I have no idea how long it was Halsey came back. Snap and I were seated on a low metal bench against the wall. The of the was off. We were all over, our still confused.
Halsey in upon us. "So you are recovered?"
Snap stammered, "We—I say, we're sorry as we like that."
"I know you are." His voice softened. "If I have done anything else, me, I would have. But I don't think will come to them. They're clever."
"Are they outside?" I asked. "Did they a way of meeting the Martians? How long have you been gone?"
Halsey at me as though he had no of answering. And then the on the buzzed.
"This is Halsey," he said. "Yes, I have them here. Bring them—did you say them?"
We not the voice, for Halsey had the in contact.[22]
"No, I would not to come. I'm something. I'm at the Red Spark Cafe. Well, I'm going to my office presently to wait there."
He in code. Like Snap, I had had occasion to learn it. The were a gibberish. He ended, "I will send them, Grantline. Very well, I'll tell them to him. At once, yes." He closed off the audiphone.
Halsey on us. "You're all right now?"
"Yes." I up, Snap up with me. "What is wanted of us Colonel?"
"That's better, Gregg." He smiled, but he was still grim. "I wanted you here to wait for this call from the Conclave of Public Safety. It met at midnight. They have ordered of you there."
"That's a meeting, isn't it?" asked Snap. "There was no report of it over the air tonight."
"Yes. Secret." He was leading us to the door. "They won't need you for more than an hour. When they finish, come to my office. You can come openly." He with his on the door lever. "Good-by, lads. Foley will lead you to the service room. You are to take a for Postal Switch-station 20. They'll re-route you from there to the auditorium."
The door up. "When you disembark," he added, "Ask for Johnny Grantline. You are to with him."
He us out and the door him. We the corridor, and Snap me.
"For myself," he swiftly, "I'll go to the I'm ordered. But I won't there long. Once we out of it, if I don't myself to the Red Spark, I'm a motor-oiler."
I with him. We had a picture of Anita and Venza in the Red Spark's public room. Doubtless Orentino had a way for them to meet Molo. They would there in the Red Spark with that party, and in less than an hour we would be back.
But as we across an end of the main room with Foley leading us, we a of Molo's table. The party was still there, but Molo, Anita, and Venza were gone![23]
We had no time to any information. Foley left us and another man took his place. In the service room a was waiting. Our entered it with us.
At the station we had the out of us. After another ten minutes in the tube, we our unknown destination. The cylinder-slide opened. We ourselves with a guard; and through a opening, Johnny Grantline was advancing, to us.
"Well, so here you are, Gregg. Hell to pay heaven, going on here. Come on in; I'll tell you."
"We were sent for," Snap said.
"Yes, but they don't want you yet. Come in here."
He away the and us through a into a low-vaulted audience room, and gloomy. Across it, a ajar. Grantline through it. There was the of light from the room and the of many voices.
Grantline closed the door. "Sit and I'll tell you...."
"Where are we?" I asked.
"The Conclave Hall."
I its location: Lower Manhattan, high under the city roof.
Grantline produced little cigarette cylinders. "Steady your nerves, lads; you'll need it."
He at us. The hand with which he my was as a tower-base, but he was excited. I see it by the in his eyes, and it in his voice.
"What's going on?" Snap demanded.
"It's about this planet. By the gods, when you what's been learned about it!"
"Well, what?" I asked.
He sketched what he had this night at the conclave. The was inhabited.
"How do they know that?" Snap put in.
"Wait. I'll tell you the of it. The thing its orbit. It banks and like a spaceship! It stopped out in space; it's out there now Mars and Jupiter. A world about a the size of the Moon, and the beings on it can its movements. They've it in from space, into our system. Evidently the point they've now is as they want to come. They've out[24] there, to attack, not only us, but Mars and Venus simultaneously."
Grantline at us through the of his cigarette. He was much like Snap, small, wiry, of movement and manner, but older. His was at the temples; his voice the authority of one to men.
"Don't ask me for the of how they these conclusions. I'm no astronomer. I'm only telling you their and what their have been here for the past hour."
Heaven knows, we had no to him. What we had and at the Red Spark with his words.
He on swiftly, "The attack, of nature it may be, is at once. Not next month, or next week, but now. Lord, Gregg, I don't you for like that. You don't know what's been going on for the past two days on Earth, and Venus and Mars. It's all been suppressed. Neither did I, until I it here tonight. The U.S.W., the Martian Union, the Venus Free State, are all preparing for war. Every government on Earth is being commissioned. We're not going to around and wait for to land; the won't be on Earth if we can help it."
We stared. Snap asked, "What makes them so sure?"
"That is coming? Plenty. This new has sent out spaceships. The itself is sixty miles away from us, about miles from Mars and close to ninety from Venus. Perhaps its think that's the most spot.
"Then it sent out spaceships, three of them. One is close to Venus. Another is near Mars, and the third is some 200,000 miles off Earth. Several of our are overdue; it now that they must have these ships and been destroyed.
"Still more, and worse: these three ships have already the enemy on Mars and Venus. The helio-reports mention in Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar. For three or four days, Mars has been in a panic of apprehension; Venus almost as bad. And some have landed[25] here. Not many, perhaps; but one has been captured. A thing—God, it's almost description."
We well agree with that, since Snap and I had just one.
"They've got it here," Grantline was saying. "They've to make it talk. They can't but they're going to try again."
He jumped to his and to the door. "They're it in." Upon his was a look of horror.
We the small door-oval. It gave onto a of the hall. The of the city were over us. There were a official up here in the dark on the balcony, but none noticed us.
The of the was lighted. Around the tables a hundred scientists and high officials of the three worlds were seated. Near the center of the was a small dais-platform. On a table there, someone had just a black box, to the one we had previously.
The was and tense. On the a group of Earth officials. One of them spoke. "Here it is, gentlemen. And this time, by God, we'll make it speak."
Grantline whispered, "That's the War Secretary from Greater London."
I him: Brayley, Commander in Chief of the land, air, water and space of the United States of the World. He was in stature, with a great of gray-white hair. A figure, if there was one.
Beside him, Nippor, the Japanese in Greater New York, a pigmy. The of the his soft voice up to us. "I would be of drugs. Will we use force? It is vital."
"Yes, by God! Anything."
It that in the must be shuddering: I it like an up at me. Brayley the box-lid, in and the thing. He it up, a two-foot of gray-white membrane. Another brain.
"Now, you, you're going to talk to us! Understand that? We're going to make you talk. Get that box out of the way."[26]
They the box to the floor, and Brayley the brain on the table.
A of light, on it, the the of the brain, like worms. The blood-vessels almost to now. The face, with and that mouth, a of terror. From where its ears should have been, a little arm of flabby, gray-white came down, one on each and the table. And I saw now that it had a body, or at least little legs, bent, almost under by its weight.
"Now, you," Brayley said, off his hands on a towel, "for the last time: will you talk?"
The a but upon Brayley's face. Did it understand? The were our way, and their up so that I for an to see into them. And it me then: this was a thing of than my own. A humanoid, with brain so that through the was shriveled, almost gone. A mind was here, an in this brain.
Were these the beings of the new which had come to attack us? But how this creature, of almost everything, obviously, save thought, do the work of its world?
Then I again that room of the Red Spark Cafe: the thin, ten-foot shape which was the box. Was that, perhaps, an opposite type of being with the brain submerged, dwarfed, and the paramount? Were there, on this planet, two co-existing types, each a specialist, one for the physical work and the other for the mental?
I with Snap and Grantline in that dark doorway, to where the brain upon its arms and legs, and why we of Earth and Venus and Mars are all in the same we call human. It is a little family of planets, here in our system; for we have been close neighbors. The same sunlight, the same of life, the same[27] seed, were here by a wise Creator. A man from the Orient is different from an Anglo-Saxon; a man of Mars a little more. But they are the same.
Yet, us now was a new type, from of space, our system.
"For the last time, will you talk?" Brayley.
There was another of silence. The of the brain were very watchful. Its the as though it were for help. It its little arms on the table, from the physical of supporting itself.
Brayley's voice came again. "Doubtless you can pain acutely. We shall see."
With what of will to overcome his we may only guess, he and the little arm. The result was electrifying. From the of mouth in that face, came a scream. It the of the hall, in its timbre, like nothing any of us had before. And in it was as though Brayley had not that arm, but had a red-hot knife into its vitals.
The brain pain indeed. It with arms and legs. The of its great to with distension; the blood-vessels were with blood. The rolled. Then it closed its mouth. Its upon Brayley's face, so a that as I see the of its a of and me.
"So you did not like that?" Brayley his voice. "If you don't want more, you had speak. How did you here on Earth? What are you trying to do here?"
There an silence; then Nippor took a step forward. "Speak! We will it from you!"
And then it spoke. "Do—not—touch—me—again."
Indescribable voice! Human, animal or no one say. But the were clear, precise; and for all their terror, they to an command.
A of the hall, but Brayley's it. He and low over the brain.
"So you can talk. You came as an enemy. We have given[28] you every today for friendship, and you have refused. What are you trying to do to us?"
It only glared.
"Speak!"
"I will not tell you anything."
"Oh, yes, you will."
"No!"
All the men on the were close to it now.
"Speak!" ordered Brayley again. "Here in Greater New York is a place. Where is it?"
No answer.
"Where is it? You are a leader of your world. I lead ours, and I'm going to master you now. Where is this place?"
The thing laughed, a gruesome, cackle. "You will know when it is too late. I think it is too late already."
"Too late for what?"
"To save your world. Doomed, your three worlds! Don't touch—me!"
It ended with a of as Nippor the little arm. "Tell us!"
"No!" It again. "Let—me—go!"
"Tell us!" Nippor his grip. The thing was writhing, the thin of palpitating, heaving. And it burst. Over all its surface, blood came with a gush.
Nippor and Brayley backward. The of the brain ended in a gurgle. The little and under it; the of to the table. It rolled upon one arm and ear, and in a moment its ceased. A purple-red of blood, it and flabby.
It was dead.[29]
