followers, a long arduous training in cruelty and torture and violence and death, and after it, glorious life. Freedon. As rulers of the New World State . The appointed conquerors.'
'Absurd nonsense,' said Mr Lazenby. 'Once all this is put a stop to, the whole thing will collapse. This is all quite ridiculous. What can they do?' Cedric Lazenby sounded merely querulous.
Herr Spiess shook his heavy, wise head.
'You may ask. I tell you the answer, which is — they do not know. They don't know where they're going. They don't know what is going to be done with them.'
'You mean they're not the real leaders?'
'They are the young marching heroes, treading their path to glory, on steppingstones of violence, of pain, of hatred. They have now their following not only in South America and Europe . The cult has travelled north. In the United States , there too the young men riot, they march, they follow the banner of the Young Siegfried. They are taught his ways, they are taught to kill, to enjoy pain, they are taught the rules of the Death's Head, the rules of Himmler. They are being trained, you see. They are being secretly indoctrinated. They do not know what they're being trained for. But we do, some of us at least. And you? In this country?'
'Four or five of us, perhaps,' said Colonel Pikeaway.
'In Russia they know, in America they have begun to know. They know that there are the followers of the Young Hero, Siegfried, based on the Norse legends, and that a young Siegfried is the leader. That that is their new religion. The religion of the glorious boy, the golden triumph of youth. In him the old Nordic gods have risen again.'
'But that, of course,' said Herr Spiess, dropping his voice to a commonplace tone, 'that, of course, is not the simple prosaic truth. There are some powerful personalities behind this. Evil men with first-class brains. A first- class financier, a great industrialist, someone who controls mines, oil, stores of uranium, who owns scientists of the top class, and those are the ones, a committee of men, who themselves do not look particularly interesting or extraordinary, but nevertheless have got control. They control the sources of power, and control through certain means of their own the young men who kill and the young men who are slaves. By control of drugs they acquire slaves. Slaves in every country who little by little progress from soft drugs to hard drugs and who are then completely subservient, completely dependent on men whom they do not even know but who secretly own them body and soul. Their craving need for a particular drug makes them slaves, and in due course, these slaves prove to be no good, because of their dependence on drugs, they will only be capable of sitting in apathy dreaming sweet dreams, and so they will be left to die, or even helped to die. They will not inherit that kingdom in which they believe. Strange religions are being deliberately introduced to them. The gods of the old days disguised.'
'And permissive sex also plays its part, I suppose?'
'Sex can destroy itself. In old Roman times the men who steeped themselves in vice, who were oversexed, who ran sex to death until they were bored and weary of sex, sometimes fled from it and went out into the desert and became Anchorites like St Simeon Stylites. Sex will exhaust itself. It does its work for the time being, but it cannot rule you as drugs rule you. Drugs and sadism and the love of power and hatred. A desire for pain for its own sake. The pleasures of inflicting it. They are teaching themselves the pleasures of evil. Once the pleasures of evil get a hold on you, you cannot draw back.'
'My dear Chancellor — I really can't believe you — I mean, well — I mean if there are these tendencies, they must be put down by adopting strong measures. I mean, really, one — one can't go on pandering to this sort of thing. One must take a firm stand — a firm stand.'
'Shut up, George.' Mr Lazenby pulled out his pipe, looked at it, put it back in his pocket again. 'The best plan, I think,' he said, his idée fixe reasserting itself, 'would be for me to fly to Russia . I understand that — well, that these facts are known to the Russians.'
'They know sufficient,' said Herr Spiess. 'How much they will admit they know –' he shrugged his shoulders — 'that is difficult to say. It is never easy to get the Russians to come out in the open. They have their own troubles on the Chinese border. They believe perhaps less in the far advanced stage, into which the movement has got, than we do.'
'I should make mine a special mission, I should.'
'I should stay here if I were you, Cedric.'
Lord Altamount's quiet voice spoke from where he leaned rather wearily back in his chair. 'We need you here, Cedric,' he said. There was gentle authority in his voice. 'You are the head of our Government — you must remain here. We have trained agents — our own emissaries who are qualified for foreign missions.'
'Agents?' Sir George Packham dubiously demanded. 'What can agents do at this stage? We must have a report from — Ah, Horsham, there you are — I did not notice you before. Tell us — what agents have we got? And what can they possibly do?'
'We've got some very good agents,' said Henry Horsham quietly. 'Agents bring you information. Herr Spiess also has brought you information. Information which his agents have obtained for him. The trouble is — always has been — (you've only got to read about the last war) nobody wishes to believe the news the agents bring.'
'Surely — Intelligence –'
'Nobody wants to accept that the agents are intelligent, but they are, you know. They are highly trained and their reports, nine times out of ten, are true. What happens then? The High-Ups refuse to believe it, don't want to believe it, go further and refuse to act upon it in any way.'
'Really, my dear Horsham — I can't –'
Horsham turned to the German.
'Even in your country, sir, didn't that happen? True reports were brought in, but they weren't always acted upon. People don't want to know — if truth is unpalatable.'
'I have to agree — that can and does happen — not often, of that I assure you — But yes — sometimes –'
Mr Lazenby was fidgeting again with his pipe.
'Let us not argue about information. It is a question of dealing — of acting upon the information we have got. This is not merely a national crisis — it is an international crisis. Decisions must be taken at top level — we must act. Munro, the police must be reinforced by the Army — military measures must be set in motion. Herr Spiess, you have always been a great military nation — rebellions must be put down by armed forces before they get out of hand. You would agree with that policy, I am sure –'
'The policy, yes. But these insurrections are already what you term 'out of hand'. They have tools, rifles, machine-guns, explosives, grenades, bombs, chemical and other gases –'
'But with our nuclear weapons — a mere threat of nuclear warfare — and –'
'These are not just disaffected schoolboys. With this Army of Youth there are scientists — young biologists, chemists, physicists. To start — or to engage in nuclear warfare in Europe –' Herr Spiess shook his head. 'Already we have had an attempt to poison the water supply at Cologne — Typhoid.'
'The whole position is incredible –' Cedric Lazenby looked round him hopefully — 'Chetwynd — Munro — Blunt?'
Admiral Blunt was, somewhat to Lazenby's surprise, the only one to respond.
'I don't know where the Admiralty comes in — not quite our pigeon. I'd advise you, Cedric, if you want to do the best thing for yourself, to take your pipe and a big supply of tobacco, and get as far out of range of any nuclear warfare you are thinking of starting as you can. Go and camp in the Antarctic, or somewhere where radio-activity will take a long time catching up with you. Professor Eckstein warned us, you know, and he knows what he's talking about.'
Chapter 18
PIKEAWAY'S POSTSCRIPT
The meeting broke up at this point. It split into a definite rearrangement.
The German Chancellor with the Prime Minister, Sir George Packham, Gordon Chetwynd and Dr Reichardt departed for lunch at Downing Street .
Admiral Blunt, Colonel Munro, Colonel Pikeaway and Henry Horsham remained to make their comments with
