter's office.
+
+"I know why you're here," said Kotenko, offering Chandler a black
+Russian cigar. "You must take into consideration that this was only a
+scale model."
+
+"But it had full power," Chandler argued.
+
+"The initial descent was held to fifty miles an hour." Kotenko lit
+Chandler's cigar. "A fast start and we would have done it with power to
+spare. And remember that we haven't licked the heat problem. The test
+drill was softened by friction heat."
+
+"You still couldn't have made it to the center of Rhea, let alone to
+the core of the Earth," Chandler said.
+
+"It can be done," Kotenko insisted, "and without resorting to your
+X-factor."
+
+"I've requested a special meeting of the World Council together with
+the committee to clear the way for using the X-factor."
+
+"I'll oppose it. Since I am in full charge of constructing the drill,
+my words will bear some weight."
+
+"I doubt if you will object," Chandler said. "I've just received a
+report from the State Department. They have good reason to believe that
+your government will back the release of one capsule."
+
+Kotenko stared at Chandler. Finally he rotated his cigar in his fingers
+and studied the burning end. "Then I'll resign."
+
+"No, you won't. Your government wouldn't permit it." He smiled at the
+Russian. "And neither would I. You're too valuable a man."
+
+Kotenko was still studying his cigar as Chandler left.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The X-factor capsule arrived under an international guard with the
+blessings of slightly over half of the member nations. Kotenko didn't
+resign, but his friendliness vanished.
+
+That same day, Marta broke in on Chandler and, to the consternation of
+his secretary, hugged him.
+
+"We've done it!" she cried.
+
+"Here, here, take it easy." He held her at arm's length. "All right,
+what have we done?"
+
+"Remember the things you said to me about slowing down the molecular
+activity of metals?"
+
+Chandler nodded.
+
+"Well," she continued, "we've just had a major breakthrough in the
+metallurgical lab, once you showed us the way. We can practically
+remove all of the heat conductivity. In less than a month we can start
+manufacture of the conduits."
+
+Chandler smiled. The last obstacle was over.
+
+"And more than that," Marta said, "we can build a test drill that will
+go down into one of the big moons--one with a molten core."
+
+"The next drill," said Chandler, "will be the _real_ thing to tap the
+core of the Earth."
+
+Marta kissed him.
+
+The drill took less than the projected year to build. On the grassy
+Michigan meadow, as several hundred dignitaries, reporters and curious
+spectators in wind-whipped overcoats were held in check by armed
+troops, the giant device was lowered toward a concrete basin. Sizzling
+arc lights mounted on the control ring, a circular concrete building
+surrounding the basin, illuminated the scene against the growing
+darkness of night.
+
+The Soviet press was lauding the drill as a Russian achievement. Most
+Western papers gave the credit to Dr. Paul Chandler. But Chandler knew
+it was Kotenko's idea, made possible by his own mental resources,
+surprising even to himself.
+
+Chandler felt a deep pride as he gazed at the drill, complete with the
+controversial capsule.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Excuse me, Dr. Chandler." A reporter with dry, unkempt hair stepped
+up. "I still don't see how that thing will work."
+
+"In simple words, the rock is drawn into the bottom something like air
+into a jet engine," said Chandler. "The rock is vaporized and expelled
+out the top where the vapor together with the device itself presses
+the molten material into the walls of the shaft. Because the rock has
+had its heat conductivity removed, it hardens and remains permanently
+solid. A tubular force field keeps the shaft from collapsing."
+
+"I understand that much." The reporter took out a folded square of
+paper and a pencil. "But what makes the thing go?"
+
+"It has a gravity drive, giving it many times its normal weight." Marta
+Neilson had moved up to Chandler's elbow. "It simply sinks toward the
+center of the Earth like a pebble sinking in a pond of water."
+
+"What is your reaction to Senator Caldwell's remark that the
+administration is at last returning all of the nation's gold into a
+hole in the ground?"
+
+Chandler laughed. "Don't get me mixed up in politics."
+
+"Are you disturbed by the Interplanetary Council of Churches' charge
+that any attempt to stop the glacier is defying the will of God?"
+
+"Nor religion, either, please."
+
+"Then maybe you'll discuss your own field," the reporter said. "Are you
+aware of the petition signed by thousands of African and Middle Eastern
+scientists?"
+
+"I've read about it," Chandler admitted.
+
+"Do you feel that taking an X-bomb into the center of the Earth is
+completely safe?"
+
+"Nothing is completely safe." Chandler pointed to the reporter's feet.
+"The ground may give way under your feet right now, but I'd bet my life
+that it won't."
+
+The reporter studied the ground under his feet, then scribbled a few
+words on his paper. A moment later, he spotted Kotenko and excused
+himself.
+
+Marta gave Paul's hand a firm squeeze and he squeezed back. Dr. White
+stepped up and offered his congratulations, adding the suggestion that
+perhaps now they should turn their attention to destroying the Bering
+Strait Dam. Chandler parried the question and the Englishman left to
+exchange pleasantries with the Indian delegate, who was engaged in an
+animated conversation with several committee members.
+
+"Well," said Marta, smiling up at Chandler, "tomorrow's the big day."
+
+"Worries me," Chandler said.
+
+"You mean the composition of the core?"
+
+Chandler nodded at the drill. "Basically, that thing is an X-bomb.
+If fusion were to occur in the core and that core _were_ made up of
+compacted hydrogen atoms, I think the Earth might crack apart along
+the fault lines surrounding the Pacific Ocean basin."
+
+"What could cause fusion?" Marta asked.
+
+"Losing control from the surface."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Well, it'll tax the abilities of the controllers every minute,"
+Chandler explained, "to compensate for variations in density and
+gravity. If that thing got away from them, even for a few moments, its
+velocity could build to a point where it would hit the center of the
+Earth's gravity at the speed of a meteor."
+
+Marta's eyes opened wide. "And, of course, it would stop almost
+instantaneously."
+
+"Most of the energy of its forward motion would be converted to heat,
+which would develop a temperature far more than enough to trigger the
+thing," Chandler said.
+
+"But it's made of non-conductive alloys," Marta said.
+
+"Which would only make it happen quicker by reflecting the heat back in
+on itself."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The press photographers' strobe lights began to flicker as the drill
+was lowered into the center of the control ring. Someone was making a
+speech, thin sounds wavering across the meadow, as Chandler and Marta
+started walking toward the VIP geodesic dome, where most of the top
+scientists were quartered.
+
+Marta stared at Chandler for a moment. "Why didn't you say something
+about this to me, Paul? Now I know why Kotenko favored hydrogen fusion
+without the X-factor."
+
+"It wouldn't have done the job," Chandler said. "Just not enough
+controllable power."
+
+"Kotenko thought so."
+
+"He was wrong."
+
+"Then why did you insist upon the drill? Surely some of the other
+methods were workable. What about India's suggestion to set off a
+number of H-bombs underground to produce pockets of magma? That would
+have produced plenty of tappable heat."
+
+"I don't know," was Chandler's honest answer. "Call it a hunch or a
+premonition, but I think it's the drill or nothing. Once the core is
+tapped, the danger is over; we won't have to drill any more holes.
+We'll have an unending source of heat, and non-conductive conduits to
+pump it anywhere on Earth."
+
+"Paul," Marta said, "I've always gone along with you on just about
+everything. Maybe the fact that I'm a woman has been outweighing the
+fact that I'm also a scientist. But let's talk now about the moral
+obligation of a scientist."
+
+"I'm interested in one thing--the best method to save civilization
+from certain destruction."
+
+"But have you the right to gamble like this? Which is worse, the
+destruction of civilization or the destruction of the Earth?"
+
+"Marta," he said, "man at last stands at the brink of fulfilling his
+destiny. He is already establishing colonies on two planets and within
+a hundred years will have a firm foothold in the Solar System. In the
+millennia that follow, the Galaxy will be his."
+
+Marta stopped in horror. "That sounds like Colonial talk!"
+
+Chandler smiled reassuringly. "In this case, what's best for the
+Colonies is also best for the Mother Planet."
+
+"But surely there's time to halt operations long enough to try some of
+the other methods first."
+
+"If we were to falter now," said Chandler as they began walking again,
+"politicians would have most of us replaced inside of twenty-four
+hours. Would you like to see that drill start its plunge to the core
+without someone on hand who knows how to handle it?"
+
+"No, I wouldn't," Marta said. "I'm not sure I want to see it start at
+all." She touched his arm. "Paul, this is a side of you I've tried
+hard not to see. You're--you're almost obsessed with the belief that
+the drill is the only answer. And you're battling ruthlessly against
+counter-ideas and time. After all, even the most radical estimates
+give us at least two more centuries. Granted there'll be a southern
+migration, but--"
+
+"Don't ask me how I know," Chandler said, "but we don't have two or
+even one century. _We don't have ten years!_ When the ice cap at the
+South Pole was at its peak, it exerted tremendous pressures on the
+continental land masses."
+
+"The old shifting crust theory?"
+
+"Yes. A theory tossed into discard when the big thaw came at the
+South Pole. Now, at an almost unbelievable rate, the ice is building
+in the north. This same seesawing effect has gone on throughout the
+Pleistocene. The stresses go one way against the crustal blocks of
+land, then the other way. It might be likened to bending a wire one
+way, then the other, until fatigue causes it to snap."
+
+"And you're convinced that the crust is about to let go?"
+
+"With catastrophic consequences."
+
+"You're asking me to accept a great deal on faith."
+
+"When you stood by me back in New San Francisco," Chandler asked, "did
+you honestly think we could tap the core?"
+
+"I don't know," Marta answered.
+
+"Would you have supported me if I had backed the Canadian plan for
+tilting the world on its axis?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Marta seemed lost in deep reflection for a few moments. "I don't really
+know," she said as they reached the VIP quarters.
+
+At Marta's door, Chandler asked, "Will you stand by me for another
+twenty-four hours? By that time, the drill will be cushioning to a stop
+exactly two thousand miles down."
+
+"Unless we lose control," Marta said. "Then, in less than an hour, it
+could be smashing into the center of the core."
+
+"Will you wait?"
+
+For an answer she kissed him on the cheek, then said softly, "Now we
+better both get some rest. We start operations in less than six hours."
+She closed her door.
+
+Chandler entered his room and stretched out on his cot without taking
+his clothes off. He thought about the plans he had ignored. Some of
+them might have done the job. He thought of Kotenko, who distrusted
+him, and Marta, who trusted him. Finally he drifted into sleep.
+
+He dreamed of great cracks snaking their way down city streets,
+of violent earthquakes, foaming tidal waves, of people trapped in
+crumbling buildings and, finally, the Earth blooming into another sun.
+
+And as the fireball expanded into oblivion, the shimmering face of the
+short man appeared. His mouth moved, but Paul sensed rather than heard
+his words.
+
+"Chandler. Kotenko and the drill."
+
+The face faded to nothing.
+
+Chandler sat bolt upright on the cot. He was dripping with
+perspiration. The drill! Something was wrong at the drill.
+
+He ran down the hall to Marta's room and rapped on the door.
+
+"Who is it?" Marta's voice called out.
+
+"Paul."
+
+There was a pause. Then the door opened, revealing Marta fastening a
+negligee.
+
+"Did I oversleep?" she asked, yawning.
+
+"Have you seen Kotenko?"
+
+"No, but I heard him talking to someone in the hall just after you
+left. It sounded like that reporter."
+
+"Did Kotenko go into his room?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+Chandler, followed by Marta, continued down the hall to Kotenko's room.
+He knocked loudly. There was no answer. He knocked again and shouted
+Kotenko's name. Other doors opened and people stared out.
+
+"The drill," Chandler said, and ran out of the building. As the door
+swung closed, he heard Marta calling after him. He was conscious of
+someone pushing through the door behind him as he bounded across the
+meadow toward the drill.
+
+A small Army verti-plane swung down alongside him.
+
+"Halt!" an amplified voice boomed.
+
+Chandler stopped and faced the plane. "It's me, Dr. Chandler."
+
+The plane settled down beside him. "Oh, yes, sir," the voice
+apologized. "We saw you running and--"
+
+"Quick, take me to the drill," Chandler said.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the voice.
+
+The verti-plane floated down beside the massive control ring and
+Chandler, followed by two armed soldiers, raced through the main doors.
+
+"Halt."
+
+Guards surrounded them.
+
+"Has Kotenko been here?" asked Chandler.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied one of the guards recognizing Chandler. "He took a
+team of technicians to the Gismo."
+
+"Follow me," Chandler ordered, and pushed through the inner door.
+
+Hesitantly, the guards followed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Down in the basin, Chandler saw the yellow glow of a work light.
+Figures were silhouetted against it. He took the spiral stairs two at a
+time. The soldiers clambered down behind him.
+
+"Stay where you are, Chandler," said the voice of Kotenko, his stocky
+figure back-lighted at the base of the drill.
+
+"What're you doing, Kotenko?" Chandler demanded,
+
+"Removing the X-factor capsule."
+
+"You're tampering with government property," Chandler said, primarily
+to orientate the confused guards.
+
+"I am not going to permit the drill to go down there with the
+X-factor," Kotenko said firmly.
+
+"It'll never get beyond the thousand-mile level," Chandler warned,
+moving toward the shadowy figure.
+
+"I am armed," Kotenko warned.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chandler stopped. Marta, clad in an overcoat, came down the stairs.
+Several others followed.
+
+"Those techs will never do it now that they know the situation,"
+Chandler said, moving still closer.
+
+"My dear Dr. Chandler, they are citizens of the Soviet. They will do as
+I say."
+
+"Put down your gun," the soldier at Chandler's side ordered.
+
+"I have already set up the drill for descent," Kotenko said. His shadow
+hand touched a black lever on a portable field control unit. "As soon
+as the X-factor capsule is withdrawn, down it goes."
+
+"But you can never maintain control without a full crew," Marta said.
+
+"I have crew enough," Kotenko told her. "Without the X-factor, complete
+control is not so important."
+
+Chandler leaped for Kotenko, but the Russian's gun blasted white flame.
+A searing pain ripped into Chandler's chest. He fell to his knees.
+
+The soldier's rifle cracked and Kotenko's silhouette crumbled against
+the control lever. Electro-mechanisms whirred and the drill suddenly
+plunged into the depths of the Earth, carrying most of Kotenko's crew
+with it.
+
+"Good God!" someone cried.
+
+Marta was kneeling beside Chandler, tears streaming down her face.
+"Paul!" she sobbed. "Oh, Paul!"
+
+Chandler could taste the warm saltiness of blood in his mouth. "Get the
+control crew here--quick," he gasped.
+
+Someone moved for the stairs while someone else leaped for the field
+control unit.
+
+Chandler's foggy mind touched reality for brief moments, condensing
+time into a montage. A doctor was working on him, then shaking his head
+at the sobbing Marta. Lights were thrown on and control posts manned.
+Someone yelled, "Throw in force fields behind it!" And all the time
+Chandler's chest pulsed with pain.
+
+"Can't stop it!" someone shouted. Then chaos broke loose; men were
+running, blindly bumping into one another.
+
+Even though few of them knew quite what could happen, they wanted to
+get as far away from the hole as they could.
+
+Marta was rocking Paul gently in her arms and crooning something
+Swedish. The ground trembled under them, then lurched violently.
+Sheets of broken plate glass rained down on them from the control ring
+windows. Chandler knew the same thing was happening everywhere as the
+shock waves from the drill reverberated around the globe.
+
+He looked around. They were alone on the basin floor except for the
+contorted body of Kotenko. Paul looked up at Marta.
+
+"How--much--time?"
+
+Marta, her face close to his, smiled faintly. "No more time for you and
+me." Her eyes were dry.
+
+A sound as of millions of giant rocks grating together welled up from
+the bowels of the Earth. He was looking into Marta's eyes when suddenly
+everything vaporized into blinding white heat.
+
+"Clench your fingers."
+
+"Blink your eyes."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The short man in the gleaming laboratory was leaning over Chandler. "We
+did our best," he said.
+
+The pain was gone in Chandler's chest. "Marta," he called.
+
+"I'm afraid she's gone," the tall man said. "She and the entire Earth."
+
+The short man pulled off his lab coat. "Over a thousand years ago."
+
+"A thousand years?" Chandler's mind fumbled with the thought. "What's
+this all about?"
+
+The tall man snapped a series of switches off. "You ask the same
+question every time."
+
+"_Every_ time?"
+
+"We've sent you back three times now." The tall man traded his lab
+coat for a tunic. "Once you tried to X-bomb the Bering Strait Dam, but
+the crust shifted, wiping out the whole population. On the second time
+pass, you tried to tilt the Earth on its axis, but it was thrown out of
+orbit and plunged into the sun. This time--you still have your memories
+of that."
+
+"Makes you wonder about fate," the short man said.
+
+"But what am I?" Chandler sat up with an effort.
+
+"You," explained the short man, "are a mind developed here in a Venus
+laboratory and sustained in a host body. You see, we can't send solid
+matter back in time, only waves moving at the speed of light. So we
+send your mind matrix to meld with Chandler's."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"To help him save the Earth," the tall man said. "When it was destroyed
+originally, small colonies of us were stranded on inhospitable planets.
+We're still trying to crawl out of the decline that set in. But if we
+can send you back and save the Earth--well, you will remain with Paul
+Chandler. And we--?" He walked to a bank of controls near the door and
+put his hand on one. "Who knows? None of this will have happened. We
+might not even exist."
+
+"Now," said the short man, joining the taller one, "we will have to
+wipe out all memories for you and tomorrow we will start programming
+you for another try. Maybe this time we'll try moving the Earth's orbit
+closer to the sun."
+
+"Wipe out my memories?"
+
+"Of course. We want you to function with a clear mind. Besides, it's
+kinder to you."
+
+"I see." The mind named Chandler looked at the two men. "But please
+leave me with my memories just for tonight."
+
+The tall man turned off the light. "You always ask that and we always
+do."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Impersonator, by Robert Wicks
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