The Man who Missed the War (47 page)

Philip had positively to fight to keep his delighted feelings from appearing in his face and to say with suitable gravity: ‘Then things don’t look too good for Hitler?’

Zadok gave him a crafty smile. ‘On the surface, no. His defeats in Russia have cost him many of his best divisions. The collapse of Italy is for him a serious blow. The destruction of the German cities and industries might even intimidate a lesser man into contemplating surrender. Fortunately, that is only one side of the picture. Much of his vital war industry is now transferred safely underground. The Russians are a long way yet from the gates of Berlin and there has been great devastation in their country. They also have suffered great losses in dead and prisoners, Stalin can still feed his armies, but his people are paying dearly for that. I do not believe that the Russians alone can defeat Hitler.’

‘There is the Anglo-American Army in Italy,’ murmured Philip.

‘It may conquer Italy; but what of the barrier of the Alps? No. Hitler’s only real danger is that the Anglo-Americans should succeed in landing an army in France. He would then be forced to fight on two open fronts.’

‘Is there any likelihood of that?’

‘Yes. The British have been planning what they call “The Return to the Continent” for a long time. Even when it looked
as if their own island would soon be conquered, Churchill created a special staff in his own office to plan for that. But Hitler may prevent them from ever launching their invasion. His plans are far advanced for waging a new type of warfare. His scientists have mastered the problem of the aerial-torpedo. These robot-aircraft packed with explosive will be sent from great distances against London and the other British cities. The Germans are also making rockets—huge rockets that will fly two hundred miles carrying ten tons of explosive. Then there are smaller rockets which will fly just as far and are filled with some sort of fire-making chemical. When the time comes all these will be sent in great numbers. They will destroy much of the Anglo-American shipping and all the British ports from which the invasion could be launched.’

‘I see,’ said Philip thoughtfully. ‘Then a sort of stalemate may result; except that, as the Allies have the lead in the air war and the German cities are already in such a bad state, the German people may rat on the Nazis and force them to ask for an armistice.’

Zadok cackled with laughter. ‘There is no fear of that. All the German people who matter
are
Nazis. As for the rest they have no power. They could no more force their will on Hitler than the Leprechauns could force their will upon us Lords of the Mountain. Hitler’s only real danger is that the Anglo-Americans might launch their invasion before his new weapons are sufficiently advanced for him to bring them fully into operation.’

‘Speaking of the Leprechauns,’ Gloria cut in quickly, ‘when we were before your Council this morning you said that the fetching of them was necessary to the preservation of their own race. What did you mean by that?’

‘You will remember that when you lived in their valley there occurred each month what you would call an electric storm. Here we are on exactly the same latitude as the Magnetic Pole. As I have told you, my race is old in Magic—or Natural Science, if you prefer that name. We can so direct electric force as to disperse all cloud above the valley of the Leprechauns and create climatic conditions suitable for them to live there. But blood is necessary to the operation. Human blood must be spilt on the stone of the Remorseless One at the same instant as the current
is sent out. The Annual levy of Leprechauns provides one for each of the thirteen months. It is these sacrifices alone which prevent the rest of the race being frozen to death.’

‘How did they come here in the first place?’ asked Philip.

‘Their ancestors were brought by ours in the ship from Atzlan. To perform a major magic it was always necessary to offer up a human sacrifice to Shaitan. The Leprechauns were used for that purpose. In the first years after my ancestors’ arrival the Leprechauns nearly died out, because life in the caves here did not suit them. It was to preserve their race that the valley was made habitable, and they were transferred there.’

‘What made you so anxious to keep them alive, then, when you’ve been killing the poor little things off ever since?’ Gloria demanded.

‘We need them as a pool on which to draw for mass sacrifices to the Remorseless One. There are certain special ceremonies. The installation of a new High Priest. The funeral of one of the Seven Lords—that is one of the elders whom you met in Council this morning. And for other exceptional occasions.’

For a moment there was silence; then, to take her mind off the terrible picture that the old man’s words had conjured up, Gloria said: ‘You haven’t told us anything about the Jap war yet.’

Zadok glanced towards Rakil, but the gaunt man had just stood up, and he said: ‘Zadok is responsible for watching London and myself for watching Washington. One of my sessions is due to start shortly, so I must leave you now. But we shall meet tomorrow. The Pacific war is very complicated, so it would be easier to explain with maps. I will take you both to see mine.’

When they had thanked him a servant was summoned, and the two newcomers were led back to their own quarters. It was a great relief to be able to sink down on their piles of cushions with the knowledge that they had passed their tests satisfactorily and that it seemed unlikely that they would be called on to lie and pretend any more at least for that evening.

At first they were a little silent as their minds were still busy getting into perspective the extraordinary things they had learnt that afternoon. Then Philip said:

‘Of course, the whole thing’s fantastic; yet everything they said
about the war makes sense. And, if they haven’t got some scientific means of finding out what’s going on, how could they know anything about it at all?’

‘I think they’re horrible,’ said Gloria. ‘And those old men are worse even than Coxitl. Zadok said just as casual as you please that they used to sacrifice the Little People to do their magics long before that was necessary to keep the valley from being frozen over like the rest of this awful country.’

‘The tragedy is that, although they’ve been doing it for all these years, it isn’t really necessary at all.’

‘How d’you mean, Boy?’

‘Well, these people are a queer mixture. Shut off like this for thousands of years from all other races, they’ve developed in some ways and not in others. They don’t seem to have any aeroplanes or motor snow-ploughs, and they may know very little about chemistry and biology, but they appear to be far ahead of us where electricity is concerned. On the other hand, they evidently still believe that the fact of killing somebody in a special kind of way will result in certain physical repercussions like thunderclaps or a shower of rain; and that is pure nonsense.’

‘D’you mean that, if they did whatever they do do with their electrical paraphernalia and didn’t bother about making a human sacrifice at all, that they’d be getting their results just the same?’

‘That’s it, darling. I’m dead-sure the two things haven’t the remotest connection. They only go on making the sacrifices because they’ve made them from time immemorial and still believe them to be an essential part of the procedure.’

Soon after this the servants came in to bath them and serve their dinner. Afterwards, as they had been forbidden to leave their apartment, there seemed no alternative but to settle down for the night. As it had been a day of great strain, they were by no means reluctant to do so, but before going to sleep Gloria said:

‘Come to think of it, Boy, ‘tis the strangest position we’re in now about the war. D’you realise that, after having known nothing at all for all these months, by being here we’ll know more than anyone on either side. I’ll bet that Hitler doesn’t know that as far back as the Battle of Britain Churchill started
planning to invade him. And I don’t suppose that Churchill knows all about those horrible new weapons Hitler’s preparing to use.’

‘That’s just what I’ve been thinking,’ Philip replied. ‘I haven’t a doubt now that we’ve been sent here for some purpose; and I believe it is to find out all we possibly can about these new weapons.’

‘What would be the good of that when we’ve no way of getting the information back to London?’

‘Yes—that’s the snag, isn’t it? Still, you never know. We’ve been saved by what almost amounts to miracles before, so another might turn up which would put us on the road for home.’ On this vague but comforting speculation they let the matter rest.

After their first meal on the following morning, the tall gaunt Rakil called for them, as he had promised, and took them down to the lower level, to a large room in which a number of middle-aged Atzlanteans were working.

Here there were no beautiful mosaics panelling the walls; instead, a number of large maps had been fixed up on them, but Philip was amazed at their crudity. They looked like the work of a child that had been set to draw maps of the continents and sections of them with red, blue and yellow chalks. Some, such as that of Europe, were much better than others, and showed a certain amount of detail, but most of them consisted only of the roughest outline and had few place-names marked on them.

‘Before we start on the Pacific war,’ said Philip, ‘may I ask you one or two questions arising out of our talk yesterday? You were saying that the Anglo-Americans are preparing to land an army on the Continent. Do you know when the attempt will take place?’

‘In about two months’ time,’ replied Rakil. ‘During the first week in June.’

‘And how long will it be before Hitler is ready to bring his new weapons into play?’

‘That is a little difficult to answer. Most of the experiments were being carried out at a place called Peenemunde on the Baltic. One night the R.A.F. sent seven hundred of their largest bombers there and smashed it. That put everything back for
many months. In fact, if it had not been for the R.A.F. raid, Hitler’s new weapons would be in operation now; by June all the ports in Southern England would be smashed up and there could be no invasion. As it is, the new weapons cannot now be ready much before June and even then it will be some months before enough of them will be available to obliterate London and the other British cities.’

‘Then for both sides time has now become the vital factor? With the Russians still pushing in the East, if the Allies succeed in landing in the West before Hitler can really get his new weapons going, he is bound to be defeated; but, if the Allies fail to do that, the war may go on indefinitely and all Britain become devastated. It looks, though, as if the Allies will get on the Continent before Hitler is able to stop them.’ Philip could scarcely conceal his excitement.

‘Perhaps.’ Rakil’s thin lips pursed themselves into a cynical smile. ‘But the Allied attempt to land might be defeated; and there are certain ways in which Hitler might be given time.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘The European war is Zadok’s affair, and no doubt he will tell you in due course.’

Turning away, Rakil led them over to a large chart of the Pacific which, even if had many apparent inaccuracies, was good enough to show the broad picture of the Japanese war, and he expounded to them on it for half an hour. During the first year the Japs had overrun millions of square miles of territory and achieved an almost unchallengeable supremacy over a vast segment of the ocean stretching from the Aleutians in the north to Java in the south; but from the winter of 1943 they had been held and pressed back on no less than four separate fronts. The Anglo-Indian armies had stabilised a front in Northern Burma, while Australians, New Zealanders and Americans under General MacArthur were gradually driving the Japanese back through the ghastly tropical swamps of New Guinea. But the most spectacular Allied progress so far had been made by the United States naval commands, which in the north had driven the Japanese from the Aleutians and in the south were systematically clearing island after island of their enemies.

Gloria and Philip were clever enough to infer that they had
no time for the Japs and that in the Far Eastern war their sympathies lay with the Americans. To have done otherwise would perhaps have aroused suspicions about their proclaimed neutrality, and they had ample opportunity for maintaining their anti-British line by expressing their pleasure that the bloodsucking British had been driven from Hong-Kong, Borneo and Malaya.

When he had brought them up-to-date Rakil went on to discuss possible future moves in the Pacific. Apparently, the Planning Staffs in Washington and London had for many months been discussing two lines of policy for defeating the Japanese. One line was to launch offensives from east and west which would drive the Japs from Burma, Malaya, New Guinea and all the Dutch East Indies until the two forces met and advanced northward against Japan; the other was to make it mainly a sea-air war and strike direct at the Philippines or Formosa and thence against Japan, leaving all the Japanese forces to the south still in possession of Malaya and the Indies, but cut off from their bases.

As Philip listened, his hair almost rose on his scalp at the awful thought of the Allied military secrets which were in the possession of these Lords of the Mountain, and the incalculable damage they might do if they had any means of communicating them to Berlin and Tokyo. When Rakil had finished speaking he said:

‘It must be absolutely fascinating for you to be able to obtain particulars of the plans of all the warring nations in advance. That really is my idea of magic.’

Rakil smiled. ‘Magic yes, but not a very big magic. No sacrifice is required, and the process differs little from what you would call going to the movies in your world. We hold sessions every day. Later today those who work under me will be holding one. If you would like to see it, I will fetch you before it starts. For the time being perhaps you would like to remain here and look at the other maps.’

When he had left them they spent nearly two hours studying the crude maps and bringing themselves up-to-date with the progress of the war. After they had finished they went up to the Atzlantean who appeared to be in charge of the place and,
although he spoke no English, he seemed to know what they wanted, as he detailed one of his juniors to lead them back to their room.