Authors: Robert A. Heinlein
Tags: #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fiction, #Science fiction, #General, #Fiction - Science Fiction, #Science Fiction - General, #Adventure
good old skid-road mission principle: sing a hymn and eat a meal. But the
meal was good red meat and white bread-and the recipients had not eaten
that well in many months.
CHAPTER SEVEN
"Hello? Hello? Jeff, are you there? Can you hear me?"
"Sure I can hear. you. Don't shout, Major."
"I wish these damn rigs were regular telephones. I like to see a man I'm
talking to."
"If they were ordinary phones our Asiatic pals could listen in on us. Why
don't you ask Bob and the colonel to whip up a vision circuit? I'll bet they
could do it."
"Bob has already done so, Jeff, but Scheer is so busy machining parts
for altar installations that I don't like to ask him to make it. Do you suppose
you could recruit some assistants for Scheer? A machinist or two, maybe,
and a radio technician? The manufacturing end of this enterprise is getting
out of hand and Scheer is going to crack up from overwork. Every night I
have to go around and order him to go to bed."
Thomas thought about it. "I have one man in mind. Used to be a
watchmaker."
"A watchmaker! That's swell!"
"I don't know. He's a little bit balmy; his whole family was wiped out. A
sad case, almost as sad as Frank Mitsui. Say, how. is Frank? Is he feeling
any better?"
"Seems to be. Not down inside of course, but he seems happy enough at
his work. He's taken over the kitchen and the clerical work you used to do for
me, both."
"Give him my best."
"I will. Now about this watchmaker-you don't have to be as careful in
recruiting personnel for the Citadel as you have to be in picking field workers,
since once they are inside they can't get out."
"I know that, boss. I didn't use any special tests when I sent you Estelle
Devens. Of course I wouldn't have sent her if she hadn't been about to be
shipped out as a pleasure girl."
"You did all right. Estelle is a fine woman. She helps Frank in the kitchen,
she helps Graham sew the robes, and Bob Wilkie is training her as a
pararadio operator." Ardmore chuckled. "Sex is rearing its interesting head. I
think Bob is sweet on her."
Thomas's voice was suddenly grave. "How about that, boss? Is it likely to
louse things up?"
"I don't think so. Bob is a gentleman and Estelle is a nice girl if I ever saw
one. If biology starts getting in the way of their work, I'll just up and marry
them, in my capacity as high priest of the supercolossal god Mota."
"Bob won't go for that. He's a bit of a puritan, if you ask me."
"All right then, in my capacity as chief magistrate of this thriving little
village. Don't be stuffy. Or send me up a real preacher."
"How about sending up more women, Major? I sent Estelle on impulse,
more or less, but there are many more young women just as badly in need of
help as she was."
There was a long wait before Ardmore replied, "Captain, that is a very
difficult question. Most reluctantly I am forced to say that this is a military
organization at war, not a personal rescue mission. Unless a female is being
recruited for a military function to which she is adapted, you are not to recruit
her, even to save her from the PanAsians' pleasure cities."
"Yes, sir. I will comply. I shouldn't have sent Estelle. "
"What's done is done. She's working out all right. Don't hesitate to recruit
suitable women. This is going to be a long war and I think we can maintain
morale better with a mixed organization than with a strictly stag setup. Men
without women go to pieces; they lose purpose. But try to make the next one
an older woman, something between a mother superior and a chaperone. An
elderly trained nurse would be the type. She could be lab assistant to Brooks
and house mother to the babes, both."
"I'll see what I can find."
"And send up that watchmaker. We really need him."
"I'll give him a hypo test tonight."
"Is that necessary, Jeff? If the PanAsians killed his family you can be
sure of his sentiments."
"That's his story. I'll feel a lot safer if I hear him tell it when he's doped.
He might be a ringer you know."
"O.K., you're right, as usual. You run your show; I'll run mine. When are
you going to be able to turn the temple over to Alec, Jeff? I need you here."
"Alec could take it now, just to run it. But as I understand it, my prime
duty is to locate and recruit more `priests,' ones capable of going out in the
field and starting a new cell alone."
"That's true, but can't Alec do that? After all, the final tests will be given
here. W e agreed that never, under any circumstances, would the true nature
of what we are doing be revealed to anyone except after we got him inside
the Citadel and under our thumbs. If Alec makes a mistake in picking a man it
won't be fatal."
Jeff turned over in his mind what he wanted to say. "Look, boss, it may
seem simple from where you sit; it doesn't look simple from here. I -" He
paused.
"What's the matter, Jeff? Got the jitters?"
"I guess so."
"Why? It seems to me the operation is proceeding according to plan."
"Well, yes-maybe. Major, you said this would be a long war."
"Yes?"
"Well, it can't be. If it's a long war, we'll lose it." "But it's got to be. We
don't dare move until we have enough trusted people to strike all over the
country at once."
"Yes, yes, but that's got to be the shortest possible time. What would you
say was the greatest danger that faces us?"
"Huh? Why the chance that someone might give us away, either
accidentally or on purpose."
"I don't agree, sir-not at all. That's your opinion because you see it from
the Citadel. From here I see an entirely different danger-and it worries me all
the time."
"Well, what is it, Jeff? Give."
"The worst danger-and it hangs like a sword over our heads all the timeis that the PanAsian authorities may grow suspicious of us. They may decide
that we can't be what we pretend to be-just another phony western religion,
good to keep the slaves quiet. If they once get that idea before we are ready,
we're finished."
"Don't let it get you nervy, Jeff: In a pinch, you've got enough stuff to fight
your way back to base. They can't use an atom bomb on you in one of their
own capitals-and Calhoun says that the new shield on the Citadel will stop
even an atom bomb."
"I doubt it. But what good would it do us if it did? Suppose we could hole
up there until we died of old age: if we don't dare stick our noses out we can't
win back the country!"
"Mmm . . . no-but it might give us time to think of something else."
"Don't kid yourself, Major. If they catch on, we're licked-and the American
people lose their last chance this generation, at least. There are still too few
of us, no matter what weapons Calhoun and Wilkie can cook up."
"Suppose I concede your point: you knew all this when you went out.
Why the panic? Battle fatigue?"
"You can call it that. But I want to discuss the dangers as I see them
here in the field. If we really were a religious sect, with no military power,
they'd leave us alone till hell froze. Right?"
"Check. "
"Then the danger lies in the things we have to do to cover up the fact
that we've got a lot of stuff we aren't supposed to have. Those dangers are all
out here in the field. First-" Thomas ticked them off on his fingers, oblivious to
the fact that his commanding officer could not see him. "-is the shield of the
temple. We've got to have it; this place can't stand a search. But it would be
almost as bad if we had to use it. If any senior PanAsian gets the notion to
inspect in spite of our immunity, school is out for sure; I don't dare kill him
and I don't dare let him come in. So far, by the grace of God, a lot of
doubletalk, and the liberal use of bribes, I've been able to turn them away."
"They already know that we've got the temple shields, Jeff; they've
known it from the first day we made contact here."
"Do they, now? I don't think so. Thinking back over my interview with the
Hand I'm convinced that that officer who tried to force his way into the mother
temple wasn't believed when he made his report. And you can bet your last
cookie he is dead now; that's the way they work. The common soldiers that
were there don't count. The second hazard is the personal shield that we
`priests' carry. I've used mine just once and I'm sorry I did. Fortunately he
was just a common soldier, too. He wouldn't report it; he wouldn't be believed
and he would lose face."
"But, Jeff, the `priests' have got to wear shields; we can't let a staff fall
into enemy hands-not to mention the fact that the monkeys might be able to
drug an unshielded `priest' before he could suicide."
"You're telling me! We've got to have them; we don't dare use them-and
that calls for some fast double -talk in a pinch. The next hazard is the halo;
the halo was a mistake, boss."
"Why do you say that?"
"O. K., it impresses the superstitious. But the bigshot PanAsians are no
more superstitious than you are. Take the Hand-I wore it in his presence. He
wasn't impressed; it was my great good luck that he apparently regarded it as
nothing important, just a gadget to impress my followers. But suppose he had
really thought about it and decided to find out how I did it?"
"Maybe," said Ardmore, "we had better omit the halo effect in the next
city we penetrate."
"Too late. Our official designation here is `holy men who wear halos.' It's
our trademark."
"So? Jeff, I think you've done a wonderfully good job of covering up."
"There is one more hazard. It's a slow one, a time bomb."
"Eh?"
"Money. We've got too much money. That's a suspicious circumstance."
"But you had to have money to operate."
"How well I know it. It has been the only thing that enabled us to get
away with it so far. These people are even more corruptible than Americans,
Chief; with us it is a frowned-upon dereliction; with them it's an essential part
of their culture. A good thing, too-we now have the respected position of the
goose that lays the golden eggs."
"But why do you call it a time bomb? Why is it a hazard at all?"
"Remember what happened to the goose in the story? Some day some
smart laddie is going to wonder where the goose gets all that gold and take
him apart to find out. In the meantime all the recipients of our cumshaw are
closing their eyes to the suspicious circumstances and getting as much as
they can while the getting is good. I'm betting that each one will keep his
mouth shut about his take, as long as he can get away with it. I doubt if the
Hand knows that we seem to have an unlimited supply of American gold
coins. But some day he will find out; that's the time bomb element. Unless he
can be bribed, too-in a polite way, of course-he will start some very
embarrassing investigations. Somewhere up the line we'll run into an official
more interested in knowing the facts than in sticking out his palm. Before that
day rolls around we had better be set to move!"
"Hmm . . . I suppose so. Well, Jeff, do the best you can and get us some
`priest' recruits up here as fast as you can. If we had one hundred
dependable men, as talented in handling people as you are, we could set `D'
Day a month from now. But it may take years and, as you say, events may
trip us up before we can move."
"You can see why I have trouble finding `priest' recruits? Loyalty isn't
enough; a special aptitude for kidding the public is necessary. I learned it as
a hobo. Alec really hasn't got it; he's too honest. However I may have one
recruit now-a chap named Johnson."
"Yes? What about him?"
"He used to be a real estate salesman and he has a very convincing
manner. The PanAsians put him out of business, of course, and he's anxious
to avoid the labor camps. I've been feeling him out."
"Well, if you think he'll do, send him up. Perhaps I can look him over
there."
"Huh?
"I've been thinking while I listened. Jeff, I don't know enough about the
field situation; I've got to come see for myself. If I am going to direct this
show, I've got to understand it. I can't do it from a hole in the ground; I'm
falling out of touch."
"I thought that was settled a long time ago, boss."
"What do you mean?"
"Are you going to leave Calhoun as acting C. O. ?"
Ardmore remained silent for several moments, then said, "Damn you, jet"
"Well, are you?"
"Oh, very well! Let's drop the matter!"
"Don't get sore, boss. I've been trying to give you the whole picture;
that's why I've talked so long. "
"I'm glad you did. I want you to repeat it, in much more detail. I'll put
Estelle on and have her make a recording of everything you've got to say.
We'll work up an instruction manual for student `priests' from your lecture."
"O. K., but let me call you back. I've got a service in ten minutes."
"Can't Alec even run a service?" `
"He does and he's O. K. He preaches a better sermon than I do. But it's
my best recruiting time, Major; I study the crowd and talk to them individually