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diff --git a/32427-h/32427-h.htm b/32427-h/32427-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46d67e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/32427-h/32427-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2665 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Category Phoenix, by Boyd Ellanby. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Category Phoenix, by Boyd Ellanby + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Category Phoenix + +Author: Boyd Ellanby + +Illustrator: EMSH + +Release Date: May 19, 2010 [EBook #32427] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATEGORY PHOENIX *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h1>CATEGORY PHOENIX</h1> + +<h2>By BOYD ELLANBY</h2> + +<h3>Illustrated by EMSH</h3> + +<p>[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction +May 1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="sidenote">Man, it would appear, can adapt to any form of society ... +but not one in which the knowledge of extending life becomes a passport +to death!</div> + + +<p>The door-knob turned, then rattled.</p> + +<p>Dr. David Wong stepped out from behind the large bookcase, listening. He +pressed the brass handle of the top shelf and the case silently pivoted +back to become part of the wall, obliterating the dark passage behind +it.</p> + +<p>An imperative knocking began at the door; David walked softly to his +desk and picked up his notebook. He tried to remain relaxed, but he +could feel the tightening of his shoulder muscles. With his right hand, +he shut his notebook and concealed it under a mass of papers, while his +left hand pressed the desk button to release the lock of the door.</p> + +<p>The door burst open and two men strode in, a black-uniformed Ruler +followed by a watchguard. Black-visored cap still on his head, the first +man marched to the desk and spoke without ceremonial greeting.</p> + +<p>"The door was locked, Dr. Wong?"</p> + +<p>"Correct, Dr. Lanza. The door was locked."</p> + +<p>"I shall have to instruct the guard to report it. Have you forgotten +Leader Marley's Maxim: Constructive science does not skulk behind locked +doors?"</p> + +<p>Wong leaned back in his chair and smiled at his visitors.</p> + +<p>"The wisdom of Leader Marley is a constant help to us all, but his +generosity is also a byword. Surely you remember that on the tenth +anniversary of his accession, he honored me by the grant of occasional +hours of Privacy, as a reward for my work on Blue Martian Fever?"</p> + +<p>"I remember now," said Dr. Lanza.</p> + +<p>"But what for?" asked Officer Blagun. "It's anti-social!"</p> + +<p>"Evidently you have forgotten, Officer Blagun, another Maxim of Leader +Marley: Nature has not equipped one Category to judge the needs of +another; only the Leader understands all. Now, Dr. Lanza, will you tell +me the reason for this visit? Since your promotion from Research to +Ruler, I have rarely been honored by your attention."</p> + +<p>"I am here with a message," said Lanza. "Leader Marley's compliments, +and he requests your presence at a conference on next Wednesday at ten +in the morning."</p> + +<p>"Why did you have to deliver that in person? What's wrong with using +Communications?"</p> + +<p>"It's not my province to ask questions, Dr. Wong. I was told to come +here, and I was told to wait for a reply."</p> + +<p>"Next Wednesday at ten? Let's see, this is Friday." David Wong pressed +the key of his electronic calendar, but he had no need to study the dull +green and red lights that flashed on to indicate the pattern of his day. +He did not delude himself that he had any real choice, but he had +learned in the past fifteen years that it kept up his courage to +preserve at least the forms of independence. He allowed a decent thirty +seconds to ponder the coded lights, then blanked the board and looked up +with an easy smile.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Wong's compliments to Leader Marley, and he will be honored to +attend a conference on Wednesday at ten."</p> + +<p>Nodding his head, Dr. Lanza glanced briefly around the office. "Queer, +old-fashioned place you have here."</p> + +<p>"Yes. It was built many years ago by a slippery old politician who +wanted to be safe from his enemies. Makes a good place for Research, +don't you think?"</p> + +<p>Lanza did not answer. He strode to the door, then paused to look back.</p> + +<p>"You understand, Dr. Wong, that I shall have to report the locked door? +I have no choice."</p> + +<p>"Has anyone?"</p> + +<p>Officer Blagun followed his superior, leaving the door wide open behind +them. Wong remained rigid in his chair until the clack of heels on +marble floor had become a mere echo in his brain, then stretched out his +hand to the intercom. He observed with pride that his hand did not +tremble as he pressed the dial.</p> + +<p>"Get me Dr. Karl Haslam ... Karl? Can you meet me in the lab right away? +I've thought of a new approach that might help us crack the White +Martian problem. Yes, I know we planned on conferring tomorrow, but it's +getting later than you think."</p> + +<p>Again he pressed the dial. "Get me Leah Hachovnik. Leah? I've got some +new stuff to dictate. Be a good girl and come along right away."</p> + +<p>Breaking the connection, he drew out his notebook and opened it.</p> + +<p>David Wong was a big man, tall, well-muscled, compact, and he might have +been handsome but for a vague something in his appearance. His lean face +and upcurving mouth were those of a young man; his hair was a glossy +black, too thick to be disciplined into neatness; and he was +well-dressed, except for the unfashionable bulging of his jacket pocket, +where he carried a bulky leather case of everfeed pens and notebooks. +But it was his eyes that were disconcerting—an intense blue, brilliant +and direct, they had a wisdom and a comprehension that seemed +incongruous in so young a face.</p> + +<p>A worried frown creased his forehead as he turned back to one of the +first pages, studying the symbols he had recorded there, but he looked +up without expression on hearing the tapping of slender heels.</p> + +<p>"Quick work, Leah. How are you this morning?"</p> + +<p>"As if anybody cared!" Leah Hachovnik settled down before the compact +stenograph machine, her shoulders slumped, her thin mouth drooping at +the corners.</p> + +<p>"Feel like working?" said David.</p> + +<p>"As much as I ever do, I guess. Sometimes I wonder if the traitors in +the granite quarries have it any worse than I do. Sometimes I wish I'd +been born into some other Category. Other people have all the luck. I +don't know what it is, Dr. Wong, but I just don't seem to have the pep I +used to have. Do you think it could be the climate here in New York?"</p> + +<p>"People do grow older, Leah," he reminded her gently.</p> + +<p>"I know. But Tanya—you remember my twin sister Tanya, the one that got +so sick that time, ten years ago, when you did that experiment with Blue +Martian Fever, and she had to be sent out to Arizona? Of course I +haven't ever seen her since then—people in Office Category never get +permission for that kind of travel—but she writes me that ever since +she got well again she feels just like a kid, and works as hard as she +ever did, and she still seems to enjoy life. Why, she's had three +proposals of marriage this past year alone, she says, and yet she's +thirty-five, just the same age as I am—being twins, you know?—and +nobody's proposed to me in ages. Well, I'm certainly going to try to +find out what her method is. She's coming back tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"She's <i>what</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Coming back. BureauMed is sending her back here to the Institute to +take up her old job in Intercom. Funny they haven't told you, her being +an old employee and all."</p> + +<p>Dr. Wong was gripping his notebook in stiff fingers, but he replied +easily, "Oh, well, BureauMed is a complex organization. With all they +have to do, it's not surprising they get things mixed up sometimes."</p> + +<p>"Don't I know!" she sighed, and droned on in a dreary monotone. "This +one institute alone would turn your hair gray before your time. I don't +know how some people seem to keep so young. I was just thinking to +myself this morning when I watched you walking through the office, 'Why, +Dr. Wong doesn't seem to age a bit! He looks just as young as he ever +did, and look at me!'"</p> + +<p>Looking at her, David admitted to himself, was not the pleasure it had +once been. Ten years ago, she and her twin sister Tanya had been plump, +delectable, kittenish girls, their mental equipment no more than +standard for Office Category, of course, but their physical appearance +had been outstanding, almost beautiful enough for Theater Category. +Creamy ivory skin, gray eyes, and soft red hair dramatized by a freakish +streak of white that shot abruptly back from the center of the forehead, +Tanya's swirling to the left, and Leah's to the right, one girl the +mirror image of the other.</p> + +<p>But the Leah sitting before him now was thin and tired-looking, her +sallow skin was lined, and her soft voice had become vinegary with +disappointments. Her red hair had faded to a commonplace brown, and the +white streak in the center was yellowed. An unwanted, souring old maid. +But there was only one response to make.</p> + +<p>"You look fine to me, Leah," he said. "What time did you say your sister +is coming?"</p> + +<p>"Tomorrow evenings' Playground Jet. Why?"</p> + +<p>"We'll have to think of a way to celebrate. But right now, I'd like to +get started on my new paper. I've got to meet Dr. Haslam before long."</p> + +<p>"I know." She raised her faded gray eyes. "That was a funny thing you +said to him just now over the intercom. You said to him it was getting +late. But it isn't late. It's only eleven o'clock in the morning."</p> + +<p>David stared. "Do you mean to say you were listening to our +conversation? Why did you do that?"</p> + +<p>She fidgeted and turned away from him. "Oh, I just happened to be at +Comdesk and I guess the circuit wasn't closed. Does it matter? But it +seemed a funny thing for you to say."</p> + +<p>"People in Office Category are not supposed to understand Research," he +said severely. "If they were capable of Research, Leader Marley's +planners would have placed them there. As for its being late, it is, as +far as White Martian Fever is concerned. Which is the subject of my +paper. Prepare to take dictation."</p> + +<p>Shrugging her shoulders, she poised her bony fingers over the keys of +the little machine.</p> + +<p>"Paper for delivery at the Summer Seminar," he began.</p> + +<p>"But, Dr. Wong, that doesn't have to be ready for three months yet!"</p> + +<p>"Miss Hachovnik! Please remember Leader Marley's Maxim: Individuals born +into Office Category are the bone and muscle of the State; Nature has +designed them to act, not to think."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Dr. Wong. I'm sorry."</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, Leah. We're old friends, so I won't report you. All set?"</p> + +<p>He took a pencil from his leather case and tapped it against his +notebook as he ruffled the pages, wondering how to begin. It was hard to +think logically when a part of his mind was in such confusion. Had Leah +been listening in to all of his phone conversations? If so, it was +fortunate that he had long ago devised an emergency code. Was it only +idle curiosity that had prompted her or was she acting under orders? Was +anyone else watching him, he wondered, listening to his talk, perhaps +even checking the routine of his experimental work? There was Lanza this +morning—why had he come unannounced, in person, when a Communications +call would have served the purpose equally well?</p> + +<p>Leah's voice broke in. "I'm ready, Dr. Wong."</p> + +<p>He cleared his throat. "...the Summer Seminar. Title: The Propogation of +White Martian virus. Paragraph. It will be remembered that the early +attempts to establish Earth colonies on Mars were frustrated by the +extreme susceptibility of our people to two viruses native to the +foreign planet, viruses which we designate as Blue Martian and White +Martian, according to the two distinct types of fever which they cause. +Blue Martian Fever in the early days caused a mortality among our +colonists of nearly eighty-five per cent, and made the establishment of +permanent colonies a virtual impossibility.</p> + +<p>"Under the inspired leadership of Leader Marley and with the advice of +his deputy Dr. Lanza, this laboratory in Research worked out a method of +growing the virus and producing an immunizing agent which is effective +in nearly all human beings. Only the cooperation of several Categories +made possible such a feat. It will not be forgotten that even the +humblest helpers in the Institute had their share in the project, that +some of them acted as human volunteers in the experiments, well knowing +the risks they ran, and were afterward rewarded by a Free Choice.</p> + +<p>"One person in Office Category, for instance, was given the privilege of +learning to play the flute, although nobody in his family had ever +belonged to Music, and another person in Menial Category was permitted a +month's study of elementary algebra, a nearly unheard of indulgence for +a person in his position. But as Leader Marley so graciously remarked in +conferring the awards: To the individual who risks much, the State gives +much."</p> + +<p>"Like me and Tanya?" the girl asked, stopping her typing.</p> + +<p>"Yes, like you and Tanya. You were allowed to act a part in an amateur +Theater group, I remember, and since Tanya was made too ill to be able +to use a Free Choice, she was sent out west to the Playground, just as +though she had belonged to Ruler Category. Now where was I?"</p> + +<p>"'The State gives much.'"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. Paragraph. Since the discovery of the immunizing mechanism to +Blue Martian, permanent colonies have been established on Mars. But +there remains the more elusive problem of White Martian Fever, which, +though its mortality is only thirty per cent, is still so crippling to +those victims who survive that the Martian colonies cannot begin to +expand, and the resources of the planet cannot be fully developed, until +an immunizing agent is found.</p> + +<p>"For the past eight years this laboratory has been working at the +problem, among others, and we are now in a position to report a small +degree of progress. Since it proved to be impossible to grow the virus +in the usual media, it occurred to us—"</p> + +<p>The intercom buzzed, and Dr. Wong turned away to open the dial.</p> + +<p>"David? What's happened to you? I've been waiting here in the lab a +quarter of an hour."</p> + +<p>"Sorry, Karl. I thought I had more time. Be right down."</p> + +<p>He reached for his white lab coat and shoved his long arms into the +starched sleeves. "That's all we have time for now, Leah. Can you get an +early lunch and be back here this afternoon at two?"</p> + +<p>But she was not listening. She was leaning over to look at the desk, +staring avidly at the open pages of Dr. Wong's notebook. Without comment +he picked up the book, closed it, put it in the top drawer and locked +the drawer. She watched him with curious eyes.</p> + +<p>"What funny marks those were, Dr. Wong! Do you keep your notes in a +private system of shorthand?"</p> + +<p>"No. I write them in Coptic. For the sake of privacy."</p> + +<p>"What's Coptic?"</p> + +<p>"A dead language, spoken by the ancient Egyptians thirty or forty +centuries ago."</p> + +<p>"But you're Research, not Linguistics! It's against the law for you to +know other languages. Are you a traitor?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Leah," he said, "I'm far too sensible a man to go in for +bootleg study, to learn anything without permission. I have no wish to +end up with a pick-ax in my hands. But you shouldn't tax your little +mind with thinking. It's not your job. You're not equipped for it, and +it's dangerous."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>David passed the watchguard stationed in the basement corridor, walked +through the open door of the laboratory, past the bench where a row of +pretty technicians sat making serial dilutions of bacterial and virus +suspensions, through the glow of the sterilizing room, and on into the +small inner lab where flasks of culture media and developing hens' eggs +sat in a transparent incubator, and petri dishes flecked with spots of +color awaited his inspection.</p> + +<p>Dr. Karl Haslam was standing at the work bench, with a pair of silver +forceps which held a small egg under the psi light. Gently he lowered +the egg into its warm observation chamber, covered the container, and +sat down.</p> + +<p>"Well, here I am. What's gone wrong? Explain yourself, my boy."</p> + +<p>"Just a minute." Grinning maliciously, David took down a bottle from the +shelf of chemicals, poured a colorless liquid into a beaker, and walked +casually toward the doorway as he agitated the mixture of hydrogen +sulphide and mercaptans. He held his breath, then coughed, when the +fumes of putrescence filled the room and drifted out the door. He looked +into the technician's room.</p> + +<p>"Sorry for the aroma, girls, but this is a vital experiment."</p> + +<p>"Can't you at least shut the door?" one called pleadingly.</p> + +<p>"Explain to the watchguard out there, will you?" Closing the door, he +turned on the ventilator and sat down beside Dr. Haslam.</p> + +<p>"Why all the melodrama?" Karl asked, baffled. "First you call me by +emergency code, then you hole in like a conspirator. I'm beginning to +think you're a great loss to Theater. What's happened? Why is it later +than I think?"</p> + +<p>"Do you take everything as a joke, Karl?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, until I'm forced to do otherwise. What's worrying you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid of being arrested for treason. Don't laugh! This morning I +received a message, delivered in person by our old schoolmate Lanza, to +report to Leader Marley on Wednesday, and Marley hasn't paid any +attention to me since he last inspected our lab, years ago. For another +thing, Leah Hachovnik is making a nuisance of herself with her curiosity +about my affairs. If she weren't so clumsy about her prying, I'd almost +believe she was under orders to spy on me."</p> + +<p>Karl moved impatiently. "I hope you're not turning psychotic. You have a +clean record of continuous production and you've never mixed in +politics. You've never expressed what you may really think of our Leader +even to me, although we've been friends since we were in Medschool, and +I hope you never will. And you're making progress with White Martian. +Why, my boy, you're all set! What's treasonable about that?"</p> + +<p>Someone knocked at the door. Hastily David uncovered the fragrant beaker +and waved it about as he called, "Come in!"</p> + +<p>The watchguard looked in for an instant, wrinkled his nose, and quickly +shut the door. Laughing, David covered the beaker, and began walking +about with long nervous strides, snapping his fingers as he tried to +explain.</p> + +<p>"I'm in trouble, Karl. I've run into something I don't know how to deal +with, and I need help, I need advice, I need cooperation. I've lived +alone with this thing for ten long years, hoping month after month that +something would turn up so I could evade the issue. But nothing has. And +now there's going to be a showdown."</p> + +<p>Karl touched his arm sympathetically. "My dear boy—"</p> + +<p>"<i>That's it!</i>" shouted David.</p> + +<p>"What's what?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I'm trying to tell you. Why do you always call me your +'dear boy?' You know I'm a year older than you are."</p> + +<p>"It's just habit, I suppose. You <i>look</i> so young—your hair is black, +while mine is nearly white. You're full of vigor, while I begin to creak +with middle age. I didn't realize that I irritated you with my little +phrase. I should think you'd be pleased that you have somehow managed to +sip at the fountain of youth."</p> + +<p>David sank down on a stool. "I'm not pleased. I'm terrified."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that's exactly what's happened. I have sipped at the fountain of +youth. I've discovered how to keep people from growing old. I myself +have not aged a bit in the last ten years."</p> + +<p>There was a long silence. Karl sat unmoving, his face like stone.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe you," he said at last.</p> + +<p>"It's no longer a question of belief. In a few days everybody will know, +the proof will stare you in the face. And what will happen then?"</p> + +<p>"Evidence?" Karl asked. "I can't accept a statement as a fact."</p> + +<p>"Would you like to see my mice? Come with me."</p> + +<p>David Wong hurried into the small animal room and paused before a stack +of wire cages in which furry creatures darted and squeaked.</p> + +<p>"You remember when we were working on Blue Martian, those peculiar +mutants we found in our mice, and how I used six of them in trying to +make antibodies to the virus?"</p> + +<p>"I remember," said Karl. "They were spotted with tufts of white hair on +the right forelegs."</p> + +<p>David took down a cage, thrust in his hand, and brought out two of the +tiny black mice which crawled over his trembling hand. Their right +forelegs bore tufts of long white hair.</p> + +<p>"These," he said, "are the same mice."</p> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>"Their descendants, you mean. Mice don't live that long."</p> + +<p>"<i>These</i> mice do. And they'll go on living. For years I've lived in fear +that someone would notice and suspect the truth. Just as for years, +every time someone has laughed and told me I never seemed to age a day, +I've been terrified that he might guess the truth. I'm <i>not</i> aging."</p> + +<p>Karl looked dazed. "Well, my boy, you've got a bear by the tail. How did +you find the elixir or whatever it is?"</p> + +<p>"You remember the early work with radioactive tracers, a couple of +hundred years ago, that proved that all our body cells are in a +continuous state of flux? There's a dynamic equilibrium between the +disintegration and the resynthesis of the essential factors such as +proteins, fats and amino groups, but the cell directs all the incoming +material into the right chemical structures, under the influence of some +organizing power which resides in the cell.</p> + +<p>"Foreign influences like viruses may disrupt this order and cause +cancer. The cells are continually in a state of change, but always +replace their characteristic molecules, and it is only as they grow +older that they gradually become 'worn out.' Then the body grows old, +becomes less resistant to infection, and eventually succumbs to one +disease or another. And you know, of course, that viruses also have this +self-duplicating ability.</p> + +<p>"I reasoned that at birth a man had a definite, finite amount of this +essential self-duplicating entity—SDE—in his body cells, a kind of +directing factor which reproduces itself, but more slowly than do the +body cells. In that case, with the normal multiplication of the cells, +the amount of SDE per cell would slowly but surely grow smaller with the +years. Eventually the time would come when the percentage would be below +the critical level—the cells would be less resistant, would function +with less efficiency, and the man would 'grow old.'"</p> + +<p>Karl nodded soberly. "Reasonable hypothesis."</p> + +<p>"But one day, by pure chance, I isolated a component which I recognized +as being the factor essential to the normal functioning of body cells. +It hit me like a toothache. I found that I could synthesize the SDE in +the lab, and the only problem then was to get it into a man's cells. If +I could do that, keep the SDE level up to that of youth, a man would +stop aging! Since viruses penetrate our cells when they infect us, it +was no trick at all to effect a chemical coupling of the SDE to the +virus. I used Martian Blue, since it was handy, and its effects are +usually brief.</p> + +<p>"Presto! Old age is held at bay for another twenty or thirty years—I +really don't know how long. These mice were my first experiment, and as +you see, they're still alive. Next, I tried it on myself."</p> + +<p>David put the mice back in their cage, locked it, and returned to the +lab.</p> + +<p>"Tomorrow, the whole thing is bound to come out because Tanya Hachovnik +is coming back. You know her sister Leah—gray, dried-up, soured on +life. Well, I've had ways of checking, and when Tanya Hachovnik walks +into the Institute, everyone will see her as the same luscious redhead +of twenty-five we knew ten years ago. I realize that what I did was a +criminal act. I didn't think the thing through or I wouldn't have been +such a fool. But when I made those final experiments, I used the +Hachovnik twins for a controlled pair."</p> + +<p>"You must have been crazy!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I was. I'd tried it on myself, of course, with no bad effects +except a few days' fever, but I realized that without a control I never +could be sure the SDE was actually working. It might be just that my +particular genetic constitution caused me to age more slowly than the +average. So I chose the twins. To Leah I gave the attenuated Martian +Blue, but to Tanya I gave the simple Blue coupled with SDE. The +experiment worked. Identical twins—one grows old like other people; the +other remains young. I know now, Karl, how to prolong youth +indefinitely. But what in the name of Leader Marley shall I do with my +knowledge?"</p> + +<p>Karl Haslam absently twisted his white hair and spoke slowly, as though +he found trouble in choosing his words.</p> + +<p>"You realize, of course, that it is your duty to acquaint Leader Marley +with all the details of your discovery?"</p> + +<p>"Is it? Can you imagine what this will do to our society? What about the +generations of children coming into a world where no places have been +vacated for them by death? What about the struggles for power? Who will +decide, and on what basis, whether to confer or to withhold this gift? +There'll be riots, civil wars. I know that I'm only a scientist; all I +ever wanted from life was to be left alone, in a peaceful laboratory, +and let other people worry about the world and its troubles. But +now—don't you see that by the mere fact that I made this discovery, +I've lost the right to sit by quietly and let other people make the +decisions?"</p> + +<p>"But, David, you and I aren't able to handle such a problem! We're only +Research!"</p> + +<p>"I know. We're inadequate, yet we have the responsibility. The men who +created atomic power probably felt inadequate, too, but could they have +made as bad a mess of handling it as others did? Suppose I did turn this +over to Marley—he'd use it to become the most absolute tyrant in the +history of the race."</p> + +<p>Karl ran his fingers through his hair and smiled crookedly. "Well, you +could always start a revolution, I suppose, and start by assassinating +the Leader."</p> + +<p>"With what kind of weapon? Men like you and me are not allowed to own so +much as an old-fashioned pistol. Except for the Military, Marley's the +only man allowed to wear a Needler. And, besides, I'm a Research, not a +Military. I hate violence and I'm naturally conditioned against +killing."</p> + +<p>"Then you shouldn't have got into this mess. It would have been far +better never to have discovered this SDE. I presume your notes are +safely locked up, by the way?"</p> + +<p>David grinned. "Don't worry about my notes; they're written in Coptic. +You remember when I was still in Medschool and made my first important +discovery, how to prevent the development of hereditary baldness by the +injection of certain parahormones? Leader Marley rewarded me with a Free +Choice, and I chose to learn a dead language. Not half a dozen men in +the world could read my notes."</p> + +<p>"If your notes are safe, why don't you just destroy your mice and get +rid of your proof that way?"</p> + +<p>"And the Hachovnik twins?"</p> + +<p>"You could at least keep Tanya out of sight."</p> + +<p>"Don't be a fool. That would only be a temporary measure and has nothing +to do with the real problem. Lanza and Marley may suspect the truth +right now, for all I know; they keep such close watch on my work. +Anyway, the secret is bound to come out sooner or later."</p> + +<p>Dr. Haslam clasped his hands and stared at them for a long while. His +lined face looked grayer than ever.</p> + +<p>He looked up at last with a faint smile. "Well, my boy, I never asked +you to discover this stuff, but since you have—I hereby burn my +bridges! You're right, we can't give it to Marley. But you can't handle +it alone. What we need is time, and we haven't got it. We shall both be +liquidated before this is over, there's no doubt of that, but we must do +what we can. When is Tanya arriving?"</p> + +<p>"Tomorrow night, on the Playground Jet."</p> + +<p>"And you see Leader Marley when?"</p> + +<p>"Next Wednesday."</p> + +<p>"Five days yet. Then this is what we'll do. Too bad Lanza is in the +other camp, but there's you and me, and I think Hudson and Fauré from +Serology will come in with us. We'll need others—sociologists, +anthropologists, psychologists—the most promising material from all +Categories if we're to create a new society based on the prospect of +immortality. But I'll see the first two and bring them to your apartment +tomorrow night for Tanya's welcome-home party. I leave it to you to +muzzle Leah."</p> + +<p>"That won't do," said David. "I don't have a current Free Choice."</p> + +<p>"But I have. Two, as a matter of fact, a reward for curing the insomnia +of Leader Marley's wife. I choose to give a party, I choose tomorrow +night, and I choose your apartment."</p> + +<p>A knock rattled the door, and the watchguard thrust in his head. "How +much longer is this here experiment going to take? Do you guys want to +be reported?"</p> + +<p>"Just finishing, Officer," called Karl. "You can leave the door open +now."</p> + +<p>"What a stink!" said the guard. "Thank God I'm in Military!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It hardly seemed like a party, David thought. His guests were ill at +ease, and their conversation labored, then stopped altogether when the +Menial came into the library with a tray of glasses and niblets.</p> + +<p>"Put them on the liquor cabinet, James," said David. "And that will be +all. Enjoy yourself tonight."</p> + +<p>The Menial put down the tray and then stooped to fumble with the lock.</p> + +<p>"Let that alone! I've told you a thousand times not to monkey with my +liquor cabinet!"</p> + +<p>"Don't you want me to get out the ice cubes, Doctor?"</p> + +<p>"I'll do it. You can go now."</p> + +<p>"But are you sure you won't want me later in the evening, Doctor? Who's +to serve the supper? Who's going to clear up afterward?"</p> + +<p>"We'll manage. Don't worry about us."</p> + +<p>James shuffled out of the room.</p> + +<p>"I suppose that means <i>I'll</i> manage," said Leah, with a self-pitying +sigh. "I've noticed that whenever people decide to rough it and do +without a Menial, they take it for granted the women will do the work, +never the men—unless the women are still young and pretty. Well, at any +rate, I'll have Tanya to help me. I still don't see why you wouldn't let +me go to the Port to meet her, Dr. Wong."</p> + +<p>"I just thought it would be more of a celebration if we had a surprise +party all waiting for her to walk into. Dr. Haslam will bring her here +directly from the Port, and here we all are, her old friends from the +Institute, waiting to welcome her home."</p> + +<p>"I'd hardly say all," said Leah. "I'm the only person from Office that's +here. And why have a party in your Library, Dr. Wong? Nothing here but +books, books, books."</p> + +<p>"Because I keep my liquor here, in the only room I have a right to lock +up. My Menial is a good man, but he can't resist an opened bottle."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's still a gloomy party."</p> + +<p>David turned appealingly to his other guests, Hudson and Fauré, but they +only looked uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we need a drink." David unlocked the cupboard and picked up a +bottle which he set down hastily when he heard voices in the hall. He +hurried to the outer door and opened it a few inches to reveal the +sturdy shoulders of the watchguard of the floor and, beyond him, Karl +Haslam.</p> + +<p>"Everything in order, Officer?" asked Karl.</p> + +<p>"Your permit is in order, Dr. Haslam. A private party. Let me just +check—yes, three guests have arrived, and you two make five. That all? +You have until midnight. But it beats me why you people in Research +prefer a party without a watchguard, or why Leader Marley ever gives +permission. Why, in all my years in Military, I've never been to an +unwatched party, and I must say it never held us down any."</p> + +<p>Karl laughed a little too forcedly. "I'll bet it didn't! But all +Research people are a little peculiar. You must have noticed that +yourself."</p> + +<p>"Well—"</p> + +<p>"And you know how generous Leader Marley is, and how kind he is to loyal +citizens. He wants us to be happy, so he pampers us now and then."</p> + +<p>"I guess he knows what he's doing, all right. Well, I'll check you out +at twelve, then."</p> + +<p>"Go on in, Tanya," said Karl.</p> + +<p>They stepped into the apartment and David quietly closed the door.</p> + +<p>"Hi, Sis," drawled Leah. "You made us wait long enough!" She walked +toward the girl, hand outstretched, then stopped with a gasp of +disbelief.</p> + +<p>Tanya's red hair was still brilliant and gleaming, her creamy skin +unlined, and her full red lips curved up into a friendly smile as she +leaned forward for a sisterly kiss. But Leah jerked away and glared with +anger.</p> + +<p>A puzzled frown creased Tanya's lovely white forehead.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Leah? Aren't you glad to see me? You look so +strange, as though you'd been terribly ill!"</p> + +<p>Leah shook her head, tears of rage gathering in her pale eyes. "I'm +okay," she whispered. "It's you. You haven't changed. I have. You're +still young, you're pretty, <i>you're just the way I used to be</i>!" She +whirled to face David, her voice choking.</p> + +<p>"What have you done to her, Dr. Wong?"</p> + +<p>The four men in the room were all staring at the sisters, scarcely +believing what they saw, although they had all been prepared for the +contrast. The twin sisters were no longer twins. One had retained her +youth; the other was faded, aging.</p> + +<p>"This is awful," Haslam muttered. "Absolutely ghastly." He put a +comforting hand on Leah's shoulder, and with a deep sob she hid her face +against him and cried.</p> + +<p>Hudson and Fauré could not take their eyes from Tanya, and David leaned +against the wall to stop his trembling.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, all of you," he said. "First we'll have a drink. I'm sure we +all need it. Then we'll face—what has to be faced."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>An hour later, they had achieved a calmness, of sorts. They had given up +some of their normal sobriety to achieve the calm, but they were +grateful to the drug for cushioning the shock.</p> + +<p>David paced the floor, glass in hand, talking rapidly as he finished his +long explanation.</p> + +<p>"So you see what happened," he said. "When I began the experiment, I had +no idea how staggering the results might be. That is, I knew in my mind, +but I never imagined the <i>realness</i> of what would happen. I thought of +it as just an experiment."</p> + +<p>Leah sniffed, her resentment somewhat dulled by drink. "So I was just an +experiment! Don't you ever think about people's feelings? I know I'm not +as good as you are; I'm only Office, but I'm human."</p> + +<p>Karl patted her hand. "Of course you are, Leah. But that is one of the +defects of people in Research—they forget about human emotions." He +looked up sternly at David. "They go ahead with their experiments, and +hang the consequences. If Dr. Wong had had any sense, he would never +have kept this a secret for ten years, and we might have had ten years +to prepare ourselves for such a responsibility. Instead, we have only a +few days or, at most, weeks. Hudson! Fauré! How do you feel about this +thing now? Are you still game?"</p> + +<p>Both men seemed a little dazed, but Fauré pulled himself together, +speaking slowly, like a man in a dream.</p> + +<p>"We're with you. It's still hard to believe: we've got immortality!"</p> + +<p>"I'd hardly call it immortality," said Hudson drily, "since, as I +understand it, SDE does not kill disease entities, nor ward off bullets +or the disintegrating nuclear shaft of the needler—as we will very +likely find out before very long. But what do we do now? When people see +these two girls together, it won't be an hour before Marley hears about +it."</p> + +<p>David spoke up with a new authority. "He must not hear about it. I know +how poorly equipped I am to handle this situation, but since I created +it, I must assume responsibility, and I have made my plans.</p> + +<p>"First, you, Tanya. Try to realize that if the Leader finds out that I +have this secret of keeping youth, he will want it for himself. Nobody +in Menial, nobody in Office, nobody in Research—almost nobody at +all—will be allowed to benefit from it. Marley will use it as a special +reward for certain Rulers, and he will try to keep its very existence a +secret so that people in general will not be envious or rebellious. That +means that he will have to get rid of you."</p> + +<p>"Get rid of me? But I haven't done any harm!"</p> + +<p>"Just by existing and letting people look at your unchanging youth, you +will be a threat to him, for you will give away his secret. How he'll +deal with you, I don't know. Concentration camp, exile, or more +probably, simple execution on grounds of treason, such as unauthorized +choices of activity or study. It doesn't matter, he'll find a way. The +only safety for you is in keeping hidden. You must stay quietly in +Leah's apartment until we can find a refuge for you. Do you see that?"</p> + +<p>She looked around in bewilderment. "Is that right, Dr. Haslam? And what +will they think at the Institute? I'm supposed to go back to my job in +Intercom."</p> + +<p>"Dr. Wong is right," he said kindly. "Please believe us. It's hard for +you to understand that we are asking you to do something secret, but +just try to remember that you are, after all, an Office Category and are +not equipped by training or constitution to think out problems like +this. We'll tell you what is the right thing to do. You just do as we +tell you, and you'll be perfectly safe."</p> + +<p>Leah snickered. "Oh, <i>she'll</i> be safe enough, being as pretty as she is! +What are you going to do about me? Don't I count?"</p> + +<p>"We'll come to that in a few minutes. Right now, we need food. Leah, you +and Tanya be good girls and go out to the kitchen and heat up some +supper for us. After we've eaten, we'll talk about you."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>As soon as the girls were out of the room, the four men drew together at +the table.</p> + +<p>"No use burdening them with too much knowledge," Karl remarked. "Even as +it is, they are a great danger to us, and the less they know the better. +David, will you proceed?"</p> + +<p>"I have little to add to the plans we made last night at the lab. The +thing we need most is time; and next to that, a hiding place. We may +very soon be classed as traitors, with every watchguard on the continent +hunting for us. We will take care that they don't find us. Now, you said +last night that each one of you has accumulated a Free Choice during the +past year, which hasn't yet been used."</p> + +<p>"That's right," said Fauré. "I intended to use mine next winter to live +among the Australian aborigines for a week. I've been wanting that for +years, but the planners always refused me; it was a project without +practical purpose."</p> + +<p>"And I intended to use mine to attempt a water-color painting," added +Hudson. "In my boyhood I hoped to be put in Arts Category, but the +Planners laughed at me. I suppose it's wrong, yet I still have the yen."</p> + +<p>"You have my sympathy," said Karl. "I was going to take an Aimless +Tramp. Just shed my identity and wander on foot through the great north +area of woods and lakes."</p> + +<p>David sighed. "Well, if we are successful in hiding and in changing the +world as we'd like, you can all three be free to do as you like without +asking permission. But at present that's only the wildest of dreams. +And, first, we must find our refuge. Today is Saturday. Tomorrow +morning, each of you will go to BureauMed and claim your Free Choice. +And each of you will choose an Aimless Tramp."</p> + +<p>"But I don't like hiking," objected Hudson.</p> + +<p>"You won't be hiking. You'll take off in your roboplanes and then +disappear. You will be without supervision. You will then proceed, +disguised as you think suitable, to find a place for our new +colony—somewhere in South America?—and make preliminary arrangements +to receive us. You must be back by Tuesday afternoon at the latest. On +Tuesday, as soon as you have reported back to BureauMed, get to the +Institute as fast as you can."</p> + +<p>"Why the deadline?"</p> + +<p>"Because by Tuesday afternoon, sometime before evening, probably, I +expect all three of you to be suffering from an attack of Blue Martian +Fever, and I want you to get expert hospital care. You will be the +nucleus of the new regime."</p> + +<p>Karl laughed. "I wish you could have picked a base for your SDE that was +less unpleasant than Blue Martian."</p> + +<p>"Who's got Blue Martian?" asked Tanya, as the girls came in from the +kitchen with their trays of food. "I'll never forget how sick it made +me."</p> + +<p>"You should worry," said Leah. "It kept you young and beautiful, didn't +it?"</p> + +<div class="figright"> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>"You won't have to envy her, Leah," said David going to the liquor +cabinet. "I'm going to give you and the others a shot of the SDE-Martian +Blue. Sometime Tuesday afternoon you should feel the first symptoms. But +after forty-eight hours in the hospital, you'll be good as new. And you +will all stop growing older."</p> + +<p>They watched, fascinated, as he opened the cooling compartment of the +liquor cupboard.</p> + +<p>"I always like plenty of ice in my drinks," he remarked, drawing out a +tray of cubes and opening a small door behind the tray. He removed +several small bottles filled with a milky liquid, and a copper box of +sterile needles and syringes.</p> + +<p>"Who'll be first?"</p> + +<p>There was a knock at the door, and David stopped.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he called.</p> + +<p>"Me," came the watchguard's voice. "Just thought I'd do you a favor and +tell you it's only ten minutes till checkout time. Time to get +yourselves decent!"</p> + +<p>They could hear the rumble of his laugh as he moved on down the hall. +Trembling, David picked up a bottle, poured alcohol onto the rubber cap, +and deftly filled the sterile syringe. He reached for a piece of cotton, +dipped it in iodine, and looked up, waiting. Karl Haslam had already +bared his left arm. David swabbed the spot on the upper deltoid.</p> + +<p>Karl laughed. "Here I come, Methuselah!"</p> + +<p>"All set?" asked David.</p> + +<p>He plunged the needle home.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>David ran up the steps of the Institute, two at a time, and hurried +toward his office through the echoing corridors, where the usual +watchguard sauntered on patrol.</p> + +<p>"Morning, Jones."</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Doctor. Pretty early, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"Wednesday's my busy day." He settled at his desk, miserably conscious +of the open door and curious eyes behind him, opened his briefcase, then +glanced at his wristwatch. More than an hour before his interview with +Leader Marley.</p> + +<p>Spreading some data sheets before him, he looked at them blankly as he +tried to order his thoughts. His eyes were ringed with dark depressions, +for he had had no sleep. There had been so many things to plan for, so +many arrangements to make.</p> + +<p>It was possible, of course, that this morning's talk would turn out to +be mere routine. There might remain several weeks of freedom—but there +might be only a few hours. He shrank from the complexity of the problem +before him; he was a Research man, devoted to his test tubes and his +culture growths, and would have been happy never to face any problem +beyond them.</p> + +<p>He had a moment's revulsion at the unfairness of the fact that a simple +experiment in the lab, an addition to man's knowledge of the Universe, +should have plunged him against his will into a situation far beyond his +ability to handle. There had been, as Karl pointed out, the alternative +of turning the SDE over to the Leader. That would have absolved him of +all responsibility. But that was the trouble, he thought. Responsibility +could not be confined to squiggles in his notebook, when those squiggles +might affect the whole of society.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Wong!"</p> + +<p>He jumped and turned around hastily.</p> + +<p>"Leah! What in the world?"</p> + +<p>She stood in the doorway, glaring at him, breathing heavily as though +she were trying to hold back sobs. Slowly she tottered to the desk and +sank down into her chair by the stenograph.</p> + +<p>"You doublecrosser!" she whispered.</p> + +<p>He looked quickly at the doorway, but the guard had not come back. +Leaning forward, he questioned her fiercely.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing here? They told me yesterday that several people had +come down with attacks of Blue Martian. Why aren't you in the hospital +with the others?"</p> + +<p>"Because I wasn't sick!"</p> + +<p>"But I gave you—"</p> + +<p>"Imagine how I felt," she raced on, "watching Dr. Haslam start having a +chill, hearing Dr. Fauré complain about his awful headache, and +listening to Dr. Hudson dial Intercom and call for a doctor. And all +that time I was waiting, waiting for something to happen to me. And +nothing did! What have you got against me, Dr. Wong, that you infect all +the others and only pretend to do it to me? I don't want to grow old any +more than they do!"</p> + +<p>"But I wasn't pretending. Quiet, now, and let me think."</p> + +<p>He waited until the watchguard had passed by the door, then raised his +head.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Leah. Evidently the infection didn't take. This is what must +have happened. That treatment I gave you ten years ago must have made +you permanently immune to Blue Martian, and the antibodies it formed in +your cells simply protected you against this new invasion of the virus. +It never occurred to me that the immunity would last so long. But don't +worry, I'll find a way."</p> + +<p>She looked suspicious. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that there's no reason why Blue Martian should be the only +vehicle for giving you the SDE. There must be other viruses that will +work equally well. It's only a question of finding one."</p> + +<p>"And how long will that take you?"</p> + +<p>"How long does anything take in Research? Maybe a week, maybe a year."</p> + +<p>"And maybe ten! I can't wait, Dr. Wong. I'm thirty-five now; I'm growing +older. What good will a long life do me, if it only preserves me as the +middle-aged woman I'll be by then? And all those years that I'll be +getting older and older, there'll be Tanya, lively and pretty, to remind +me that I was once like that, too. I can't face it!"</p> + +<p>"The watchguard will hear you!" Haggard-faced, he watched her shaking +shoulders, hearing her muffled sobs.</p> + +<p>"You're a criminal, Dr. Wong! It was a crime, what you did to Tanya and +me."</p> + +<p>"I didn't realize in the beginning or I'd never have touched the thing. +I know it now, even better than you do, but what can I do?"</p> + +<p>She looked up and wiped her eyes, her mouth set hard. "I know what I can +do. I can report you to the Leader."</p> + +<p>"What good will that do? You know how terrible you feel now about being +left out—though I swear I never meant it to be like this. But just try +to imagine. If you report me so that Leader Marley gets the secret of +SDE, then thousands of people will be put in just the same situation you +are in. You're only one person suffering. But then there'd be hundreds +of thousands, millions! Surely you wouldn't want to have that on your +conscience?"</p> + +<p>"Do you think I'd care?"</p> + +<p>"You would when you felt calmer. You're wrought up, ill. Let me send you +home. Promise me you'll go home quietly, talk it over with Tanya, and +not say anything to anyone else. I'll think of a way out for you. Just +be patient."</p> + +<p>"Patient!"</p> + +<p>He thought of calling Karl Haslam. Karl would know best how to deal with +her, how to bring her back to reason. He reached toward the intercom, +then dropped his hand in despair. Karl was in the hospital, with Fauré +and Hudson, shivering with the cold of Blue Martian fever. But he had to +get her away.</p> + +<p>He pressed the intercom dial. "Dr. Wong speaking. Miss Hachovnik is ill +and is being sent home. Please send an aircab for her at once."</p> + +<p>He helped Leah to her feet, and spoke pleadingly.</p> + +<p>"Promise you'll be good, Leah?"</p> + +<p>The fury in her eyes nearly knocked him down. Without a word, without a +gesture, she walked out.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>David felt as though he'd been put through a wringer as he followed +Officer Magnun into the Leader's suite at State House. Several nights of +sleeplessness, the worries of planning for a refuge, and the scene with +Leah had left him limp and spiritless. The girl was a danger, he knew, +but she was only one of many.</p> + +<p>He nodded at Dr. Lanza, who was busy reading reports from BureauMed, and +saluted Leader Marley, who was talking with a watchguard.</p> + +<p>Marley looked up briefly. "Sit down, Wong."</p> + +<p>David folded himself into a chair, grateful for a few moments in which +to collect himself, while Marley gave the last of his orders.</p> + +<p>"Put them in the Vermont granite quarries, and keep them at work for the +next year."</p> + +<p>"As you say, Leader. With the usual secrecy, of course?"</p> + +<p>"No, you blockhead! These are a bunch of nobodies. Use all the publicity +you can get. Keep a punishment a secret and how can it have any effect +on other people? No, I want full radio and news coverage and telecast +showings as they swing the first pick at the first rocks. People have +got to realize that the Leader knows best, that treason doesn't pay. No +matter how clever they think they are, they'll always get caught. +Understand?"</p> + +<p>"As you say, Leader."</p> + +<p>"Then get going." As the guard left the room, Leader Marley turned to +David. "What fools people are!"</p> + +<p>He ran his beefy hands through a shock of black hair, blinked his eyes, +and wrinkled the heavy black brows that met over his nose. Wonderingly, +he shook his massive head as he drew his gleaming needler from his +breast pocket and played with it, tossing it from hand to hand while he +talked.</p> + +<p>"I'm probably the most generous Leader the State has had since the +Atomic Wars, Wong, and I never withhold a privilege from someone who has +deserved it. But people mistake me when they think that I am weak and +will overlook treason."</p> + +<p>"Your generosity is a byword, Leader Marley," said Wong. "But some +people are incapable of acting for their best interests even when you +have defined it for them. Who are these latest traitors?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nobody really important, of course, except as they waste time which +they owe to the State. Just attempts at illegal study. An Office +Category who had found a basement room in a deserted building and was +spending all his evening hours there practicing the violin. A Theater +man who was illegally trying to learn carpentry. And a teacher of +mathematics who had forged a key to the Linguistics library, and had +been getting in every night to study a dead language—Cuneiform, Latin, +something like that, utterly without practical value. This last one is +an old man, too, and ought to have known better. People must be made to +realize that if they want the privilege of useless study, they will have +to earn it. And I am very broadminded in such cases."</p> + +<p>"Nobody has better reason to know that than I, Leader Marley, and I am +always grateful to you."</p> + +<p>Marley coughed and straightened the jacket over his bearlike chest as he +put back his needler.</p> + +<p>"Now to business. Where's that memorandum, Lanza?"</p> + +<p>Dr. Lanza handed him the paper, then sat down beside the Leader.</p> + +<p>"First. When Dr. Lanza called on you last week, he found the door to +your office locked. What explanation do you have?"</p> + +<p>David smiled and spread his hands. "My explanation is the generosity of +Leader Marley. You have so many affairs to occupy your attention that it +is not surprising that you do not remember rewarding me with a Free +Choice some years ago, for my work on Martian Blue. I chose, as I am +sure you remember now, an occasional hour of Privacy."</p> + +<p>The Leader blinked. "That's right. I had forgotten. Well, the Leader +never goes back on his word. Though why in the name of Marley you +fellows want a crazy thing like that is beyond me. What do you <i>do</i>, +behind a locked door, that you don't want anyone to see?"</p> + +<p>"Do you doubt my loyalty, Leader Marley?"</p> + +<p>"I doubt everything. What do you <i>want</i> with Privacy?"</p> + +<p>Lanza broke in amiably. "I'm afraid we just have to accept such wishes +as one of the harmless abnormalities of the Research mind, Leader. Since +I grew up in that Category, I understand it to some extent."</p> + +<p>"You're right in calling it abnormal. I think perhaps I'd better remove +that from the possible Choices in the future. It could easily be +misused, and it never did make any sense to me.</p> + +<p>"Well, second. It's been more than three years since you reported any +progress with the problem of White Martian Fever, Wong. What is your +explanation?"</p> + +<p>"Research is not always swift, Leader."</p> + +<p>"But I distinctly ordered you to find an immunizing agent within three +years. Our colonies on Mars cannot wait forever. I've been patient with +you, but you've had more than enough time."</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry, Leader Marley. I have done my best and so have my +colleagues. But the problem is complex. If I may explain, we had to find +a suitable culture medium for growing the virus, and then we had to work +at the problem of coupling it with suitable haptens—"</p> + +<p>Impatiently, Marley waved his hand. "You know I don't understand your +jargon. That's not my business, what troubles you've had. I want +results. You got results on Blue Martian quickly enough."</p> + +<p>"We were fortunate. But when we storm the citadel of knowledge, Leader +Marley, no one can predict how long it will take for the citadel to +fall."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! I'm warning you, Wong, you're failing in your duty to the +State, and you can't escape the consequences with poetic doubletalk. I +allow special privileges to you people in Research and I expect a proper +appreciation in return. When I order you to produce a protection for +White Martian, I want results!"</p> + +<p>"But you can't get a thing like that just by asking for it. Such things +are simply not under your control."</p> + +<p>"Watch yourself, Wong! Your remarks are dangerously close to treason!"</p> + +<p>"Is it treason to tell you a plain fact?"</p> + +<p>Stony-faced, David stared defiantly at Marley, trying to control the +trembling of his body. If he had had a needler at that instant, he +realized incredulously, he would have shot the Leader and thought his +own life a small price to pay for such a pleasure.</p> + +<p>Lanza coughed. "I'm afraid Dr. Wong is not well, Leader. Worrying over +the slowness of his work has distorted his reactions. But I am sure that +you will understand, as you always do, and be indulgent."</p> + +<p>"I'll overlook your remarks, Wong," said Marley, relaxing. "But you'd +better change your attitude. You Research people cause me more trouble +than any other three Categories put together. Sometimes I wonder if a +spell in the granite quarries mightn't—"</p> + +<p>A light flashed on his desk. He watched the blinking code for a second, +then rose abruptly and left the room.</p> + +<p>The two men sat in silence. David glanced at Lanza, and Lanza shifted in +his chair.</p> + +<p>"Thanks for the good word," said David wearily. "How do you like being a +Ruler, by the way? When we were at Medschool together, I thought you +were a man with ideas."</p> + +<p>"When I was at Medschool I didn't know what was good for me," Lanza +replied stiffly.</p> + +<p>"And you think you do now?"</p> + +<p>A slow flush crept over Lanza's face. "Look here, Wong! Each man has to +make his own terms with himself. Don't act so smug! You shut yourself +away inside the nice white walls of your laboratory and ignore all the +conflicts of life. You shut your ears and your eyes, live in perfect +harmony with your test tubes, and let the world go hang. Well, that +isn't my way."</p> + +<p>"Your way, apparently, is to worm yourself into the confidence of that +steel-hearted imbecile who rules our lives and our thoughts, and spend +twenty-four hours a day saying, 'Yes, Yes,' and waiting for him to die +so you can step into his shoes!"</p> + +<p>"We're alone," said Lanza. "I won't report you. But I have no intention +of justifying myself. Have you any idea why you've been let alone for so +long? You haven't produced anything tangible in several years. Haven't +you ever wondered why no one put on the pressure? Haven't—"</p> + +<p>He broke off as Marley lumbered back into the room and fell into a +chair. The Leader's manner had altered. He stared at David with grim +inquiry, the beady eyes traveling slowly over him, taking in his rumpled +hair, his strained face, the rigid set of his shoulders.</p> + +<p>At last Marley spoke, his voice soft with menace.</p> + +<p>"You're looking well, Dr. Wong. Remarkably well. In fact, it occurs to +me that you don't seem to have aged a bit since my last visit to your +laboratory. Tell me, how do you keep your youth?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>David could feel the rush of blood through his body, feel the thud of +his racing heart. He kept his voice low so that it would not tremble.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Leader Marley, for your kindness in noticing my appearance. +I suppose I chose my parents well. They both lived to be over ninety, +you know."</p> + +<p>"This is no joking matter. I've just had a report. An epidemic of Blue +Martian fever has broken out among the people of your Institute. Why +have you not mentioned it?"</p> + +<p>"If you will forgive me, Leader Marley, I've had no chance. I reported +it in the usual manner to the health authorities, and have here in my +briefcase a memorandum which I hoped to bring to your attention, among +several other matters, when you had finished giving your instructions to +me."</p> + +<p>Marley continued implacably, "And how did this epidemic begin? It was my +understanding that no insect existed here on Earth that could transmit +the virus. Yet several people from your lab came down with the disease +on the same day. What is your explanation?"</p> + +<p>"It's very simple. To prepare the vaccine, as I am sure you will +remember from your last visit to us, we have to keep in the lab a +limited number of the <i>Fafli</i>, the Martian insects which act as hosts at +one stage of the virus's life. Last week a Menial carelessly knocked +over one of the cages and several <i>Fafli</i> escaped. The Menial was +discharged, of course, and put in Punishment, but the damage had already +been done."</p> + +<p>"You have a very ready explanation."</p> + +<p>"Would you rather I had none at all, Leader Marley?"</p> + +<p>"Well, let that go." Marley drummed his plump fingers on the desk as he +continued. "There was another report for me just now. A report so wild, +so incredible, so staggering that I can scarcely bring myself to take it +seriously. From an Office Category at the Institute."</p> + +<p>David's heart beat wildly, but he forced a smile to his lips. "Oh, yes. +You must mean Miss Hachovnik. I've been worried about that poor girl for +some time."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, 'poor girl'?"</p> + +<p>"It's very distressing to me, because she has been a good and loyal +worker for many years. But she is becoming unstable. She has a tendency +to burst into tears over nothing, is sometimes hysterical, seems to have +secret grievances, and is extremely jealous of all women whom she +considers more attractive. She was never too bright, to be sure, but +until recently she has done her work well, so I've hated to take any +action. Just this morning I had to send her home because she was ill."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say," asked Marley, "that none of her story is true?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. What is her story?"</p> + +<p>"She reports that you have been working on a private project of your +own, instead of on White Martian. That you have discovered a way to make +people immortal, by infecting them with Blue Martian. What is your +explanation?"</p> + +<p>David only stared, his mind so blurred with panic that he could not +speak. His stunned silence was broken by a laugh. It was Dr. Lanza, +leaning backward in his chair, holding himself over the stomach as he +shook his head.</p> + +<p>"These hysterical women!" His laughter trailed off to a commiserating +chuckle. "You're too forbearing, Wong. You shouldn't keep a worker who's +so far gone. Take a leaf from Leader Marley's book and remember: +Kindness is often weakness; when it is necessary for the good of the +State, be harsh!"</p> + +<p>"I hardly know what to say," said David. "I had no idea she'd gone so +far."</p> + +<p>"Then there's no truth in it?" Marley persisted. "What she says is +impossible?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said David judiciously, "we people in Research have learned not +to call anything <i>impossible</i>, but this dream of immortality is as old +as the human race. We have a thousand legends about it, including the +story of the Phoenix, that fabulous bird which, when consumed by fire, +rose triumphant from its own ashes to begin life anew. A pretty story, +of course. But I need only put it to a mind as logical as yours, Leader +Marley. Throughout all the millenia of man's existence, the Sun has +always risen each morning in the east, and thus we know that it always +will. That is the order of nature. Likewise, from the earliest +generations of man, no individual has ever lived longer than a hundred +and some years, and thus we know that he never will. That is the order +of Nature and we can't alter it to the best of my knowledge."</p> + +<p>Leader Marley was thoughtful. He touched the intercom.</p> + +<p>"Send in Officer Magnun."</p> + +<p>David held his breath.</p> + +<p>"Magnun, Office Category Hachovnik is to be taken from her home at once +and put in indefinite Psycho-detention."</p> + +<p>Marley stood up. "Very well, Dr. Wong. You may go. But I shall suspend +your privilege of Privacy, at least until after you have devised a +protection against White Martian. It is not wise to disregard the wishes +of the Leader. Lanza, show him out."</p> + +<p>At the street door, they paused. Lanza looked at David speculatively.</p> + +<p>"You <i>do</i> keep your youth well, David."</p> + +<p>"Some people do."</p> + +<p>"I remember that legend of the Phoenix. What do you suppose the Phoenix +did with his new life, once he'd risen from the ashes of his old self?"</p> + +<p>"I'm no philosopher."</p> + +<p>"Neither am I. But you and I both know that the principle of induction +was exploded centuries ago. It's true that the Sun <i>has</i> always risen in +the east. But is there anything to keep it, someday, from rising in the +west?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>That night David sat late at his desk. Through the open door behind him, +he could hear the watchguard slowly pacing the dimly lit corridor. He +could feel time pressing at his back. He was reprieved, he knew, but for +how long?</p> + +<p>He got up, at one point, when the corridor behind him was quiet, and +went to the bookcase. He pressed the brass handle, saw the shelves +silently swing away from the wall, then set it back again. The +mechanism, installed a century ago by a cautious politician, was still +in good order.</p> + +<p>Back at his desk, he thought of Leah and her lost youth, lost because of +his own impersonal attitude. He felt sorry for her, but there was +nothing he could do for her now. It was a relief to know that Tanya, at +least, remained hidden and secure in her sister's apartment.</p> + +<p>It was after midnight before he closed his notebook and locked it away +in the top drawer. His plans were completed. There would not be time +given him, he knew, to finish his work on White Martian. That would have +to be dropped, and resumed at some more favorable time in the future—if +there was a future for him. But he would begin at once to produce in +quantity a supply of the SDE-Blue Martian, for he was sure that the +untrained guards who watched his movements would never realize that he +had shifted to another project.</p> + +<p>With a brief good night to the guard, he left the building to walk home. +His shoulders were straight, his stride confident, and he disdained +looking behind him to see if anyone was following. He had made his terms +with himself, and only death, which he would certainly try to prevent, +could alter his plans.</p> + +<p>Going into his apartment he wearily turned on the light. Then he froze, +feeling as though he had been clubbed. Leah Hachovnik was huddled at one +end of the sofa, her face dripping tears.</p> + +<p>"I thought you'd never come," she whispered.</p> + +<p>He slumped down beside her. "How did you get here, Leah? I thought you +were—"</p> + +<p>"I hid in your hallway until the watchguard was at the other end. When +his back was turned, I just took off my shoes and slipped in. I've been +waiting for hours." Her voice was almost inaudible, spent beyond +emotion.</p> + +<p>"They got Tanya," she said dully. "They took her away."</p> + +<p>"What happened? Quick!"</p> + +<p>"After I reported to BureauMed—I'm sorry I did that, Dr. Wong, but I +just couldn't help myself. I didn't tell them about Tanya and the +others, just about you. Then I walked around for hours, hating you, +hating Tanya, hating everybody. Finally I got so tired that I went home. +Just as I got into the hall, I heard a loud knock and I saw Officer +Magnun at my door. When Tanya opened it, he simply said, 'Office +Category Hachovnik?' When she nodded her head, he said, 'You're under +detention.' She screamed and she fought, but he took her away. Since +then, I've been hiding. I'm afraid."</p> + +<p>David tried to think. He remembered that he had said only "Miss +Hachovnik" in his talk with the Leader. Had Marley never known that +there was more than one? But Lanza surely knew. Or had he merely assumed +that Magnun would ask for Leah? Would they realize, at Psycho-detention, +that they had the wrong woman? Probably not, for she would be hysterical +with terror, and her very youth and beauty taken in connection with the +"jealousy and envy of younger women" which was noted in her commitment +order, would seem to confirm her madness. He was still safe, for a +while—if he could keep Leah away from the Institute.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid," she whimpered. "Don't let them put me away."</p> + +<p>"Then you'll have to do exactly as I tell you. Can you follow orders +exactly?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes!"</p> + +<p>"I'll have to hide you here. We can fix up my library as a room for you. +It's the only room I can keep locked, and which my Menial never enters +in my absence. Whatever happens, Leah—no matter what happens—keep +yourself hidden. More than your life depends on that."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>When the three convalescents returned from the hospital, pale and shaky, +David summoned them to his office. At the door, Watchguard Jones looked +them over.</p> + +<p>"Say, that Blue Martian fever sure does take it out of you. You fellows +look like you've been plenty sick!"</p> + +<p>"They have been," said David. "Let them by so they can sit down and +rest."</p> + +<p>Jones moved aside, but he lounged in the doorway, listening.</p> + +<p>David ignored him. "Glad to see you back, gentlemen. I'll make this +brief. You have been the victims of a laboratory accident just as much +as if you'd been contaminated with radiation. Our Leader Marley, who +understands the problems of all Categories, has very generously +consented to grant you a two weeks' convalescence, in addition to a Free +Choice. Take a few minutes to think over your decision."</p> + +<p>He strolled over to the window and looked out at the green of the trees +just bursting into leaf. Then, as if on impulse, he turned back.</p> + +<p>"While you're thinking it over, will you look at these protocols? We +discussed them before you got sick, you remember—a plan to prevent an +epidemic of Blue Martian. Do you approve of the final form? I'd like to +carry on, and after all," he added with an ironic smile, "it's getting +later than we might think."</p> + +<p>He handed each man a sheet of paper whose contents were identical. They +studied them. Karl Haslam was the first to speak.</p> + +<p>"You think, then, that other cases of Blue Martian may develop?"</p> + +<p>"It is certainly probable. Those <i>Fafli</i> insects were never caught."</p> + +<p>Karl looked back at his paper. It contained a list of names, some of +which were well known to all the country, some of them obscure. +Thoughtfully, he nodded as he ran down the list.</p> + +<p>Hudson glanced up, frowning, his finger pointed at one name.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he said slowly, "that this particular experiment would +prove useful. Surely the Lanza method has not proved to be as effective +as we once hoped."</p> + +<p>"You may be right. But there's the bare possibility that the <i>modified</i> +Lanza method might be of enormous benefit to us."</p> + +<p>"It is uncertain. Too much of a risk. That's my opinion."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll reconsider. The rest has your approval? Very well. And now +what choice have you made for your holiday?"</p> + +<p>"I think we are all agreed," said Karl soberly. "We'll have an Aimless +Tramp."</p> + +<p>"An excellent idea," approved David. "Oh, Jones, will you get an aircab +to take the doctors to BureauMed, and then arrange for their Roboplanes +to be serviced and ready in an hour?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know as I ought to leave my post," said Jones.</p> + +<p>"You'd rather stay with us and perhaps be exposed to the Fever?"</p> + +<p>"Okay, okay!"</p> + +<p>When his footsteps had died away, David leaned forward.</p> + +<p>"We've done our best. Another month or so and we should be completely +ready for our retirement act."</p> + +<p>"If we have a month," said Fauré.</p> + +<p>David grinned. "Well, if our time runs out, at least we'll go down +fighting. You know all your lines, your props are ready, the plot is +worked out, and we can slip into our makeup in an instant—provided the +audience shows up."</p> + +<p>"You're getting to be quite a joker, David," said Karl. "What if the +audience comes around to the stage door?"</p> + +<p>"Then we'll try to receive him properly. Our Leader is a man of iron, +but I doubt that he's immortal."</p> + +<p>They heard the approaching guard.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure you'll benefit from your holiday," David went on. "That last +checkup showed an antibody titer entirely too high for safety."</p> + +<p>"In other words, it's time for us to get going?" asked Karl, smiling.</p> + +<p>"That's right. Only the next time the antibody curve rises, it will be +for keeps."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Four days later it was reported that Judge Brinton, the well-known +champion of Category rights, was ill with Blue Martian fever. Three +little-known nuclear physicists living in the same apartment in Oak +Ridge developed symptoms on the same day. Sporadic cases of Blue Martian +flared up all over the continent. Occasionally a whole family was +affected—husband, wife, and all the children. There was a mild epidemic +at MIT, a more serious one at the School of Social Structure, and at +Harvard Medical School nearly a third of the senior class, and they the +most brilliant, were hospitalized at the same time.</p> + +<p>Rumors blanketed the country like a fog, and people everywhere became +uneasy. There were no deaths from the illness, but the very idea that an +infectious disease could flare up unpredictably all over the nation, out +of control, was frightening. It was said that the disease had been +beamed to Earth by alien enemies from space; that all its victims became +sterile; or that their minds were permanently damaged.</p> + +<p>It was also said, though people laughed even as they repeated the rumor, +that if you once had Blue Martian Fever you'd become immortal. This +particular theory had been clearly traced to the ravings of a red-haired +madwoman who was confined to Psycho-detention, but still it was too +ridiculous not to repeat. For a week, comedians rang a hundred changes +on the basic joke:</p> + +<p>Wife: Drop dead!</p> + +<p>Husband: I can't. I've had Blue Martian.</p> + +<p>The unrest became so great that Leader Marley himself appeared on the +telecaster to reassure the nation.</p> + +<p>He was an impressive figure on the lighted screen, resting solid and at +ease in a leather chair, raising his massive black head, lifting his big +hand to gesture as his rich voice rolled out.</p> + +<p>"You have nothing to fear," he said. "Under your beneficent Leaders, +infectious disease has been wiped out many years ago. BureauMed informs +me that these scattered cases of Blue Martian fever have been caused by +the escape of a few <i>Fafli</i> insects, which have, since then, been +isolated and destroyed. The illness has no serious after-effects. And as +for the rumors that it confers immortality—"</p> + +<p>He allowed his face to break into a pitying smile as he slowly shook his +head, looking regretful and yet somehow amused.</p> + +<p>"Those who continue to spread gossip about the fever will only reveal +themselves as either psychotics or traitors. Whichever they are, they +will be isolated for the good of our society."</p> + +<p>The effect of his words was somewhat diminished by the brief glimpse +people had of Dr. Lanza, who reached a hand to help the Leader rise. For +Dr. Lanza wore an anxious frown, and his face was thin with worry.</p> + +<p>In spite of numerous arrests, the rumors continued. For two weeks +sporadic outbreaks of the fever occurred, and then, abruptly, they +ceased.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It was more than a week after the last case had been reported that David +sat in his basement laboratory beside the opened mouse cage, watching +with wry affection as the furry creatures crawled over his hand. These +were historic mice, he reflected, whose reactions to SDE had opened up a +new world, a world which he must somehow help to make better than the +present one.</p> + +<p>His three colleagues had returned a few days ago from their holiday. +They had calmly come back to work, and apparently nobody had thought to +put two and two together, and thus connect the epidemic with the +vacationers. It had been unfortunate that Tanya should have been put +under arrest; it was difficult trying to find amusement for Leah so that +she would keep out of sight, but still, on the whole, their luck had +been good.</p> + +<p>But it was time for David to go back to work in his office. Gently he +detached the mice from his hand, dropped them into their cage, and +closed the wire trap. He took his leather pencil case and the keys to +his desk from the pocket of his lab coat and laid them on the desk, +below the nail on which his wristwatch hung. Carelessly he dropped his +lab coat onto the desk and reached for his jacket, then paused, +listening.</p> + +<p>The chatter in the technicians' room suddenly died. In the unnatural +quiet sounded a steady march of feet.</p> + +<p>David turned to meet the probing black eyes of Leader Marley. Just +behind him were Dr. Lanza and Officer Magnun.</p> + +<p>There was no time to conceal his mice, David realized. Shrugging into +his jacket, he strode forward without hesitation, a smile on his face, +and stretched out his hand.</p> + +<p>"Leader Marley! This is indeed an honor. If you had only notified us of +your visit, we should have been prepared."</p> + +<p>"Young as ever, I see, Wong."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Leader." There was no banter in Marley's eyes, he noted, but +he continued amiably. "It has been some years since you have honored us +by a visit in person. I'm afraid a laboratory is not a very exciting +place, but I'd be honored to show you anything that may be of interest +to you."</p> + +<p>A faint contempt curled Marley's mouth as he glanced around the room. +"Nothing to see that I haven't seen before, is there? A lot of test +tubes, a bunch of flasks, a mess of apparatus you'd think had been +dreamed up by an idiot, and a bad smell. You still keep animals, I +notice."</p> + +<p>He sauntered over to the bench, picked up the cage and looked at the +scurrying rodents.</p> + +<p>David scarcely breathed.</p> + +<p>Marley only nodded. "Well, mice are mice." He put down the cage and +turned away. "These look just like the ones I saw when I was here eight +or ten years ago. Same white patch on the forelimbs. I never knew mice +could live that long."</p> + +<p>"But—" began Lanza, bending over to study the mice.</p> + +<p>"What an amazing memory you have, Leader," said David. "Just as you +guessed, these mice are the direct descendants of the ones you saw on +your former visit, a special mutant strain. The chief difference is that +these are marked with white patches on the <i>right</i> forelimbs, while, as +I am sure you recall, the original specimens were marked on the <i>left</i> +forelimbs. Odd how these marks run in families, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>Lanza put down the cage and strolled toward the door as Marley took a +last bored look around.</p> + +<p>"Nothing new here that I ought to see, Lanza?"</p> + +<p>"No. Nothing new."</p> + +<p>"Well, I've no time to waste. I've come here for two reasons, Dr. Wong. +We both want a booster shot for Blue Martian. Ten years is a long time, +and there's been this epidemic."</p> + +<p>"Which is now under control."</p> + +<p>"That may be, but I still want a booster. You Research people don't +always know as much as you think you do. When that's done, I want a +detailed report of your progress on White Martian."</p> + +<p>"I shall be happy to give it," said David. "If you will go directly to +my office, I'll pick up the vaccine and syringes, and be with you in a +few minutes."</p> + +<p>Marley and Officer Magnun marched to the door, and David followed, +standing aside to let Lanza precede him. Lanza hesitated there, staring +at the floor. Then he smiled and looked directly at David.</p> + +<p>"Beautiful spring weather we are having. I'm wondering about the +marvelous order of nature. Did you happen to notice, this morning, +whether the Sun did actually rise in the east?"</p> + +<p>David stared at the retreating back. There was no longer any doubt in +his mind. Lanza knew. What was he going to do?</p> + +<p>"Hurry up, Doctor," said Officer Magnun from the doorway.</p> + +<p>"Right away." He opened the refrigerator and inspected the two groups of +red-capped vials sitting on the shelf. He had no time to think, no time +to weigh pros and cons; he could only act. Choosing two vials, he added +them to the sterile kit from the autoclave, and took a last look around.</p> + +<p>He noticed his watch still hanging on the wall, and the lab coat which +covered his leather pencil case. He started to take them, then slowly +dropped his hand and touched the intercom.</p> + +<p>"Get me Dr. Karl Haslam."</p> + +<p>"You're keeping the Leader waiting," said Magnun, but David paid no +attention.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Haslam? Dr. Wong speaking. I may be a little late getting up to see +those precipitates of yours. But you keep them simmering, just in case. +It's very probable that the antibody curve will rise.... Yes, I'll let +you know if I can."</p> + +<p>Magnun followed him to the office, then strolled away for a chat with +Watchguard Jones.</p> + +<p>David put his things on his desk and made his preparations in +businesslike fashion while Marley and Lanza glanced curiously around the +office. He watched apprehensively as Marley inspected the bookcase, then +turned away.</p> + +<p>"I never could understand why Research needs so many books," he +remarked.</p> + +<p>"Please roll up your sleeve, Leader Marley. I'm ready for you now."</p> + +<p>Deftly he assembled the syringe, filled it to the two centimeter mark, +and scrubbed the arm presented to him.</p> + +<p>"Ready?" He inserted the needle and slowly expelled the fluid. Then, +taking a fresh syringe, he repeated the operation, filling from the +second vial.</p> + +<p>"Why do those bottles have different numbers?" asked Marley. "Aren't we +getting the same thing?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. Just lab routine, so we can keep track of how many units +have been used from our stock. There, that does it, Lanza. Both of you +will be perfectly safe for a good many years to come."</p> + +<p>He was washing his hands at the sink when he heard a struggle at the +door. Turning, he saw Leah, thin, gaunt and terrified, held fast in the +grip of Officer Magnun, who forced her inside and slammed the door +behind them.</p> + +<p>"What's the meaning of this intrusion?" demanded Marley.</p> + +<p>"There's some funny business going on, Leader," said Magnun. "I caught +this woman trying to sneak in here. She says she's Miss Hachovnik and +she works here. Only she ain't. I arrested Miss Hachovnik myself, and I +remember well enough what she looked like. She was a cute chick, not a +bit like this dame."</p> + +<p>Marley was staring at the sobbing girl, eyes blinking as he thought, +looked back, remembered. Slowly his eyes shifted to David, and David +felt like a man impaled.</p> + +<p>"You may leave, Magnun," said the Leader.</p> + +<p>"You don't want me to arrest this woman?"</p> + +<p>"Let go of her! I said you may leave!"</p> + +<p>"As you say, Leader."</p> + +<p>When the door closed, the room throbbed to Leah's sobs.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't help it, Dr. Wong," she cried. "I got so bored, sitting and +looking at those books, day after day, with nothing to do! I thought I'd +just slip down here for an hour and say hello to people, and—"</p> + +<p>"Quiet, Hachovnik!" roared Marley. He quieted his voice. "I understand +now, Wong. I remember. There were two girls. Twins. The one in +Psycho-detention, according to Officer Magnun, is still beautiful and +young. It's no use, Wong. You do know the secret of immortality. And you +told me the Phoenix was only a fairy tale!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>David felt entirely calm. Whatever might happen now, at least the +suspense was over. He had done all he could, and it was a relief to have +things in the open. He thought fleetingly of his colleagues, alerted by +his message, frantically putting their plans into operation, but he +leaned back against the sink with every appearance of ease.</p> + +<p>"You're not quite right, Leader Marley. I cannot confer immortality. All +I am able to do is stave off the aging process."</p> + +<p>"That will do me nicely. And it's connected somehow with the Blue +Martian virus?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. The disease serves as the vehicle."</p> + +<p>With a brisk motion, Marley drew his needler from his breast pocket and +aimed it steadily at David. "<i>Give it to me!</i>"</p> + +<p>"You're rather ambiguous," said David. How were his friends getting +along? Were they ready yet? Had Karl visited the basement lab? "Do you +mean you want me to give you the injection to prolong your life, or the +secret of how to do it, or what?"</p> + +<p>"Don't quibble! First you'll give me the injection to make me immortal. +Then you'll turn over to me all your notes on procedure. Then my friend +here will needle you with a shaft of electrons and end your interest in +the problem."</p> + +<p>"Surely you won't keep such a good thing all for yourself," said David. +"What about Dr. Lanza? He's your right-hand man. Don't you want him to +live forever, too? What about Officer Magnun? He's a faithful servant."</p> + +<p>"You're stalling, Wong. Do you want me to kill you now?"</p> + +<p>"It won't be wise to needle me yet, Leader Marley. The secret would be +lost forever."</p> + +<p>"I'll have your notes!"</p> + +<p>"Yes? Try to read them. They're written in Coptic, a dead language that +you consider it a waste of time to learn, because such knowledge is +impractical. There aren't half a dozen men on Earth who could make head +or tail of my notebook."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll find that half-dozen! I want the injection." He gestured with +the gleaming weapon.</p> + +<p>"This is once when I have no Free Choice," said David. "Very well." He +started toward the door, but halted at the roar of command.</p> + +<p>"Stop! Do you think I'm fool enough to let you out of my sight?"</p> + +<p>"But I have to get the inoculant."</p> + +<p>"Use the intercom. Send for it."</p> + +<p>David slumped into the chair and opened the intercom. He could almost +feel the electronic shaft of the needler ripping into his body. His +heart beat wildly, and the tension of adrenalin ran through his body. +His lips felt cold, but he held them steady as he spoke into the dial.</p> + +<p>"Get me Dr. Haslam.... Karl? David Wong speaking. Will you send someone +up with a vial of phoenix special? The precipitates? I should say the +antibody titer has reached the danger point. Don't delay treatment any +longer."</p> + +<p>Silently they waited. Marley's grim face did not relax; his eyes were +alight. Leah lay back in her chair with closed eyes, and Lanza stared +intently at the floor.</p> + +<p>A soft knock came at the door, and a female technician hurried in, +carrying a tray.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry to be so slow, Dr. Wong. Dr. Haslam had a little trouble +locating the right vial. Oh, and he said to tell you not to worry about +those precipitates. They're taken care of."</p> + +<p>"Just a minute," said David. "Leader Marley, Miss Hachovnik here is very +ill. Won't you let this girl help her to the rest room? She'll be safe +there until you're ready for her."</p> + +<p>Marley looked at the half-fainting woman. "All right. You take her +there, Lanza, and this girl too. Lock them in. And she's not to talk. Do +you understand? She's not to talk!"</p> + +<p>"As you say, Leader Marley," the technician whispered. She helped Leah +to her feet, and Lanza followed them from the room.</p> + +<p>Marley closed the door and locked it. "Now, then, Wong, give me that +shot, and heaven help you if you try any tricks!"</p> + +<p>"Will you bare your arm while I prepare the syringe?"</p> + +<p>Awkwardly hanging onto the needler, Marley tugged at his sleeve while +David calmly picked up a bottle of colorless liquid and filled his +syringe. He turned to the Leader, swabbed his arm, then picked up the +syringe.</p> + +<p>"There you are," said David.</p> + +<p>Jerking the syringe upward, he forced a thin jet of pure alcohol into +the man's eyes. Marley screamed. Agonizing pain blinded him, and as he +clutched at his eyes, David snatched the needler from the writhing +fingers, and flashed the electronic dagger straight to the heart.</p> + +<p>He stared at the twitching body for only an instant. People were +pounding on the door, shouting. He tugged at the desk drawer to get his +notebook, then remembered sickly that he had left his keys in the lab. +He would have to leave his notes.</p> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>The shouts were growing louder, people were battering the door. Swiftly +he moved to the bookcase, swung it away from the wall, and dropped into +darkness.</p> + +<p>He brought the bookcase back, then turned and ran along the black +passageway.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Leader Lanza sat in his suite at State House, conferring with his +subordinates.</p> + +<p>"It hardly seems possible, Magnun, that so many people could have +slipped through your fingers without help from the Military. You say +both the Hachovnik twins have disappeared?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Leader."</p> + +<p>"And how many people from the Institute?"</p> + +<p>"Six, Leader. But it didn't do them any good. We got them, all right."</p> + +<p>"But you found no bodies!"</p> + +<p>"They wouldn't <i>have</i> bodies after we got through with them, Leader."</p> + +<p>"You're quite certain, Officer Magnun, that all the fugitives were +destroyed?"</p> + +<p>Lanza looked tired, and his officers noticed in him a lack of firmness, +an indecision, to which they were not accustomed in a Leader.</p> + +<p>"Say, those babies never had a chance, Leader. We picked up their +roboplanes somewhere over Kansas, and we shot them out of the air like +ducks. They didn't even fire back. They just crashed, burned, +disintegrated. They won't give you any more trouble. Why, we even picked +up the remains of Doc Wong's wristwatch and that old beat-up pencil case +of his." He flung them on the desk.</p> + +<p>Lanza fingered the charred and molten relics.</p> + +<p>"That will do, Magnun. I'll call you when I need you."</p> + +<p>"Say, ain't you feeling well, Leader? You look kind of green."</p> + +<p>"That will be all, Magnun!"</p> + +<p>"As you say, Leader."</p> + +<p>Lanza shoved aside the charred remnants and spread out the papers +waiting for him, the unimportant, miscellaneous notes accumulated over +the years by Hudson, Fauré, and Haslam. And the unreadable notebook of +David Wong. He sighed and looked up as his secretary entered.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry to disturb you, Leader. You look tired."</p> + +<p>"The funeral this morning was quite an ordeal, and so much has happened +the last three days!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I thought you ought to know that strange reports are coming in. +Some of our most prominent citizens have disappeared. We're trying to +trace them, of course, but—"</p> + +<p>"Anything more?"</p> + +<p>"Those rumors about Blue Martian are cropping up again."</p> + +<p>"Yes? And—?"</p> + +<p>"That old man you asked me to bring from the Vermont quarries, the one +who was detained for illegal study of the Coptic language? Well, I guess +the excitement of his release was too much for him. He died of a heart +attack when he was being taken to the plane."</p> + +<p>Lanza sighed. "Very well, that will be all."</p> + +<p>Alone at last, he looked sadly through the pages of David's notebook, at +the tantalizing curls and angles of the Coptic letters, cryptic symbols +of a discovery which prevented a man from growing old. Well, no one +could read them now. That secret was dead, along with its discoverer, +because, in this world, no study was permitted without a practical end +in view. And perhaps it was just as well. Could any man be trusted, he +wondered, to deal wisely with a power so great?</p> + +<p>After closing the notebook, he dropped his head into his hands.</p> + +<p>How his head ached! He felt cold, suddenly, and his whole body began to +shake with a hard chill. He lifted his head, his vision blurred, and +suddenly he knew.</p> + +<p>He had Blue Martian fever!</p> + +<p>Teeth chattering, he paced wildly about the room, puzzling things out, +trying to remember. That booster shot! And then he realized the amazing +truth: David Wong had given him a chance! He had inoculated him with the +seeds of immortality, giving him a chance to help right the wrongs of +this Categorized world. And now he was left alone in a world of mortals. +David and the others had been annihilated, and he was left to live on +and on, alone.</p> + +<p>He staggered toward his private apartments, then sank into his chair as +his secretary once again ran into the room. With a supreme effort he +controlled his trembling.</p> + +<p>"Yes?"</p> + +<p>"Leader Lanza. Another report."</p> + +<p>"Just a minute," said Lanza, trying to bring his eyes into focus on the +excited girl. "I am in need of a rest. As soon as you have gone, I shall +retire into seclusion for a few days. There are to be no interruptions. +Is that clear? Now, proceed."</p> + +<p>"There's a new epidemic of Martian Fever reported where one never was +before."</p> + +<p>He stirred tiredly. "Where now?"</p> + +<p>"South America. Somewhere in the Andes."</p> + +<p>"I think we'll have just one Category after this," said Lanza dreamily. +"Category Phoenix."</p> + +<p>"What did you say, Leader?"</p> + +<p>His thoughts wandered. No wonder Magnun's men found no bodies. The +planes they shot down were roboplanes, after all, and it was easy to +plant in an empty seat a man's wristwatch and his bulky leather pencil +case. David and the others were safe now. They were free and had enough +time to plan for the new free world.</p> + +<p>"What did you say, Leader?" the girl repeated, bewildered.</p> + +<p>"Nothing. It doesn't matter." He frowned painfully, and then shrugged. +"On second thought, I may be away longer than a week. If anyone asks for +me, say I'm on an Aimless Tramp. I've always hoped that some day I might +earn the right to a Free Choice."</p> + +<p>"But you're the Leader," the girl said in astonishment. "You're entitled +to all the Free Choices you want!"</p> + +<p>He lifted his twitching head, smiling wanly. "It would seem that way, +wouldn't it? Well, whether I am or not, I think I've really earned a +Free Choice. I wonder," he said in a wistful voice, "whether the climate +in the Andes is hospitable."</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Category Phoenix, by Boyd Ellanby + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATEGORY PHOENIX *** + +***** This file should be named 32427-h.htm or 32427-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/4/2/32427/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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