The Puppet Masters

by Robert Anson Heinlein

  "Hurry, son!"

  "On my way!" I dashed out of there and wasted no more breath talking to him, but made speed. Dad's assignment was directly north of mine, paralleling it and fronting on one of those pint-sized downtown parks. When I got around the block I did not see him at first and ran on past him.

  "Here, son, over here-at the car!" This time I could hear him both through the phone and my bare ear. I swung around and spotted the car, a big Cadillac duo much like the Section often used. There was someone inside but it was too dark for me to see whether or not it was the Old Man. I approached cautiously until I heard him say, "Thank God! I thought you would never come," and knew that it was he.

  I had to duck to get in through the door. It was then that he clipped me.

  I came to, to find my hands tied and my ankles as well. I was in the second driver's seat of the car and the Old Man was in the other, at the controls. The wheel on my side was latched up out of the way. The sudden realization that the car was in the air brought me fully awake.

  He turned and said cheerfully, "Feeling better?" I could see his slug, riding high on his shoulders.

  "Some better," I admitted.

  "Sorry I had to hit you," he went on, "but there was no other way."

  "I suppose not."

  "I'll have to leave you tied up for the present; you know that. Later on we can make better arrangements." He grinned, his old wicked grin. Most amazingly his own personality came through with every word the slug said.

  I did not ask what "better arrangements" were possible; I did not need nor want to know. I concentrated on checking my bonds; I need not have bothered-the Old Man had given them his personal attention.

  "Where are we going?" I asked.

  "South." He fiddled with the controls. "'Way south. Just give me a moment to lay this heap in the groove and I will explain what's in store for us." He was busy for a few seconds, then said, "There-that will hold her until she levels off at thirty thousand."

  The mention of that much altitude caused me to take a quick look at the control board. The duo did not merely look like one of the Section's cars; it actually was one of our souped-up jobs. "Where did you get this car?" I asked.

  "The Section had it cached in Jefferson City. I looked, and, sure enough, nobody had found it. Fortunate, wasn't it?"

  There could be a second opinion on that point, I thought, but I did not argue. I was still checking the possibilities-and finding them somewhere between slim and hopeless. My own gun was gone, as I could tell by the pressure. He was probably carrying his on the side away from me; it was not in sight.

  "But that was not the best of it," he went on; "I had the good luck to be captured by what was almost certainly the only healthy master in the whole of Jefferson City-not that I believe in luck. So we win after all." He chuckled. "It's like playing both sides of a very difficult chess game."

  "You did not tell me where we are going?" I persisted. I did not know that it would help, but I was getting nowhere fast and talking was the only action open to me.

  He considered. "Out of the United States, certainly. My master may be the only one free of nine-day fever in the whole continent and I don't dare take a chance. I think the Yucatan peninsula would suit us-that's where I've got her pointed. We can hole up there and increase our numbers and work on south. When we do come back-and we will! -we won't make the same mistakes."

  I said, "Dad, can't you take these ties off me? I'm losing circulation. You know you can trust me."

  "Presently, presently-all in good time. Wait until we go full automatic." The car was still climbing; souped up or not, thirty thousand was a long pull for a car that had started out as a family model.

  I said, "You seem to forget that I was with the masters a long time. I know the score-and I give you my word of honor."

  He grinned. "Don't teach grandma how to steal sheep. If I let you loose now, you'll kill me or I'll have to kill you. And I want you alive. We're going places, son-you and me. We're fast and we're smart and we are just what the doctor ordered."

  I did not have an answer. He went on, "Just the same-about you knowing the score: why didn't you tell me the score, son? Why did you hold out on me?"

  "Huh?"

  "You didn't tell me how it felt. Son, I had no idea that a man could feel such a sense of peace and contentment and well-being. This is the happiest I've been in years, the happiest since-" he suddenly looked puzzled, and then went on, "since your mother died. But never mind that; this is better. You should have told me."

  Disgust suddenly poured over me and I forgot the cautious game I was playing. "Maybe I didn't see it that way. And neither would you, you crazy old fool, if you didn't have a filthy slug riding you, talking through your mouth, thinking with your brain!"

  "Take it easy, son," he said gently-and so help me, his voice did soothe me. "You'll know better in a little while. Believe me, this is what we were intended for, this is our destiny. Mankind has been divided, warring with himself. The masters will make him whole again."

  I thought to myself that there were probably custard heads just screwy enough to fall for such a line-surrender their souls willingly for a promise of security and peace. But I did not say so; I was clamping my jaws to keep from throwing up.

  "But you need not wait much longer," he said suddenly, glancing at the board. "I'll nail her down in the groove." He adjusted his dead-reckoner bug, checked his board, and set his controls. "That's a relief. Next stop: Yucatan. Now to work." He got out of his chair and knelt beside me in the crowded space. "Got to be safe," he said, as he strapped the safety belt across my middle.

  I brought my knees up in his face.

  He reared up and looked at me without anger. "Naughty, naughty. I could resent that-but the masters don't go in for resentment. Now be good." He went ahead, checking my wrists and feet. His nose was bleeding but he did not bother to wipe it. "You'll do," he said. "Now be patient; it won't be long."

  He went back to the other control seat, sat down and leaned forward, elbows on knees. It brought his master directly into my view.

  Nothing happened for some minutes, nor could I think of anything to do other than strain at my bonds. By his appearance, the Old Man was asleep, but I placed no trust in that.

  A line formed straight down the middle of the horny brown covering of the slug.

  As I watched it, it widened. Presently I could see the clotted opalescent horror underneath. The space between the two halves of the shell widened-and I realized that the slug was fissioning, sucking life and matter out of the body of my father to make two of itself.

  I realized, too, with rigid terror, that I had no more than five minutes of individual life left to me. My new master was being born and soon would be ready to mount me.

  Had it been humanly possible for flesh and bone to break the ties on me I would have broken them. I did not succeed. The Old Man paid no attention to my struggles. I doubt if he were conscious; the slugs must surely give up some measure of control while they are occupied with splitting. It must be that they simply immobilize the slave. As may be-the Old Man did not move.

  By the time I had given up, worn out and sure that I could not break loose, I could see the ciliated silvery line down the center of the slug proper which means that fission is about to be complete. It was that which changed my line of reasoning, if there were reason left in my churning skull.

  My hands were tied behind me, my ankles were tied, and I was belted tight across the middle to the chair. But my legs, even though fastened together, were free from my waist down; the seat had no knee belts.

  I slumped down in the chair to get even more reach and swung my legs up high. I brought them down smashingly across the board-and set off every launching unit in her racks at once.

  That adds up to a lot of g's-how many, I don't know, for I don't know how full her racks were. But there were plenty. We were both slammed back against the seats. Dad much harder than I was, since I was strapped down. He was
thrown against the back of his seat, with his slug, open and helpless, crushed between the two masses.

  It splashed.

  And Dad himself was caught in that terrible, total reflex, that spasm of every muscle that I had seen three times before. He bounced forward against the wheel, face contorted, fingers writhing.

  The car dived.

  I sat there and watched it dive, if you call it sitting when you are held in place only by the belt. If Dad's body had not hopelessly fouled the controls I might have been able to do something about it-gotten her headed up again perhaps-with my bound feet. As it was, I tried but with no success at all. The controls were probably jammed as well as fouled.

  The altimeter was clicking away busily. We had dropped to eleven thousand feet before I found time to glance at it. Then it was nine . . . seven . . . six-and we entered our last mile.

  At fifteen hundred the radar interlock with the altimeter cut in and the nose units fired one at a time. The belt buffeted me across the stomach each time and I finally did throw up. I was thinking that I was saved, that now the ship would level off-though I should have known better. Dad being jammed up against the wheel as he was.

  I was still thinking so as we crashed.

  I came to by becoming slowly aware of a gently rocking motion. I was annoyed by it, I wanted it to stop; even a slight motion seemed to cause me more pain than I could bear. I managed to get one eye open-the other would not open at all-and looked dully around for the source of my annoyance.

  Above me was the floor of the car, but I stared at it for a long time before I placed it as such. By the time I figured out what it was I was somewhat aware of where I was and what had happened. I remembered the dive and the crash-and realized that we must have crashed not into the ground but into some body of water-the Gulf of Mexico-but I did not really care.

  With a sudden burst of grief I mourned my father.

  The broken belt of my seat was flapping uselessly just above me. My hands were still tied and so were my ankles, and one arm at least seemed to be broken. One eye was stuck shut and it hurt me to breathe; I quit taking stock of my injuries. Dad was no longer plastered against the wheel and that puzzled me. With painful effort I rolled my head over to see the rest of the car with my one good eye. He was lying not far from me, three feet or so, from my head to his. He was bloody and cold and I was sure that he was dead. I think it took me about a half hour to cross that three feet.

  I lay face to face with him, almost cheek to cheek. So far as I could tell there was no trace of life, nor, from the odd and twisted way in which he lay, did it seem possible.

  "Dad," I said hoarsely. Then I screamed it. "Dad!"

  His eyes flickered but did not open. "Hello, son," he whispered. "Thanks, boy, thanks-" His voice died out.

  I wanted to shake him but all I could do was shout. "Dad! Wake up-are you all right?"

  He spoke again, as if every word were a painful task. "Your mother-said to tell you . . . she was-proud of you." His voice died out again and his breathing was labored in that ominous dry-stick sound.

  "Dad," I sobbed, "don't die-I can't get along without you."

  His eyes opened wide. "Yes, you can, son." He paused and labored, then added, "I'm hurt, boy." His eyes closed again.

  I could not get any more out of him, though I shouted and screamed. Presently I lay my face against his and let my tears mix with the dirt and blood.

  Chapter 35

  And now to clean up Titan!

  Each of us who are going is writing one of these reports, for we know that we may not come back. If not, this is our legacy to free human beings-all that we learned and all that we know of how the titan parasites operate and what must be guarded against. For Kelly was right; there is no getting Humpty-Dumpty back together. In spite of the almost complete success of Schedule Mercy there is no way to be sure that the slugs are all gone. No longer ago than last week it was reported that a bear was shot, up Yukon way, wearing a hump.

  The race will have to be always on guard; most especially it will have to be on guard about twenty-five years from now if we don't come back-but the flying saucers do. We don't know why the titan monsters follow the twenty-nine year cycle of Saturn's "year", but they do. The human race has many cycles which match the Earth year; the reasons may be equally simple for the titans. We hope that they are active only at one period of their "year"; if they are. Operation Vengeance may have easy pickings. Not that we are counting on it. I am going out, heaven help us, as an "applied psychologist (exotic)", but I am also a combat trooper, as is every one of us, from chaplain to cook. This is for keeps and we intend to show those slugs that they made the mistake of tangling with the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting-and ablest-form of life in this section of space, a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed.

  (I have a private hope that we will find some way to save the little elf creatures, the androgynes. We weren't able to save any of those in the saucer we found near Kansas City when the fighting was over, but that doesn't prove anything. I think we could get along with the elves. They are probably the real natives of Titan, anyhow; certainly they aren't related to the slugs.)

  Whether we make it, or not, the human race has got to keep up its well-earned reputation for ferocity. If the slugs taught us anything, it was that the price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, any time, and with utter recklessness. If we did not learn that, well-"Dinosaurs, move over! We are ready to become extinct."

  For who knows what dirty tricks may be lurking around this universe? The slugs may be simple and open and friendly compared with, let us say, the natives of the planets of Sirius. If this is just the opener, we had better learn from it for the main event. We thought space was empty and that we were automatically the lords of creation-even after we "conquered" space we thought so; Mars was already dead and Venus had not really gotten started. Well, if Man wants to be top dog-or even a respected neighbor-he'll have to fight for it. Beat the plowshares back into swords; the other was a maiden aunt's fancy.

  Every one of us who is going has been possessed at least once. Only those who have been hag-ridden can know how tricky the slugs are, how constantly one must be on guard-or how deeply one must hate. The trip, they tell me, will take about twelve years, which will give Mary and me time to finish our honeymoon. Oh, yes, Mary is going; most of us are married couples and the single men are balanced by an equal number of single women. Twelve years isn't a trip; it's a way of living.

  When I told Mary that we were going to Saturn her single comment was, "Yes, dear."

  We'll have time for two or three kids, too. As Dad says, "The race must go on, even if it doesn't know where."

  This report is loose-jointed in spots, and I can see that some must be cut and some must be censored before it is transcribed. But I have put everything into it, as I saw it and as I felt it, for war with another race is psychological war, not war of gadgets, and what I thought and what I felt may be more important than what I did.

  I am finishing this report in Space Station Beta, from which we will transship to our vessel U.N.S. Avenger. I will not have time to make corrections; this will have to go as is, for the historians to have fun with. We said good-by to Dad last night at Pikes Peak Port and left our little girl with him. She did not understand and that was hard. But it was better so-and Mary and I will look into the matter of having another, at once.

  When I said good-by Dad corrected me. "So long, you mean. You'll be back and I intend to hang on, getting crankier and meaner every year, until you do." I said I hoped so. He nodded. "You'll make it. You're too tough and mean to die. I've got a lot of confidence in you and the likes of you, son."

  We are about to transship. I feel exhilarated. Puppet masters-the free men are coming to kill you!

  Death and Destruction!

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