“James,” Ben waved to Riverson. The six-foot-six ex-truck driver walked over. “When we get to Greeley and settled in, pass the word for a low-alert status. These IPF people are sure to have patrols out-if they’re smart. We don’t want to be spotted.”
James nodded and called the four squad leaders together.
Lieutenant Macklin came to Ben’s side. “The International Peace Force, General? What in the world do they represent?”
“I… I’m not sure, Mary. But I think it’s one hell of a threat to whatever future this country has left it.”
Mary shivered, although the day was quite warm.
The young man was fair-skinned, blue-eyed and well-built. The blue in his eyes was of the piercing type, cold. Almost all the young ladies gathered at the long-abandoned branch of the University of Missouri at Rolla thought him handsome.
Judy Stratmann thought his smooth line just a bit too oily and well-rehearsed. He reminded her of an old movie about Southern Californian used car salesmen. Those old, old clips she’d seen of that guy named Johnny Carson.
Roy Jaydot thought that if all the members of the IPF were as smooth-talking and good-looking as this dude, the country was in trouble.
And both Judy and Roy had immediately noticed one thing: There was no blacks, Indians, Orientals, Jews or any other minority on the old campus.
Roy was a Ute Indian and Judy was half Jewish. It made them feel just a bit uncomfortable.
And the young ladies with Mike-Mikael, Roy felt would be the correct way to spell his name-they were all just as pretty as Mike was handsome.
On the second day of their roles as wandering young people, one of the young ladies with the IPF zeroed in on Roy.
“Hi,” she said, walking up to where Roy was sitting on the grass. “My name is Katrina.”
Roy looked up at her. Very pretty. About five-five, blue eyes, blond hair, fair-skinned. Very well endowed. No makeup. He wondered if she spelled her name with a C or a K? “Roy,” he said, getting to his feet.
“How do you like it so far?” Katrina asked.
Roy returned her smile. The opening was just too good to let slide by. “I don’t know,” he said, “yet.”
She looked puzzled for a moment, then the double meaning came to her. She smiled, but the smile did not quite touch her eyes. They remained as cold as the land she reportedly was from. “Yes,” she said, “I see. A joke. That’s funny.” She laughed.
Roy thought the laughter sounded very false. “I’m sorry if I offended you.”
“You didn’t,” she was quick to reply. “A society without humor would be very drab indeed. Tell me, Roy, what are you going to report to General Raines?”
Roy felt the first mild clutches of panic grab at his guts. He kept his expression bland, but his face felt hot and he knew he was flushed. He thanked the gods for his dark complexion.
“Don’t try to deny it, Roy.” She stood calm and self-assured. “You and Judy were not on the campus six hours before we discovered you both were not what you pretended to be.”
Roy decided to level with her. There was something about the young woman. He kept picking up strange vibes that suggested-he hoped-she was not really happy with her role in the IPF.
“Very well, Katrina. I will report to General Raines that you and the others in your party are here spreading communist dogma.”
She cocked her head to one side and looked at him. “Dogma. A good word. I like it. I shall retain that word for usage. Aren’t you in the least interested in how we discovered your secret?”
Roy shrugged. He wondered if he was going to have to shoot his way out of this bind. He had a 9mm submachine in his kit, and could feel the weight of the .38 pressing against the skin of his belly. He wondered where Judy was.
“I noticed the minute we arrived we didn’t exactly fit in with the crowd.”
“How?” she asked politely.
“Other than the fact I’m Indian and Judy is Jewish, I think we are too well-fed, too healthy, and that we walk with a military bearing, perhaps. Is that good enough for you?”
“Yes. That is correct. That is totally accurate. Thank you.”
She sounded like a computer. “Are you a clone, or something?” Roy asked her.
She cocked her head to the other side. Roy felt something soft touch his heart. Oh boy, he thought. Feelings of gentleness for a goddamned Russian, he berated himself. Roy, you’re coming unwrapped. But she sure was pretty.
“Clone? I do not understand that. What is a clone?”
“Your speech is perfect. Your dress is perfect. Your posture is perfect. Your hair is perfect. Are you real?”
This time the smile touched her eyes. “Would you like to touch me to see for yourself?”
Roy smiled, mischief in his eyes. If, the young man thought, I’m to be hanged anyway, I might as well make the best of a bad situation. He reached out and cupped a soft breast.
Katrina did not pull away. But her eyes darkened a bit.
“I guess you are real,” Roy said, removing his hand reluctantly.
Katrina licked her lips. “Why… what was the purpose of touching me there?”
“Because I wanted to touch you there.”
She looked confused for a moment. “In your society, does one always do what one wishes to?”
“No, of course not. What I just did was wrong. It would be considered very rude and I’d probably get slapped for doing it.”
That only seemed to confuse her more. “Why, I mean, it felt… nice.”
Now Roy was confused. “You’re, ah, you’ve never been touched, I mean, like that before?”
She shook her head. “Oh no! Any type of… sexual touching is not permitted before the committee chooses a marriage partner.”
“What? I mean, Katrina, are you supposed to be telling me all this?”
“That is correct. I am not.”
“Then why are you telling me?”
Again she shook her head. Her eyes, once so cold, now seemed troubled. “I… don’t know why. You’re … different, I think.”
Roy had been correct: The girl was not happy with her life. “How old are you, Katrina?”
“I believe I have seventeen years of age.”
She believes? Jailbait, Roy thought. But if we have no nation, then we have no laws. And if we have no laws … He shook that thought away.
“What do you mean, Katrina, that bit about a marriage partner being chosen? I never heard of such a thing.”
“How many years do you have, Roy?”
“I’m twenty-three. Don’t you want to answer my question?”
She hesitated, cut her eyes toward a group of people gathered a few hundred meters away, then took his arm. Her touch was warm to his skin. “Let’s walk around some, Roy.”
They walked the weed-filled campus, heading away from the crowd.
Katrina said, “I was chosen to confront you with the news of your discovery. Your deception. I was instructed to let you run if that was to be your choice of action.”
“The IPF would have killed me?”
“No. I do not believe so. That is not supposed to be our mission. But with Mike one never knows. There are members of the IPF surrounding this institution. They would have stopped you.”
“Judy?”
“The Jewess? She would have been taken alive. She would probably have been … would have become one of the pleasure women.”
“Beg pardon?”
“Malestfemale contact in any sexual manner is strictly forbidden in our society. To preserve the races. But
