«I think not. Let me continue. You will get these orders in the mail today, but I will prepare you for them now. A special house must be built for the crates, as rapidly as possible, and they must be moved there immediately upon its completion. I have the specifications in my office safe: essentially, it must be air-conditioned, burglar-proof, and strong enough to withstand all natural hazards.»
«Whoa, there!» Herries stepped forward. «That’s going to take reinforced concrete and—»
«Materials will be made available,» said Symonds. He did not look at the other man but stared straight ahead of him, across the rain-smoky compound to the jungle. He had no expression on his pinched face, and the reflection of light off his glasses gave him a strangely blind look.
«But—Judas priest!» Herries threw his cigarette to the ground; it was swallowed in mud and running water. He felt the heat enfold him like a blanket. «There’s the labor too, the machinery, and—How the devil am I expected to expand this operation if—»
«Expansion will be temporarily halted,» cut in Symonds. «You will simply maintain current operations with skeleton crews. The majority of the labor force is to be reassigned to construction.»
«What?»
«The compound fence must be extended and reinforced. A number of new storehouses are to be erected, to hold certain supplies which will presently be sent to us. Bunkhouse barges for an additional five hundred are required. This, of course, entails more sickbay, recreational, mess, laundry, and other facilities.»
Herries stood dumbly, staring at him. Pale lightning flickered in the sky.
The worst of it was, Symonds didn’t even bother to be arrogant. He spoke like a schoolmaster.
«Oh no!» whispered Herries after a long while. «They’re not going to try to establish that Jurassic military base after all!»
«The purpose is classified.»
«Yeah. Sure. Classified. Arise, ye duly cleared citizens of democracy and cast your ballot on issues whose nature is classified, that your leaders whose names and duties are classified may—Great. Hopping. Balls. Of. Muck.» Herries swallowed: Vaguely, through his pulse, he felt his fingers tighten into fists.
«I’m going up,» he said. «I’m going to protest personally in Washington.»
«That is not permitted,» Symonds said in a dry, clipped tone. «Read your contract. You are under martial law. Of course,» and his tone was neither softer nor harder, «you may file a written recommendation.»
Herries stood for a while. Out beyond the fence stood a bulldozer wrecked and abandoned. The vines had almost buried it and a few scuttering little marsupials lived there. Perhaps they were his own remote ancestors. He could take a .22 and go potshooting at them some day.
«I’m not permitted to know anything,» he said at last. «But is curiosity allowed? An extra five hundred men aren’t much. I suppose given a few airplanes and so on, a thousand of us could plant atomic bombs where enemy cities will be. Or could we? Can’t locate them without astronomical studies first, and it’s always clouded here. So it would be practical to booby trap only with mass-action weapons. A few husky cobalt bombs, say. But there are missiles available to deliver those in the twentieth century. So… what is the purpose?»
«You will learn the facts in due course,» answered Symonds. «At present, the government has certain military necessities.»
«Haw!» said Herries. He folded his arms and leaned against the roofpost. It sagged a bit… shoddy work, shoddy world, shoddy destiny. «Military horses’ necks! I’d like to get one of those prawn-eyed brass hats down here, just for a week, to run his precious security check on a lovesick brontosaur. But I’ll probably get another visit from Senator Lardhead, the one who took up two days of my time walking around asking about the possibilities of farming. Farming!»
«Senator Wien is from an agricultural state. Naturally he would be interested—»
«—in making sure that nobody here starts raising food and shipping it back home to bring grocery prices down to where people can afford an occasional steak. Sure. I’ll bet it cost us a thousand man-hours to make his soil tests and tell him, yes, given the proper machinery this land could be farmed. Of course, maybe I do him an injustice. Senator Wien is also on the Military Affairs Committee, isn’t he? He may have visited us in that capacity, and soon we’ll all get a directive to start our own little Victory gardens.»
«Your language is close to being subversive,» declared Symonds out of prune-wrinkled lips. «Senator Wien is a famous statesman.»
For a moment the legislator’s face rose in Herries’ memory; and it had been the oldest and most weary face he had ever known. Something had burned out in the man who had fought a decade for honorable peace; the knowledge that there was no peace and could be none became a kind of death, and Senator Wien dropped out of his Free World Union organization to arm his land for Ragnarok. Briefly, his anger fading, Herries pitied Senator Wien. And the President, and the Chief of Staff, and the Secretary of State, for their work must be like a nightmare where you strangled your mother and could not stop your hands. It was easier to fight dinosaurs.
He even pitied Symonds, until he asked if his request for an atomic weapon had finally been okayed, and Symonds replied, «Certainly not.» Then he spat at the clerk’s feet and walked out into the rain.
After the shipment and guards were seen to, Herries dismissed his men. There was an uneasy buzz among them at the abnormality of what had arrived; but today was mail day, after all, and they did not ponder it long. He would not make the announcement about the new orders until tomorrow. He got the magazines and newspapers to which he subscribed (no one up there «now» cared enough to write to him, though his parents had existed in a section of spacetime which ended only a year before he took this job) and wandered off to the boss barge to read a little.
The twentieth century looked still uglier than it had last month. The nations felt their pride and saw no way of retreat. The Middle Eastern war was taking a decisive turn which none of the great powers could afford. Herries wondered if he might not be cut off in the Jurassic. A single explosion could destroy the main projector. Five hundred womanless men in a world of reptiles—he’d take the future, cobalt bomb and all.
After lunch there was a quiet, Sunday kind of atmosphere, men lay on their bunks reading their letters over and over. Herries made his rounds, machines and kitchen and sickbay, inspecting.
«I guess we’ll discharge O’Connor tomorrow,» said Dr. Yamaguchi. «He can do light work with that Stader on his arm. Next time tell him to duck when a power shovel comes down.»
«What kind of sick calls have you been getting?» asked the chief.
Yamaguchi shrugged. «Usual things, very minor. I’d never have thought this swamp country would be so healthful. I guess disease germs which can live on placental mammals haven’t evolved yet.»
Father Gonzales, one of the camp’s three chaplains, buttonholed Herries as he came out. «Can you spare me a minute?» he said.
«Sure, padre. What is it?»
«About organizing some baseball teams. We need more recreation. This is not a good place for men to live.»
«Sawbones was just telling me—»
«I know. No flu, no malaria, oh, yes. But man is more than a body.»
«Sometimes I wonder,» said Herries. «I’ve seen the latest headlines. The dinosaurs have more sense than we do.»