Master Of Life And Death Read online

  Percy practically backed out of the office.

  * * *

  “Why did you do that?” McLeod asked, puzzled.

  “You mean, why did I let him off so lightly?”

  McLeod nodded. “In the military,” he said, “we’d have a man shot for doing a thing like that.”

  “This isn’t the military,” Walton said. “And even though the man behaved like a congenital idiot yesterday, that’s not enough evidence to push him into Happysleep. Besides, he knows his stuff. I can’t afford to discharge him.”

  “Are public relations men that hard to come by?”

  “No. But he’s a good one—and the prospect of having him desert to the other side frightens me. He’ll be forever grateful to me now. If I had fired him, he would’ve had half a dozen anti-Popeek articles in the Citizen before the week was out. And they’d ruin us.”

  McLeod smiled appreciatively. “You handle your job well, Mr. Walton.”

  “I have to,” Walton said. “The director of Popeek is paid to produce two or three miracles per hour. One gets used to it, after a while. Tell me about these aliens, Colonel McLeod.”

  McLeod swung a briefcase to Walton’s desk and flipped the magneseal. He handed Walton a thick sheaf of glossy color photos.

  “The first dozen or so are scenes of the planet,” McLeod explained. “It’s Procyon VIII—number eight out of sixteen, unless we missed a couple. We checked sixteen worlds in the system, anyway. Ten of ‘em were methane giants; we didn’t even bother to land. Two were ammonia supergiants, even less pleasant. Three small ones had no atmosphere at all worth speaking about, and were no more livable-looking than Mercury. And the remaining one was the one we call New Earth. Take a look, sir.”

  Walton looked. The photos showed rolling hills covered with close-packed shrubbery, flowing rivers, a lovely sunrise. Several of the shots were of indigenous life—a wizened little four-handed monkey, a six-legged doglike thing, a toothy bird.

  “Life runs to six limbs there,” Walton observed. “But how livable can this place be? Unless your photos are sour, that grass is blue … and the water’s peculiar looking, too. What sort of tests did you run?”

  “It’s the light, sir. Procyon’s a double star; that faint companion gets up in the sky and does tricky things to the camera. That grass may look blue, but it’s a chlorophyll-based photosynthesizer all the same. And the water’s nothing but H2O, even with that purple tinge.”

  Walton nodded. “How about the atmosphere?”

  “We were breathing it for a week, and no trouble. It’s pretty rich in oxygen—twenty-four percent. Gives you a bouncy feeling—just right for pioneers, I’d say.”

  “You’ve prepared a full report on this place, haven’t you?”

  “Of course. It’s right here.” McLeod started to reach for his briefcase.

  “Not just yet,” Walton said. “I want to go through the rest of these snapshots.” He turned over one after another rapidly until he came to a photo that showed a strange blocky figure, four-armed, bright green in color. Its neckless head was encased in a sort of breathing mask fashioned from some transparent plastic. Three cold, brooding eyes peered outward.

  “What’s this?” Walton asked.

  “Oh, that.” McLeod attempted a cheerful grin. “That’s a Dirnan. They live on Procyon IX, one of the ammonia-giant planets. They’re the aliens who don’t want us there.”

  XII

  Walton stared at the photograph of the alien. There was intelligence there… yes, intelligence and understanding, and perhaps even a sort of compassion.

  He sighed. There were always qualifications, never unalloyed successes.

  “Colonel McLeod, how long would it take your ship to return to the Procyon system?” he asked thoughtfully.

  McLeod considered the question. “Hardly any time, sir. A few days, maybe. Why?”

  “Just a wild idea. Tell me about your contact with these—ah—Dirnans.”

  “Well, sir, they landed after we’d spent more than a week surveying New Earth. There were six of them, and they had their translating widget with them. They told us who they were, and wanted to know who we were. We told them. They said they ran the Procyon system, and weren’t of a mind to let any alien beings come barging in.”

  “Did they sound hostile?” Walton asked.

  “Oh, no. Just businesslike. We were trespassing, and they asked us to get off. They were cold about it, but not angry.”

  “Fine,” Walton said. “Look here, now. Do you think you could go back to their world as—well as an ambassador from Earth? Bring one of the Dirnans here for treaty talks, and such?”

  “I suppose so,” McLeod said hesitantly. “If it’s necessary.”

  “It looks as if it may be. You had no luck in any of the other nearby systems?”

  “No.”

  “Then Procyon VIII’s our main hope. Tell your men we’ll offer double pay for this cruise. And make it as fast as you know how.”

  “Hyperspace travel’s practically instantaneous,” McLeod said. “We spent most of our time cruising on standard ion drive from planet to planet. Maneuvering in the sub-space manifold’s a snap, though.”

  “Good. Snap it up, then. Back to Nairobi and clear out of there as soon as you’re ready. Remember, it’s urgent you bring one of the aliens here for treaty talks.”

  “I’ll do my best,” McLeod said.

  * * *

  Walton stared at the empty seat where McLeod had been, and tried to picture a green Dirnan sitting there, goggling at him with its three eyes.

  He was beginning to feel like a juggler. Popeek activity proceeded on so many fronts at once that it quite dazzled him. And every hour there were new challenges to meet, new decisions to make.

  At the moment, there were too many eggs and not enough baskets. Walton realized he was making the same mistake FitzMaugham had, that of carrying too much of the Popeek workings inside his skull. If anything happened to him, the operation would be fatally paralyzed, and it would be some time before the gears were meshing again.

  He resolved to keep a journal, to record each day a full and mercilessly honest account of each of the many maneuvers in which he was engaged. He would begin with his private conflict with Fred and the interests Fred represented, follow through with the Lamarre-immortality episode, and include a detailed report on the problems of the subsidiary projects, New Earth and Lang’s terraforming group.

  That gave him another idea. Reaching for his voice-write, he dictated a concise confidential memorandum instructing Assistant Administrator Eglin to outfit an investigatory mission immediately; purpose, to go to Venus and make contact with Lang. The terraforming group was nearly two weeks overdue in its scheduled report. He could not ignore that any longer.

  The everlasting annunciator chimed, and Walton switched on the screen. It was Sellors, and from the look of abject terror on the man’s face, Walton knew that something sticky had just transpired.

  “What is it, Sellors? Any luck in tracing Lamarre?”

  “None, sir,” the security chief said. “But there’s been another development, Mr. Walton. A most serious one. Most serious.”

  Walton was ready to expect anything—a bulletin announcing the end of the universe, perhaps. “Well, tell me about it,” he snapped impatiently.

  Sellors seemed about ready to collapse with shame. He said hesitantly, “One of the communications technicians was making a routine check of the building’s circuits, Mr. Walton. He found one trunk-line that didn’t seem to belong where it was, so he checked up and found out that it had been newly installed.”

  “Well, what of it?”

  “It was a spy pickup with its outlet in your office, sir,” Sellors said, letting the words tumble out in one blur. “All the time you were talking this morning, someone was spying on you.”

  Walton grabbed the arms of his chair. “Are you telling me that your department was blind enough to let someone pipe a spy pickup right into this o
ffice?” he demanded. “Where did this outlet go? And is it cut off?”

  “They cut it off as soon as they found it, sir. It went to a men’s lavatory on the twenty-sixth floor.”

  “And how long was it in operation?”

  “At least since last night, sir. Communications assures me that it couldn’t possibly have been there before yesterday afternoon, since they ran a general check then and didn’t see it.”

  Walton groaned. It was small comfort to know that he had had privacy up till last evening; if the wrong people had listened in on his conversation with McLeod, there would be serious trouble.

  “All right, Sellors. This thing can’t be your fault, but keep your eyes peeled in the future. And tell Communications that my office is to be checked for such things twice a day from now on, at 0900 and at 1300.”

  “Yes, sir.” Sellors looked tremendously relieved.

  “And start interrogating the Communications technicians. Find out who’s responsible for that spy circuit, and hold him on security charges. And locate Lamarre!”

  “I’ll do my best, Mr. Walton.”

  While the screen was clearing, Walton jotted down a memorandum to himself: investigate Sellors. So far, as security chief, Sellors had allowed an assassin to reach FitzMaugham, allowed Prior to burst into Walton’s old office, permitted Fred to masquerade as a doorsmith long enough to gain access to Walton’s private files, and stood by blindly while Lee Percy tapped into Walton’s private wire and some unidentified technician strung a spy pickup into the director’s supposedly sacred office.

  No security chief could have been as incompetent as all that. It had to be a planned campaign, directed from the outside.

  He dialed Eglin.

  “Olaf, you get my message about the Venus rescue mission okay?”

  “Came through a few minutes ago. I’ll have the specs drawn up by tonight.”

  “Devil with that,” Walton said. “Drop everything and send that ship out now. I’ve got to know what Lang and his crew are up to, and I have to know right away. If we don’t produce a livable Venus, or at least the possibility of one, in a couple of days, we’ll be in for it on all sides.”

  “Why? What’s up?”

  “You’ll see. Keep an eye on the telefax. I’ll bet the next edition of Citizen is going to be interesting.”

  * * *

  It was.

  The glossy sheets of the 1200 Citizen extruded themselves from a million receivers in the New York area, but none of those million copies was as avidly pounced on as was Director Walton’s. He had been hovering near the wall outlet for ten minutes, avidly awaiting the sheet’s arrival.

  And he was not disappointed.

  The streamer headline ran:

  THINGS FROM SPACE NIX BIG POPEEK PLAN

  And under it in smaller type:

  Greenskinned Uglies Put Feet In Director Walton’s Big Mouth

  He smiled grimly and went on to the story, itself. Written in the best approved Citizen journalese, it read:

  Fellow human beings, we’ve been suckered again. TheCitizenfound out for sure this morning that the big surprise Popeek’s Interim Director Walton yanked out of his hat last night has a hole in it.

  It’s sure dope that there’s a good planet up there in the sky for grabs. The way we hear it, it’s just like earth only prettier, with trees and flowers (remember them?). Our man says the air there is nice and clean. This world sounds okay.

  But what Walton didn’t know last night came home to roost today. Seems the folks on the next planet out there don’t want any sloppy old Earthmen messing up their pasture—and so we ain’t going to have any New Earth after all. Wishy-washy Walton is a cinch to throw in the towel now.

  More dope in later editions. And check the edit page for extra info.

  * * *

  It was obvious, Walton thought, that the spy pickup which had been planted in his office had been a direct pipe line to the Citizen news desk. They had taken his conversation with McLeod and carefully ground it down into the chatty, informal, colloquial style that made Citizen the world’s most heavily-subscribed telefax service.

  He shuddered at what might have happened if they’d had their spy pickup installed a day earlier, and overheard Walton in the process of suppressing Lamarre’s immortality serum. There would have been a lynch mob storming theCullenBuilding ten minutes after the Citizen hit the waves with its expose.

  Not that he was much better off now. He no longer had the advantage of secrecy to cloak his actions, and public officials who were compelled to conduct business in the harsh light of public scrutiny generally didn’t hold their offices for long.

  He turned the sheet over and searched for the editorial column, merely to confirm his expectations.

  It was captioned in bold black:

  ARE WE PATSIES FOR GREENSKINS?

  And went on to say:

  Non-human beings have said “Whoa!” to our plans for opening up a new world in space. These aliens have put thumbs down on colonization of the New Earth discovered by Colonel Leslie McLeod.

  Aside from the question of why Popeek kept word of the McLeod expedition from the public so long, there is this to consider— will we take this lying down?

  We’ve got to find space for us to live. New Earth is a good place. The answer to the trouble is easy: we take New Earth. If the greenskins don’t like it, bounce ‘em!

  How about it? What do we do? Mr. Walton, we want to know. What goes?

  * * *

  It was an open exhortation to interstellar warfare. Dispiritedly, Walton let the telefax sheets skitter to the floor, and made no move to pick them up.

  War with the Dirnans? If Citizen had its way, there would be. The telefax sheet would remorselessly stir the people up until the cry for war was unanimous.

  Well, thought Walton callously, a good war would reduce the population surplus. The idiots!

  * * *

  He caught the afternoon newsblares. They were full of the Citizen break, and one commentator made a point-blank demand that Walton either advocate war with the Dirnans or resign.

  Not long afterward, UN delegate Ludwig called.

  “Some hot action over here today,” he told Walton. “After that Citizen thing got out, a few of the Oriental delegates started howling for your scalp on sixteen different counts of bungling. What’s going on, Walton?”

  “Plenty of spy activity, for one thing. The main problem, though, is the nucleus of incompetent assistants surrounding me. I think I’m going to reduce the local population personally before the day is out. With a blunt instrument, preferably.”

  “Is there any truth in the Citizen story?”

  “Hell, yes!” Walton exclaimed. “For once, it’s gospel! An enterprising telefax man rigged a private pipeline into my office last night and no one caught it until it was too late. Sure, those aliens are holding out. They don’t want us coming up there.”

  Ludwig chewed at his lip. “You have any plans?”

  “Dozens of them. Want some, cheap?” He laughed, a brittle, unamused laugh.

  “Seriously, Roy. You ought to go on the air again and smooth this thing over. The people are yelling for war with these Dirnans, and half of us over here at the UN aren’t even sure the damned creatures exist. Couldn’t you fake it up a little?”

  “No,” Walton said. “There’s been enough faking. I’m going on the air with the truth for a change! Better have all your delegates over there listening in, because their ears are in for an opening.”

  As soon as he was rid of Ludwig he called Lee Percy.

  “That program on the conquest of space is almost ready to go,” the public relations man informed him.

  “Kill it. Have you seen the noon Citizen?”

  “No; been too busy on the new program. Anything big?”

  Walton chuckled. “Fairly big. The Citizen just yanked the rug out from under everything. We’ll probably be at war with Procyon IX by sundown. I want you to buy me air space o
n every medium for the 1900 spot tonight.”

  “Sure thing. What kind of speech you want us to cook up?”

  “None at all,” Walton said. “I’m going to speak off the cuff for a change. Just buy the time for me, and squeeze the budget for all it’s worth.”

  XIII

  The bright light of the video cameras flooded the room. Percy had done a good job; there was a representative from every network, every telefax, every blare of any sort at all. The media had been corralled. Walton’s words would echo round the world.

  He was seated behind his desk—seated, because he could shape his words more forcefully that way, and also because he was terribly tired. He smiled into the battery of cameras.

  “Good evening,” he said. “I’m Roy Walton, speaking to you from the offices of the Bureau of Population Equalization. I’ve been director of Popeek for a little less than a week, now, and I’d like to make a report— a progress report, so to speak.

  “We of Popeek regard ourselves as holding a mandate from you, the people. After all, it was the world-wide referendum last year that enabled the United Nations to put us into business. And I want to tell you how the work of Popeek is going.

  “Our aim is to provide breathing space for human beings. The world is vastly overcrowded, with its seven billion people. Popeek’s job is to ease that overcrowded-ness, to equalize the population masses of the world so that the empty portions of the globe are filled up and the extremely overcrowded places thinned out a little. But this is only part of our job—the short-range, temporary part. We’re planning for the future here. We know we can’t keep shifting population from place to place on Earth; it won’t work forever. Eventually every square inch is going to be covered, and then where do we go?