“And you, Dr. Brooks?”
“Well — it seems feasible. I feel much as Thomas does.”
“Graham?”
The man gave him answer by silence. Wilkie looked up and then away again.
“Mitsui?”
“I’ll go back outside, sir. I have things to finish.”
“Scheer?”
Scheer’s jaw muscles quivered. “I’ll stick if you do, sir.”
“Thanks.” He turned to the rest. “I said, ‘No!’ and I mean it. If any of you leave here, it will be in direct violation of your oaths. That goes for you, Thomas! I’m not being arbitrary about this. The thing you propose to do is on all fours with the raid I canceled. So long as the people of the United States are hostages at the mercy of the PanAsians we can not take direct military action! It doesn’t make any difference whether the attack comes from inside or outside, thousands, maybe millions, of innocent people will pay for it with their lives!”
He was very much wrought up, but not too much so to look around and see what effect his words were having. He had them back — or would have them in a few minutes. All but Calhoun. They were looking disturbed.
“Supposing you are right, sir” — it was Brooks speaking very gravely —
“supposing you are right, is there anything we can do?”
“I explained that once before. We have to form what I called a ‘sixth column,’ lie low, study out their weak points, and work on them.”
“I see. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps it is necessary. But it calls for a sort of patience more suited to gods than to men.”
He almost had it then. What was it?
“So ‘There’ll be pie in the sky by and by,’ ” quoted Calhoun. “You should have been a preacher, Major Ardmore. We prefer action.”
That was it! That was it!
“You’re almost right,” Ardmore answered. “Have you listened to Thomas’ report?”
“I listened to the play-back.”
“Do you recall the one respect in which white men are still permitted to organize?”
“Why, no, I don’t recall that there was one.”
“None? Nowhere that they were permitted to assemble?”
“I know!” Thomas burst in. “Churches!”
Ardmore waited a moment for it to sink in, then he said very softly,
“Has it ever occurred to any of you to think of the possibilities in founding a new religion?”
There was a short and startled silence. Calhoun broke it.
“The man’s gone mad!”
“Take it easy, Colonel,” Ardmore said mildly. “I don’t blame you for thinking that I’ve gone crazy. It does sound crazy to talk about founding a new religion when what we want is military action against the PanAsians. But consider — what we need is an organization that can be trained and armed to fight. That and a communication system which will enable us to coordinate the whole activity. And we have to do the whole thing under the eyes of the PanAsians without arousing their suspicions.
If we were a religious sect instead of a military organization, all that would be possible.”
“It’s preposterous! I’ll have nothing to do with it.”
“Please, Colonel. We need you badly. On that matter of a communication system now — Imagine temples in every city in the country hooking together with a communication system and the whole thing hooked in here at the Citadel.”
Calhoun snorted. “Yes, and the Asiatics listening in to everything you say!”
“That’s why we need you, Colonel. Couldn’t you devise a system that they couldn’t trap? Something like a radio, maybe, but operating in one of the additional spectra so that their instruments could not detect it? Or couldn’t you?”
Calhoun snorted again but with a different intonation. “Why, certainly I could. The problem is elementary.”
“That’s exactly why we have to have you, Colonel — to solve problems that are elementary to a man of your genius”, Ardmore felt slightly nauseated inside: this was worse than writing advertising copy
“but which are miracles for the rest of us. That’s what a religion needs
— miracles! You’ll be called on to produce effects that will strain even your genius, things that the PanAsians cannot possibly understand, and will think supernatural.” Seeing Calhoun still hesitate, he added,