At first, the were and Zen not see them clearly. He mentioned this to West.
"They will in a minute," the man answered. His voice had to a from afar. Zen at him to make he was still there. The had the that the chair was but the itself, West, than the follow, to be in the chair. "Note the screen now, Kurt," West said.
The had clear. It to be a view of some of where men were on an object that looked like—Zen his eyes, to make certain.
"A small space ship!" the said. He in his voice. Like so many in the age of science, he had the of the days to come when men would the sky, to space that afar. Science had promised that this would and the had this with worlds. Somehow, it had come to pass. One problem after another had of this dream. The war, which should have development, had stopped it completely. Neither had the materials or the or the to a of space flight.
"No," West said. His voice was and the far-away note was still in it. "Sorry to you, colonel, but that is not a small space ship, though it is designed to out of the for a time. Look again."
"Hell, it's a super bomb!" Zen gasped, as came to him.
"Right, colonel!"
"A bomb big to a continent!" Cold at the of Zen's spine.
"Right, colonel." West's voice was as as the Nevada wind.
"I didn't know we had such a bomb under construction," Zen out.
"We haven't."
"Then who—where?" The cold at the of Zen's were and up his spine.
"Look at the men, colonel. Look closely." West's voice was also cold.
"They're Asiatics!" Shouting the words, Zen was out of his chair. "I didn't see the yellow and the at first. West, that's a missile. It's being to out of the sky at thousands of miles an hour, on us!"
"Yes," West said. He did not move a in his body. On the other of Kurt Zen, Nedra sat and motionless.
"I have to out of here," Zen said. "This must be reported to the staff, at once!" Urgency in the of his voice.
"The new people do not fight," West said. "I you were one of us."
"It doesn't who I am," Zen said quickly. "The of this super bomb must be reported. It must be! Extra must be issued. We must every z-type we and have them in the air constantly, in the that we can this bomb it lands. We've got to the hourly, so we will know when it is to be launched. And that means we've got to have top-flight men here, to the of that bomb every of the way. Or we've got to take this super-radar of yours to and use it there. That's the best solution, if it is at all practical." Zen was and in the room, the steps that had to be taken.
"West, do you this super-radar of yours will win the war!" Excitement the colonel's voice. "With it, the enemy won't be able to make a move that we don't know about in advance." His as the in him for the end of the to come to the surface.
"You have in your eyes, colonel," West said.
"You're out of your mind," Zen retorted. But he the man was speaking the truth. He harder. "We've got the Asians cold. We'll know every move they make in advance." He as he again how much this meant.
"I have always every move they in advance," West answered.
"We'll have them on their in—huh? What was that you just said? What was that?" Desperation appeared in the colonel's voice.
West his words.
"Then why didn't you us?" Zen each word as it left his lips. "Why didn't you us? Why did you let so many of us die so unnecessarily?"
West did not answer.
The in the room deeper. Cold had to appear in the air. On the screen, the in the of their bomb.
"Don't you that your failure to report what you is high treason?" Zen continued.
The grew. West sat as solid and as as a mountain. Nedra to have in upon herself still farther. More than she looked like a very small girl who had somehow managed to into a world of and was and by what was here.
"Don't you me?" Zen said.
"I you," West answered. "Your to your country you credit, colonel. It is to be from a person in your stage of development. However, you to have that I am not a citizen of your country. Or you did not know this?"
"Not a citizen?" Zen said. "But this in America. I don't know it is actually on Canadian ground or in the United States, but this not matter. By treaty, the have one nation. A citizen of one is a citizen of the other."
"True, colonel." West did not attempt to explain.
"Then what country do you to to?" Zen his voice as he to what of this very man. "You talk like an American."
"I was here."
"Then you are a citizen."
"No. I my citizenship. As to my country, it is a land. I am sure you have no knowledge of it. My loyalty, colonel, is not to any nation on the of the globe, but is to—growth, to the new people who will come into one day."
As West spoke, the cold that was Zen's and was replaced by a warmth. The to touch some of him.
"My is to the future, to the of the life force, to what the will become, not to what it is today. Only the has meaning, colonel, and to the of that I have my life."
In of the that the him, Zen he had to them. "This is sophistry," he snapped. "I think any in the land would it to be of your proper duties. You can't continue in a country and its ble—" Confusion came into Zen's mind.
"Were you going to say blessings, colonel?" West said, almost maliciously.
"Yes."
"Would you point out these blessings?"
"We had them once," Zen said. "And we're going to have them again."
"Are you?" West toward the screen where the far-off enemy and were with their super bomb.
"Now that we know that it exists, that bomb will land," Zen said. "I'll see to that personally."
"How are you going to this responsibility?" West inquired.
"I'll a way," Zen answered.
"I your spirit, colonel, though not necessarily your of your personal position at this moment. Also, there is one other thing that I want you to see."
The screen blank. Slowly another on it. Zen, staring, out words.
"That's another one. They're making two of those super bombs. I didn't think they had the materials and the know-how to make one! This the problem, and more than the urgency. We'll have to the from all directions, up. Damn it, West!" Zen his into his open to his of urgency.
"Look again, colonel," the man invited.
On second look Zen saw something that he had missed before. "Those are Americans! We're that bomb!" His were little of in the room.
"Right," West said. His voice was very grim.
"Then it's a to see which its bomb first?" Zen asked. He did not know or not he liked what his were and the his mind was him.
"I am that is true," West agreed. "But doesn't that the picture, colonel?"
"How?" Zen demanded. "We're going to win a war. We've got to win it." The were spoken but a as if some point had not been considered.
"The other also thinks it has to win," West pointed out.
"To with what they think. They started it. We didn't. Man, you don't to tell me that you are going to right here and watch two nations try to each other—and maybe the Earth with them—when you have the means to stop it in your hand?" Horror in Zen's words.
"I am going to do just that," West stated. His voice was as and as solid as the of a mountain.
"But you can't!" Zen expostulated.
"Why can't I?" West demanded. "I am not a citizen of either country and I nothing to any nation."
"Even if you are not a citizen of either country, you're still a being. You to your own race," Zen said.
The man of discomfort. But when he spoke, his voice was still imperturbable. "Granting your statement, what do you I do?"
"Stop the Asians," Zen answered promptly. "Give us complete on the of their super-bomb. We'll make we ours and we'll use it to their out of existence." At the moment, his plan feasible.
"That would create the very you are trying to avoid, would it not?" West pointed out. "Both super would simultaneously. Do you think the Earth would in its if this happened?"
"I don't know," Zen answered. "That would be up to the and the physicists to decide. In any case, if the is too great, we'll use ordinary to touch off their super bomb. Well the job done they finish."
"They are underground, in a at least three thousand deep," West pointed out. "Do you have a that will to this depth?"
"We'll one!"
"You talk very glibly, colonel."
"Somebody has got to talk!" Zen said fiercely. "Even if they are their bomb underground, they must have an for it somewhere. We'll their and an H-bomb on it."
"And thus their bomb and the best of their scientists and engineers?"
"This is war. You can't have in war."
"This is my point, colonel," West said patiently. "I have no sympathy—with either side."
"Then what do you propose—to here and do nothing?"
"I to let each the other as much as they wish and can. Then, when they have the of their efforts, when it is clear to the who have that is not the way to the future, then the new people will to the way to those who have survived." West's voice was calm. He to be a often and to be a and definitely reached.
"But that slaughter," Zen protested. "This was the that of the of the bomb—to stop slaughter."
"All is senseless, colonel, though from the of the or nation doing it, is to be right at the time."
Zen started to on what the man had just said, then his mind. Was he with a madman? This possible. West's did not fit any pattern that Zen knew. The act of by and two nations suicide the of thinking.
"I you, let me report this to the high command," Zen said, making one last plea.
"In reply, I want to ask one question," West answered. "What would to the people here, and to me, if I the of this instrument?"
"You would be a hero," Zen said promptly, and he was as he spoke. "Your people would be protected."
"I calling you a liar, colonel, but that is what you are," West answered. "We would all be taken of, as long as all of us did what the high wanted. The I to do anything else, my would be called and I would be a traitor. My would be confiscated, 'for the of the government,' and I would be lucky if I did not a squad. Tell me honestly, colonel, would not this happen?" For the time, West's had a of anger in them. Or was it sorrow?
"Sam—" Nedra said. "Something—" Her voice was a from some far-off land.
"What is it, Nedra?" West asked. In an instant, he had all about Kurt Zen.
The nurse sat up and stiff. All color from her face. "Something—" Her voice was the of in this room.
"Nedra, what is it?" West's had in them.
Instead of answering, the nurse from her chair to the floor, in a faint.
Dim and in the that came a sound.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—
Zen had this death-dealing too often to mistake its identity.
"A sub-machine gun!"
The that the leading into this room were aside. A man through them. Zen at a that he was another of the who here in this a mountain. Blood was from a in his and he was for breath.
"They're—coming with guns!" he gasped.
West to his and took the of the in his lap. His was dark as he saw the on the back. Cuddling the youth's in his as one would a child, he asked, "What happened, Carl?"
"I don't know. They came out of nowhere. There was no one. Then these men were here. They came—shooting." Blood came out of his mouth as he spoke. He to it away, and failed. His hand to his mouth and at the blood, then he his hand to his and saw what was there.
"How many are there?" Zen asked.
Carl's until he the of this question. "Dozens," he said, his voice dull. Blood was from his mouth across West's and was a on the floor.
Listening, Zen three machine going now. Men were yelling. A girl was screaming. At the sounds, the colonel's into a line as as the of a knife.
"How did they past your generators?" he said to West.
"I don't know," the man answered. "Perhaps they an tunnel."
Zen not see what it how the had entry. They were here. "Where are your weapons?" he demanded. In his mind was the that the new people would have to their own citadel.
"Weapons?" West did not to the term. "We have none."
"What?" Zen said. Hadn't West him. Every farmer, every rancher, and every had his stock of weapons. Almost all people armed. "No rifles?"
"No."
"Not tear gas?"
"No, colonel."
"Then how in the did you to alive?" Zen out. "You surely they would you sometime."
"Staying alive is actually not as as you think. Yes, son." West again to to the youth's words.
"Good—good—" The was very faint.
West understood. "Goodbye," he said. "We will meet again. But, goodbye for now."
The sighed. All pain and all from his face. Peace came to him.
But when West rose to his feet, his was bleak. "He was new here," he said as if this something that he needed explaining.
Somewhere a woman was screaming. West to the sound, then started toward it. Zen his arm.
"The have guns." His the that West was at fault no the mine. "Or do you want to go join him?" He toward the on the floor. Blood had stopped from that now. The of life had gone and the of life had flowing.
"Yes," West said bluntly. "I want to go with him." His had more black. Heat was dancing in his eyes.
Zen the to say that this two of them who wanted to join the bronze-skinned youth. He how to with this reaction.
"Okay," he said. "Good bye."
West at him.
"Run along," Zen said.
"Eh?"
"I'll take over here and the you are from," Zen continued.
As if he were a from some of his mind, the man his head. "Sorry," he apologized. "However, the call is very strong. Only the of a job not yet done has me from going for—a long time." He his again. "No, I shall not him, for another while, though I am positive that he is than we are."
"I agree," Zen said.
Stooping, West up Nedra. She in his arms like a tired, sleeping child. Had she the youth? Kurt Zen had a moment of as the passed through his mind he saw that she was still regularly.
"Follow me," West said.
The still in the of the man as he moved across the room. The solid into another door. "None of my people know this is here," he explained. "The lock is only by my body."
As Kurt Zen through the door he the girl still somewhere.
The passage was narrow. To one side, another passage into a room where Zen a of some of in operation, the of the super-radar, he suspected.
Ahead, West growled, a that came from in his throat. He had stopped and was into a opening in the wall. Zen saw that the opening, through some of mirrors, the of the big where he had the night.
Hell was in there now.
