Sixth Column (9 page)

He almost had it then. What was it?

"So `There'll be pie in the sky by and by,' " quoted Calhoun. "You should

have been a preacher, Major Ardmore. We prefer action."

That was it! That was it!

"You're almost right," Ardmore answered. "Have you listened to Thomas'

report?"

"I listened to the play-back."

"Do you recall the one respect in which white men are still permitted to

organize?"

"Why, no, I don't recall that there was one."

"None? Nowhere that they were permitted to assemble?"

"I know!" Thomas burst in. "Churches!"

Ardmore waited a moment for it to sink in, then he said very softly, "Has

it ever occurred to any of you to think of the possibilities in founding a new

religion?"

There was a short and startled silence. Calhoun broke it.

"The man's gone mad!"

"Take it easy, Colonel," Ardmore said mildly. "I don't blame you for

thinking that I've gone crazy. It does sound crazy to talk about founding a

new religion when what we want is military action against the PanAsians. But

consider-what we need is an organization that can be trained and armed to

fight. That and a communication system which will enable us to coordinate

the whole activity. And we have to do the whole thing under the eyes of the

PanAsians without arousing their suspicions. If we were a religious sect

instead of a military organization, all that would be possible."

"It's preposterous! I'll have nothing to do with it."

"Please, Colonel. We need you badly. On that matter of a

communication system now-Imagine temples in every city in the country

hooking together with a communication system and the whole thing hooked

in here at the Citadel."

Calhoun snorted. "Yes, and the Asiatics listening in to everything you

say!"

"That's why we need you, Colonel. Couldn't you devise a system that

they couldn't trap? Something like a radio, maybe, but operating in one of the

additional spectra so that their instruments could not detect it? Or couldn't

you?"

Calhoun snorted again but with a different intonation. "Why, certainly I

could. The problem is elementary."

"That's exactly why we have to have you, Colonel-to solve problems that

are elementary to a man of your genius", Ardmore felt slightly nauseated

inside: this was worse than writing advertising copy

"but which are miracles for the rest of us. That's what a religion needsmiracles! You'll be called on to produce effects that will strain even your

genius, things that the PanAsians cannot possibly understand, and will think

supernatural." Seeing Calhoun still hesitate, he added, "You can do it, can't

you?"

"Certainly, I can, my dear Major."

"Fine. How soon can you let me have a communication method which

can't be compromised or detecte d?"

"Impossible to say, but it won't take long. I still don't see the sense to

your scheme, Major, but I will turn my attention to the research you say you

require." He got up and went out, a procession of one.

"Major?" Wilkie asked for attention.

"What? Oh, yes, Wilkie."

"I can design such a communication system for you."

"I don't doubt it a damn bit, but we are going to need all the talent we

can stir up for this job. There will be plenty for you to do, too. Now as to the

rest of the scheme, here's what I have in mind just a rough idea, and I want

you all to kick it around as much as possible until we get it as nearly foolproof

as possible.

"We'll go through all the motions of setting up an evangelical religion,

and try to get people to come to our services. Once we get 'em in where we

can talk to 'em, we can pick out the ones that can be trusted and enlist them

in the army. We'll make them deacons, or something, in the church. Our big

angle will be charity-you come in on that, Wilkie with the transmutation

process. You will turn out a lot of precious metal, gold mostly, so that we will

have ready cash to work with. We feed the poor and the hungry-the

PanAsians have provided us with plenty of those! and pretty soon we'll have

'em coming to us in droves.

"But that isn't the half of it. We really will go in for miracles in a big way.

Not only to impress the white population-that's secondary but to confuse our

lords and masters. We'll do things they can't understand, make them uneasy,

uncertain of themselves. Never anything against them, you understand. We'll

be loyal subjects of the Empire in every possible way, but we'll be able to do

things that they can't. That will upset them and make them nervous."

It was taking shape in his mind like a well-thoughtout advertising

campaign. "By the time we are ready to strike in force, we should have them

demoralized, afraid of us, half hysterical."

They were beginning to be infected with some of his enthusiasm; but the

scheme was conceived from a viewpoint more or less foreign to their habits

of thought. "Maybe this will work, Chief," objected Thomas, " I don't say that it

won't, but how do you propose to get it underway? Won't the Asiatic

administrators smell a rat in the sudden appearance of a new religion?"

"Maybe so, but I don't think it likely. All Western religions look equally

screwy to them. They know we have dozens of religions and they don't know

anything about most of them. That's one respect in which the Era of

Nonintercourse will be useful to us. They don't know much about our

institutions since the Nonintercourse Act. This will just look like any one of

half a dozen cockeyed cults of the sort that spring up overnight in Southern

California."

"But about that springing-up business, Chief-How do we start out? We

can't just walk out of the Citadel, buttonhole one of the yellow boys, and say,

Ì'm John the Baptist.' "

"No, we can't. That's a point that has to be worked out. Has anybody any

ideas?"

The silence that followed was thick with intense concentration. Finally

Graham proposed, "Why not just set up in business, and wait to be noticed?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, we've got enough people right here to operate on a small scale. If

we had a temple somewhere, one of us could be the priest, and the others

could be disciples or something. Then just wait to be noticed. "

"H-m-m-m. You've got something there, Graham. But we'll open up on

the biggest scale we can manage. We'll all be priests and altar attendants

and so forth, and I'll send Thomas out to stir up a congregation for us among

his pals. No, wait. Let 'em come in as pilgrims. We'll start this off with a

whispering campaign among the hobos, send it over the grapevine. We'll

have 'em say, `The Disciple is coming!"'

"What does that mean?" Scheer inquired.

"Nothing, yet. But it will, when the time comes. Now look-Graham, you're

an artist. You're going to have to get dinner with your left hand for a few days.

Your right will be busy sketching out ideas for robes and altars and props in

general-sacerdotal stuff. Guess the interior and exterior of the temple will be

mostly up to you, too."

"Where will the temple be located?"

"Well, now, that's a question. It shouldn't be too far from here unless we

abandon the Citadel entirely. That doesn't seem expedient; we need it for a

base and a laboratory. But the temple can't be too close, for we can't afford to

attract special attention to this mountainside." Ardmore drummed on the

table. "It's a difficult matter."

"Why not," offered Dr. Brooks, "make this the temple?"

"Huh?"

"I don't mean this room, of course, but why not put the first temple right

on top of the Citadel? It would be very convenient."

"So it would, doctor, but it would certainly draw a lot of unhealthy

attention to-Wait a minute! I think I see what you mean." He turned to Wilkie.

"Bob, how could you use the Ledbetter effect to conceal the existence of the

Citadel, if the Mother Temple sat right on top of it? Could it be done?"

Wilkie looked more puzzled and collie -doggish than ever. "The Ledbetter

effect wouldn't do it. Do you especially want to use the Ledbetter effect?

Because if you don't it wouldn't be hard to rig a type-seven screen in the

magneto-gravitic spectrum so that electromagnetic type instruments would

be completely blanked out. You see-"

"Of course I don't care what you use! I don't even know the names of

the-stuff you laboratory boys use-all I want is the results. O. K.-you take care

of that. We'll completely design the temple here, get all the materials laid out

and ready to assemble down below, then break through to the surface and

run the thing up as fast as possible. Anyone have any idea how long that will

take? I'm afraid my own experience doesn't run to building construction."

Wilkie and Scheer engaged in a whispered consultation. Presently Wilkie

broke off and said, "Don't worry too much about that, Chief. It will be a power

job."

"What sort?"

"You've got a memorandum on your desk about the stuff. The traction

and pressure control we developed from the earlier Ledbetter experiments."

"Yes, Major," Scheer added, "you can forget it; I'll take care of the job.

With tractors and pressors in an aggravitic field, it won't take any longer than

assembling a cardboard model. Matter of fact, I'll practice on a cardboard

model before we run up the main job."

"O.K., troops," Ardmore smilingly agreed, with the lightheartedness that

comes from the prospect of plenty of hard work, "that's the way I like to hear

you talk. The powwow is adjourned for now. Get going! Thomas, come with

me."

"Just a second, Chief," Brooks added as he got up to follow him,

"couldn't we-" They went out the door, still talking.

Despite Scheer's optimism the task of building a temple on the mountain

top above the Citadel developed unexpected headaches. None of the little

band had had any real experience with large construction jobs. Ardmore,

Graham, and Thomas knew nothing at all of such things, although Thomas

had done plenty of work with his hands, some of it carpentry. Calhoun was a

mathematician and by temperament undisposed to trouble himself with such

menial pursuits in any case. Brooks was willing enough but he was a

biologist, not an engineer. Wilkie was a brilliant physicist and, along lines

related to his specialty, a competent engineer; he could design a piece of

new apparatus necessary to his work quite handily.

However, Wilkie had built no bridges, designed no dams, bossed no

gangs of sweating men. Nevertheless the job devolved on him by Hobson's

choice. Scheer was not competent to build a large building; he thought that

he was, but he thought in terms of small things, tools, patterns, and other

items that fitted into a machine shop. He could build a scale model of a large

building, but he simply did not understand heavy construction.

It was up to Wilkie.

He showed up in Ardmore's office a few days later with a roll of drawings

under his arm. "Uh, Chief?"

"Eh? Oh, come in, Bob. Sit down. What's eating on you? When do we

start building the temple? See here-I've been thinking about other ways to

conceal the fact that the Citadel will be under the temple. Do you suppose

you could arrange the altar so that-"

"Excuse me, Chief."

"Eh?

"We can incorporate most any dodge you want into the design, but I've

got to know something more about the design first."

"That's your problem-yours and Graham's."

"Yes, sir. But how big do you want it to be?"

"How big? Oh, I don't know, exactly. It has to be big." Ardmore made a

sweeping motion with both hands that took in floor, walls, and ceiling. "It has

to be impressive."

"How about thirty feet in the largest dimension?"

"Thirty feet? Why, that's ridiculous! You aren't building a soft-drinks

stand; you're building the mother temple of a great religion-of course you

aren't, but you've got to think of it that way. It's got to knock their eyes out.

What's the trouble? Materials?"

Wilkie shook his head. "No, with Ledbetter-type transmutation materials

are not a problem. We can use the mountain itself for materials."

"That's what I thought you intended to do. Carve out big chunks of

granite and use your tractor and pressor beams to lay them up like giant

bricks."

"Oh, no!

"No? Why not?"

"Well, we could, but when we got through it wouldn't look like much-and I

don't know how we would roof it over. What I intended to do was to use the

Ledbetter effect not just for cutting or quarrying, but to make-transmute-the

materials I want. You see, granite is principally oxides of silicon. That

complicates things a little because both elements are fairly near the lower

end of the periodic table. Unless we go to a lot of trouble and get rid of a lot

of excess energy-a tremendous amount; darn near as much as the Memphis

power pile develops-as I say, unless we arrange to bleed off all that power,

and right now I don't see just how we could do it, then-"

"Get to the point, man!"

"I was getting to the point, sir," Wilkie answered in hurt tones.