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fingers nervously through it. His face, although not frightened, was tense
with anxiety.
The President rose. There was the hasty movement of chairs as the others
followed suit. The aide made a quick introduction.
"Mr. President..." Toby gulped, struggling to remember the words he'd been
coached to say. Somehow they seemed stuck in his throat.
The President stepped forward and extended a hand. "Toby Adam, we're glad
you're here, young man."
"Thank you, sir," he stuttered.
"Like riding in a bomber?"
"Yes, sir, it was great." He felt his tension subside.
The President turned. "Gentlemen, Toby Adam from San Diego." He smiled
whimsically. "Toby has the great honor of being the first person on Earth to
greet the newcomer from the stars." Introducing each member, he gestured Toby
to a chair which an aide had drawn up alongside his own. Toby sat gingerly and
glanced nervously around. He'd recognized a few of the faces from photos;
others appeared vaguely familiar, still others quite strange.
"We've been discussing your friend," observed the President. His eyes were
expectant.
"Barlo," he blurted. "His name is Barlo."
"Like him?"
"Yes, sir, real well. So do Gramp and Linda and the sheriff."
"The sheriff?"
"Deputy Sheriff Ed Washburn," explained Toby. "He comes over to play pinochle
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with Gramp. He helped us when the Russians were trying to catch us."
"Ah, yes, the general mentioned that." The President's face grew quizzical. "I
understand you met your friend shortly after his ship reached
Earth?"
"Yes, sir." He didn't volunteer more.
"He was staying in your barn?"
"Yes, sir, or was until the vigilantes came, then I had him hide in another
barn."
"The reports mentioned that."
"They thought he was a Russian spy." Someone at the table chuckled. Toby saw
the President stifle a smile and all at once felt better. The President was a
lot like Gramp, only not so old.
"I understand you taught him our language?"
"Well, he learned it from me."
"In four days?"
"He's...he's telepathic," Toby blurted.
"Telepathic?" General Kalmer was on his feet. "He reads minds, is that what
you're saying?"
"Yes, sir." Toby felt flustered.
"And he was talking to General Brockler? Good Lord, he probably knows half our
defense secrets!"
"I don't think so," protested Toby.
"How do you know?"
"He doesn't read everyone's mind -- only in case of emergency or danger.
He told me so."
"Told you so?" the Defense Secretary intoned. His face was frosty.
"Gentlemen," the President rebuked. When the silence returned, he asked
Toby, "Why didn't you tell the general that your friend was telepathic?"
"He didn't ask, but Gramp and the sheriff and Linda know all about it."
He had another thought. "Besides, I know all about Barlo."
"You do?"
"He let me look into his mind."
"He let you...look into his mind?"
"He projects his thoughts into my mind, but it's the same thing,"
explained Toby. "I saw a lot of things on his world. It's called Raamz. And on
other worlds," he added.
"Saw?"
"Pictures, like looking at television, only the screen was in my mind."
He told of his visions of the tall pink buildings jutted against the dusky red
sun, of the aircars soaring through a darkened sky, of planets that were new
with life, of others that were dying. He told, too, how he'd pierced the black
night through Barlo's nocturnal vision. "The blackness turned to gray, like
the onset of dusk," he finished.
"That's not the same as telepathy," the Attorney General accused.
"He said it wasn't."
"The alien? He made you see exactly what he wanted you to see!"
Toby looked at him, thinking that Linda had said exactly the same thing.
Not knowing how to answer, he remained quiet.
"So we don't know anything about his world at all," the Attorney General
pursued. "We know only what he wanted us to know."
"I don't think that's it at all," Toby flared.
"How would you know?" demanded the Defense Secretary.
"Well, you get a feeling about people." He groped for words. "It's just
something you know."
"Just something you know," intoned the Attorney General. He exchanged
significant glances with the Defense Secretary.
"Gentlemen!" The President looked at Toby as if to phrase the inquiry in a
different manner but instead asked, "Did he mention anything about his
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government or the governments of other worlds?"
"Not exactly." Toby wrinkled his face. "He told the sheriff that each
sun, each planet, each race was different but that all the races lived in
peace and harmony."
"Ah!" the Secretary of State exclaimed.
"He said it was necessary."
"Why did he tell the sheriff that?" asked the President.
"The sheriff asked him what it was like out there."
"Mr. President?" asked General Kalmer suddenly. "May I ask a question?"
"Go ahead, General."
"What kind of armed forces do they have? Did he say?"
"I don't believe they have any." Toby told about the disaster and rescue
units. "I think that's all they have, but he did say they hadn't had an
interstellar war for more than a million years."
"That's exactly what I would expect him to say." The general smiled coldly.
"But we know he carries weapons."
"Weapons?" Toby stared blankly at him.
"Some sort of a ray gun. He's started two fires that we know of."
"Oh, that." Toby explained how the alien hadn't used the rays until the dogs
were almost on him, then had burned the grass to stop them but had been
careful not to hit them. "He said that no life should die violently," he
explained.
General Kalmer's eyes seemed to bore right through him, as did the eyes of the
Defense Secretary and the Attorney General. Toby thought it clear that they
were afraid of Barlo, but they also wanted the star drive. It was more what he
sensed than what they'd said. But the Secretary of State didn't think that way
at all. Neither did the President. He drew hope from that. The
President mainly listened as if weighing each morsel, but his eyes were kind.
He felt better as the conversation went on. There was even a small chuckle
when he told how Gramp and Barlo had played pinochle under the glare of the
lamp in the hayloft. There were scores of questions, many of which he
recognized as rephrasings of earlier ones. He tried to answer them as clearly
as he could. He wished they would bring Barlo here, talk with him. But he knew
they wouldn't, not since they'd learned that Barlo was telepathic. That had
really scared the general.
Finally the President rose and thanked him. An aide entered to escort him from
the room. His last view, as he glanced back from the doorway, was of the
President. He stood tall and thoughtful, his eyes for the moment looking at
nothingness. Toby had the wild impression that the President was all alone in
the big smoke-filled room.
He wondered what the President was thinking.
"If but one race of the thousands allegedly up there is hostile, we could be
in serious trouble," declared General Kalmer. He thumped the table to
emphasize the point.
"Correct," the Defense Secretary snapped. "I'm not willing to accept that
shipwreck story. It's quite likely the creature's appearance on Earth is some
sort of a psychological gambit, perhaps to test our reaction."
"It's a matter of viewpoint," declared the Secretary of State. His eyes sought
the support of the Secretary of the Treasury. "I firmly believe..."
The President listened idly, part of his mind on the youth's judgment of the
alien. Could the perceptions of youth be sharper and more accurate than those
of adults? Certainly their judgment wasn't as clouded by the myriad of
prejudices and preconceptions that most adults were prone to erect in defense
of their own particular views -- views that all too often merely served as
barricades against anything that might assault their sense of security and
well-being. But was the youth's judgment sufficiently penetrative? It was
extremely unlikely that he could assess, or even suspect, the many reasons the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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