Part 4 (2/2)
The time of paralysis varied with the individual and Doc Wilc.o.x looked husky enough not to stay frozen very long. If Pell and Kronski returned to their original positions after he came out of it he would never know that anything had happened.
Far back on a lower shelf of the refrigerator were a dozen small bottles of the same type. Pell grabbed one, glanced at the label, nodded, and dropped it into his pocket. They took their places again.
A few moments later Wilc.o.x moved slightly and said, ”Yup. Moon's a funny place all right. You either like it or you don't.”
The rest of the conversation was fairly uninspired. Pell didn't want to walk out too quickly, and had to keep up the pretense of interviewing Wilc.o.x for a magazine story. It wasn't easy. They excused themselves finally, saying they'd be back for more information as soon as they made up some notes and got the overall picture--whatever that meant. Wilc.o.x seemed satisfied with it.
They hurried back along the tunnel, descended to another level and found the Augea Post Office. They showed the postmaster their C.I.B. s.h.i.+elds and identification cards and arranged for quick and special handling for the bottle of vaccine. Pell marked it _Attention, Lab_, and it was scheduled to take a quick rocket to the Endymion landing and the next unmanned mail rocket back to World City.
Pell stayed at the Post Office to make out a quick report on the incident so he wouldn't have to bore Ciel by doing it in the room, and Kronski sauntered on back to the hotel.
There was a fax receiver there and Pell, missing the hourly voice bulletins of World City Underground, checked it for news. The pages were coming out in a long tongue. He looked at the first headline:
VENUSIAN OBSERVERS ADMITTED TO WORLD CONGRESS
Well, that was a step in the right direction. Maybe one of these days they'd get around to a Solar Congress, as they ought to. The recent open war with Venus had taught both Earthmen and Venusians a lot about s.p.a.ce travel, and it was probably possible to explore the solar system further right now. No one had yet gone beyond the asteroids. Recent observations from the telescope stations here on the moon had found what seemed to be geometrical markings on some of Jupiter's satellites. Life there? Could be. Candidates for a brotherhood of the zodiac--if both Terrans and Venusians could get the concept of brotherhood pounded through their still partially savage skulls.
Another headline:
'WE CAN LICK UNIVERSE'--WAR SEC
Not so good, that. Loose talk. Actually it was an Undersecretary of War who had said it. Pell ran over the rest of the article quickly and came to what seemed to him a significant excerpt. ”_Certain patriotic groups in the world today are ready and willing to make the necessary sacrifices to get it over with. There is a fundamental difference between Earthmen and other creatures of the system, and this difference can be resolved only by the dominance of one over the other._”
Supremist stuff. Strictly. If this Undersecretary were not actually a member he was at least a supporter of the Supremist line. And that line had an appeal for the unthinking, Pell had to admit. It was pleasant to convince yourself that you were a superior specimen, that you were chosen....
VENUSIAN SPY SUSPECTS HELD ON MARS
Pell frowned deeply at that one and read the story. A couple of Venusian miners on Mars had wandered too close to one of the Earth military outposts, and had been nabbed. He doubted that they were spies; he doubted that the authorities holding them thought so. But it seemed to make a better story with a slight scare angle. He thought about how Mars was divided at an arbitrary meridian--half to Venus, half to Earth. The division solved nothing, pleased n.o.body. Joe Citizen, the man in the tunnels could see these things, why couldn't these so-called trained diplomats?
Pell finished his report, questioned the Postmaster a little on routine facts concerning the town, and went back to the hotel.
Ciel was waiting for him. She was in a smart, frontless frock of silvercloth. Her golden hair shone. Her large, dark eyes looked deep, moist, alive. She looked at him questioningly? and he read the silent question: _Now can you spare a little time?_
”Baby,” he said softly, and kissed her.
”Mm,” he said when he had finished kissing her.
The voice-phone rang.
He said, ”d.a.m.n it.”
It was Kronski, in his own room next door. ”Did Wilc.o.x leave yet?” he asked.
”Wilc.o.x?”
”Yeah. The Doc. Is he still there?”
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