"On those general assumptions we established our hold on susceptible
leaders and the mob," Jorj went on. "We built Maizie and the Mars
rocket and the Mind Bomb. We discovered the wisdom of the Martians. We
_sold_ the people on the science that the professionals had been too
high-toned to advertise or bring into the market place.
"But now that we've succeeded, now that we've made the big point, now
that Maizie and Mars and science do rule the average human imagination,
the time has come to take the second big step, to let accomplishment
catch up with imagination, to implement fantasy with fact.
"Do you suppose I'd ever have gone into this with you, if it hadn't
been for the thought of that second big step? Why, I'd have felt dirty
and cheap, a mere charlatan--except for the sure conviction that
someday everything would be set right. I've devoted my whole life to
that conviction, Jan. I've studied and disciplined myself, using every
scientific means at my disposal, so that I wouldn't be found lacking
when the day came to heal the breach between the Thinkers and the
professionals. I've trained myself to be the perfect liaison man for
the job.
"Jan, the day's come and I'm the man. I know you've been concentrating
on other aspects of our work; you haven't had time to keep up with my
side of it. But I'm sure that as soon as you see how carefully I've
prepared myself, how completely practical the neutron-drive rocket
project is, you'll beg me to go ahead!"
Tregarron smiled at the ceiling for a moment. "Your general idea isn't
so bad, Jorj, but your time scale is out of whack and your judgment is
a joke. Oh, yes. Every revolutionary wants to see the big change take
place in his lifetime. Tcha! It's as if he were watching evolutionary
vaudeville and wanted the Ape-to-Man Act over in twenty minutes.
"Time for the second big step? Jorj, the average man's exactly what
he was ten years ago, except that he's got a new god. More than
ever he thinks of Mars as a Hollywood paradise, with wise men and
yummy princesses. Maizie is Mama magnified a million times. As for
professional scientists, they're more jealous and stuffy than ever. All
they'd like to do is turn the clock back to a genteel dream world of
quiet quadrangles and caps and gowns, where every commoner bows to the
passing scholar.
"Maybe in ten thousand years we'll be ready for the second big step.
Maybe. Meanwhile, as should be, the clever will rule the stupid for
their own good. The realists will rule the dreamers. Those with free
hands will rule those who have deliberately handcuffed themselves with
taboos.
"Secondly, your judgment. Did you actually think you could have bossed
those professionals, kept your mental footing in the intellectual
melee? You a nuclear physicist? A rocket scientist? Why, it's--Take
it easy now, boy, and listen to me. They'd have torn you to pieces in
twenty minutes and glad of the chance! You baffle me, Jorj. You know
that Maizie and the Mars rocket and all that are fakes, yet you believe
in your somno-learning and consciousness-expansion and optimism-pumping
like the veriest yokel. I wouldn't be surprised to hear you'd taken up
ESP and hypnotism. I think you should take stock of yourself and get a
new slant. It's overdue."
* * * * *
He leaned back. Jorj's face had become a mask. His eyes did not flicker
from Tregarron's, yet there was a subtle change in his expression.
Behind Tregarron, Caddy swayed as if in a sudden gust of intangible
wind and took a silent step forward from the wall.
"That's your honest opinion?" Jorj asked, very quietly.
"It's more than that," Tregarron told him, just as unmelodramatically.
"It's orders."
Jorj stood up purposefully. "Very well," he said. "In that case I have
to tell you that--"
Casually, but with no wasted motion, Tregarron slipped an ultrasonic
pistol from under the desk and laid it on the empty top.
"No," he said, "let me tell you something. I was afraid this would
happen and I made preparations. If you've studied your Nazi, Fascist
and Soviet history, you know what happens to old revolutionaries who
don't move with the times. But I'm not going to be too harsh. I have a
couple of the boys waiting outside. They'll take you by 'copter to the
field, then by jet to New Mex. Bright and early tomorrow morning, Jorj,
you're leaving on a trip to Mars."
Jorj hardly reacted to the words. Caddy was two steps nearer Tregarron.
"I decided Mars would be the best place for you," the fat man
continued. "The robot controls will be arranged so that your 'visit'
to Mars lasts two years. Perhaps in that time you will have learned
wisdom, such as realizing that the big liar must never fall for his own
big lie.
"Meanwhile, there will have to be a replacement for you. I have in mind
a person who may prove peculiarly worthy to occupy your position, with
all its perquisites. A person who seems to understand that force and
desire are the motive powers of life, and that anyone who believes the
big lie proves himself strictly a jerk."
* * * * *
Caddy was standing behind Tregarron now, her half-closed, sleepy eyes
fixed on Jorj's.
"His name is Willard Farquar. You see, I too believe in cooperating
with the scientists, Jorj, but by subversion rather than conference. My
idea is to offer the hand of friendship to a selected few of them--the
hand of friendship with a nice big bribe in it." He smiled. "You were
a good man, Jorj, for the early days, when we needed a publicist
with catchy ideas about Mind Bombs, ray guns, plastic helmets, fancy
sweaters, space brassieres, and all that other corn. Now we can afford
a soldier."
Jorj moistened his lips.
"We'll have a neat explanation of what's happened to you. Callers will
be informed that you've gone on an extended visit to imbibe the wisdom
of the Martians."