males over the age of twenty-one are allowed to satisfy themselves with selected women who have been altered.”
Roy looked at her, not understanding any of this.
“Altered women cannot bear offspring,” she explained matter-of-factly.
“I see. I think. Let me see if I can put the rest of this … story together, Katrina. You people-your leaders- practice selective breeding among humans?”
“That… is one way of putting it, yes. We-they-are attempting to purify the races.”
“Blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin?”
“Yes. Most of us.”
Something yanked gently at Roy’s mind. Something he had read or heard or seen about some other person or group, a long time ago, who had strived for the same thing. He couldn’t bring the person or group to mind. He thought it had something to do with Europe. Long time back. Before his parents were even born.
“There are no people of color in your society?” he asked.
She looked at him as though he had asked a very stupid question. “No. That is why we chose Iceland. Theirs is practically a pure race.”
Germany! The word leaped into his consciousness. It had something to do with Germany. And some guy with a funny name. But history had never been one of Roy’s favorite subjects, and like so many others his age, his education was erratic at best.
“What will you-your people-do with the different races here in America, Katrina?”
She shrugged. “Over a period of time, we shall breed all colors out. That will take many generations, but our leaders believe it can be done. Our learned people have said so.”
Hitler. Roy found the man’s name. More flooded into the light of consciousness. The Gestapo, the SS. Concentration camps. Extermination. Gas chambers. The horror he had seen in old movies. He looked at Katrina. He just could not believe she could do such things to another human being.
But he also knew that looks could be very deceiving.
Katrina said, “Our people have taught us that people of color are inferior to us. From what I have seen-or have been allowed to see-I tend to believe it.” She seemed eager to talk and Roy wondered if he was being set up for a fall. For some reason, he didn’t believe so.
“People can’t help what color they’re born with, Katrina.”
“That is certainly true, at this time. But we can change all that, our leaders say. And when we do, the world will be a better place to live.”
“Katrina.”
“Most call me Kat. That’s with a K.”
“All right, Kat. Why are you telling me all this?”
They had come to a small wooded area, just off campus. They sat down on a bench by a broken walkway.
Kat was deep in thought and silence for a few moments. Roy did not attempt to break into her reverie.
“What do you know about Iceland, Roy?”
“Very little.”
“Icelanders are-were-great readers. They loved literature. When I was younger, I found a huge wooden box of books in the basement of the home where I lived.”
“With your parents?”
“No. I don’t even know who my parents are. I don’t know whether I was born in Russia or Iceland. I am just here. That is all many of us were told. That is the way. Parents are not important after the birthing. Children are kept in special places called communes until they are six years of age. During that time they
are taught, beginning at an early age. After intelligence is tested and determined, the child is placed in a home-setting appropriate to the intelligence of child and male and female sponsor. The environment is tightly controlled. One is trained to do one thing and that is what that person will do. That, forever.
“But I was talking about books. I never knew there were so many different books. Our reading is selected for us-we have no choice in the matter. But these books … oh my, they were wonderful. They were about everything. Life and love and mystery and adventure and romance and, oh, just about everything!
“I had never seen anything like it, and I knew because I had never seen them before that the books were forbidden. I said nothing about them, for in our society you never know who will report you to the committee for some infraction of the rules.”
“The committee?”
“Each street in all cities have committee persons living on it. One or two people. No one ever knows exactly how many. You don’t have them?”
“No!” Roy was both horrified and fascinated.
“Then how do you keep order?”
“By rules, Kat. We all know the rules and we obey them.”
“But what happens if you don’t obey the rules?”
“If you get caught you get punished.” “If “you get caught?”
“That’s right.”
“That seems a rather lax way of doing things.”
“Freedom requires some degree of looseness, Kat.”
“You are free?”
“Oh yes.”
“You can do whatever you like?”
“Within reason.”
“Who sets the reason?”
“Common sense.”
“That must be interesting. Anyway, I found about a dozen books-paperbacks-by a writer named Ben Raines.”
Roy smiled.
“Did I say something amusing?”
“No, Kat. Go on.”
She looked at him strangely. “This writer, of the same name as your general, he wrote of many things, of monsters and werewolves and fighting men-the only true heroes-and love and honor and, oh, everything! One person did all that. That is not permitted in our society.”
“I don’t understand, Kat.”
“One person is designated to write of one specific subject, be it history, philosophy, whatever. He will devote his life to that subject matter and nothing else.”
“Kat, that sounds awfully boring to me.”
She sighed. “I… feel the same way, Roy.”
“You’re not happy with your life, are you, Kat?”
“Happy is unimportant. It is the state that matters.”
“But you don’t believe that anymore, do you, Kat?”
She put her head on his shoulder and began to weep.
Roy didn’t know what to do.
CHAPTER FOUR
“They should have been back by now,” Ben said to Colonel Gray. “You told them to return in two days, right, Dan?”
“Affirmative, General. And not to take any chances. They should have been back by last night.”
“Mount up,” Ben said. “Well just leave the civilians outside the campus and just roll right in-face these people. That might be the one way to make the kids come to their senses.”
“And it might backfire, General.”
“There is that to consider, too, Dan. But I’m not going to toss Judy and Roy to the wolves without a fight. Or to the bears, as the case may be. Just to be on the safe side, Dan, when we get to the outskirts of the campus, you
