Coming to awareness, Kurt Zen that something which he had been experiencing, and which had been very important, out of his memory like a away into a pearl-colored mist.
Nedra was him by the and was at him. "Wake up, head. You've been for eighteen hours. That ought to be for a boy like you."
Her was and alive. She looked as if she had just out of a cold and had her with a to the blood close to the surface of the skin.
"You look wonderful," Zen muttered, what John had hinted. "Did you have a good night's sleep?"
"A of hours."
"No more than that?"
"I needed no more."
"Mm?" Zen said. He started to add another word, "Alone?" but managed to catch the question it was out of his mouth. He her thoughtfully. "You look very contented," he said, without adding that in his who looked so had only one for it.
"Why shouldn't I look contented? After so much time in the wilderness, I'm on the to heaven."
"What's the wilderness?"
"The world below." She her hand in a that the and the below.
"Ah, yes," he himself to wakefulness. "I was reading the most book I off to sleep. Here. I'll you."
The book was not on his blanket. It was not in the niche. Nor was it the bed. "Hey, it's gone," he said. His around the room. He other that were missing. "The lieutenant's gun! And my pack!"
"Perhaps you just you had been reading a book."
"I didn't the gun and the pack. I of them in here."
"I can about them. They were taken."
"Hunh? Why?"
"Weapons are not permitted here. Your gun and your pack were taken for this reason."
"Hunh?" A came into his voice. He put these out of his mind with the to speak to someone about them at a later time. Something more had happened. What was it? A memory of his through his mind but was gone he it. A on his face, he said, "I know—" As he to speak, what he had to say out of his mind.
"You know what?" Nedra asked.
"Everything."
Her surprise. "This is a great for one man to know. Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Positive?"
"Hell, yes!"
An that was like a opening and across her face. "Well, in that case, tell me things."
"I would, I can't 'em."
Doubt came into the eyes. "What you need is some breakfast. Your blood sugar are too low. Breakfast will take of that." Her voice was and sure.
"That's one thing I need," Zen said, his voice firm. "But there is one thing I don't need—an by a shrinker."
"A what?"
"A psycho," he explained. "I call 'em that is what they do. Oh, maybe I need such an but I have no of to it."
Breakfast of mush, to a brown, and with and honey. There was no coffee but he had long since learned to do without it. He ate ravenously. "I'm right to the of my bones," he said. "Where all this come from?"
"We it," Nedra answered evasively.
"What do you do, the low country for supplies, like Cuso's men?"
"No, colonel, that. We are not thieves." Her displeasure.
"Well, where do you it? I don't know how many of you are here, but if you have as many as a hundred, this place calls for some doing." He was for on the number of people in this old mine.
"Actually, very little food is needed."
"How come, don't they eat?"
"Are you reading my mind?" the girl demanded. "If so, you might as well learn right now that this is not good manners here!" Momentarily, she was angry. "And besides, if you do it again, I'll close off my to you."
Zen, with a of to his mouth, was so that he to speak and to the at the same time, with the result that he choked. The of her opened up wide of thought. Was mind reading actually here?
"I'm sorry you choked," Nedra said. She him on the back.
"Why don't you put me over your and me?" Zen complained. "Lay off with that pounding."
"Do you you need burping?"
"Aw, up," Zen answered. If she he had read her mind, did this that she was actually of reading his thoughts? Could all of these people read his mind? Had the girl going through the what he was about her. Zen himself coloring. It was one thing to have the normal of the male but it was another thing to have every woman know what he was about her.
"Colonel, I do you are blushing," Nedra said, a in her eyes.
"I am not," Zen said. "Actually I was wondering—"
"Whether or not I read your mind? I told you it was not good manners here."
"Good manners or not, you to know what I was thinking."
"It isn't necessary to read your mind to know what you are if a woman is concerned," Nedra said, primly. "Your are on your face."
"Uh!" For a moment, his grew. Her was much too acute. Was she playing games, making fun? If so, this was a game that two play. "In that case, since you already know about me—how about it?" he said, looking at her.
She his meaning. For a moment, the sadness. They to that she was in him, that she had for much from him. Then a came into them. "I told you once before—"
"Yeah, I know. You are going to wash out my mind with soap. But let's not do it right now. I'm still hungry."
"You are one of the most men I have met," Nedra said, as she rose to his plate again. "Also one of the fastest—"
"I we were going to away from that subject," he protested.
"I to say on his feet," she answered. "And if you don't stop me to make a play on words, I'm going to give you a on the head. After that, Sam wants to see you."
"Sam, huh?" he said, with no in his voice. Somehow this morning, he did not the man. But there was the of the missing pack and gun to be taken up with someone in authority. He that West was that person.
The man was alone in the room to which Nedra took him when he had breakfast. West was with his to them as they entered, out of a picture window that was set with the of the building. Turning, he to them, then to them to come and him. Kurt Zen looked out on one of the most breath-takingly he had seen. Directly them the away for hundreds of feet, a blank of rock. To the left, up into the sky, was the of the mountain, solid granite. They were just at the of here. Lower, the trees began: spruce, fir, and aspen, on over a series of that more than they revealed. In the was the range, a of that looked small but which Zen to be country. He had them too to have any as to how high they were. And how rugged.
In the clouds were visible, thunder-storms the mountains.
"Thy mountain's above the plain...."
The of the song came into Kurt's mind. Down him was—America. Or what was left of it. A came up in his at the and he and in his stomach. He had loved this land.
America had for freedom. Her sons had for it, on in every of the earth, from sun-baked Africa to the of Central Asia. While her sons had graves, for freedom, something had to the for which they fought.
Nobody what had happened, but it had gone away. Possibly it had been as on the scene, possibly it had been in red tape as on the national scene. The time had come in America, too, as it had come to lands, when all that were not were forbidden.
Thus had died.
"Do you as as all that, colonel?" West said softly. The man's was and each on it out of another and of granite.
"It such a shame," Zen said. "I loved this land. It was my country. And I don't that I have to for a in my as I talk about it."
"It is not necessary to for one's own land, colonel," West said, his voice still. "You are not alone."
"Not alone?" Zen said. "From you, this talk strange."
"We have all loved this land, too, colonel, and the for which it stood. That is why we are here." West's voice still, but the in his to increase.
"That is good talk," Zen said. "However, if I have learned one thing, it is that talk is cheap. You are here yet you talk of the land that you have failed to serve." He his voice as he spoke.
"Bravely spoken, colonel," West applauded. A that might have been and might have been the of anger in his eyes. "Particularly so since you are in the power of these—ah—outlaws."
"Very brave," Nedra agreed. "And very foolish."
"You did not me here to tell me that I am in your power," Zen answered. "Nor to on my bravery. Nor my foolishness."
"I think he can read minds," Nedra said.
"I do not in the least it," West answered. "If he did not this ability, or almost it, he would not be here."
"I, in my turn, think of you are nuts," Zen answered. "I'm not on a mind-reading act."
"Not consciously, colonel, of course," West agreed. "You think your are your own. Often they are. But there are also times when they have with somebody else. However, you tell me that I did not call you up here to discuss your mind-reading ability, or of it, I will you one why I wanted you. Take the glasses, the in the distance, just under the pines. Tell me what you see there."
"Horses," Zen said. "No, mules. With riders. Cuso's men going out on a party looking for food, ammo, and women, if they can catch 'em."
"Quite right, colonel. Except that they have the additional of the their did when it exploded."
"I they that from close range," Zen said fervidly. "That area is hot. If they will only an hour or so—" He off as he that Nedra and West had too much time in the same zone.
"They will not be that foolish," West said.
"I know some people who were," Zen said.
"Perhaps the area, at least on the fringes, was not as as you had thought," West suggested.
"My said it was," Zen answered.
"Possibly your was in error. Now if you will come into this room, colonel." West moved through an in the and into another room, the so Zen and Nedra enter. An screen was set into the wall. Several chairs, one large seat with into the arms, were in this room. West closed the over the through which they had entered and Zen to a chair. The man into the chair with the on the arms. Nedra sat Zen. Relaxed and at in the chair, she to have that such as of existed. West pushed a button. Light across the screen, an pattern there, and vanished. An image to form. Firming, it in detail, and a city.
Or what had once been a city.
The place was now, the in ruins. Towers had toppled, had broken, the of fire were visible. Here and there tall had into that and criss-crossed each other at angles. The from the still where it had fallen.
"Washington, by thunder!" Zen said. "This was their target. We stopped their cold but they got through with a missile. The city is still hot. You can see it right there on the screen. Not a of life!" He as he re-lived those moments when the Asian Federation had out of nowhere. In this moment what little that had in America had been up in the of the more of alive.
"Yes," West said. "Now what do you see?"
The Washington from the scene. As it faded, the of the building—its top had been off in the blast—was looking like a on the moon open to the sea of space.
Another city came on the screen, a of where two met.
"I think that's Pittsburgh," Zen said. "They were to us there, to cut on our production potential. They got Gary, Indiana, and South Chicago, for the same reason. In of we do to stop it, they got through to our major production centers. If we hadn't the possibility of this happening, and had not spread our across the country, it up into small parts, they would have us so the started that we would not have long. However, with our production spread, when they the of our materials, they us—bad. Our stock gave out after a of years. Since then we've been for metal we can it."
"Yes. I know," West said.
"Of course, while they were us, we weren't helping them," Zen said. "We had a in their ourselves. We weren't defenseless." Pride came into his voice as he spoke.
"I agree with you there," West said. "Would you like to see some of our results."
"Hell, yes," Zen out, surprised. "Our ships have good pics. Have to too high for that. Oh, we have a of that to how we had out of the enemy, but these were all re-touched, to public morale. But—how this work? Do you to tell me you can actually see what is going on the country of the enemy?" Puzzled wonder into his voice. Behind the was a interest. If he use this to see into the country of the enemy, it was a very invention, though West did not to this.
In war, was always as as weapons, and sometimes more so. Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions, of his and his weaknesses, was often more than the battle.
West did not answer. Another city into position on the screen. Zen a of a single among the and a as to the identity of the city.
"Moscow?"
"Yes."
"Good. One of our fast over in full daylight, his load. When the plane passed over hours later, the city was still burning. We the out of that dump!"
"You pleased, colonel. Do you know how many millions of people died directly or in that bomb explosion?"
"How many millions died in Washington, Pittsburgh, and Chicago?" Zen flared.
"Granted," West answered. "But after the man has been killed, it help the to kill a second? Or killing the second one make it more likely that a third one will have to be destroyed?"
"What the it make? This is war."
"That is also granted. However, the of life do not men war."
"Don't be so that you to be realistic. They were at our heart," Zen said, in his voice. "Look, we didn't this war. We did we to prevent it. We compromise, arbitration, placation, and else we think of. Nothing worked. They in the dark, without warning." As he spoke, his into anger.
"That is also granted," West said, while the city was on the screen. "But it make a great of difference?"
Zen at the man, what of a he was. In the room, it was difficult to make out West's features. "It makes all the in the world. We in fairness. They it. We in a world. They would us into the night of barbarism. We in freedom. They wanted slaves. They set up a and against free men. We had no choice to back."
"I see nothing to argue in all you have said," West answered. "Nor is it to my purpose to attempt to the of the western democracies. They need no justification. Nor do the of the Asian Federation need justification. In their eyes, they were right." His voice was a low of without the of an in it.
"Then what is your purpose?" Zen demanded.
"First, to point out that the is one organism. Viewed in its totality, it is just that, an organism. All the of who it are in that organism."
"I am familiar with that theory," Zen answered. "A have always that we are a entity. But they have not succeeded in this."
"Haven't they?" West said. The touch of appeared in his voice.
"Not so as I know."
"Is it possible, colonel, that you do not know everything?" West asked.
"It is not only possible, it is obvious," Zen answered, by the question. "If I everything, I wouldn't be here talking to you. I would be out there a war."
"The point I want to make, colonel, is that the is against itself. Historically, this has been going on since ages. War after after war."
"I do not see how America is for the errors of history," Zen said. "We to avoid them. God we tried." Emphasis into his voice.
"I did not say these were errors, colonel," West replied. "I said they were history."
"But what point are you making if not the one that are mistakes?" Zen asked, at the way the other's had gone.
"I am making the point that to be the way the entity, the as a whole, evolves. The method of by history is the of one part of the against another part, then them it out to see which is the more efficient." A touch of in the voice of the man. In the room, his was as bleak—and as lonely—as the at the top of a mountain.
"This is a very philosophy," Kurt Zen commented.
"If I may with you again, colonel, I do not think that this is necessarily savage. True, a great many men die in ways. A great many and children suffer. True, this produces in the world, and a so and so that the is to it."
"How can this be anything but savage?" Zen protested. "I don't our or the other is doing it—it's still total savagery, barbarism!"
"But that is a short-term view and one which not take into all the in the equation. What is the purpose of this savagery, if it is not to men to learn and to grow? What if this so-called is also the result of ignorance, of an trying to learn how to solve a problem, but succeeding?"
"But surely there must be some way which not involve so much suffering," Zen protested. He was more and more uncomfortable. It was his that he was shifting in the without he was doing it. Or West was the one who was shifting sides. This side-changing was producing in his thinking.
"I have the same hope," West answered. "However, I know of no way to this result. In a being, we have a growing, that is of a brain and a curiosity. Such an organism, by its very nature, will have to try every possible road." West pressed a button.
Again the screen came to life. Dim and shadowy, to move there. Kurt Zen to see them more clearly.
