Solemnly, he said, “The opposite of Christ’s miracle.”
“Can you do it?”
He accepted the loaf of bread from her, held it with both hands; he gazed down at it, his lips moving. His entire face began to writhe, as if with tremendous effort. The darkness grew; his eyes faded out and were replaced by impenetrable buttons of darkness.
The loaf of bread flipped from his hands, rose until it hung well above him . . . it twisted, became hazy, and then, like a stone, it dropped to the floor. Like a stone? She knelt down to stare at it, wondering if the light of the room had put her into a hypnotic trance. The loaf of bread was gone. What rested on the floor appeared to be a smooth, large rock, a water-tumbled rock, with pale sides. “My good God,” she said, half-aloud. “Can I pick it up? Is it safe?”
Tony, his eyes once more filled with life, also knelt and stared at it. “God’s power,” he said, “was in me. I didn’t do that; it was done through me.”
Picking up the rock–it was heavy–she discovered that it felt warm and nearly alive. An animate rock, she said to herself. As if it’s organic. Maybe it’s not a real rock. She banged it against the floor; it felt hard enough, and it made the right noise. It is a rock, she realized. It is!
“Can I have it?” she asked. Her awe had become complete now; she gazed at him hopefully, willing to do exactly what he said.
“You may have it, Suzanne,” Tony said in a calm voice. “But arise and go back to your room. I’m tired.” He did sound tired, and his entire body drooped. “I’ll see you in the morning at breakfast. Good night.”
“Goodnight,” she said, “but I can undress you and put you to bed; I’d enjoy that.”
“No,” he said. He went to the door and held it open for her.
“Kiss.” Coming up to him she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. “Thank you,” she said, feeling humble. “Goodnight, Tony. And thanks for the miracle.” The door started to close behind her but, adroitly, she stopped it with the wedge-shaped toe of her shoe. “Can I tell everyone about this? I mean, isn’t this the first miracle you’ve ever done? Shouldn’t they know? But if you don’t want them to know I won’t tell them.”
“Let me sleep,” he said, and shut the door; it clicked in her face and she felt animal terror–this was what she feared most in life: the clicking shut of a man’s door in her face. Instantly, she raised her hand to knock, discovered the rock . . . she banged on the door with the rock, but not loudly, just enough to let him know how desperate she was to get back in, but not enough to bother him if he didn’t want to answer.
He didn’t. No sound, no movement of the door. Nothing but the void.
“Tony?” she gasped, pressing her ear to the door. Silence. “Okay,” she said numbly; clutching her rock she walked unsteadily across the porch toward her own living quarters.
The rock vanished. Her hand felt nothing.
“Damn,” she said, not knowing how to react. Where had it gone? Into air. But then it must have been an illusion, she realized. He put me in a hypnotic state and made me believe. I should have known it wasn’t really true.
A million stars burst into wheels of light, blistering, cold light, that drenched her. It came from behind and she felt the great weight of it crash into her. “Tony,” she said, and fell into the waiting void. She thought nothing; she felt nothing. She saw only, saw the void as it absorbed her, waiting below and beneath her as she plummeted down the many miles.
On her hands and knees she died. Alone on the porch. Still clutching for what did not exist.
8
Glen Belsnor lay dreaming. In the dark of night he dreamed of himself; he perceived himself as he really was, a wise and beneficial provider. Happily he thought, I can do it. I can take care of them all, help them and protect them. They must be protected at all costs, he thought to himself in his dream.
In his dream he attached connecting cable, screwed a circuit-breaker in place, tried out a servo-assist unit.
A hum rose from the elaborate mechanism. A generated field, miles high, rose in every direction. No one can get past that, he said to himself in satisfaction, and some of his fear began to dwindle away. The colony is safe and I have done it.
In the colony the people moved back and forth, wearing long red robes. It became midday and then it became midday for a thousand years. He saw, all at once, that they had become old. Tottering, with tattered beards–the women, too–they crept about in a feeble, insect-like manner. And some of them, he saw, were blind.
Then we’re not safe, he realized. Even with the field in operation. They are fading away from inside. They will all die anyhow.
“Belsnor!”
He opened his eyes and knew what it was.
Gray, early-morning sunlight filtered through the shades of his room. Seven A.M., he saw by his self-winding wristwatch. He rose up to a sitting position, pushing the covers away. Chill morning air plucked at him and he shivered. “Who?” he said to the men and women pouring into his room. He shut his eyes, grimaced, felt, despite the emergency, the rancid remains of sleep still clinging to him.
Ignatz Thugg, wearing gaily-decorated pajamas, said loudly. “Susie Smart.”
Putting on his bathrobe, Belsnor moved numbly toward the door.
“Do you know what this means?” Wade Frazer said.
“Yes,” he said. “I know exactly what it means.”
Roberta Rockingham, touching the corner of a small linen handkerchief to her eyes, said, “She was such a bright spirit, always lighting up things with her presence. How could anybody do it to her?” A trail of tears materialized on her withered cheeks.
He made his way across the compound; the others clumped after him, none of them speaking.
There she lay, on the porch. A few steps from her door. He bent over her, touched the back of her neck. Absolutely cold. No life of any kind. “You examined her?” he said to Battle. “She really is dead? There’s no doubt about it?”
“Look at your hand,” Wade Frazer said.
Belsnor removed his hand from the girl’s neck. His hand dripped blood. And now he saw the mass of blood in her hair, near the top of her skull. Her head had been crushed in.
“Care to revise your autopsy?” he said scathingly to Babble. “Your opinion about Tallchief; do you care to change it now?”
No one spoke.
Belsnor looked around, saw not far off a loaf of bread. “She must have been carrying that,” he said.
“She got it from me,” Tony Dunkelwelt said. His face had paled from shock; his words were barely audible. “She left my room last night and I went to bed. I didn’t kill her. I didn’t even know about it until I heard Dr. Babble and the others yelling.”
“We’re not saying you did it,” Belsnor said to him. Yes, she used to flit from one room to another at night, he thought. We made fun of her and she was a little deranged . . . but she never hurt anybody. She was as innocent as a human being could get; she was even innocent of her own wrongdoing.
The new man, Russell, approached. The expression on his face showed that he, too, without even knowing her, understood what an awful thing it was, what an awful moment it was for all of them.
“You see what you came here to see?” Belsnor said to him harshly.
Russell said, “I wonder if you could get help by means of the transmitter in my noser.”
“They’re not good enough,” Belsnor said. “The noser radio-rig. Not good enough at all.” He rose to his feet stiffly, hearing his bones crack. And it’s Terra that’s doing this, he thought, remembering what Seth Morley and Babble had said last night when they brought Russell over. Our own government. As if we’re rats in a maze with death; rodents confined with the ultimate adversary, to die one by one until none are left.
Seth Morley beckoned him off to one side, away from the others. “You’re sure you don’t want to tell them? They have a right to know who the enemy is.”
Belsnor said, “I don’t want them to know because as I explained to you their morale is low enough already. If they knew it came from Terra they wouldn’t be able to survive; they’d go friggin’ mad.”
“I’ll leave it up to you,” Seth Morley said. “You’ve been elected as the group’s leader.” But his tone of voice showed that he disagreed, and very strongly. As he had last night.