“Spies?”
“Maybe a whole network. I don’t see how they could get them through the Wall, but—maybe it’s not so hard. Antarctic’s open, as he pointed out.”
“What can we do about it, John?”
Smith stopped pacing, popped his knuckles hard, stared at them. “Assemble Congress. Security-probe. It’s the only answer. Let the ‘Rabble’s Parliament’ run their own inquisition. They were always good at purging themselves. Start a big spy-scare, and keep it in the channels. I’ll lead with a message to the rabble.” He paused, the tragedy mask gaping at them. “You won’t like this, but I’m having the Stand-ins probed too. The Presidency is not immune.”
A muttering of indignation. Some of them went white. No one protested however.
“No witch-hunt in this group, however,” he assured them. “I’ll veto anything that looks unfair for the Primaries, but—” He paused and rang the word again. “—but—there will be no leniency tolerated from here on down. If Congress thinks it’s found a spy, it can execute him on the spot—and I won’t lift a finger. This has got to be rooted out and burned.”
He began to pace again. He began barking crisp orders for specific details of the probe, or rather, for the campaign that would start the probe. The rabble were better at witch-hunts than a government was. Congress had not been assembled for fifteen years, since there had been nothing suspicious to investigate, but once it was called to duty, heads would roll—some of them literally. If some innocent people were hurt, the rabble could only blame themselves, for their own enthusiasm in ruthlessly searching out the underground enemy. Smith couldn’t worry about that. If an Asian spy-system were operating in the continent, it had to be crushed quickly.
When he had outlined the propaganda and string-pulling plans for them, he turned to the other matter—the Red leader’s boast of ability to conquer the West.
“It’s probably foolish talk, but we don’t know their present psychology. Double production on our most impressive weapons. Give the artificial-satellite program all the money it wants, and get them moving on it. I want a missile-launching site in space before the end of the year. Pay particular attention to depopulation weapons for use against industrial areas. We may have to strike in a hurry. We’ve been fools—coasting this way, feeling secure behind the Wall.”
“You’re not contemplating another peace-effort, John?” gasped an elderly Stand-in.
“I’m contemplating survival!” the leader snapped. “I don’t know that we’re in serious danger, but if it takes a peace-effort to make sure, then we’ll start one. So fast it’ll knock out their industry before they know we’ve hit them.” He stood frozen for a moment, the mask lifted proudly erect. “By Ike, I love the West! And it’s not going to suffer any creeping eruption while I’m at its head!”
When the President had finished and was ready to leave, the others started donning their masks again.
“Just a minute,” he grunted. “Number Six.”
One of the men, about the President’s size and build, looked up quickly. “Yes, John?”
“Your cloak is stained at the left shoulder. Grease?”
Six inspected it curiously, then nodded. “I was inspecting a machine shop, and—”
“Never mind. Trade cloaks with me.”
“Why, if—” Six stopped. His face lost color. “But the others—might have—”
“Precisely.”
Six unclasped it slowly and handed it to the Sixteenth Smith, accepting the President’s in return. His face was set in rigid lines, but he made no further protest.
Masked and prepared, a Stand-in whistled a tune to the door, which had changed its combination since the last time. The tumblers clicked, and they walked out into a large auditorium containing two hundred Secondary Stand-ins, all wearing the official mask.
If a Secondary ever wanted to assassinate the President, one shot would give him a single chance in ten as they filed through the door.
“Mill about!” bellowed a Sergeant-at-Arms, and the two hundred began wandering among themselves in the big room, a queer porridge, stirred clumsily but violently. The Primaries and the President lost themselves in the throng. For ten minutes the room milled and circulated.
“Unmask!” bellowed the crier.
The two hundred and ten promptly removed their helmets and placed them on the floor. The President was unmasked and unknown—unmarked except by a certain physical peculiarity that could be checked only by a physician, in case the authenticity of the presidential person was challenged, as it frequently was.
Then the Secondaries went out to lose themselves in a larger throng of Tertiaries, and the group split randomly to take the various underground highways to their homes.
The President entered his house in the suburbs of Dia City, hugged the children, and kissed his wife.
John Smith was profoundly disturbed. During the years of the Big Silence, a feeling of uneasy security had evolved. The Federation had been in isolation too long, and the East had become a mysterious unknown. The Presidency had oscillated between suspicious unease and smug confidence, depending perhaps upon the personality of the particular president more than anything else. The mysteriousness of the foe had been used politically to good advantage by every president selected to office, and the Sixteenth Smith had intended to so use it. But now he vaguely regretted it.
The tenure of office was still four years, and he could not help feeling that if he had maintained the intercontinental silence, he would not have had to worry about the spy-matter. If the hemisphere had been infiltrated, the subversive work had not begun yesterday. It had probably been going on for years, during several administrations, and the plans of the East, if any, would perhaps not come to a climax for several more years. He felt himself in the position of a man who suffered no pain as yet, but learned that he had an incurable disease. Why did he have to find out?
But now that the danger was apparent, he had to go ahead and fight it instead of allowing it to pass on to the next John Smith.
He made a stirring speech to Congress when it convened. The cowled
