Smith"s face went blank.
Benda came close to him, linked arms and led him to a broad vacant lawn in the park.
"Listen!" he said softly in Smith"s ear. "Don"t you suppose these people who lock us in and censor our mail aren"t smart enough to spy on what we say to each other?"
"Our only hope," Benda continued, "is to learn all we can of what is going on here. Keep your eyes and ears open and meet me here in a week.
And now come on; we"ve been whispering here long enough."
Oddly enough, the first clue to the puzzle they were trying to solve was supplied by Francisco, New York"s former Water Commissioner. Why were they being kept prisoners in the city? There must be more reason for holding them there than the fear that information would be carried out, for none of the three engineers knew anything about the Science Community that could be of any possible consequence to outsiders. They had all stuck rigidly to their own jobs.
They met Francisco, very blue and dejected, walking in the park a couple of months later. They had been having weekly meetings, feeling that more frequent rendezvous might excite suspicion. Francisco was overjoyed to see them.
"Been trying to figure out why they want us," he said. "There is something deeper than the excuse they have made; that rot about a perfect system and no breaking of rules may be true, but it has nothing to do with us. Now, here are three of us, widely admitted as having good heads on us. We"ve got to solve this."
"The first fact to work on," he continued, "is that there is no real job for me here. This city has no water problem that cannot be worked out by an engineer"s office clerk. Why are they holding me here, paying me a profligate salary, for a job that is a joke for a grown-up man? There"s something behind it that is not apparent on the surface."
The weekly meetings of the three engineers became an established inst.i.tution. Mindful that their conversation was doubtless the object of attention on the part of the ruling powers of the city through spies and concealed microphones, they were careful to discuss trivial matters most of the time, and mentioned their problem only when alone in the open s.p.a.ces of the park.
After weeks of effort had produced no results, they arrived at the conclusion that they would have to do some spying themselves. The great temple, shaped like a dynamo-generator attracted their attention as the first possibility for obtaining information. Benda, during his work with telephone and television installation, found that the office of some sort of ruling council or board of directors were located there. Later he found that it was called the Science Staff. He managed to slip in several concealed microphone detectors and wire them to a private receiver on his desk, doing all the work with his own hands under the pretense of hunting for a cleverly contrived short-circuit that his subordinates had failed to find.
"They open their meeting," he said, reporting several days of listening to his comrades, "with a lot of religious stuff. They really believe they are chosen by G.o.d to perfect the earth. Their fanaticism has the Mohammedans beat forty ways. As I get it from listening in, this city is just a preliminary base from which to carry, forcibly, the gospel of Scientific Efficiency to the whole world. They have been divinely appointed to organize the earth.
"The first thing on the program is the seizure of New York City. And, it won"t be long; I"ve heard the details of a cut-and-dried plan. When they have New York, the rest of America can be easily captured, for cities aren"t as independent of each other as they used to be. Getting the rest of the world into their hands will then be merely a matter of routine; just a little time, and it will be done. Mohammed"s wars weren"t in it with this!"
Francisco and Smith stared at him aghast. These dull-faced, blue-sergeclad people did not look capable of it; unless possibly one noted the fiery glint in their eyes. A worldwide Crusade on a scientific basis! The idea left them weak and trembling.
"Got to learn more details before we can do anything," Benda said. "Come on; we"ve been whispering here long enough; they"ll get suspicious."
Benda"s brain was now definitely pitted against this marvelous organisation.
"I"ve got it!" Benda reported at a later meeting. "I pieced it together from a few hours listening. Devilish scheme!
"Can you imagine what would happen in New York in case of a break-down in water-supply, electric power, and communication? In an hour there would be a panic; in a day the city would be a hideous shambles of suffering, starvation, disease, and trampling maniacs. Dante"s Inferno would be a lovely little pleasure-resort in comparison.
"Also, have you ever stopped to think how few people there are in the world who understand the handling of these vital elements of our modern civilized organization sufficiently to keep them in operation? There you have the scheme. Because they do not want to destroy the city, but merely to threaten it, they are holding the three of us. A little skilful management will eliminate all other possible men who could operate the city"s machinery, except ourselves. We three will be placed in charge. A threat, perhaps a demonstration in some limited section of what horrors are possible. The city is at their mercy, and promptly surrenders.
"An alternative plan was discussed: just a little quiet violence could eliminate those who are now in charge of the city"s works, and the panic and horrors would commence. But, within an hour of the city"s capitulation, the three of us could have things running smoothly again.
And there would be no New York; in its place would be Science Community Number Two. From it they could step on to the next city."
The other two stared at him. There was only one comment.
"They seem to be sure that they could depend on us," Smith said.
"They may be correct," Benda replied. "Would you stand by and see people perish if a turn of your hand could save them? You would for the moment, forget the issue between the old order and the new religion."
They separated, horrified by the ghastly simplicity of the plan.
Just following this, Benda received the telegram announcing the prospective visit of his lifelong friend, Dr. Hagstrom. He took it at once to Rohan.
"Will my friend be permitted to depart again, if he once gets in here?"
he demanded with his customary directness.
"It depends on you," Rohan replied blandly. "We want your friend to see our Community, and to go away and carry with him the nicest possible reports and descriptions of it to the world. I wonder, do I make myself clear?"
"That means I"ve got to feed him taffy while he"s here?" Benda asked gruffly.
"You choose to put it indelicately. He is to see and hear only such things about the Science Community as well please the world and impress it favorably. I am sure you will understand that under no other circ.u.mstances will he be permitted to leave here."
Benda turned around abruptly and walked out without a word.
"Just a moment," Rohan called after him. "I am sure you appreciate the fact that every precaution will be taken to hear the least word that you say to him during his stay here? You are watched only perfunctorily now.
While he is here you will be kept track of carefully, and there will be three methods of checking everything you do or say. I am sure you do not underestimate our caution in this matter."
Benda spent the days intervening between then and the arrival of his friend Hagstrom, closed up in his office, in intense study. He figured things on pieces of paper, committed them to memory, and scrupulously burned the paper. Then he wandered about the park and plucked at leaves and twigs.
PART III
_The Cipher Message_
(Related by Peter Hagstrom, Ph.D.)
Benda conducted me personally to a room very much like an ordinary hotel room. He was glad to see me. I could tell that from his grip of welcome, from his pleased face, from the warmth in his voice, from the eager way in which he hovered around me. I sat down on a bed and he on a chair.
"Now tell me all about it," I said.
The room was very still, and in its privacy, following Benda"s demonstrative welcome, I expected some confidential revelations.
Therefore I was astonished.
"There isn"t much to tell," he said gaily. "My work is congenial, fascinating, and there"s enough of it to keep me out of mischief. The pay is good, and the life pleasant and easy."
I didn"t know what to say for a moment. I had come there with my mind made up that there was something suspicious afoot. But he seemed thoroughly happy and satisfied.
"I"ll admit that I treated you a little shabbily in this matter of letters," he continued. "I suppose it is because I"ve had a lot of new and interesting problems on my mind, and it"s been hard to get my mind down to writing letters. But I"ve got a good start on my job, and I"ll promise to reform."
I was at a loss to pursue that subject any further.
"Have you seen Smith and Francisco?" I asked.
He nodded.
"How do they like it?"