American Science Fiction #41 — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

26 | the bathroom to ‘wash his hands _be- fore they went downstairs, to where . the General’s car was waiting. .! HE sight of the huge olive-drab Cadillac: limousine with its two- starred flag and white-trimmed and be -fourragered sergeant - chauffeur seemed to awe Toby, who lapsed in- to .arre occasional monosyllables dur- ing the drive through the late after- noon to his Long Island home. It was as if, since the General was in mufti, the Jad had not quite been able to believe in his reality—until official car and chauffeur offered proof. _ This was quite all right with the General, who was desperately trying to rearrange the chaos of his thoughts into some sort of order. He knew he was being dangerously imaginative for a man in his position. But what. if this MacReedy actually could foresee light, sit,’ said Toby.: the future, at least in’ its military manifestations? Ms fh i Granting this impossibility, how could the man be used? The General shuddered at the thought of “selling” anyone with such a gift to the Com- bined Chiefs of Staff—those quiet- eyed, low-voiced, strictly pragmatic men on whom, perhaps, the future of country and world depended. Even if they by some wild chance accepted the impossibility, he knew full well what would be the tenor of their thoughts—and therefore of their ques- tions. : One of them ‘would be sure to say, “Very well,~General, but if we put our planning in the hands of this man—seeking a short route to deci- Sive superiority of armament—how do we know he won’t. make a mistake, or lead us up the garden path? How do we know he hasn’t been planted for this very purpose?” How did he know? The General decided he didn't. Yet how could any man with such a private power be permitted to exercise his rights of free citizenship?) He damned Mac- Reedy, the enemy, the world and himself, and got resettled corner of the soft rear seat. — “They had left the sun behind them, setting in a dust-pink mist behind in his VS EET) aot Te PA Axi dtcn | sr THE FINAL FIGURE ‘the soft-edged towers of ‘Manhattan. By the time they reached Flushing it. had begun to snow—big soft flakes whose crystalline -dissimilarities were almost visible to the naked eye as they settled against the car windows into wet evanescence. Up ahead the twin windshield-wipers ground them silently and methodically into wet- — rimmed circle segments. “I hope it lasts,” said Tob from his window. “I got a sled for Christ- mas. it.?. : , “You'll get your chance,” said the General. Damn it, he wondered, what kind of man was Angus Mac- ~Reedy—if he was a man. Somehow I haven't been able to use. the silent snow, the waning traffic, ‘f the oncoming twilight, combined into — It was — a sense of ominous portent. as if the car were standing still,. while a perilous future rushed toward it. “We turn left at the next traffic ‘5 They turned. They row road, against a background of scrubby pines. They met only one car—a sedan, that slithered past them on the skiddy road-surface, missing them by inches. | The house where they pulled to a halt at Toby’s direction was not large. It had been put up early in the cen-— tury, and its motif was that of the high-gabled Swiss chalet... Mercifully the snow gave it a*touch of quaint- ness, almost of rightness, despite the absence of lowering alps. Toby pointed to a similar structure about yards further down the — “That’s where I live,”. he Ye a hundred road. said. \ The sprawling metro- | polis might have been on some other” continent, some other planet. Wien Jong black — ; skirted a thinly settled swampy area on a nar- ‘ ‘ WAAEREEDY. answered the’ door, — , He was a tall, angular man with a long, angular face—from which small blue eyes peered alertly. He wore a grey glen-plaid reefer that was buttoned wrong, a dark blue- — flannel shirt and covert slacks that needed a press. He said, ‘Hello, Toby—you’ve brought company, I SOG sos ic3 ; = cComicbooks- com Ee , hoes 4 PS At 5 ws