Part 22 (2/2)

”But surely there must be _some_ larger females! Perhaps a system of selective breeding, on a gradual basis--”

”You're talking in terms of generations. We haven't got that much time.” Thurmon shook his head. ”No, we're stopped right here. We can't get normal babies without normal women, and the only normal women are those who began life as normal babies.”

”Which comes first?” Littlejohn murmured. ”The chicken or the egg?”

”What's that?”

”Nothing. Just an old saying. From history.”

Thurmon frowned. ”Apparently, then, that's all you can offer in your professional capacity as an historian. Just some old sayings.” He sighed. ”Too bad you don't know some old prayers. Because we need them now.”

He bowed his head, signifying the end of the interview.

Littlejohn rolled out of the room.

His 'copter took him back to his own dwelling, back across the rooftops of New Chicagee. Ordinarily, Littlejohn avoided looking down.

He dreaded heights, and the immensity of the city itself was somehow appalling. But now he gazed upon the capital and center of civilization with a certain morbid affection.

New Chicagee had risen on the ashes of the old, after the war's end.

Use of thermo-nucs had been limited, fortunately, so radioactivity did not linger, and the vast craters hollowed out by ordinary warheads had been partially filled by rubble and debris. Artificial fill had done the rest of the job, so that now New Chicagee was merely a flat prairie as it must have been hundreds of years ago--a flat prairie on which the city had been resurrected. There were almost fifty thousand people here in the capital; the largest congregation of population on the entire continent. They had built well and surely this time, built for the security and certainty of centuries to come.

Littlejohn sighed. It was hard to accept the fact that they had been wrong; that all this would end in nothingness. They had eliminated war, eliminated disease, eliminated famine, eliminated social inequality, injustice, disorders external and internal--and in so doing, they had eliminated themselves.

The sun was setting in the west, and long shadows crept over the city below. Yes, the sun was setting and the shadows were gathering, the night was coming to claim its own. Darkness was falling, eternal darkness.

It was quite dark by the time Littlejohn's 'copter landed on the rooftop of his own dwelling; so dark, in fact, that for a moment he didn't see the strange vehicle already standing there. Not until he had settled into his coasterchair did he notice the presence of the other 'copter, and then it was too late. Too late to do anything except sit and stare as the gigantic shadow loomed out of the night, silhouetted against the sky.

The shadow shambled forward, and Littlejohn gaped, gaped in terror at the t.i.tanic figure. He opened his mouth to speak, but words did not form; there were no words to form, for how does one address an apparition?

Instead, it was the apparition which spoke.

”I have been waiting for you,” it said.

”Y-yes--”

”I want to talk to you.” The voice was deep, menacing.

Littlejohn s.h.i.+fted in his coasterchair. There was nowhere to go, no escape. He gazed up at the shadow. Finally he summoned a response.

”Shall we go inside?” he asked.

The figure shook its head. ”Where? Down into that dollhouse of yours?

It isn't big enough. I've already been there. What I have to say can be said right here.”

”W-who are you?”

The figure stepped forward, so that its face was illuminated by the fluorescence streaming from the open door which led to the inclined chairway descending to Littlejohn's dwelling.

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