Conway Costigan, leaving behind him scores of clues, all highly
misleading, severed his connection with Uranium, Inc. as soon as he
dared after Operation Zwilnik had been brought to a successful close.
The technical operation, that is; the legal battles in which it figured
so largely were to run on for enough years to make the word "zwilnik"
a common noun and adjective in the language.
He came to Tellus as unobtrusively as was his wont, and took an
inconspicuous but very active part in Operation Mateese, now in full
swing.
"Now is the time for all good men and true to come to the aid of the
party, eh?" Clio Costigan giggled.
"You can play that straight across the keyboard of your electric, pet,
and not with just two fingers, either. Did you hear what the boss told
'em today?"
"Yes." The girl's levity disappeared. "They're so _dirty_, Spud--I'm
really afraid."
"So am I. But we're not too lily-fingered ourselves if we have to be,
and we're covering 'em like a blanket--Kinnison and Samms both."
"Good."
"And in that connection, I'll have to be out half the night again
tonight. All right?"
"Of course. It's so nice having you home at all, darling, instead of a
million light-years away, that I'm practically delirious with delight."
It was sometimes hard to tell what impish Mrs. Costigan meant by what
she said. Costigan looked at her, decided she was taking him for a
ride, and smacked her a couple of times where it would do the most
good. He then kissed her thoroughly and left. He had very little time,
these days, either to himself or for his lovely and adored wife.
For Roderick Kinnison's campaign, which had started out rough and
not too clean, became rougher and rougher, and no cleaner, as it
went along. Morgan and his crew were swinging from the heels, with
everything and anything they could dig up or invent, however little
of truth or even of plausibility it might contain, and Rod the Rock
had never held even in principle with the gentle precept of turning
the other cheek. He was rather an Old Testamentarian, and he was no
neophyte at dirty fighting. As a young operative, skilled in the
punishing, maiming techniques of hand-to-hand rough-and-tumble combat,
he had brawled successfully in most of the dives of most of the
solarian planets and of most of their moons. With this background,
and being a quick study, and under the masterly coaching of Virgil
Samms, Nels Bergenholm, and Rularion of North Polar Jupiter, it did
not take him long to learn the various gambits and ripostes of this
non-physical, but nevertheless no-holds-barred, political mayhem.
And the "boys and girls" of the Patrol worked like badgers, digging up
an item here and a fact there and a bit of information somewhere else,
all for the day of reckoning which was to come. They used ultra-wave
scanners, spy-rays, long eyes, stool-pigeons--everything they could
think of to use--and they could not _always_ be blocked out or evaded.
"We've _got_ it, boss--now let's _use_ it!"
"No. Save it! Nail it down, solid! Get the facts--names, dates, places,
and amounts. Prove it first--then save it!"
_Prove it! Save it!_ The joint injunction was used so often that it
came to be a slogan and was accepted as such. Unlike most slogans,
however, it was carefully and diligently put to use. The operatives
proved it and saved it, over and over, over and over again; by dint of
what unsparing effort and selfless devotion only they themselves ever
fully knew.
Kinnison stumped the Continent. He visited every state, all of the
big cities, most of the towns, and many villages and hamlets; and
always, wherever he went, a part of the show was to demonstrate to his
audiences how the Lens worked.
"Look at me. You know that no two individuals are or ever can be alike.
Robert Johnson is not like Fred Smith; Joe Jones is entirely different
from John Brown. Look at me again. Concentrate upon whatever it is in
your mind that makes me Roderick Kinnison, the individual. That will
enable each of you to get into as close touch with me as though our
two minds were one. I am not talking now; you are reading my mind.
Since you are reading my very mind, you know exactly what I am _really_
thinking, for better or for worse. It is impossible for my mind to
lie to yours, since I can change neither the basic pattern of my
personality nor my basic way of thought; nor would I if I could. Being
in my mind, you know that already; you know what my basic quality is.
My friends call it strength and courage; Pirate Chief Morgan and his
cut-throat crew call it many other things. Be that as it may, you now
know whether or not you want me for your President. I can do nothing
whatever to sway your opinion, for what your minds have perceived you
know to be the truth. That is the way the Lens works. It bares the
depths of my mind to yours, and in return enables me to understand your
thoughts.
"But it is in no sense hypnotism, as Morgan is so foolishly trying to
make you believe. Morgan knows as well as the rest of us do that even
the most accomplished hypnotist, with all his apparatus, CAN NOT AFFECT
A STRONG AND DEFINITELY OPPOSED WILL. He is therefore saying that each
and every one of you now receiving this thought is such a spineless
weakling that--but you may draw your own conclusions.
"In closing, remember--nail this fact down so solidly that you will
never forget it--a sound and healthy mind CAN NOT LIE. The mouth can,
and does. So does the typewriter. But the mind--NEVER! I can hide
my thoughts from you, even while we are en rapport, like this ...
but I CAN NOT LIE TO YOU. That is why, some day, all of your highest
executives will have to be Lensmen, and not politicians, diplomats,
crooks and boodlers. I thank you."
As that long, bitter, incredibly vicious campaign neared its vitriolic
end tension mounted higher and ever higher: and in a room in the Samms
home three young Lensmen and a red-haired girl were not at ease. All
four were lean and drawn. Jack Kinnison was talking.
"... not the party, so much, but Dad. He started out with bare fists,
and now he's wading into 'em with spiked brass knuckles."
"You can play _that_ across the board," Costigan agreed.
"He's really giving 'em hell," Northrop said, admiringly.
"Did you boys listen in on his Casper speech last night?"
They hadn't; they had been too busy.
"I could give it to you on your Lenses, but I couldn't reproduce the
tone--the exquisite way he lifted large pieces of hide and rubbed
salt into the raw places. When he gets excited you know he can't help
but use voice, too, so I got some of it on a record. He starts out
on voice, nice and easy, as usual; then goes onto his Lens without
talking; then starts yelling as well as thinking. Listen:"
"You ought to have a Lensman president. You may not believe that any
Lensman is, and as a matter of fact _must_ be incorruptible. That is
my belief, as you can feel for yourselves, but I cannot _prove_ it to
you. Only time can do that. It is a self-evident fact, however, which
you can feel for yourselves, that a Lensman president could not lie to
you except by word of mouth or in writing. You could demand from him
at any time a Lensed statement upon any subject. Upon some matters of
state he could and should refuse to answer; but not upon any question
involving moral turpitude. If he answered, you would know the truth. If
he refused to answer, you would know why and could initiate impeachment
proceedings then and there.
"In the past there have been presidents who used that high office for
low purposes; whose very memory reeks of malfeasance and corruption.
One was impeached, others should have been. Witherspoon never should
have been elected. Witherspoon should have been impeached the day after
he was inaugurated. Witherspoon should be impeached now. We know, and
at the Grand Rally at New York Spaceport three weeks from tonight
we are going to PROVE, that Witherspoon is simply a minor cog-wheel
in the Morgan-Towne-Isaacson machine, 'playing footsie' at command
with whatever group happens to be the highest bidder at the moment,
irrespective of North America's or the System's good. Witherspoon is a
gangster, a cheat, and a God damn liar, but he is of very little actual
importance; merely a boodling nincompoop. Morgan is the real boss and
the real menace, the Operating Engineer of the lowest-down, lousiest,
filthiest, rottenest, most corrupt machine of murderers, extortionists,
bribe-takers, panderers, perjurers, and other pimples on the body
politic that has ever disgraced any so-called civilized government.
Good night."
"Wow!" Jack Kinnison yelped. "That's high, even for him!"
"Just a minute, Jack," Jill cautioned. "The other side, too. Listen to
this choice bit from Senator Morgan."
"It is not exactly hypnotism, but something infinitely worse; something
that steals away your very minds; that makes anyone listening believe
that white is yellow, red, purple, or pea-green. Until our scientists
have checked this menace, until we have every wearer of that cursed
Lens behind steel bars, I advise you in all earnestness not to listen
to them at all. If you do listen your minds will surely be insidiously
decomposed and broken; you will surely end your days gibbering in a
padded cell.
"And murders? _Murders!_ The feeble remnants of the gangs which our
government has all but wiped out may perhaps commit a murder or so per
year; the perpetrators of which are caught, tried, and punished. But
how many of your sons and daughters has Roderick Kinnison murdered,
either personally or through his uniformed slaves? Think! Read the
record! Then make him explain, if he can; but do not listen to his
lying, mind-destroying Lens.
"Democracy? Bah! What does 'Rod the Rock' Kinnison--the hardest, most
vicious tyrant, the most relentless and pitiless martinet ever known to
any Armed Force in the long history of our world--know of democracy?
Nothing! He understands only force. All who oppose him in anything,
however small, or who seek to reason with him, die without record or
trace; and if he is not arrested, tried, and executed, all such will
continue, tracelessly and without any pretense of trial, to die.
"But at bottom, even though he is not intelligent enough to realize
it, he is merely one more in the long parade of tools of ruthless
and predatory wealth, the MONIED POWERS. _They_, my friends, never
sleep; they have only one God, one tenet, one creed--the almighty
CREDIT. _That_ is what they are after, and note how craftily, how
stealthily, they have done and are doing their grabbing. Where is
your representation upon that so-called Galactic Council? How did
this criminal, this vicious, this outrageously unconstitutional, this
irresponsible, uncontrollable, and dictatorial monstrosity come into
being? How and when did you give this bloated colossus the right to
establish its own currency--to have the immeasurable effrontery to
debar the solidest currency in the universe, the credit of North
America, from inter-planetary and inter-stellar commerce? Their aim is
clear; they intend to tax you into slavery and death. Do not forget for
one instant, my friends, that the power to tax is the power to destroy.
THE POWER TO TAX IS THE POWER TO DESTROY. Our forefathers fought and
bled and died to establish the principle that taxation without rep...."
"And so on, for one solid hour!" Jill snarled, as she snapped the
switch viciously. "How do you like _them_ potatoes?"
"Hell's--Blazing--Pinnacles!" This from Jack, silent for seconds, and:
"Rugged stuff ... very, _very_ rugged," from Northrop. "No wonder you
look sort of pooped, Spud. Being Chief Bodyguard must have developed
recently into quite a chore."
"You ain't just snapping your choppers, bub," was Costigan's grimly
flippant reply. "I've yelled for help--in force."
"So have I, and I'm going to yell again, right now," Jack declared. "I
don't know whether Dad is going to kill Morgan or not--and don't give
a damn--but if Morgan isn't going all out to kill Dad it's because
they've forgotten how to make bombs."
He Lensed a call to Bergenholm.
"Yes, Jack?... I will refer you to Rularion, who has had this matter
under consideration."
"Yes, John Kinnison, I have considered the matter and have taken
action," the Jovian's calmly assured thought rolled into the minds of
all, even Lensless Jill's. "The point, youth, was well taken. It was
your thought that some thousands--perhaps five--of spy-ray operators
and other operatives will be required to insure that the Grand Rally
will not be marred by episodes of violence."
"It was," Jack said, flatly. "It still is."
"Not having considered all possible contingencies nor the extent of
the field of necessary action, you err. The number will approach
nineteen thousand very nearly. Admiral Clayton has been so advised and
his staff is now at work upon a plan of action in accordance with my
recommendation. Your suggestions, Conway Costigan, in the matter of
immediate protection of Roderick Kinnison's person, are now in effect,
and you are hereby relieved of that responsibility. I assume that you
four wish to continue at work?"
The Jovian's assumption was sound.
"I suggest, then, that you confer with Admiral Clayton and fit
yourselves into his program of security. I intend to make the same
suggestion to all Lensmen and other qualified persons not engaged in
work of more pressing importance."
Rularion cut off and Jack scowled blackly. "The Grand Rally is going to
be held three weeks before election day. I _still_ don't like it. I'd
save it until the night before election--knock their teeth out with it
at the last possible minute."
"You're wrong, Jack; the Chief is right," Costigan argued. "Two ways.
One, we can't play that kind of ball. Two, this gives them just enough
rope to hang themselves."
"Well ... maybe." Kinnison-like, Jack was far from being convinced.
"But that's the way it's going to be, so let's call Clayton."
"First," Costigan broke in. "Jill, will you please explain why they
have to waste as big a man as Kinnison on such a piffling job as
president? I was out in the sticks, you know--it doesn't make sense."
"Because he's the only man alive who can lick Morgan's machine at the
polls," Jill stated a simple fact. "The Patrol can get along without
him for one term, after that it won't make any difference."
"But Morgan works from the side-lines. Why couldn't he?"
"The psychology is entirely different. Morgan _is_ a boss. Pops
Kinnison isn't. He's a leader. See?"
"Oh ... I guess so.... Yes. Go ahead."
* * * * *
Outwardly, New York Spaceport did not change appreciably. At any
given moment of day or night there were so many hundreds of persons
strolling aimlessly or walking purposefully about that an extra hundred
or so made no perceptible difference. And the spaceport was only the
end-point. The Patrol's activities began hundreds or thousands or
millions or billions of miles away from Earth's metropolis.
A web was set up through which not even a grain-of-sand meteorite could
pass undetected. Every space-ship bound for Earth carried at least one
passenger who would not otherwise have been aboard; passengers who, if
not wearing Lenses, carried Service Special equipment amply sufficient
for the work in hand. Geigers and other vastly more complicated
mechanisms flew toward Earth from every direction in space; streamed
toward New York in Earth's every channel of traffic. Every train and
plane, every bus and boat and car, every conveyance of every kind and
every pedestrian approaching New York City was searched; with a search
as thorough as it was unobtrusive. And every thing and every entity
approaching New York Spaceport was combed, literally by the cubic
millimeter.
No arrests were made. No package was confiscated, or even disturbed,
throughout the ranks of public check boxes, in private offices, or
in elaborate or casual hiding-places. As far as the enemy knew, the
Patrol had no suspicion whatever that anything out of the ordinary was
going on. That is, until the last possible minute. Then a tall, lean,
space-tanned veteran spoke softly aloud, as though to himself:
"Spy-ray blocks--interference--umbrella--on. Report."
That voice, low and soft as it was, was picked up by every Service
Special receiver within a radius of a thousand miles, and by every
Lensman listening, wherever he might be. So were, in a matter of
seconds, the replies.
"Spy-ray blocks on, sir."
"Interference on, sir."
"Umbrella on, sir."
No spy-ray could be driven into any part of the tremendous port. No
beam, communicator or detonating, could operate anywhere near it. The
enemy would now know that something had gone wrong, but he would not be
able to do anything about it.
"Reports received," the tanned man said, still quietly. "Operation Zunk
will proceed as scheduled."
And four hundred seventy one highly skilled men, carrying duplicate
keys and/or whatever other specialized apparatus and equipment would be
necessary, quietly took possession of four hundred seventy one objects,
of almost that many shapes and sizes. And, out in the gathering crowd,
a few disturbances occurred and a few ambulances dashed busily here and
there. Some women had fainted, no doubt, ran the report. They always
did.
And Conway Costigan, who had been watching, without seeming even to
look at him, a porter loading a truck with opulent-looking hand-luggage
from a locker, followed man and truck out into the concourse. Closing
up, he asked:
"Where are you taking that baggage, Charley?"
"Up Ramp One, boss," came the unflurried reply. "Flight Ninety will be
late taking off, on accounta this jamboree, and they want it right up
there handy."
"Take it down to the...."
Over the years a good many men had tried to catch Conway Costigan off
guard or napping, to beat him to the punch or to the draw--with a
startlingly uniform lack of success. The Lensman's fist traveled a bare
seven inches: the supposed porter gasped once and traveled--or rather,
staggered backward--approximately seven feet before he collapsed and
sprawled unconscious upon the pavement.
"Decontamination," Costigan remarked, apparently to empty air, as
he picked the fellow up and draped him limply over the truckful
of suitcases. "Deke. Front and center. Area forty-six. Class
Eff-ex--hotter than the middle tailrace of hell."
"You called Deke?" A man came running up. "Eff-ex six--nineteen. This
it?"
"Check. It's yours, porter and all. Take it away."
Costigan strolled on until he met Jack Kinnison, who had a
rapidly-developing mouse under his left eye.
"How did _that_ happen, Jack?" he demanded sharply. "Something slip?"
"Not exactly." Kinnison grinned ruefully. "I have the _damndest_ luck!
A woman--an old lady at that--thought I was staging a hold-up and swung
on me with her hand-bag--southpaw and from the rear. And if you laugh,
you untuneful harp, I'll hang one right on the end of your chin, so
help me!"
"Far be it from such," Costigan assured him, and did not--quite--laugh.
"Wonder how we came out? They should have reported before
this--p-s-s-t! Here it comes!"
Decontamination was complete; Operation Zunk had been a
one-hundred-percent success; there had been no casualties.
"Except for one black eye," Costigan could not help adding; but his
Lens and his Service Specials were off. Jack would have brained him if
any of them had been on.
Linking arms, the two young Lensmen strode away toward Ramp Four, which
was to be their station.
This was the largest crowd Earth had ever known. Everybody,
particularly the Nationalists, had wondered why this climactic
political rally had been set for three full weeks ahead of the
election, but their curiosity had not been satisfied. Furthermore, this
meeting had been advertised as no previous one had ever been; neither
pains nor cash had been spared in giving it the greatest build-up ever
known. Not only had every channel of communication been loaded for
weeks, but also Samms' workers had been very busily engaged in starting
rumors; which grew, as rumors do, into things which their own fathers
and mothers could not recognize. And the baffled Nationalists, trying
to play the whole thing down, made matters worse. Interest spread from
North America to the other continents, to the other planets, and to the
other solar systems.
Thus, to say that everybody was interested in, and was listening to,
the Cosmocrats' Grand Rally would not be too serious an exaggeration.
Roderick Kinnison stepped up to the battery of microphones; certain
screens were cut.
"Fellow entities of Civilization and others: while it may seem strange
to broadcast a political rally to other continents and to beam it to
other worlds, it was necessary in this case. The message to be given,
while it will go into the political affairs of the North American
Continent of Tellus, will deal primarily with a far larger thing; a
matter which will be of paramount importance to all intelligent beings
of every inhabited world. You know how to attune your minds to mine. Do
it now."
He staggered mentally under the shock of encountering practically
simultaneously so many minds, but rallied strongly and went on, via
Lens:
"My first message is not to you, my fellow Cosmocrats, nor to you,
my fellow dwellers on Earth, nor even to you, my fellow adherents to
Civilization; but to THE ENEMY. I do not mean my political opponents,
the Nationalists, who are almost all loyal fellow North Americans. I
mean the entities who are using the leaders of that Nationalist party
as pawns in a vastly larger game.
"I know, ENEMY, that you are listening. I know that you had goon
squads in this audience, to kill me and my superior officer. Know
now that they are impotent. I know that you had atomic bombs, with
which to obliterate this assemblage and this entire area. They have
been disassembled and stored. I know that you had large supplies of
radio-active dusts. They now lie in the Patrol vaults near Weehauken.
All the devices which you intended to employ are known, and all save
one have been either nullified or confiscated.
"That one exception is your war-fleet, a force sufficient in your
opinion to wipe out all the Armed Forces of the Galactic Patrol. You
intended to use it in case we Cosmocrats win this forthcoming election;
you may decide to use it now. Do so if you like; you can do nothing to
interrupt or to affect this meeting. This is all I have to say to you,
Enemy of Civilization.
"Now to you, my legitimate audience. I am not here to deliver the
address promised you, but merely to introduce the real speaker--First
Lensman Virgil Samms...."
A mental gasp, millions strong, made itself tellingly felt.
"... Yes--First Lensman Samms, of whom you all know. He has not been
attending political meetings because we, his advisers, would not
let him. Why? Here are the facts. Through Archibald Isaacson, of
Interstellar Spaceways, he was offered a bribe which would in a few
years have amounted to some fifty billion credits; more wealth than
any individual entity has ever possessed. Then there was an attempt at
murder, which we were able--just barely--to block. Knowing there was no
other place on Earth where he would be safe, we took him to The Hill.
You know what happened; you know what condition The Hill is in now.
This warfare was ascribed to pirates.
"The whole stupendous operation, however, was made in a vain attempt to
kill one man--Virgil Samms. The Enemy knew, and we learned, that Samms
is the greatest man who has ever lived. His name will last as long as
Civilization endures, for it is he, and _only_ he, who can make it
possible for Civilization _to_ endure.
"Why was I not killed? Why was I allowed to keep on making campaign
speeches? Because I do not count. I am of no more importance to the
cause of Civilization than is my opponent Witherspoon to that of the
Enemy.
"I am a wheel-horse, a plugger. You all know me--'Rocky Rod' Kinnison,
the hard-boiled egg. I've got guts enough to stand up and fight for
what I _know_ is right. I've got the guts and the inclination to stand
up and slug it out, toe to toe, with man, beast, or devil. I would make
and WILL MAKE a good president; I've got the guts and inclination to
keep on slugging after you elect me; before God I promise to smash down
every machine-made crook who tries to hold any part of our government
down in the reeking muck in which it now is.
"I am a plugger and a slugger, with no spark of the terrific flame of
inspirational genius which makes Virgil Samms what he so uniquely is.
My _kind_ may be important, but I individually am not. There are _so_
many of us! If they had killed me another slugger would have taken my
place and the effect upon the job would have been nil.
"Virgil Samms, however, _can not be replaced_ and the Enemy knows
it. He is unique in all history. No one else can do his job. If he
is killed before the principles for which he is working are firmly
established Civilization will collapse back into barbarism. It will not
recover until another such mind comes into existence, the probability
of which occurrence I will let you compute for yourselves.
"For those reasons Virgil Samms is not here in person. Nor is he in
The Hill, since the Enemy may now possess weapons powerful enough to
destroy not only that hitherto impregnable fortress, but also the whole
Earth. And they would destroy Earth, without a qualm, if in so doing
they could kill the First Lensman.
"Therefore Samms is now out in deep space. Our fleet is waiting to
be attacked. If we win, the Galactic Patrol will go on. If we lose,
we hope you shall have learned enough so that we will not have died
uselessly."
"Die? Why should _you_ die? _You_ are safe on Earth!"
"Ah, one of the goons sent that thought. If our fleet is defeated no
Lensman, anywhere, will live a week. The Enemy will see to that.
"That is all from me. Stay tuned. Come in, First Lensman Virgil
Samms ... take over, sir."
It was psychologically impossible for Virgil Samms to use such language
as Kinnison had just employed. Nor was it either necessary or desirable
that he should; the ground had been prepared. Therefore--coldly,
impersonally, logically, tellingly--he told the whole terrific
story. He revealed the most important things dug up by the Patrols'
indefatigable investigators, reciting names, places, dates,
transactions, and amounts. Only in the last couple of minutes did he
warm up at all.
"Nor is this in any sense a smear campaign or a bringing of baseless
charges to becloud the issue or to vilify without cause and upon the
very eve of election a political opponent. These are facts. Formal
charges are now being preferred; every person mentioned, and many
others, will be put under arrest as soon as possible. If any one of
them were in any degree innocent our case against him could be made to
fall in less than the three weeks intervening before election day. That
is why this meeting is being held at this time.
"Not one of them is innocent. Being guilty, and knowing that we can and
will prove guilt, they will adopt a policy of delay and recrimination.
Since our courts are, for the most part, just, the accused will be able
to delay the trials and the actual presentation of evidence until after
election day. Forewarned, however, you will know exactly why the trials
will have been delayed, and in spite of the fog of misrepresentation
you will know where the truth lies. You will know how to cast your
votes. You will vote for Roderick Kinnison and for those who support
him.
"There is no need for me to enlarge upon the character of Port Admiral
Kinnison. You know him as well as I do. Honest, incorruptible,
fearless, you know that he will make the best president we have ever
had. If you do not already know it, ask any one of the hundreds of
thousands of strong, able, clear-thinking young men and women who have
served under him in our Armed Forces.
"I thank you, everyone who has listened, for your interest."