“Sit down, Amro.”
The Chief paced back and forth. “You are an intelligent man, Amro. What do you suspect is going to happen to you?”
“I’ll be relieved of the present operation and subjected to the mental adjustment test. Then I’ll be killed.”
“You seem pretty certain of the results of the test, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you wonder why I’m wasting my time with a condemned agent.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Chief sat down. “This woman — this Faven. Our records indicate that she was effective and reliable.”
“I believe she was.”
“You spoiled her quite thoroughly, Amro.”
“I was angry with her. She was not willing to accept me as the appointed leader of the three of us.”
“And of course she meant harm to the Earthgirl.”
“That was the important thing in my mind at the time.”
“Thank you for your honesty, Amro.”
“There hardly seems to be much point in being dishonest. I... I’ve known, somehow, that this would happen.”
“When did you start to know?”
“After I had many talks with the Earthgirl. Their way of thought is not like ours. At first I was interested because there seemed to be so little point in it. I tried to find out why they are the way they are, thinking that if I could find the reason it would be of help to us in keeping the population quiet later.
“Their histories show that the males are willing to die for principle even on the side of an obviously lost cause. Since this is new to us I wanted to get more information on what makes them that way.”
“And you found out?”
Amro looked steadily at the Chief. “I found out that in my own mind I am as important as you — or as unimportant. You will order my life taken but you have no real right to do so. And if I found that I could kill you this moment I wouldn’t attempt to. I learned that very recently. But if I were certain by killing you I could gain something for this idea of individual equality you would be drawing your last breath.”
“Indeed,” the Chief said softly. “I confess that these strange ideas of yours are quite new to me — quite new. And suppose we decide that the individual is important. What then? It seems to be an empty concept.”
“If we decided, yes. But if we decided and the League decided to follow that philosophy would not the importance of the individuals on any planet — the little people we have ignored — be such that neither the League nor the Center would bring to bear any weapons which would destroy the planet or any major part of it?”
“Continue.”
“And if that fact were recognized by both sides wouldn’t we soon see the foolishness of continuing on the basis of assassination, since the only purpose in that has been to gain such an edge that it would be safe to bring major weapons to bear?”
“And the last step?”
“If violence can no longer be used, then we can only proceed by non-violent means. By discussion, debate, compromise. And that means that you and I, equally important or unimportant people, can walk on the streets of any city.
“I haven’t walked on city streets since I was a child. I haven’t been entirely unafraid since I was a child, not until I went to the twin world. You might go there, sir. You might find it curiously interesting to walk among the others.”
“But,” the Chief asked softly, “haven’t we gone too far along a particular path to attempt to change now?”
“Yes, sir. But maybe some time it will be different.”
“But you won’t see it.”
“I know that. And I would die to bring that day closer, even knowing that I will never see it.”
The Chief made an abrupt change in the conversation. “They have wars there, I believe.”
“They do. But in more than half the nation there are men who hold this belief about the rights of the individual and who want all problems settled without the use of force.”
“And what will happen to this twin world, Amro?”
“They’ll put up a hopeless fight. In the end it will be ours.”
“I am giving Lofta orders to have you held. You will speak to no one.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jake Ingram explained who he was.
He said, “I heard you people were here on some kind of a special case and I don’t have enough to go on to call you in but just something funny I want to talk over.”
The two F.B.I. men were young and dark haired, with curiously expressionless faces and the general appearance of bank tellers.
“Sit down,” the taller one said.
“I’ll take it right from the beginning,” Jake said, sitting down and pulling out his notebook. “This girl from New York named Martha Kaynan came in and reported...” His voice droned on and on in the small office. “...and then, without knowing how I got there, I was in my car and on the outskirts of Port Isabel.”
“Sun pretty hot?” the taller one said.
Jake gave him a shamefaced smile. “Thought the same thing myself. But it bothered me. I know the roads in that section pretty well. So after I thought it over for a time I stopped in the office and picked up some good eight-power binoculars.
“I took a farm road and left the car and walked across through the scrub and wormed up as close as I could to see what I could see. I’d say I was about a hundred and fifty yards southwest of the house. With the glasses that made ’em look about fifty feet away and I could see good.
“They ate outside. There was some kind of an argument going on. The Kaynan girl went into the house. The tall one, French, left the table and walked out on the sea side of the house, just like he was going someplace special. He walked along and I held the glasses on him. A big dark oblong sprang up right in front of him.
“And this French, he walked right through it and he was gone. I took a quick look without the glasses to make sure he hadn’t walked out of the field of vision but he hadn’t. That beach was just as empty as the top of this table. I know what you’re thinking but you’re wrong. I saw it.”
“And then what did you do, Ingram?”
“It didn’t make me feel too good but I kept watching. Pretty soon Mr. Raymond went swimming and his wife went in the house with the Kaynan girl. I watched him wade out and dive in. And he didn’t come up. He didn’t come up at all. I waited and I’d say it was five minutes later he came up about two hundred yards out.”
“Was the sun in your eyes?”
“It was behind me. I could see good. He played around out there and then he headed for shore. A man just can’t swim as fast as that fella did. The spray flew up ten feet in the air. He came out of that water at a dead run, and I mean he was moving.
“Now you people can take it or leave it, I’ve given you the dope. It’s off my chest. Something very damn funny is going on out there and to tell you the truth I just don’t want another damn thing to do with it.”
“Why did you come to us?”
“I just don’t think those people there are human. If they aren’t human, then they come from some other place. Hell or Mars or the Moon. And if they do, that’s your problem, boys. Not mine.”
“Are you making this report officially?”
“Any way you want me to make it.”
The tall one said, “So far there’s no violation of any federal statute. We’re winding up a case here. I’ll request permission to go take a look. Ingram, I’ve heard weird ones but your yarn — if you weren’t a police officer I’d have the little men with the nets out looking for you.”
“Wouldn’t blame you a bit,” Jake said. “If you can take time off right now, I could drive you out there. Take about an hour from here, and then you’d know how to get to where you can watch them.”
The taller one reached for his hat and said, “Let’s go.”