VII
The world wagged on. The newspapers knew nothing about super-secret top-level worries. There was not a single news story printed anywhere suggesting an invasion of Earth from outer space. There were a few more Flying Saucer yarns than normal, and it was beginning to transpire that an unusual number of important people were sick, or on vacation, or otherwise out of contact with the world. But, actually, not one of the events in which Coburn and Janice had been concerned reached the state of being news. Even the shooting off the Bay of Naples was explained as an emergency drill.
Quietly, a good many things happened. Cryptic orders passed around, and oxygen tanks were accumulated in military posts. Hunter and Nereid guided missiles were set up as standard equipment in a number of brand-new places. They were loaded for bear. But days went by, and nothing happened. Nothing at all. But officialdom was not at ease.
If anything—while the wide world went happily about its business—really high-level officialdom grew more unhappy day by day. Coburn and Janice flew back to Salonika. They went in a Navy plane with a fighter plane escort. They landed at the Salonika airport, and the Greek general was among those who greeted them.
He took them out to the villa he’d placed at the disposal of high authority for their use. He displayed it proudly. There was absolutely no sign that it had been touched by anybody since its original builders had finished with it two-hundred-odd years before. The American officer who had wired it, though—he looked as if he were short a week’s sleep—showed them how anywhere on the grounds or in the house they would need only to speak a code-word and they’d instantly be answered.
There were servants, and the Greek general took Coburn aside and assured him that there was one room which absolutely was not wired for sound. He named it.
So they took up a relatively normal way of life. Sometimes they decided that it would be pleasant to drive in to Salonika. They mentioned it, and went out and got in the car that went with the villa. Oddly, there was always some aircraft lazying about overhead by the time they were out of the gate. They always returned before sunset. And sometimes they swam in the water before the villa’s door. Then, also, they were careful to be back on solid ground before sunset. That was so their guards out on the water wouldn’t have to worry.
But it was a nagging and an unhappy business to know that they were watched and overheard everywhere save in that one unwired room. It could have made for tension between them. But there was another thought to hold them together. This was the knowledge that they were literally living on top of a bomb. If an Invader’s flying ship descended at the villa, everything that happened would be heard and seen by microphones and concealed television cameras. If the Invaders were too arrogant, or if they were arbitrary, there would be a test to see if their ship could exist in the heart of an atom-bomb explosion.
Coburn and Janice, then, were happy after a fashion. But nobody could call their situation restful.
They had very few visitors. The Greek general came out meticulously every day. Hallen came out once, but he knew about the atomic bomb. He didn’t stay long. When they’d been in residence a week, the General telephoned zestfully that he was going to bring out some company. His English was so mangled and obscure that Coburn wondered cynically if whoever listened to their tapped telephone could understand him. But, said the General in high good humor, he was playing a good joke. He had hunted up Helena, who was Coburn’s secretary, and he had also invited Dillon to pay a visit to some charming people he knew. It would be a great joke to see Dillon’s face.
There was a fire in the living room that night. The Greek servants had made it, and Coburn thought grimly that they were braver men and women than he’d have been. They didn’t have to risk their lives. They could have refused this particular secret-service assignment. But they hadn’t.
A voice spoke from the living-room ceiling, a clipped American voice. “Mr. Coburn, a car is coming.”
That was standard. When the General arrived; when the occasional delivery of telephoned-for supplies came; on the one occasion when a peddler on foot had entered the ground. It lacked something of being the perfect atmosphere for a honeymoon, but it was the way things were.
Presently there were headlights outside. The Greek butler went to greet the guests. Coburn and Janice heard voices. The General was in uproarious good humor. He came in babbling completely uncomprehensible English.
There was Helena. She smiled warmly at Coburn. She went at once to Janice. “How do you do?” she said in her prettily accented English. “I have missed not working for your husband, but this is my fiance!”
And Janice shook hands with a slick-haired young Greek who looked pleasant enough, but did not seem to her as remarkable as Coburn.
Then Dillon stared at Coburn.
“The devil!” he said, with every evidence of indignation. “This is the chap—”
The General roared, and Coburn said awkwardly: “I owe you an apology, and the privilege of a poke in the nose besides. But it was a situation—I was in a state—”
Then the General howled with laughter. Helena laughed. Her fiance laughed. And Dillon grinned amusedly at Coburn.
“My dear fellow!” said Dillon. “We are the guests this whole villa was set up to receive! The last time I saw you was in Naousa, and the last time Helena saw you you stuck pins in her, and—”
Coburn stiffened. He went slowly pale.
“I—see! You’re the foam-suit people, eh?” Then he looked with hot passion at the General. “You!” he said grimly. “You I didn’t suspect. You’ve made fools of all of us, I think.”
The General said something obscure which could have been a proverb. It was to the effect that nobody could tell a fat man was cross-eyed when he laughed.
“Yes,” said Dillon beaming. “He is fat. So his eyes don’t look like they’re different. You have to see past his cheeks and eyebrows. That’s how he passed muster. And he slept very soundly after the airport affair.”
Coburn felt a sort of sick horror. The General had passed as a man, and he’d loaned this villa, and he knew all about the installation of the atomic bomb…. Then Coburn looked through a doorway and there was his Greek butler standing in readiness with a submachine-gun in his hands.
“I take it this is an official call,” said Coburn steadily. “In that case you know we’re overheard—or did the General cancel that?”
“Oh, yes!” said Dillon. “We know all about the trap we’ve walked into. But we’d decided that the time had come to appear in the open anyhow. You people are very much like us, incidentally. Apparently there’s only one real way that a truly rational brain can work. And we and you Earth people both have it. May we sit down?”
Janice said: “By all means!”
Helena sat, with an absolutely human gesture of spreading her skirt beside her. The General plumped into a chair and chuckled. The slick-haired young man politely offered Janice a cigarette and lighted Helena’s for her. Dillon leaned against the mantel above the fire.
“Well?” said Coburn harshly. “You can state your terms. What do you want and what do you propose to do to get it?”
Dillon shook his head. He took a deep breath. “I want you to listen, Coburn. I know about the atom bomb planted somewhere around, and I know I’m talking for my life. You know we aren’t natives of Earth. You’ve guessed that we come from a long way off. We do. Now—we found out the trick of space travel some time ago. You’re quite welcome to it. We found it, and we started exploring. We’ve been in space, you might say, just about two of your centuries. You’re the only other civilized race we’ve found. That’s point one.”
Coburn fumbled in his pocket. He found a cigarette. Dillon held a match. Coburn started, and then accepted it.
“Go on.” He added, “There’s a television camera relaying this, by the way. Did you know?”
“Yes, I know,” said Dillon. “Now, having about two centuries the start of you, we have a few tricks you haven’t found out yet. For one thing, we understand ourselves, and you, better than you do. We’ve some technical gadgets you haven’t happened on yet. However, it’s entirely possible for you to easily kill the four of us here tonight.
