Penn laughed. "Tolby means the League. That was two hundred years ago."
The youth grinned nervously. "Yeah. Tell us about the marches."
Tolby drained his mug and pushed it away. "I'm out of beer."
The mug was quickly refilled. He grunted his thanks and continued, voice deep and furry, dulled with fatigue. "The marches. That was really something, they say. All over the world, people getting up, throwing down what they were doing --"
"It started in East Germany," the hard-jawed blonde said. "The riots."
"Then it spread to Poland," the Negro put in shyly. "My grandfather used to tell me how everybody sat and listened to the television. His grandfather used to tell him. It spread to Czechoslovakia and then Austria and Roumania and Bulgaria. Then France. And Italy."
"France was first!" the little old man with beard and glasses cried violently. "They were without a government a whole month. The people saw they could live without a government!"
"The marches started it," the black-haired girl corrected. "That was the first time they started pulling down the government buildings. In East Germany and Poland. Big mobs of unorganized workers."
"Russia and America were the last," Tolby said. "When the march on Washington came there was close to twenty million of us. We were big in those days! They couldn't stop us when we finally moved."
"They shot a lot," the hard-faced blonde said.
"Sure. But the people kept coming. And yelling to the soldiers. 'Hey, Bill! Don't shoot!' 'Hey, Jack! It's me, Joe.' 'Don't shoot -- we're your friends!' 'Don't kill us, join us!' And by God, after a while they did. They couldn't keep shooting their own people. They finally threw down their guns and got out of the way."
"And then you found the place," the little black-haired girl said breathlessly.
"Yeah. We found the place. Six places. Three in America. One in Britain. Two in Russia. It took us ten years to find the last place -- and make sure it was the last place."
"What then?" the youth asked, bug-eyed.
"Then we busted every one of them." Tolby raised himself up, a massive man, beer mug clutched, heavy face flushed dark red. "Every damn A-bomb in the whole world."
There was an uneasy silence.
"Yeah," the youth murmured. "You sure took care of those war people."
"Won't be any more of them," the great tub of a man said. "They're gone for good."
Tolby fingered his ironite staff. "Maybe so. And maybe not. There just might be a few of them left."
"What do you mean?" the tub of a man demanded.
Tolby raised his hard gray eyes. "It's time you people stopped kidding us. You know damn well what I mean. We've heard rumors. Someplace around this area there's a bunch of them. Hiding out."
Shocked disbelief, then anger hummed to a roar. "That's a lie!" the tub of a man shouted.
"Is it?"
The little man with beard and glasses leaped up. "There's nobody here has anything to do with governments! We're all good people!"
"You better watch your step," one of the youths said softly to Tolby. "People around here don't like to be accused."
Tolby got unsteadily to his feet, his ironite staff gripped. Penn got up beside him and they stood together. "If any of you knows something," Tolby said, "you better tell it. Right now."
"Nobody knows anything," the hard-faced blonde said. "You're talking to honest folks."
"That's so," the Negro said, nodding his head. "Nobody here's doing anything wrong."
"You saved our lives," the black-haired girl said. "If you hadn't pulled down the governments we'd all be dead in the war. Why should we hold back something?"
"That's true," the great tub of a man grumbled. "We wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for the League. You think we'd do anything against the League?"
"Come on," Silvia said to her father. "Let's go." She got to her feet and tossed Penn his pack.
Tolby grunted belligerently. Finally he took his own pack and hoisted it to his shoulder. The room was deathly silent. Everyone stood frozen, as the three gathered their things and moved toward the door.
The little dark-haired girl stopped them. "The next town is thirty miles from here," she said.
"The road's blocked," her tall companion explained. "Slides closed it years ago."
"Why don't you stay with us tonight? There's plenty of room at our place. You can rest up and get an early start tomorrow."
"We don't want to impose," Silvia murmured.
Tolby and Penn glanced at each other, then at the girl. "If you're sure you have plenty of room --"
The great tub of a man approached them. "Listen. I have ten yellow slips. I want to give them to the League. I sold my farm last year. I don't need any more slips; I'm living with my brother and his family." He pushed the slips at Tolby. "Here."
Tolby pushed them back. "Keep them."
"This way," the tall young man said, as they clattered down the sagging steps, into a sudden blinding curtain of heat and dust. "We have a car. Over this way. An old gasoline car. My dad fixed it so it burns oil."
"You should have taken the slips," Penn said to Tolby, as they got into the ancient, battered car. Flies buzzed around them. They could hardly breathe; the car was a furnace. Silvia fanned herself with a rolled-up paper. The black-haired girl unbuttoned her blouse.
"What do we need money for?" Tolby laughed good-naturedly. "I haven't paid for anything in my life. Neither have you."
The car sputtered and moved slowly forward, onto the road. It began to gain speed. Its motor banged and roared. Soon it was moving surprisingly fast.
"You saw them," Silvia said, over the racket. "They'd give us anything they had. We saved their lives." She waved at the fields, the farmers and their crude teams, the withered crops, the sagging old farmhouses. "They'd all be dead, if it hadn't been for the League." She smashed a fly peevishly. "They depend on us."
The black-haired girl turned toward them, as the car rushed along the decaying road. Sweat streaked her tanned skin. Her half-covered breasts trembled with the motion of the car. "I'm Laura Davis. Pete and I have an old farmhouse his dad gave us when we got married."
"You can have the whole downstairs," Pete said.
"There's no electricity, but we've got a big fireplace. It gets cold at night. It's hot in the day, but when the sun sets it gets terribly cold."
"We'll be all right," Penn murmured. The vibration of the car made him a little sick.
"Yes," the girl said, her black eyes flashing. Her crimson lips twisted. She leaned toward Penn intently, her small face strangely alight. "Yes, we'll take good care of you."
At that moment the car left the road.
Silvia shrieked. Tolby threw himself down, head between his knees, doubled up in a ball. A sudden curtain of green burst around Penn. Then a sickening emptiness, as the car plunged down. It struck with a roaring crash that blotted out everything. A single titanic cataclysm of fury that picked Penn up and flung his remains in every direction.
"Put me down," Bors ordered. "On this railing for a moment before I go inside."
The crew lowered him onto the concrete surface and fastened magnetic grapples into place. Men and women hurried up the wide steps, in and out of the massive building that was Bors' main offices.
The sight from these steps pleased him. He liked to stop here and look around at his world. At the civilization he had carefully constructed. Each piece added painstakingly, scrupulously with infinite care, throughout the years.
It wasn't big. The mountains ringed it on all sides. The valley was a level bowl, surrounded by dark violet hills. Outside, beyond the hills, the regular world began. Parched fields. Blasted, poverty-stricken towns. Decayed roads. The remains of houses, tumbled-down farm buildings. Ruined cars and machinery. Dust-covered people creeping listlessly around in hand-made clothing, dull rags and tatters.