"No? Why not? Maybe we're seeing it now, the end of human beings, the
beginning of the new society."
"They're not a race. They're mechanical killers. You made them to
destroy. That's all they can do. They're machines with a job."
"So it seems now. But how about later on? After the war is over.
Maybe, when there aren't any humans to destroy, their real
potentialities will begin to show."
"You talk as if they were alive!"
"Aren't they?"
There was silence. "They're machines," Rudi said. "They look like
people, but they're machines."
"Use your transmitter, Major," Klaus said. "We can't stay up here
forever."
Holding the transmitter tightly Hendricks called the code of the
command bunker. He waited, listening. No response. Only silence. He
checked the leads carefully. Everything was in place.
"Scott!" he said into the mike. "Can you hear me?"
Silence. He raised the gain up full and tried again. Only static.
"I don't get anything. They may hear me but they may not want to
answer."
"Tell them it's an emergency."
"They'll think I'm being forced to call. Under your direction." He
tried again, outlining briefly what he had learned. But still the
phone was silent, except for the faint static.
"Radiation pools kill most transmission," Klaus said, after awhile.
"Maybe that's it."
Hendricks shut the transmitter up. "No use. No answer. Radiation
pools? Maybe. Or they hear me, but won't answer. Frankly, that's what
I would do, if a runner tried to call from the Soviet lines. They have
no reason to believe such a story. They may hear everything I say--"
"Or maybe it's too late."
Hendricks nodded.
"We better get the lid down," Rudi said nervously. "We don't want to
take unnecessary chances."
* * * * *
They climbed slowly back down the tunnel. Klaus bolted the lid
carefully into place. They descended into the kitchen. The air was
heavy and close around them.
"Could they work that fast?" Hendricks said. "I left the bunker this
noon. Ten hours ago. How could they move so quickly?"
"It doesn't take them long. Not after the first one gets in. It goes
wild. You know what the little claws can do. Even _one_ of these is
beyond belief. Razors, each finger. Maniacal."
"All right." Hendricks moved away impatiently. He stood with his back
to them.
"What's the matter?" Rudi said.
"The Moon Base. God, if they've gotten there--"
"The Moon Base?"
Hendricks turned around. "They couldn't have got to the Moon Base. How
would they get there? It isn't possible. I can't believe it."
"What is this Moon Base? We've heard rumors, but nothing definite.
What is the actual situation? You seem concerned."
"We're supplied from the moon. The governments are there, under the
lunar surface. All our people and industries. That's what keeps us
going. If they should find some way of getting off Terra, onto the
moon--"
"It only takes one of them. Once the first one gets in it admits the
others. Hundreds of them, all alike. You should have seen them.
Identical. Like ants."
"Perfect socialism," Tasso said. "The ideal of the communist state.
All citizens interchangeable."