Part 2 (1/2)

”It's probably foolish talk, but we don't know their present psychology.

Double production on our most impressive weapons. Give the artificial-satellite program all the money it wants, and get them moving on it. I want a missile-launching site in s.p.a.ce before the end of the year. Pay particular attention to depopulation weapons for use against industrial areas. We may have to strike in a hurry. We've been fools--coasting this way, feeling secure behind the Wall.”

”You're _not_ contemplating another peace-effort, John?” gasped an elderly Stand-in.

”I'm contemplating survival!” the leader snapped. ”I don't know that we're in serious danger, but if it takes a peace-effort to make sure, then we'll start one. So fast it'll knock out their industry before they know we've hit them.” He stood frozen for a moment, the mask lifted proudly erect. ”By Ike, I love the West! And it's not going to suffer any creeping eruption while I'm at its head!”

When the President had finished and was ready to leave, the others started donning their masks again.

”Just a minute,” he grunted. ”Number Six.”

One of the men, about the President's size and build, looked up quickly.

”Yes, John?”

”Your cloak is stained at the left shoulder. Grease?”

Six inspected it curiously, then nodded. ”I was inspecting a machine shop, and--”

”Never mind. Trade cloaks with me.”

”Why, if--” Six stopped. His face lost color. ”But the others--might have--”

”Precisely.”

Six unclasped it slowly and handed it to the Sixteenth Smith, accepting the President's in return. His face was set in rigid lines, but he made no further protest.

Masked and prepared, a Stand-in whistled a tune to the door, which had changed its combination since the last time. The tumblers clicked, and they walked out into a large auditorium containing two hundred Secondary Stand-ins, all wearing the official mask.

If a Secondary ever wanted to a.s.sa.s.sinate the President, one shot would give him a single chance in ten as they filed through the door.

”Mill about!” bellowed a Sergeant-at-Arms, and the two hundred began wandering among themselves in the big room, a queer porridge, stirred clumsily but violently. The Primaries and the President lost themselves in the throng. For ten minutes the room milled and circulated.

”Unmask!” bellowed the crier.

The two hundred and ten promptly removed their helmets and placed them on the floor. The President was unmasked and unknown--unmarked except by a certain physical peculiarity that could be checked only by a physician, in case the authenticity of the presidential person was challenged, as it frequently was.

Then the Secondaries went out to lose themselves in a larger throng of Tertiaries, and the group split randomly to take the various underground highways to their homes.

The President entered his house in the suburbs of Dia City, hugged the children, and kissed his wife.

John Smith was profoundly disturbed. During the years of the Big Silence, a feeling of uneasy security had evolved. The Federation had been in isolation too long, and the East had become a mysterious unknown. The Presidency had oscillated between suspicious unease and smug confidence, depending perhaps upon the personality of the particular president more than anything else. The mysteriousness of the foe had been used politically to good advantage by every president selected to office, and the Sixteenth Smith had intended to so use it.

But now he vaguely regretted it.

The tenure of office was still four years, and he could not help feeling that if he had maintained the intercontinental silence, he would not have had to worry about the spy-matter. If the hemisphere had been infiltrated, the subversive work had not begun yesterday. It had probably been going on for years, during several administrations, and the plans of the East, if any, would perhaps not come to a climax for several more years. He felt himself in the position of a man who suffered no pain as yet, but learned that he had an incurable disease.

Why did he have to find out?

But now that the danger was apparent, he had to go ahead and fight it instead of allowing it to pa.s.s on to the next John Smith.