That same night, at his home in the suburbs, Ed Dukas read an article that had his attention. Could be into unknown before? Could it be from a plan—a blueprint—like the metal and plastic a machine? Heart here, there, so? Scaly armor, long, body? Or that through the air? The author saw no why this not happen. Monstrous things. Ed Dukas at the idea. But he that it was from impossible.
Young Dukas also had a that night.
"You said I should come to see you," Tom Granger told him when they were alone in Ed's room. Ed was on at once.
His visitor's mood to have since the afternoon.
"Sorry if I out of line today," Granger said. "My are good. And I didn't want to you."
"Thanks," Ed shortly. "But you didn't come here just to tell me that. How it that you're not in jail?"
"Abel Freeman pressed no charges. I wish he had. But, like you, he just disappeared. There was only that in the ground—made by the Midas Touch pistol—a thing to admit for a showdown. So I still, and the police couldn't me. Fact is, most of them to what I for—the of walking on one's own green as a natural animal, one's wife and children in the ancient, manner."
Granger was a good orator. Mysteriously, Ed was moved. Perhaps the was too plain and clear. But Ed of the of language and feeling, and of dreams.
His anger sharpened. Then, the possibly quality of anger in these times and to that everywhere, he to be a master psychologist, always and and persuasive. But he not be like that. He was too and limited. Maybe too primitive.
"You still haven't told me why you came here, Granger," he said coldly. "Why have you passed up a for public to come and talk to me?"
Granger smiled. "You're enough, Dukas, to know that to win the nephew of Mitchell Prell over to my way of be to my that public. Or that, if I can't make friends with him, at least him might help. Even the be like having a on a whole set of when the beings and comes. Oh, I Prell! A great man—if he was a man when last seen! But his of is poison, Dukas—though millions with memories have him. But if he up again, you'll know it, and so, perhaps, will I—before he can do any damage. You surely must that he a guilt: for the and for the of vitaplasm!"
Granger's was and hopeful.
Ed laughed in his face. "You think that I might Mitchell Prell, eh, Granger? But he was the of my childhood, a whimsical, little man. So I'm with loyalty. But if I him blackly, I wouldn't come over to your side. I don't like the way you think. Until the happened, it was for science and empire. Afterward, your was free from and white as snow, and he was guilty. Maybe I judge you wrongly. I I do. But the way I add it up, it's not the or any other new and that is the big danger; it's people like you, though maybe you don't it. Loudmouths who up confusion, animosity, hatred. Maybe I ought to kill you. Then there'd be one less in the barrel!"
"Why don't you?" Granger mocked. "There'd still be others. And I'd be back."
Ed nodded. "The of our civilization," he said. "How would you like to be an android? Does the idea you? You know, Granger, some people say that, of how you're returned to the living, you're not the same person you were but only a exact duplicate."
"You know I'd always choose to be human, Dukas," Granger muttered, looking almost terrified.
"Sure, Granger," Ed taunted. "You're not of death—the knowledge that science can you you courage. You can take the of scientific advancement, can't you? But its is another thing."
"I'm not responsibility! I'm it, Dukas! I'm out for control. I've done already! While I in the vaults, where personal are kept, of those little disappeared. They won't be again! Some men don't that much protection against mishap—among them your uncle! I'm proud of this, and I of it! No, don't me! Even an official would be by many people and then in a of red tape. I can be a dirty fighter, Dukas; and I'll bite and kill and and my out to keep this from going to the machines!"
The wild look in Granger's was the thing that Ed to action. The of the only the that was there. The only in that out of existence—for a while at least.
Ed chuckled. "So you'd take the of people's selves," he said.
Granger's didn't waver. "If every last thing I dear—and which I most beings dear in like manner—were in danger, I'd do anything."
"So would I," Ed said grimly.
Then he and and again. Blood from Granger's and nose, as he to the floor, to his and again.
There was movement at the door of the room. From behind, Ed was by a than his own. "Stop it, Ed," he was quietly. It was his father.
Through lips, Granger was hurriedly, "Your son and I disagree. He his temper. All I ask is that the good parts of science—medical and so forth—be and the banned. And that life simple. A thing of and flowers, and physical work. And not a bedlam, full of and tension."
Granger very earnest, Ed thought. Maybe he was earnest. Maybe he was a good actor.
"Ban this, that!" Ed shouted. "No one under the of you mean, Granger! And what will you do with the of people who with your vision? Some of them will what you as much as you circumstances! And if modern are once used...."
"Quiet, Ed," his father said softly. "You've your guest—one who, as as I can see, has the most of views. A picture. I agree with it myself—entirely."
"Look, Dad," Ed began. "This Granger here is trying to solve today's and tomorrow's problems with yesterday's answers."
Ed stopped. He had an odd thought: his father had been from his and his mother's memories, at a terrible time of grief, when his mother's had against the toward the stars. Before that, Dad had been to mechanization. But now he was more so, as if that and had marked him.
Jack Dukas was now Granger's with while Granger preached, as if from some of a new wisdom: "You see, Mr. Dukas, again, as in the past, is up on us without attention. Beings that are are already part of their own production. Their creation, everywhere, should be or out. Existing should be to or destroyed.... I'll go now. Thank you for your help. But I think I'll in touch with your son occasionally. He needs guidance."
Ed grimly. "Perhaps I do," he said. "Maybe does. You watch me and I'll watch you, eh?"
During the months Ed did his best to spread his of and reason, against the which he was already well under way. Les Payten and Barbara Day were with him in this. All over the world there were others, mostly unknown to them, but with the same ideas: "Use your head.... Don't put knowledge.... Do you know an android? What is his name? Maybe Miller or Johnson? You must know a few. And do they think so from yourself? Yes, there are problems and no prejudice. It may be justified. But the to our must be cool-minded. Everyone why."
Ed and his talked in this manner to their acquaintances, spoke on corners, sent to agencies. And they many people over. The trouble was that they, and others like them, not everybody.
Their Earth beautiful. There were with trees; there were spires. The was an undercurrent.
This was a time of of sides, and of buildup, while there was a of toward what want. Voices with another, message were raised. Tom Granger was alone there, either. Tracts were passed out as part of their method: What Is Our Heritage?; The Right to Be Human; Technology Versus Wisdom. Perhaps directly out of such a mixture of truth and the began. There were thousands in places.
One day Ed Dukas pushed into a of and saw the of one of the of these. There, in the same park where Ed had met Abel Freeman, it had been in the early morning. A Midas Touch blast had it in half.
"It's Howard Besser, a who in the same with me," a man in the offered. "He died once in the explosion. Now it again. That's no joke, though he can be back."
Ed saw the victim's flesh. It looked like flesh. But had little in them. Could you avoid that, to like, these beings of their kind, to help their number? Had like Tom Granger planned this of a difference? Bits of this still squirmed, hours after violence.
Granger had progress. Growing public attention had him the of on the newscast. It was he who had talked about and androids—together, and to a world-wide audience. He also an part in the legal of in vitaplasm.
"It was desecration," he in his speech. "It is a that we not the sooner. There are an seventy of these 'improvements on nature' now in existence. And there are many still producing more. Can we them all? It is to lock a in such substance. If, of course, the human, as it was meant to be...."
Granger's voice was always gentle. Yet to his it dark, places where there is danger. Which was true. For now other had started. Familiar blood was spilled.
On a Ed saw a in red a corpse: "WHO WILL INHERIT THE UNIVERSE? RETRIBUTION. ONE GOOD TURN DESERVES ANOTHER."
Scattered the Americas, Europe and the Westernized Orient were millions more of such murders. The result was a of goods, with the in the tally. And that was a threat. It a promise to man of the end of his era. So here was another to hysteria, always higher.
Ed Dukas and his friends on at the University. They with the help of the machine and its visions, which as almost any skill, from the playing of an Viennese to the of the of a star. They also put in hours of work in the factories, still at in the distance. But above all they on with their for reason. Their success was great. In the main, people were and clearheaded. But a total winning-over was from possible.
Noted men such as Schaeffer were on the newscast. Shouting for calm—increasing the of the of sides.
More and more, Ed Dukas to in the Big Future.
"Maybe we should have still," he said to Les Payten and Barbara Day. "We only added our small to the fire."
His friends laughed with him—ruefully—as they walked together across the campus.
Some minutes later Les Payten to them, and, with a smile, said, "So long for now. Don't any sleep—not over worries, anyhow."
He off. In of love, Les was a good loser.
Barbara Day had taken a little on a tree-lined street. It was to walk there in the twilight. Not from the a half-acre of ground had been allowed to wild with trees and bushes, for to the neatness.
There, in the thick shadows, Ed Dukas saw movement. He had a of something long and winding, and as thick as his body. Then he saw it again—saw its glow, saw the plates that it everywhere. But it did not a at all. For one thing, its mode of was different—a movement of thousands of little on its to be in its principle. It now for cover. Rhododendron parted. It a great oak.
Barbara and Ed forward. The no marks. Prudently, they did not into the dark undergrowth.
Ed's skin all over and too small for him. "This is it," he said in a tone.
"What, Ed?"
"Life plotted on the engineer's board. Vitaplasm. The days when nature designed all animals are over, I'm afraid."
"What would it be for, Ed?"
"How would I know? Want to guess?"
"To create more terror maybe?" Barbara said. "What else? To go around at night—to people up with a that they've before. They'll it's vitaplasm, the of the too. They'll link hatreds. Maybe it's another trick—a to the to the finish. A by somebody like Granger."
"It to fit the pattern," Ed said hoarsely. "You're right. But this thing have been by the other side, too. The side. As a means of reprisal. I've them. But I don't trust their judgment, either."
Ed Dukas sick. He now how much longer anything on Earth last.
Barbara touched his arm gently. "Ed, we should the police. For the safety of the neighborhood."
"Of course. And you won't out here alone tonight. You'll put up at a hotel, or I'll on your floor."
Barbara managed to laugh. "The is stout. My window is high. There are of tenants. I'm not and I don't swoon. But I like the idea of having you close by."
Ed Dukas had no trouble the police that he had something extraordinary—which was proof that there had been other calls, previously. Ed slept a hours on a divan, listening, while, outside, men the and the of buildings, which were illuminated. Floodlights up that like day. Low, vehicles through it.
Nothing was found.
But miles away, nearer the city, there were a dozen dead—all of them of the old order of life. They were crushed. Not a in their was intact. They had been from their while they slept.
Horror through the city. The or had been seen. They were of the same as the androids. Therefore, this was an attack, clear and simple—to minds by and fury.
Scared, angry Ed Dukas in the the next morning. The in him was like a his heart. He to be along by time, to its course. Even Barbara looked and confused, though, walking him, she to rational.
"You know, we all be over into androids. I wonder if you or I would want that? I think that you are not to them, as something new and great. Damn! I wish my were clearer. An is a machine, you might say. But to be a being is to be a thing of soul—is that it? A of and pride, of sentiment."
Ed Dukas shrugged. He and brain weary.
That same day there were in localities—much trouble than before. It like the start of an avalanche.
That another happened. Les Payten came to meet his friends again in their restaurant. They sat and to the newscast. The androids—"The Phonies," they were already being called—were away to the hills, for safety and also no to their own not numbers, and to themselves.
Les Payten was called to the phone. He came after a minute, saying with a puzzled expression, and almost a smile, "My father suicide. He left a note: 'Eternity is a joke. And I'm of being a robot. But what's the good of being a man, either—now?' Burned himself wide open with a Midas Touch pistol. I the would be to him back."
That night there were three times as many as the night before. But there were more deaths by other means. Two passed, each day than the preceding. Neighbors started at neighbors: "Test-tube monkey!... Obsolete imbecile!..."
Once there was a news report: "Equipment found—a power of a type and to that for a star ship, but for another purpose: meant, it seems, to power high-energy of the type. Is this an or a assembly? The was ordered dismantled. It was in a large in the City."
And Tom Granger his again: "Androids—your numbers are few. You not win against us. And we would take you back—kindly—to people again. Most of you once were beings. You were meant to be that..." Granger's was softer; it was condescending.
Ed Dukas Granger at the studio. After a long wait, he managed to him. That Granger to speak to him at all was no to Ed's relationship to Mitchell Prell.
"Granger," he said, "I'm pleading. Please, that you know how to say anything. No, I don't want to you—but it's just no good. I'm not guessing—I've seen. To some you may be a great leader. To others—well—you're a less. So do us a favor—again, please! Go away, disappear. Take a long, in a place unknown."
Ed Dukas was desperate, at straws. For a moment his almost him that his mixture of and might work.
"Do I know you? Oh, yes, Dukas!" Granger mocked. "We should again when we have the time. You still need instruction, I see. You are an lover of novelty, Edward Dukas! Now you're frightened."
"Yes, I am frightened!" Ed replied, now. "If you weren't a and a fanatic, you that millions of androids—supermen, some call them—could not be weak."
"Goodbye for the present, Dukas." Granger the connection.
Ed his with his hands. He of the thing he had once seen, and of the killing that it—and other not necessarily of the same shape but of the same substance—had done. Could Granger be one of those who to up more and with lab-created of vitaplasm? Should he try to out who was using and them?
It would be slow work. So, that same afternoon, he another path which might lead to results. He looking for old Abel Freeman, who he was of the to be a leader among his kind. By around, he the house where Freeman was said to live. But the had long since his lodgings.
Ed Les Payten and Barbara.
"Freeman will be in the somewhere," Barbara pointed out. "With others like him. What if, for a lark, we rent a helicopter, and see if we can him? What can we lose?"
"We're near the end of our rope," Les said. "I'm to try anything."
It was a stunt, but they on it. Ed had up some about where Freeman might be found, plus a of his history. Naturally, Freeman had a reputation.
Arriving over the country where Freeman had often been in the past, Ed let his settle into glades, one after another. At they saw no one, although many had now into this wilderness.
However, after they had a dozen in as many places, Freeman himself appeared, dirty, with burrs, but now in of modern vintage. A Midas Touch pistol was in his belt.
"Hello!" he greeted. "Yes, I know you three ones! Are you lost?"
"We're here for neighborly conversation," Ed began.
"That's nice," Freeman with a in his hard eyes. "Could be you're here just to snoop. Could be me and the boys should do you in."
"Could be we are here to snoop—to learn a little what's going on, that is," Ed replied. "And we're also here in the of somebody with good and and to keep this from another Asteroid Belt."
Abel Freeman's a of when he at Ed; then it grim.
"You couldn't me," he said. "Figured on going around, my own business, without being crowded. Got plenty, though, closer to the City. Gettin' here, too. Had to up a people. Don't on taking it for good. Lucky we were cheap. Couldn't it, otherwise. Hiding in the brush. Eating sticks. Hardly sleeping. Lucky we can't catch pneumonia. We than this—but it tiresome. Seen Granger lately?"
"You can him most everywhere," Ed answered bitterly.
There was a loud a hundred yards to the left. A Midas Touch blast. Ed the shock-pressure of it and his until the radiation-tainted and away.
"That's Nat, the of my boys," Abel Freeman casually. Then he shouted, "Nat—you damnfool—don't you know there's company?"
Then Ed and his saw them—a beetle-browed from the brush. The Freeman boys. They looked like a of Neanderthals. But in a way they were less than Neanderthal men. For they were the crystallization, science and vitaplasm, of someone's and of the of his ancestors.
Behind them now appeared a girl with skin and the of a leopard. This would be Freeman's daughter, the Nancy. There was also a crone, mother of the pack, and wife of Abel.
Nat Freeman the Midas Touch again. Obviously he wasn't trying for accuracy. In fact, he must have some. For the wind the against Les Payten, a little to one side. He once, in their clutch, and collapsed.
Abel Freeman, the renegade, through those vapors. Only his charred. "Nat, you stop playin'!" he ordered. "And as for you three ones—you haven't got the you talk about! Coming here? You're enemies. And you're weak as daisies! No, I don't I'd want to be your kind, without the I got! Lots to be a in the until we can come out—if there's anything left to come out of, or to! Now out of here fast—before my family annoyed."
Abel Freeman Les Payten's into the and then the door open for Ed and Barbara. "You take of this right away," Freeman said. "Now on your way!"
Ed the toward the City, where Les would in a his was to normal. Les in semi-delirium, "Damned robots. Freeman, too. And damned, people. Got to them, don't we? So maybe zero will zero. Can't on the all the time. Sorry, when the going rough, I'm for the people. Peaceful common sense? There just isn't any."
Les's voice like a for two races.
Barbara said, "Maybe he's right. There isn't any left. Only a of for battle. Our to waste."
She remote, almost unfriendly. Ed that he was her, too.
