The Sentinel - Arthur C. Clarke [21]
“Do you really appreciate,” he continued earnestly, “how difficult this state of affairs makes my job?”
“It doesn’t exactly help mine,” replied Karellen with some spirit. “I wish people would stop thinking of me as a world dictator and remember that I’m only a civil servant trying to administer a somewhat idealistic colonial policy.”
“Then can’t you at least give us some reason for your concealment? Because we don’t understand it, it annoys us and gives rise to all sorts of rumors.”
Karellen gave that deep, rich laugh of his, just too musical to be altogether human.
“What am I supposed to be now? Does the robot theory still hold the field? I’d rather be a mass of cogwheels than crawl around the floor like a centipede, as most of the tabloids seem to imagine.”
Stormgren let out a Finnish oath he was fairly sure Karellen wouldn’t know—though one could never be quite certain in these matters.
“Can’t you ever be serious?”
“My dear Rikki,” said Karellen, “it’s only by not taking the human race seriously that I retain those fragments of my once considerable mental powers that I still possess.”
Despite himself, Stormgren smiled.
“That doesn’t help me a great deal, does it? I have to go down there and convince my fellow men that although you won’t show yourself, you’ve got nothing to hide. It’s not an easy job. Curiosity is one of the most dominant human characteristics. You can’t defy it forever.”
“Of all the problems that faced us when we came to Earth, this was the most difficult,” admitted Karellen. “You have trusted our wisdom in other things—surely you can trust us in this!”
“I trust you,” said Stormgren, “but Wainwright doesn’t, nor do his supporters. Can you really blame them if they put a bad interpretation upon your unwillingness to show yourself?”
“Listen, Rikki,” Karellen answered at length. “These matters are beyond my control. Believe me, I regret the need for this concealment, but the reasons are—sufficient. However, I will try and get a statement from my superiors which may satisfy you and perhaps placate the Freedom League. Now, please, can we return to the agenda and start recording again? We’ve only reached Item 23, and I want to make a better job of settling the Jewish question than my predecessors for the last few thousand years . . . ”
II
“Any luck, Chief?” asked van Ryberg anxiously.
“I don’t know,” Stormgren replied wearily as he threw the files down on his desk and collapsed into the seat. “Karellen’s consulting his superiors now, whoever or whatever they may be. He won’t make any promises.”
“Listen,” said Pieter abruptly. “I’ve just thought of something. What reason have we for believing that there is anyone beyond Karellen? The Overlords may be a myth—you know how he hates the word.”
Tired though he was, Stormgren sat up with a start.
“It’s an ingenious theory. But it clashes with what little I do know about Karellen’s background.”
“And how much is that?”
“Well, he was a professor of astropolitics on a world he calls Skyrondel, and he put up a terrific fight before they made him take this job. He pretends to hate it, but he’s really enjoying himself.”
Stormgren paused for a moment, and a smile of amusement softened his rugged features.
“At any rate, he once remarked that running a private zoo is rather good fun.”
“Hmm—a somewhat dubious compliment. He’s immortal, isn’t he?”
“Yes, after a fashion, though there’s something thousands of years ahead of him which he seems to fear: I can’t imagine what it is. And that’s really all I know.”
“He could easily have made it up. My theory is that his little fleet’s lost in space and looking for a new home. He doesn’t want us to know how few he and his comrades are. Perhaps all those other ships are automatic, and there’s no one in any of them. They’re just an imposing facade.”
“You,” said Stormgren with great severity, “have been reading science fiction in office hours.”
Van Ryberg grinned.
“The ‘Invasion from Space’ didn’t turn out quite as expected, did it? My theory would certainly explain why Karellen never