Frank M. Robinson

“ Stan objected.
"And the others are so much different?" Mr. Ainsworth sneered. "Nobody cared about you, Stan—not even your own family. No human being cares for anybody else but himself! There's a war every generation where they slaughter each other by the millions. And sickness. Have they ever made any really concerted drive against it? Have they ever really tried to stamp out poverty?"
His lip curled. "They're apes! Nothing but apes!"
"You talk like you're not human!" Stan said, and then realized that he had made a mistake. ”

“ They were capable looking men but not the grim, hard-eyed professionals that Stan was used to working with.
The woman walked over to Stan and slapped his face—hard—her nails digging bloody furrows in his skin.
"How does it feel to be a traitor? How does it feel to sell out your native planet for nothing at all?"
He didn't know what she was talking about and his face showed it.
"It was a clever scheme," she continued bitterly. "To win a planet, you first cut off its head—you eliminate the scientists!" She leveled her hand weapon at him. ”

“ Stan relaxed his grip and let his arms hang limply at his side.
"Avis is an Aurelian," Tanner went on. "Her system and ours have fought many bloody battles for this planet. We're still fighting them—down here, now." He paused. "You haven't been told everything—operators are fed knowledge bit by bit, when they can fit it in. As a Thuscan agent, Martin, you're told just as much as the high command thinks necessary!"
His voice softened, became more persuasive. "We kill but not blindly, Stan. This is an important war—it's a war for an entire planet. We have to be brutal but the stakes are high. ”

“ Tanner said shortly. "Mr. Ainsworth wouldn't like it. Neither would I."
Stan hardly heard him. It didn't mean anything to him one way or the other, he kept telling himself. They were apes.
Just apes.
"What will the apes say when this is over and they discover the shattered houses and the bodies?"
Tanner picked off another running figure.
"There'll be no bodies. The wind disperses the ashes as soon as the field is let up. As for the rest—the apes are ingenious in thinking up explanations. They never believe in anything they haven't seen themselves." ”

“ Stan swung around and grabbed Tanner by the lapels, crossing his hands so the cloth was drawn tight around Tanner's throat and his knuckles dug into the flesh.
"I haven't been getting the answers," he said in a thin voice. "The girl's no ape—she knows too much, her weapons are too far advanced, her men are too well organized!" His voice started to shake with nervous reaction. "I'm supposed to be running the operation down here and I don't even know what's going on!"
"The answers should have occurred to you," Tanner said, his face a mask. "We're not the only ones who want this planet, Martin!" ”

“ The world slipped into a haze of red and his hand darted for the pocket where he kept his heat gun—to pause, uncertainly, when he remembered it lay on the concrete fifteen feet away.
"I'm no ape!"
She laughed. "They've made you into a Pavlovian dog that drools whenever they ring a bell—and you don't even realize what they've done to you! They pull the strings and their marionette jerks and dances and does their dirty work for them!"
Stan stared at her coldly. "What are you going to do?" ”

“ Her voice was husky.
"I've manned the barricades on a thousand different planets, Martin! I've fought the Thuscans for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I've succeeded, more often I've failed. And when I've failed, I've had to run away." Her voice changed to steel. "But I'm not running anymore. If I lose, I'm staying here."
"You picked the wrong person to give a speech to," Stan said coldly. He started for the door and then stopped. "You said I was an Aurelian, a human being. ”

“ This Earth—it's not the home of the human race, Martin. It's a colony planet—colonized thousands of years ago, like a hundred other systems. For the last fifty thousand years, Aurelia has expanded throughout the galaxy. We don't keep contact with all the planets we've colonized—we can't. Our mission was to sow the human race far and wide and let them develope as they would. ”

“ Then there was a rush of figures across the street and Stan caught his breath. In the lead was Avis, black hair streaming, urging the others on....
Tanner suddenly ran to the back of the room and pushed the bureau and the bed over by the front wall. He stripped the closet and piled the clothes by the furniture.
There was a lull in the spanging and a quiet sobbing suddenly filled the room. Stan turned.
Reynolds had collapsed in a corner, half out of his mind with fear. Tears straggled down the big man's face and sobbing convulsed his chest. ”

“ Stan asked grimly. "You'll be continually retreating but the odds will never get any better. As your ring of defenses collapses and allows you to concentrate more and more, the area the Thuscans have to concentrate on will be steadily getting smaller. You have to make a stand for it—why not here?"
"It wouldn't work. We would lose. And we're far too large a part of our total fleet to take the risk."
They wanted to give up because it looked bad on paper, Stan thought. They didn't want to see blood spilled, they didn't want to get their fingers dirty.
"Where's the Thuscan fleet?" ”

“ They were useless, Stan thought bitterly. They could have no more effect on the tidal waves of humanity leaving its cities than Xerxes had on the ocean, when he had ordered it to be whipped. Humanity was leaving its huddling places and there was nothing that could stop them.
An hour later and he made two miles through the packed outskirts of the city. The crowd was thinning now and he thought he could make out the wooded sections of the park, not more than three or four blocks ahead. ”

“ He had dreamt that he was an ape.
He got up and went to the bathroom for a glass of water. He didn't go back to sleep.
The nightmare the next night was different. Once again he saw two small French boys playing in the street. One moment, thin, bandy-legged kids in short pants and berets ... the next, two blazing torches that crumpled silently to the asphalt.
And then there was the hideous, horribly shrill screaming of Reynolds when Tanner had played the heat gun over him. The terrible screaming that Stan knew would haunt him for years.... ”

“ A day later the Thuscan fleet would settle from the skies to begin the mopping up operation, the operation that would change the face of a green, water world to a world that would be another colony planet for Thusca.
A world in which the human race would play no part. ”

“ Stan leveled his heat gun. She didn't move a muscle but patiently waited for him to press the stud.
Don't talk to her, Tanner had said. Kill her on sight. But he hadn't come to kill her. Not yet. Not before he found out some information.
He lowered his arm.
"Don't tell me you've finally gotten sick of killing people," she said quietly.
"No doubt it runs into hundreds," Stan said sarcastically. "I suppose any day now the apes will be getting suspicious."
She shook her head, bitterly. "Not—they won't. It happens all the time. ”

“ He didn't argue. He straightened out and dove for Langerman's legs. There was a sharp report and a splintering sound behind him and then Langerman was down, frantically trying to hit Stan in the face with the pistol butt.
Stan rolled him violently against the wall and grabbed for the hand that held the pistol. He caught it and tried to force it back. The two arms wavered, then Langerman began to give a little, his arm moving slowly back.
A world was in the balance, Stan thought grimly, and with a surge of strength he had the pistol. He slashed at Langerman's head and the little man went limp. ”

“ That long, black hair and those green eyes. And she had moved like a cat, a sleek cat who was just as willing to kill for a cause as he was.
Tanner was studying his face. "Don't get any ideas about her—she's an ape."
Stan looked at him coldly. "The only idea I have is to kill her before she kills me."
He started walking towards another flight of stairs a block down. How long had it been since he had walked down the ramp? he wondered. There had been the noise and the oily smoke from the automobile. The ramp should have been swarming with curious apes by now. ”

“ Tanner laughed. "Avis is an amateur, Martin. And a bungling amateur at that! She could have killed us again and instead she preferred the case! One call to Ainsworth and we'll replace that tomorrow!"
They were feeling their way down the back stairs when the thick feeling to the air disappeared. Suddenly the street was filled with screams as passersby noticed the instantaneously ruined house and the burning cars and the suspicious mounds of ashes that swirled up into the morning air.
A block away, Stan stopped and wiped the sweat and soot from his face. Tanner looked at him sharply. ”

“ He never touched the man. There was a spanging sound and the pillar Stan was leaning against suddenly showed concrete chips. He fell backwards and sprawled on the pavement, the violet beam from his heat gun crazily scorching the concrete overhead.
Somebody yelled to the man crouched by the car....
"Run! Run, you fool!"
The man in the pork-pie hat dodged up the ramp. Stan tried to pick him off but the pillar showered concrete again and his aim was spoiled. Then the man was gone and Stan's mind turned to his own problems. ”

“ He cautioned Avis to be quiet, and then opened the door silently into the living room. Tanner wasn't there but his lieutenant, Langerman, was. A small, wiry man with a rodent's face and sliding eyes who preferred looking at the small of a man's back rather than looking him straight in the eyes.
It had been necessary for Tanner and he to include one man in their confidence, one man who would hold down the fort in Bristol and watch the panels that marked the location of the fifty fusion packages and the agents. ”

“ They watched the stars for a while and then Avis said: "You're a strong man, Stan. How did they ever ... break you?"
"A simple technique—brain-washing you could call it. The Thuscans set up Mr. Malcolm and Mr. Ainsworth and I was the man between. Mr. Malcolm was the enemy, Mr. Ainsworth was the friend. Mr. Ainsworth would 'rescue' me from Mr. Malcolm. There's no quicker way to build up a friendship. I felt obligated, in a sense. And then there was torture ... and machines. When my memory came back, I thought I had it all figured. I only made one mistake. I never thought Tanner was a Thuscan." ”

“ Or so the Terrans think. They never seem to look beyond."
"You forget," Stan pointed out. "We've lost men, too. And I'm sure that not all of them died from natural causes."
"Who have you lost, Martin? Thieves, dope peddlers, murderers, and worse? And what have I lost? Patriots, scientists, statesmen—the few who understand and believe and are willing to work with me."
Stan shrugged impatiently. "You said I had taken a long time in getting here. I suppose you planned it that way."
She looked surprised. "Why else do you think we stole the fusion packages? Just to keep you from replacing them? ”

“ Stan narrowed his eyes and located the ball. It was about ten feet from the thrower, crawling slowly through the air.
Even as he watched, the ball slowed and stopped, hovering twenty feet above the asphalt.
"The air!" Reynolds suddenly screamed. "It's getting hard to breathe!"
"It'll get harder!" Tanner said grimly. "This will last for about half an hour. Slow your breathing and whatever you do, move slow. You move too fast and the air friction alone will set your clothes on fire!"
He swung slowly forward and brought the butt of his heat gun against the glass. ”

“ We had been hoping until the last minute that perhaps Avis would succeed, that she would be able to prevent the subversion of the planet."
"Just what would that have accomplished?"
"You Terrans are not without the means of defense," Elal pointed out. "In many ways you may be backward and primitive but you have deadly weapons. And a planet, strongly organized for resistance, would be very difficult for the Thuscans to take over. They have never succeeded in storming one outright. They have always had to rely on infiltration."
"Your weapons aren't puny either," Stan said. ”

“ And the next day there would be the final, terrible tempest when the Thuscans arrived. When humanity would go out in a short, confused struggle.
There was nothing left to do but prepare to die....
Then he thought again of Avis and knew there was one last, forlorn chance.
He raced back to the communications room and pressed the switches on the small television set with which he and Tanner used to communicate with Mr. Ainsworth on the Thuscan flag ship.
Avis had mentioned that her own fleet was standing by. A small fleet perhaps, but certainly not one without possibilities. ”

“ The street was gorged with people on foot and on bicycles and in automobiles, fighting to get out of the city. He could hear screams and curses and over all, the faint crackle of flames.
In a few hours, the city would be a roaring inferno, he thought. There would be nobody left behind to put out the fires. ”