The Eskimo Invasion (42 page)

 

 

I can't rationalize that those bastards in Harvard Circle killed him.
When he turned the muzzle of the .45 at me, all my vainglorious hopes
that he would kill me turned into lies. Instinctively I dodged from the
nothingness of death. My mind and body joined in thrusting the dagger
with all my strength, as if he were an enemy. God help my friends! My
hand would have killed him even if I had been free from narcohypnosis,
and I may have been free. Now I may be free --
The copter tilted. Dr. West stared down at the truncated mountain peaks.
Those sons of bitches in the Harvard Circle should be happy now. The
Chinese have me.

 

 

Tiny reservoirs, thin pipelines, in every direction the Chinese world
was terraced and glittering with microscopic rice paddies. Ten years ago
these had been barren mountains, but now the myriad multiplying hands
of the Esks were changing the world.

 

 

Seventeen years ago in the Arctic, I thought I was free to act like God.
I thought I realized the implications of the group of Eskimos on the
Boothia Peninsula who suddenly and mysteriously were multiplying.

 

 

By the next summer the damned fools in Ottawa and Washington were sending
in icebreakers followed by whole barge-loads of food. "Human life is sacred,"
they said. "No one must starve."

 

 

In those days, the Canadians cheerfully planned to resettle any "surplus"
Eskimos throughout the Northwest Territories. Canadian Government
officials admitted that the birthrate of the Booth Eskimos was "Startling"
but "We can hardly drown the little beggars just because their mothers
refuse to swallow the birth control pills."

 

 

With a bush planeload of luggage, I flew back to the Boothia Peninsula.
Having made my decision, I felt tremendous freedom to act. Gambling with
people's lives was my everyday work when I was a young doctor in hospital
residency. At that time, seventeen years ago when I landed my float plane
on LaRue Lake, the staphylococcus strain which specifically infected the
Fallopian tubes and spermatic ducts had not been fully tested on a broad
sample of human races, but I acted.

 

 

The Esks turned out to be immune to ordinary human infections.

 

 

But camped near the refuse heap of the former Cultural Sanctuary Guard
Station, twenty-two old men and women, real Eskimos, died. They should
not have died, but they died from this minor staphylococcus infection.

 

 

The tragedy became much greater than my life or death, or the death of
the twenty-two Eskimos. It was my trial for attempted genocide that
focused the attention of the world upon the hunger of the rapidly
increasing Esks. The Swedes and Russians sent food.

 

 

In the United Nations General Assembly, the Oriental bloc seized upon my
guilt and twisted it into the guilt of Canada and the United States. The
Chinese and other nations sent massive aid. Evacuation of surplus Eskimos
to any country willing to accept them and pay the transportation costs
began. Huge Chinese jet transports swooped down. The Esks spread --
This is my crucial guilt, that my own actions aided the spread of Esks.
My trial attracted attention to them, so the Chinese "rescued" them.
I should have killed myself in prison. I should not have lived to see
a billion Esks in China alone.

 

 

The helicopter veered, and far below was exposed the gray overcast that
shrouds any modern city. The copter pilot chattered through his radio
to the ground.

 

 

Baring his teeth, Dr. West lunged at the door of the helicopter. As his
skull rammed the door outward, his eyes glimpsed nothingness.

 

 

Surprisingly strong hands dragged his head and shoulders back into
the helicopter.

 

 

"Liu, this one would have fallen to his ancestors -- but he paused."

 

 

The blades of the helicopter whirled through the thickening smog.
The continuous squealing agony of its jet engine lowered. With a bounce
that slammed Dr. West's face against the floor, the copter landed,
and the Maoist policeman kicked the door open.

 

 

"You're my responsibility no more," the young policeman laughed with relief,
and Dr. West was dragged out of the copter by noisy black-uniformed young
Chinese. "The Interrogator must think this Big-Nose is a big fish,"
a girl's voice excitedly laughed. Another voice asked: "Has proper
caution been taken to telephone Peking, Capital of the World, Praise be
to Mao III?" A second girl's voice laughed: "Liu, you handsome pilot,
where are you studying tonight?"

 

 

An inhaling gasp quieted the black-uniformed crowd on the heliroof of
the massive concrete police headquarters.

 

 

"Has no protection been taken against infection?" an authoritative voice
demanded. "You are all quarantined! Orderly, place the assassin on the cart.
No, don't wheel him this way. Take him down through the freight elevator."

 

 

Dr. West was to recognize this cold voice again after he had been stripped,
sprayed, fumigated, and pricked for a blood sample.

 

 

He lay on a cold operating table.

 

 

"Cover him with a sheet." It was the voice of the Interrogator.

 

 

The ceiling was enameled white.

 

 

"Make him comfortable with a 2 cc injection."

 

 

Dr. West began to relax. He felt warmer. The effect was similar to a
narcotic the Harvard Circle had administered.

 

 

"You will be interested to know," the disembodied voice said smoothly
in English, "a large proportion of the working people in the United
States, and the intellectuals such as yourself, as you no doubt know,
are in sympathy with the peace-loving aims of the Chinese Federation
of Nations. When I say interested, I mean you will be interested to
know that we already had been notified of your war-mongering flight by
many highly placed sources in the United States. The exact flight plan
of your intruding aircraft was known to us, and proper authorities had
been notified, and of course your obsolete aircraft was tracked by our
radar and our excellent interceptors, which could have shot it down at
any time had such an order been given."

 

 

Dr. West listened to the intense voice, but had difficulty following
its meanings.

 

 

"You will be interested to know that in a few hours our excellent medical
technicians will have positively identified the aerosol spray which
descended from your aircraft, and no doubt they already have several
cures for it. You need not fear symptoms from your own exposure to the
spray. We will inoculate you against its effects. To confirm our already
excellent diagnosis, please tell us what virus is involved."

 

 

Dr. West awakened slightly. He had assumed, guessed, that a bacterial agent
of the staph-strep group had been used. This bacterium should be easily
recognizable by culturing and microscopic inspection. Why was the
Interrogator talking about a virus? Pathologists and technicians tend
to blame a virus when NOTHING can be found.

 

 

"What virus were you forced to spray against your will upon helpless women
and children? Each word you speak will save the life of a child -- "

 

 

Dr. West knew that the only effective resistance when undergoing
interrogation is to say nothing. As in a psychological test, anything
you say, lie or truth, will be filed and cross-filed, so that the more
you lie, the more clearly the watery rings of truth will rise through
the pooi of lies.

 

 

Dr. West tried to say nothing.

 

 

But his mouth opened. As his mouth began to speak, Dr. West realized that
this would not be a two-way dialogue between himself and the Interrogator.
Three points of view were present. The third was speaking from his mouth
now. The Harvard Circle had entered the interrogation room -- in spirit,
a damn treacherous spirit!

 

 

"I am Dr. Joseph West," his mouth announced. "I am the man who attempted to
exterminate the Eskhnos." What was the Harvard Circle trying to do to him?

 

 

"We are aware of who you are." Then the Interrogator whispered something
aside to someone else. "Answer our questions please," the Interrogator
continued. "Do not volunteer extraneous information. We know everything
already. Answer our questions quickly," the Interrogator's voice rose.
"What is the viral agent?"

 

 

"I am Dr. West," his mouth repeated, "Dr. Joseph West. This can be easily
checked. No doubt there are photographs of me in your news archives.
Dr. Joseph West, I was convicted of Eskimo genocide. I am acknowledged
to be the greatest expert on the Esks, Eskimos, Dream Persons as you
term them."

 

 

"Answer the question! What is the virus?" The Interrogator sounded nervous.
"What's the virus?"

 

 

Dr. West stared at the ceiling grill. Something had winked, reflected
light, a glass lens behind the grill. No doubt they were filming and
recording --

 

 

He tried to move his arm, but it was strapped, and something was pressing
into his wrist. No doubt his pulse and perspiration reactions were being
taped --

 

 

Those sons of bitches! The Harvard Circle really might have notified
Chinese Communist agents in the United States that his aircraft was
coming over!

 

 

"Your Mark III dagger is a forgery! Your pulse becomes abnormally fast,"
the Interrogator's voice said. "You feel guilt and fear -- but be assured
we will do nothing to harm you. We bow down before the immortal thoughts
of the Spirit of our Grandfather Mao: All men should be treated both
with justice and mercy. Therefore feel free -- to tell us the virus!
-- Then begin by telling why you murdered your companion."

 

 

What speeded Dr. West's pulse rate was grief growing to rage. Those CIA
sons of bitches callously had prepared him to murder the Major. One minor
maneuver. The spraying, their ejection in the capsule, the dagger, the signal
sender, the stabbing, he thought all were intended to increase his chances
of being taken alive by the Maoist police. All were intended to give him
an aura of importance.

 

 

"I am Dr. Joseph West," his mouth repeated with sickening fatuousness.

 

 

"Damm it!" Dr. West shouted. "How the hell do I know what was in that spray.
They let me think it was a bacterial agent to sterilize the Esks,
to demonstrate to you that selective sterilization of the Esks is possible.
And it may be possible!"

 

 

"Good, we are glad to hear that you will cooperate. In typical fashion,
your Central Intelligence Agency has tricked you. What virus do you think
the spray contained?"

 

 

"Why do you keep saying virus?" Dr. West retorted. "In English translation,
can't you differentiate between virus and bacteria? Tell me in Mandarin
Chinese."

 

 

"Ah?" And in Mandarin the Interrogator painstakingly tried to describe
a virus.

 

 

"Still a virus?" Dr. West said impatiently. "If you want a virus,
I'll give you three guesses. One, a virus with a long incubation period.
In about twenty-one days the Esks will undergo interesting changes.
Personality reversal. Cute. Changed into what they really are. They'll
tear you apart." Dr. West gasped for breath, unsure whether he or the
Harvard Circle was lying now. Sometimes he had a vicious sense of humor.

 

 

"Number two," he laughed. "The spray could consist of distilled water.
No wonder your medical personnel are baffled. But don't let it baffle you.
It means the spray run was a decoy. The CIA wanted to use an Air Force
plane to attract your attention to something or distract your attention
from something. But the State Department in Washington did not want the
CIA Warhawks to use a real bacterial spray that would force you toward
retaliation. So, distilled water? Does that make Peking feel safer?"

 

 

"Number three," Dr. West laughed in confusion. "This is the possibility
to worry you tonight. You'll never sweat it out of me because I don't
know what it is -- except to say that those sons of bitches in the
Harvard Circle get up very very early in the morning, and when they go
to this much trouble to deliver a man to China, they must have one hell
of a reason."

 

 

The Interrogator made a sad sighing sound. "Please, but you must tell us
the truth, Dr. West. You are a brilliant man, a scientist who searches
for Truth. Many years ago when you made your decision to eliminate the
Dream Persons, you acted freely because you believed it was an act of
Truth. In China you would never have been considered a criminal because
you believed in Truth, even mistaken Truth, because mistakes can be so
freely confessed. You could -- you still can live here freely to work and
study. In the Chinese Federation of Nations, we give honor and assistance
to all searchers after Truth. As our Grandfather Mao once said: 'May a
thousand flowers bloom, a thousand schools of thought contend.' Only in
China are you free to speak the Truth. What virus did your Central
Intelligence Agency force you to spray upon the peace-loving people of
the world?"

 

 

This soothing flow of words continued until Dr. West began to drowse.
He was physically exhausted. The third party to the triogue, the Harvard
Circle, refused to feed new answers into his mouth.

 

 

It was as if the start of the interrogation had cued from his skull his oral
self-identification as Dr. Joseph West, famous genocide expert on Esks.
Now the Harvard Circle wanted to say no more at this time. Or he had
forgotten what he was supposed --