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diff --git a/68167-0.txt~ b/68167-0.txt~ new file mode 100644 index 0000000..477521e --- /dev/null +++ b/68167-0.txt~ @@ -0,0 +1,1355 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 68167 *** + + ATOMIC! + + By HENRY KUTTNER + + Illustrated by Virgil Finlay. + + [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from + Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1947. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that + the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + _What nuclear war may do to the world + we know is a closed book to mankind—but + here’s what coming eras may bring!_ + + + + + CHAPTER I + _The Eye_ + + +The alarm went off just after midnight. The red signal showed emergency. +But it was always emergency at first. We all knew that. Ever since the +arachnid tribe in the Chicago Ring had mutated we’d known better than to +take chances. That time the human race had very nearly gone under. Not +many people knew how close we’d been to extinction. But I knew. + +Everybody in Biological Control Labs knew. To anyone who lived before +the Three-Hour War such things would have sounded incredible. Even to us +now they sound hard to believe. But we _know_. + +There are four hundred and three Rings scattered all over the world and +every one of them is potentially deadly. + +Our Lab was north of what had been Yonkers and was a deserted, ruinous +wilderness now. The atomic bomb of six years ago hadn’t hit Yonkers of +course. What it struck was New York. The radiation spread far enough to +wipe out Yonkers and the towns beyond it, and inland as far as White +Plains—but everyone who lived through the Three-Hour War knows what the +bomb did in the New York area. + +The war ended incredibly fast. But what lingered afterward made the real +danger, the time-bomb that may quite easily lead to the wiping out of +our whole civilization. We don’t know yet. All we can do is keep the +Labs going and the planes out watching. + +That’s the menace—the mutations. + +It was familiar stuff to me. I recorded the televised report on the +office ticker, punched a few buttons and turned around to look at Bob +Davidson, the new hand. He’d been here for two weeks, mostly learning +the ropes. + +My assistant, Williams, was due for a vacation and I had about decided +to take young Davidson on as a substitute. + +“Want to go out and look it over, Dave?” I asked. + +“Sure. That’s a red alarm, isn’t it? Emergency?” + +I pulled a mike forward. + +“Send up relief men,” I ordered, “and wake Williams to take over. Get +the recon copter ready. Red flight.” Then I turned to Davidson. + +“It’ll be routine,” I told him, “unless something unexpected happens. +Not much data yet. The sky-scanners showed a cave-in and some activity +around it. May be nothing but we can’t take chances. It’s Ring +Seventy-Twelve.” + +“That’s where the air liner crashed last week, isn’t it?” Dave asked, +looking up with renewed interest. “Any dope yet on what became of the +passengers?” + +“Nothing. The radiations would have got them if nothing else did. That’s +in the closed file now, poor devils. Still, we might spot the ship.” I +stood up. “The whole thing may be a wild-goose chase but we never take +any chances with the Rings.” + +“It ought to be interesting, anyhow,” Dave said and followed me out. + +We could see it from a long way off. Four hundred and three of them dot +the world now, but in the days before the War no one could have imagined +such a thing as a Ring and it would be hard to make anyone visualize one +through bare description. You have to _feel_ the desolation as you fly +over that center of bare, splashed rock in which nothing may ever grow +again until the planet itself disintegrates, and see around that dead +core the violently boiling life of the Ring. + +It was a perimeter of life brushed by the powers of death. The +sun-forces unleashed by the bombs gave life, a new, strange, mutable +life that changed and changed and changed and would go on changing until +a balance was finally struck again on this world which for three hours +reeled in space under the blows of an almost cosmic disaster. We were +still shuddering beneath the aftermath of those blows. The balance was +not yet. + +[Illustration: From time to time we work them over with flame throwers] + +When the hour of balance comes, mankind may no longer be the dominant +race. That’s why we keep such a close watch on all the Rings. From time +to time we work them over with flame-throwers. Only atomic power, of +course, would quiet that seething life permanently—which is no +solution. We’ve got Rings enough right now without resorting to more +atom bombs. + +It’s a hydra-headed problem without an answer. All we can do is watch, +wait, be ready.... + + * * * * * + +The world was still dark. But the Ring itself was light, with a strange, +pale luminous radiance that might mean anything. It was new. That was +all we knew about it yet. + +“Let’s have the scanner,” I said to Davidson. He handed me the mask and +I pushed the head-clips past my ears and settled the monocular +view-plate before my eyes, expecting to see the darkness melt into the +reversed vision of the night-scanner. + +It melted, all right—the part that didn’t matter. I could see the +negative images of trees and ruined houses standing ghostly pale against +the dark. But within the Ring—nothing. + +It wasn’t good. It could be very bad indeed. In silence I pulled off the +mask and handed it to Davidson, watched him look down. When he turned I +could see his troubled frown through the monocular lens even before he +lowered the scanner. He looked a little pale in the light of the +instrument board. + +“Well?” he asked. + +“Looks as if they’d hit on something good this time,” I said. + +“They?” + +“Who knows? Could be anything this time. You know how the life-forms +shoot up into mutations without the least warning. Something’s done it +again down there. Maybe something that’s been quietly working away +underground for a long time, just waiting for the right moment. Whatever +it is they can stop the scanners and that isn’t an easy thing to do.” + +“The first boys over reported a cave-in,” Davidson said, peering +futilely down. “Could you see anything?” + +“Just the luminous fog. Nothing inside. Total blackout. Well, maybe +daylight will show us what’s up. I hope so.” + +It didn’t. A low sea of yellow-gray fog billowed slowly in a vast circle +over the entire Ring as far as we could see. Dead central core and outer +circle of unnatural life had vanished together into that mist which no +instrument we had could penetrate—and we’ve developed a lot of stuff +for seeing through fog and darkness. This was solid. We couldn’t crack +it. + +“We’ll land,” I told Davidson finally. “Something’s going on behind that +shield, something that doesn’t want to be spied on. And somebody’s got +to investigate—fast! It might as well be us.” + +We wore the latest development in the way of lead-suits, flexible and +easy on the body. We snapped our face-plates shut as the ground came up +to meet us and the little Geiger-counter each of us carried began to +tick erratically, like a sort of Morse code mechanically spelling out +the death in the air we sank through. + +I was measuring the ground below for a landing when Davidson grabbed my +shoulder suddenly, pointing down. + +“Look!” His voice came tinnily through the ear-diaphragms in my helmet. +I looked. + +Now this is where the story gets difficult to tell. + +I know what I saw. That much was clear to me from start to finish. I saw +an eye looking up through the pale mist at us. But whether it was an +enormous lens far below or a normal-sized eye close to us I couldn’t +have said just then. My distance-sense had stopped functioning. + +[Illustration: eye] + +I stared into the Eye.... + +The next thing I remember is sitting in the familiar lab office across +the desk from Williams, hearing myself speaking. + +“... no signs of activity anywhere in the Ring. Perfectly normal—” + +“There’s that lake, of course,” Davidson interrupted in a conscientious +voice. I looked at him. He was turning his cap over and over in his +hands as he sat there by the wall. His pink-cheeked face was haggard and +there was something strained and dazed in the glance he turned to meet +mine. I knew I looked dazed too. + +It was like waking out of a dream, knowing you’ve dreamed, knowing +you’re awake now—but having the dream go on—being powerless to stop +it. I wanted to jump up and slam my fist on the desk and shout that all +this was phony. + +I couldn’t. + +Something like a tremendously powerful psychic inhibition held me down. +The room swam before me for a moment with my effort to break free and I +met Davidson’s eyes and saw the same swimming strain in them. + +It wasn’t hypnosis. + + * * * * * + +We don’t win our posts in Bio Control until we’ve been through +exhaustive tests and a lot of heavy training. None of us are +hypnosis-prone. We can’t afford to be. It’s been tried. + +We _can’t_ be hypnotized except under very special circumstances +safeguarded by Bio Control itself. + +No, the answer wasn’t that easy. It seemed to lie in—myself. Some door +had slammed in the center of my brain, to shut in vital information that +must not escape—yet—under any circumstances at all. + +The minute I hit on that analogy I knew I was on the right trail. I felt +safer and surer of myself. Whatever had happened in that blank space +just passed my instinct was in control now. I could trust that instinct. + +“... break-through, just as the boys reported,” Davidson was saying. +“That must be what started the lake pouring up. Nothing stirring there +now, though. I suppose the regular sky-scanners are watching it?” + +His glance crossed mine and I knew he was right. I knew he was talking +to me, not Williams. Of course the lake couldn’t be hidden now that it +was out in plain sight. We couldn’t make a worse mistake than to rouse +interest in ourselves and the lake by telling obvious lies about +it.... + +What lake? + +Like a mirage, swimming slowly back through my mind, the single memory +came. Ourselves, standing on the raw, bare rock of the deathly +Ring-center, looking through a rift of mist like a broad, low window a +mile long and not very high. + +The lake was incredibly blue in the dawn, incredibly calm. Beyond it a +wall of cliff stretched left and right beyond our vision, a wall like a +great curtain of rock hanging in majestic folds, pink in the pink dawn, +looming about its perfect image reflected in the mirror of the lake. + + * * * * * + +The mirage dissolved. That much I could remember—no more. There was a +lake. We had stood on its rocky shore. And then—what? Reason told me we +must have seen something, or heard or learned something, that made the +lake a deadly danger to mankind. + +I knew that feel of naked terror deep in my mind must have a cause. But +all I could do now was follow my instinct. The basic human instincts, I +told myself, are self preservation and preservation of the species. If I +rely on that foundation I can’t go wrong.... + +But—I didn’t know how long I’d been back here. I didn’t know how much +I’d said, or how little—what orders I’d given to my subordinates, or +whether anything in my outward aspect had roused any suspicion yet. + +I looked around—and this time gave a perfectly genuine start of +surprise. Except for Williams and myself the office was quite empty. In +this last bout with my daydreaming memory I must really have lost touch +with things. + +Williams was looking at me with—curiosity? Suspicion? + +I rubbed my eyes, put weariness in my voice. + +“I’m tired,” I said. “Almost dozed off, didn’t I? Well—” + +The sound of the ticker behind Williams interrupted my alibi. I knew in +a moment what was happening. A televised report had come into my own +office which my secretary was switching to the ticker for me. That meant +it was important. It also meant—as I had reason to hope an instant +later—that the visor was shut off in my office and the news clicking +directly here for our eyes alone. + +Leaning over Williams’ shoulder, I read the tape feeding through. + +It read— + + UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVITIES IN PROGRESS AROUND NEW RING LAKE. + SUGGEST DESTROYERS WORK OVER AREA. + + FITZGERALD. + +The bottom dropped out of my stomach. Only one thing stood clear in my +mind’s confusion—_this must not happen_. There was some terrible, some +deadly danger to the whole fabric of civilization if Fitzgerald’s +message reached any other eyes than ours. I had to do something, fast. + +Williams was rereading the tape. He glanced up at me across his +shoulder. + +“Fitz is right,” he said. “Of course. Can’t let anything get started +down there. Better wipe it out right now, hadn’t we?” + +I said, “_No!_” so explosively that he froze in the act of reaching for +the interoffice switch. + +“Why not?” He stared at me in surprise. + +I opened my mouth and closed it again hopelessly, knowing the right +words wouldn’t come. To me it seemed so self-evident I couldn’t even +explain why we must disregard the message. It would be like trying to +tell a man why he mustn’t touch off an atom bomb out of sheer +exuberance—the reasons were so many and so obvious I couldn’t choose +among them. + +“You weren’t there. You don’t know.” My voice sounded thick and unsteady +even to me. “Fitz is wrong. _Let that lake alone, Williams!_” + +“You ought to know.” He gave me a strange look. “Still, I’ve got to +record the report. Headquarters will make the final decision.” And he +reached again for the switch. + +I’m not sure how far I would have gone toward stopping him. Instinct +deeper than all reason seemed to explode in me in the urgent forward +surge that brought me to my feet. I had to stop him—now—without +delay—taking no time to delve into my mind and dredge up a reason he +would accept as valid. + +But the decision was taken out of our hands. + +A burst of soundless white fire flashed blindingly across my eyes. It +blotted out Williams, it blotted out the ticker with its innocent, +deadly message. I was aware of a killing pain in the very center of my +skull.... + + + + + CHAPTER II + _The Other Peril_ + + +Someone was shaking me. + +I sat up dizzily, meeting a stare that I recognized only after what +seemed infinities of slow waking. Davidson, his pink face frightened, +shook me again. + +“What happened? What was it? Jim, are you all right? Wake up, Jim! What +was it?” + +I let him help me to my feet. The room began to steady around me but it +reeled sharply again when I saw what lay before the ticker, the tape +looping down about him—face down on the floor, blood still crawling +from the bullet hole in his back.... + +Williams never saw who got him. It must have been the same flash that +blinded me. I felt my cheek for the powder burn that must have scorched +it as the unseen killer fired past my face. I felt only numbness. I was +numb all over, even my brain. But one thing had to be settled in a +hurry. + +How much time had elapsed? Had that deadly message gone out while I lay +here helpless? I made it to the ticker in two unsteady strides. The tape +that looped the fallen Williams still bore its dangerous message. + +Whoever fired past my cheek had fired for another reason, then, than +this message. Of course, for how could anyone else have known its +importance? There was a bewildering mystery here but I had no time to +think about it. + +I tore off the tape, crumpled it into my pocket. I flipped the ticker +switch and sent a reverse message out as fast as my shaking hand could +operate the machine. + + FITZGERALD URGENT URGENT MEET ME AT RING POST 27 AM LEAVING + HEADQUARTERS NOW DO NOTHING UNTIL I ARRIVE URGENT SIGNED J. + OWEN. + +Davidson watched me, round-eyed, as I vised for a helicopter. He put out +his hand as I turned toward the door. I forced myself to stop and think. + +“Well?” I said. + +He didn’t speak. He only glanced at Williams’ body on the floor. + +“No,” I said. “I didn’t kill him. But I might have if that had turned +out to be the only way. There’s trouble at the lake.” I hesitated. “You +were there too, Dave. Do you know what I mean?” I wasn’t quite sure what +I was trying to find out. I waited for his answer. + +“You’re the boss,” was all he said. “Still, it wasn’t any mutation that +did—this. It was a bullet. You’ve got to know who shot him, Jim.” + +“I don’t though. I blanked out. Something ...” My mind whirled and +then steadied again with a sudden idea. I put a hand to my forehead, +dizzy with trying to remember things still closed to me. + +“Maybe something like a mutation had a part in it at that,” I conceded. +“Maybe we’re not alone in wanting to—to keep the lake quiet. I +wonder—could something from the Ring have blanked me out deliberately, +so I wouldn’t see Williams killed?” + +But there wasn’t time to follow even that speculation through. I said +impatiently, “The point is, Dave, one man’s death doesn’t mean a thing +right now. The Ring....” I stopped unable to go on. I didn’t need to. + +“What do you want me to do?” Davidson asked. That was better. I knew I +could depend on him, and I might need someone dependable very soon. + +“Take over here,” I said. “I’m going to see Fitzgerald. And listen, +Dave, this is urgent. Hold any messages Fitzgerald sends. _Any!_ +Understand?” + +“Check,” he said. His eyes were still asking questions as I went out. +Neither of us could answer them—yet. + +The desolation spun past below me, aftermath of the Three-Hour War, +ruined buildings, ruined fields, ruined woods. Far off I could catch a +pale gleam of water beyond the seething edge of the Ring. + +I’d been en route long enough to make some sort of order in my mind—but +I hadn’t done it. Evidently more than time would be required to open the +closed doors in my brain. I had been in the Ring today—I had seen +something or learned something there—and whatever I learned had been of +such vital and terrible import that memory of it was wiped from +Davidson’s mind and mine until the hour came for action. + +I didn’t know what hour or what action. But I knew with a deep certainty +that when the time for decision came I would not falter. Along with the +terror and the blackness in my mind went that one abiding knowledge upon +which all my actions now were based. I could trust that instinct. + +Fitzgerald’s copter was waiting. I could see his lead-suited figure, +tiny and far below, pacing up and down impatiently as I dropped toward +him. My copter settled lightly earthward. And for a moment another +thought crossed my mind. + +Williams! A man murdered, a man I knew and had worked with. A man I +liked. That should have affected me much more deeply than it did. I knew +why it hadn’t. Williams’ death was unimportant—completely trivial in +the face of the—the other peril that loomed namelessly, in all its +invisible menace, like a shrouded ghost rising from the lake beyond us. + + * * * * * + +Fitzgerald was a big blond man with blue eyes and a scar puckering his +forehead, souvenir of our last battle with mutated marmosa in the +Atlanta Ring. His transmitter-disc vibrated tinnily as I got out of the +copter. + +“Hello, chief. You got my second message?” + +“No. What was it?” + +“More funny stuff.” He gestured toward the Ring. “In the lake this +time—signs of life. I can’t make anything out of it.” + +I drew a deep breath of relief. Davidson would have stopped that +message. It was up to me now to find a way to keep Fitzgerald quiet. + +“We’ll take a look at the lake, then,” I said. “What’s your report?” + +“Well....” He shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, glancing +at me through his face-plate as if he didn’t quite expect me to believe +him. “It’s a funny place, that lake. I got the impression it was—well, +watching me. + +“I know it sounds silly but I have to tell you. It could be important, I +suppose. And then when I was making a second turn over the water I saw +something, in the lake.” He paused. “People,” he added after a moment. + +“What kind of people?” + +“I—they weren’t human.” + +“How do you know?” + +“They weren’t wearing lead suits,” he said simply, glad of a chance to +pin his story down with facts. “I figured they were either not human or +else insane. They heard my ship. And they went into the lake.” + +“Swimming?” + +“They walked in. Right under the water. And they stayed there.” + +“What did they look like?” + +“I didn’t get a close look,” he said evasively, his eyes troubled as +they avoided mine. + +I was aware of a strange, mounting excitement that swelled in my throat +until I could hardly speak. I jerked my head toward the lake. + +“Come on,” I said. + +There lay the blue water, moving gently in the breeze. The cliffs like +folded curtains rose beyond it. There was no sign of life in sight as we +crossed the bare, pitted rocks. Fitzgerald eyed me askance as we clumped +toward the water in our heavy lead-lined boots. I knew he expected doubt +from me. + +But I knew also that he had told the truth. The lost memory of danger +sent its premonitory shadows through my mind and I believed, dimly, that +I too had seen those aquatic people, sometime in that immediate past +which had been expunged from my brain. + +We were halfway across the rocks, our Geiger-counters clicking noisy +warning of the death in the air all around us, when the first of the +lake people rose up before us from behind a ledge of rock. + +He was a perfectly normal looking man—except that he stood there in +khaki trousers and shirt, sleeves rolled up, in the bath of potent +destruction which was the very air of the Ring. He looked at us with a +blankness impossible to describe and yet with a strangely avid interest +in his eyes. + +When we were half a dozen paces away he raised his arm and, without +changing expression, in a voice totally without inflection, he spoke. + +“Go back,” he said. “Go back. Get away from here, now!” + +_It was all returning to me ... I knew why he looked so strange, why +he spoke so flatly, why that interest watched us from his eyes...._ + +I didn’t know. The knowledge brushed the edges of my awareness and +withdrew. I stumbled forward, Fitzgerald beside me excited and eager, +calling out a question to the man. + +He made no answer. He took one last look at us, blank, intent, +impersonal, his eyes as blue as the water in the lake. And then he +dropped straight downward, without stooping, without seeming to move a +muscle. He vanished behind the knee-high ledge of rock. + +We reached it together, shouldering one another in our eagerness. We +bent over the ledge. The man had disappeared, leaving no sign behind +him. Nothing but a little hollow in the rock where he had stood, a +hollow no bigger than a saucer, in which blue water swayed. We stood +there half stunned, for the time it took the water to gurgle downward +and vanish in the hole and surge up again twice from some action of +subterranean waters. + +Memory was battering at the closed doors of my mind. + +I _knew_ the answer. I knew it well—but the door stayed shut. The time +to remember was not yet. + + * * * * * + +They were watching us from the edge of the water by the time we had come +within hailing distance. One by one we saw them wade up from the blue +depths and take their stand in the edge of the water, ankle deep, +rivulets running from their hair and clothing—drowned men and women, +watching us. + +They weren’t drowned, of course. They looked perfectly healthy and there +was more intelligence and animation in their faces than had looked at us +from the vanished man of the ledge. + +These were real people. The other had not been. I thought that much must +be evident even to Fitzgerald, though it was a subterranean knowledge +running through my mind that told me so. + +“Wait, Jim,” Fitzgerald said suddenly, catching my elbow. “I—don’t like +’em. Stand back.” He was watching the silent people in the water. + +I let him stop me. Now that I was here I wasn’t certain what came next. +The terrible urgency still rang its alarm in the closed room of my brain +but until I could gain entry into that room I wouldn’t know what was +expected of me. + +Fitzgerald waved to the people in the water, a beckoning gesture. They +stared at us. + +Then they turned and talked briefly together, glancing at us over their +shoulders. Finally one of the women came up out of the lake and picked +her way toward us over the lava-like rock. + +[Illustration: Finally one of the women came up out of the lake and +picked her way toward us] + +She had long fair hair sleeked back from her face by the water and +hanging like pale kelp across her shoulders. Her blue dress clung to her +over a beautiful, supple body, water spattering from the dripping cloth +and the dripping hair as she came. + +Belatedly I remembered that crashed air-liner and its vanished people. +Were these the passengers and crew? I thought they were. But what had +induced them against all reason to come this far into the deadly air of +the Ring? The lake? Up to that point the thing was possible, but it was +sheer madness from the moment I imagined them entering the water. + +The lake, then? Was there something inexplicably strange and compelling +about the lake itself that had drawn them in and sent them out again +like this, alive, unharmed in the singing air that made our counters +clatter? + +I looked out over the waters for an answer, and— + +And I got my answer—or part of it. + +For out there on the rippling blue surface a shadow moved. A long, +coiling shadow cast not from above but from below. Deep down in the lake +something was stirring. + +I strained my eyes and in the sealed deeps of my mind terror and +exultation moved in answer to that coiling darkness. I knew it. I +recognized it. I ... The recognition passed. + +The vast shadow moved lazily, monstrously, moved and coiled and drew +itself in under the cliffs. + +Slowly it disappeared, coil by coil, shadow by shadow. + +I turned. The fair-haired woman was standing before us; gazing into our +faces with a remote, impersonal curiosity. It was as if she had never +seen another human creature before and found us interesting +but—disassociated. No species that might share relationship with her. + +“You’re from the liner?” I asked, my voice reverberating in my own ears +inside the helmet. “We—we can take you back.” I let the words die. They +meant nothing to her. They meant no more than the clatter of our +belt-counters or the patter of drops around her on the rocks. + +“Jim.” Fitzgerald’s voice buzzed in my earphones. “Jim, we’ve got to +take her back with us. She’s out of her head. They all are—don’t you +see? We’ve got to save them.” + +“How?” I tried to sound practical. “We haven’t got room. There’s a full +liner load here.” + +“We can take this one.” He reached out and took her arm gently. She let +him, her eyes turning that remote, impersonal gaze upon his face. “It’s +probably too late,” he said, looking at her with compassion, “but we +can’t leave her here, can we?” + +I was watching his hand on her arm and a thought came to me out of +nowhere, a fact that seemed to slip through the closed doors in my mind +as they opened a tiny crack. This girl was flesh and blood. A hand +closed on her arm met firm resistance. But I knew that if I had touched +that first man my hand would have closed over the smooth instability of +water. + +I looked at the girl’s face where a passing breeze brushed it, and a +shiver went down my back. For it was a warm breeze, drying her hair and +cheek where it blew—and I saw dark, wrinkled desiccation wherever +dryness touched her skin. The sleek fair hair lost its silkiness and +turned brown and brittle, the satiny cheek darkened, furrowed.... + +I knew if she left the lake she would die. But it didn’t matter. I knew +there was no actual danger, either way. (_Danger to what? From what? No +use asking myself that yet—the door would be open in its own time._) + +I took her other arm. Between us she went docilely toward the waiting +copters, saying nothing. I don’t think Fitzgerald noticed what that +drying breeze was doing to her until we were nearly at the edge of the +Ring. + +By then it was too late to take her back even if he had understood what +the trouble was. + +I heard Fitzgerald catch his breath but he said nothing and neither did +I. + +We lifted her into his copter. I took off behind him and the visors were +silent between our ships as we flew back toward Base. What could we have +said to each other then? + + + + + CHAPTER III + _Living Lake_ + + +Thirty minutes after we hit the Base the girl was in a jury-rigged +hydrating tank, wrapped in wet sheets, with a slow trickle of fresh warm +water soaking them. Even her face was loosely covered, and I was glad of +that. It was an old woman’s face by now, drawn tight and furrowed over +her skull. Only an arm was bare, shriveled flesh beneath which the +tendons stood sharply etched. + +The arm was bare for the needle that fed sodium pentothol into a vein, +slowly, under the watchful eye of Sales, one of our best Base medics. We +knew that presently, when the drug began to cloud her mind, Sale’s +skillful questions would start drawing out the memories of what had +happened to her, reconstructing the basic scenes which had led to—this. + +Or—we hoped they would. + +“It looks like aphasia,” Sales murmured. “No brain injury so far as we +know yet, but—” + +“Chief!” It was Davidson, touching my arm. We all turned in the +half-darkness that was part of this narcosynthesis treatment. “Chief, +the Mobile Staff’s on its way down here. They vised after you left.” + +“What for?” I asked sharply, a nervous dread knotting my stomach. + +“I don’t know. They wouldn’t say. You’re the boss, after all.” + +But I wasn’t the boss of Mobile Staff. They were bigger than I, the +bureau of specialists that controlled the administration of all the +Rings. They were the bosses. And if they came here now ... + +I caught Davidson’s eye in the gloom. Very slightly he shook his head. +The secret of Williams’ death was still safe, then. But not for long. +And if the Staff talked to Fitzgerald about the lake ... + +I made an enormous effort and fought down the rising panic. Information +first. Then action. I had to keep that order. + +Sales grunted and I looked back, forcing my attention to the business at +hand. + +“She must have the tolerance of an elephant,” Sales said, eyeing the +tube through which sodium pentothol still fed into the girl’s arm. “Or +else there’s some chemical metamorphosis—I don’t know. I’ve given her +enough to put a dozen men to sleep. But look at her.” + +I didn’t like to look at her. It was obvious to me that she was dying. +Yet when Sales pushed the wet sheets back from her face the impersonal, +disinterested attention still dwelt upon the ceiling, fully awake, +uncaring, hearing nothing we said, feeling nothing we did. + +Fitzgerald said, “How could she have breathed under water?” + +“She couldn’t.” Sales scowled at him. “There’s no physiological change +at all. Her respiratory system’s normal.” + +“She must have,” Fitzgerald said stubbornly. “I know what we saw.” + +“Anything’s possible in a Ring,” Sales admitted, voicing an aphorism. +“But I don’t see how it could have worked.” He looked up at me. “How +important is this, chief?” + +I told him. + +“Give me an hour,” Sales said briefly when I had finished. “I’m going to +try something else. Several other things. Maybe one of ’em will work.” + +“One of ’em’s got to,” I told him, getting up. + + * * * * * + +In that hour a lot happened. Sales found what he wanted, for one thing. +For another, the Mobile Staff arrived. Williams’ body was found. And as +for me—it was the hour that marked the turning point in my life. + +Williams’ death was reported on my private visor as soon as I got back +to my office. I could feel Davidson’s silence like a tangible thing as +he listened to the exclamations and incredulity of the others. + +All I could do was order the usual investigations got under way +immediately. At that moment I decided not to speak of my own presence +when he died. I couldn’t let myself be diverted by useless questions on +a subject only distantly related to my own terrible problem. + +Worse than ever that deathly fear was stirring restlessly behind the +closed doors of my unconscious. I knew the doors would swing open soon. +Little by little they had let facts escape the barrier, and the barrier +itself would be ready to fall.... Soon, I thought, soon. + +Looking back now I lose my time-sense about that eventful hour. I think +we were still lost in dismayed wonder over Williams when the visor +flickered and then framed the grim, creased face of Mobile Staff’s +chief, Lewis. + +There was a hunted, nightmare quality about this piling of crisis upon +crisis, I thought, as I went down to the reception hall to welcome my +superiors. If only I could find five minutes of peace to try again those +slowly opening doors! + +Mobile Staff wears black uniforms. If all Bio employees are carefully +tested then Mobile men are screened with such stringent care that there +is reason to marvel how anyone ever passes their tests. All of these men +in their severe black looked taut, nervous, keen with an edge almost +ruthless in its steely temper. + +“What about this lake development in Ring Seventy-Twelve?” was the first +thing Lewis said to me as we walked back toward my office. It couldn’t +have been worse, I told myself. If they had timed themselves +deliberately they couldn’t have chosen a worse time. + +“Three of us have seen it closely,” was all I answered. “You’ll want to +discuss it with us in detail, I suppose.” + +Lewis nodded crisply. We didn’t speak again until we were settled in my +office, Davidson and Fitzgerald ready for questions beside me. We told +what—overtly—we knew. It was Lewis, of course, who spoke with +decision. + +“I think we’d better destroy the thing pronto.” + +“Frankly, sir—” this was Davidson “—frankly, I’d think that over +first. The thing’s isolated, whatever it is. We’d run the risk of +scattering it abroad.” + +“I incline that way myself,” I said quickly. “Isolation. Ring it off, +reroute air traffic. Leave it alone and study it ... study it?” I +suspected that was wrong. A warning bell had clanged in my brain. + +Lewis sat there silently, shifting his keen glance from face to face. +Just as he drew his breath to speak my desk visor buzzed. + +“Report ready on Williams’ death, sir,” an impersonal voice said. + +“All right. Hold it awhile,” I began. But Lewis bent forward and gave +the face in the visor a narrowed glance. + +“No, let’s have it right now,” he said. Despairingly I wondered how much +he knew and how much that abnormally keen brain had guessed already of +the undercurrents running swiftly beneath the surface of events here. + +The face in the visor glanced at me. I shrugged. Lewis was boss as long +as Mobile Staff remained here. + +“Body of J. L. Williams, assistant to chief, was found in a locker in +his own office forty minutes ago,” the report began. “The shot was fired +from....” The voice went off into medical and ballistic details I +ceased to hear. I was turning over in my mind crazy questions about how +I could prevent an immediate close study of the lake at the very best, +and at the worst its destruction. + +“. . . revolver of this caliber possessed only by Chief Owen himself,” +the visor declared. I woke with a start. “Last men seen with the +deceased were Robert Davidson and Chief Owen. Chief Owen subsequently +suppressed a report from Ring Station 27 and ordered a copter for +immediate departure. He then took off for—” + +The visor buzzed suddenly and the monotoned report blanked out. It was +an emergency interruption. Very briefly Dr. Sales’ face flashed upon the +screen. + +“This is urgent, Chief,” he said, looking into my eyes significantly. +“Could you spare me five minutes in my lab right now?” + +It seemed like a heaven-sent relief. I glanced at Lewis for permission. +His gaze was cold and suspicious but he nodded after a moment and I got +up with a single look at Davidson’s deliberately blank face and went +out. + + * * * * * + +Something prompted me to pause at the door after I had closed it. I was +not really surprised to hear Lewis’ harsh voice. + +“See that Chief Owen doesn’t leave the building before I’ve talked to +him again. That’s an urgent. Give it priority.” + +I shrugged. Things were beyond my control now. All I could do was ride +along and trust to instinct. + +Although Sales had asked for only five minutes of my time, he seemed +oddly reluctant to begin. I sat down across the desk from him and +watched him fidget with his desk blotter. Finally he looked up and spoke +abruptly. + +“You know the girl died, of course.” + +“I expected it. When?” + +“Half an hour ago. I’ve been doing some quick thinking since then. And a +lot of quick analyses. There hasn’t been time yet to check, but I think +she died of psychosomatic causes, chief.” + +“That’s hard to credit,” I said. “Tell me about it.” + +“She was a perfectly normal specimen by all quantitative and qualitative +tests. I think suggestion killed her.” + +“But how?” + +“You know you can hypnotize a subject, touch his arm with ice and tell +him it’s red-hot metal. Typical burn weals will appear. Most physical +symptoms can be induced by suggestion. That girl died of dehydration and +asphyxia as far as I can tell.” + +“We gave her moisture and oxygen.” + +“She didn’t know it was oxygen. She didn’t think she was breathing at +all. So her motor reflexes were paralyzed and—she died. As for the +hydrating apparatus ...” Sales shook his head in a bewildered way. +“This sounds crazy but I think our mistake there was in giving her water +as a hydrating factor. Chief, how closely did you see that lake? Do you +know that it’s _water_?” + +Again that bell seemed to ring in my head. _Water? Water? Of course it +isn’t water, not as we’ve known water up to now._ + +“Until I thought of that,” Sales went on, “I couldn’t understand her +apparent breathing under water. Now I think I’m beginning to understand. +A liquid can’t be breathed by human beings, but there could be—well, +artificial isotopes that would do the trick. Also, something drove that +girl insane. + +“I think she was insane. You might call it a variant of schizophrenia. +Or possession if you prefer. Her mind was completely blanketed and +subjugated by—something else.” He drummed on the desk. Then, looking up +sharply, he said, “I got samples of the lake’s—water. From her body. +It’s not water. + +“Maybe it once was but now it’s mixed with other compounds. The stuff +seems half alive. Not protoplasm but close to it. I can’t evaporate or +break it down with any chemical I’ve yet tried. + +“There are traces of hemoglobin. In fact, the stuff has many of the +attributes of blood. But—and this is important, Chief—I couldn’t find +traces of a single leukocyte. You see what that means?” + +I shook my head. + +“One of the primary results of exposing an organism to radioactivity is +a reduction of the number of white cells, making it subject to +infection. The proportion of polymorphonuclear white cells goes down +relatively. That’s axiomatic. But surely you see what it suggests!” + +Again I shook my head. A deep uneasiness was mounting in me but I had to +hear him out before I acted. I knew I’d have to act. I think I knew +already what I would have to do before I left this room. But I wanted to +hear the rest of his story first. I signaled him to go on. + +“Another thing I observed about the—call it water,” he said carefully, +“was the presence of considerable boron and some lithium. Of course the +whole Ring area is subject to constant radiations of all kinds, but the +important ones just now are the hard electromagnetic and the nuclear +radiations that produce biological reactions. + +“I suppose you remember that boron and lithium both tend to concentrate +the effects of a bombardment of slow neutrons, so an organism like the +lake would get a very heavy dose of the radiations that have the +greatest effect on it.” + +“The lake—an _organism_?” I echoed. + +“I think it is. Up to now we’ve come into conflict only with evolved and +mutated creatures that were recognizable as animals even before genetic +changes took place. One reason might be that mutated genes divide more +slowly than others and tend to lose out in the race for supremacy. + +“A complete mutation like—this lake—is something nobody really +expected. The odds are too heavy against it. But we’ve known it could +happen. And I think this time we’re up against something dangerous. Big +and dangerous and impossible to understand.” + +I leaned forward. _I knew what I had to do. Now? No, not quite yet. +Inside my mind the closed doors were moving slowly, swinging wider and +wider, while behind them pressed the crowding memories of danger which +would burst the barrier at any moment now._ + +“Forget all that for awhile,” Sales said with a sudden change of +expression. “I talked to the girl before she died. I’m taking +cross-bearings on my conclusion, Chief. One line I’ve already indicated. +The second is what the girl said. They check.” He looked at me +thoughtfully. + +“I had to blank her mind clear down to the lowest articulate levels,” he +said, “before I could cut back under whatever compulsion it was that +killed her. She didn’t know she was talking. I hadn’t much time—she was +dying as she spoke. But from what she said I’ve pieced a theory +together.” He paused. “Tell me, did you see anything at all during your +experiences with the lake to make you suspect it might be—alive?” + + + + + CHAPTER IV + _Voice of the Lake_ + + +With stunning suddenness, out of my memory came the vision of a great +eye staring up at me through the pale fog as I maneuvered our copter +above the Ring when Davidson and I first visited it. + +_The Eye was the lake, a vast translucent lens that had caught us like +birds in a nest and drawn us down. The power of its compelling summons +pouring from the lens into our brains, like sunshine into a darkened +room._ + +“No,” I said thickly. “No, I saw nothing. Go on.” + +“What its origin was I can’t even guess,” Sales said. “But originally +some molecule like a gene, out of a million other molecules in that Ring +area, suffered a liberation of energy when a secondary ionizing particle +shot past and it changed from a gene to—something else. Something that +grew and grew and grew. + +“Most of the development must have taken place underground. I think the +organism was complete when that cave-in occurred that exposed it to the +light and to our attentions. It developed amazingly, into forms so +complex we may never understand them exactly.” He smiled grimly. + +“If we’re lucky we never will. I can tell you this much, though—it +recognized its danger. Perhaps electric impulses from our own brains +struck answering chords in the—the organism. And it knew it had to +defend itself, fast. + +“Now the lake has one fatal weakness. By that I think we can destroy it. +I believe the organism is quite aware of this because of the way it +chose to combat us.” He paused, looking at me so strangely that I almost +acted, in that silent moment. But just as I was gathering my muscles to +rise, he began again. + +“The girl told me what happened when that air-liner came down. It must +have been sheer accident, its making a forced landing at the edge of the +Ring. Radioactivity blanked out their communications and of course the +air itself was close to deadly. There didn’t seem any hope at all for +the people in the ship. + +“The girl said many of them complained of feeling—well, call it +_attention_—focused on them. I know now it was the lake itself, that +gigantic organism, studying them, slowly working around to a decision +about its next move. Then it came to a conclusion that may not yet have +reached its final equation. + +“The passengers saw a man stand up from behind a rock near them. The +girl said he looked familiar. He shouted and waved them away. He warned +them it would mean their death if they came closer. He vanished. But the +passengers were still trying to get a message out and they stayed in the +ship. The man appeared three times in all, each time warning them away +in stronger and stronger terms. + +“Finally he rose from behind a rock very near them and this time he +invited them into the Ring. They were surprised to find that when seen +this close he was a mirror image of one of their crew members. The image +beckoned and ordered them in. They didn’t want to obey. But they went. + +“That image, as you may have deduced, was a water-figure created by the +lake itself, no one knows how completely. It may have been ninety +percent illusion, shaped in the minds of the watchers. But you’ll notice +the lake had to imitate one of the crew. It didn’t at that time know +enough about human bodies to improvise. + +“It did know a lot, though, about human minds. In fact, its power over +them and its amazing selectivity make me suspect that the original gene +from which the organism developed might once have been human or close to +it. + +“The water image was the lake’s first attempt to fight off mankind. The +attempt failed. In other words an imitation wouldn’t do. But the real +thing was close at hand for experimentation. + +“What happened next no one will ever know. Logically the organism must +have moved forward another step in its defense against invasion by +mankind. In effect it created antibodies. It was inoculating itself with +the virus of humanity in an effort to immunize itself against a later +attack. + +“But it had to effect a change in the humans before it could absorb +them. Physically they must be changed to live under the lake and +mentally they had to alter radically to stay there of their own will. It +was their will the lake attacked. You saw that. + +“I said before that _something_ had apparently been washed from the mind +of that girl we saw and some other basic drive substituted in her. I +believe now I was nearer the truth than I guessed.” He looked at me +keenly, almost speculatively. + +“If I were in a spot like that,” he said, “with the problem of altering +a human being’s whole emotional outlook, I think I’d strike straight at +the root. It would be much simpler than trying to blanket his impulses +with anything like hypnotism, for instance. + +“I think that for the instinct of self-preservation those people now +have another drive—instinct for the preservation of the Organism. It +would be so simple, and it would work so well.” + + * * * * * + +There was a roaring in my ears. For a moment I heard nothing of what +Sales said. _The flood-gates had opened and through the backflung doors +all my memories were pouring._ + +“But it hasn’t worked perfectly,” Sales was saying from far away. +“Unless the lake goes a step further, we can destroy it. Perhaps it has. +Perhaps it realizes that static antibodies which can’t exist outside its +own bloodstreams won’t help much. + +“Do you think, chief, that it might have captured still other humans and +worked its basic change in their minds? Could it have implanted in men +_like yourself_ a shift in instinct so that you know only one basic +drive—_the Organism must be preserved_?” + +The idea had struck him suddenly. I could see that in his face as he +leaned forward across the desk, half rising, his features congesting +with the newness and the terrible danger of the thought. + +I didn’t even get up from my chair. I’d had my revolver out on my knee +for the past several minutes, though he couldn’t see it from where he +sat. + +I shot him at close range, through the chest. + +For a moment he hung there above the desk, his hands gripping the +blotter convulsively. He had one thing more to say but it was hard for +him to get it out. He tried twice before he made it. + +“You—it’s no good,” he said very thinly. “Can’t—stop me now. I’ve +sent—full report—Mobile Staff—reading it now.” + +Blood cut off whatever else he wanted to say. I watched impersonally as +it bubbled from his lips and he collapsed forward into the scarlet +puddle forming so fast on the desk top. I saw how the blotter took it up +at first but the fountain ran too fast and finally a trickle began to +spill over the desk edge and patter on the floor with a sound like the +dripping of lake water from that girl’s garments as she crossed the +rocks toward us. + +_The lake was blue and wonderful in the sunlight. It was the most +important thing in the world. If anything happened to destroy it I knew +the world would end in that terrible, crashing moment. All my mind and +all my effort must be dedicated to protecting it from the danger +threatening it now._ + +A knock at the door banished that vision. I sprang to my feet and +blocked off the desk from sight. + +Davidson lunged into the room, slammed the door, put his back to it. He +was breathing hard. + +“They’re after you, Jim,” he said. “They know about Williams.” + +I nodded. I knew too, now. I knew why my mind had gone blank when the +need to silence Williams was paramount. At that time it wasn’t safe for +me to remember too much. It wasn’t safe for me to know too much about my +own actions, my own motives. Oh yes, I had killed him, all right. + +“You knew all along?” I asked him. He nodded. + +“You’ve got to do something quick, Jim,” he said. “I tell you, they’re +coming! They know we were there together and they’re almost certain you +did it. Fingerprints, bullet type—think of something, Jim! I—” + +There was a heavy blow on the door behind him. He wasn’t expecting it. +He jolted forward into the room and the door slammed back against the +wall. What looked like a tide of black uniforms poured through, Lewis at +the front, his granite face set, his eyes like steel on mine. + +“Want to ask you some questions, Owen,” he began. “We have reason to +think you know more than—” + +Then he saw what lay across the desk behind me. There was an instant of +absolute silence in the room. Davidson had been hurled past me by the +slamming open of the door and the first sound I heard was his gasp of +intaken breath as he leaned over the chair from which I’d risen. + +My mind was perfectly blank. I knew it was desperately imperative that I +clear myself but I’d had too many shocks, one on another, all that day. +My brain just wasn’t working any more. + +I had to say something. I took a deep breath and opened my mouth, +praying for the right words. + +Davidson’s hand closed on my arm. It was a hard, violent grasp, but very +quickly, before his next move, he pressed my biceps three times, rapid, +warning squeezes. Then he completed his motion and hurled me aside so +hard I staggered three paces across the rug and came up facing him, +stupid with surprise. + +He had scooped up the revolver which I had dropped in my chair. I saw +his fingers move over the butt as if for a firmer grip. But I knew what +he was doing. His prints would have effaced mine when the time came to +test it. + +“All right, Lewis,” he said quietly. “I did it. I shot them both.” His +glance shifted from face to face. When it crossed mine I recognized the +desperate appeal in his eyes. It was up to me. I couldn’t refuse this +last offer of aid from him, in the service of a cause greater than any +cause men ever fought for. + +_I knew the truth of that as I knew my own name. There could be no +greater cause than the protection of the lake._ + +A look of wildness which I knew was deliberate suddenly convulsed his +face. He lifted the revolver and fired straight at me. + + * * * * * + +Except—it wasn’t straight. Davidson was a good shot. He couldn’t miss +at this range unless he meant to. The bullet sang past my ear and +shattered something noisy behind me. And I saw the look of deep +satisfaction relax his face an instant before Lewis’ bullet smashed into +it, erasing his features in a crimson blur. + +(He had to fire the gun at someone—I think he remembered that wax-tests +would otherwise prove he hadn’t fired one recently. And it might as well +be at me, to clear me of suspicion. Perhaps too he knew he couldn’t make +his story stand under close questioning. So it was suicide, in a way, +but suicide in a cause of tremendous, unquestionable rightness. That I +knew in the deepest recesses of my mind....) + +“All right, Owen. You give the word. Where would you say it’s most +vulnerable?” Was Lewis watching me with irony in his keen eyes as he +asked it? For that question of all others was the one I could not +answer. Physically could not, even had I wished. I think my tongue would +have turned backward in my throat and strangled me, if need be, before I +could tell them the truth. + +“Make another circle,” I said. “I’ll look it over once more.” + +Five hundred feet below us the lake lay blue and placid. Seen from this +height the majestic cliffs above it were foreshortened into +insignificance, but I knew that deep beneath those rocks lay the vital +cavern which no bombs must touch. + +There was no sign of the mindless men and women which It had used and +discarded. The antitoxin premise was no longer valid. But the next step, +to a bacteriophage which would seek out and devour the virus of +attack—that must not fail. I well knew what my task was. + +“Try the shallows over here,” I said, pointing. The ship circled and +Lewis presently raised his hand. + +The depth-bombs floated away behind us in a long, falling drift. They +were not, I knew, merely depth bombs. Sales’ memorandum had worked its +recorder’s will too fast for me. I had silenced the doctor but I could +not silence the records. I watched the falling bombs with a sickness in +my heart that was near despair. + +“The Organism has no white blood-cells,” Sales had reported to the +Staff, his dead voice speaking the words of my own destruction in the +very moment I killed him. “I believe it can be eradicated if we infect +it thoroughly with a culture of every microbe and bacterium we can pour +into it. The chances are something will take hold. + +“If it doesn’t, then we’ll have to try until something does. I would +suggest depth bombs. What tests I have made so far indicate the +so-called water of the lake is in effect a thick skin which has so far +protected the Organism from the entry of ordinary infection. + +“The depth charges would serve the purpose of a hypodermic needle in +introducing our weapons where they may take effect. Down there under the +surface _something_ must lie which is the heart of the dangerous being, +something we have not yet seen. But destroy it we must, before it +mutates any further, into a thing nothing could cope with.” + +When the first bombs burst, they might have been bursting in my own +brain. Only dimly I saw the blue water fountain toward us. + +We circled, watching. The water poured itself over that terrible wound. +Ripples ran sluggishly out around it toward shore. It seemed to me there +was a flush in the water where those death-laden charges had fallen, but +if there was, something working in the lake effaced it, washed out the +toxins, healed and soothed the danger away. + +I breathed a sigh of relief. + +“Where next, Owen?” Lewis demanded relentlessly and I knew my ordeal had +only begun. Desperation was welling up in me. How long could I drag this +out? Sooner or later we would work our way around to the danger-area and +this helpless being below us would die in an unimaginable +agony—unimaginable to all but myself. + +“Try over there,” I said, pointing at random, seeing my hand shake as I +held it out. I shut the fingers into a fist to stop their trembling. + +How long it went on I could not remember afterward. There comes a point +when flesh and blood can record no further and, mercifully for me, I +reached that point after a while. By then I knew what the end must be, +no matter how long I postponed it. I had done what a man could but it +wasn’t enough. The lake and I were helpless together and I knew—it was +soothing to be sure—that we would in the end die together. + + * * * * * + +Round after round we made above the shuddering blue water. Charge after +charge dropped, splashed, vanished, fountained up again. From shore to +shore the lake was racked by interlocking ripples from those dreadful +wounds. Sometimes the poisons the bombs carried were washed out and +dissolved, but as time went on, more and more often they started great +spreading circles of infection that traced iridescence upon the water. + +Yellow virulence rippled shoreward and crossed ripples running from +circles of angry crimson. The color of bruises mingled with the color of +blood and the shuddering lake shivered no more than I, but in me it was +a hidden shuddering. It had to be hidden. + +At least it wasn’t I who pointed out the heart of the lake. That +happened by sheer accident. It had to come sooner or later and after a +long while it came. + +Deep under the cliffs that shadowy blue cavern which I had never seen +was riven asunder by a burst of white fire. And that which lay coiled in +it was riven too, blinded and agonized by the tearing of the explosion +and the quick avid onslaught of the disease it could not fight. + +The first we saw from above was the ominous shadow suddenly uncoiling +from beneath the cliff. It lashed out like a gigantic serpent, a Midgard +Serpent that clasped the world in its embrace. Convulsively it unwound +itself from that shadowed cavern and burst into the open in an agonized +series of spasms that made the lake boil around it. + +The men around me broke into a hoarse, triumphant shouting. If I could +have done it I would have killed them all. But it was hopeless now. I +had no longer even the will to revenge. When a man’s basic instinct dies +within him he ceases intrinsically to be a man at all. + +The water frothed and boiled beneath us. We lost sight of whatever it +was that lashed the lake in its death-frenzy. I knew but I would not +look or think. I had failed and I was ready now for death along with my +dying master. + +Very dimly I heard Lewis giving orders for the whole area to be bombed +systematically to wipe out any lingering vestiges of the thing which had +died here. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. + +I was an automaton, going through the motions of a man until I could +shut them out at last and take from my locked file drawer the little +revolver I kept there. In a way I envied Davidson. He at least had died +for a purpose, trusting me to make his sacrifice not in vain. + +I had failed him, too. I had failed myself. + +I had no more reason to live. + +I put the muzzle of the revolver against my head. + +And then—and then I found I could not pull the trigger! Something +stopped me, some deep command in a level of the mind below conscious +recognition. For an instant of frantic hope my reason tried to tell me +that it was all a mistake, that there had not, after all, been wrought +upon me that change which turned me from a human to an instrument in the +command of another will. + +Was it self-preservation, after all, that stayed my hand? If I had that +I was free. + +No—it was not self-preservation. In the next instant I knew and for one +immeasurable moment the hope I had so briefly cherished flickered and +then went out and was swallowed up in a great surge of command. + +_It_ was not dead. _It_ lay far down in subterranean waters, buried, +waiting, depending upon me, commanding me to stay the hand that would +destroy it with me. I must live. I must serve it. + +One deep wave of sick regret swept me in those levels of the mind where +human reason dwelt. _If only I had pulled the trigger an instant sooner, +before that command came!_ + +It was too late. And now a warm, confident cunning began to well into my +mind from that far-away source of command. _It_ could wait. _I_ could +wait. I could recruit where I must and It would help me to make others +like myself, until our ranks were strong enough. + +I had not wholly failed but until I fulfilled my duty I must obey. +Obedience would be a pleasure and a joy, the insidious voice promised +me. Good and faithful servant, the whisper said, work for my kingdom +upon Earth and your rewards will be delightful beyond imagination. + +I got up and locked the revolver away again. Turning back, I caught my +reflection in a mirror on the wall and paused there, staring deep into +my own eyes. + +I smiled.... + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 68167 *** |