She leaned against him and put her head against his shoulder and looked up at the sky.
"It's coming clearer," she said. "It's not so strange now. And it seemed right. Queer as it may be, it seems right. This other world and the things we have, those strange abilities and all and the strange remembering."
He put his arm around her and she turned her head and kissed him, a quick, impulsive kiss.
"We'll be happy," she said. "The two of us in this new world."
"We'll be happy," Vickers said.
And now, he knew, he could never tell her. She might know soon enough, but he could never be the one to tell her.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
A GIRL'S voice answered the telephone and Vickers asked for Crawford.
"Mr. Crawford is in conference," said the girl.
"Tell him this is Vickers."
"Mr. Crawford cannot be…. Did you say Vickers? Jay Vickers?"
"That's right. I have news for him."
"Just a minute, Mr. Vickers."
He waited, wondering how long he might have, for the analyzer in the phone booth must have sounded the alarm. Even now members of the exterminator squad must be on their way.
Crawford's voice said: "Hello, Vickers."
"Call off your dogs," said Vickers. "They're wasting their time and yours."
He heard the rage in Crawford's voice. "I thought I told you —»
"Take it easy," Vickers said. "You haven't got a chance of potting me. Your men couldn't do it when they had me cornered. So if you can't kill me, you better dicker with me."
"Dicker?"
"That's what I said."
"Listen, Vickers, I'm not —»
"Of course you will," said Vickers. "That other world business is really rolling now. The Pretentionists are pushing it and it's gathering steam and you're getting hurt. It's time you talked sense."
"I'm tied up with my directors," Crawford said.
"That's fine. They're the ones I really want to talk to."
"Vickers, go away," said Crawford. "You'll never get away with it. No matter what you're planning, you'll never get away with it. You'll never leave here alive. No matter what I do, I can't save you if you keep up this foolishness."
"I'm coming up."
"I like you, Vickers. I don't know why. I have no reason to…"
"I'm coming up."
"All right," said Crawford, wearily. "The blood is on your head."
Vickers picked up the film case and stepped out of the booth. An elevator car was waiting and he walked swiftly toward it, shoulders hunched a little, as if against the anticipated bullet in the back.
"Third floor." he said.
The elevator operator didn't bat an eye. The analyzer by now must have given its signal, but more than likely the operator had his instructions concerning third floor passengers.
Vickers opened the door to North American Research and Crawford was waiting for him in the reception room.
"Come on," said Crawford.
He turned and marched ahead and Vickers followed him down the long hall. He looked at his watch and did fast mental arithmetic. It was going better than he thought. He still had a margin of two or three minutes. It hadn't taken as long to convince Crawford as he had thought it might.
Ann would be calling in ten minutes. What happened in the next ten minutes would decide success or failure.
Crawford stopped in front of the door at the end of the hall.
"You know what you are doing, Vickers?"
Vickers nodded.
"Because," said Crawford, "one slip and…." He made a hissing sound between his teeth and sliced a finger across his throat.
"I understand," said Vickers.
"Those men in there are the desperate ones. There still is time to leave. I won't tell them you were here."
"Cut out the stalling, Crawford."
"What have you got there?"
"Some documentary film. It will help explain what I have to say. You've got a projector in there?"
Crawford nodded. "But no operator."
"I'll run the machine myself," said Vickers.
"A deal?"
"A solution."
"All right, then. Come in."
The shades were drawn and the room was twilit and the long table at which the men sat seemed to be no more than a row of white faces turned toward them.
Vickers followed Crawford across the room, feet sinking into the heavy carpeting. He looked at the men around the table and saw that many of them were public figures.
There, at Crawford's right hand, was a banker and beyond him a man who time and again had been called to the White House to be entrusted with semi-diplomatic missions. And there were others also that he recognized, although there were many that he didn't, and there were a few of them who wore the strange dress of other lands.
Here, then, was the directorate of North American Research, those men who guided the destiny of the embattled normals against the mutant menace — Crawford's desperate men.
"A strange thing has happened, gentlemen," said Crawford. "A most unusual thing. We have a mutant with us."
In the silence the white faces flicked around at Vickers, then turned back again, and Crawford went on talking.
"Mr. Vickers," Crawford went on, "is an acquaintance of some standing. You will recall that we have talked of him before. At one time we hoped he might be able to help us reconcile the differences between the two branches of the race.
"He comes to us willingly and of his own accord and indicated to me he may have a possible solution. He has not told me what that solution might be. I brought him directly here. It's up to you, of course, whether you want to hear what he has to say."
"Why, certainly," said one of them. "Let the man talk."
And another said: "Most happy to."
The others nodded their agreement.
Crawford said to Vickers: "The floor is yours."
Vickers walked to the table's head and he was thinking: So far, so good. Now if only the rest works out. If I don't make a slip. If I can carry it off. Because it was win or lose, there was no middle ground, no backing out.
E set the film case on the table, smiled, and said: "No infernal weapon, gentlemen. It's a film that, with your permission, I'll show you in just a little while."
They did not laugh. They simply sat and looked at him and there was nothing that you could read in their faces, but he felt the coldness of their hatred.
"You're about to start a war," he said. "You're meeting here to decide if you should reach out ad turn the tap…"
The white faces seemed to be leaning forward, all of them straining toward him.
One of them said: "You're either a brave man, Vickers, or an utter fool."
"I've come here," said Vickers, "to end the war before it starts."
He reached into his pocket and his hand came out in a flicking motion and tossed the thing it held onto the table.
"That's a top," he said. "A thing that kids play with — or used to play with, at any rate. I want to talk to you for a minute about a top."
"A top?" said someone. "What is this foolishness?"
But the banker at his right hand said reminiscently: "I had a top like that when I was a boy. They don't make them any more. I haven't seen one of them in years."
He reached out a hand and picked up the top and spun it on the table. The others craned their necks to look at it.
Vickers glanced at his watch. Still on schedule. Now if nothing spoiled it.