Earth Cult (19 page)

‘What's that?'

‘Why are we all sitting round trying to figure out what Professor Friedmann is doing down there and how we can reach him when Karl Leach is obviously the man we should be talking to? It might even be that Leach knows how to get past the black rock and into the detection chamber. He was in charge of the underground installation; if anyone knows what Professor Friedmann is up to it should be him.'

Lee Merriam didn't immediately seize upon this brilliant notion.

‘Well?' Frank demanded.

‘I'm afraid Dr Leach isn't in any fit state to advise anybody about anything,' Lee Merriam said soberly.

‘What do you mean?'

‘After you left this morning we had to put him under heavy sedation. I thought his condition was temporary, that he was over-wrought and just needed to calm down and take it easy for a while. Seems I was mistaken.'

‘What happened?' asked Cal Renfield.

‘What didn't happen, you mean. He came round and clobbered Smitty – that's the medical orderly – with a chair. Damn near broke his neck. Then he starts running all over the place yelling at the top of his voice. He even tried to go underground but we stopped him just in time. He's only a little guy but you wouldn't believe the strength of the man – took three of us to restrain him and get him quietened down again.'

‘We believe you,' Helen said.

‘Where is he now?' Frank said.

‘In the sick bay.'

‘Sedated?'

‘No,' said Lee Merriam heavily. ‘Strapped down. And that's how he stays till we get a doctor to look him over. I'm taking no more chances.'

‘With Professor Friedmann underground and Dr Leach on the surface, seems like you got your hands full,' Cal Renfield said, lighting a cigarette. He gave the impression of being ironically amused by it all, rather as if this was only what he had been expecting – and now that his prediction had come true he could view the situation with a kind of indulgent mockery. Frank recognized this as the trait that Helen had inherited, the same rather cynical world-weary attitude towards the passing parade with its follies and false hopes and foolish vanities.

‘I'd like to see him,' Frank said.

‘It won't do any good,' Lee Merriam insisted. ‘I tried to talk to him earlier. He wasn't making any sense.'

‘Just the same, Lee.'

Lee Merriam sighed, shaking his head as if granting a
favour under sufferance, and without a word led them to another hut where they found the medical orderly, his head swathed in bandages, keeping an uneasy watch over the patient. Dr Leach was strapped to a leather couch, eyes closed, black hair awry; he appeared to be asleep.

‘He hasn't moved for the past hour,' Smitty reported. He glanced suspiciously at the supine man on the bench. ‘But after what happened last time I wouldn't expect that to mean a thing. The guy is deranged. Absolutely.'

Frank remembered the medical orderly as the nervous young man who hadn't wished to be left alone when the rescue party had been checking out the tunnels. Now he looked particularly woebegone, and with a rapid uneasy flicker in his eyes as if half-expecting Dr Leach to suddenly break free and make a leap for his throat with clawed hands.

‘You haven't given him a shot of anything?' Frank said.

The young man shook his head. ‘I don't want to go anywhere near him. Just send for the doctor and ship him out of here.' He stood well away from the bench, keeping a clear distance.

‘We're wasting time,' Lee Merriam said impatiently. ‘Come on, Frank, this isn't going to do any good. The guy is off his head, he isn't going to be of any help to us now.'

‘Are you hoping he might tell us something?' Helen asked.

‘He knows Professor Friedmann better than anybody, so it's possible he knows why the Professor has gone down into the detection chamber and the reason he's sealed himself in – if that, in fact, is what's happened.' He looked at Lee Merriam. ‘It could be that Professor Friedmann is being held there against his will.'

‘Held there?' Lee Merriam said, frowning. ‘But there's nobody else in the mine. What are you talking about?'

Frank went over to the bench and Dr Leach's eyes opened instantly. They were wild and dark. The thick unbroken growth of his eyebrows was like a black bar across his forehead. He stared at Frank without recognition, lying
perfectly still, and it was Helen who voiced the thought that was in Frank's mind.

‘He looks exactly like one of the babies,' she said wonderingly, her tone perplexed. ‘The kids in the hospital – don't you think so?' she appealed to her father.

‘I wouldn't have said so,' Cal Renfield replied pragmatically.

Frank stood at the side of the bench, gazing calmly down on Dr Leach; he could almost feel the tension in the small strongly-built body, the nervous and emotional energy surging through him like electricity. Had his brain, as those of the four scientists, also been affected by radiation? Was there a tiny malevolent tumour slowly unfolding behind those wild staring eyes, infiltrating the healthy brain cells and replacing them with the poison of madness, the ultimate finality of death?

He said quietly, ‘Why did you want to go underground, Karl? Were you trying to help Professor Friedmann?'

Dr Leach blinked twice, very slowly, like somebody who has just awakened in a strange room and can't remember how he came to be there. It crossed Frank's mind that perhaps he had lost the power of speech, that he had been struck dumb, and he was therefore surprised by the sane, reasonable tone of Leach's voice as if he were carrying on a normal conversation that had been momentarily interrupted.

‘It was Edmund who first had the idea, I admit that. He told me and I didn't believe him. Would you have believed him? Would anybody? He had to prove it to me – I insisted on that – and he did prove it. The count was high, we expected that. It only confirmed what we already knew. But I will admit, I am perfectly willing to admit, that it was Edmund who first had the idea. And he proved it.'

He smiled quite gently, almost dreamily, as if at a fond recollection.

‘Was it the count that proved it to you?' Frank asked in the same conversational tone.

‘No, no…' Leach shook his head, experiencing difficulty
due to the tightness of the leather straps binding his arms and chest. There was a stubble of beard on his jaw through which gleamed a faint sheen of perspiration. ‘I told you, weren't you listening? We already
knew
– Edmund knew and he proved it to me. The count merely confirmed it. A rate of 3 × 10
⁴
– it was very exciting when the printout confirmed it. We had a little celebration, Edmund and I, because then we knew we were right.'

‘Right about the antineutrinos,' Frank said.

‘No,'
said Karl Leach snappily, in the manner of someone being wilfully misunderstood. ‘The increased rate of antineutrinos only served to prove that we had been right all along. That Edmund's theory was validated.'

‘So the count finally confirmed it; but how did Edmund prove it to you in the first place? What did he say to convince you?'

‘He proved it to me. I've already said that. He proved it to me.'

‘Yes, but how?'

Leach stared blankly past Frank's head, his eyes fixed on the ceiling; they became glazed and lost; was he entering into a coma or simply trying to remember?

‘How did he prove his theory?' Frank persisted softly. ‘His theory of—?'

‘His theory about the Earth.' Leach came back to himself. ‘His theory about the Earth five billion years ago.'

Frank breathed slowly and carefully. ‘Before it was formed.'

‘His theory about the plasma in space. The plasma drifted in space, it was conscious, possessed intelligence, had the power of logical thought.'

‘And the plasma became the Earth. The plasma that was conscious coalesced to form the Earth – is that what Edmund believed?'

‘For ten billion years, since the instant of Creation, the plasma had evolved, drifting in space, seeking form and identity. Edmund knew that. He knew that one day it would find form and identity and become the Sun and the planets.
He was proved right, it came to pass, the Sun and the planets were formed. We are the living proof that Edmund was right.'

Karl Leach had begun to tense against the straps, his fists clenching and opening, clenching again. His dark eyes were fierce, staring into space, lost in mysterious visions.

‘Edmund was proved right,' Frank prompted him. He wanted Leach to continue his line of thought, yet he seemed to be drifting away, inhabiting another plane of existence.

‘Yes,' said Leach in a curious drone.

‘The Sun and the planets were formed from the plasma which had drifted in space since the beginning of Creation. Edmund believed that and he proved it to you—'

‘But the Earth had waited. It had waited five billion years to be awakened. It had lain dormant, sleeping, awaiting the signal. That was when we knew that the Earth was ready to awaken. Its consciousness was to be awakened for the first time in five billion years.'

Frank waited a moment, studying the malformed human being who was twisting and turning against the straps. The sweat from his chest and armpits had spread like a dark stain across the front of his shirt.

‘The signal,' Frank said quietly. ‘The signal came to the Earth in the form of antineutrinos.'

‘The rate was 3 × 10
⁴
,' said Karl Leach with great satisfaction. ‘We knew it would come. It was only a matter of time. Edmund had said it would come
in our lifetime
.' He sounded exultant.

‘And then you knew he was right.'

‘The signal came. It came in our lifetime.'

‘Edmund was proved right.'

‘Yes,' said Leach, hissing it.

‘Why has he gone below?' Frank asked casually, slipping the question in as if it were only of minor interest.

‘To prepare the way,' Leach said, the obvious answer to a naive question.

‘Yes, of course,' Frank said. ‘To prepare the way.' He glanced sideways at the others, who had become immobile;
the medical orderly had retreated even farther, standing behind Lee Merriam in an attempt to put as much muscle and brawn as possible between him and the sweating staring man on the couch.

Helen was about to speak and Frank cautioned her to remain silent. He said in a gentle, agreeable tone, ‘Does Edmund need your help, Karl? Or can he prepare the way alone?'

‘Edmund is the leader. He will make the path straight. The signal will come, bringing the Message from the centre of the Galaxy. Edmund awaits the Message and then everything will be made known: he has prepared the way: everything is ready.'

‘And what is the message? Does Edmund know? Do you know?'

‘When it comes all will be made known. The Earth will awaken, it will become conscious and sentient once more. It has slept in silence for five billion years and now the way has been prepared. The signal comes, the Message is received, the Earth will awaken …'

His eyes became sightless, gazing beyond the confines of the room with a dull fixedness as if witnessing cosmic events out there in the depths of space. He had ceased to live in the real world: his surroundings were no more than vague shadows, the people insubstantial phantoms flitting on the edge of his conscious awareness. Reality for Dr Karl Leach comprised the stream of antineutrinos flooding in from the galactic centre at the speed of light. With them they brought information which would trigger the awakening of the planet. It was all there, taking place in front of his eyes, his head filled with wondrous visions of the Earth regaining consciousness after five billion years.

Frank realized that Leach was reaching a stage when he would either lapse into a coma or become totally incoherent, losing altogether the facility to communicate. The vital question was did he know how to get through into the detection chamber? Was there some way to get past the black rock and reach Professor Friedmann before he was able to
carry out the preparation for … what? How was he to ‘make the path straight', as Leach called it? Did it involve the detection tanks – or was it more a mental preparation, a kind of metaphysical rite that Professor Friedmann had to perform?

Frank had to repeat Leach's name several times before his eyes hardened into focus. The thick black hair was wet at the roots, strands of it clinging to his neck and forehead.

‘We want to help Edmund,' Frank said in a soft urgent whisper. ‘We want to help him prepare the way. Listen, Karl, how do we help him? You must tell us how to reach him.'

‘No longer possible. The mountain will not allow it. The Earth has sealed up its secret places. Too late.'

Again a phrase that was reminiscent of Cabel's preaching: the belief in the mountain as a living organism, a conscious terrestrial force that had the inherent dynamism to alter its geophysical structure.

‘There must be a way through, Karl.'

‘No way possible. The chamber is sealed. Edmund must prepare the way. The mountain will protect him.'

‘How must he prepare? What has he to do?'

Leach smiled glassily, a sly child harbouring a secret.

‘Is it something to do with the tanks? Does he need to change the chemical balance to speed up the rate of interaction?'

Karl Leach continued to smile. His face was an empty smiling mask concealing a hundred thousand million brain cells engaged in civil war. If the signal came and the Message was received and the Earth awakened it was unlikely he would ever know about it.

They were standing in the compound looking towards the bright orange fretwork above the mine-head which supported the winding gear. Lee Merriam said, ‘Do you believe me now? Didn't I tell you that Dr Leach is off his rocker?'

‘Maybe less than we suppose,' Frank said.