H. L. Nichols

“ Nature had broken the chains with which he had thought to bind her. And if the weather control could fail, could not something go wrong, too, with all the Master's power and authority?
Heidkamp, immobile, watched the Master and seemed to guess at his thoughts. Only his eyes betrayed his exultation at the fury of the storm. Only a flicker of the lids, when he looked at the Master, shadowed forth a hatred of the man in whose war his only brother had fallen, the man who had negligently said to Heidkamp, "Well, give her to him, man! What's a brown-haired girl?" ”

“ Years and decades of slaughter and hate and retrogression, of men against men, machines against machines, machines against men, in an ever quickening tempo of destruction. The World War, the War of the Wings, the War of the Rockets, the Pacifist War, the World Revolution drowning in the sea of its own blood, and at last peace, the Peace of Fear. ”

“ The Master watched, smiling secretly as he exulted in his power over Heidkamp. It was small pleasure to have the right of life and death over the workers who toiled in the depths of the city, but here was one of the great minds of all time, whom the Master could crush out of existence like an insect. ”

“ By the time the last stubborn flame-fort had surrendered, he stood upon a dazzling pinnacle of glory such as men had only dreamed before, and he would not descend to be again a man among men. He refused to return his dread powers to the League. When they insisted, he imprisoned them, and they escaped to raise his armies and all peoples against him, shouting the war cries of freedom, so that the whole world seemed to batter against his citadel like a sea of thunder and flame. Yet he alone controlled the robots, and the robots went forth bringing darkness to the sky and fire to the earth. ”

“ Only the vibrations of hate beat in, beat past locks and screens and rays, beat through glass and steel and plastic, beat gently, tirelessly, like ripples on a rock.
Safe indeed was the Master, and powerful beyond all telling, but the Master was afraid.
On the Master's desk the visiscreen glowed softly into life, and from it his secretary spoke. "Technician Heidkamp, special director Capitol Mecho-lab 43, desires an audience in the Room of Power to demonstrate the Time Visor to your Excellency." ”

“ Heidkamp was not afraid of death or torture, and after the fate which had befallen his brother and child he had nothing more to live for. Heidkamp was driven by hate; hate of the Master. For deep in his brain there was a hidden hope that the Master, secure and omnipotent beyond the reach of mortal hands or minds in his Serene Tower, might somehow be vulnerable to contact with the free and dynamic ancient world revealed in the Time Visor. ”

“ A shining four-wheeled roadster stopped before the gravel path, and from it alighted the girl and a man, a man who was as tall and blonde and sleepy as the Master was small and dark and intense, a man with whom she laughed and talked as they went up the path and into the house. ”

“ And in this Peace cities rose again on the surface of the earth, roads found new ways across the blasted continents, great ships again safely plied the seas, the skies were burdened with commerce and everywhere the mighty deserts slowly shrank before the verdancy of nature and the genius of man. ”

“ A bell rang softly as the elevator rose into view. Technician Heidkamp, a man whose gray, lined face and desolate eyes belied his middle-age, gave the salute, then entered wheeling before him a cabinet whose glass panels revealed an intricacy of tubes and wiring in interlacing spirals. ”

“ In the laboratory Heidkamp and the Master watched intently, and as soon as she was well within the trap, Heidkamp swiftly opened the master switch and closed two others. The coruscations of light appeared deep within the cage and expanded until the room was again alive with their radiance. Through the time visor there appeared upon the screen the house and path and lawn, but the jewels and the girl had vanished, swept forward into Time. ”

“ Your Excellency, I am pleased to report that I have developed some new plastics in the beryl-nickeloid series, which can be charged with the Ronferth-Madderhern dissonances so heavily that the rays form a tangible structure in themselves, which takes the shape of the plastic, and can be forced into the next loop of time and drawn back again. A cage or cell so composed and charged can be used to entrap your desire, and transport her to us, but the apparatus is still primitive, and has proved fatal to life and destructive to material, that has been tested. ”

“ His secret police were everywhere, and were themselves watched by spies, who underwent periodic hypnotic examinations in the Master's presence, lest they should be disloyal. So perfect was the organization that nowhere could a man say a word against the Master or his Peace and be safe from his vengeance. ”

“ No spark of hatred showed in Heidkamp's eyes as he saluted. "Your Excellency has arrived within three minutes of the time when the Ronferth potential will be at maximum. You will observe on the right a visiscreen connected thru a time visor so as to show the house and its surroundings. Upon the steps sits the girl whom you desire. She is waiting for her escort. I have drawn this black circle upon the screen itself, to show where the trap will be sprung." ”