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Doomsday Eve

<h2>III</h2> The radio transmitter inside Zen's pack was small but very powerful. It did not look like a radio transmitter at all; there was no antenna and no apparent source of power. Only the tiny earphone and the throat microphone revealed its true nature. He slipped the phone into his ear, fitted the microphone against his throat, then picked up the piece of plastic tubing that was red on one end and green on the other. Wires ran from each end of this tube to the small box that housed the transmitter. "Red goes to the right hand," he muttered. "Green to the left. Or is it the other way around?" Making up his mind that red went to the right, he closed his fingers around the ends of the plastic tube, then watched the tiny meter on top of the small box that contained the transmitter. The needle moved on the dial. "Calling nine dash nine," he spoke. "This is six one calling nine dash nine." He repeated the call three times, then sat back on his haunches to await an answer. "Come in six one," the earphone said. "What color is red?" "It's green this week," Zen answered promptly. "What color was it last week?" "Last week? Um. Oh, yes. No color." "And that means—" "White. This is Kurt Zen, colonel, intelligence, reporting. Connect me immediately with General Stocker." Satisfied with the identity of the caller, the operator said, "Just a minute, colonel, I'll see if the general will talk to you." "Tell him it's important," Zen urged. "They always say that," the operator sighed. "I'll put you through as soon as I can." "Kurt, boy, where are you?" General Stacker's voice boomed into a distant microphone. The general's voice always boomed, he was always hearty, he was always sure that while things might look black right now, they would work out all right in the end. By the time the booming voice reached Zen's earphone, it had been transformed into a tinny squeak. Kurt thought he detected an uneasy note in the squeak and he wondered if the general had finally glimpsed the end, and was finding it not quite as he had supposed. "In hell, general," Zen answered. He swiftly told where he was and what had happened. "Cuso's blooper knocked out the last pass by which we can bring an effective force against him. This whole area is loaded with radiation." "How will we ever root that bastard out of his hole now?" "That's for the staff to decide. I have more important news." "Yes? Talk, Kurt, and fast. You don't mean that you—" "Yes. I mean I think this nurse may be it. I don't know yet." Zen explained what had happened. "Damn it, Kurt, do you mean to tell me that if she comes back alive, you will know she is immune to the radiation, and hence must be one of the new people? But if she comes back dead, or so loaded with radiation that she will die within a few days, then you will know she was just like all the rest of us?" Even through Zen's earphone, the general's voice had begun to boom. "That's the way I see it," Zen answered. "But goddammit—Are you hurt, Kurt?" The general's voice was suddenly solicitous. "Are you all right?" "Damn it, I'm in my right mind," Zen answered. "I was in a prospect hole when the blast went off. Don't you think I've got enough sense to take cover?" Stocker's suddenly solicitous attitude irritated him. "Sorry, sir," he apologized an instant later. "It's quite all right, boy. I know that nerves get frayed in combat. But this nurse—" "That's the way I see it, sir," Zen said doggedly. "I request permission to follow her." "If she comes back alive, you mean?" "I would appreciate it if you would stop reminding me of that possibility." "Oh. So you are emotionally interested in her?" "Well, what if I am? She's a nice kid." "They all are, boy. They all are—until you get to know them. As to permission to follow her, you've not only got it, but it's an order. We've got to find out about these new people. One of them appeared in President Wilkerson's private office this morning and told him to call off a planned landing in Asia." "Really?" Zen said. "In the President's office!" "That's what I said." "Did it really happen? I mean, was anyone present?" "No one except the President's secretary. She's under heavy sedation right now, from shock. She thought God Almighty Himself had come walking in. The old man is not in much better shape." Stocker's voice showed signs of strain. "I've got my orders from Wilkerson himself and I'm passing them on to you. Find these new people! Follow that nurse to hell if you have to." "Right, sir." "Report to me when you have something to report—that is, something besides going to bed with her. Off." Zen grimaced as he pulled the tiny phone out of his ear. He slipped the transmitter back into the pack and slung it over his shoulder. The radiation count was dropping but it was still too high for safety. He looked longingly up the trail. Wounded men were coming down but Nedra was not in sight. The wounded men were no longer a fighting unit, but had become individuals, each one intent only on his own survival. Patriotism had gone from their minds, they no longer gave a hoot about saving their country, but were only interested in saving their own lives. Far up the trail, Zen could see a tall figure moving upward. The nurse! He unslung the pair of field glasses from his shoulder. Through the powerful lenses Nedra's lithe figure was very clear. He saw her move to the side of the trail and kneel beside a wounded man who lacked the courage to walk downhill. Somehow she got the man to his feet and started him along the trail. He stumbled and fell. Again the nurse knelt beside him but this time she made no attempt to lift him. Instead, she got to her own feet. Zen decided the man had died as he fell. She continued on up the slope. Down below, motors roared and then came to a halt. Turning, Zen saw that a first aid station was being set up down there. The medics worked fast; already they were directing the wounded men to the back end of a truck, where an examination station had been set up. But, fast as they worked, they were too late to help the vast majority of the wounded. The futility of the effort depressed Zen, so he returned his attention to the nurse. She was in the middle of the trail again. The avalanche, directly ahead of her, had stopped her progress. A man was with her. Through the glasses, the man looked as tall and craggy as a mountain peak. No soldier, he was without helmet or other headgear. His hair, white as the snow on top of a mountain, was flying in the wind. His face looked like a statue hewn in granite. Zen guessed that he was a resident of this region, a mountaineer who had sought safety in these remote fastnesses, and who had been blasted out of his hiding place by Cuso's radioactive blooper and was wandering down this trail to die. The nurse was talking to him. Involuntarily, as if they had a will of their own, Zen's legs started carrying him up the slope. He had taken a dozen steps before he remembered the counter on his wrist. "To hell with the count!" he thought. "I'm going up there and drag her down here. She's not going to throw her life away while I skulk like a coward down below. I don't give a damn whether she's one of the new people or not. She's human!" He climbed the slope with giant strides. Then he saw that Nedra was running toward him and waving him back. "Colonel! You can't come up here." "I am coming up there!" he shouted in reply. "No!" When he did not stop, she ran faster toward him. The craggy man kept pace with her. Reaching Zen, she caught his sleeve, turned him around, and started him down the slope. "You can't be here." Her voice was breathless with protest. "Are you giving me orders?" Zen growled. Secretly he was pleased because she was concerned about him. "If you will permit me, colonel, I think Nedra's intention is to save your life," the craggy man spoke. He had a voice like a bell tolling in the distance, sweet-toned and musical, but with overtones of great strength. "What about her life?" Zen demanded. "I'm going down now, colonel," the nurse said hastily. "They've set up a first aid station. They will need me there." "You will need their attention is what you mean," Zen said. "Colonel, the counter!" she answered. The needle was well over the hundred mark and was still rising. "Come, colonel." Hooking her arm in his, Nedra began moving down the rough, boulder-strewn trail. Zen did not move. She tugged harder. "Your life is in danger here, sir," the craggy man said, politely. "That is of interest to me only," Zen answered. "And what about your life?" "Colonel, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine," the nurse said quickly. "Colonel Zen, Sam West. We'll talk while we walk down to the first aid station." "A pleasure to meet you, sir," West said, extending his hand. His handclasp was firm but there was a suggestion of additional power in his fingers. "Nice to meet you, Mr. West. Do you live around here?" "Over that way," the craggy man said, nodding vaguely over his shoulder. Again the nurse tugged at Zen's arm. He set his feet solidly on the mountain trail. "We'll talk right here." "But you are taking an unfair advantage of Nedra," the craggy man protested. "This area is heavy with radiation and this is neither the time nor the place to be swapping horses." "Then why are you two here?" "I was getting out of the area as fast as I could when I met Nedra," West said. "I would still be getting out of it, but fast, if you were not stopping me." "I'm not stopping you," Zen said. "There's the trail. Hit it. Nor you either," he said to Nedra. "Don't be silly, Kurt," the nurse said. She was pleading with him now. "All right. But on one condition. Why did you come up here in the first place? You knew the area was hot." "I—I lost my head," the nurse said promptly. "My emotions ran away with me. I'm a nurse and wounded men needed my attention. I went to them. You will come down the trail with us, won't you?" The violet eyes begged him to believe in her. "What made you lose your head?" "Why—shock, I suppose. This is the first time I was bombed. Also, the screaming of the wounded. Really, sir, I am a nurse." The way she said the word, being a nurse meant something. The violet eyes had grown tired of begging and were on the verge of spitting anger at him. "I don't believe a damned word you have said," Zen said. "You didn't lose your head back there in the prospect hole." "Please, Kurt." Again she rugged at his arm. "I'll talk to you all you want down below. But don't try to force me to stay here." Reluctantly, Zen yielded to the pressure on his arm. Relief appeared in the violet eyes and the face of the craggy man showed a sudden release from some inner strain. Dimly, he thought he had seen that craggy face somewhere before but the picture that flicked through his mind was gone before he could fit a time and place tag on it. Going down the trail, he steered the nurse toward a truck where the medics had set up equipment to test the amount of exposure to radiation. In doing this, he discovered that she was steering him in the same direction. "I don't need the medics," he protested. "I'm all right. I wasn't exposed long enough to do any damage." "Of course you're all right," she answered. Her tone was similar to that of an indulgent mother reassuring a hurt child. "You're the one who needs help," he said. He was certain she had remained too long. "I'm going to get it if I need it," she said, soothingly. Zen could hear the occasional crunch of boots behind them. West was keeping silent. He did not seem to be in a hurry. Zen started to speak to Nedra. The thought of what he wanted to say was dim in his mind and he could not quite find words for it but he knew that it had something to do with a wish that the world were different and that the human race were not trying to destroy itself. Why should he be wishing this? The reason for his thinking became a little clearer. He was wishing the world were different so that he might make love to this nurse under conditions that would permit this love to bear other fruit than frustration, despair, and death. He found himself wishing that a vine-covered cottage existed somewhere, a place where a man and a woman might live in peace and reasonable security, raising some kids who could play on a mountain slope that was not saturated with atomic radiation. "Here is the first aid station," the nurse said. "And—" "And what?" he asked her when she did not continue. She gave his arm a squeeze. "And thank you for the dream," she whispered. As Kurt Zen turned startled eyes toward her, wondering how she had known what he had been dreaming, her face seemed to dissolve in a gray mist. He plunged, unconscious, to the ground at her feet. <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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