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miracles." On every side, soldiers were running from cover and standing with
their faces raised to watch. Some had thrown away their weapons already and
were clasping their hands together, and some had fallen to their knees. Even
the officers were sitting motionless, awed and cowed by what was happening.
Above, more heavenly figures, each borne on white, frilly wings, were floating
serenely downward behind the dragon.
"PREPARE TO MEET THE ENLIGHTENER," the Voice boomed. "I COME TO THEE IN
PEACE, BRINGING GOODWILL TO ALL ROBEINGS."
Inside the cargo bay of the NASO surface lander making a low pass at just
above stalling speed, Joe Fellburg checked Moses' harness one last time, gave
a satisfied nod, and motioned the Taloid to the edge of the deck by the open
loading-doors. Moses leaned forward a fraction and peered down apprehensively.
"Tell him he'll be okay if he makes sure to jump hard and clear, and counts
five before he pulls the ring," Fellburg shouted to West, who was standing by
them, holding the transmogrifier. "And look at the others who've just
jumped they're doing fine." West spoke into the microphone, verified the
interpretation that appeared on the screen, and the machine passed the message
on to Moses. Moses nodded trustingly, "Great stuff, guy," Fellburg said. He
stooped to ignite the fireworks lying on the floor and attached to Moses' pack
by wires long enough to ensure they would hang a safe distance below him, then
stood up again, stepped back a pace, and patted the top of the robot's head.
"Geronimo!" he yelled as the assemblage of sputtering flares and white-robed
robot launched itself out into space. A searchlight from the flyer, which was
circling nearby, picked out the figure as its parachute opened and it began to
descend slowly through Titan's dense atmosphere.
A gasp of wonder went up from the soldiers as at last the Master appeared,
descending in a luminous halo and bathed in a beam of heavenly brilliance.
Sallakar didn't know what to believe, but in his own mind he had already come
to a profound realization of immense theological significance:
Rejecting the Enlightener's creed would mean having to fight the
Carthogians; conversion to it, however, would not. "Hallelujah!" he shouted,
throwing his weapon aside and climbing up on the rock to stand with both arms
extended. "I am saved! This sinner has seen the light! Hail to thee,
Enlightener!"
Most of the Kroaxian army, it seemed, was only just behind him in reaching the
same conclusion. All along the column, figures were standing up, coming out
from cover, and throwing their weapons to the ground. The air rang with
hundreds of voices rejoicing:
"I see the light! I see the light!"
"The Enlightener cometh!"
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"Praise the Enlightener!"
"We are saved! We are saved!"
"No more killing! No more war!"
"All are my brothers. I shall not kill!"
For many hours the Enlightener preached great words of love and wisdom from a
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hilltop to the soldiers assembled on the slopes below. When he had finished,
they abandoned their weapons in the desert and turned back to return to
Kroaxia. The Enlightener was lifted again into the sky to be borne ahead by
the angels. He promised he would await his converts at the city of Pergassos,
where they would join him to begin together the founding of the new world.
"It's amazing! I simply don't believe this," Massey said to Zambendorf over
the link from the Orion as the departing flyer climbed higher and transmitted
a view of the shambles that had been the Paduan army.
"Just the last phase left now, Gerry," Zambendorf told him confidently.
"Next stop Padua. We've rehearsed the cast, tested all the props, perfected
our technique, and everything works just fine. What could possibly go wrong?"
An hour later, a military reconnaissance aircraft flew over the deserts
between Padua and Genoa, and sent a series of views up to the Orion showing
the entire Paduan army streaming back the way it had come. Caspar Lang was
given the report shortly after receiving confirmation that a surface lander
had disappeared on a routine descent to Padua. No signal had been received
from any of the ship's automatic fault-monitoring devices, and the crew had
been highly rated for reliability and stability; the NASO experts who
investigated were unanimous in concluding that the vessel had been hijacked.
Lang arranged with the military commander at Padua base for James Bond, the
spy employed by the Paduan king, Henry, to be airlifted ahead of the
retreating army in order to intercept it and learn what had happened.
Afterward, Bond rode off into the hills to a rendezvous with the Terrans and
was flown back to Padua Base to make his report.
The news was that the planned Paduan invasion of Genoa was off. The entire
Paduan army was out of its officers' control and was returning home to build a
new society after encountering a messiah in the desert who had converted all
of them to a new religion of tolerance and nonviolence. The messiah had
descended from the sky accompanied by flying dragons, winged angels, heavenly
voices, and all kinds of miracle-workings.
Lang's suspicions were immediately aroused. "Check Zambendorf out," he
instructed his chief administrative assistant. "He's been too quiet for too
long. I want to know where he is, and every move he's made in the last
forty-eight hours."
Neither Zambendorf nor practically anyone on his team were anywhere to be
found.
"You were supposed to have been keeping him busy and under observation at all
times!" Lang screamed at a white-faced Osmond Periera in the Globe I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]