Second Variety

The earth was cooling off. Klaus took a deepbreath, filling his lungs. He and Hendricks stepped onto the ground,out of the tunnel. Klaus planted his feet wide apart, the rifle up,watching and listening. Hendricks crouched by the tunnel mouth, tuningthe small transmitter.

  "Any luck?" Klaus asked presently.

  "Not yet."

  "Keep trying. Tell them what happened."

  Hendricks kept trying. Without success. Finally he lowered theantenna. "It's useless. They can't hear me. Or they hear me and won'tanswer. Or--"

  "Or they don't exist."

  "I'll try once more." Hendricks raised the antenna. "Scott, can youhear me? Come in!"

  He listened. There was only static. Then, still very faintly--

  "This is Scott."

  His fingers tightened. "Scott! Is it you?"

  "This is Scott."

  Klaus squatted down. "Is it your command?"

  "Scott, listen. Do you understand? About them, the claws. Did you getmy message? Did you hear me?"

  "Yes." Faintly. Almost inaudible. He could hardly make out the word.

  "You got my message? Is everything all right at the bunker? None ofthem have got in?"

  "Everything is all right."

  "Have they tried to get in?"

  The voice was weaker.

  "No."

  Hendricks turned to Klaus. "They're all right."

  "Have they been attacked?"

  "No." Hendricks pressed the phone tighter to his ear. "Scott, I canhardly hear you. Have you notified the Moon Base? Do they know? Arethey alerted?"

  No answer.

  "Scott! Can you hear me?"

  Silence.

  Hendricks relaxed, sagging. "Faded out. Must be radiation pools."

  * * * * *

  Hendricks and Klaus looked at each other. Neither of them saidanything. After a time Klaus said, "Did it sound like any of your men?Could you identify the voice?"

  "It was too faint."

  "You couldn't be certain?"

  "No."

  "Then it could have been--"

  "I don't know. Now I'm not sure. Let's go back down and get the lidclosed."

  They climbed back down the ladder slowly, into the warm cellar. Klausbolted the lid behind them. Tasso waited for them, her faceexpressionless.

  "Any luck?" she asked.

  Neither of them answered. "Well?" Klaus said at last. "What do youthink, Major? Was it your officer, or was it one of _them_?"

  "I don't know."

  "Then we're just where we were before."

  Hendricks stared down at the floor, his jaw set. "We'll have to go. Tobe sure."

  "Anyhow, we have food here for only a few weeks. We'd have to go upafter that, in any case."

  "Apparently so."

  "What's wrong?" Tasso demanded. "Did you get across to your bunker?What's the matter?"

  "It may have been one of my men," Hendricks said slowly. "Or it mayhave been one of _them_. But we'll never know standing here." Heexamined his watch. "Let's turn in and get some sleep. We want to beup early tomorrow."

  "Early?"

  "Our best chance to get through the claws should be early in themorning," Hendricks said.

  * * * * *

  The morning was crisp and clear. Major Hendricks studied thecountryside through his fieldglasses.

  "See anything?" Klaus said.

  "No."

  "Can you make out our bunkers?"

  "Which way?"

  "Here." Klaus took the glasses and adjusted them. "I know where tolook." He looked a long time, silently.

  Tasso came to the top of the tunnel and stepped up onto the ground."Anything?"

  "No." Klaus passed the glasses back to Hendricks. "They're out ofsight. Come on. Let's not stay here."

  The three of them made their way down the side of the ridge, slidingin the soft ash. Across a flat rock a lizard scuttled. They stoppedinstantly, rigid.

  "What was it?" Klaus muttered.

  "A lizard."

  The lizard ran on, hurrying through the ash. It was exactly the samecolor as the ash.

  "Perfect adaptation," Klaus said. "Proves we were right. Lysenko, Imean."

  They reached the bottom of the ridge and stopped, standing closetogether, looking around them.

  "Let's go." Hendricks started off. "It's a good long trip, on foot."

  Klaus fell in beside him. Tasso walked behind, her pistol heldalertly. "Major, I've been meaning to ask you something," Klaus said."How did you run across the David? The one that was tagging you."

  "I met it along the way. In some ruins."

  "What did it say?"

  "Not much. It said it was alone. By itself."

  "You couldn't tell it was a machine? It talked like a living person?You never suspected?"

  "It didn't say much. I noticed nothing unusual.

  "It's strange, machines so much like people that you can be fooled.Almost alive. I wonder where it'll end."

  "They're doing what you Yanks designed them to do," Tasso said. "Youdesigned them to hunt out life and destroy. Human life. Wherever theyfind it."

  * * * * *

  Hendricks was watching Klaus intently. "Why did you ask me? What's onyour mind?"

  "Nothing," Klaus answered.

  "Klaus thinks you're the Second Variety," Tasso said calmly, frombehind them. "Now he's got his eye on you."

  Klaus flushed. "Why not? We sent a runner to the Yank lines and hecomes back. Maybe he thought he'd find some good game here."

  Hendricks laughed harshly. "I came from the UN bunkers. There werehuman beings all around me."

  "Maybe you saw an opportunity to get into the Soviet lines. Maybe yousaw your chance. Maybe you--"

  "The Soviet lines had already been taken over. Your lines had beeninvaded before I left my command bunker. Don't forget that."

  Tasso came up beside him. "That proves nothing at all, Major."

  "Why not?"

  "There appears to be little communication between the varieties. Eachis made in a different factory. They don't seem to work together. Youmight have started for the Soviet lines without knowing anything aboutthe work of the other varieties. Or even what the other varieties werelike."

  "How do you know so much about the claws?" Hendricks said.

  "I've seen them. I've observed them. I observed them take over theSoviet bunkers."

  "You know quite a lot," Klaus said. "Actually, you saw very little.Strange that you should have been such an acute observer."

  Tasso laughed. "Do you suspect me, now?"

  "Forget it," Hendricks said. They walked on in silence.

  "Are we going the whole way on foot?" Tasso said, after awhile. "I'mnot used to walking." She gazed around at the plain of ash, stretchingout on all sides of them, as far as they could see. "How dreary."

  "It's like this all the way," Klaus said.

  "In a way I wish you had been in your bunker when the attack came."

  "Somebody else would have been with you, if not me," Klaus muttered.

  Tasso laughed, putting her hands in her pockets. "I suppose so."

  They walked on, keeping their eyes on the vast plain of silent asharound them.

  * * * * *

  The sun was setting. Hendricks made his way forward slowly, wavingTasso and Klaus back. Klaus squatted down, resting his gun buttagainst the ground.

  Tasso found a concrete slab and sat down with a sigh. "It's good torest."

  "Be quiet," Klaus said sharply.

  Hendricks pushed up to the top of the rise ahead of them. The samerise the Russian runner had come up, the day before. Hendricks droppeddown, stretching himself out, peering through his glasses at what laybeyond.

  Nothing was visible. Only ash and occasional trees. But there, notmore than fifty yards ahead, was the entrance of the forward commandbunker. The bunker from which he had come. Hendricks watched silently.No motion.
No sign of life. Nothing stirred.

  Klaus slithered up beside him. "Where is it?"

  "Down there." Hendricks passed him the glasses. Clouds of ash rolledacross the evening sky. The world was darkening. They had a couple ofhours of light left, at the most. Probably not that much.

  "I don't see anything," Klaus said.

  "That tree there. The stump. By