Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke [21]
"If you're right," he said, "all I have to do is to smash the glass-"
Duval sighed.
"These unscientific laymen! Do you think it'll be made of anything you could smash without explosives? And if you succeeded, do you imagine that Karellen is likely to breathe the same air that we do? Won't it be nice for both of you if he flourishes in an atmosphere of chlorine?"
Stormgren felt a little foolish. He should have thought of that.
"Well, what do you suggest?" he asked with some exasperation.
"I want to think it over. First of all we've got to find if my theory is correct, and if so learn something about the material of that screen. I'll put a couple of my men on the job. By the way, I suppose you carry a brief-case when you visit the Supervisor? Is it the one you've got there?"
"Yes."
"It should be big enough. We don't want to attract attention by changing it for another, particularly if Karellen's grown used to it."
"What do you want me to do?" asked Stormgren. "Carry a concealed X-ray set?"
The physicist grinned.
"I don't know yet, but we'll think of something. I'll let you know what it is in a fortnight's time."
He gave a little laugh.
"Do you know what all this reminds me of?"
"Yes," said Stormgren promptly, "the time you were building illegal radio sets during the German occupation."
Duval looked disappointed.
"Well, I suppose I have mentioned that once or twice before. But there's one other thing-"
"What's that?"
"When you are caught, I didn't know what you wanted the gear for."
"What, after all the fuss you once made about the scientist's social responsibility for his inventions? Really, Pierre, I'm ashamed of you!"
***
Stormgren laid down the thick folder of typescript with a sigh of relief.
"Thank heavens that's settled at last," he said. "It's strange to think that these few hundred pages hold the future of mankind. The World State! I never thought I would see it in my lifetime!"
He dropped the file into his brief-case, the back of which was no more than ten centimetres from the dark rectangle of the screen. From time to nine his fingers played across the locks in a half-conscious nervous reaction, but he had no intention of pressing the concealed switch until the meeting was over. There was a chance that something might go wrong; though Duval had sworn that Karellen would detect nothing, one could never be sure.
"Now, you said you'd some news for me," Stormgren continued, with scarcely concealed eagerness. "Is it about-"
"Yes," said Karellen. "I received a decision a few hours ago."
What did he mean by that? wondered Stormgren. Surely it was not possible for the Supervisor to have communicated with his distant home, across the unknown numbers of light years that separated him from his base. Or perhaps-this was Van Ryberg's theory-he had merely been consulting some vast computing machine which could predict the outcome of any political action.
"I don't think," continued Karellen, "that the Freedom League and its associates will be very satisfied, but it should help to reduce the tension. We won't record this, by the way."
"You've often told me, Rikki, that no matter how unlike you we are physically, the human race would soon grow accustomed to us. That shows a lack of imagination on your part. It would probably be true in your case, but you must remember that most of the world is still uneducated by any reasonable standards, and is riddled with prejudices and superstitions that may take decades to eradicate.
"You will grant that we know something of human psychology. We know rather accurately what would happen if we revealed ourselves to the world in its present state of development.