that came out to see you. The senator and the general and the rest of them,
and when I got to Elmore I found that they were stopping at the Corn Belt
hotel. Isn’t that the damndest name…?
‘But, anyhow, I figured that they should know more about what was going
on down in Mississippi. I thought it might throw some light on the
situation. So I went down to the hotel to see the senator – that is, to try
to see him. It was a madhouse down there. There were great crowds of people
and the police were trying to keep order, but they had their hands full.
There were television cameras all over the place and newsmen and the radio
people – well, anyhow, I never saw the senator. But I saw someone else. Saw
him and recognized him from the pictures in the paper. The one called
Davenport…’
‘The biologist,’ I said.
‘Yes, that’s it. The scientist. I got him cornered and I tried to
explain I had to see the senator. He wasn’t too much help. I’m not even sure
be was hearing what I was saying. He seemed to be upset and he was sweating
like a mule and he was paper-white. I thought he might be sick and I asked
him if he was, if there was anything I could do for him. Then he told me. I
don’t think he meant to tell me. I think maybe he was sorry that he did
after he had told me. But he was so full of anger it was spilling out of him
and for the moment he didn’t care. The man was in anguish, I tell you. I
never saw a man as upset as be was. He grabbed me by the lapels and he stuck
his face up close to mine and he was so excited and he talked so fast that
he spit all over me. He wouldn’t have done a thing like that for all the
world; he’s not that sort of man…’
‘Alf,’ I pleaded. ‘Alf, get down to facts.’
‘I forgot to tell you,’ Alf said, ‘that the news had just broken about
that flying saucer you brought back. The radio was full of it. About how it
was spotting the nuclear concentrations. Well, I started to tell the
scientist about why I had to see the senator, about the project down in
Greenbriar. And that was when he began to talk, grabbing hold of me so I
couldn’t get away. He said the news of the aliens’ one condition, that we
disperse our nuclear capacity, was the worst thing that could have happened.
He said the Pentagon is convinced the aliens are a threat and that they must
be stopped…’
‘Alf,’ I said, suddenly weak, guessing what was coming.
‘And he said they know they must be stopped before they control more
territory and the only way to do it is an H-bomb right on top of Miilville.’
He stopped, half out of breath.
I didn’t say a thing. I couldn’t say a word, I was too paralysed. I was
remembering how the general had looked when I’d talked with him that morning
and the senator saying, ‘We have to trust you, boy. You hold us in your
hands.’
‘Brad,’ Alf asked, anxiously, ‘are you there? Did you hear me?’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I’m here.’
‘Davenport told me he was afraid this new development of the nuclear
pinpointing might push the military into action without due consideration –
knowing that they had to act or they’d not have anything to use. Like a man
with a gun, he said, facing a wild beast. He doesn’t want to kill the beast
unless he has to and there is always the chance the beast will slink away
and he won’t have to fire. But suppose he knows that in the next two minutes
his gun will disappear into thin air well, then he has to take a chance and
shoot before the gun can disappear. He has to kill the beast while he still
has a gun.’
‘And now,’ I said, speaking more levelly than I would have thought
possible, ‘Millville is the beast.’
‘Not Millville, Brad. Just…’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘most certainly not Millville. Tell that to the people
when the bomb explodes.’
‘This Davenport was beside himself. He had no business talking to
me…’
‘You think he knows what he is talking about? He had a row with the
general this morning.’
‘I think he knows more than he told me, Brad. He talked for a couple of
minutes and then he buttoned up. As though he knew he had no business
talking. But he’s obsessed with one idea. He thinks the only thing that can
stop the military is the force of public opinion. He thinks that if what
they plan is known, there’ll be such an uproar they’d be afraid to move.
Not only, he pointed out, would the public be outraged at such
cold-bloodedness, but the public wants these aliens in; they’re for anyone
who can break the bomb. And this biologist of yours is going to plant this
story. He didn’t say he would, but that’s what he was working up to. He’ll
tip off some newspaperman, I’m sure of that.’
I felt my guts turn over and my knees were weak. I pressed my legs hard
against the desk to keep from keeling over.
‘This village will go howling mad,’ I said. ‘I asked the general this
morning…’
‘You asked the general! For Christ sake, did you know?’
‘Of course I knew. Not that they would do it. Just that, they were
thinking of it.’
‘And you didn’t say a word?’
‘Who could I tell? What good would it have done? And it wasn’t certain.
It was just an alternative – a last alternative. Three hundred lives against
three billion…’
‘But you, yourself! All your friends…’
‘Alf,’ I pleaded, ‘there was nothing I could do. What would you have
done? Told the village and driven everyone stark mad?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Alf, ‘I don’t know what I’d have done.’
‘Alf, is the senator at the hotel? I mean, is he there right now?’
‘I think he is. You mean to call him, Brad?’
‘I don’t know what good it’ll do,’ I said, ‘but perhaps I should.’
‘I’ll get off the line,’ said Aif. ‘And Brad…’
‘Yes.’
‘Brad, the best of luck. I mean – oh, hell, just the best of luck.’
‘Thanks, Alf.’
I heard the click of the receiver as he hung up and the line droned
empty in my ear. My hand began to shake and I laid the receiver carefully on
the desk, not trying to put it back into the cradle.
Joe Evans was looking at me hard. ‘You knew,’ he said. ‘You knew all
the time.’
I shook my head. ‘Not that they meant to do it. The general mentioned
it as a last resort. Davenport jumped on him…’
I didn’t finish what I meant to say. The words just dwindled off. Joe
kept on staring at me.
I exploded at him. ‘Damn it, man,’ I shouted, ‘I couldn’t tell anyone.
I asked the general, if he had to do it, to do it without notice. Not to let
us know. That way there’d be a flash we’d probably never see. We’d die, of
course, but only once. Not a thousand deaths…’
Joe picked up the phone. ‘I’ll try to raise the senator,’ he said.
I sat down in a chair.
I felt empty. There was nothing in me. I heard Joe talking into the
telephone, but I didn’t really hear his words, for it seemed that I had, for
the moment, created a small world all of my own (as though there were no
longer room for me in the normal world) and had drawn it about me as one
would draw a blanket.
I was miserable and at the same time angry, and perhaps considerably
confused.
Joe was saying something to me and I became aware of it only after he
had almost finished speaking.
‘What was that?’ I asked.
‘The call is in,’ said Joe. ‘They’ll call us back.’
I nodded.
‘I told them it was important.’
‘I wonder if it is,’ I said.
‘What do you mean? Of course it…’
‘I wonder what the senator can do. I wonder what difference it will
make if I, or you, or anyone, talks to him about it.’
‘The senator has a lot of weight,’ said Joe. ‘He likes to throw it
around.’
We sat in silence for a moment, waiting for the call, waiting for the
senator and what he knew about it.
‘If no one will stand up for us,’ asked Joe, ‘if no one will fight for
us, what are we to do?’
‘What can we do?’ I asked. ‘We can’t even run. We can’t get away. We’re
sitting ducks.’
‘When the village knows…’