Taylor removed his helmet and took a deep breath.
“I haven’t smelled that smell for a long tune,” he said.
“Listen,” Franks said, his voice low and hard. “We must get back down at once. There’s a lot to get started on. All this can be turned to our advantage.”
“What do you mean?” Moss asked.
“It’s a certainty that the Soviets have been tricked, too, the same as us. But we have found out. That gives us an edge over them.”
“I see.” Moss nodded. “We know, but they don’t. Their Surface Council has sold out, the same as ours. It works against them the same way. But if we could –”
“With a hundred top-level men, we could take over again, restore things as they should be! It would be easy!”
Moss touched him on the arm. An A-class leady was coming from the building toward them.
“We’ve seen enough,” Franks said, raising his voice. “All this is very serious. It must be reported below and a study made to determine our policy.”
The leady said nothing.
Franks waved to the soldiers. “Let’s go.” He started toward the warehouse.
Most of the soldiers had removed their helmets. Some of them had taken their lead suits off, too, and were relaxing comfortably in their cotton uniforms. They stared around them, down the hillside at the trees and bushes, the vast expanse of green, the mountains and the sky.
“Look at the sun,” one of them murmured.
“It sure is bright as hell,” another said.
“We’re going back down,” Franks said. “Fall in by twos and follow us.”
Reluctantly, the soldiers regrouped. The leadies watched without emotion as the men marched slowly back toward the warehouse. Franks and Moss and Taylor led them across the ground, glancing alertly at the leadies as they walked.
They entered the warehouse. D-class leadies were loading material and weapons on surface carts. Cranes and derricks were working busily everywhere. The work was done with efficiency, but without hurry or excitement.
The men stopped, watching. Leadies operating the little carts moved past them, signaling silently to each other. Guns and parts were being hoisted by magnetic cranes and lowered gently onto waiting carts. “Come on,” Franks said.
He turned toward the lip of the Tube. A row of D-class leadies was standing in front of it, immobile and silent. Franks stopped, moving back. He looked around. An A-class leady was coming toward him.
“Tell them to get out of the way,” Franks said. He touched his gun. “You had better move them.”
Time passed, an endless moment, without measure. The men stood, nervous and alert, watching the row of leadies in front of them.
“As you wish,” the A-class leady said. It signaled and the D-class leadies moved into life. They stepped slowly aside.
Moss breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad that’s over,” he said to Franks. “Look at them all. Why don’t they try to stop us? They must know what we’re going to do.”
Franks laughed. “Stop us? You saw what happened when they tried to stop us before. They can’t; they’re only machines. We built them so they can’t lay hands on us, and they know that.”
His voice trailed off.
The men stared at the Tube entrance. Around them the leadies watched, silent and impassive, their metal faces expressionless.
For a long time the men stood without moving. At last Taylor turned away.
“Good God,” he said. He was numb, without feeling of any kind.
The Tube was gone. It was sealed shut, fused over. Only a dull surface of cooling metal greeted them.
The Tube had been closed.
Franks turned, his face pale and vacant.
The A-class leady shifted. “As you can see, the Tube has been shut. We were prepared for this. As soon as all of you were on the surface, the order was given. If you had gone back when we asked you, you would now be safely down below. We had to work quickly because it was such an immense operation.”
“But why?” Moss demanded angrily.
“Because it is unthinkable that you should be allowed to resume the war. With all the Tubes sealed, it will be many months before forces from below can reach the surface, let alone organize a military program. By that time the cycle will have entered its last stages. You will not be so perturbed to find your world intact.
“We had hoped that you would be undersurface when the sealing occurred. Your presence here is a nuisance. When the Soviets broke through, we were able to accomplish their sealing without –”
“The Soviets? They broke through?”
“Several months ago, they came up unexpectedly to see why the war had not been won. We were forced to act with speed. At this moment they are desperately attempting to cut new Tubes to the surface, to resume the war. We have, however, been able to seal each new one as it appears.”
The leady regarded the three men calmly.
“We’re cut off,” Moss said, trembling. “We can’t get back. What’ll we do?”
“How did you manage to seal the Tube so quickly?” Franks asked the leady. “We’ve been up here only two hours.”
“Bombs are placed just above the first stage of each Tube for such emergencies. They are heat bombs. They fuse lead and rock.”
Gripping the handle of his gun, Franks turned to Moss and Taylor.
“What do you say? We can’t go back, but we can do a lot of damage, the fifteen of us. We have Bender guns. How about it?”
He looked around. The soldiers had wandered away again, back toward the exit of the building. They were standing outside, looking at the valley and the sky. A few of them were carefully climbing down the slope.
“Would you care to turn over your suits and guns?” the A-class leady asked politely. “The suits are uncomfortable and you’ll have no need for weapons. The Russians have given up theirs, as you can see.”
Fingers tensed on triggers. Four men in Russian uniforms were coming toward them from an aircraft that they suddenly realized had landed silently some distance away.
“Let them have it!” Franks shouted.
“They are unarmed,” said the leady. “We brought them here so you could begin peace talks.”
“We have no authority to speak for our country,” Moss said stiffly.
“We do not mean diplomatic discussions,” the leady explained. “There will be no more. The working out of daily problems of existence will teach you how to get along in the same world. It will not be easy, but it will be done.”
The Russians halted and they faced each other with raw hostility.
“I am Colonel Borodoy and I regret giving up our guns,” the senior Russian said. “You could have been the first Americans to be killed in almost eight years.”
“Or the first Americans to kill,” Franks corrected.
“No one would know of it except yourselves,” the leady pointed out. “It would be useless heroism. Your real concern should be surviving on the surface. We have no food for you, you know.”
Taylor put his gun in its holster. “They’ve done a neat job of neutralizing us, damn them. I propose we move into a city, start raising crops with the help of some leadies, and generally make ourselves comfortable.” Drawing his lips tight over his teeth, he glared at the A-class leady.
“Until our families can come up from undersurface, it’s going to be pretty lonesome, but we’ll have to manage.”
“If I may make a suggestion,” said another Russian uneasily. “We tried living in a city. It is too empty. It is also too hard to maintain for so few people. We finally settled in the most modern village we could find.”
“Here in this country,” a third Russian blurted. “We have much to learn from you.”
The Americans abruptly found themselves laughing.
“You probably have a thing or two to teach us yourselves,” said Taylor generously, “though I can’t imagine what.”
The Russian colonel grinned. “Would you join us in our village? It would make our work easier and give us company.”
“Your village?” snapped Franks. “It’s American, isn’t it? It’s ours!”
The leady stepped between them. “When our plans are completed, the term will be interchangeable. ‘Ours’ will eventually mean mankind’s.” It pointed at the aircraft, which was warming up. “The ship is waiting. Will you join each other in making a new home?”
The Russians waited while the Americans made up their minds.
“I see what the leadies mean about diplomacy becoming outmoded,” Franks said at last. “People who work together don’t need diplomats. They solve their problems on the operational level instead of at a conference table.”
The leady led them toward the ship. “It is the goal of history, unifying the world. From family to tribe to city-state to nation to hemisphere, the direction has been toward unification. Now the hemispheres will be joined and –“