The COMPLEAT Collected Short SFF Stories

by Sterling E. Lanier

  Finishing his coffee, Hardwick rose and followed Allen out of the noise and into the seemingly endless corridor outside.

  They had only passed a couple of guards when Allen stopped at a blank door and gestured to Hardwick to stand beside him. Apparently there was some sort of scanning device in the featureless metal door, because it slid back at once into a grooved opening. Beyond the opening, a guard waved them forward into yet another corridor, but this time set at right angles to the first.

  "How can every guard know everyone here?" asked Hardwick as he followed Allen on.

  "They don't," was the answer. "In each specified area, only certain people of the whole population have any business. Anyone else doesn't get in; and if he tried, a report would go in to security center at once. Very fast action follows. I go anywhere, and so does anyone with me, of course."

  THEY ENTERED other doors, passed other guards, at one point used a ramp and at another, an elevator. It all seemed confusing to Hardwick, and he realized that it would be equally confusing to anyone who tried to penetrate the place from outside and managed to get past the outer guards.

  "What's the level of education here if an M.A. in Biochemistry is a guard?" he asked, a bit further on.

  "I have a B.A. in journalism from Connecticut," said Allen, "and I must be at the bottom of the ladder."

  "Then this place was all actually built by these brains, if I understand you correctly, and they're now all cheerfully doing guard and maintenance work as a result?"

  "I came late," was Allen's reply, "but they even had me doing some electrical wiring. The whole place was built in one and a half months, starting with the Center. The first work was done entirely in space suits, around the center dome, but we're not in space, despite what I said earlier. Another minute and you'll see something. This is the last checkpoint."

  They stopped before still another featureless door. When it slid open, it revealed a metal desk and two more blue-coveralled men just inside, one seated behind the desk, one standing. They both nodded affably as Allen disgorged a short-barrelled Smith and Wesson .38, a German Fallschirmjager knife and a set of C.I.A. picklocks on to the desktop. Then he waited with arms raised as the standing man went over him in a thorough frisk.

  "You too, Al," he said. "These particular boys have orders to let only certain people, of whom you are now one, in here. But no one goes in unsearched, ever, including Dr. Butler. That's a house rule."

  Hardwick was searched in turn and a small pocket knife was added to the pile on the desk.

  "You see," continued Allen, "this is the inner circle. There are no guards from now on, only a few monitors and technicians. Everything that needs doing from here on could be done by robots and servomechanisms in an emergency, with the rest of the place sealed off completely. This last check is one against plain and simple lunacy. I could do a little damage here with my bare hands, but not much. So I give up the arsenal and pick it up on the way out."

  BY THIS time, they had left a short corridor and were now in a circular one, into which the first had led. A curve, like that of a rounded dome, made up one wall, as if the corridor in which they stood were circling a giant sphere. Near where the two had paused, a woman in a white lab coat was staring through a square glassed port in the dome wall. Her back was to the two men, but as they walked over, Hardwick was not surprised to see Dr. Butler turn and face them.

  "I wanted to see your reaction, General," she said, unsmiling. "I have few diversions these days, and this is one of them. Come and meet the ruler of the world."

  Hardwick walked to the inch-thick window and looked in and down.

  On the padded white floor below him, Joseph was having his morning nap. As Hardwick watched in amazement, he stirred in his sleep and a small pink thumb found its way to the cupid's-bow mouth.

  Still unable to comprehend what he saw, Hardwick stared down at the sleeping baby for another minute and then turned back to stare in equal amazement at the other man and the woman who were watching him. In their eyes he saw a seriousness which left him no room for doubt. And in the woman's expression, Hardwick sensed a terrible pain, a pain which no man could ever feel.

  There was a moment of silence as the three looked at each other and then Allen grunted.

  "Come on back to Joanne's office with us. You've just seen Joseph, the most dangerous creature on earth. Now, you really need information! Your own mission, Al, is now starting, and you have a lot to learn."

  Chapter Five

  EXACTLY five weeks later to the day—rather the night—Hardwick stood on the sloping deck of the United States Polaris sub Anthony Wayne and spoke quietly with a group of his fellow passengers.

  Around the ship, little waves lapped at the hull, and in the near distance a muffled roar proclaimed surf breaking over the outer reef of a small atoll. The warm night air of the South Pacific flowed over the immobile submarine, and a blaze of stars in the black sky shed almost as much light as a northern moon at full.

  Hardwick was exchanging idle talk with a tall gray-haired naval officer when the latter was called away by a voice from the next group forward.

  "How much longer, Admiral? Isn't it time yet?"

  "They're late now, Sir," was the answer. "We expected that. Sonar and radar report them out there, snooping around. Probably a matter of face, making us wait. We have orders to stay here for two hours, unless there's a counter order from Pearl."

  A low call from the top of the submarine's towering mast sent the admiral hurrying over. The civilian to whom he had been speaking moved along the deck to where Hardwick was standing gazing out to sea.

  "Think they're coming, General?"

  "Mr. Secretary, I hope to God they're coming." Hardwick tried to read Defense Secretary Madden's expression by the tropic starlight, but the eyes in the pale face were simply pools of shadow.

  "They said they'd come," he went on. "Their ambassador in Warsaw guaranteed all the arrangements. I think they'll come. What in hell have they got to lose?"

  The tall figure of the admiral had returned, and he now reported to the Secretary.

  "The instruments say a big sub is heading away from the pack out there and moving straight in at ten knots. I think you'd better get ready."

  "I have my overnight bag and here's Chief Justice Reeves with his. Nothing left to do but for us to thank you for the trip. Good luck to all you gentlemen."

  "Good luck to you, Sir, and you, too, Mr. Chief Justice. Hope to see you soon."

  HARDWICK continued to watch with attention when a little later, the squatter, more massive form of the Red Chinese atom sub moved alongside the Wayne. You never knew what tiny detail would come in handy in intelligence work. He had seen pictures of the new enemy vessels before but the real thing was awe-inspiring, considering that the Chinese navy of fifteen years earlier had been mostly P.T. boats and wooden minesweepers.

  He was at the head of the gangway when the Chinese delegation appeared and he saluted them formally. The three uniformed members of the body saluted in return, albeit stiffly. The five civilians simply ignored him and walked on past to the deck of the U.S. vessel. Two officers motioned them to follow, and they all went below decks. Hardwick continued to watch the other vessel.

  He watched the Chief Justice and the Secretary of Defense of the United States and their two aides enter the hatch of the enemy sub, now cast off, and then the hatch close. The great ship moved off at once, heading out to sea to join the invisible armada which had accompanied it. When it had vanished from sight, he went below to meet the newly arrived passengers.

  They were standing about in the special lounge which had been fitted out for them, faces immobile, not even talking, when he entered. He closed the hatch behind him and moved to the center of the cabin, while they all turned to stare at him.

  "Good evening, Gentlemen," he said, speaking in impeccable Mandarin. "I am Brigadier General Hardwick of the American army, your host for the duration of this journey, until you are returned t
o your compatriots. Please let me know of anything which I can do to serve you. Any questions you have will be answered to the best of my ability, barring certain matters of security, of course. May I know your names? Do you wish tea?"

  SIXTEEN dark eyes regarded him implacably. But it was obvious that someone had to speak, and the senior officer, a gaunt man who wore the gold and red rank badges of a Marshal of the Chinese People's Army on his immaculate khakis stepped a pace forward.

  "Tea will be welcome, General. I am Marshal Sun Lo Jen, chief of this delegation. My companions in the service are Generals Wu Sen Fang and Li Peng, who command respectively the Sixth and Eighth Armies of the People's Defense Force.

  "These other colleagues are Drs. Kai Li Po and Chang Hsien of our Central Medical Bureau and Drs. Feng Hsi Liang and Kuo Tai Min of the People's Ministry of Defense, Chemical and Bacteriological Division."

  "I am honored to meet all of you," said Hardwick politely. "Especially General Wu Sen Fang, who so closely resembles another officer, General Lo Jui Chen, the recently appointed Director of all the Combined Security Services of the Chinese People's Republic."

  "I in turn am flattered by your attention," said the now unmasked head of all the Chinese intelligence and police forces. He was a short, powerful man with an oval face, high cheek bones and close-cropped, black hair who smiled politely at Hardwick.

  "We in turn are honored to have a Deputy Director of U.S. Army Intelligence serve as our guide," be continued in very fair English.

  Hardwick nodded. Point and riposte!

  "Here's the tea and some sandwiches," he said as the door opened to admit a parade of tray-bearing stewards. "If any of you would rather go straight to bed, I can have you shown your quarters. We'll rendezvous with our carrier at about eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

  "I think we would all like a little talk first," said Lo Jui Chen, who appeared to be quite undiscomfited by the disclosure of his identity. Although militarily ranked by the Marshal, he was a member of the Chinese Politbureau and far more important a man. Since he could not have hoped to deceive U.S. intelligence, the name change must have been for internal Chinese consumption, thought Hardwick to himself. There must still be power plays going on back home in Peking, then.

  "There is no point in wasting time in foolishness," continued General Lo. He had reverted to Chinese, which made Hardwick sure he wanted his associates to understand perfectly what he was saying.

  "Where are we going, if it is not too much to ask?"

  "We are going, as I mentioned earlier, to meet a carrier," said Hard-wick. "Why don't we all sit down for a moment, and I'll sketch the trip?"

  HE WAITED until the eight Orientals had seated themselves in a semicircle around his own chair and were sipping their tea before going on.

  "From the carrier we will fly to the States, board a sealed helicopter and go to an unnamed installation. In that installation, whose exact location I don't know myself, by the way, you will be shown certain things and allowed to move about wherever you wish. You will be accorded free use of laboratories and equipment to make any tests you desire. I saw, from the cases you brought along, that a great deal of testing equipment was included in your baggage. That's fine as far as we are concerned. You will be given every facility to use it. I must, however, tell you that you will be rigorously searched and so will your baggage before arriving at the site. No communications devices or electronic homers of any kind will be permitted.

  "You will be shown quarters at your destination which you may or may not believe to be free from bugs or observation. Anything of that nature you find you are welcome to destroy.

  "At the end of seven days or even longer, as pre-arranged with your government, you will be allowed to leave the way you came. You will be expected to send one uncoded signal authorizing the re-exchange of Chief Justice Reeves and Secretary Madden at this same rendezvous. Are there any other questions?"

  "I have so many that they would be completely pointless," replied General Lo coldly, "and I imagine my companions feel equally curious. To be frank, which you Caucasians consider a virtue, I believe neither in any of this fantastic story of a world-destroying weapon nor in even one of your assurances. I am obeying orders, however, and there is no more to be said. We would prefer to be left alone as much as possible. Perhaps we may be informed of the meal times and rest periods? Otherwise, we would wish to have as little as possible contact with your personnel, and certainly none of a social nature."

  "As you wish, gentlemen," said Hardwick. "I will say 'Goodnight' in that case. You can reach me at any hour if you want something." He bowed and left.

  Chapter Six

  "THEY'LL BE here in half an hour, Joanne," said Tom Allen to Dr. Butler. She merely looked at her watch and said nothing.

  A week had passed since a sealed helicopter had brought Hardwick and the eight Chinese by night to the landing area of Project Inside Straight, which Hardwick was now fairly sure was under a mountain, somewhere in the far West of the United States.

  The three, though Allen least of all, betrayed the strain of the past week by abrupt, staccato speech and nervous tension, try though they might to control it. Now, as they waited in the small auditorium for the Chinese to arrive for a final briefing and question period, they found it hard to sustain conversation.

  "Tom," said Hardwick abruptly, "can you offer any opinion on what their reaction has been? I'm supposed to be an expert on Chinese affairs, but I've never pretended that my knowledge wasn't mostly theory. I've always felt that the Defense Department people in the field were miles behind you C.I.A. types in that kind of training and in getting under the skin of an alien thinker."

  Allen gnawed meditatively on his unlit pipe for a second before answering.

  "Hard to say, pal. I haven't been eyeball to eyeball with these guys since the last Khamba uprising in Tibet, and that was quite a few years back. They certainly sent their top spooks, I'll say that, especially General Lo. He expressed great regrets that my wife had died last year, by the way, and most of the people on our own team never even knew I had one. Wise bastard!"

  He went on. "Well. I think they're edgy. Lord, why wouldn't they be? You both know all the daily tests we run on Joseph. They ran their own, and they all checked out, just as we knew they would. The one freak chance of a foulup would have been for him to lose his weird potential, maybe due to some obscure hormone or glandular change. I mean right while they were here, actually testing him, and that isn't likely or possible." He snorted and waved his pipe.

  "They're not crazy people, so I guess they must be scared. Hell, we're scared and we live with it day in, day out."

  HARDWICK looked over at Joanne Butler. Her expression, normally calm and impassive, was now, to his trained eye, getting a bit frayed at the edges. He felt again a quick moment of tragic empathy with this good-looking, quiet woman who had charge of so much grief and awesome power and who had carried the responsibility so well and bravely.

  She sensed him looking at her and smiled briefly as she looked up, her face softening for a moment into that of a young girl. He had never known a woman who affected him this way, thought Hardwick. He had always considered himself a hopeless bachelor, a man who had found passion at rare and fleeting moments and then gone on back to his work. But now he felt a daily, almost hourly, surge of protectiveness toward Joanne and was detached enough to know what it meant.

  Another thought also jogged his mind before he buried it forcefully. As the top boss of Inside Straight, he had, for the past month, spent many hours in going through the massive and voluminous personnel files. There, he had encountered almost in passing a tiny bit of information, something which had set him to thinking hard. He had been inclined to tell Allen when the first bizarre thought had stirred in his mind, but had not done so, and now he was glad. He suppressed the unbidden thought firmly and smiled back at Joanne as warmly as he could, conscious that the strain must be as visible on his face as it was on hers.

 
"It's ten forty-four, and they'll be here any second," said Allen. "Any last minute ideas?"

  "We've said it all," the woman answered. "All we can do is let Al give his little speech and wait for questions."

  As she spoke, a door at the far end of the auditorium opened and the Chinese delegation entered, the three military officers in front as usual. They had one Chinese-speaking companion, who had turned out, to Hardwick's surprise, to be Tableman, the chemist turned temporary gunman. It seemed that his job at his university had been that of a translator of Chinese papers on his subject. Not content with reading knowledge, he had gone on to learn the spoken language as well. It was he who had handled the scientists in the party and had conducted tours when Hardwick and Joanne were not available. He sat down quietly in the last row of seats while the Orientals moved up and took the first row.

  HARDWICK stood up in the center of the small stage, leaving the other two seated behind him, and addressed his audience in Mandarin.

  "Good morning, gentlemen. Before we commence this final briefing, I must formally ask whether you consider your task complete? Is there anything more you wish to see, or feel you have not been shown, concomitant with your acknowledged purpose in coming here? It will be best to save time by answering now."

  The Chinese glanced briefly at one another, but no one said a word. Then General Lo, long since fully and openly accepted as the delegation's real leader, stood up, nodded abruptly and spoke before resuming his place.

  "We feel there is nothing we have not seen. Whether the tests are reliable under your apparatus and supervision is another matter, but we have done all we can here."

  Hardwick grinned, but only to himself. The grudging admission was all he could have hoped for at this point. No modern Chinese, least of all a high Communist official, could publicly admit that anything Western was not somehow suspect, even if no tangible evidence existed.