Mordan smiled slowly. "I seem to have seen all this before."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. The Empire of the Great Khans. They've got an answer for that one. The Khans were fools and did not know what they were up to. These boys know how. This is strictly 100% homegrown and any resemblance between it and the policies of the Khans is purely due to your lack of appreciation."
"So..." Mordan said nothing more for a long time. Hamilton became impatient.
"Well?"
"Felix, why do you tell me this?"
"Why? So you can do something about it!"
"But why should you want anything done about it? Wait a moment... please. You told me the other day that life is not worth living, as it is. If you go along with these people, you could make of life anything you want it to be. You could redesign the world to a pattern of your own choosing."
"Hm! I'd have some opposition. They have their own plans."
"You could change them. I know you, Felix. In any group, it's a foregone conclusion that you will dominate if you choose to. Not in the first ten minutes, but in the course of time. You must have known that. Why didn't you seize the opportunity?"
"What makes you think I could do anything of the sort?"
"Now, Felix!"
"All right! All right! Suppose I could. But I didn't. Call it patriotism. Call it anything you like."
"As a matter of fact it's because you approve of our culture as it is. Isn't that true?"
"Maybe. In a way. I never did say that I disliked the way things were being run. I just said that I couldn't see any sense to any manner of life, in any final absolute terms." Hamilton was feeling slightly bewildered. He had approached this interview feeling romantically heroic and expecting to be patted on the back for having unmasked the villains. But Mordan failed to get excited at the proper places, and insisted on discussing purely philosophical matters. It threw him off stride. "In any case, I don't want to see those conceited young punks running things. I can't see them building a Utopia."
"I see. Have you any more to tell me? Very well, then-" Mordan began to stir in the fashion of one about to leave.
"Hey, wait a minute!"
"Yes?"
"Look, I- The fact is, since I am already on the inside, I thought I might do a little amateur sleuthing. We could arrange some way for me to report to you, or to someone."
"Oh, so that's it. No, Felix, I could not approve that."
"Why not?"
"Too dangerous for you."
"I don't mind."
"I do. Your life is very valuable, from my professional point of view."
"That? Hell's delight-I thought I made it clear that there is no chance, simply none at all, of me co-operating in the genetic program."
"You did. But so long as you are alive and fertile, I am bound to take into account the possibility that you might change your mind. I can't let you risk your life, therefore."
"Well! How are you going to stop me? You can't coerce me-I know the law."
"No... no, it's true that I can't prevent you from risking your valuable life, but I can remove the danger, and shall. The members of the Survivors Club will be picked up at once."
"But, but-look, Claude. If you do that today, you haven't a full case against them. The proper thing to do is to wait until we know all about them. Arresting this one group might mean that a hundred or a thousand others would simply take cover more thoroughly."
"I know that. It's the chance the government will have to take. But we won't risk your germ plasm."
Hamilton threw out his hands. "Damn it, Claude. This is blackmail. That's what it is-blackmail! It's sheer coercion."
"Not at all. I do not plan to do a thing... to you."
"But it is, just the same."
"Suppose we compromise."
"How?"
"Your life is your own. If you want to lose it, playing Fearless Frank, you may. My interest is in your potentialities as an ancestor. My professional interest, that is. Personally, I like you and prefer that you live a long and happy life. But that's beside the point. If you would deposit in the plasm bank a few million of your gametes, I would be willing not to interfere."
"But that's just what I was saying! You are trying to blackmail me into co-operating."
"Not so hasty. The life cells you leave with me would not be stirred into being without your consent. They would remain in escrow and you could break the escrow at will-unless you are killed in this adventure. In that case, I will use them to continue the genetic policy."
Hamilton sat down again. "Let's get this straight. You wouldn't touch them, if I don't get knocked over. No tricks?"
"No tricks."
"When it's over, I can withdraw them. Still no tricks?"
"Still no tricks."
"You wouldn't frame me into a position where I would
be darned near certain to be killed, I suppose? No, you wouldn't do that. All right, I agree! I'll bet my ability to stay
alive when the shooting starts against your chance to use my deposit."
When Mordan returned to his office, he sent for his chief technician. He caused her to leave the building with him, found a suitable bit of neutral ground where there was no chance of being overheard-a bench in a deserted corner of North roofpark-and told her of his talk with Hamilton.
"I suppose you told him that all this about the Survivors Club was no news to us."
"No, " Mordan said judiciously, "no, I can't say that I did. He didn't ask me."
"Mmmm... You know, chief, you are as crooked as a random incidence curve. A sophist."
"Why, Martha!" Nevertheless his eyes twinkled.
"Oh, I'm not criticizing. You've talked him into a position whereby we stand a much better chance of getting on with the work. Just the same, you did it by letting him think that we didn't already know all about this pipsqueak conspiracy."
"We don't know 'all about it,' Martha. He'll be useful. He has already dug up one significant fact. There is a leak in our own office."
"Um, yes. That's why you dragged me away from the clinic. Well, there'll be some changes made."
"Not too hastily. We'll assume that you can trust any of the women. This scheme, by its nature, is masculine. Women are not a part of it and their interests aren't considered. But be wary of the men on the staff. I think you had better handle the deposit of Hamilton's plasm yourself-today. Better keep an eye on the women, though."
"I shall. Honest, chief, don't you think you should have told him what he was getting into?"
"You forget that it's not my secret."
"No, I suppose not. Just the same, he's much too good stock to risk in such games. Why do you think they recruited him?"
"He thinks it's because he's a handy man with a gun and rich as well. But I think you have answered your own question-he's starline stock. He's good breeding material. The 'Survivors' aren't entirely fools."
"Oh ho! I hadn't thought of that. Well, I still say it's a damn shame to risk him in such business."
"Public custodians must not permit themselves the luxury of personal sentimentality, Martha. They have to take the long view."
"Hmmm... There is something a little terrifying about a man with too long a view."
CHAPTER SIX
"We don't speak the same lingo"
HAMILTON FELIX discovered that a conspirator can be a busy person, especially if he is also engaged in counter-conspiracy. He tried to present a convincing picture to McFee Norbert and his other associates in the Survivors Club of an enthusiastic neophyte, anxious in every way to promote the cause. Indoctrination classes, dull in themselves but required before advancement in the organization could be expected, took a good deal of time. He endured these patiently, trying his best to maintain actually the frame of mind of romantic acceptance during instruction, in order that his questions and reactions in general would arouse no suspicion.