Then this was the Shrine, and he and all the rest of Earth were
nothing but glorified textbooks!
And there would come crises on the Shrine, duplicates of the crises on
old Earth. Except that they wouldn't be permitted to happen. The poor
ignorant people on the Shrine had to be coddled, like the children
they were. Damn!
Karnes crumpled the sheets of paper in his hands, twisting them
savagely. Then he methodically tore them into bits.
* * * * *
When the first dawnlight touched the sea, Karnes was watching it out
the east window. It had been twenty-four hours since he had seen the
superman walk into his gray globe and vanish.
All night, he had been searching his brain for some clue that would
tell him which of the two choices he should believe in. And he
couldn't bring himself to believe in either.
Once he had thought: _Why do I believe, then, what the impressor said?
Why not just forget it?_
But that didn't help. He _did_ believe it. That alien instrument had
impressed his mind, not only with the facts themselves, but with an
absolute faith that they _were_ facts. There was no room for doubt;
the knowledge imparted to his mind was true, and he knew it.
For a time, he had been comforted by the thought that the gray globe
must be a time machine because of the way it had vanished. It was very
comforting until he realized that travel to the stars and beyond
didn't necessarily mean a spaceship as he knew spaceships.
Teleportation--
Now, with the dawn, Karnes knew there was only one thing he could do.
Somehow, somewhere, there would be other clues--clues a man who knew
what to look for might find. The Galactics couldn't be perfect, or
they wouldn't have let him get the mind impressor in his hands. Ergo,
somewhere they would slip again.
Karnes knew he would spend the rest of his life looking for that one
slip. He had to know the truth, one way or another.
Or he might not stay sane.
* * * * *
Lansberg picked him up at eight in a police copter. As they floated
toward New York, Karnes' mind settled itself into one cold purpose; a
purpose that lay at the base of his brain, waiting.
Lansberg was saying: "--and one of Brittain's men got the stuff last
night. He hadn't passed it on to Brittain himself yet this morning,
but he very probably will have by the time we get there.
"We've rigged it up so that Brittain will have to pass it to his
superior by tomorrow or it will be worthless. When he does, we'll
follow it right to the top."
"If we've got every loophole plugged," said Karnes, "we ought to take
them easy."
"Brother, I hope so! It took us eight months to get Brittain all hot
and bothered over the bait, and another two months to give it to him
in a way that wouldn't make him suspicious.
"It's restricted material, of course, so that we can pin a subversive
activities rap on them, at least, if not espionage. But we had to
argue like hell to keep it restricted; the Spatial Commission was
ready to release it, since it's really relatively harmless."
Karnes looked absently at the thin line of smoke wiggling from
Lansberg's cigarette.
"You know," he said, "there are times when I wish this war would come
right out in the open. Actually, we've been fighting the League for
years, but we don't admit it. There have been little disagreements and
incidents until the devil won't have it. But it's still supposed to be
a 'worry war'."
Lansberg shrugged. "It will get hot just as soon as the Eurasian
League figures they are far enough along in spacecraft construction to
get the Martian colonies if they win. Then they'll try to smash us
before we can retaliate; then, and not before.
"We can't start it. Our only hope is that when they start, they'll
underestimate us. Say, what's that you're fooling with?"
The sudden change of subject startled Karnes for an instant. He looked
at the mind impressor in his hands. He had been toying with it
incessantly, hoping it would repeat its performance, or perhaps give
additional information.
"This?" He covered quickly. "It's a--a puzzle. One of those plastic
puzzles." _Maybe it doesn't work on the same person twice. If I can
get George to fool around with it, he might hit the right combination
again._
"Hmmm. How does it work?" George seemed interested.
Karnes handed it to him. "It has a couple of little sliding weights
inside it. You have to turn the thing just right to unlock it, then it
comes apart when you slide out a section of the surface. Try it."
* * * * *
Lansberg took it, turned it this way and that, moving his hands over
the surface. Karnes watched him for several minutes, but there didn't
seem to be any results.
Lansberg looked up from his labors. "I give up. I can't even see where
it's supposed to come apart, and I can't feel any weights sliding
inside it. Show me how it works."
Karnes thought fast. "Why do you think I was fiddling with it? I
don't know how it works. A friend of mine bet me a ten spot that I
couldn't figure out the combination."