On the Third of April, the story of Sergeant Walter Spencer"s first-born monster broke in newspapers, magazines, and telecasts across the country. It was a five-year-old story, but it carried too much significance for the s.p.a.ce-minded present to be ignored.
Two days later, Sergeant Spencer, 32, and his wife, Laura, 30, were found dead of asphyxiation in their new home in Greenwich, Connecticut. The cause of death was listed as suicide.
Tom Blacker didn"t hear the news until a day after it happened. He was in Washington, setting up a series of meetings with members of a House group investigating s.p.a.ce flight expenditures. When he returned by "copter that evening, he found Police Commissioner Joe Stinson waiting for him in Tom"s own favorite chair.
The square, heavy-jowled face was strangely calm.
"Long time no see," he said mildly. "You"ve been a busy man lately, Mr. Blacker."
"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Stinson. Won"t you come in?"
"I"m in," the commissioner shrugged. "Landlord let me wait here. It"s chilly outside. Do you want the preliminaries, or should we have the main bout?"
"It"s about Spencer, isn"t it?" Tom built himself a long drink. "I heard about it on the "copter radio, flying in. Too bad. He was a nice guy; I never met his wife."
"But you knew him, right? In fact, you and the sergeant did a lot of business together?"
"Look, Mr. Stinson. You know what kind of job I"m trying to do. It"s no secret. Spencer"s story happened to gear in nicely with our public relations effort. And that"s all."
"Maybe it is." The commissioner"s eyes hardened. "Only some of us aren"t satisfied. Some of us are kinda restless about the coroner"s verdict."
"What?"
"You heard me. It"s fishy, you know? Nice young couple buys a new house, then turns on the gas. Leave behind a couple of kids, too. Boys, nice boys."
"I couldn"t feel worse about it," Tom said glumly. "In a way, I can almost feel responsible ..."
"How?"
"I dunno. They were perfectly willing to release that story about their first-born. But maybe when they actually saw it in print, they couldn"t stand the spotlight--"
"And that"s your theory?"
"Yes. But I hope I"m wrong, Mr. Stinson. For my own sake."
The commissioner drew a folded sheet of paper out of his pocket.
"Let me read you something. This hasn"t been released to the press, and maybe it won"t be. Interested?"
"Of course."
"It"s a letter. A letter that was never mailed. It"s addressed to Tom Blacker, care of Homelovers, Incorporated, 320 Fifth-Madison, New York."
"What?" Tom reached for it.
"Uh-uh. It was never mailed, so it"s not your property. But I"ll read it to you." He slipped on a pair of bifocals.
Dear Mr. Blacker. I"ve been trying to reach you all week, but you"ve been out of town. Laura and I have just seen the first news story about our baby, and we"re just sick about it. Why didn"t you tell us about that photograph you were going to print? If we had known about that, we never would have consented to doing what you wanted. My wife never gave birth to that d.a.m.ned thing, and I don"t care who knows it. I"ve called Mr. Andrusco to tell him that we don"t want any part of this business any more. I"d send you back every penny of the five thousand dollars, only we"ve already spent half of it. I"m going to call the newspapers and tell them everything ...
The commissioner paused. "It goes on for another half page. But no use reading any more. I"d like a reaction, Mr. Blacker. Got one handy?"
Tom was on his feet.
"I don"t believe it!" His fist thudded into his palm. "The letter"s a fake!"
"That"s easy to prove, Mr. Blacker."
"But the picture was genuine! Don"t you see that? Sure, we paid Spencer something for his cooperation. But the picture was the real thing, taken by his family doctor. You"ve heard what the medical authorities said about it."
Stinson said nothing. Then he got up slowly and walked to the door.
"Maybe so. But you"re missing the point I want to make, Mr. Blacker. This letter was dated the same day as the Spencer suicides. Does it sound to you like the kind of thing a man would put in a suicide note? Think it over."
Tom looked at the door the commissioner closed behind him.
"No," he said aloud. "It doesn"t."
Tom didn"t go to the Homelovers building the next morning. He proceeded directly to the Lunt Theatre, where Homer Bradshaw was putting Be It Ever So Humble into rehearsal.
He was in no mood for the theatre, but the appointment had been made too long before. When he came through the doors of the theatre, Homer leaped halfway up the aisle to greet him, and pounded his back like a long-lost pal. Actually, he had met the producer only twice before.
"Great to have you here, Tom!" he said enthusiastically. "Great! We"ve just been putting things together. Got some red-hot numbers we had written specially for us. Wait "til you hear "em!" He waved towards the two shirtsleeved men hovering around the on-stage piano. "You know Julie, don"t you? And Milt Steiner? Great team! Great team!"
They took seats in the sixth row while Homer raved about the forthcoming production that was going to cost Homelovers, Incorporated some hundred thousand dollars. A dozen shapely girls in shorts and leotards were kicking their heels lackadaisically in the background, and a stout man with a wild checkered suit was wandering around the stage with an unlit cigar in his hand, begging the stagehands for a match.
"Hey, fellas!" Homer Bradshaw called to the men at the piano. "Run through that Gypsy number for Mr. Blacker, huh?"
They came to life like animated dolls. The tallest of the pair stepped in front of the stage while the other thumped the piano keys. The tall one sang in a loud nasal voice, with an abundance of gestures.
"Gypsy! Gypsy! Why do you have to be a gypsy? Life could be so ipsy-pipsy Staying home and getting tipsy Safe on Earth with me!"
He swung into the second chorus while Tom Blacker kept his face from showing his true opinion of the specialty number. The next offering didn"t change his viewpoint. It was a ballad. A blonde girl in clinging black shorts sang it feelingly.
"There"s a beautiful Earth tonight With a beautiful mellow light Shining on my s.p.a.ceman in the moon. Why did he leave me? Only to grieve me? s.p.a.ceman, come home to me soon ..."
"Did you like it? Did you like it?" Homer Bradshaw said eagerly.
"It"ll do fine," Tom Blacker said, with his teeth clenched.
When he left the theatre, Tom visiphoned the office to tell Livia that he was taking the rest of the day off. But he found that Livia herself was spending the day in her two-room apartment downtown. He hung up, and decided that he had to talk to her about Stinson"s visit. He hopped a cab, and gave him Livia"s address.
John Andrusco answered the door.
"Well! Thought you were at the office, Tom?"
He found himself glaring at the lean-jawed executive. What was Andrusco doing here?
"I"ve been over at the theatre," Tom explained. "Watching that musical we"re spending all that dough on." He stepped inside. "I might say the same about you, Mr. Andrusco."
"Me? Oh, I just came to talk over some business with Livia. Poor kid"s not feeling so hot, you know."
"No, I didn"t." He dropped his hat familiarly on the contour couch, with almost too much deliberation. "Livia in bed?"
"No." The girl appeared at the door of the bedroom, wrapping a powder-blue negligee around her. "What brings you here, Tom?"
"I--I wanted to talk something over with you. Now that you"re here, Mr. Andrusco, we can all talk it over."
"What"s that?" Andrusco made himself at home at the bar.
"It"s about Walt Spencer. I had a visitor last night, the police commissioner. He showed me a letter that Spencer had written just before he--before he died. It was addressed to me, only Spencer had never mailed it."
Andrusco looked sharply at the girl. "And what was in this letter?"
"He was upset," Tom said. "He wanted to back out of the deal we made. Said the picture was a phoney. But the thing that"s bothering the police is the tone of the d.a.m.ned letter. It just doesn"t sound like a man about to kill himself and his wife--"
"Is that all?" Livia took the drink from Andrusco"s hand and sipped at it. "I thought it was something serious."
"It is serious!" Tom looked sternly at her. "I want to know something, Mr. Andrusco. You told me that picture was genuine. Now I want you to tell me again."
The man smiled, with perfect teeth. "How do you mean, genuine? Is it a picture of a genuine infant with scales?"
"Yes."
"I a.s.sure you. In that respect, the picture is absolutely genuine."
Tom thought it over.
"Wait a while. Was the story genuine, too?"
John Andrusco smiled. He sat on the sofa, and rubbed the palms of his hands over his knees. Then he looked towards Livia Cord and said: "Well--I didn"t think we could hold out on our clever Mr. Blacker as long as we have. So we might as well enlist his cooperation fully. Eh, Livia?"
"I think so." The girl smiled, her teeth sharp.
"What does that mean?" Tom said.
"The infant," John Andrusco answered slowly, "was not Walter Spencer"s child. That, I"m afraid, was nothing more than a little white lie."
Tom looked confused.
"Then what was it?"
Livia finished her drink.
"It was my child."
The man and the woman, whose grins now seemed permanently affixed to their faces, were forced to wait a considerable amount of time before Tom Blacker was both ready and able to listen to their explanation.
Livia did most of the talking.
"You"ll probably be horrified at all this," she said, with a trace of amus.e.m.e.nt around her red mouth. "Particularly since you and I have been--" She paused, and looked towards Andrusco with a slight lift of her shoulder. "Well, you know. But you needn"t feel too squeamish, Tom. After all, I was born and raised on Earth. I am, you might say, an honorary Earth woman."
Tom"s eyes bulged at her.
"This civilization from which my husband and I claim ancestry is perhaps no older than your own. Unfortunately, we were not blessed with a planetary situation as agreeable as Earth"s. Our sun is far feebler, the orbital paths of our moons act drastically upon our waters, causing generations of drought and centuries of flood ..."
"What are you talking about?" Tom said hoa.r.s.ely.
"I speak of home," Livia Cord said. And her eyes gleamed.
"Antamunda is the name we give it," John Andrusco said cordially. "A world very much like your own in size and atmosphere, Mr. Blacker. But tragically, a world whose usefulness has been gradually coming to an end. Our ancestors, who were scientists of much ability, foresaw this some hundreds of years ago. Since that time, they have been seeking a solution to the problem."
"I don"t believe this!"
"We have," Livia said carefully, "excellent evidence."
"Some five hundred years ago," Andrusco continued, "our people despatched an exploratory s.p.a.ce vessel. A home-hunting force, seeking to relocate the surviving members of our race. It was a long, trying odyssey, but it finally culminated in the selection of a new home. I needn"t tell you that the home is in your own solar system."
Tom shot to his feet. "You mean Earth? You mean you want to take over here--"
Andrusco looked shocked. "Certainly not! What a violent thought, Mr. Blacker!"
"The planet you call Mars," Livia said coolly, "was the selected destination. A planet with only limited facilities for the support of life. But a planet even more like our own dying world than Earth, Mr. Blacker. So you needn"t cry havoc about alien invaders." She laughed sharply.
"Then what are you doing here?"
"Merely waiting," Andrusco said. "We are the offspring of the surviving members of the expeditionary force from Antamunda, placed here on Earth as a vanguard of the immigration that will shortly take place to this system. But your own world is in no danger, Mr. Blacker. That you must believe. Physically, our people are not your equals. Scientifically, we are advanced in certain fields and shamefully backwards in others. Biologically--" He frowned. "This is our greatest weakness. To the Antamundans, your breeding capacity is nothing short of grotesque." His handsome lip curled. He enjoyed watching Tom"s reaction.
Tom swallowed hard. "How long have you been here?"
"Some four generations have been born here. Our duty has been merely to await the arrival of our people. But in the last fifty years, we found ourselves faced with another obligation. It was that obligation which brought about the formation of Homelovers, Incorporated."
"I don"t understand."
"We had underestimated the science of Earth. Our own necessity drove us towards the perfection of s.p.a.ce flight. Earth had no such urgency. But now--" Livia looked mournful. "Now we were faced with the possibility that Mars would soon be a colony of your own planet, before our people had a chance to make it their rightful home. You can see the consequences of that. A conflict of interests, a question of territorial rights. Even the possibility of an interplanetary war--"
"War!"
"A possibility greatly to be abhorred," Andrusco said. "And one we were sure we could eliminate, if we could merely delay the colonization of Mars."