“Decidedly yes. A sweet little hell cat you picked for me.”
“Don’t be too hasty in your judgment, Felix. I admit she is a bit startling, but she is absolutely sound. Her chart is admirable.”
“Okay, okay. To tell the truth, I rather enjoyed the encounter. But I wanted to make sure you had not been trying to maneuver me.”
“Not at all, Felix.”
“Fine. I didn’t get you up here just to ask you that. I said there was a spy in your office. I know that because our private conversation the other day leaked and leaked badly.” He plunged into an account of his encounter with McFee Norbert, and his subsequent visit to the Hall of the Wolf. “They call themselves the ‘Survivors Club,'” he went on. “Superficially it’s a drinking club within the lodge. As a matter of fact, it’s the front for a revolutionary clique.”
“Go on.”
“They picked me as likely material, and I played along with them, more out of curiosity, at first. Presently I found myself in too deep to back out.” He paused.
“Yes?”
“I joined up. It seemed healthy to do so. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that I wouldn’t have lived very long if I hadn’t taken their oath. They are playing for keeps, Claude.” He paused for a moment, then continued, “You know that little shooting scrape I got into the other night?”
“Yes, surely.”
“I can’t prove this, but it’s the only explanation that makes sense. They weren’t gunning for me; they were gunning for you. You are the one of the persons they have to rub out in order to put over their plans.”
“What are their plans?”
“I don’t know in detail…yet. But the sense of it is this: they’ve got no use at all for the present genetic policy. Nor for democratic freedom. They want to set up what they call a ‘scientific’ state, with the ‘natural’ leaders running things. They are the ‘natural’ leaders, self appointed. They have a great contempt for guys like you-synthesists-who help to maintain this present ‘backward’ state. When they are in control they intend to go all out for biological experimentation. They say that a culture should be an organic whole, with the parts specialized according to function. True men-supermen-sitting on top (that’s themselves) and the rest of the population bred to fit requirements.”
Mordan smiled slowly. “I seem to have seen all this before.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. The Empire of the Great Khans. They’ve got an answer for that one. The Khans were fools and did not know what they were up to. These boys know how. This is strictly 100% homegrown and any resemblance between it and the policies of the Khans is purely due to your lack of appreciation.”
“So…” Mordan said nothing more for a long time. Hamilton became impatient.
“Well?”
“Felix, why do you tell me this?”
“Why? So you can do something about it!”
“But why should you want anything done about it? Wait a moment…please. You told me the other day that life is not worth living, as it is. If you go along with these people, you could make of life anything you want it to be. You could redesign the world to a pattern of your own choosing.”
“Hm! I’d have some opposition. They have their own plans.”
“You could change them. I know you, Felix. In any group, it’s a foregone conclusion that you will dominate if you choose to. Not in the first ten minutes, but in the course of time. You must have known that. Why didn’t you seize the opportunity?”
“What makes you think I could do anything of the sort?”
“Now, Felix!”
“All right! All right! Suppose I could. But I didn’t. Call it patriotism. Call it anything you like.”
“As a matter of fact it’s because you approve of our culture as it is. Isn’t that true?”
“Maybe. In a way. I never did say that I disliked the way things were being run. I just said that I couldn’t see any sense to any manner of life, in any final absolute terms.” Hamilton was feeling slightly bewildered. He had approached this interview feeling romantically heroic and expecting to be patted on the back for having unmasked the villains. But Mordan failed to get excited at the proper places, and insisted on discussing purely philosophical matters. It threw him off stride. “In any case, I don’t want to see those conceited young punks running things. I can’t see them building a Utopia.”