He looked out the window into a blank world. His neighbors" houses already were gone. They had not lived with them as he had lived with this room. Their interests had been divided, thinly spread; their thoughts had not been concentrated as his upon an area four blocks by three, or a room fourteen by twelve.
Staring through the window, he saw it again. The same vision he had looked upon before and yet different in an indescribable way. There was the city illumined in the sky. There were the elliptical towers and turrets, the cube-shaped domes and battlements. He could see with stereoscopic clarity the aerial bridges, the gleaming avenues sweeping on into infinitude. The vision was nearer this time, but the depth and proportion had changed ... as if he were viewing it from two concentric angles at the same time.
And the face ... the face of magnitude ... of power of cosmic craft and evil....
Mr. Chambers turned his eyes back into the room. The clock was ticking slowly, steadily. The greyness was stealing into the room.
The table and radio were the first to go. They simply faded away and with them went one corner of the room.
And then the elephant ash tray.
"Oh, well," said Mr. Chambers, "I never did like that very well."
Now as he sat there it didn"t seem queer to be without the table or the radio. It was as if it were something quite normal. Something one could expect to happen.
Perhaps, if he thought hard enough, he could bring them back.
But, after all, what was the use? One man, alone, could not stand off the irresistible march of nothingness. One man, all alone, simply couldn"t do it.
He wondered what the elephant ash tray looked like in that other dimension. It certainly wouldn"t be an elephant ash tray nor would the radio be a radio, for perhaps they didn"t have ash trays or radios or elephants in the invading dimension.
He wondered, as a matter of fact, what he himself would look like when he finally slipped into the unknown. For he was matter, too, just as the ash tray and radio were matter.
He wondered if he would retain his individuality ... if he still would be a person. Or would he merely be a thing?
There was one answer to all of that. He simply didn"t know.
Nothingness advanced upon him, ate its way across the room, stalking him as he sat in the chair underneath the lamp. And he waited for it.
The room, or what was left of it, plunged into dreadful silence.
Mr. Chambers started. The clock had stopped. Funny ... the first time in twenty years.
He leaped from his chair and then sat down again.
The clock hadn"t stopped.
It wasn"t there.
There was a tingling sensation in his feet.
Contents
THE DELEGATE FROM VENUS.
By HENRY SLESAR
Everybody was waiting to see what the delegate from Venus looked like. And all they got for their patience was the biggest surprise since David clobbered Goliath.
"Let me put it this way," Conners said paternally. "We expect a certain amount of decorum from our Washington news correspondents, and that"s all I"m asking for."
Jerry Bridges, sitting in the chair opposite his employer"s desk, chewed on his knuckles and said nothing. One part of his mind wanted him to play it cagey, to behave the way the newspaper wanted him to behave, to protect the cozy Washington a.s.signment he had waited four years to get. But another part of him, a rebel part, wanted him to stay on the trail of the story he felt sure was about to break.
"I didn"t mean to make trouble, Mr. Conners," he said casually. "It just seemed strange, all these exchanges of couriers in the past two days. I couldn"t help thinking something was up."
"Even if that"s true, we"ll hear about it through the usual channels," Conners frowned. "But getting a senator"s secretary drunk to obtain information--well, that"s not only indiscreet, Bridges. It"s downright dirty."
Jerry grinned. "I didn"t take that kind of advantage, Mr. Conners. Not that she wasn"t a toothsome little dish ..."
"Just thank your lucky stars that it didn"t go any further. And from now on--" He waggled a finger at him. "Watch your step."
Jerry got up and ambled to the door. But he turned before leaving and said: "By the way. What do you think is going on?"
"I haven"t the faintest idea."
"Don"t kid me, Mr. Conners. Think it"s war?"
"That"ll be all, Bridges."
The reporter closed the door behind him, and then strolled out of the building into the sunlight.
He met Ruskin, the fat little AP correspondent, in front of the Pan-American Building on Const.i.tution Avenue. Ruskin was holding the newspaper that contained the gossip-column item which had started the whole affair, and he seemed more interested in the romantic rather than political implications. As he walked beside him, he said: "So what really happened, pal? That Greta babe really let down her hair?"
"Where"s your decorum?" Jerry growled.
Ruskin giggled. "Boy, she"s quite a dame, all right. I think they ought to get the Secret Service to guard her. She really fills out a size 10, don"t she?"
"Ruskin," Jerry said, "you have a low mind. For a week, this town has been acting like the 39 Steps, and all you can think about is dames. What"s the matter with you? Where will you be when the big mushroom cloud comes?"
"With Greta, I hope," Ruskin sighed. "What a way to get radioactive."
They split off a few blocks later, and Jerry walked until he came to the Red Tape Bar & Grill, a favorite hangout of the local journalists. There were three other newsmen at the bar, and they gave him snickering greetings. He took a small table in the rear and ate his meal in sullen silence.
It wasn"t the newsmen"s jibes that bothered him; it was the certainty that something of major importance was happening in the capitol. There had been hourly conferences at the White House, flying visits by State Department officials, mysterious conferences involving members of the Science Commission. So far, the byword had been secrecy. They knew that Senator Spocker, chairman of the Congressional Science Committee, had been involved in every meeting, but Senator Spocker was unavailable. His secretary, however, was a little more obliging ...
Jerry looked up from his coffee and blinked when he saw who was coming through the door of the Bar & Grill. So did every other patron, but for different reasons. Greta Johnson had that effect upon men. Even the confining effect of a mannishly-tailored suit didn"t hide her outrageously feminine qualities.
She walked straight to his table, and he stood up.
"They told me you might be here," she said, breathing hard. "I just wanted to thank you for last night."
"Look, Greta--"
Wham! Her hand, small and delicate, felt like a slab of lead when it slammed into his cheek. She left a bruise five fingers wide, and then turned and stalked out.
He ran after her, the restaurant proprietor shouting about the unpaid bill. It took a rapid dog-trot to reach her side.
"Greta, listen!" he panted. "You don"t understand about last night. It wasn"t the way that lousy columnist said--"
She stopped in her tracks.
"I wouldn"t have minded so much if you"d gotten me drunk. But to use me, just to get a story--"
"But I"m a reporter, d.a.m.n it. It"s my job. I"d do it again if I thought you knew anything."
She was pouting now. "Well, how do you suppose I feel, knowing you"re only interested in me because of the Senator? Anyway, I"ll probably lose my job, and then you won"t have any use for me."
"Good-bye, Greta," Jerry said sadly.
"What?"
"Good-bye. I suppose you won"t want to see me any more."
"Did I say that?"
"It just won"t be any use. We"ll always have this thing between us."
She looked at him for a moment, and then touched his bruised cheek with a tender, motherly gesture.
"Your poor face," she murmured, and then sighed. "Oh, well. I guess there"s no use fighting it. Maybe if I did tell you what I know, we could act human again."
"Greta!"
"But if you print one word of it, Jerry Bridges, I"ll never speak to you again!"
"Honey," Jerry said, taking her arm, "you can trust me like a brother."
"That"s not the idea," Greta said stiffly.
In a secluded booth at the rear of a restaurant unfrequented by newsmen, Greta leaned forward and said: "At first, they thought it was another sputnik."
"Who did?"
"The State Department, silly. They got reports from the observatories about another sputnik being launched by the Russians. Only the Russians denied it. Then there were joint meetings, and n.o.body could figure out what the d.a.m.n thing was."
"Wait a minute," Jerry said dizzily. "You mean to tell me there"s another of those metal moons up there?"
"But it"s not a moon. That"s the big point. It"s a s.p.a.ceship."
"A what?"
"A s.p.a.ceship," Greta said coolly, sipping lemonade. "They have been in contact with it now for about three days, and they"re thinking of calling a plenary session of the UN just to figure out what to do about it. The only hitch is, Russia doesn"t want to wait that long, and is asking for a hurry-up summit meeting to make a decision."
"A decision about what?"
"About the Venusians, of course."
"Greta," Jerry said mildly, "I think you"re still a little woozy from last night."
"Don"t be silly. The s.p.a.ceship"s from Venus; they"ve already established that. And the people on it--I guess they"re people--want to know if they can land their delegate."
"Their what?"
"Their delegate. They came here for some kind of conference, I guess. They know about the UN and everything, and they want to take part. They say that with all the satellites being launched, that our affairs are their affairs, too. It"s kind of confusing, but that"s what they say."
"You mean these Venusians speak English?"
"And Russian. And French. And German. And everything I guess. They"ve been having radio talks with practically every country for the past three days. Like I say, they want to establish diplomatic relations or something. The Senator thinks that if we don"t agree, they might do something drastic, like blow us all up. It"s kind of scary." She shivered delicately.
"You"re taking it mighty calm," he said ironically.
"Well, how else can I take it? I"m not even supposed to know about it, except that the Senator is so careless about--" She put her fingers to her lips. "Oh, dear, now you"ll really think I"m terrible."
"Terrible? I think you"re wonderful!"
"And you promise not to print it?"
"Didn"t I say I wouldn"t?"
"Y-e-s. But you know, you"re a liar sometimes, Jerry. I"ve noticed that about you."
The press secretary"s secretary, a ma.s.sive woman with gray hair and impervious to charm, guarded the portals of his office with all the indomitable will of the U. S. Marines. But Jerry Bridges tried.
"You don"t understand, Lana," he said. "I don"t want to see Mr. Howells. I just want you to give him something."