The hour of 8:30 p.m. had, several hours before, reached and passed the International Date Line. It was still 8:30 p.m. somewhere but not of June 9th, 1954. The mysterious broadcast was over.
It was dawn in Washington, D. C. The President, in his private office, was still interviewing, one after another, the long succession of experts who had been summoned—and brought by fast planes—to Washington for the purpose.
His face was haggard with weariness, his voice a trifle hoarse.
«Mr. Adams,» he said to the current visitor, «you are, I am given to understand, the top expert on electronics—particularly as applied to radio—in this country. Can you offer any conceivable physical explanation of the method used by X?»
«X?»
«I should have explained; we are now using that designation for convenience to indicate the—uh—originator of the broadcast, whether singular or plural, human, extraterrestrial, or supernatural—either diabolical or divine.»
«I see. Mr. President, it could not have been done with our knowledge of science. That is all I can say.»
«And your conclusion?»
«I have none.»
«Your guess, then.»
The visitor hesitated. «My guess, Mr. President, outrageous as it seems, is that somewhere on Earth exists a cabal of scientists of whom we do not know, who have operated in secret and carried electronics a step—or several steps—beyond what is generally known.»
«And their purpose?»
«I would say, again a guess, their purpose is to throw the world into war to enable them to take over and rule the world. Indubitably, they had other—and more deadly—devices for later use, after a war has weakened us.»
«Then you do not believe war would be advisable?»
«My God, no, Mr. President!»
«Mr. Everett,» said the President. «Your theory of a cabal of scientists corresponds with one I heard only a few minutes ago from a colleague of yours. Except for one thing. He believes that their purpose is evil—to precipitate war so they can take over. You believe, if I understand you correctly, that their purpose is benevolent.»
«Exactly, sir. For one thing, if they’re that good in electronics, they’re probably that good in other fields. They wouldn’t need to precipitate a war in order to take over. I think they are operating secretly to prevent war, to give mankind a chance to advance. But they know enough of human nature to know that men are pretty apt to do the opposite of what they are told. But that’s psychology, which is not my field. I understand you are also interviewing some psychologists?»
«Yes,» said the President, wearily.
«Then, if I understand you correctly, Mr. Corby,» said the President, «you believe that the command to fight was designed to produce the opposite effect, whoever gave it?»
«Certainly, sir. But I must admit that all of my colleagues do not agree with me. They make exceptions.»
«Will you explain the exceptions?»
«The major one is the possibility that the broadcast was of extraterrestrial origin. An extraterrestrial might or might not know enough of human psychology to realize that the command in question is likely—if not certain—to have the opposite effect. A lesser possibility is that—if a group of Earth scientists, operating secretly, produced the broadcasts, they might have concentrated on the physical sciences as against the mental, and be ignorant of psychology to the extent that—well, they would defeat their purpose.»
«Their purpose being to start war?»
«Not my opinion, Mr. President. Only a consideration. I think they are trying to prevent war.»
«In which case the command was psychologically sound?»
«Yes. And that is not opinion solely. Mr. President, people have been awake all night organizing peace societies, not only here, but all over the world.»
«All over?»
«Well—we don’t know, of course, what is going on behind the Iron Curtain. And circumstances are different there. But in my opinion, a movement for peace will have arisen there, too, although it may not have been able to organize, as elsewhere.»
«Suppose, Mr. Corby, your idea of a group of benevolent scientists—or ones who think they are benevolent scientists—are back of it. What then?»
«What then? We’d damn well better not start a war—or anybody else either. If they’re that good in electronics, they’ve got other stuff. They’ll like as not utterly destroy whatever country makes an aggressive move first!»
«And if their purpose is malevolent?»
«Are you joking, Mr. President? We’d be playing right into their hands to start a war. We wouldn’t last ten days.»
«Mr. Lykov, you are recommended to me as the top expert on the psychology of the Russian people under Communism. What is your opinion as to how they will react to what happened last night?»
«They’re going to think it’s a Capitalist plot. They’re going to think we did it.»
«What purpose could they conceivably think we had?»
«To trap them into starting a war. Of course they intended to start one anyway—it’s just been a question of which of us started it first, now that, since their development of atomics, they’ve had time to stock-pile—but they probably think right now that for some reason we want them to make the first move. So they won’t; at least not until they’ve waited a while.»
«General Wilkinson,» said the President, «I know it is early for you to have received many reports as yet from our espionage agents in Europe and Asia, but the few that you have received—indicate what?»
«That they’re doing just what we’re doing, sir. Sitting tight and wondering. There have been no troop movements, either toward borders or away from them.»
«Thank you, General.»
«Dr. Burke,» said the President, «I have been informed that the Council of United Churches has been in session all night. From the fact that you look as tired as I feel, I judge that is correct.»
The most famous minister in the United States nodded, smiling faintly.
«And is it your opinion—I mean the opinion of your council—that last night’s occurrence was of supernatural origin?»
«Almost unanimously, Mr. President.»
«Then let’s ignore the minority opinion of your group and concentrate on what you almost unanimously believe. Is it that the—we may as well call it miracle, since we are discussing it on the assumption that it was of supernatural origin—was of divine or diabolical origin? More simply, was it God or the devil?»
«There, Mr. President, we have an almost even split of opinion. Approximately half of us believe that Satan accomplished it somehow. The other half that God did. Shall I outline briefly the arguments of either faction?»
«Please.»
«The Satan group. The fact that the command was an evil one. Against the argument that God is sufficiently more powerful than Satan to have prevented the manifestation, the Satan group countered quite legitimately that God—in his infinite wisdom—may have permitted it, knowing the effect is likely to be the reverse of what Satan intended.»
«I see, Dr. Burke.»
«And the opposing group. The fact that, because of the perversity of human nature, the ultimate effect of the command is going to be good rather than stupid. Against the Satan group’s argument that God could not issue an evil command, even for a laudable purpose, the counter-argument is that man cannot understand God sufficiently to place any limitation whatever upon what He can or cannot, would or would not, do.»
The President nodded. «And does either group advocate obeying the command?»