“First, we get me out of this hospital,” Lee said.

  “Lee, do you rally think you should?”

  “I definitely think I should,” he said firmly. “There’s nothing, absolutely nothing I can do from here and I’ve got a lot of things to do. I want to get in touch with Washington and offer my services. I want to gather together as many of the world’s scientists as is possible and present to them my idea for a system of shelters to be heated and lighted by power from Little Falls. And then I want to go back to Little Falls and get to work on the reactor.”

  “That’s a pretty large order for a sick man, especially since you seem to forget Lance is still in charge of Power Unlimited.”

  “No matter how foolish Lance has been in the past, He’ll see the truth now. He’ll want to work harder than anybody else to help.”

  “I hope so,” Miranda said with a sigh. “I hope you’re right, Lee.”

  “I am,” Lee assured her. “Now, my dear, go get me that doctor. I want to talk to him like a Dutch uncle.”

  Chapter twelve

  TWO AND A HALF months after the explosion at Marsport, Lee woke up in his office in a skyscraper overlooking Lake Michigan. He stretched tiredly. It was only one in a long series of such mornings, but the hectic pace was beginning to take it’s toll. Every morning he found it a little harder to force himself up from the cot on which he snatched his few brief hours of rest. He still hadn’t fully recovered from his terrible ordeal in the reactor chamber, and the weeks of back-breaking toil he’d undergone since hadn’t helped any.

  Looking at himself in the mirror of his office bathroom, he could hardly believe the thin, haggard face staring back at him was his.

  “You’re a pretty sorry-looking sight, my friend,” he said, “but I don’t suppose any of us will look much better by the time this is over.”

  He reached for his electric razor and plugged it in while his mind went back over the things that had been accomplished since the day he had talked the doctor into letting him leave the hospital.

  The next few weeks had been weeks of terror for men everywhere. When the awful news was first announced by the various governments of the world, most people had been stunned into disbelief. The ones who did believe reacted with violence. There was rioting in many cities and large-scale looting. Troops had to be used in most nations to restore order and prevent society from tearing itself apart before the oncoming planet had a chance to do so.

  Then there was a different reaction. Millions of persons in the northern and temperate zones got the idea all at the same time and started migrating toward the south. It did no good to remind them that it wouldn’t matter what part of the earth they were on because it would all freeze. They still jammed the airports and highways, hoping to find safety in Central or South America, Africa and Southeast Asia.

  By this time, Lee had talked to men in Washington who had given him the green light on most of his plans and had addressed the United Nations, explaining how most of the population that survived the initial contact with Mars could be saved. They listened and then they went to work.

  Every cave, mine shaft and underground building was stocked with huge stores of surplus food. All subways and tunnels were blocked off and made ready to act as shelters. Three long, narrow canyons in widely separated parts of the United States were roofed over and food stored in them for almost a million people. they made particularly good shelters because of the rivers running through them. Power was all that was needed to heat the frozen water and keep it flowing for the refugees.

  Skyscrapers and great warehouses had their windows sealed with metal shutters. Air intakes were installed to reheat the frozen gases Earth’s atmosphere would become and turn it into breathable form once more.

  But food! That was the biggest problem of all. Once everything was covered with ice, the available food supply would vanish. Of course there was food in the sea, but the problem was how to get it out if the oceans froze solid. But it would take a long time for that to happen, and someone came up with the idea that submarine fishing craft could operate in the depths under the ice. So plans were made and domes were built under the sea where fish could be caught, canned and shipped anywhere in the world.

  Plans were conceived and carried out on a thousand different levels. Projects that once would have taken years were completed in less than ten weeks. There was no shortage of manpower, money or the will to get things done in a world on the brink of extinction.

  Lee sighed as he scraped at the stubble on his chin. The weeks went too fast, and everything that needed to be done couldn’t possibly be done in the time that remained. Not even if every man worked the long hours and slept in his office as he had been doing.

  For Mars was coming, there was no doubt about that. Mars was coming and bringing with it terrible destruction. And after it had come and gone, there would be rebuilding and more of the race to make ready.

  As Lee unplugged the razor and started to lay it in its case, he had to grab the basin to keep from falling.

  He looked into the mirror, startled. “Hey, I’m not that rocky, am I?” he asked his hollow-eyed reflection.

  The outer door of the office jerked open and a tall, skinny, balding man came in. “Did you feel that, Lee?” he asked.

  “I felt it, but I wasn’t sure if it was me or the building,” Lee said.

  “It was the building, unless we’ve both got the shakes.”

  “There’s reason enough to have them,” Lee admitted, recalling the great red ball he had seen in the sky the night before. It had been Mars—almost as close as the moon.

  “I didn’t know they had earthquakes in Chicago.”

  Lee glanced at the meteorologist and grinned crookedly. “I’m sure they didn’t—until now.”

  “You mean it’s started?”

  “Didn’t you receive a report yesterday that the tides of the Bay of Fundy were eighty feet high instead of their usual fifty?”

  “Yes, and they caused a lot of damage.”

  Lee nodded. “And there’s going to be more, much more.”

  “Then we’d better get to work,” the other man said.

  “There’s not much else we can do,” Lee said, sitting down at his desk and reaching for the papers he had dropped when he got too tired to read any further the night before.

  As head of the Scientists Survival Committee, he had his finger in every project and undertaking it sponsored. Their main task was to allocate on a priority basis the scientific manpower available in any section or country of the world, and it was a frustrating, thankless task. Every request had to be weighed and compared in overall importance with every other. The decisions had to be fast and accurate, and Lee had been amazed to find in himself the capacity to deal with people tactfully but firmly, a quality he had always assumed Lance possessed but he didn’t.

  In fact, Lance had been one of the first ones he had to deal with. The first day Lee moved into his office, Stan Freeman and Miranda had flown in from Little Falls with a demand from Lance that every scientist, mathematician and technician with any atomic experience at all be assigned to him.

  “Whatever else Lance’s reaction to the Marsport disaster may be, it doesn’t seem to have made him any less arrogant,” Lee said after reading the curt, almost rude letter form his brother.

  “We do need those men,” Stan said. “We’re a full month behind in rebuilding The Monster.”

  “The whole world is a full month behind,” Lee said.

  “Bill Mason said to tell you we’re six weeks behind in installing those new generators,” Miranda said. “He also says they’ll create a magnetic field nothing can break though.”

  “Well, I’m glad Lance is convinced of that anyway,” Lee said. He had intended to return to Little Falls and work on the reactor himself, but when he had been asked to head the committee he himself had formed, he couldn’t refuse. But he knew that getting the Rilke reactor back into working condition was one of the most important parts in the plan to save mankind. “I’ll let you have as many trained men as I possibly can, but there are scores of smaller atomic plants which also have to have help. We’re going to need every one of them when the other power sources go out. I’ll sign an order for half of what Lance has asked for.”

  Miranda and Stan looked at each other and then Stan shrugged. “He won’t like it, but if it’s the best you can do—”

  “I assure you it is, Stan, and if I find later that we can spare more, I’ll send them along.”

  “Thanks, Lee,” Miranda said. “Do you want us to tell Lance anything else?”

  “Only to keep working,” Lee said.

  “There’s no need for that,” the English woman said. “I don’t believe he’s had more than two hours’ sleep any night since it happened. I’ve never seem a man drive himself so hard.”

  “Maybe it’s the memory of Marsport that’s driving him.”

  “In a way, that’s what is driving all of us at Little Falls,” Stan said, and they had left a few minutes later.

  Lee looked up as his secretary come in with paper cups of coffee and doughnuts. She knew he never took time to eat breakfast and had gotten in the habit of picking up something for him on her way to work. He smiled his thanks at her and drank the coffee thirstily while she opened and sorted the incoming mail.

  Two hours later, while he was dictating letters to a list of retired scientists he thought might be willing and able to help in the survival program despite their advanced age, there was another earthquake. Miss Chambers let out a yelp as the floor seemed to rise under their feet and books and folders came tumbling off the shelves.

  “Easy, girl,” Lee said as he gripped his desk and she clung to her chair. “This is only the beginning. There’ll be a lot more of this as time goes on.”

  Her frightened eyes met his. “I know … but I didn’t think it would be like this.”

  The building was still swaying, but it was less violent now and things had ceased falling off the shelves.

  “We’re … we’re over a hundred stories high, Dr. Rilke,” the girl faltered. “We have an awful long way to fall.”

  “Then we’ll just have to try not to fall, Miss Chambers,” Lee said, and then added as he saw her face go green, “Why don’t you go wash your hands or something.”

  She trotted out of the room as fast as she could go, and Lee sat down and checked his list over again. These men had talent the world needed. They couldn’t be permitted to rusticate.

  There was another quake before he was halfway through. This one was worse and he heard screams in the outer office as the building swayed as though it were an upside-down pendulum.

  “It’s coming fast—faster than we thought,” Lee muttered to himself and kept trying to work.

  His secretary came back in, looking even paler than before. “I … I’m ready to … to take dictation again, Dr. Rilke.”

  Her teeth were chattering and she seemed about ready to faint.

  “Wouldn’t you like to go home to your family, Miss Chambers?” he asked gently.

  “Oh, no, sir. I know how important your work is. I … I want to stay.”

  The building swayed again and, at a sharp sound they both looked up at the ceiling and saw a crack appear.

  “It’s going to fall! It’s going to fall, Dr. Rilke!” the girl shrieked hysterically.

  “Go home, Miss Chambers,” Lee said firmly, guiding her toward the door. “Tell the other girls to take the rest of the day off and call before they come in tomorrow morning.”

  “Yes … yes, sir,” she said.

  An hour later Lee decided to dismiss the rest of the staff. The building had been shaken twice more, and the lights had gone off for fifteen minutes. There were signs of panic in the street below, and the visio-phone had been out for half an hour.

  “We may as well close down,” Lee told the meteorologist. “We can’t do much more under these conditions.”

  “Are you staying?” the man asked.

  “I’ve got a few more things to do—a few more lists to make out and one or two more decisions to make.”

  “Then I’ll stay, too. There are things I should finish, too.”

  “You’ve got a wife and kids, haven’t you, Dr. Tallman?”

  “Yes. A girl ten and a boy twelve.”

  “Then I think this would be a good time for you to be with your family,” Lee said as another quake rocked the huge building like a child’s toy, and plaster dust filled the air.

  “I guess you’re right.” Tallman said and hurried off.

  Lee started back to his desk. There was a deep rumble, and he knew this was going to be the worst one yet. The building didn’t sway or rock this time, it lashed from side to side in great, jerking movements that sent the windows crashing in with explosive force. Lee took a quick look at the ceiling and dove beneath the desk as a hail of plaster and soundproofing came raining down.

  As he crouched there, he was sure the whole building was coming down about his ears, but in a minute or two it subsided once more and finally stopped.

  Lee crawled out from under the desk and shoved aside some of the rubble. “I think it’s time I got out of here,” he said to himself, and began stuffing papers into a briefcase.

  As he searched through his drawers for other papers he needed, the door opened and Miranda Vernon stood there.

  “I thought you’d still be here,” she said.

  “What are you doing here?” Lee asked. “You’re supposed to be at Little Falls.”

  “I came to see you about some more scientists,” she said. “When the quakes started, I was just crossing over the city so I landed the copter on your roof heliport.”

  “Come on, let’s get going before there’s another one,” Lee said, taking her by the elbow and heading for the nearest stairs.

  The hallway and stairs were empty. Everyone else had already fled the building and there was nothing but debris to slow them down.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” Lee said as they scrambled up the steps. “I don’t like the size of those cracks in the walls. Even a steel reinforced building like this can stand only so much of this punishment.”

  “I hope the copter is all right,” Miranda said as the rocking started again. “It could be shaken off.”

  “We’ll know in a minute,” Lee said, putting his shoulder against the door to the roof and forcing it open.

  “Over there,” Miranda said, pointing. “It looks all right.”

  But Lee wasn’t looking at the copter. He was staring up at the sky in horror. Mars had just risen over the western horizon. It was a great ball of blood in the heavens, three times the size of the moon. The whole atmosphere was colored red, and Lee realized it was caused not only by the planet’s light but by hundreds of fires which had sprung up all over the city.

  “It looks like the end of the world!” Miranda said.

  “It’s going to come pretty damn close to being just that,” Lee said, tearing his gaze away from the menacing sky and starting toward the copter with Miranda’s hand in his.

  “The building rocked and the reddened sky seemed to whirl around their heads as they raced across the roof.

  “Lee, look!” Miranda screamed suddenly. “Look!”

  A man was standing near the edge of the roof, looking up at Mars. He seemed perfectly calm except for the transfixed look on his face.

  “Hey, mister!” Lee yelled at him. “we’re taking off and we’ve got room for you in the copter. Come on over here!”

  The man glanced at them, his eyes glittered madly in the fantastic red light.

  “We’ve got to go right now!” Lee yelled as the building shook, threatening to knock them off their feet. “Come on, mister, let’s get going!”

  “You cannot flee! You cannot flee!” the man shouted back. “How can you flee from that?” He flung his hand upward to the planet looming over them and laughed wildly. “It’s God’s judgment on the world! It’s God’s judgment! And you can’t flee from God!”

  Lee started toward him, intending to drag him into the copter by force if necessary.

  “Don’t come any closer!” the man warned. “Jehovah will strike you dead if you touch His Prophet!” He moved closer to the edge of the building and climbed up on the low parapet.”

  “Watch out! Watch out!” Lee shouted and made a lunge for the man.

  “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch—” The building gave a violent roll and the man was flung off into space.

  “My God! Oh, my God!” Lee leaned against the parapet, his knees trembling.

  He turned then and ran, the roof of the building buckling and falling away under his feet.

  Miranda was in the copter and had the rotors turning. She leaned out and pulled him in without a word.

  “Okay, let’s get out of here,” he said, and she lifted the ship skyward.

  Chapter thirteen

  AS THE COPTER moved out over the city they were struck anew by the horror of what was happening.

  “The whole city is going. It’s being shaken to pieces,” Lee said as he watched a building of at least fifty stories collapse in upon itself, and the wall of a still larger one go plunging down into the street.

  “The fires! Look at the fires!” Miranda said, pointing at a mass of flames where the Loop should have been. “Everything in sight is on fire!”

  “Is this happening all over the world?” Lee asked.

  “No, I don’t think so. The gravitational stresses are causing tidal shifts in the crust of the earth but the effects are localized as of now.”

  Lee shook his head. “Chicago is doomed; it can’t possibly last long at—” Suddenly his face turned even paler. “Kristy! Good Lord, Kristy is here in Chicago!”

  “What?” Miranda demanded. “How do you know?”

  “I saw her last night on a televised news program,” Lee said. “She must be staying at her uncle’s place on the lake front. Miranda, we’ve go to try to get them.”

  Miranda shook her head, her lips set in a tight line. “We’ve got to get out of here as fast as we can. There’s nothing we can do for anybody down there, Lee. We’ve go to think of ourselves.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11