Coburn with a sardonic,unfriendly eye.
"Mr. Coburn, I believe," he said remotely. "You've been very wellstaged-managed by your friends, Mr. Coburn. They've made it look as ifthey were trying hard to kill you, eh? But we know better, don't we? Weknow it's all a build-up for you to make a deal for them, eh? Well, Mr.Coburn, you'll find it's going to be a let-down instead! You're notofficially under arrest, but I wouldn't advise you to try to startanything, Mr. Coburn! We're apt to be rather crude in dealing withemissaries of enemies of all the human race. And don't forget it!"
And this was Coburn's first inkling that he was regarded as a traitor ofhis planet who had sold out to the Invaders. All the plans made from hisinformation would be based on the supposition that he intended to betraymankind by misleading it.
V
It was not yet forty-eight hours since Coburn had been interrupted inthe act of starting his car up in Ardea. Greek newspapers had splashedlurid headlines of a rumored invasion by Bulgarians, and their rumoreddefeat. The story was not widely copied. It sounded too unlikely. In afew hours it would be time for a new set of newspapers to begin toappear. Not one of them would print a single word about the mostimportant disclosure in human history: that extra-terrestrial Invadersmoved blandly about among human beings without being suspected.
The newspapers didn't know it. On inside pages and bottom corners, theLondon papers might refer briefly to the remarkable rumor that had sweptover Greece about an invasion force said to have crossed its border. TheLondon papers would say that the Greek government officially denied thatsuch a happening had taken place. The New York papers would be full of apolitical scandal among municipal officials, the Washington papers woulddeal largely with a Congressional investigation committee hearing, LosAngeles would have a new and gory murder to exploit, San Francisco newswould be of a waterfront strike, Tokyo would talk of cherry blossoms,Delhi of Pakistan, and the French press would discuss the politicalcrisis. But no newspaper, anywhere, would talk about Invaders.
* * * * *
In the United States, radar technicians had been routed out of bed andinformed that night fighters had had a fight with an alien ship mannedby non-humans and had destroyed it, but their radars detected nothing atall. An hour after sunrise in Naples they had come up with acombination of radar frequencies which were built to detect everything.Instructions were going out in code to all radar establishments on howto set it up on existing equipment. Long before that time, businessmachines had begun intricate operations with punched cards containingall known facts about the people known to have dropped out of sight.Other machines began to integrate crackpot reports of things sighted indivers places. The stores of Hunter and Nereid rockets--especially theremote-control jobs--were broken out. Great Air Transport planes beganto haul them to where they might be needed.
In England, certain establishments that had never been mentioned even inParliament were put on war alert. There was frantic scurrying-about inFrance. In Sweden, a formerly ignored scientist was called to atwice-scrambled telephone connection and consulted at length aboutobjects reported over Sweden's skies. The Canadian Air Force tumbled outin darkness and was briefed. In Chile there was agitation, and in Peru.
There was earnest effort to secure cooeperation from behind the IronCurtain, but that did not work. The Iron Curtain stood pat, demandingthe most detailed of information and the privilege of inspecting allweapons intended for use against anybody so far unnamed, but refusingall information of its own. In fact, there was a very normal reactioneverywhere, except that the newspapers didn't know anything to print.
These secret hassles were continuing as the dawnlight moved over Italyand made Naples and its harbor quite the most beautiful place in theworld. When daylight rolled over France, matters were beginning to fallinto pattern. As daybreak moved across the Atlantic, at least themeasures to be taken began to be visualized and orders given for theiraccomplishment.
And then, with sunrise in America, real preparations got under way.
But hours earlier there was consultation on the carrier in the Bay ofNaples. Coburn sat in a wardroom in a cold fury which was in partdespair. He had been kept in complete ignorance of all measures taken,and he felt the raging indignation of a man accused of treason. He wasbeing questioned again. He was treated with an icy courtesy that wasworse than accusation. The carrier skipper mentioned with detachmentthat, of course, Coburn had never been in any danger. Obviously. Theevent in the airport at Salonika and the attack on the convoy werewindow-dressing. They were not attempts to withdraw him fromcirculation, but to draw attention to him. Which, of course, impliedthat the Invaders--whoever or whatever they might be--considered Coburna useful tool for whatever purpose they intended.
This was before the conference officially began. It took time toarrange. There were radio technicians with microphones. Theconsultation--duly scrambled and re-scrambled--would be relayed toWashington while it was on. It was a top level conference. Hallen wasincluded, but he did not seem happy.
* * * * *
Then things were ready. The skipper of the carrier took over, with fullawareness that the very highest brass in Washington was listening toevery word.
"We can skip your technical information, Mr. Coburn," he said withironic courtesy, "unless you've something new to offer."
Coburn shook his head. He seethed.
"For the record," said the skipper, "I repeat that it is obvious thatyour presence at the scene when those Bulgarians were knocked out, thatyou were attacked in Salonika, that the ship carrying you was alsoattacked, and that there was an incident on your landing here:--it'sobvious that all these things were stage-managed to call attention toyou, for the purposes of ... whoever staged them. Have you anything moreto offer?"
"No," growled Coburn. "I've told all I know." He was furiously angry andfelt completely helpless.
"Your information," purred the Skipper, "and the stage-managedincidents, make you look like a very patriotic citizen who is feared bythe supposedly extra-terrestrial creatures. But we don't have to playany longer, Mr. Coburn. What were you told to tell your government? Whatdo these ... extra-terrestrials want?"
"My guess," snapped Coburn, "is that they want Earth."
The skipper raised his eyebrows. "Are you threatening us in their name?"he asked, purring.
"I'm telling you my guess," said Coburn hotly. "It's just as good asyours and no better! I have no instructions from them. I have no messagefrom them. I've only my own opinion, which is that we humans had betterget ready to fight. I believe we ought to join together--all ofEarth--and get set to defend ourselves."
There was silence. Coburn found himself regarding the faces around himwith an unexpected truculence. Janice pressed his hand warningly.
"All of Earth," said the skipper softly. "Hmmmm. You advise anarrangement with all the Earth.... What are your politics, Mr.Coburn?--No, let us say, what are the political views of theextra-terrestrial creatures you tell us about? We have to know."
Coburn seethed. "If you're suggesting that this is a cold war trick," hesaid furiously, "--if they were faking it, they wouldn't try tricks!They'd make war! They'd try conquest!"
Coburn saw the stout Greek general nodding to himself. But the Skippersaid suavely: "You were with one of the creatures, you say, up in thevillage of Naousa. Would you say he seemed unfriendly to theBulgarians?"
"He was playing the part of an Englishman," snapped Coburn, "trying tostop a raid, and murders, and possibly a war--all of them unnecessary!"
"You don't paint a frightening picture," complained the skipperironically. "First you say we have to fight him and his kind, and thenyou imply that he was highly altruistic. What is the fact?"
"Dammit!" said Coburn. "I hated him because he wasn't human. It made myflesh crawl to see him act so much like a man when he wasn't. But hemade me feel ashamed when I held a gun on him and he proved he wasn'thuman just so Janice--so Miss Ames wouldn't be afraid to drive down
toSalonika with me!"
"So you have some ... friendly feelings toward him, eh?" the skippersaid negligently. "How will you get in touch with his kind, by the way?_If_ we should ask you to? Of course you've got it all arranged? Just incase."
Coburn knew that absolutely nothing could be done with a man who wastrying to show off his shrewdness to his listening superiors. He saiddisgustedly: "That's the last straw. Go to hell!"
A loud-speaker spoke suddenly. Its tone was authoritative, and therewere little cracklings of static in it from its passage across theAtlantic.
"That line of questioning can be dropped, Captain. Mr. Coburn, did thesealiens have any