"I was hating you. I knew they were going to pass a law that you should
commit suicide, and I was going to help them."
"Nice of you."
"When you hit him, something happened. It was like coming out of a dark
room into the sunlight.... Bob!"
"What is it?"
"I think I need a keeper. I'll marry you when we get back--if we ever
do." She began to cry.
This time he swung round on the seat. "Listen, angel," he said, "I want
you just enough to take you up on that, whether it's on a rebound or
not. But are you sure you're out from under the control that big lug
seemed to have snapped on you?"
"I--I--think so. But I don't know how long it will last. Get me out of
here, quick!"
* * * * *
Overhead, a beam of light stabbed down through the crowding mist, just
picking out the corner of Samsonov's house a few hundred yards beyond
them, and there was a sound of ghostly wings. The beam shifted, ran
along a line of trees, and then satisfied itself with an open field.
"The helio," said Heidekopfer. "I radioed for one on the chance I could
get you away." He tried to urge the horse to greater speed as lights
came on in the building and the aircraft swung in for a landing in a
pool of its own illumination. Abruptly, the headache sensation took
him in the back of the neck again, stronger than ever, accompanied by
an intolerable sense of depression, and the night was suddenly full
of horrors ahead. It was not worth the trouble. He felt the reins
loosening in his hands. "Ann!" he cried, "Ann ..." and blacked out.
He came to to the sound of purring motors and struggled to sit up.
Someone said, "Give him this," and a cup of coffee was held against his
lips. He looked up into Ann's face.
"Still feel the same way you did in the droshky?" was the first thing
he said as he drank.
"Sssh. Yes," she said, and he looked round to see the Lanzerottis
smiling at him across the cabin of the helio. He struggled upright on
the transom. "That was a narrow one," he said. "I think they must have
passed the law of suicide against me. But I can't figure out how it
would affect me so. They said I was a resistant."
Lanzerotti said, "Thought can operate without physical presence. The
Christian Scientists and Theosophists on earth knew that years ago. And
this was a rather massive impact."
Heidekopfer shook his head. "Give me a little more of that stuff, will
you? I'm still a little groggy. What I can't figure out is how you two
got away and came along."
"We were talking about that," said Lanzerotti. "Rosa and I were just
getting ready for bed, when it suddenly struck us that everything you
had said was true, and the Tolstoians had us under control and were
showing us, in effect, a Potemkin village. When you knocked Samsonov
out, even for only a moment, the control snapped on us as it did on
Ann. Then he got so interested in passing the law of suicide against
you that he didn't have time to rebuild his fences. So we got away, but
we had to leave most of the records."
Heidekopfer drank again. "I don't suppose it makes much difference,
though," he said. "Our verbal report ought to be enough to keep the
Council from giving them the Wrightley Islands. My God, if that thing
got loose! With what they've developed they'd be able to take over
every inch of the three worlds, little by little, and turn them into
more Tolstoias."
"No," said Lanzerotti emphatically.
"No what?"
"My recommendation will be that we grant them the Wrightley Islands and
any other bits of uninhabited territory they happen to want--but only
for so long as Samsonov remains Patriarch."
Heidekopfer's mouth fell open. "What!" he exclaimed aghast, "Has he
still got you under?"
Lanzerotti's smile was bland. "Not at all. They've attained the goal of
the totalitarian state. They've got everybody thinking alike. Remember,
Dubrassov couldn't warn us, even when he wanted to, although he
couldn't bring himself to go along with Samsonov's expansionist policy.
Samsonov showed us Potemkin villages, all right. But don't you see what
all this crazy set-up adds up to? These people can't change. They've
lost their adaptability.
"The system has to be rigid, because the first time anyone expresses
an individual idea, the whole totalitarian structure will collapse.
They're inbred and interlocked, and Samsonov has complete control of
their thinking and their behavior--for the time being, at least. But
as soon as the Tolstoians expand to the Wrightley Islands, or anywhere
else, they'll be facing conditions they've never before encountered.
They'll have to learn to think for themselves again--"
"--And as soon as they start to think new thoughts, Samsonov's power
will evaporate. He'll lose his grip, just like he did on me!" finished
Heidekopfer, reaching for Ann's hand.
"You see," concluded Lanzerotti, "Dubrassov was the really dangerous
one. He didn't have new ideas, and whether they were castaways or not,
more people would have been drawn in on him."
The little group was quiet, contemplative, then they smiled knowingly
at one another.
"Let's get home," said Ann, "and make our--my last picture."