We went on inside and were met by a young fellow whose total clothing was an armband showing three chevrons and crossed retorts. He turned us over to a girl who was wearing even less, as her armband had only two chevrons. Both of them noticed Mary, each with typical gender response. I think the corporal was glad to pass us on to the captain who received us.
“We got your message,” the captain said. “Dr. Steelton is waiting.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” the Old Man answered. “The sooner, the better. Where?”
“Just a moment,” she said, went to Mary and felt through her hair. “We have to be sure, you know,” she said apologetically. If she was aware of the falseness of much of Mary’s hair, she did not mention it and Mary did not flinch. “All right,” she decided, “let’s go.” Her own hair was cut mannishly short, in crisp gray waves.
“Right,” agreed the Old Man. “No, son, this is as far as you go.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you dam near loused up the first try,” he explained briefly. “Now pipe down.”
The captain said, “The officers’ mess is straight down the first passageway to the left. Why don’t you wait there?”
So I did. On the way I passed a door decorated primly in large red skull-and-crossbones and stenciled with: WARNING—LIVE PARASITES BEYOND THIS DOOR; in smaller letters it added Qualified Personnel Only—Use Procedure “A”.
I gave the door a wide berth.
The officers’ mess was the usual clubroom and there were three or four men and two women lounging in it. No one seemed interested in my presence, so I found an unoccupied chair, sat down, and wondered just who you had to be to get a drink around this joint. After a time I was joined by a large male extrovert wearing a colonel’s insignia on a chain around his neck; with it was a Saint Christopher’s medal and an I.D. dog tag. “Newcomer?” he asked.
I admitted it. “Civilian expert?” he went on.
“I don’t know about ‘expert’,” I replied. “I’m a field operative.”
“Name? Sorry to be officious,” he apologized, “but I’m alleged to be the security officer around here. My name’s Kelly.”
I told him mine. He nodded. “Matter of fact I saw your party coming in. Mine was the voice of conscience, coming out of the wall. Now, Mr. Nivens, how about a drink? From the brief we had on you, you could use one.”
I stood up. “Whom do I have to kill to get it?”
“—though as far as I can see,” Kelly went on sometime later, “this place needs a security officer the way a horse needs roller skates. We should publish our results as fast as we get them. This isn’t like fighting a human enemy.”
I commented that he did not sound like the ordinary brass hat. He laughed and did not take offense. “Believe me, son, not all brass hats are as they are pictured—they just seem to be.”
I remarked that Air Marshal Rexton struck me as a pretty sharp citizen.
“You know him?” the colonel asked.
“I don’t know him exactly, but my work on this job has thrown me in his company a good bit—I last saw him earlier today.”
“Hmm—” said the colonel. “I’ve never met the gentleman. You move in more rarefied strata than I do, sir.”
I explained that it was mere happenstance, but from then on he showed me more respect. Presently he was telling me about the work the laboratory did. “By now we know more about those foul creatures than does Old Nick himself. But do we know how to kill them without killing their hosts? We do not.
“Of course,” he went on, “if we could lure them one at a time into a small room and douse them with anesthetics, we could save the hosts—but that is like the old saw about how to catch a bird: naturally it’s no trouble if you can sneak up close enough to put salt on its tail. I’m not a scientist myself—just the son of a cop and a cop myself under a different tag—but I’ve talked to the scientists here and I know what we need. This is a biological war and it will be won by biological warfare. What we need is a bug, one that will bite the slug and not the host. Doesn’t sound too hard, does it? It is. We know a hundred things that will kill the slug—smallpox, typhus, syphilis, encephalitis lethargica, Obermeyer’s virus, plague, yellow fever, and so on. But they kill the host, too.”