Pied Piper Read online

  "Hi, Jan. Ready on your side?"

  "Yeah. I'll give you a stand-by warn-ing."

  "I don't like this, Jan."

  "Neither do I. I'll run any machine that they put in front of me, but I prefer to take 'em apart first and see what makes 'em tick."

  "Right. How the hell do I know what

  Goes on back of that board? I'm just punching keys in the dark. Besides, how do we know those kids won't be hurt? Nobody has ever seen this gadget in op-eration."

  A shadow fell across the board. The technician looked up and saw the non-commissioned officer gesturing to him. He spoke again to the panel.

  "Stand by! We're starting the music." He pressed three buttons in rapid succes-sion.

  The music reached the four standing on the grounds; Madame Curan, nervous and defiant; her assistant, frightened and looking for guidance; the commander and his aide, urbane and alert. It tinkled in their ears like a child's song. It sang to them of a child's cosmos, a child's heaven, wonderful, free from care.

  Dansic smiled at Madame Curan. "Is it not silly to be at war when there is music like that in the world?"

  In spite of herself she smiled back.

  The music swelled and developed a throbbing almost below the audible range. Then a thin reedy piping was distinguish-able. It wove in and out of the melody, embroidered it, and took it over. Cone away, it said. Come away with me. It was piercing, but not painful-it seemed to vibrate in the very brain itself. ;

  The children boiled up out of the un-derground ramps like so many puppies. They laughed and shouted and ran in cir-cles. They rushed out of the ground and danced towards the helicopter. Up the incline they jostled, pushing and giggling.

  The technician took a quick look over his shoulder, and barked, "Here they come!"

  He threw a switch, and an empty frame beside the control board, six feet high, suddenly filled with opaque, velvet black-ness.

  The first of the children skipped up to the frame, jumped into it and disappeared.

  Commander Dansic led Madame Curan into the helicopter as the last of the chil-dren were entering. She suppressed a scream when she saw what was happen-ing to her charges, and turned furiously at the commander. But he silenced her with a wave of his hand.

  "Regard, please."

  Following the direction of his pointing finger, she saw, framed in the television panel, a screen similar to the one in which she stood, except that in the picture the children were popping out of a frame of blackness.

  "Where are they? What have you done with them?"

  "They are in my country-safe."

  The last of the staff of the school was persuaded or coerced into passing through the blackness; the helicopter crew fol-lowed, two at a time. Finally the com-mander was left alone, save for the techni-cian, with Madame Curan. He turned to her and bowed.

  "And now, Madame, will you come with me and resume your duties to your wards?" He offered her the crook of his right elbow.

  She bit her lip, then grasped the proffered arm. They marched steadily into the black.

  The technician pulled off his earphones, made some last adjustments, and faced' the framed darkness. He entered it with the air of a man about to take a cold shower.

  Fifteen seconds later the packs on the:, circle of tripods blew up in a series o_ overlapping little pops. Ten seconds after, that the helicopter blossomed into a giant mushroom, with a dull whooo-hooom that shook the ground.

  The two technicians need not have worried about the safety of the children. Back deep in the territory of the their home country, Doctor Groot sprawled in a chair and watched the arrival of one consignment of children,

  A small, warm smile lightened his ugly Face, induced by the sound of the unearthly music perhaps, or possibly by the sight of so many happy children. The Prime Minister stood near him, too nervous to sit down.

  Groot crooked a finger at an ,.elderly gray-haired female in the white uniform of a chief nurse. "Come here, Elda."

  "Yes, Doctor."

  "You must see to the music yourself. Reduce the volume now to the least that will keep them quiet, free from tears. Put them to sleep with it tonight. But no music-this sort of music-tomorrow, unless absolutely necessary. It is not good for them, to be happy as angels too long. They have still to be men and women."

  "I understand, Doctor."

  "See that they all understand." He turned to the Prime Minister, who pulled at his lip and looked distrait. "What is worrying you, my friend?" "Well- Are you sure no harm can come to these children?"

  "Do you not see?" Groot waved a hand at the frolicsome children, being herded in little groups to the quarters prepared for them.

  "Yes-but suppose two of your receiv-ing stations were tuned in the same fash-ion. What would happen to the children?"

  Groot smiled. "You are confusing this with radio. My fault, perhaps. I called it mass-radio when speaking of it. But it is nothing of the sort. It is-how are you in mathematics?"

  The Prime Minister made a grimace.

  "Very well, then," continued Groot, "I cannot answer you properly. But I can tell you this: Those children were not broadcast like radio waves. They simply stepped through a door. It is as if I took that door-" He pointed to one in the end of the hall- "and twisted this building so that it fitted up against the door." He pointed. to another on the other end of the

  hall. "I have tampered a little, oh, such a very little, with world lines, and pinned a piece of space to another piece of space with which it was not normally in con-tact." He pointed to the mass-radio re-ceiver present with them in the room. "That is one end of my pin. You under-stand ?"

  "Well-not entirely."

  Groot nodded. "I did not expect you to. I did not truly explain it. Without the language of tensor calculus it cannot be explained; I can only tell you an allegory."

  An orderly trotted up and handed Groot a sheef of reports. Groot glanced at them "Two more stations and we shall be ready for the shield. Have you wondered how that worked, too?"

  The statesman admitted that he had.

  "It is the same thing and yet differ-ent," said Groot. "This time we lock the door, very softly. The world lines are given a gentle twist and mass will not pass along them. But pshaw ! Those are mon-key tricks, mere gadgets, complex as they seem to the layman. But the music now- that is another matter. There we tamper with the powers of heaven itself, which is why I am so careful with it."

  The Prime Minister was surprised and said so. He had been impressed by the engineering miracles. The use of music he regarded as a harmless crotchet of Groot's.

  "Oh, no," said Groot. "No. No in-deed. Have you ever ,thought about music? Why is music? What is it? Can you define it?" .

  "Why-uh-music is certain rhythmi-cal arrangements of sounds which pro-duce emotional responses-"

  Groot held up a hand. "Yes, but what arrangements? And what emotions? And why? Never mind. I have analyzed the matter. And now I hold the secret of Orpheus' lute, the magic of the Pied Piper."

  He lowered his voice. "it is a serious matter, friend --- a dangerous matter. These other toys will go to state, but this one secret I keep always to myself-and try to forget."

  The orderly hurried up again, and handed him another report. Groot looked at it ' and passed it over to the Prime Minister.

  "Time," he said. "They are all back. We will set the shield."

  A few minutes later the lead wires of some thousands of tripods, spaced equally along four hundred and seventy miles of battle front, were joined. Telephonic re-ports were relayed to GHQ, two switches were thrown, and a shimmering intangi-ble screen separated the opposing armies.

  The war was over-de facto.

  OFFICIAL PRIORITY MESSAGE

  FROM: PRIME MINISTER

  TO: CHANCELLOR

  VIA: NEUTRAL LIAISON

  EXCELLENCY, YOU ARE AWARE THAT HOSTILITIES HAVE CEASED BECAUSE OF OUR DEFENSIVE SCREEN. WE HOLD THREE HUNDRED FIFTY-SEVEN THOU-SAND AND TWELVE OF YOUR CHIL-DREN AS HOSTA
GES. PLEASE SEND OBSERVERS UNDER FLAG OF TRUCE TO ASSURE YOU OF THEIR WELL-BEING. WE ARE PREPARED TO MAINTAIN STATUS QUO INDEFINITELY. WE ARE READY TO TREAT WITH YOU FOR AN EQUITABLE PEACE WITHOUT VICTORY TO REPLACE PRESENT DE FACTO ARMISTSCE.

  SIGNED AND SEALED BY THE PRIME MINISTER

  ON THE eleventh day of the peace conference, the chancellor asked for a recapitulation of the points agreed on. The chief clerk complied.

  "First consideration: It is agreed that henceforth the two subscribing nations are one nation. Dependent considerations : " The clerk droned on. The two parliaments were to meet together, pend-ing a census and a constitutional conven-tion. The currencies were to be joined, and so forth, and so forth. It was provid-ed that the war orphans in each territory were to be reared in the land of the former enemy; and that subsidies were to be pro-vided to encourage marriages which would mingle the blood of the former two coun-tries.

  The armies were to be demobilized and a corps of technical experts were to be trained in the use of the new defensive weapons developed by Doctor Groot.

  Doctor Groot himself lolled in a chair near the middle of the horseshoe of desks. When the clerk had concluded, the Prime Minister and the chancellor looked at Groot.

  "Well, he said testily, when the pause had grown, "let's sign it and go home. The rest is routine."

  "Had you considered," observed the chancellor, "that this new nation we have created must have a head; a chief execu-tive ?"

  "What of it?"

  "I cannot be it, nor can it be-" he bowed to the Prime Minister-"my hon-orable friend."

  "Well! Pick one!"

  "We have. There is only one man uni-versally trusted here. He and no other will do, if this agreement is to be more than a scrap of paper. And that one is yourself, Doctor."

  At this, the field marshal arose at his place at the head of his nation's table of military officials.

  "Stop!" he shouted. "There is no need to go further with this fool's play. I shall not stand by while my country is dis-honored and prostituted." He clapped his hands together. As if prearranged, two officers left the table, ran to the horseshoe and grasped Groot on each side.

  "You are relieved of office, Mr. Prime Minister. I shall conduct the affairs of our country until the war is over. Safe con-duct will be provided for the representa-tives of the enemy. Hostilities will be re-sumed at once. And that-" he pointed at Dr. Groot and bristled in rage-"that meddler must be removed -- completely."

  GROOT sat quietly, making no at-tempt to resist his captors. But under the table, his shoe pressed down on a button concealed in the rug. In another room some relays clicked.

  And the music started.

  Not children's music this time. No, rather the Ride of the Valkyrie, the May-seillaise. Not these exactly, but rather that quality of each, and of every martial song, that promises men Valhalla after battle.

  The field marshal heard it and stopped in his tracks; his fine old head reared up, listening. The two officers grasping Groot heard it, and dropped his arms. One by one almost every one of the uniformed men stood up and quested for the sound. Here and there an occasional 4 rock-coated dignitary joined them. Almost imme-diately they formed a column of fours and swung away down the great hall, their heels pounding to two-four time.

  At the end of the hall a tapestry swung aside and revealed ... nothingness ... nothingness, in a large frame. '

  The column marched into the blackness. When the last man had disappeared, Grout released the pressure from the but-ton. The blackness vanished, leaving an empty frame, with the wall just beyond it. A murmur of expelled breath filled the room.

  The Prime Minister turned to Grout and dabbed at his brow with a fine linen handkerchief. "Good God, man, where have you sent them?"

  Grout shook his head. "I am sorry. I do not know."

  "You don't know?"

  "No. You see, I anticipated some trou-ble, but did not have time to fasten the other end of my `pin'." The Prime Minister was horror -stricken.

  "Poor old John," he muttered.

  Grout nodded soberly. "Yes. I am sorry I had to do it. Poor old John. He was such a good man-I liked him so very much."

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  Document ID: 7e3697e4-6c30-1014-9654-df0b42bbe89e

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  Document creation date: 12.06.2008

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