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If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Hostage of Tomorrow - -Author: Robert Abernathy - -Release Date: March 05, 2021 [eBook #64710] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOSTAGE OF TOMORROW *** - - - - - Hostage of Tomorrow - - By ROBERT ABERNATHY - - Was Earth on the wrong time-track? Ray Manning - stared as nation smashed nation and humans - ran in yelping, slavering packs under a sky - pulsing with evil energy--and knew the answer - lay a hundred years back. Could he return? - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Spring 1949. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -It was the end of March, and the wreck of the Dritten Reich lay in -colossal ruin across Europe, where people were only beginning to crawl -out of their burrows to face the job of rebuilding a world for better -or worse. In Germany itself, the Allied Armies, driving forward behind -the iron spearheads of their aircraft and their armor, were closing in -to smash the still-defiant nucleus of the old world that had been for -worse. - -One column consisted of two jeeps and a canvas-backed truck, bounding -and swerving at reckless speed over a rutted road that wound upward -and deeper into the fir-shadowed Schwarzwald. - -"Reconnaissance," grunted Ray Manning, between lurches of the transport -truck. "They might have called it treasure hunting." - -"Huh?" said Eddie Dugan, planted solidly and insensitively beside -Manning on the jolting wooden seat. He took his eyes off the knees -of the soldier opposite and searched his buddy's face. "What's the -treasure?" - -"Brains," explained Manning succinctly. "While the rest of the Seventh -goes on handing body blows to the enemy, we're going after his gray -matter. Brains are about the only article of value left in this -bombed-out country. And Dr. Pankraz Kahl has one of the best." - -"What's he keeping it in these woods for?" Dugan glanced out at the -receding park-like scenery, green now with spring. - -"Unless the jerk they picked up back in Freiburg sold Intelligence a -fairy story, the Herr Doktor had some kind of a hideout here, where he -was doing experiments--something that impressed the Nazis enough they -were willing to finance him and leave him alone." - -Dugan looked properly impressed. Of course, he had learned to expect -such knowledge from Manning, who had been at M.I.T. and had managed to -stay a combat soldier only by the grace of God and a lot of blarney.... -Dugan was still looking impressed when the truck scuffed tires to a -halt. Then he was first man out, and the rest of the troops followed in -seconds--they needed no telling to get out of a stationary vehicle. - -"Road ends," somebody remarked. It did, in a loop that took it back the -way they had come. The lieutenant in charge of the detachment swung out -of the lead jeep and called them together under the trees. - -"We'll have to spread out," declared the lieutenant. "Groups of three. -That hideout ought to be within a mile of here. If you find it and -there's resistance, keep shooting at intervals and wait for the rest. -Remember, we've got to make captures this time, not kills." - -The sergeant rattled off names and the groups formed swiftly and took -off. Manning and Dugan, naturally, were two corners of one trio; its -third was a corporal named White. - - * * * * * - -With Dugan as point, they advanced up a brush-grown ravine, using -caution and cover, skirting the path that curved up the hill. They -topped a saddle, and saw the house--a sprawling mountain lodge, -built of logs by somebody with a passion for privacy, its roof well -camouflaged now with synthetic greenery--not a hundred yards away up a -slight slope rankly overgrown with grass. It looked deserted. Dugan had -taken a few steps into the open before something--perhaps a far-away -tinkle of breaking glass--warned him, and he went down smoothly in to -the grass and rolled sidewise toward a clump of young evergreens. - -From the house came a splitting crack and a bullet hit the ground where -he had been. Behind him, Manning jumped behind a comfortably thick -tree-trunk, unslinging the automatic rifle he carried. But White was -a moment too slow. The second bullet caught him as he turned, and he -stumbled to his knees; two more shots rolled echoes down the ravine, -and White collapsed on his face. - -Manning sighted his automatic and gave the window from which the fire -had come a short but intensive burst. The house was silent. He fired -again at a venture; in answer, a bullet snapped past, coming from a -different spot. There was more than one marksman up there, or one was -moving fast. - -From ahead came Dugan's voice, low-pitched but carrying. "Cover me, -Ray. I'm gonna crawl around to the back." - -"You damn fool, you don't know how many there are. Our guys'll be along -in a few minutes." - -"Hell with them," said Dugan. "Just cover me." He didn't mention White. -But there was a compressed fury in his voice. - -Manning sighed. "All right." - -Dugan crawled like a weasel. Manning lost sight of him. He waited with -humming nerves, firing spaced shots into the enemy's log fortress. - -Then he noticed he had stopped drawing any return fire. That might mean -things had started happening inside the house, if it wasn't a trick--He -discarded most of his caution and darted into the open, zigzagging -from scanty cover to cover--something must have happened inside--and -flattened against the rustic wall beside one shattered window, just in -time to hear a voice beyond it exclaim hoarsely, "_Gut!_" - -That was all he wanted to know. If anything was going _gut_ in -there, it was time Ray Manning got into the picture. He cleared the -window-ledge with automatic level. - -There was a big, raftered room, and in the middle of the floor -Eddie Dugan was struggling groggily to get up, while behind him -stood a white-goateed civilian with a wrench, and in front of him a -tough-looking younger man was lifting a rifle. - -The two Germans saw the gun in Manning's hands and made a tableau as -they were. It was broken as the burly one's grip relaxed and his Mauser -clattered on the floor. - -Manning motioned toward the goatee. "Dr. Kahl? Better drop that," he -advised in German. - -The little physicist looked down at his wrench and let it fall with -an expression of disgust. Then he glared at Manning and called him a -couple of names culled from biology rather than physics. "If your man -hadn't caught Wolfgang reloading--As it is, you have interrupted my -work at the most crucial point imaginable--a work that might yet save -the Reich--" He woke up to the nature of his audience, and finished -lamely, "And which is in any case the greatest scientific advance of -all time." - -Dugan got shakily back to his feet, scooped up his dropped Browning, -and trained it on Wolfgang. "Is that Kahl?" he inquired sourly. "If I'd -known this guy wasn't the one we had to capture, I'd have let him have -it when I first got the drop on him." - -Manning didn't answer. His eyes roved rapidly about the interior, alert -against another surprise entrance; but anybody else on the premises -was lying pretty low. One, in fact, was doing it just under the window -Manning had first fired at. He was no longer a factor. - -One end of the room was storage space for the overflow of Kahl's -electrical equipment. Manning recognized some of the articles there and -read the labels on a couple of crates, but they gave him no clue to the -Herr Doktor's world-shaking research. The door behind Kahl was ajar on -a room that, from what showed, might be his laboratory.... - - * * * * * - -They'd taken the required prisoner, and all duty called for now was a -short wait until Intelligence took him off their hands. But Manning's -curiosity was needled. Kahl wasn't modest about whatever he'd done--but -his wrath at the "interruption" was genuine, and there might really be -something here. The soldier in Manning fought a brief battle with the -student, and lost. - -"What is this work of yours?" He made his voice authoritatively crisp, -over the automatic's steady muzzle. - -Kahl glanced momentarily toward the open door, then glowered at the -American for a long ten seconds. "It is not for barbarian eyes." - -"So there's something worth seeing--or a booby trap, maybe?" said -Manning to himself. Aloud he snapped, "Suppose you show us what's in -that room. Ahead of me--no, let Wolfgang go first. Keep him covered, -Eddie!" - -Dugan hadn't been able to follow the conversation--his German was -limited to "_Komm heraus mit die Hand in die Luft!_" and a few other -useful expressions from the American Tourists' Phrase Book, 1945 -edition--but he didn't question Manning's wisdom. He did a silent and -highly efficient job of shepherding Wolfgang through the doorway, and -stood well aside as Manning followed, preceded by a cowed-looking -physicist. - -Manning was all eyes for Kahl's invention; his first impression was -that the room was disappointingly small and bare. There was nothing -that looked like a rocket motor, a guided missile, or even an improved -submarine periscope. But then the American's eyes narrowed as they took -in what was there. - -There were no windows, and walls, floor and ceiling were metal or -sheathed with metal. Around them ran what looked like medium-thick -pipes, without openings or discernible use. The only furniture was a -table, supporting a rather fantastic electrical setup--stuff in the -thousands of megacycles, judging by the heavy dielectric tubes and -coils that were just a copper twist or two; that was what Manning had -glimpsed from outside. - -Then a movement jerked Manning's gaze back to the prisoners--and he -almost shot the Herr Doktor. For Kahl had contrived to halt near the -apparatus-laden table, had taken one quick step and thrown a switch. - -The damage--if damage there was--was already done; that thought stayed -Manning's trigger finger. But nothing seemed to have happened; only -when the contacts had touched the light had flickered briefly, and -something had made a deep humming sound that rose in pitch like an -electric motor starting under load--rose and snapped off in an instant. - -But something stayed wrong. The unconscious faculty of observation -that had been sharpened for Manning in shell-smashed towns where the -ability to notice small wrongnesses might keep a man from touching off -a hidden mine told him that.... He tried to read the expressions of the -two Germans. Every wrinkle on Kahl's face beamed crafty triumph. But -his helper's look made Manning blink. Wolfgang's Aryan-blue eyes bulged -with panic. And they were staring past Manning, at the door. - -Eddie Dugan broke the tense silence. "Ray--where's the light coming -from?" - -That was it! "Watch them!" rasped Manning, and whirled to face the door. - -It was ablaze with green-gold sunlight. - - - II - -And beyond it was not the gloomily raftered feast-hall of a Nazi baron, -with gray March outside its windows--but a woodland rich with high -summer. A breeze stole in from that preposterous outdoors and brought -warmth and scent of firs, and of something else.... Suddenly there was -a crashing in the thicket, a thud of racing hooves. "A deer," said -Manning stupidly. "Something must have scared it." Dugan, sweating with -his back to the door, relaxed slightly. - -Like an echo from behind Manning came a dry cackle of laughter. He -faced about again; his glare stilled even the Herr Doktor's hysterical -glee. - -"All right, how'd you do it?" he snapped in English, then, with -returning control: "_Erklaren Sie das sogleich!_" - -"_Gern_," grinned the scientist. "This room, all of it, is my -invention. It was built into the house, but when I closed the switch, -it moved, and left the house behind." - -"Where are we, then? No riddles!" - -"It is simple enough. What you see outside is the world of the -future--no longer future to us, but present, though about a hundred -years removed from the 'present' which we have just left. This room is -my time traveler--_der Kahl'sche Zeitfahrer!_" - -Meantime Dugan had taken a look out the door. He said nothing, but his -eyes grew larger and larger in a paling face. Manning told him, tersely -and without comment, what Kahl claimed to have done; in his own mind he -had already accepted it as truth, the only possible explanation for the -seeming impossible. He said stonily to the German: "The demonstration -of your invention is very interesting. But now we must deliver it to -American Intelligence, who will appreciate your genius. Set the machine -to take us back where we came from." - -"I could not if I would," retorted Kahl. "Because of your interference, -I had no opportunity to make adjustments. I merely threw the activating -switch, and the _Zeitfahrer_ exhausted its power before coming to a -stop. You see, the switch is still closed. Only the field has collapsed -as the batteries went dead." - -There was a sound like a sob. It came from the hard-faced Wolfgang. The -man's patent terror was more convincing than Kahl's assertions. - -Manning eyed him coldly, inwardly surprised at his own reaction to -the news that they were stranded. Perhaps he was still dazed by the -incredible--but his chief emotion was a waxing excitement and wonder at -the thought of seeing with his own eyes that world of the future about -which people dreamed and speculated, cursing the shortness of their -lives.... - -Dugan had guessed more than he had understood the meaning of Kahl's -words. But to him the situation suggested more routine concerns. - -"Say, Ray," he inquired, "do you suppose we're AWOL?" - -"I don't think so," Manning choked down an impulse to wild laughter. -"No more than a guy that's blown off his post by an 88. Anyway, I -don't remember any General Order that says you've got to be in the -right year. But our program now will have to be: get oriented in this -place, this time, I mean, and dig up some fresh batteries to send this -thing back to 1945. In the twenty-first century batteries shouldn't be -scarce; we'll just have to be careful about contacting the natives, so -we don't get tossed in jail or the booby hatch.... To begin with, let's -get out of here. This damn traveling vault is getting on my nerves." He -motioned at Kahl and Wolfgang. "Outside." - -Kahl didn't stir; his eyes narrowed slyly. "There is no sense in your -treating us as prisoners, now. The war is ancient history." - -"Until further notice," said Manning, "we'll continue as of 1945. Move!" - -Grudgingly they moved. Kahl growled over his shoulder, "One thing does -not seem to have occurred to you. This is _Germany_ of the future, -where Wolfgang and I are much more likely to find friends than you are." - - * * * * * - -Manning did not answer. He had halted, stiffening, on the time -machine's threshold, and sniffed the air critically. To him came sudden -recognition of the scent which mingled, strengthening, with that of -spruce and fir: a heavy, tarry odor of burning. He looked upwind. -Through the rifts of the treetops were clearly visible clouds of black -smoke, boiling upward against the blue sky. Flames flickered angrily -beneath, and to Manning's ears came the faint but subtly all-pervasive -crackling of the fire. It was drowned out briefly by the alarmed -croakings of a flight of ravens that circled overhead and then flapped -away, and in the relative stillness that followed another sound was -audible--that of human voices, raised in shouts and commands. - -"Looks like the local fire department's on the job," remarked Dugan. - -"The fire!" exclaimed Kahl hoarsely. "It is blowing toward us--If it -reaches the _Zeitfahrer_--" - -"Guess the man's right," said Manning. "If that is the fire department, -we'd better get in touch with them." All four started to run, -quartering across the visible face of the blaze toward the voices' -source. - -They had covered a hundred yards when from ahead, sharp above the -snapping flames, a shot spanged. The two Americans instinctively hugged -the ground; Kahl and Wolfgang, in advance, froze and stared at the -screen of firs. From just beyond exploded a violent fusillade, with the -hasty clatter of automatic fire setting the tempo; and in the midst of -all the shooting was the noise of a racing motor and a rackety whir -that could come only from spinning propeller blades. - -The sound rose and seemed to hang overhead. Manning looked up and -thought for an instant that he glimpsed the dark moving shape of -a flying thing; but when he looked straight at the spot there was -nothing. A moment later he was conscious that the roar of the engine -had ceased and with it the noise of firing. The crackle of the forest -fire came as from far away to deafened ears. - -Dugan and Manning looked blankly at one another. They got to their feet -and stood in indecision. - -"Damned if I know," said Manning bewilderedly. "For a minute I thought -we'd landed in the middle of another war. Now I don't know whether it -was real or--" - -"_Halt!_" barked a keyed-up voice on their right. "_Still-gestanden, -oder ich schiesse!_" - -The man who had appeared from the bushes, despite the unfamiliar -uniform he wore, was at least real. So was the tommy gun he trained on -the group, and the look of vicious eagerness that twisted his face. - -"_Das Gewehr fallen lassen!_" he shouted. - -"Better drop it," said Manning quietly to his companion. "We don't know -what the score is yet. And that guy _wants_ to shoot." - -Other uniformed figures appeared behind the first man. All of them were -armed and looked excited and dangerous. But surprising was the caution, -amounting to anxiety, with which they fanned out and kept their weapons -leveled; they seemed to expect some formidable and disconcerting -counterattack from the disbanded and outnumbered captives. - -The first arrival jerked a thumb toward the way he had come; his manner -didn't encourage protest. And Manning, who had read science fiction -stories, reflected that a time traveler's best bet was to keep his -mouth shut. - -Beyond the fir grove a meadow-like clearing opened out. Smoke was -drifting across it and the fire licking at its edges, but that didn't -seem to be what was bothering the men who swarmed about it. Some of -them were squinting into the bright summer sky, nervously fingering -guns, others arguing in loud groups. A crowd clustered about a -helicopter which perched on the grass with slowly revolving vanes. -Toward it the four prisoners were marched. - - * * * * * - -Under the intermittent shadow of the helicopter's blades a big man in -curiously patterned civilian garments stood with arms akimbo, facing a -soldier who was ramrod-stiff and obviously embarrassed before him. - -"There was no chance, Herr Schwinzog," the latter was insisting. "They -wore _Tarnkappen_, and they were inside the machine and had the engine -going before we knew that anything was wrong. We fired on them as they -rose, and they made the helicopter invisible. Of course, then it was -too late to stop them--without shutting off the power over the whole -district, and that would mean chaos--" - -"Of course it was too late," said Herr Schwinzog bitingly, "since it -was already too late when you started thinking. You may as well put -your report in writing, Captain, and hope that your superiors don't see -fit to demote you. For my part, I shall use my influence to see that -they do." - -He pivoted, grinding his heel into the turf, and snapped at the man at -his elbow: "What is it?" - -The soldier saluted jerkily. "Unauthorized persons, Herr Schwinzog. We -apprehended four of them about two hundred meters to the northwest. Two -were armed." - -"Hum!" grunted the big man explosively. His eyes narrowed, coming to -rest on the group of captives. His scrutiny was chillily penetrating. -He held it on them while the shadows of the helicopter vanes swept -across his face a dozen times. Then he said flatly, in slightly -accented English: "You, no doubt, are Americans?" - -Manning was silent, feeling the dream-sense of unreality overcome him -again. That question tangled time and space--it and another thing: -around the left arm of Schwinzog's oddly cut coat was a broad band, -and in a circle on it sprawled a stark black swastika. A hundred -years ago--if a hundred years _had_ passed--American armies had been -trampling that emblem in mud and blood. - -But Dr. Pankraz Kahl burst out, "_Wir sind keine Amerikaner! Wir_--" -including himself and Wolfgang with a sweep of the arm, "_sind -Deutsche!_" - -Schwinzog regarded him expressionlessly. "And you?" he turned abruptly -on Manning and Dugan. - -"We're Americans," said Manning steadily, in English. Schwinzog's face -did not change. But something in the look with which he had received -Kahl's statement had jangled an alarm in Manning's brain. And he was -still determined to keep his mouth shut and his ears open as much as -possible. - -Immediately he knew he had been right; for Schwinzog turned again to -Kahl. "You say you are German. Your citizen's card, then." - -The Herr Doktor started automatically to fumble at a pocket, then -paused and made a wry face. "I--we have no such papers as you want. -Naturally, since we--" - -"Since you are spies?" Schwinzog folded his arms and the fingers of his -right hand caressed his swastika brassard. - -"That is ridiculous!" shouted Kahl. "I am trying to explain to you that -we are visitors from your past! We come from a hundred years ago!" - -For the first time Schwinzog looked interested. "And how do you explain -your presence in the year 2051 _nach der Zeitwende_?" - -The scientist was soothed. "I am Dr. Pankraz Kahl, member of -the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft, inventor of the world's first -_Zeitfahrer_." - -"A time traveler? A machine of some sort?" - -"Of course." - -"Then where is this machine?" - -"Back there in the forest--the forest! The fire! It may have reached -it--" Kahl plucked at Schwinzog's coatsleeve. "You must save my -invention--" - -The other shook him off. "When I see it I will save it." - -"Come, then! Quick!" - - * * * * * - -The fire had rolled farther into the forest; everywhere the evergreens -were burning like torches. Sparks rained down from overhead as they -approached the time traveler's resting place, and directly ahead the -thicket was a sheet of flame. From Kahl came a wounded cry; he broke -from the guards and dashed forward. Then he stopped as if he had run -into a stone wall. - -The soldiers closed up, weapons thrusting. - -"But this is the place!" Kahl was muttering feverishly. "It was right -there--" He pointed at the bare, smoldering grass. - -The ten-foot metal cube of the time traveler had burned to feathery ash -and drifted away on the breeze--or it had in some no less unbelievable -fashion vanished utterly. - -Schwinzog's smile was not good to see. "Of course there is nothing -there," he nodded satisfiedly. "Lieutenant Kramer, arrest these men. -They are American saboteurs, and will be tried as such tomorrow by the -_Volksgericht_." - -"We," Eddie Dugan summed up the situation, "are up the creek without a -paddle." - -"And we don't know where the creek is," added Manning. "Only that -this is 2051, and the Nazis evidently either won the war or staged a -comeback somehow after losing. Neither idea seems possible, but here -we are. Item, America is still fighting Nazism--at least, there are -'American saboteurs.' Item two, we landed smack in the middle of a -wasp nest stirred up by those same saboteurs. They must have scored a -success; did you see that building in the woods beyond that field?" - -"What building?" - -"I noticed it just as they were loading us into their armored paddy -wagon. It had been a big place--already fallen in; the fire must have -started there. And the boys that started it must have been the ones -that German captain was talking about--the ones that wore Caps of -Darkness and flew off in an invisible helicopter." - -"I'm getting a headache," groaned Dugan. - -"I'd like to meet them," said Manning thoughtfully. - -They could not see each other, but they could talk between the -adjoining cells. Kahl was in the cell on the other side of Manning's; -he had raved most of the night at the guards and the equally responsive -steel walls. The two Americans had slept long and refreshingly; they -had long since learned to sleep under any and all conditions. There -were no windows to show daylight, but they must have been there most of -twenty-four hours. - -They hadn't seen much of the world of the future, thought Manning -ruefully; only the glimpse of a street filled with shiny silent -automobiles and oddly garbed pedestrians, as they had been hustled from -a rolling dungeon to a stationary one. But if the town was Freiburg, it -had changed a lot since they had last seen it--a skeletonous waste of -ruin, with nothing left standing that the American bombers had wanted -to flatten. - -"We shouldn't of let that Kahl talk so much," resumed Dugan -gloomily. - -"How could we stop him? Anyway, I have a feeling he talked himself in -even deeper than he did us." - -Their discussion was ended by a clatter of boots, the arrival of a -bristling escort. They were being honored with treatment as dangerous -and important prisoners--a distinction less flattering than ominous. - - * * * * * - -The "People's Court" before which they were being taken was obviously -not the extralegal supreme court which Hitler had made into a bogey-man -for scaring grown-up consciences to sleep; this was a local affair, in -the same building that housed the jail. All four prisoners were herded -into a rather small chamber, innocent of audience or jury. Opposite -the entrance, beneath a huge hooked-cross banner, three men in black -robes sat behind a desk. Two of them were old men who regarded the -defendants with dull, incurious eyes; between them, his bulk dominating -and shriveling them, sat Herr Schwinzog. - -Into the deathly silence a hoarse voice cried, "_Heil Hitler!_" - -It was Wolfgang, his conditioned reflexes spurred by sight of the -swastika flag. The Americans stared at him; it was the first words they -had heard him speak--perhaps they were the only ones he knew. Herr -Schwinzog raised his eyebrows. - -"What did you say?" - -"_Heil Hitler!_" repeated Wolfgang mechanically. - -"What does 'Hitler' mean?" asked one of the old men curiously. - -"I don't know," said the other old man. "Perhaps he is feigning -insanity." - -Kahl found his voice. "But this is monstrous nonsense!" he shrilled. -"Is this not the _tausendjahrige Reich_ that Hitler promised us--" - -"Silence!" snapped Schwinzog, and the scientist quailed. "You are not -here to plead or talk gibberish, but to hear sentence. Your case has -been decided after thorough investigation." He fixed all the prisoners -with a frigid gaze. "You Americans are capable of more cunning than -most Germans give you credit for; I know that well, for I was a -colonial administrator in your country for ten years. Your attempt to -masquerade as 'time travelers' shows originality in the conception -and thoroughness in the execution. Needless to say, nothing directly -incriminating was found among your effects. The experts report that -even the metal identification tags found on the two who call themselves -Ray Manning and Edward Dugan are authentic reproductions of those used -by the American army at the time of the Conquest. - -"However, you made the mistake of using too much imagination in -the effort to confuse. Your story is too preposterous to be taken -seriously, especially since our best scientists have declared time -travel impracticable. Accordingly, we could sentence you to death for -unauthorized presence inside the Reich and for evident complicity in -the attempted sabotage of a German experimental station. - -"In view of the absence of direct evidence of subversive actions, we -have decided on leniency. The two prisoners, real names unknown, alias -Pankraz Kahl and Wolfgang Muller--your claim to German citizenship has -been checked with the central archive in Berlin and found to be false. -Therefore I sentence you for the crime of imposture to five years in a -concentration camp." - -Kahl burst into a desperate, unheard babble of protest. At a wave of -Schwinzog's hand the guards closed in. The Herr Doktor was dragged away -bodily, shouting disjointedly about the blindness of the Philistines -and Hitler's thousand years. - -"As for you two," Schwinzog eyed Manning and Dugan with an oddly -speculative air, "since you have admitted American nationality, your -punishment is limited to immediate deportation--back to America." - -They were more staggered than they would have been if he had said they -would be executed for failure to wear monocles. - -As the guards surrounded them, Schwinzog raised his hand, his face -adorned by a mocking grin. "One more thing. You will be interested to -know that the raid on the Black Forest experimental station missed its -objective; the building destroyed was an unimportant storehouse. The -actual refining plant is nowhere in the vicinity. The project of which -your organization seems to be so well informed goes on as before and -will be completed inside a week. You may carry the message to America: -_One week to live._" - - - III - -They had little opportunity, during the airplane flight to Hamburg, to -exchange impressions or theories; they were constantly under the eyes -of two nondescript, expressionless men who sat unblinking, with hands -in the pockets of their civilian jackets. - -Nor was it better after that; at Hamburg their watchdogs delivered them -to another pair apparently shelled from the same pod. One of the first -set passed the word laconically: "Two American spies. To be released in -Neuebersdorf, by order of Gestapoleiter Schwinzog." And the new guards -saw Manning and Dugan aboard a great transatlantic rocket. - -It was from the rocket over Hamburg that they got their first real look -at a twenty-first century metropolis. Only from twenty miles high could -it be appreciated--the immense sweep of city in which straight-line -highways connected innumerable village-like centers interspersed -among the soft green of parks and woodlands, covering the broad plain -of the Elbe mouth and sprawling away to the eastward to join with -Lubeck across the base of the Danish peninsula. While they watched it, -spellbound, in the mirror-ports, the fairy city sank away and vanished -in the mist and shadow of evening; and the rocket ascended steadily and -almost soundlessly into thinning layers of stratosphere, and the sun -rose up in the west before it. - -Manning fell covertly to studying the Germans who filled the seats of -the pressure-cabin. Most of them were civilians; they had the subdued -worried faces of suburban commuters on a train, and they looked quite -oblivious to the wonder of their age, even to the miracle of the -machine that was hurling them so swiftly and surely across the ocean. -They didn't look like a _Herrenvolk_. Here and there were the color -and brass gleam of uniforms, and with them went a tawdry arrogance, -an overconscious effort to dominate and impress directed at the -gray civilians and most of all, Manning observed, at the half-dozen -nondescript women in the compartment. - -Had these people conquered the world and planted themselves atop it? - -And if so, what had they done with the rest of it? With America, -for example--a German colony, Schwinzog had indicated.... Defeated, -enslaved.... - -Then Manning remembered that he had seen with his own eyes evidence -that America had not been wholly defeated, even after a hundred years; -that someone, somehow, was still fighting on. His heart leaped up. - -He addressed one of the guards for the first time: "Where are we bound?" - -"Neuebersdorf," said the man curtly. He glanced at his watch, and in -lieu of further explanation, leaned forward and twirled a knob beneath -the port beside them; the scene mirrored in it shifted and swung to -straight ahead, and they could see the coast line that had appeared in -the west and was sweeping rapidly nearer. There was a great island and -a sound, and at the latter's narrowest point was concentrated a smudge -of city, almost as vast as the Hamburg of this time, but dark and -jumbled beneath the afternoon sun, lacking the German seaport's ordered -spaciousness. - -"Hey!" exclaimed Dugan. "That's New York!" - -The Gestapoman looked at him in silent contempt. - -"It is--or was," amended Manning sorrowfully. As the rocket plunged -closer, they see that much of the city was in ruin. The downtown -district, in particular, showed an unrelieved prospect of devastation, -empty windows in walls standing or fallen, and fields of shattered -blocks and debris, testifying to a tremendous destruction and an even -greater neglect. Something had toppled the towers that had stood there, -and no one had come to clear away their wreck. - - * * * * * - -Manning turned from the window. Later on he would be curious to learn -more of what German rule had meant to America--for the moment a sick -feeling in his stomach told him he had seen enough. - -On Long Island, however, where the ship landed, the desolation of -New York was not in evidence; where Brooklyn had been was a German -settlement, and there were fair dwellings, broad green lawns and trees, -and smooth-paved streets along which shining traffic moved with the -whisper of electric motors. - -They saw this last outpost of the master race briefly as they were -whisked through in a chauffeured car that had met the rocket; their -destination lay across the river, where eroded heaps caricatured the -skyline of Manhattan. Guards with machine guns passed them onto a -narrow span that had replaced the vanished Triborough Bridge; and -inside five minutes the car halted on the American shore. It stood with -motor running, and one of the Gestapomen ordered, "Get out." - -Manning and Dugan got out, feeling numb in mind and body, and looked -at the waterfront. From the air nothing had been visible except the -colossal ruin of the world's once greatest city; but from close by -could be seen that which was far worse--the dwellings of its present -inhabitants, sprung up among its rubble like the grass through the -cracks of its pavements. The houses were less than peasant huts, built -of stone and concrete fragments and rotting lumber, sometimes against -the still-standing wall of a shattered building. - -Some distance away a small crowd had collected and stood dumbly -watching the activity about the gleaming vehicle that had come over the -guarded bridge. Others peered from the doorways of the nearer huts. All -were ragged and soiled and in their faces was the dull resignation of a -beaten inferiority. - -Those were the American natives of Neuebersdorf, which had been New -York, U.S.A.--_magni nominis umbra_.... Manning wondered, with a surge -of horror and pity, what made them grub here to construct their dens on -the edge of the desolate city, whence they could look across the water -and see the abodes of German pride and power and luxury--was it merely -envy, or the need to nourish an undying hatred? The blankness of the -watching faces gave no answer. - -The car door slammed. The machine swung about and purred swiftly away -up the bridge approach. - -Dugan stared after it and said softly, "What the hell!" And when -Manning failed to answer: "Well, Ray, what now?" - -The other passed a hand across his forehead. "I don't know. But maybe -we'd better start looking for invisible men." - -"Fine," said Dugan. "When I see one, I'll yell." - -Manning glanced toward the ragged crowd that had watched their arrival; -it was already beginning silently to disperse, losing interest. Most -of the two soldiers' clothing had been given back to them, but minus -such items as leggings and steel helmets their 1945 combat dress looked -sufficiently unmilitary and nondescript. - -"No use just standing here," said Manning. They started to walk, -turning at random into a narrow street that crooked among the ruins. -Then Manning began to talk in a lowered voice. "If I'm not badly -off, we're going to be followed and watched. Obviously the Germans -have taken us for somebody else, and they didn't ship us across like -ambassadors out of the kindness of their hearts. They think we belong -to an American underground, and what we do now--they figure--is lead -them to it. I wouldn't be surprised if--Uh huh." He pulled a hand out -of the pocket of his field jacket with a small bundle of paper--money. -It was marked, stamped _Ausland_. "They even slipped us a stake to -make sure we didn't have any trouble in getting to underground -headquarters--with the goon squad on our heels." - -"Well, at least we can eat. And I guess we can wander around, looking -as ignorant as we are, and lead them a wild goose chase.... That sounds -like a hell of a life," Dugan appendixed glumly to his own description. - -"You and me both. Sooner or later we've _got_ to get in touch with -whoever's still carrying on the war. Because the war's still going on, -in spite of--this." He didn't gesture, and Dugan knew he meant more -than the broken buildings around them--the broken look they had both -seen in the eyes of the people. - -"Sure we've got to," said Dugan fiercely. "But how?" - - * * * * * - -Manning shrugged. Their footsteps echoed, died away, echoed again in -the deserted street, which here, in what must be the heart of the -destruction, was hardly more than a tunnel between leaning walls where -tons of masonry still hung in the twisted steel frames. From behind -them the trick echoes brought briefly the sound of other footsteps. -They were being followed, all right. - -"If the Gestapo just knew it," muttered Dugan, "they'd come nearer what -they're looking for if that guy was leading us." - -Manning nodded somberly; then he drew sharp breath and looked at his -companion with kindling eyes. "Maybe that's the answer to our problem, -Eddie." - -"What answer?" - -"Just an idea--maybe there's nothing in it. But if I'm right, we'll -meet the underground--and soon!" - -"Okay," said Dugan. "Anything you say. But what do we do?" - -"I think we can concentrate on digging up something to eat," said -Manning judiciously. "The sun's still up here, but it's been all of -eight hours since we had dinner." - -They emerged at last, tired and hungry, from the labyrinth of total -devastation into a more populous district--a squalid village sprung up -amid the ruin of New York. Along the edges of its dusty main street, -where no lights were lit against the descending dusk, stood or squatted -the people, talking listlessly in low voices or merely staring at the -passers-by. Before one of the larger groups Manning halted. - -"There's a joint down the street says 'Eat'," Dugan nudged him. - -"Wait." Manning faced the bunch of idlers and raised his voice. "Were -any of you folks ever in Germany? It's a wonderful place. We just -got back from there. They have beautiful cities with paved streets, -millions of automobiles and helicopters and airplanes, with broadcast -power to run them--" - -"What are you giving us?" demanded a deep voice, its owner a blur in -the twilight. "We know all that. And who the hell are you, anyway?" - -"I know," insisted Manning. "I was in Germany only this morning." - -A little, wrinkled man scurried out of a doorway and laid a protesting -hand on Manning's arm. "You'd better shut up," he said sharply. "That's -inflammatory talk, and it can get you in bad trouble." - -"He's crazy," suggested another voice. - -"I'm crazy," agreed Manning affably, and turned to go. Out of the -tail of his eye he saw the little man go back inside, and he felt -unreasonably optimistic. - -"Now we can see about that chow," he told Dugan. - - - IV - -The inside of the "eat" was not attractive, nor was the food the -slovenly waiter brought them. Dugan ate fervently. It didn't matter to -him that America was no longer America, or that American coffee was no -longer coffee. - -But Manning dawdled. He had sat down with his back to the wall, so that -his eyes could rove freely over the whole cramped interior; and he was -all taut expectation. He was waiting for a sign. - -Within ten minutes after their entry, three men had come in and sat -down, two of them together. They might have been ordinary customers, -but to Manning's covertly searching gaze they did not look sufficiently -undernourished to be twenty-first century Americans. They looked like -Germans. - -The next arrivals were a youthful couple, and then for a while no one -came in. Manning ordered another cup of "coffee." Then he got a shock. - -For when he looked down, reaching for his cup, it was gone. He blinked, -and it was there, solid, chipped and stained. He glanced briefly up -at the unnoticing Dugan, then back to the cup--and there was no cup. -And then there was, and he sat and squinted at it, struggling with a -glimmer of understanding that this was what he had been waiting for. - -Their table was for four. Out of the corner of his eye Manning thought -he saw somebody sitting in the chair at his right. He turned his head -quickly, and there was no one. The chair was empty. Too empty. His -brain tried to crystalize that intuitive conviction, but failed. - -He glanced sidelong at the suspiciously well-fed men. They sat morosely -over glasses of what looked like beer, and paid no attention. But -Manning knew that there was an invisible man in the room. - -He sat hesitating over his next move, when a voice screamed in his -ear. It was a tiny thread of voice, not a whisper; it sounded like -someone shouting frenetically over a bad telephone connection. - -"Don't move," it commanded urgently. "I see you know I'm here beside -you, and that you're being followed. Are you willing to follow -instructions? If so, lay your right hand on the table." - -Manning did so. The gnat-like voice shrilled, "All right. You leave -here, turning left. Follow your nose and don't look back. About five -minutes' walk will bring you to a bridge. Further instructions then. -Act natural!" - -Despite the final injunction, Manning hardly knew how they got out onto -the street. Out of possible earshot of their shadows, he explained -hurriedly to Dugan. "I thought they'd try to contact us. We have the -Gestapo itself to thank for that, I'll bet. Even if it can't put the -finger on the underground, it must know enough about them so that we -were dumped off here for bait, it could let the word go out so that the -underground would hear about us and grab at the bait right away. They -didn't lose any agents on that raid in Germany, so they must have been -pretty curious to learn that a couple of their men had been picked up -on the scene and sent to New York! Now things are going to break." - -The bridge loomed out of the darkness ahead. It was a wooden structure, -crossing a narrow creek. Midway of the echoing span, they paused, and -Manning pricked up his ears. He was not disappointed. The invisible -presence said, "Good. I trust you can both swim? All right--drop over -the railing, and swim straight back to the shore you just left, only -come out under the bridge. I'll meet you there. Good luck!" - -They looked at each other. "I heard him," Dugan said, and without more -words placed a hand on the rickety railing and vaulted out over the -black water. Manning gave him a few seconds to get clear, and followed. -He came up clinging to his orientation, and struck out; when he -splashed ashore, Dugan was already shaking himself on the narrow strip -of sand below the bank. - - * * * * * - -And a third man emerged abruptly from the shadow of the bridge piles. -He was an ordinary-looking man in a worn leather jacket and patched -trousers, but his face was masked by a dark hood, blank save for -eye-slits, and on his back he carried something like a small pack with -two small levers protruding. In his right hand was a pistol, and in his -left a bundle; he dropped the latter on the ground and stepped back. - -"Put those on," he hissed. "Quick, before they get here!" - -The bundle was two outfits such as the stranger wore. They donned -them as instructed; the hoods were stiff with wire, and connected by -a flexible cord to the packs. Manning eyed the gun speculatively; the -masked man explained softly, "It's not that I don't trust you, but -those gadgets are too valuable to take _any_ chances with. They're -invisibility units. Start them by pressing here." He pulled down one -of the levers on his pack; he seemed to blur slightly, but they could -still see him. "The headgear insulates you pretty well from the effect. -Go on, start those units!" Heavy feet were thundering overhead on the -bridge planks. - -They obeyed; the packs made a faint hum. The stranger relaxed visibly. -"Now we're okay," he said in a normal voice. "By the time they catch -on, we'll be a long way from here." - -Directly above, an angry snarl: "_Sie sind grade ins Wasser gesprungen! -Wer hatte erwartet--_" - -Somebody else answered, "_Vielleicht wird ein Boot dort unten gelegen -haben_." - -"Good guessing," approved the masked man cheerfully. He motioned -Manning and Dugan toward where a small skiff lay beached between the -piles. "Help me launch this. First, though, turn your units up to full -power--like this--so they'll cover the boat." - -Manning was startled at the man's bravado; as all three laid hold of -the boat, he whispered anxiously, "Won't they hear--" - -"Not if we shouted our heads off," the other answered. "With these -units going, we're not only invisible, but inaudible and practically -intangible. I've walked through a cordon that was closing in on me -with linked arms." He sprang nimbly into the bow of the boat. "Grab an -oar, you two, and make yourselves useful. I've been through a lot of -trouble on your account." He seemed to decide that introductions were -finally in order. "My name's Jerry Kane. At any rate, it's my favorite -alias." - -Manning and Dugan named themselves and fell to rowing. "Downstream," -said Kane, and he gazed back at the bridge with interest as they pulled -away. Manning glanced back over his shoulder; there were dark figures -swarming on the bridge, and lights, and a car had stopped there; even -as he looked a searchlight beam swayed out across the water, moving -systematically back and forth. For a moment it fell full upon the -rowboat, and Manning ducked involuntarily; but the light passed on and -there was no outcry, no shots came. - -Manning said hoarsely, "That light was on us! It didn't go through us, -or anything of the sort. A body that reflects light is visible. So how -the devil--" - -"We're not optically invisible," answered Kane amusedly. "So far as -I know, that's a physical impossibility. Actually, those Germans saw -us, but they didn't notice us. Ever catch yourself looking right at -something and not seeing it, because it was too familiar or because you -were thinking about something else? That's the effect the field has. -Anything in the middle of it hides behind a psychic block in the mind -of whoever looks at it. That's why it works on hearing, too, and even -on touch. It's not perfect; if you set off a magnesium flare in front -of somebody, or punched him in the nose, he'd notice something was -up--but hardly before. When you get acquainted with the effect it makes -you feel like a ghost. Back in that cafe, I had to shout in your ear -till I deafened myself before I could make you hear." - - * * * * * - -They glided down the current, and the lights and voices around the -bridge receded rapidly. As Manning bent to his oar, his imagination -was busy with the first item of twenty-first century technology which -went completely beyond his twentieth-century knowledge. In Germany -he had seen the evidences of a mighty and advanced civilization, -but everything had been the logical perfection of inventions already -known.... - -Kane seemed to read his thoughts. "Working like we do, we can't compete -with the Germans in things that call for a lot of resources and -equipment. They have all the big weapons--the rockets and tanks and -atomic bombs. For anything to be useful to us, it has to be something -that can be invented and built in a cellar. So we've had to open up -brand-new lines of development--and in fields like psychoelectronics -we're miles ahead of the Germans, because they didn't have to.... -Better pull over. We don't want to get rammed," he interrupted himself. - -A blinding eye was bearing down on them across the water. In its stark -glare Manning felt nakedly visible again. But they veered sharply -toward the bank, and the launch went past in a swish of foam, still -scanning river and shore ahead. - -"Where we going?" Dugan asked practically. - -"We're about there," answered Kane. "Easy now." He pointed to where -a jumble of ruins projected like a pier into the stream, the ripples -lapping and gurgling in the spaces between the great piled fragments. -"In there--the only space big enough for the boat. Better duck." Their -craft slid with scant clearance into an opening like the mouth of a -cave. Kane produced a flashlight, and they saw that a timbered tunnel -ran back into the bank at right angles to the entrance. - -"Up to the end," ordered Kane. They poled with oar-thrusts against the -tunnel sides for a score of yards, until the boat bumped against a -wooden platform at the end of the shaft. Kane sprang ashore and made -fast, and the others followed. The flashlight beam searched out a -trapdoor; below it were stairs that led downward. At the bottom they -trod on cement, and there was another door, on which Kane knocked in a -deliberate pattern. - -Presently a bolt was shot back, and the door swung open. The man who -opened it was hooded and it was a little hard to keep him in sight, -even for those likewise protected. When he saw Kane, however, he -switched off his invisibility unit. The new arrivals did likewise, and -all of them slipped off their stifling hoods with relief. - -Jerry Kane had a surprisingly youthful and unlined face, topped with -curly blond hair which women must have loved to run their fingers -through. He didn't look much like an underground plotter. The man who -had opened the door fitted the role better; he was gaunt, blue-jawed -and dour. - -The room they had entered had begun life as a basement; it was big, -concrete-walled, ill-lit by an electric bulb dangling from the low -ceiling, its furnishings a long table and a number of chairs which -indicated its use as a gathering-place for a good many people. The only -other person in it now was a massive man who sat at the table, an open -book spread out before him, and stared unblinkingly at those who had -come in. - -"Most of our regular agents are out--looking for you," Kane remarked. -He waved them to seats, and sat down himself on the table's end. -"However, we have here Harry Clark"--the blue-jawed man--"and Igor -Vzryvov, one of the Russian members." - -Clark nodded noncommittally. The big Russian rumbled in faintly -accented English: "Pleased to meet you. I have never met any time -travelers before." - -They stared at him. Manning turned on Kane: "You know about us?" - -Kane grinned. "You told the Germans you came out of the past. At least, -that's what was reported in the camera session of the court which -passed on your case this morning. One of our friends happened to be -there--and at your trial, later on." - -"Was there an invisible man _there_?" - -"No, he was visible and you saw him. Remember two elderly jurists who -served as a sounding board for Gestapoleiter Schwinzog? One of them is -a friend of ours. We have a good many, even inside Germany." - -"He calls them friends," growled Igor Vzryvov. "I say no German can be -a friend." - -"So--" Manning was numbed by surprise. "So you've had your eye on us -from the start." - -"Just about." - -"And you believe our story?" - -"Since the Germans didn't, I'm inclined to," admitted Kane. "We know -that more things are possible than German imagination can swallow; -we've got several such things here. Of course, it's always just -possible that you're German spies, using a crazy wheels-within-wheels -stunt to get on the inside. I don't think so, though, and fortunately I -don't have to guess." He turned to Vzryvov. "Got the apparatus set up?" - -"Since an hour ago," said the Russian. - -Kane slid off the table top. He became brusque. "If you'll just step -into the next room, we'll read your minds and settle all doubts." - - * * * * * - -Fifteen minutes later, Igor Vzryvov switched off the psychoanalyzer. -Manning glanced up under the spidery hemisphere of wire that gathered -the faint broadcasts of the brain, and met Kane's warm smile. The -underground leader tossed aside the graphs he had been studying, and -extended a welcoming hand. - -"You're genuine, all right. No need to examine your friend--your mind -says he came with you out of the past, and that's enough and to spare." - -"Swell!" said Dugan. "I didn't much like the idea of having that thing -poking around inside my head." - -Kane caressed the machine affectionately. "This is one of the best -achievements of cellar science. Thanks to it, we've got the only -leak-proof organization this sinful world has ever seen. The Nazi party -is one of the tightest setups ever created without benefit of the -psychoanalyzer, and we've got men inside it--but we _know_ that all our -members are loyal and stable." His expression darkened. "Of course, -if this and our other psychoelectronic developments got into German -hands, we'd be sunk. With their resources, they could exploit the field -a lot more thoroughly than we can. For example, Igor here has invented -a death ray that kills by just convincing a man he's dead--but to make -it an effective weapon would take a lot more power. We get a good deal -of leakage here from the Long Island station, but we have to be careful -about antennas." - -The four of them sat around the table in the outer room. Harry Clark -had disappeared--literally, and then gone out to pass the word to the -agents scattered around New York that the men they sought had been -found. - -"Now," said Kane, "since you're really time travelers, I'm on fire to -hear how you did it. A time machine might be a useful addition to our -arsenal, though it sounds like a tricky thing to use...." - -"I'm afraid we can't help on that score," said Manning, and related the -whole story of their experience with Herr Doktor Kahl's _Zeitfahrer_. - -Kane rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "So you're stranded in our -time. I feel for you! At least the Germans didn't get the machine, -either--though they have got the inventor. We may have to do something -about that. And what about you? Have any plans?" - -Manning met his eyes squarely. "A hundred years ago, we were fighting -a war. It seems we lost it--how or why, I don't know. I don't think we -lost it in the fighting, but probably before it ever began, when we -were complacent and let the Germans get a head start in preparation and -invention. Anyway, for us that's still unfinished business." - -"And we'd like the chance to finish it!" stated Dugan bluntly. - -Kane smiled with a touch of sadness. Vzryvov said explosively, "The end -may be soon!" and his eyes burned. - -In Manning's memory flashed the vision of a mocking face. He asked -abruptly: "What did Schwinzog mean: 'A message for America--one week to -live'?" - -The shadow on Kane's face deepened, but he did not show surprise. "I -guess he meant just that. That the Germans are about ready to do to -America what they did to Russia fifty years ago.... But of course you -don't know anything about the history of the last century. If you want -to catch up on the missing chapters, I've got a fair-sized collection -of books on the subject. All the ones dealing with events since the War -of the Conquest are German, of course--English has just about stopped -being a written language--and you'll probably find they don't even -agree on what you know. You said, didn't you, that you were with an -American army advancing into Germany?" - -"That's right--and it was only one of several." - -Kane grinned wryly. "The books don't even whisper that Germany was ever -invaded in that war. They must have been a lot closer to defeat than -they've ever admitted since. But--" he shrugged, "they won in the end, -so what's the difference?" - -"How could they win?" scowled Dugan. "Hell, we had them on the run!" - - * * * * * - -Kane gave him a pitying look. "You must have left some time before -the Germans suddenly rose from the ashes and struck back at us. They -attacked us with a new weapon--a radioactive dust, by-product of -several big piles--atomic power plants--they had secretly got going by -1949. The occupation forces were wiped out--along with a million or so -of their own people. In no time Western Europe was overrun again. The -whole of Soviet Russia seems to have collapsed about the same time." -He looked down at his hands, clasped on the table in front of him; his -voice went on with the dispassionate recital of the dead past. "There -was an attempt to defend England that folded up when London was dusted -off the map. I haven't been able to find much information on the war in -Asia, but I think they had a long tough fight putting down guerrilla -resistance in Siberia and later on in China. - -"Then came the attack on America, and for that they used the dust in -combination with another ace in the hole--their own atomic bombs. The -first one was dropped right here, on New York. It flattened five or -six square miles and killed about half a million people. The defenses -that we'd devised against the dust--inadequate as they must have -been, because there isn't any real defense--were neutralized by the -bomb. America fought for just one month, and after that there wasn't -any United States--just a disorganized mob of survivors, dazed by -the cities' destruction and the sterilization of big stretches of -countryside. - -"Germany proclaimed the New Order over the face of the whole -Earth--humanity to submit to the leadership of the German Volk, its -highest evolutionary type. Everywhere the nations surrendered without a -fight. - -"Since the Conquest there's been only one serious, organized rebellion -in this country; that was in the year two thousand, fifty-one years -ago. The Germans put it down with bombs and poison; a lot of innocent -people were killed, and for a long time after that it was impossible to -organize any resistance. Since our movement got started twenty years -ago, we've been damn careful not to goad the Germans into making a -wholesale slaughter. Now--" His face twisted in pain. - -"They've decided to anyway?" asked Manning with studied calm. - -"As a matter of policy, not revenge. You see, for a while after the -Conquest they had a lot of use for slave labor, so the subject peoples -were valuable to them; but now that they have plenty of atomic power, -running nearly automatic factories and mechanized farms to supply all -their needs and luxuries, the rest of the Earth's population looks -to them like so much excess baggage. All they have use for is land, -_Lebensraum_ for their own growing people. They've calculated that the -whole Earth could be covered by Germans by 2500 A.D. As far as they're -concerned the rest of us can rot or starve--and we do; but we don't die -out! So--they murdered Russia fifty years ago--that was what touched -off the rising here--and we're next!" - -Manning said unbelievingly, "What do you mean--'murdered'?" - -"The technical term is 'genocide.' They did it with guns and gas and, -when necessary, the atomic dust. It's quite a job to wipe out a whole -nation, and the Germans bungled Russia pretty badly and met a lot of -stiffer resistance than they expected, and a lot of people--such as -Igor's parents--got away to other countries. But since then they've -made improvements in the method. - -"Sometime soon, in a few days, maybe--a rocket will take off for -somewhere in Germany and proceed to a point in space about fifty -thousand miles from the Earth. There it will discharge fifteen hundred -metric tons of radioactive dust--a new mixture of ingredients having -a few days' half life, for initial devastating effect, and of others -with a period of about a year--to take care of anybody that tries -to sit it out underground. The dust will drift toward Earth in an -expanding cloud, whose size and shape they've calculated down to the -last decimal, and which, when it falls on Earth's surface, will cover -an area a little larger than the United States. It will be spread thin -by then--about one gram to the acre--but that will be enough." - - * * * * * - -Manning sat silent. The idea of these new ways of all-compassing -destruction was too much for a mind that had learned to regard high -explosives, machine guns and flame throwers as adequately murderous. -And the plan for exterminating a nation was too monstrous to think -about, unless in the same light as it must be seen by the minds that -conceived it--as something like dusting a field of grain to kill off -insects whose only crime is that they eat what men want to eat. - -"And you've known about this, and haven't stopped it?" he asked at last. - -"They've been busy making and refining the dust for a year now, and -we've known about it almost that long. And we've tried to stop them. - -"We've tried to assassinate the men responsible for the plan. But the -ruling clique, like your acquaintance, Schwinzog, aren't under any -illusions and they aren't going to yield any power. We've tried to get -them and mostly failed. - -"Finally, one of our men got inside the Reichministerium fur -Raumschiffahrt and learned that the space ship _Siegfried_ had been -assigned for conversion to the uses of the project. The raid you -stumbled into was trying to locate and destroy it, but they didn't find -it and blew up a building instead. That's our last chance even to gain -time--if we can't wreck the dust ship, I don't know what we can do." - -Igor Vzryvov broke his brooding silence. "You will do as we did," -he proclaimed with flat conviction. "Save what you can of your -organization by flight to other lands, whence you will carry on the -fight--to the death, without the crippling reservations imposed by -millions of hostages." - -Kane looked at him with smoldering eyes. "What would be left to fight -for?" - -"Wait and see," insisted the Russian implacably. "You will really begin -to fight when there is no more America to be saved, only Germany to be -destroyed." - -Manning put in hastily, "Your men didn't locate the--space ship. How do -you know it's even in the Black Forest?" - -Kane frowned, then shrugged. "We don't. But there's nowhere else it can -be. We've checked every spaceport in the Reich." - -"Maybe it's outside Germany." - -"There aren't any ports in the subject countries. And if one had been -built, and the _Siegfried_ landed there--well, it simply couldn't have -been done inconspicuously. We have psychoelectronic communicators -scattered over the whole world, and what's more important, the best -grapevine connections. We'd have heard." - -"What about the polar regions? Antarctica?" - -"I guess it would be technically possible--though enormously difficult -and expensive--to build a spaceport there. But it just isn't -reasonable. They aren't that scared of our interference." - -Manning bit his lip. "One little thing," he murmured, half to himself, -"makes me think that ship isn't in the Schwarzwald at all. Herr -Schwinzog gloated that your raid missed the refining plant; he must -have forgotten for a moment that you're supposed to believe the space -ship is there too...." Abruptly he raised his head. "Listen--maybe -there's one part of Germany you didn't investigate." - -"What do you mean?" - -"Where Eddie and I were, just this afternoon. Long Island." - - * * * * * - -Kane and Vzryvov looked at him with wild surmise. "You might be right," -Kane said jerkily. "There's a field there that would do. But a space -ship landing would have been seen for hundreds of miles--" His eyes -widened with a sudden idea. "They needn't have landed it there, though. -They could have brought it down in the ocean, and towed it in!" - -"Sure," said Manning, though he hadn't thought of that. "An amphibious -operation. The island's well-guarded?" - -"Suspiciously so, now that you mention it. We don't have a single agent -there--we've been concentrating on the expeditionary force in Europe, -of course, and we've supposed the additional Long Island defenses were -merely installed in fear of an attack on the German colony, when the -people hear--But that could be it! They could have hidden the ship -under our noses!" - -He sprang to his feet; he wore a look almost of gaiety, but his eyes -held feverish lights. "If we could only start after it tonight! But -this things calls for preparation. They'll be ready for anything, -invisibility units included.... But we've got to try tomorrow night. If -the ship is there--it may not be much longer." - -Manning and Dugan exchanged glances. Manning said pointblank: "Are we -in on this deal? We were soldiers in our own time, and--Americans...." - -Reading Kane's face, he realized he hadn't needed to ask. - - - V - -The boat slipped silently, impelled by muffled oars, toward the shore -that lay dark and seemingly lifeless a furlong away. The underground -in New York had a couple of motor launches--but there might be sound -detectors on that shore, which would not be fooled by the powerful -invisibility unit that purred quietly, clamped to athwart amidships. So -they rowed. - -The boat was laden with men, weapons, and explosives. The men were -monstrous-headed shapes, for they wore gas masks under the featureless -hoods; but the poised alertness of Kane's figure, upright in the bow -as he scanned the black shore and called soft directions to Vzryvov at -the steering oar, expressed all their eager anxiety on the threshold of -decision. Manning and Dugan sat side by side; in front of the former -was lanky Clark, and beside him a chemist named Larrabie, who clasped -between his knees a box full of bombs of his own making--canisters of -a versatile compound which with a detonator had the violence of TNT, -without one was an excellent substitute for thermite. - -Manning had to remember that he had once taken part in another landing -on a conquered shore--Normandy in 1944, when the air had been full of -planes and the sea of ships, and the invasion had rolled ashore like a -resistless juggernaut.... If those millions had failed, what could six -men in a rowboat do? - -The night before, in the room Kane had given them, Manning had lain -long sleepless, and passed the time turning through Kane's books of -history--titles like _Aufstieg Deutschlands zur Weltherrschaft_, -_Eroberung der Erde_, _Das deutsche Jahrhundert_.... One thing about -the oddly twisted story they told had piqued his curiosity, and he -had sought earnestly before he found mention--in a footnote--of the -fact that one Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) had occupied the civic office -of Reichskanzler (later abolished) at the time of the Conquest. But -the leaders of that period, according to the histories, had been the -generals and military men such as Rundstedt, Rommel, Keitel and Doenitz. - -The future had obviously not gone according to anybody's plans made -prior to 1949. A new factor had come in--the monstrous reality of -atomic weapons, which had suddenly made it possible for a few men in -one nation to hold the threat of death over all life on Earth. America -had had them first and had used them to subdue Japan. But the German -onslaught had been too swift; the combination of atomic dust and atomic -bombs had paralyzed the U.S.A. before she could strike back. - -"Up oars," whispered Kane. The boat glided forward the last few yards -as the dripping oars rose over the water, then sand crunched under the -keel. - -Cautiously they sloshed ashore. Vzryvov knelt in the boat for half a -minute, working with wires and one of Larrabie's compact bundles of -death--booby-trapping the priceless invisibility unit against possible -discovery. - -Each man carried a slung automatic rifle, three bombs, and a long -knife. An invisible man could kill with a knife in the midst of a crowd -and walk away before anyone noticed. - -They started moving without time wasted in consultation or casting -about. All had studied the available maps of the area until their eyes -smarted; and the moon was up, which for them was a special advantage. - - * * * * * - -This stretch of shore was occupied by the sea-side villas of the German -masters; it was a good hour's walk from the main colony and the rocket -port. The Germans could hardly have protected the whole coastline with -automatic alarms. - -As they topped the seaward slope, though, from not far distant, where -a house bulked in the shadow, exploded the barking of a watchdog. The -raiders froze; Kane swore perfunctorily and said shortly, "Push on. -Dogs can see us, or at least scent us. That one doesn't seem to have -raised anybody yet--" - -They pushed on, tramping across meadows and through woods, steering -clear of the roads that might be watched by electric eyes--as the -rocket port must be without doubt, if the dust ship was there. - -Half a mile from the German colony, in sight of its lights and their -glimmering reflection in the water of the East River, a high fence -barred their way. It was plain wire, stretching to right and left out -of sight--probably across the whole island. - -"That wasn't on the map," said Dugan. - -"Of course not," responded Kane. "That's the first line of defense. -Touch it, and you'd alert the whole place." He didn't look unhappy -about it, judging by the flash of his grin in the moonlight. "Brother, -I think we've come to the right address!" - -Vzryvov remarked imperturbably, "The road must pass through it yonder." -He gestured to where an occasional moving light picked out the highway. - -"Right," said Kane. They set out along the fence, keeping at a -respectful distance from the wire. - -The highway entrance was floodlighted and visibly protected by movable -arms like those used at grade crossings. These, together with the -sleepy squad of German soldiers that stood guard beyond the fence, -would not have given pause to the invisible men. But there had to be -invisible defenses too. - -They waited on the shoulder of the in-going traffic lane. Manning and -Dugan could scarcely quell the jittery feeling of being exposed in -plain view of the enemy, but the others were unconcerned. - -"We've got to hitch a ride," explained Kane softly. "Just passing -through behind a vehicle wouldn't be good enough, you can bet...." - -A car came rushing out of the darkness and swooped to a stop with -screaming tires. It was a gleaming pleasure machine, transparent -plastic top flung back to let the night air cool the heated faces -of three young couples that occupied it, evidently on their way to -continue in town a party that had outgrown the facilities of the -countryside. - -"Get a good look at their admission procedure," said Kane. - -The guards bestirred themselves; one operated the gate mechanism, the -rest surrounded the car, grasping shining steel blades on long shafts, -barbed like medieval halberds. They swung their archaic weapons around -and over the car, hacking the air viciously. The girls in the car -squealed and snuggled as the driver eased forward under an interlocked -arch of steel. - -Manning said, "They're watching for us, all right!" - -Kane nodded, then tensed as another automobile rolled up and stopped. -"This one's O.K.," he said aloud. "Quick, now--get inside it!" - -They went forward in a pellmell rush. Kane eased open a back door of -the car--a sedan with a lone man at the wheel--and all six of them -squeezed themselves into the back seat, pulling the door quietly to -after them. They held their breath, but there was no cry of surprise or -alarm. The soldiers went routinely but thoroughly through the ritual -of halberds. Any invisible man clinging to the outside of the vehicle -would have had to drop off or be dragged into the wicked blades. - - * * * * * - -The car rolled through the gate and picked up speed with the violent -surge of an electric motor. The man hunched in the front seat drove -with businesslike concentration, oblivious of his six unwanted -passengers. The raiders grinned at each other, shifted their cramped -positions a little and waited. - -Presently the town's lights began to swim past. Kane, in a position -to see out the left-hand window, muttered: "We're passing the rocket -field--they've thrown a brand-new wall around it. If this guy would -just slow down--well, we've got to stop the car." He wriggled up until -he could lean over the front seat--and stiffened. All of them heard the -moan of a siren closing up behind. - -"_Donnerwetter!_" growled their chauffeur, and clamped on the brakes. A -few feet behind loomed up a pair of headlights and a searchlight helped -bathe the car ahead in a merciless illumination. - -"Out!" said Kane sharply, flinging open the left-hand door. - -They sprawled out and ran, stooping instinctively, through the patch of -brilliance. Uniformed Germans were climbing out of the other vehicle -and starting to form a cordon. - -Dugan, the last man out, halted a moment to close the car door, then -sprinted after the rest. They huddled against the forbidding wall that -had been built around the rocket port. Larrabie, eyes on the brightlit -scene, nervously hefted a bomb. Kane shook his head. - -"Time enough to make big noises when we get inside," he advised. And to -the whole party, "I spotted an entrance a couple of hundred yards back. -Come on!" - -They ran in single file under the frowning face of concrete. It might -have been possible to form a human chain and get over the wall; but -there was unquestionably alarms atop it, and ready guns. - -Beyond the wall, a whistle began hooting. The field was being alerted. - -Kane panted, "Don't know what tipped them off--but probably we were -photographed at that gate." - -The entrance to the field was solidly blocked by a massive iron -grille. Beyond it, they could see men running and springing into -position behind a concrete redoubt, through which a machine gun thrust -menacingly, covering the opening in the wall. - -"Damn!" said Kane. "No more time to be subtle. We'll have to knock that -out." - -Eddie Dugan was already unhitching one of the home-made grenades from -his belt. "Stand out of line with the gate," he said grimly, "and I'll -get it for you." He gauged the distance and the weight of the bomb -and threw with trained precision. The missile rose in a high arc like -a mortar shell's, and hit the ground almost as Dugan did in his dive -for cover. Fragments of shattered concrete and metal clanged against -the grillework and whistled out into the street. A crash of glass and -frightened screams came from the houses across the way; and down the -street the patrol-car siren wailed suddenly into life again. - -Kane sprang to his feet, verifying with a glance the emplacement's -destruction, and hurled another bomb at the gateway. Its explosion was -blinding, but a moment later they saw the way clear, the grille blown -off its hinges and twisted like spaghetti. Simultaneously a rattle -of shots, insignificant-sounding after the deafening blasts of high -explosive, told that the patrol-car, racing its motor up the street, -had opened fire on the entrance. - -Clark was down on one knee, finger closing on the trigger of his -automatic. The oncoming car skidded and spun half around. Two men -spilled out and fled for cover; Clark dropped one and missed the other. - - * * * * * - -The big noises had begun, and speed was the big thing now. The raiders -dashed headlong through the wrecked gateway. - -"Get clear!" shouted Kane, and on the heels of his cry came the sputter -of machine gun fire, first from one side of the entrance and then from -the other. Puffs of dust sprang out of the wall and ricochets whined -plaintively. Other guard posts were covering the breach, but the German -gunners must have hesitated before firing without a target, and they -were seconds too late. - -The Americans crouched, half-sheltered by the ruined emplacement. To -the right from a cluster of buildings, the warning whistle shrieked -hoarsely on, and they heard through the incessant gunfire the noises of -excited voices. Ahead of them stretched the wide, seared waste of the -rocket field, its boundaries invisible in the darkness. - -"We're in," breathed Kane, "and there's the ship!" - -Out on the field, far from all structures, it towered upright, its -blunt nose five hundred feet above the blackened earth. Even though -no light shone on or from it, they could recognize its lines as -those of the vessel whose stolen plans they had gone over point by -point--_Siegfried_, the dust ship. - -"They must have raised it to launching position only tonight," said -Kane harshly. "Otherwise we could have seen it from across the river. -So--it must be loaded and ready to go!" - -A thousand feet of open and empty field separated them from the space -ship. With straining eyes they could see tiny human figures scurrying -about its base in the moonlight, forming a protective circle. Then -floodlights went on all over the field and left not a shadow anywhere. -The Germans knew, or feared, that the invisible attackers had slipped -inside their citadel. - -The rain of steel on the gateway had stopped; instead came dull -thudding concussions, and a creeping haze obscured the entrance. Gas. - -They had prepared for that. But now a more formidable threat made -itself known; from near the buildings came a frenzied barking of dogs. - -"We've got to get across the open," snapped Kane. "Better stick -together and run for it. If we can get among that gang around the -ship--neither dogs nor instruments can tell the difference between -visible and invisible men!" - -They rose from their cover and pelted grimly across the endless-seeming -field. To the right, parties of men with dogs were fanning out, too -slowly to intercept the raiders. But they were only halfway to the -ship when the lights suddenly snapped off--for a moment they stumbled, -blinded, in darkness, and the lights flashed dazzlingly on again. A -couple of seconds later the puzzling action was repeated-- - -And from the cordon about the ship, so near now, a voice screamed -hysterically, "_Da lauft einer!_" On its heels came a thunder of -shooting, and bullets snapped past the hurrying Americans. - -They flung themselves flat on the scorched ground. The lights flashed -again and again as if an insane hand were at the master switch. "What's -happened?" gasped Manning. "Did they see us?" - -"They've learned or guessed one of our weaknesses," said Kane in his -ear. "When the whole field of vision is suddenly illuminated, the brain -may register an invisible object, especially if it's moving, for a -moment before it melts into the background." Something whimpered in -the air and burst with an ear-splitting bang only a few yards away, -showering the raiders with earth. "They've got our position. Get -going--_now_!" as the lights flashed on. - -[Illustration: _They rose and charged toward the space ship._] - -Kane's fingers had been busy fusing a bomb, and as he rose erect he -threw it straight into the cordon. The crash of the explosion was -followed by shrieks and then, as the lights flashed on again, by a -prolonged volley of shots. - -Larrabie sprung around in midstride and rolled on the ground. The -long-legged Clark flung out his arm and pitched forward. "Get the--" -His voice choked off. - - * * * * * - -The survivors charged at the gap where the bomb had wrought bloody -havoc. The Germans were closing it from the sides. Manning caught a -glimpse of sweating faces, staring eyes glazed with fear of an enemy -they could not see; and he saw also the vast loom of the space ship -above him. He fumbled woodenly with a detonator cartridge. - -Kane's fingers bit into his arm. "Into the ship!" he rasped. "You'd -never dent it." Nothing was between the invaders and the hull, where an -open airlock, high overhead, showed as a black disc. - -Manning glanced over his shoulder, and in the nightmarishly flashing -illumination saw Larrabie's body sprawled in a frozen convulsion, and -standing over it, head thrown back, a huge hound. A black mass of -yelling men was closing in.... - -Then the four of them were clambering up the ladder that rose dizzily -to the space ship's lock forty feet above ground. Every flash of the -light silhouetted them so nakedly against the great hull that it -seemed impossible they should not be seen and picked off as they clung -helplessly. But Manning saw Dugan above him, disappear into the lock; -he heaved himself up and stumbled into the saving blackness, followed -by a panting bulk that must be Vzryvov. - -Kane's voice came, surprisingly steady, from deeper in the tunnel-like -lock, where as their eyes adjusted a faint glow was evident, seeping -no doubt from a passage beyond. "This was the main loading lock, and -I guess still is. They've apparently torn out all the freight decks -and replaced them with a lead-lined tank for the dust bin and they've -been loading it through a hatch just across the peripheral walk. But -the hatch is sealed now." He did not need to add what that meant. The -_Siegfried_ had its deadly cargo and was ready to take off. - -"Then," said Vzryvov matter-of-factly, "let us blast open the tank -and scatter it with our remaining bombs. That will make it impossible -for the Germans to salvage the ship, or even use this field, until -the dust had burned itself out in a year or so." When Kane did not -answer, the Russian growled impatiently, "We _must_ do it, and quickly. -Our comrades' bodies are out there, and with them the secret of -invisibility. We must make this area unapproachable!" - -"Wait," said Kane with a curious tense urgency. Manning wondered -fleetingly if the underground leader recoiled from the suicidal action -which the other urged; then he realized that Kane was listening, and -listened too. - -The babble of voices from the ground outside had fallen to a mutter; -and through it cut an incisive voice of authority. - -"_Es waren ihrer nur zwei?_" - -Another voice answered, "_Ja, Herr Oberst--wenigstens haben wir nur -einen oder zwei bei der Blitzbeleuchtung gesehen_--" - -"_Ihr habt gar nichts Verlassliches gesehen. Aber wieviel zeigen die -Photos?_" - -"_Zwei, Herr Oberst._" - -They could almost hear the commander's gusty sigh of relief. "_Nun, so -haben wir sie vor uns liegen, und die Sache ist erledigt. Noch dazu -werde ich ein schones Geschenk nach Deutschland schicken konnen._..." - -"You see," said Kane, "they think they've got us all. Evidently their -cameras never caught more than two of us at once, and hooded we all -looked alike. So we're reasonably safe." - -"Safe!" stormed Vzryvov. He clambered awkwardly to his feet in the -curved mouth of the lock. "If you have gone crazy or have got cold -feet, I will go and blow up the dust compartment alone." - -"Wait!" snapped Kane. "Listen, Igor. You don't seem to realize that -luck--and the sacrifice of two of our best men--have given us a better -chance than we ever hoped for. The _Siegfried_ is just waiting for the -crew to come aboard. If we lie low until the ship's in space--then take -care of the crew and seize control--Well, the invisibility unit will be -in German hands, sure. But what good will that do them if there isn't -any Germany?" - - * * * * * - -They could hear each other's breathing in the airlock. Then Vzryvov -said, "I see. Forgive my stupidity." - -Manning asked carefully, "You mean to turn the dust against Germany? -Wipe out the whole country?" - -"Certainly. It'll be easy, once we take over the ship; a few degrees -change in course--" - -"Even your allies there?" - -"Germans are Germans," growled Vzryvov. "At best, they are confused -dreamers who think they could repay their debt to the world with a -gesture." - -Manning could not see Kane's face; but the other's voice held solemn -earnestness. "We'll only be doing to them what they're trying to do to -America.... Oh, hell, that's no valid argument. But, Manning, you come -from an age when there weren't any atomic weapons, and such things were -unthinkable because they were impossible. You can't think as we do, -who've lived all our lives with the knowledge of what is possible--of -how little human life is worth. - -"And you don't have a hundred years of slavery behind you. We were -as great a people as the Germans in your day, I think, but we've been -trampled into the mud until we've not got much civilization or pride or -decency left. And we won't have, for a long time, even if Germany is -destroyed. But if it isn't we, and the other nations of the world, will -never have those things again--the things that make human beings worth -something. - -"I sometimes wonder what would happen if history had taken a different -turning--if we, instead of the Germans, had been the ones to discover -atomic energy. Would we have been any better than they were? Or would -we have used the power to make ourselves the masters of Earth and to -monopolize civilization, just as Germany did?" - -"You would have," snorted Vzryvov. "Russia would have. Any nationalism -of that time, given such a power, would have behaved the same." - -"I don't know," faltered Manning. "You may be right, but I can't -imagine...." - -"Anyway," Kane's tone grew bitter, "the Germans have made the world -into what they wanted, and they've made us what we are. And now we're -going to smash their world. Maybe something better will come out of its -destruction. Maybe not. If not--revenge will have to be enough for us." - - - VI - -The captain of the _Siegfried_ squinted at the tables the navigator had -handed him, mentally translating their figures into acceleration units. -The ship was only an hour from the assigned point in space, and it -was necessary to make a final, ultimately correct alignment, in which -seconds of arc meant miles of displacement in the dispersion of the -dust on Earth's surface. - -The captain's concentration was disturbed by the nagging conviction -that something was amiss--or had been amiss a minute or so -earlier--about his familiar control room. For a moment he had fancied -that the door to the sternward-descending stairshaft was standing open; -but it was obviously closed.... - -He put the doubts angrily out of his mind, frowned at the papers, and -ordered the expectant pilot: "_Funf Minuten sechsunddreissig Sekunden -dritter Geschwindigkeit dem Backbordgetriebe!_" - -They were not very inspired last words, but he had no chance to make -additions, for in the next instant Kane's sharp knife sank between his -ribs. The captain gurgled in an oddly muffled fashion and would have -fallen, save that invisible hands caught and lowered him. - -The navigator, looking straight at him, finally realized something had -happened. He opened his mouth to cry out, but his throat was cut from -ear to ear and no sound emerged. - -The pilot, about to press the buttons that would wake the portside -rocket bank, was stupefied to see that his hand hung over the controls -and refused to move as if paralyzed. Enveloped in the mind-numbing -field of an invisibility unit at full power, he did not feel the grip -that held him or the knife-thrust that killed him. - -The four Americans switched off their units and indulged in the luxury -of removing the metal-stiffened hoods. They had no more to fear aboard -the _Siegfried_; two other members of the crew had already been -disposed of in the cabins below, and now even if all Germany had known -of their presence aboard the dust ship--no method had ever been devised -for attacking a ship in space. - -But they did not exchange many words. There was work that desperately -had to be done as the _Siegfried_ drove toward its rendezvous. Kane -flung himself into the navigator's seat, and glancing ever and anon -at the figures for the original course, began to punch keys on the -calculator. Manning hunched over the controls, continuing an intensive -study that had begun over the German pilot's shoulder. And Vzryvov -stationed himself before a black box fixed to the wall beneath a large -clock and conspicuously sealed with a _Hakenkreuz_. - -Dugan was left without a job; but he was content to slump into an -unused seat and think queasily of Earth thousands of miles below. He -was out of his element here--but so were the others. None of them had -ever been into space before; only Kane had a theoretical acquaintance -with rocket navigation. - -So they worked like men inspired to alter the course of the ship. It -would have been utterly impossible to make all the needful calculations -from the beginning; but Kane was able to work from the course already -laid out and the dead navigator's correction tables, making small -changes, which would mean life for millions of people and death for -other millions. - -Five minutes before the revised zero-time, Manning, his face like -iron, shut off the engines. There must be no expanding rocket gases -to interfere with the dust's dispersion. The sudden silence and -weightlessness were like a bad dream. Dugan gulped, floated into a -corner and was sick. Even Kane's face looked green under the unchanged -light of the control room. But Vzryvov had broken the swastika seal on -the black box and eyed the switch inside it greedily, between frequent -glances at the clock. - - * * * * * - -With the second-hand sweeping into the last minute, he grasped the -plastic handle, and at forty-five seconds pulled down. Instantly -the stifling silence of the ship was broken by a muffled roar. The -dust--not dust really, but exceedingly fine shot, heavy enough that it -would not be carried away by winds in Earth's atmosphere--was being -flung into space through many nozzles in the _Siegfried's_ hull. - -"That's that," said Kane in a flat voice. - -Vzryvov swung about in his seat, facing the others, but he did not look -at them. His eyes were far away and his teeth bared in a ferocious grin -as he listened to the escaping storm of death. - -"_Dostalos' sukinym synam_," he muttered to himself. "_Za Ameriku i za -Rossiyu!_" - -Manning said nothing. - -They suffered through ten minutes of weightlessness while the dust was -discharging, and waited another ten before they dared start the engines -again and swing the ship--careless now of fine points of navigation--on -a great arc toward Earth. - -"It'll be forty hours, plus or minus, before the stuff hits the -atmosphere," said Kane. "The Germans are going to realize something is -wrong before then--pretty soon, I imagine, because every observatory -will be watching the cloud. We'll do better to stay out here." - -Manning shrugged. Kane looked at him with understanding and sympathy. -"There's still work for us. By now the general uprising will have -started in America, and maybe spread to other countries; it was to be -our organization's last effort, in case we couldn't stop the dust ship. -And the ship took off.... Let's see if we can pick up some broadcasts." - -They did, after accelerating the ship and throwing it into a low, -hastily-calculated orbit. At first the destroyers had no word of their -work. The news was all about the fierce flare of rebellion in America; -though they didn't say so, it must have caught the few Germans there -in the throes of departure before the coming doom. An attack on the -Long Island colony was in progress, the bridges blown and the East -River aflame with burning oil. Then the insanely desperate rebels had -found their way onto the island and overwhelmed the settlement. The air -crackled with eye-witness accounts of atrocities against the master -race. The German leaders were turning the insurrection to account, -using it to prepare the minds of their own people to accept the fait -accompli of America's extermination. - -Then came a pause in the news broadcasts. A German station played -music.... - -Somewhere a group of rulers must be sitting in hasty council, staring -unbelievably at the astronomers' reports. Having to believe, and trying -to make a decision where there was no more deciding to do, because -their future was as immutable as the velocity and direction of the dust -cloud in space. - -They had to make it public, of course, so that there could be an -attempt at evacuation. Twenty-first century Germany was a nation of -motors, wheels, and wings, and a day and a half might yet be time for a -large part of the population to flee beyond the limits of the dust-fall -which would cover Greater Germany from the Rhineland to the Volga. If -the exodus was orderly, the radio emphasized again and again.... - - * * * * * - -For the first few hours it was both orderly and successful, according -to report. But the announcement of Germany's catastrophe had carried -to hidden ears beyond its boundaries, and the word had passed like -lightning around the world, telling all nations that the moment of -deliverance had come. Four hours afterward, and American station went -on the air; and the listeners in the space ship tensed as they heard -the English words. - -"Three or four thousand air-borne refugees are reported landing on the -Florida coast. The local revolutionary authorities have taken steps for -their reception.... A dispatch from France states that a refugee column -of about twenty thousand Germans was overwhelmed and wiped out, despite -defense by armored vehicles, in the vicinity of Lyons.... Similarly we -hear from Italy...." - -The transmission was weak and the voice faded out, but it went on, -counting up with unholy glee the victories and the massacres. All over -Earth, people were digging up the guns that had laid buried for a -hundred years, and when those were lacking, seizing scythes and axes, -sticks and stones, and going out to meet the fleeing Germans. The -German military retaliated by unloading its whole arsenal of atomic -and other weapons against the rebelling peoples. But the world was mad -with blood and liberty. What if for every German ten of their ex-slaves -died? Soon there would be no more Germans.... - -Other radio stations began to be heard, babbling in strange tongues -that had not been spoken over the air for a century, but all reciting -the same burden of hate and holocaust, glorying in the tales of carnage -that they called to each other across the Earth. - -Marshaled by leaders who rose to power on the wings of a shout, or -with no leaders at all, the hordes poured even across the borders of -the Reich, into the doomed area. Such German radio stations as were -still operating showed by their frantic and contradictory efforts to -direct the evacuation the hopeless panic and confusion that had fallen -on the _Herrenvolk_ in its last hour. Perhaps they had once been a -people of blood and iron, but if so they were that no longer after a -century of security and peaceful prosperity behind their impregnable -bulwarks; and the refugees, fleeing those defenses now, were like fat -tame rabbits escaping a burning hutch and falling victim, terrified and -uncomprehending, to the claws and fangs and primeval savagery of the -wild. Germany had sowed the wind for a hundred years, and the storm -that had arisen would not soon abate.... - -From time to time during the vigil in the space ship, Kane turned -thin-lipped from the broadcasts to attempt contact with a secret -transmitter in the New York area. Finally, thirty hours after the dust -had started on its way, he got through and talked with an underground -leader he knew. - -"It's out of our hands," the man on Earth reported tersely. "At first -we made some headway in organizing the revolt. We're still trying to -influence the mobs in the direction of elementary caution, but it's -thankless work and even dangerous. The people are following demagogues -sprung from nowhere, following whatever voice promises the most -killing. I think they're even fighting each other in some places...." - -"Anarchy," said Kane numbly. "A new Dark Age--" - -"What else did you expect?" demanded Vzryvov scornfully. "Surely not -that people enslaved so long would promptly proceed to set up orderly -self-government as soon as they were free? The Dark Ages have been -everywhere, except in Germany, for the last century; you don't imagine -that because Germany falls, the rest of the world will become civilized -again?" - -"No.... But I must have hoped it; I think we all did. Guess you're the -only realist I know, Igor." Kane straightened his shoulders. "We might -as well land. Maybe there's still a chance to bring something decent -out of this mess when the smoke clears. Anyway, I'd rather get into the -thick of it than sit out here listening any longer. We shouldn't have -anything more to fear from the Germans." - -Manning, who had sat for long brooding silently over the controls, -looked up sharply. "Before we start down," he said, "I'd like to ask a -last favor." - - * * * * * - -Manning smiled grimly. "One way or another. I just want one of those -emergency-escape gliders we saw when we were hiding down below. You -mean to land in America, I guess, but before you do I wish you'd take -a little swing out of your way and drop me off in one of those over -Germany. I don't know whether Eddie will want to go with me--" - -"Hell, what do you take me for?" asked Dugan aggrievedly. "Maybe you've -cracked up--but I'll take a chance." - -"I think you _have_ gone crazy," said Kane. "If the Germans didn't get -you, the dust would." - -"It's a chance, all right.... But I've been thinking about how Kahl's -time machine disappeared, back there in the Black Forest. It was -powered by ordinary storage cells, and when he turned it on and left -it on it used them up in a hurry. But in rapid discharge polarization -will stop the flow of current in a battery before the charge is all -gone--and after it's rested a little, it'll give out some more. I think -that's what happened. We left the switch closed, and when the batteries -depolarized they gave another kick. So the time traveler went on--into -the future again. Not very far, maybe. Maybe only a couple of days." - -"So--you think it may be there now. And if it is?" - -"Those gliders have a battery-powered auxiliary motor, don't they? If -we land near the machine, we can get it going again and return to our -own time, or a few years earlier." - -"I don't blame you for wanting to, but--" - -"It's not just that." Manning's eyes met Kane's and held them with odd -intensity. He asked slowly: "Wouldn't it have been better, Kane, if the -last hundred years of history had never happened?" - -Kane stared at him, first blankly and then with dawning understanding. -"But--that's impossible," he stammered. "A paradox." - -"Paradoxes are an occupational disease of time travel, I guess.... I -don't know just what we can do, if we do get back. We'd have to be -careful or we might end up in a padded cell. We couldn't hope to -prevent the development of atomic energy--that seems inevitable, with -progress--but we might warn America in time to assure our beating the -Germans to the punch." - -Kane said quietly, "It's true that our world has taken a wrong turning. -What you suggest, Manning, is quite unimaginable--but it's possible, -all the same--an experimental destiny, perhaps. Anyway, I'll help you -get the glider ready." - -"Would you like to come with us?" - -Kane shook his head. "Whether this world is real or not, I belong to -it. And you'll be bucking enough paradoxes as it is." - - * * * * * - -The glider dropped at first like a stone from the great height; then -its wings began to find support and it descended in vast looping turns -that in the troposphere became at last a tightly circling glide over -the Schwarzwald. The air over Germany was empty; now, short hours -before the coming of the dust, everyone who could command aerial -transportation had escaped from the country. But the roads, from the -great _Autobahnen_ to the narrowest country lanes, were crawling with -traffic, snarled and choked by the fear that drove it. - -Manning strained his eyes for landmarks as they lost altitude; he -wanted to spare the batteries in the glider. - -"Say," remarked Dugan worriedly, "if we find the thing, how far do you -figure on going back?" - -"Mmm--say 1935. We'll need a few years to work if we're going to change -history." - -"We might meet ourselves!" Dugan voiced his fears. - -Manning grinned. "We ought to be able to duck ourselves. We know where -we were, don't we?" - -Dugan digested that, then advanced another problem: "If we go back to -1935, I'll only be thirty when the war starts. What do they do when two -of a guy try to enlist in the Army at once, especially if he's already -missing four years later?" - -"Maybe there won't be any war." - -"Want to bet?" - -"No," answered Manning soberly. But a moment later his face lit as -he recognized, only a couple of miles away, the big clearing on the -plateau where the time traveler had rested. - -Minutes later, he set the glider bumpily down on the meadow. From on -high the sun had been visible, but here only a gray dawn was breaking. -Where the forest fire had passed the trees raised black desolate arms -to the light, but those still green were greeting the morning with cool -balsam scent and awakening bird song, oblivious of the rain of death -falling through space to wipe out all life in this land. - -They climbed out of the glider--and froze, for in the same moment both -saw the two long black cars, one with an official swastika on its sleek -flank, that were parked under the trees, and the uniformed men who were -springing to their feet around the vehicles and lifting rifles. - -"Turn on your invisibility unit and run for the woods!" hissed Manning. -The soldiers gaped for seconds at the spot where the arrivals from the -sky had vanished, then fired a useless volley at the glider and huddled -together in panic. - -Both of the Americans were wearing the units Kane had given them, but -had tucked the hoods under their belts. Manning stumbled, unable to see -his own feet as he ran, and paused on the edge of the woods to cram his -hood down over his head. As he did so he saw Dugan a few yards away, -doing likewise. - -"Somebody's got the same idea as us!" called Manning. "Maybe Kahl -convinced them, or--We'd better get there fast!" - -They plunged through the fire-cleared woodland toward their goal. From -behind a voice shrieked warning to someone ahead: "_Hutet euch! Zwei -Unsichtbare!_" - -Then they saw among the trees the cubical bulk of the time machine. Its -door was open, and around it was a squad of soldiers who gripped their -weapons with shaking hands and peered wild-eyed about them. - -"Never mind them!" gasped Manning. "There's somebody inside--" - - * * * * * - -The words died on his lips. In the doorway of the traveler had appeared -a big man in civilian clothes. His face was hidden beneath a hood -exactly like their own, in his hands was a machine gun, and he was -looking at them. - -"Schwinzog!" Manning recognized the beefy figure. - -"_Sie kennen mich? Aber naturlich_--you are the other two time -travelers!" The gun's muzzle moved in a peremptory arc. "Remove those -masks, please. I want to be sure that it is really you who have come to -see me off." - -Manning wavered, torn by a suicidal impulse to rush the machine gun and -get it over with. But despair lamed him. He thought numbly, "Time is -immutable after all, and something was sure to stop us from changing -what's already happened. The fatalists are right." He bowed his head -and slipped off the wired hood; then he could no longer see it or his -own hands. He felt still more like a ghost, impotent to stir reality. - -"Now the invisibility units," ordered Schwinzog. "Throw them in front -of you." As Manning and Dugan became visible, the goggling soldiers -that surrounded them snapped up their rifles to cover them. - -Schwinzog pushed back his hood and eyed them with satisfaction. "It -is good that you are accounted for--though I was not much worried -about you, and I understand you do not know the principle of the -_Zeitfahrer_. And you have brought me two more specimens of the -invisibility device, which will be useful for study to the German -scientists of four years ago--before they were invented in America." -He chuckled at the thought. "You realize, the debacle of Germany, the -frightful catastrophe engineered by American cunning--_will_--never -take place. I will see to that--that this now shall be only the -illusion of might have been.... As to what will become of you, that is -an almost metaphysical problem--I think I will set the Herr Doktor Kahl -to work on it, when more pressing affairs have been seen to." - -"You will do what?" broke in a weakly querulous voice. - -In the entrance of the time traveler had appeared the hunched figure -of Kahl. He blinked at the light; his goatee was tattered and his face -twitched. Behind him the massive shoulders of Wolfgang blocked the -doorway; he wore a twenty-first century German uniform and an air of -contentment that showed him, at least, to have found his niche in the -world of the future. - -Schwinzog half turned. "What I will do is my own business," he said -curtly. "And you--will refrain from asking unnecessary questions. The -_Zeitfahrer_ is ready?" - -"It is ready for a displacement of four years, which you told me -was to be only a test--before we return, as you promised, to the -twentieth century, and use this era's knowledge to prevent Germany from -conquering the world--" - -"Of course," said Schwinzog smoothingly. "That is what we shall do." - -"You are lying!" Kahl glared at him, his fists clenching. "I heard what -you told the Americans." - -Schwinzog shrugged. "All right, I am lying." He looked contemptuously -down at the little physicist. "Do not bring on yourself again the -consequences of stubbornness. You have earned the gratitude of the -Reich, and I will see that you are rewarded _if_ you are sensible--" - -The other had begun to tremble. "I want only one reward. That is to -see Germany saved from the curse of world empire! From the hatred of -the whole Earth, which almost destroyed our country in my time and -has destroyed it in this! Better even that we Germans should be the -oppressed, rather than reap the oppressor's harvest of hate...." - -Schwinzog's lips curled. "The Herr Doktor has lost his mind. I will -have to operate the _Zeitfahrer_ myself--_Muller_!" - -The tall Wolfgang sidestepped and thrust out an arm, stopping Kahl's -stumbling rush for the doorway and sending the old man staggering to -sprawl at Schwinzog's feet. - -"You would leave without us?" inquired the Gestapoleiter mockingly. -"For that, it would be only just to leave you here--but do not fear. -You will still be useful. And now we have no more time for--" - - * * * * * - -With a burst of strength that seemed in him incredible, Kahl surged to -his feet and flung himself on Schwinzog with an animal scream. The big -man, caught off balance in his negligent pose, was hurled backward and -fell clutching; his head thudded solidly against the time traveler's -metal sheathing. Kahl twisted free and swayed to his feet, and the -machine gun was in his hands; it bucked and spat as he swung it in a -jerky arc. Wolfgang, caught in mid-leap, crashed to the ground and -rolled, and the German soldiers scattered wildly, firing a few shots -that were aimed more away from Schwinzog than at Kahl. One man was too -slow and dropped at the edge of the unburned thicket, and a couple of -others yelped as they fled. - -Dr. Kahl went on raining bullets into the bushes for seconds after -there were no more targets; then he stood breathing hard and glaring -about him at the bodies sprawled on the scorched turf. - -One of the bodies got unhurriedly to its feet and faced Kahl. It was -Manning. The fatalistic paralysis that had gripped him had passed off -abruptly when he saw Schwinzog fall, and he had thrown himself flat -under the sweeping bursts of machine gun fire. - -He said coolly, "Good work, Herr Doktor. Now we can get back to our own -century." - -Kahl did not answer or seem to hear. The muzzle of the weapon he held -was centered on Manning's chest, and the eyes above it were mad. - -"We must return now, and carry out your plan," Manning urged softly. -As he talked he was walking without haste toward the gun. He did not -dare glance aside to see what had happened to Dugan, or let even his -expression betray his terrible eagerness to seize the moment--before -Kahl went completely off the deep end, or before the Germans back there -in the bushes collected their wits. - -"You are American," scowled Kahl. "One of those who hate us. What have -I to do with you?" - -"I will help you," said Manning. "Your plan is good. Germany and all -the world will revere your name when they know." He halted, almost -touching the gun muzzle. In a moment now he had to grab it. - -"I do not know--" began Kahl, blinking. Then his eyes widened blankly; -something had plucked at Manning's sleeve, and from somewhere in the -thicket came a rifle's crack. The Herr Doktor crumpled to the ground. - -From behind him appeared Dugan, straightening from a crouch; without -a word he sprang for the door of the time traveler. Manning followed, -ducking under another bullet from the woods. He slammed the door shut. - -"What'd you take a chance like that for?" demanded Dugan bitterly. "I -was sneaking round behind him all the time." - -Manning didn't answer. He was surveying the apparatus-covered table, -hesitating over its complexity. - -Outside rifles began banging steadily. The metal shell of the machine -rang and splinters flew from the wooden door as bullets came through -to ricochet dangerously inside. Manning's mouth set and with a quick -wrist-flip he closed the starting switch. - -And there was silence. - - * * * * * - -Dugan peered cautiously through a shattered door-panel. "There hasn't -been any fire," he said almost without wonder. "The trees are green." - -Manning bent tensely over the table. "Four years backward," he nodded. -"Now, if I can just find out how much power that took...." - -Half an hour later for them, it was 1935, an evening with the first -chill of fall in the air. - -"Too bad we lost the invisibility units," grieved Manning. "There's -nothing now to prove we ever travelled in time--except the traveler -itself, and we can hardly carry that with us to America.... And Kahl -and Wolfgang make another paradox we didn't think of. They died in a -time that never will be." - -"Hell, what's another paradox," said Dugan. "We've got our work cut out -for us without worrying about them." - -Regretfully they smashed the time traveler's mechanism--lest it fall -into still other hands anxious to remodel history--and set out on foot -with a good chance of making the Swiss border by dawn. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOSTAGE OF TOMORROW *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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