"We"ll work on the a.s.sumption that he can"t produce," Cercy said.
"Start thinking. For example, if the Amba.s.sador can turn into anything, what is there he can"t turn into?"
"Good question," Harrison grunted.
"It"s the payoff question," Cercy said. "No use throwing a spear at a man who can turn into one."
"How about this?" Malley asked. "Taking it for granted he can turn into anything, how about putting him in a situation where he"ll be attacked even _after_ he alters?"
"I"m listening," Cercy said.
"Say he"s in danger. He turns into the thing threatening him. What if _that thing_ were itself being threatened? And, in turn, was in the act of threatening something else? What would he do then?"
"How are you going to put that into action?" Cercy asked.
"Like this." Malley picked up the telephone. "h.e.l.lo? Give me the Washington Zoo. This is urgent."
The Amba.s.sador turned as the door opened. An unwilling, angry, hungry tiger was propelled in. The door slammed shut.
The tiger looked at the Amba.s.sador. The Amba.s.sador looked at the tiger.
"Most ingenious," the Amba.s.sador said.
At the sound of his voice, the tiger came unglued. He sprang like a steel spring uncoiling, landing on the floor where the Amba.s.sador had been.
The door opened again. Another tiger was pushed in. He snarled angrily and leaped at the first. They smashed together in midair.
The Amba.s.sador appeared a few feet off, watching. He moved back when a lion entered the door, head up and alert. The lion sprang at him, almost going over on his head when he struck nothing. Not finding any human, the lion leaped on one of the tigers.
The Amba.s.sador reappeared in his chair, where he sat smoking and watching the beasts kill each other.
In ten minutes the room looked like an abattoir.
But by then the Amba.s.sador had tired of the spectacle, and was reclining on his bed, reading.
"I give up," Malley said. "That was my last bright idea."
Cercy stared at the floor, not answering. Harrison was seated in the corner, getting quietly drunk.
The telephone rang.
"Yeah?" Cercy said.
"I"ve got it!" Darrig"s voice shouted over the line. "I really think this is it. Look, I"m taking a cab right down. Tell Harrison to find some helpers."
"What is it?" Cercy asked.
"The chaos underneath!" Darrig replied, and hung up.
They paced the floor, waiting for him to show up. Half an hour pa.s.sed, then an hour. Finally, three hours after he had called, Darrig strolled in.
"h.e.l.lo," he said casually.
"h.e.l.lo, h.e.l.l!" Cercy growled. "What kept you?"
"On the way over," Darrig said, "I read the Amba.s.sador"s philosophy.
It"s quite a work."
"Is that what took you so long?"
"Yes. I had the driver take me around the park a few times, while I was reading it."
"Skip it. How about--"
"I can"t skip it," Darrig said, in a strange, tight voice. "I"m afraid we were wrong. About the aliens, I mean. It"s perfectly right and proper that they should rule us. As a matter of fact, I wish they"d hurry up and get here."
But Darrig didn"t look certain. His voice shook and perspiration poured from his face. He twisted his hands together, as though in agony.
"It"s hard to explain," he said. "Everything became clear as soon as I started reading it. I saw how stupid we were, trying to be independent in this interdependent Universe. I saw--oh, look, Cercy.
Let"s stop all this foolishness and accept the Amba.s.sador as our friend."
"Calm down!" Cercy shouted at the perfectly calm physicist. "You don"t know what you"re saying."
"It"s strange," Darrig said. "I know how I felt--I just don"t feel that way any more. I think. Anyhow, I know _your_ trouble. You haven"t read the philosophy. You"ll see what I mean, once you"ve read it." He handed Cercy the pile of papers. Cercy promptly ignited them with his cigarette lighter.
"It doesn"t matter," Darrig said. "I"ve got it memorized. Just listen.
Axiom one. All peoples--"
Cercy hit him, a short, clean blow, and Darrig slumped to the floor.
"Those words must be semantically keyed," Malley said. "They"re designed to set off certain reactions in us, I suppose. All the Amba.s.sador does is alter the philosophy to suit the peoples he"s dealing with."
"Look, Malley," Cercy said. "This is your job now. Darrig knows, or thought he knew, the answer. You have to get that out of him."
"That won"t be easy," Malley said. "He"d feel that he was betraying everything he believes in, if he were to tell us."
"I don"t care how you get it," Cercy said. "Just get it."
"Even if it kills him?" Malley asked.
"Even if it kills you."
"Help me get him to my lab," Malley said.
That night Cercy and Harrison kept watch on the Amba.s.sador from the control room. Cercy found his thoughts were racing in circles.