"I think I'll come along with you and you, Lola," Belle said, the after breakfast. "Clee's going to be seven thousand miles in and Jim's doing his at the observatory, and I can't help either of 'em at the moment. You'd do a job, wouldn't you, if you on it?"
"Of course. Thanks, Belle. But remember, it's already been announced—no death. Just hands. I can't that I'll be attacked, but they sure of it."
"I'd like to anyone like that from his of his hands, but as it is published so it will be performed."
"How about some of half-way-comfortable shoes of those slippers?" Garlock asked. "That turn out to be a long, brawl, and your dogs'll be for you here."
"Uh-uh. Very and a perfect fit. Besides, if I have to just a little for good appearance's in a of amity...."
"A of off, you mean."
"Why, Clee!" Belle her at him. "How you talk! But they're ready, Lola—let's go."
The two girls from the Main, to appear on the speakers' in of the Capitol Building. President Benton was there, with his cabinet and other personages. General Cordeen and his staff. And many others.
"Oh, Miss Bellamy, too? I'm very you are here," Benton said, as he hands with both.
"Thank you. I came along as bodyguard. May I meet your Secret Service Chief, please?"
"Why, of course. Miss Bellamy, may I present Mr. Avengord?"
"You have the hospital room ready?... Where is it, please?"
"Back of us, in the wing...."
"Just think of it, please, and I will your thought.... Ah, yes, there it is. I it will not be used. You agree with General Cordeen that there will be one or more at assassination?"
"I'm very much so. This town is with enemy agents, and of we don't know all of them—especially the best ones. They know that if these go through, they're sunk; so they're desperate. We've got this whole area like dew—we've sixteen already this morning—but all the is theirs," Avengord glumly.
"Not all of it, sir," Belle at him cheerfully. "You have me, and I am a Prime Operator. That is, a of power of no small ability. Oh, you are right. There is an attempt now being prepared."
While Belle had been and conversing, she had also been scanning. Her range, her sensitivity, and her power were than Lola's; were equal to Garlock's own. She by miles against the yards by the Secret Service.
"Where?"
"Give me your thought." The Secret Service man did not know what she meant—telepathy was of new to him—so she his attention and it to a window in a a of miles away on a hill.
"But they couldn't, from there!"
"But they can. They have a engine of destruction—a 'rifle' is their thought. Large, and long, with a very good on it—with crosshairs. If I their minds more you may know the weapon.... Ah, they think of it as a 'Buford Mark Forty Anti-Aircraft Rifle'."
"A Buford! My God, they can any on her clothes—get her away, quick!" He to jump, but not move.
"As you were," she directed. "There was another Buford there, and another over there." She his thought. "Two men to each Buford. There are now six men in your hospital room. If you will send men to those three places you will the Bufords and the hands. Your will have no in the hands to the men. If any to remove either Bufords or hands your men there, I will de-hand them, also."
To say that the Secret Service man was is to put it very indeed. Cordeen had told him, with much on his and in searing, air-blueing language, what to expect-or, rather, to anything, no what and with no limits whatever—but he hadn't it then and not it now. Goddamn it, such couldn't happen. And this beautiful, beautifully-stacked, half-naked woman—girl, rather, she couldn't be a day over twenty-five—even if it had been their black-browed, leader, Captain Garlock himself....
"I am twenty-three of your years old, not twenty-five," she him, coldly, "and I will permit no of sex. In your the may still be you men to in the of the of the male, but know right now that I can do anything any man can do and do it better."
"Oh, I'm ... I'm sure ... certainly...." Avengord's was incoherent.
"If you want me to work with you you had start right now that there are a of you don't know," Belle on relentlessly. "Stop that just a thing has not already on this primitive, backward, of yours, it can't or anywhen. You do believe, however, you want to or not, you see with your own eyes?"
"Yes. I can not be hypnotized."
"I'm very you that much." Avengord did not notice that she neither the truth of his statement. "To that end you will go now into the hospital room and see the going on. You will see and the news going out as I prepared it."
He went, and came a man.
"But they're sending it out as it happened!" he protested. "They'll all out so fast and so we'll catch them!"
"By no means. You see, the didn't that they would their hands. Their didn't it, either; they each other and their that it was just and nonsense. And since they are all more and and than you are, they all are now confused—at a complete loss."
"You can say that again. If I, with you and having you it into my head, couldn't more than it...."
"So they are now very frightened, as well as confused, and the of their whole is now and by sending out to high to with him in his place."
"If you'll tell me where, I'll over to my office...."
"No. We'll be in your office in of time. We'll watch Lola started. It will be for you to watch a Operator at work."
President Benton had been introduced; had in turn Lola. The crowd, many thousands strong, was cheering. Lola was into the marked speaker's place.
"You may these," she a hand at the of microphones, "since I do not use speech. Not only do I not know any of your languages, but no one language would suffice. My will go to every person on this, your world."
"World?" the President asked in surprise. "Surely not the Curtains? They will you, I'm afraid."
"My thought, as I shall drive it, will not be stopped," Lola him. "Since this world has no telepathy, it has no mind-blocks and I can the as easily as one mind. Nor it it be day or night, or anyone is or asleep. All will my message. Since you wish a record, the may run, although they are neither necessary for me. Everyone will see me in his mind, much than on the surface of any tube."
"And I was going to have her address Congress!" the President whispered, aside, to General Cordeen.
Then Lola put her whole into a smile, not only at each sight, but also at every person on the globe; and when Brownie Montandon set out to make a production of a smile, it had the impact of a pile-driver. Then came her smooth, gently-flowing, thought:
"My name, friends of this world Ormolan, is Lola Montandon. Those of you who are now looking at screens can see my likeness. All of you can see me very much your own minds.
"I am not here as an in any sense, but only as a citizen of the First Galaxy of this, our common universe. I have my mind to each of yours in order to give you a message from the United Galaxian Societies.
"There are four of us Galaxians in this Exploration Team. As Galaxians it is our purpose here and our here to open your minds to truths, to be of help to you in your minds of fallacies, of lies, and of prejudices; to the end that you will more Galaxians yourselves...."
"Okay. This will go on and on. That's to give you an idea of what a and can do. What do you think of them comfits, Chief?" Belle the Secret Service man out of his Lola-induced mood.
"Huh? Oh, yes." Avengord was still groggy. "She's phenomenal—good—I don't goody-goody, but and really...."
"Yeah, but don't in love with her. Everybody and it doesn't do any of them a of good. That's her and she's very good at it. I told you she's a smooth, worker."
"You can say that again." Avengord did not know that he was himself. "But it isn't an act. She means it and it's true."
"Of she means it and of it's true. Otherwise she, with all her training, couldn't sell such a big bill of goods." Then, in answer to the man's question, "Yes, we're all different. She's the contactor, the of the good old oil, the example of purity and and light—in short, the Greaser of the Ways. I'm a fighter, myself. Do you think she actually have de-handed those men? Uh-uh. At the last minute she would have and them in whole. My job in this operation is to out of the ones Lola can't convince, such as those you and I are going to quick."
"Even they ought to be convinced. I don't see how help but be."
"Uh-uh. It'll off like off of a roof. The only thing to do to that of is kill them. If you'll give me a as to where your office is we'll over and...."
Belle and Avengord from the stand; and, such was Lola's hold, no one on the or in the noticed that they were gone. They in Avengord's private office; he as at his desk, she in legs-crossed in a big leather chair.
"... to work." Belle's had not been by any passage of time whatever. "What do you want to do first?"
"But I you were Miss Montandon?"
"I am. Like a blanket. Just as well here as anywhere. I will be, until she to the Pleiades. What first?"
"Oh. Well, since I don't know what your limits are—if you have any—you might as well do you think best and I'll watch you do it."
"That's the way to talk. You're going to a when you see who the Head Man is. George T. Basil."
"Basil! I'll say it's a shock!" Avengord steadied, in concentration. "Could be, though. He would be suspected—but they're very good at that."
"Yeah. His name used to be Baslovkowitz. He was for years, then planted. None of this can be proved, as his record is perfect. Born citizen, in and social circles. Unlimited entry and top security clearance. Right?"
"Right ... and evidence, in such cases as that, is pure, hell."
"I I kill him, after we've recorded he knows," Belle suggested.
"No!" He snapped. "Too many people think of us as a strong-arm now. Anyway, I'd kill him myself than wish the job off onto—you don't like killing, do you?"
"That's the of the century. No person does. In a fight, yes; but killing anyone who is to back—in cold blood—ugh! It makes me in my to think of it."
"With the way you can read minds, we can to send them all to jail, and that we'll have to do."
"How about this?" Belle as another came to mind. "From those eight top men, we'll out a of others down, and so on, until we have 'em all locked up here. We'll that so many and agents—giving names, addresses, and facts, of course—got after Lola's address. They up their and the Curtain. Then, when we've their minds and recorded you want, I'll pack them all, very and carefully, into Sovig's private office. With the world what it then will be, he won't kill them—he won't know what to do when with it."
Avengord happily. He out and the of his intercom. "Miss Kimling, come in, please."
The door open. "Why, it is you! But you were on the just a minute.... Oh!" She saw Belle, and backed, wide, toward the door she had just entered. "She was there, too, and it's fifteen miles...."
"Steady, Fram. I'd like to present you to Prime Operator Belle Bellamy, who is out the entire Curtain organization for us."
"But how did you...."
"Never mind that. Teleportation. It took her an hour to it into me, and we can't take time to anything now. I'll tell I know as soon as I can. In the meantime, don't be at anything that happens, and by that I anything. Such as solid people appearing on this carpet—on that spot right there—instantaneously. I want you to pay close attention to your mind receives, put your memory into high gear, to I record, stop me any time I'm wrong, and be sure I we need."
"I don't know what you're talking about, sir, but I'll try."
"Frankly, I don't, either—we'll just have to roll it as we go along. We're for George T. Basil now, Miss Bellamy—I hope. Don't jump, Fram."
Basil appeared and Fram jumped. She did not scream, however, and did not out of the office. The master was a big, self-assured, type. He had not the idea of how he had been out of his ultra-secret sub-basement and into this room; but he where he was and, after one at Belle, he why. He what to do about it.
"This is an outrage!" he bellowed, with his on Avengord's desk. "A stupid, high-handed of the rights...."
Belle him and him up.
"High-handed? Yes," she seriously. "However, from the Galaxian standpoint, you have no at all and you are going to be at just how high-handed I am going to be. I am going to read your mind to its very bottom—layer by layer, like an onion—and you know and you think is going in Mr. Avengord's Big Black Book."
Belle all four minds together and the search, making sure that no item, small, was missed. Avengord recorded every item. Fram Kimling and and double-checked.
Soon it was done, and Basil, louder about this last and of his rights—those of his own private mind—was away by two men and "put away where he would keep."
"But this is a of law...." Miss Kimling began.
"You can say that again!" her gloated. "And if you only how I am to do it, after the way they've been kicking me around!
"But I wonder ... are you sure we can away with it?"
"Certainly," Belle put in. "We Galaxians are doing it, not your government or your Secret Service. We'll start you clean—but it'll be up to you to keep it clean, and that will be no easy job."
"No, it won't; but we'll do it. Come around again, say in five or six years, and see."
"You know, I might take you up on that? Maybe not this same team, but I've got a to tape a for a re-visit, just to see how you along. It'd be interesting."
"I wish you would. It might help, too, if you'd come to check. Suppose you could?"
"I've no idea, really. I'd like to, though, and I'll see what I can do. But let's on with the job. They're all in what you call the 'tank' now. Which one do you want next?"
The work on. That there was of a reception; and then a ball. And Belle's did when she got to the Pleiades, but of she would not admit the fact—most not to Garlock.
Exactly at the of the seventy-two hours, the Galaxians to plants; and, thereafter, the starship's was again to go.
And James home the red that would send them—all four wondered—where?
It out to be another Hodell-type world; and, with the high-speed comparator, it took longer to check the than it did to make them.
The next was similar. So was the next, and the next. The time for longer and longer.
"How about out this entirely, Clee?" James asked then. "What good it do? Even if we a similarity, what we do about it? We've got now to keep a of for five years making a of it."
"Okay. We are so away now, anyway, that the of a is small. Keep on taking the shots, though; they'll prove, I think, that the is one whole of a than has it was. That me—are you on that N-problem? I'm not."
"I'm nowhere, fast. You should have been a in a school, Clee. You every student you had with that one. Belle and I together can't it to Compy in such shape as to a answer. We think, though, that your was right—if we it will be relative to Hodell, not to Tellus. But the cold of how away we must be by this time just the off of me."
"You and me both, my and old. We're a long from home."
Jumping on; and, two or three later, they an Arpalone Inspector who did not test them for with the of his world.
"Do not land," the said, mournfully. "This world is dying, and if you the protection of your ship, you too will die."
"But worlds don't die, surely?" Garlock protested. "People, yes—but worlds?"
"Worlds die. It is the Dilipic. The die, too, of course, but it is the world itself that is attacked, not the people. Some of them, in fact, will live through it."
Garlock his attention and scanned.
"You Arpalones are doing what looks like a good job of fighting. Can't you win?"
"No, it is too late. It was already too late when they appeared, two days ago. When the Dilipics in such small that none of their—agents?—devices?—whatever they are?—can land against our beaming, a world can be saved; but such cases are very few."
"But this thought, 'Dilipic'?" Garlock asked, impatiently. "It is a symbol—it doesn't anything—to me, at least. What are they? Where do they come from?"
"No one anything about them," came the answer. "Not their physical shape—if they have any. Nor where they come from, or how they do what they do."
"They can't be very common," Garlock pondered. "We have of them before."
"Fortunately, they are not," the Inspector agreed. "Scarcely one world in five hundred is by them—this is the Dilipic I have seen."
"Oh, you Arpalones don't die with your worlds, then?" Lola asked. She was shaken. "But I the Arpales do, of course."
"Practically all of the Arpales will die, of course. Most of us Arpalones will also die, in the now going on. Those of us who survive, however, will until the arrives, then we will continue our regular work."
"Rehab?" Belle exclaimed. "You you can so that all the people die?"
"Oh, yes. It is a long and difficult work, but the is always re-peopled."
"Let's go down," Garlock said. "I want to all of this on tape."
They down, over what had been one of that world's largest cities. The air, the stratosphere, and all space were full of of all and sizes; from the of the to the tiny, one-man jet-fighters of the Arpalones.
The Dilipics were using only—ranging in size, with the size of the vessels, from machine up to seventy-five-millimeter quick-firing rifles. They were also thousands of of speed and of power.
The Arpalones were not using anything solid at all. Each vessel, upon its type and class, from four up to a hundred or so burnished-metal some four in diameter; each with a small black device at its center and each out a tight of energy. It was at these reflectors, and particularly at these devices, that the small-arms fire was directed, and the of the Dilipics was very good indeed. However, each was and each fighter-plane was taking action; and, since a bullet-holes in any did not its very much, and since the were so small and were moving so erratically, a good three-quarters of the Arpalonian were still in action.
There was no at all that those were effective. Invisible for the most part, one a Dilipic ship or plane in its path almost into and the incandescently, white or or high blue—never anything than blue. Almost material, that is; for guns, ammunition, and were not affected. They did not explode. When it was that supported them was away, all such dropped; through thousands or hundreds of thousands of of air to crash upon to be below.
The was in a whirling, swirling, almost cone, more or less like an Earthly tornado. The largest were high above the stratosphere; the smallest were hedge-hoppingly close to ground. Each Dilipic unit madly, that nothing would through that to with it was that was from space to the ground through—along?—the "eye" of the pseudo-hurricane.
On the other hand, the Arpalones were madly, to through that wall, to into the "eye," to all possible there. Group after group after group of five jet-fighters each came in; and, occasionally, the of all five of opening in the so that the center through. Once inside, each pilot his little, stubby-winged on her tail, opened his to maximum of power and of spread, and up the until he was down.
And the Arpalones were the battle. Larger and larger were being opened in the wall; which it difficult for the Dilipics to fill. More and more Arpalone were inside. They were longer and doing more all the time. The was and narrower.
All four Galaxians all this in seconds. Garlock out and a matter-conversion bomb in the exact center of one of the largest of the fleet. It had no effect. Then a larger one. Then another, still heavier. Finally, at over a hundred equivalent, he did results—of a sort. The invaders' guns, ammunition, and were out of the ship and for miles in all directions; but the of the Dilipic ship itself was not harmed.
Belle had been studying, analyzing, the that were through that tube.
"Clee!" She a thought. "Cut out the monkey-business with those of yours and look here—pure, solid force, like or our Op field, but different—see if you can the stuff!"
"Alive?" Garlock asked, as he a into one of the things—they were furiously-radiating some seven in diameter—and to to it.
"I don't know—don't think so—if they are, they're a of life that no being imagine!"
"Let's see what they actually do," Garlock suggested, still trying to in with the thing, it was, and still it down.
This particular force-ball to the top of a six-story building. It was not going very fast—fifteen or twenty miles an hour—but when it the it did not slow down. Without any at all, apparently, it through the and and of the building; and in its path monstrously, sickeningly, changed.
"I can't any more of this," Lola gasped. "If you don't mind, I'm going to my room, set all the Gunther it has, and my under a pillow."
"Go ahead, Brownie," James said. "This is too for to watch. I'd do the same, I've got to these cameras."
Lola disappeared.
Garlock and Belle on studying. Neither had paid any attention at all to either Lola or James.
Instead of the material it had once been, the that the thing had was now full of a sparkling, bubbling, writhing, partly-fluid-partly-viscous, of something unknown and on Earth; a something which, Garlock now recalled, had been of by the Arpalone Inspector as "golop."
As that through office after office, it neither out people them. Walls, doors, windows, ceilings, and rugs, office and office personnel; all were into and a part of that brew.
Nor did the of that a bore. Instead, it spread. That devil's ate into and it touched like a of water being into a loosely-heaped of sugar. By the time the had the second floor, the entire of the was gone and the writhing, of had the and across the street, and sidewalks, people, pavement, poles, wires, automobiles, people-anything and it touched.
The on down, through and sub-basement, until it solid, natural ground. Then, with its top a the level of natural ground, it came to a full stop and—apparently—did nothing at all. By this time, the had into the of the across the street, as well as along all four of the block, and of and steel, their supporting devoured, were subsiding, crumbling, and into the of golop—and were being almost as fast as they fall.
One mass, hundreds or thousands of tons, almost as a whole; the in all for hundreds of yards. Wherever each struck, however, a new center of attack came into being, and the disgusting, on.
"Can you do anything with it, Clee?" Belle demanded.
"Not too much—it's a mess," Garlock replied. "Besides, it wouldn't us far, I don't think. It'll be more to the the Arpalones are using to them up, don't you think?"
Then, for twenty solid minutes, the two Prime Operators on those beams.
"We can't that of with our minds," Belle then.
"I'll say we can't," Garlock agreed. "Ten megacycles, and only twenty second." He through his teeth. "My is it'd take four months to design and a to put out that of stuff. It's than our Op field."
"I'm not sure I design one," Belle said, thoughtfully, "but of I'm not the you are...." Then, she not help adding, "... yet."
"No, and you will be," he said, flatly.
"No? That's what you think!" Even in such as those, Belle Bellamy was to on her with her Project Chief.
"That's what I think—and I'm so close to it for a that the is indetectible."
Belle almost—but not quite—blew up. "Well, what are you going to do?"
"Unless and until I can out something to do, I'm not going to try to do anything. If you, with your and in the of the female over the male, can out something useful I do, I'll eat and help you do it. As for with you, I'm all done for the moment."
Belle her teeth, away, and herself into a chair. She her and put every of her mind to work on the problem of something—anything—that be done to help this world and to that big, of a Garlock that she was a man than he was. Which of the two more important, she herself not have told, to save her life.
And Garlock looked around. The air and the sky over the now-vanished city were clear of Dilipic craft. The Arpalone and other small were making no attempt to land, on the world's surface. Instead, they were toward, and were being one by one into the of, Arpalonian space-freighters. When each such was to capacity, it and set itself into a more-or-less-circular around the planet.
Around and around and around the world the Pleiades went; recording, observing, charting. Fifty-eight of those Dilipic had been to ground. Every large land-mass by large of water had been once, and only once; from the area of the largest to the of the largest islands. One land-mass, one vortex. One only.
"What d'you that means?" James asked. "Afraid of water?"
"Damfino. Could be. Let's check ... mountains, too. Skip us to where we started—oceans and close there."
The city had long since; for hundreds of almost-level square miles there a sparkling, seething, of—of what? The of that had almost the foot-hills, and over that gnawing, the Pleiades paused.
Small and ordinary the very little if at all. There was a sparkling, a stiffening, a little darkening, some and off of solid blocks; but the thing's motion was not down. It a large river and a one mile wide by ten miles long while the two men watched.
The no attempt to climb either foot-hills or mountains. It them. It ate into their at its own level; the masses, small and large, into the foul, semi-liquid and were consumed. Nor was there much of the golop's level, when the were and miles-high of solid off and toppled. There was some raising, of course; but the was so that its was not to the eye.
Then the Pleiades back, over the place where the city had been and on to what had once been an beach. The original of had that long since, had its out into water, and there it had been stopped. The was now being reinforced, however, by an ever-rising of material that had once been mountains. And the slope, which had not been at the or over the plain, was here very evident.
As the rapidly-flowing water, the water shivered, came to a cold boil, and into and and jagged-edged of something that was neither water land; or or or or Satan's brew. Nevertheless, the water won. There was so much of it! Each of water that was was replaced and enthusiastically; with no of level or of pressure.
And when water the golop, the also violently, then more violently, then stopped and dark, then solid. The surface, however, was neither thick to an wall.
Again and again the of up high to and to that wall; again and again and water met in furious, if insensate, battle. Inch by the ocean's was toward ocean's depths; but every the was to its advantage, since the was by now with hard, solid, of its own which it neither remove from the of conflict.
Hence the and solider; the slower and slower.
Then, finally, of ever-increasing and rolled in against the new-formed shore. What those waves—earthquakes, perhaps, to the shifting of the mountains' masses?—no Tellurian surely knew. Whatever the cause, however, those to pin the down. Whenever and one of those in, hundreds of thousands of of water for hundreds of yards, the battle-front then and there.
All over that world the was the same. Wherever there was water enough, the water won. And the total quantity of water in that world's unchanged.
"Good. A of people escaped," James said, a long-held breath. "Everybody who on or be to all the smaller than the biggest ones ... if they can to eat and if the air isn't poisoned."
"Air's okay—so's the water—and they'll food," Garlock said. "The Arpalones will things, distribution. What I'm about is how they're going to it. That, as an project, is a to end all feats."
"Brother! You can play that in spades!" James agreed. "Except that it'll take too many months they can start the job, I'd like to around and see how they go about it. How this of fit into that you're not is a theory?"
"Not a damn. However, it's a datum—and, as I've said and may say again, if we can data we can a out of it."
Then it to rain. For many minutes the clouds had been up—black, far-flung, thick and high. Immense of and and crackled; and rolled and rumbled; rain fell, and to fall, like a cloud-burst in Colorado. And thereafter—first by square and then by and then by square miles—the surface of the to die. To die, that is, if it had been alive. At least it stopped sparkling, darkened, and into thick skins; which up into blocks; which in turn sank—thus an ever-renewed surface to the driving, pelting, rain.
"Well, I don't know that there's anything to us here any longer," Garlock said, finally. "Shall we go?"
They went; but it was days any of the like smiling; and Lola did not from her for over a week.
