Mallory made us welcome. More than that, he seemed positively delighted
that we had come. He showed anxiety on only one point.
"No one saw you come here, Captain? You're sure of that?"
"Positive," I told him.
"Good!" He called, and assistants came from inside to lead my men
to quarters. I was surprised, as well as a little shocked and
disappointed, to discover the number of women attached to Dr. Mallory's
household. There were a few men, but for the most part he seemed to
have surrounded himself with girls. Not only that, but with young and
pretty girls!
But this was no time to sit in judgment on a man's morality. We had an
important mission. Maureen broached the subject as soon as we three
were rid of the others.
"You must know why we're here, Dr. Mallory. We did not find this place
by chance. We came because you are the last hope of our country. Too
late, the government realizes it needs the invention you offered it
five years ago."
Mallory shook his head sadly.
"I'm sorry, my child--"
"You can't refuse, Doctor!" I broke in. "Don't you understand? The
Toties overrun all the Americas. Democracy is dead unless--"
He raised a weary hand.
"Then democracy is dead, O'Shea. Not even I can restore its life. I
can say only one thing; I am glad from the bottom of my heart that the
government refused to listen to me when first I approached the War
Department with my plan."
"Glad? Why?"
"Because I was guilty of that which a scientist must ever dread. I
jumped to a hasty conclusion, based on insufficient evidence. My
conclusion was wrong, my plan--" He sighed, turned toward a door. "But
come. I will show you."
* * * * *
He led the way from his office into an adjoining room; a laboratory,
spotless, white-gleaming. About the walls of the laboratory were a
number of cages. In some of these were small animals; I saw monkeys,
guinea pigs, a squirrel, rabbits. Some were active, eating, shuffling
about, looking at us with bright, inquisitive eyes. Others lay
apparently asleep.
But these I noticed with some remote part of my mind. For the focal
point of attention was a glass-walled case in the center of the room;
a topless case in which lay the body of a man. Maureen started. She
said, "Dead, Doctor?"
"He is not dead," replied Mallory somberly. "He is the result of my
dreadful error of judgment. These others--" He nodded toward the
cages. "--were the experiments that misled me. This man, one of my
assistants who trusted me and was daring enough to become my first
human experiment, sleeps. How long he will continue to sleep, I cannot
guess. But it may be for one, two, or even more decades!"
"Sleeps!" I said. But Maureen, with a flash of that swift intuition I
had seen before, guessed the answer. She said, "Anaesthesia! That was
your plan, Dr. Mallory!"
"Yes, my child. That was my plan. I am a scientist, but five years ago
I was sociologist enough to recognize that the United States could not
match the power of the Totalitarians. I realized, even then, that the
ending we have seen come to pass was inevitable. I set myself the task
of finding a way to meet the impending menace.
"I found the answer in a new form of anaesthetic. I will not tell you
its formula. It is a dismal failure--but that I did not know. I thought
it was a great success. When I permitted small animals--those you see
before you--to inhale some of the delicate granules--"
"Granules, Doctor?"
"Yes. It was a revolutionary means of inducing unconsciousness. When
I permitted the animals to inhale these granules, they fell into a
soft, deep, harmless slumber. I timed their periods of sleep carefully,
discovered the anaesthetic rendered them senseless over periods ranging
from one to two weeks.
"It was then, heady with success, I offered my plan to the government.
It was, I thought, so simple. Our planes would scatter the granules
over enemy terrain--" He laughed shortly, mirthlessly. "--and the enemy
would fall into deep slumber. While they were thus incapacitated, our
men, garbed in specially constructed suits, wearing protective masks,
could walk amongst them, disarm them, imprison them. The war would be
ended bloodlessly--"
I stared at him incredulously. I said, "But--but if it really works
that way, Dr. Mallory, that is the weapon we need!"
"Yes, my boy. But it doesn't work that way. I have told you I made an
error in judgment. I assumed that Man, being a higher animal than those
on which I experimented, would experience the same, or a slightly less
drastic reaction than that experienced by the animals. I did not take
into consideration the fact that Man is also a more highly integrated
animal. That he is weaker, in some respects.
"When Williamson, here, volunteered to become a human guinea pig, I
accepted his offer. I exposed him to the granules. He breathed deeply,
fell asleep--" Dr. Mallory shook his head. "And that was more than four
years ago. He still sleeps!"
* * * * *
I said, "I understand now, Doctor, why you consider your plan a
failure. But you speak as a scientist and a humanitarian who would
shudder at seeing thousands of men sleep for a decade. I am a soldier.
I have met War face to face, and have learned, by bitter experience,
that there is no weapon too dreadful to use if the results are
satisfactory.
"What if your granules _do_ put the Toties to sleep for years instead
of days? Isn't that better than seeing our countrymen die beneath
the sword of the aggressor? Unless we act swiftly, this war is over.
Freedom, liberty, equality of men, all the things we believe in, are
doomed. But there is yet time to equip a few of our troops with the
suits and masks you speak of, turn loose your slumber-granules to the
winds.
"Even though thousands of our own men share the sleep of the enemy, we
can go through with the disarmament program you planned. When our foes
awaken, a decade hence, they will have lost their leaders and their
war. When our friends waken we will take them, triumphantly, to the
homes and cities we have rebuilt while they slumbered."
Dr. Mallory said, "I wish it were as simple as that, O'Shea. But
there is one other thing you do not know. The granules that are my
anaesthetic are more than mere granules. They are spores. Worse--they
are self-propagating spores!"
He pointed to a trebly barred and locked door opening on one wall of
the laboratory. For the first time there was nervousness in his voice.
"There is a storeroom beyond that door, O'Shea. In that storeroom,
quiescent in sterile containers, lie spores. Countless thousands,
millions of them. They are the granules I made for the government
before I discovered their real nature. There lies beyond that door a
weapon potent enough to end this war immediately--"
He paused suddenly. We had all heard it, the squeak of a worn hinge,
the shuffle of a footstep. I motioned Mallory to silence, tiptoed to
the office door and flung it open.
The aviator, Krassner, stood there. He was smiling. He said, "Ah, there
you are, Captain! I was looking for you. I wanted to ask if--"
"How long have you been here?" I asked angrily.
"How long? Why--just a minute or so. I--"
"Were you listening to our conversation?"
He stiffened; a flush highlighted his cheek bones.
"I beg your pardon, sir!" he said.
"Because, if you were--" Dr. Mallory was beside me, his hand was on my
arm. I hesitated. There was no sense in being so violently suspicious.
I said, "Well, never mind. Go back to your quarters, Krassner. I'll be
with you shortly."
"Very good, sir!" He saluted, turned and stalked from the office, a
picture of affronted honor and dignity. I felt somewhat ashamed of
myself.
Mallory said, "It really doesn't matter whether he heard us or not,
O'Shea. What I was about to say is, there lies beyond that door a
weapon potent enough to end the war immediately--but it must never be
used. For once loosed to the winds, those abominable spores would not
only end this war, they would still all animal life on the face of
Earth. I have said they were self-propagating. Each new generation of
spores would deepen the slumber into which mankind had been soothed by
the first--"