The Image and the Likeness, Page 4

  IV

  It was not until some minutes after the steel door had clicked shut thatthe full realization of our predicament came to us. Rau's story had beenso fascinating, and his manner so rational and civilized that we all hadforgotten that he was of a race and ideology opposed to all that westood for, and that we were spies caught red-handed in the innermostshrine of Neo-Buddhism. Even after twenty years of cold war, all of ourcivilized instincts rose against the idea that a suave brilliantintellectual like Phobat Rau could so cold bloodedly order our deaths.

  But the awakening was at hand. If we doubted Rau's intentions, one lookat the cold Mongol faces of the guards was enough to dispel any hope.Baker tried to sum it up.

  "No use trying to argue with him. Fact is, we won't even see Rau again.We could, of course, simply call it quits and wait for them, but I'drather fight it out. Anyone have an idea?"

  Martin hopped up on the bench and studied the ventilator. He reached onearm in as far as possible, and reported that there was a bend about afoot in. While he was doing this, Chamberlin made a minute investigationof the door, but found that neither hinges nor lock were accessible.There were no other openings into the chamber save the electric conduitwhich presumably entered above the electric fixture in the ceiling.Finally Baker spoke.

  "Nothing we can do until they come for us. We'd better plan towardsthat, unless they're going to gas us through the ventilator."

  This unpleasant thought had not occurred to the rest of us before.Martin returned to the opening and sniffed, and then with happyinspiration, he rolled up his jacket and stuffed it in. Baker noddedapproval.

  So the time passed. We listened at the door for footsteps but none came.Presently we became aware of a now familiar sensation. The floorcommenced to shake gently and regularly. We counted the steps. Therewere twelve, and then they stopped. Chamberlin calculated mentally.

  "Say, about 250 feet per step. That would be three thousand feet--sixtenths of a mile. Wonder where--"

  Martin, still near the ventilator, shushed him, and pulled the coat out.Through the small hole we heard a deep sound, a sort of low pitchedirregular rumble. Baker suddenly jumped up and listened at the opening.After a bit the sound stopped. Baker became excited.

  "It was a voice," he explained. "I think it was _his_ voice. It wasspeaking Japanese. I couldn't catch many words, but I think he wastalking about us."

  Now the rumble came again, and louder. A few words, a pause, and thenmore words, as though he was in conversation with someone whom we couldnot hear. Baker listened intently, but he could catch only fragments,owing to his small knowledge of Japanese and the extremely low pitchedarticulation of the giant. Presently the voice rose to a volume whichliterally made the mountain tremble, and then it stopped.

  Baker shook his head. "Couldn't make it out. I think he was inquiringwhere we were, but it was too idiomatic. I think he became excited orangry at the last."

  "Fee, fi, fo, fum," said Chamberlin. "Now wouldn't _that_ be aninteresting end?"

  Martin laughed. "We wouldn't even be enough to taste."

  As no one else seemed anxious to pursue this subject further, wesubsided into a sort of lethargy. Even plans for what we should do whenthe guards came were forgotten. And then, suddenly, the door was opened.

  We all sprang to our feet. A priest--in fact, the same one who hadbrought us here originally--came in. A squad of guards stood outside.

  "Good afternoon, how are you? Chief Priest ask me to tell you, Buddhawish to see you. Please you come with me." He politely indicated thedoor.

  With a shrug Baker complied, and the rest of us followed. Down the hallwe marched again, through all of the turns of the morning and so at lastinto the corridor which ended in a window. This time we passed thealuminum door and continued right to the end. The window, we now saw,was really a French door which opened to a small balcony. Our guideopened the door and pushed us out. The balcony, we found, was about fourhundred feet above the valley floor, but we did not spend much timeenjoying the view.

  Scarcely fifty feet in front of us stood the Living Buddha!

  For a full minute we stared at each other, and then I began to realizethat he was embarrassed! A wrinkle appeared between his eyes and heswallowed a couple of times. Then he spoke.

  "Good afternoon, Professor Baker and party. I am happy to meet you."

  The voice, and particularly the language, so startled us that for amoment nobody could think of a reply. The voice was a deep pulsingrumble, like the tone of the biggest pipes of an organ, and filled witha variety of glottal wheezings and windy overtones. I think it wasthrough these additional sounds rather than the actual tones that wecould understand him at all, for the fundamentals were surely below theordinary limits of human audibility. What we heard and could translateinto articulate words was hardly more than a cavernous whisper. Theimportant thing was that we could understand him, and, more than that,that he was friendly. Baker made reply at last.

  "Good afternoon. We also are happy, and most honored. How should weaddress you?"

  "My name is Kazu Takahashi, but I am told that I am also Buddha. This Iwould like to discuss with you, if you have time."

  "We have time for nothing else," said Baker.

  Buddha's eyebrows raised slightly. "So I was right. They are going tokill you."

  Baker glanced at us meaningfully. This giant was no fool. Suddenly therecame over me a little thrill of hope. Maybe--but he was speaking again.

  "I have not before had opportunity to talk to men from west. Only fromChina, Japan, Soviet State. You will tell me of rest of world?"

  "With pleasure," said Baker.

  I became conscious that the door behind us was opening. I glanced back,and saw Phobat Rau, surrounded by guards and priests. He gestured to usto come in. Baker turned, while Buddha bent his head closer to see also.

  Rau came to the door. "Come back," he called urgently. "You are in gravedanger. You must come in."

  * * * * *

  Quite definitely I had no desire to go in. Neither did Baker, for heshook his head and moved away from the door. Rau's face was suddenlyenraged. He made a quick motion to the guards, and then held them back.With an evident effort he calmed himself and called again, softly.

  "Please come in. I was hasty this morning. I am sorry. I think now I seea way for you to return safely, if you will come in."

  For reply, Baker turned to the giant. He climbed upon the rail of thebalcony.

  "Take us away from here, if you wish to hear what we have to say. Takeus, or they will kill us!"

  In answer, Buddha extended one hand, palm up, so that it was level withthe balcony. For an instant I hesitated at the sight of that irregularrough surface, big as a city block, and then I heard steps behind us anda click. With one accord we leaped over the parapet just as a scatteredvolley of pistol shots rang out. We tumbled head over heels down a roughleathery slope into a hollow, and then the platform lifted like a rollercoaster. In a second the balcony, the whole hillside vanished and wewent rocketing up into the blue sky. A gale of wind blew past, almostcarrying us with it, and then a portion of the surface rose and becamethirty foot tree trunks which curled incredibly over and around us,forming a small cavern which shut out the wind and held us securelyagainst falling.

  Buddha had closed his fist.

  For a breathless fifteen seconds we were carried in darkness, and thenthe great hand unfolded. It was lying flat on an immense smooth area ofconcrete, which we presently identified as the higher of the two tables.We got to our feet and staggered to the edge of the palm. Here we metanother problem, in the form of a rounded ten foot drop-off to theconcrete table. As we stood looking down in dismay, the other vast handcame up from below, carrying a heavy sheet of metal. This was carefullyplaced with one edge on the hand and the other on the table, forming aramp. Holding onto each other for mutual support, we made our way to thetable and there literally collapsed. Chamberlin became violently sick,and none of the rest
of us felt much better. The giant carefullywithdrew both hands and watched us from a distance of a hundred yards,with only the head and upper part of his body visible.

  From our position on the concrete platform I now looked closely at Kazufor the first time. My first impression was not so much one of size, asof an incredible richness of detail. It was like examining a normalhuman through a powerful microscope, except here the whole was visibleat once. Even at a distance of two hundred feet, the hair, theeyelashes, the pores of the skin showed up with a texture and form whichI had never noted before, even in my studies as a biologist. The generaleffect was most confusing, for I would lose and regain the sense ofscale, first thinking of him as an ordinary man, and then realizing theproportion. The nearest comparison that I can think of is the sensationwhen standing very close to a large motion picture screen, but here theimage is blurry whereas I saw with a clarity and sharpness that wassimply unbelievable.

  Buddha seemed to realize our condition, for he smiled sympathetically,and waited until poor Walt had recovered somewhat from his nausea.Baker, as spokesman, renewed the conversation. Walking a few stepstoward the front of the enormous desk, he spoke in a loud clear voice.

  "You have saved our lives. We thank you."

  The great head nodded benignly, and after a thoughtful pause, thatstrange voice began.

  "My teachers have brought others before me to lecture, but always I knowthat they speak only as they are told to speak. You are different. I amglad that I saw you last night, or I would never know that you hadcome."

  He paused, evidently gathering his thoughts for the next foray into anunfamiliar language. Then he leaned closer.

  "Phobat Rau has spoken to you of my birth and life here?"

  Baker nodded, and then, realizing that Kazu could not see such amicroscopic movement, he replied orally.

  "He has told us your story in detail. It is a marvel which we can yetscarcely believe. But the greatest marvel of all is that you speak ourlanguage, and comprehend so quickly."

  Kazu thought of this for a moment.

  "Yes, my teachers have done well, I think. I have studied the writingsof many great men, but there is yet much that I do not understand. Ithink it is important that I understand, because I am so strong. I donot wish to use this strength for evil, and I am not sure that thosewhom my teachers serve are good. I have studied the words of the greatBuddha, but now my teachers say that I am to appear as if I were Buddha.But that is an untruth, and untruth is evil. So now I hope that you willtell me the whole truth."

  Kazu stepped back a quarter of a mile, and then reappeared, dragging hisfour hundred foot chair. Sitting on this, he crouched forward until hisface was hardly a hundred feet before us, and his warm humid breathswept over us like wind from some exotic jungle. Baker took a moment tomarshal his thoughts, and then came forward, threw out his chest andbegan speaking as though addressing an outdoor political meeting.

  How long Baker spoke I do not know. He began by outlining history,contrasting the ideals of Buddha and other great religious leaders withthe dark record of human oppression and cruelty. Kazu's vast face provedmost expressive of his feelings as he listened intently. When Baker cameto the subject of communism, he leaned over so far backward in hiseffort to be fair that I feared that he was overdoing it, and wouldconvince the giant in the wrong direction.

  * * * * *

  When Baker was only part-way through his lecture, he remarked that somepoint in geography could be better explained by a drawing, but thatobviously he could not make one large enough for Kazu to see. At thisthe giant laughed and pointed to his big leanto.

  "Come," he said, "you shall draw on a piece of glass and the light willmake it great that I may see."

  We were thereupon transferred the mile distance to the building by areversal of our previous route: up the ramp to Kazu's ample palm, aseries of breathtaking swoops through space, and we were in the vastinterior of the leanto.

  The furnishings of this study room consisted of a chair, a slopingwriting desk and a screen fully two hundred feet square on the wallopposite the chair. Beside the chair was a sort of bracket on the wallwhich supported the projection room. Kazu placed his hand level with anelevated balcony leading to this and we scrambled off. With Baker in thelead, we opened the door and entered the projection room. It was largerthan we had estimated from outside, when we had the immense furniturefor comparison. The dimensions were perhaps forty feet on the side, andmost of the interior was taken up by shelves on which were storedthousands of films of book pages, maps, photographs and diagrams of allkinds. In the side facing the screen were a number of ports and abattery of movie and still projectors. One of the latter was, we saw,adapted for writing or drawing on the glass slide while it was beingprojected. We studied this for a moment, located the special markingpencil, and then I called out of the door that we were ready.

  "Look also," replied Kazu, "you will find device which magnify voice. Myteachers use this always."

  A further search disclosed a microphone and the switch for a publicaddress amplifier. Baker settled down to his now illustrated lecture.

  After he had talked himself hoarse, Baker asked each of the rest of usto speak briefly on our own specialties. I was the last, and I waspractically through when I became aware that we were not alone in theroom. I gave Martin a nudge, and turned from the microphone to faceeight of the uniformed guards, led by our friendly yellow-robed priest.Only now he wasn't friendly, and he carried a heavy automatic which wascarefully aimed right at us.

  "Very clever, gentlemen," he said. "You took good advantage of yourchance with our simple giant, did you not? Tried your best to ruin thewhole work of Pan-Asia just to save your miserable skins. Well, youshall not--"

  He was interrupted by the thunder of Kazu's voice.

  "Please continue, Mr. Cady. I find it most interesting. Why do youstop?"

  I took a step toward the microphone, but a menacing gesture with the gunstopped me. I looked from yellow-robe to Baker. After a moment'shesitation, the latter spoke.

  "I'm afraid, my friend, that you have misjudged the situation. I admitthat we jumped into Buddha's hand to escape from Phobat Rau, but if youare familiar with the expression, our leap was from the frying pan intothe fire. Your giant is holding us prisoner, and even now forces us totell him things on pain of death."

  The priest looked astonished, and the gun barrel dropped slightly.

  "No one," continued Baker in a sincere tone, "could have been morewelcome than you. But"--his voice dropped and he took a step toward theother--"we must be careful. If he should even suspect that you are hereto rescue us, he would crush this room like an egg!"

  The priest, now thoroughly alarmed, glanced about nervously, hisautomatic pointing at the floor. The guards, who knew no English, lookedat each other in surprise.

  Baker took quick advantage of the confusion.

  "We must not allow him to become suspicious. I will continue talkingover the microphone while your guards take my friends to safety."

  With this he stepped to the microphone and projector. The priest seemedfor an instant about to stop him, and then he turned to the guards andgave a series of rapid orders. They advanced and surrounded Martin, Waltand me, and indicated by gesture that we were to go with them to thewalk-way which led to the wall of the great room. In panic I looked atBaker, but he was bent over the glass plate of the projector, drawingsomething and speaking in his precise clipped voice.

  "I shall now show you a map of the United States and indicate theprincipal cities. First, on the Atlantic coast we have New York...."

  We were out of the room and on the gallery. For a moment I thought thatKazu might see us, and then I realized that the whole place was dark andthat he was concentrating on Baker's silly map. Briefly I wondered whatBaker was up to anyway, but this sudden terrible turn of events made anykind of calm reasoning very difficult.

  Outside the projection room, Baker's voice came booming over th
eloudspeakers.

  "Chicago is located at the southern end of Lake Michigan, just west ofDetroit, while St. Louis--"

  * * * * *

  Suddenly the room lights came on, and the whole structure of the bridgeshook as from an earthquake. The guards ahead abruptly turned andscrambled back, knocking us over in their haste. I grabbed the handrailfor support, and then became aware of a vast blurry shape looming aboveand of a hand as large as a building that reached down toward theguards, now halfway back to the projection room. In a sort of hypnotichorror I watched the thumb and forefinger snap them and a thirty footsection of railing off into space. Then, very gently the hand pluckedthe roof from the projection room, exposing Baker and the priest.Yellow-robe dropped his gun and ran towards a corner, but Baker neatlytripped him and then stepped back for Kazu to finish the job.

  A moment later Baker came out onto the bridge. Martin tried to frame aquestion.

  "What--how did he--?"

  Baker grinned and pointed silently at the screen. We looked andunderstood. Where a map of the United States should have been was ascrawled message in English: "Priests here taking us captive."

  We returned to our lecturing, but after what had happened neither wenor Kazu felt much like concentrating on geographical or other generalfacts. We all knew that Rau had not given up. For the moment we wereprotected by Kazu's immense power, but there were some doubts in ourminds as to how long this might last. After all, Rau was his lifelongmentor and protector. For the moment the young giant seemed to havetaken a liking to us, but perhaps it was only a passing whim. PresentlyRau would assert his authority and Kazu, his curiosity satisfied, wouldhand us over--in exchange, perhaps, for supper.

  After about fifteen minutes more of lecturing, Kazu interrupted.

  "Soon will be sunset. Suggest we return to privacy of high table todiscuss next move."

  The transfer took less than a minute. The afternoon, we saw, was indeedfar gone. None of us had realized how long we had been in the projectionroom. Once we were safely back on the table, Kazu addressed us, usinghis softest voice, which was a hurricane-like whisper.

  "Phobat Rau plans for me to go soon to head armies of Asia in fightagainst west. My study of history has raised doubts of rightness of suchwar, and what you say strengthen these. Now I must see for myself,without guidance or interference from Rau. But I need assistance, todirect me how I shall go. I believe you will be fair. Will you help me?"

  For a moment the incongruity of that last question prevented ourgrasping the full implication of Kazu's statement. Then Baker, evidentlyrealizing that this was no time for philosophic quibbling, signified ourassent. Kazu proceeded at once to practical plans.

  "Tonight I sleep in usual place, where you disturbed me with small rockslide. But you must stay awake by turns to guard against capture. Inmorning you direct my steps away from Yat to mainland of Asia, where--"

  He stopped. Seeing the direction he was looking, we hastened to the edgeof the table. Far below, on the ground, was a railroad train surroundedby a small crowd of priests. For a moment we were puzzled, and then wesaw that the train was made up entirely of gondola cars such as are usedto carry coal and other bulk cargo. But these cars, a dozen in number,contained a white substance which steamed. We did not require more thanone guess. The train brought Kazu's supper.

  The giant made a slight bow of thanks to the delegation at his feet, andproceeded carefully to empty the cars into his dish. Then, instead ofsquatting at his low eating table, he brought the dish and otherutensils up to our level and dumped a ton or so of steaming rice at ourfeet. Evidently he wished us to share his supper. We had no tools otherthan our hands, but since we had not eaten in almost twenty-four hours,we did not stop for the conventions. Scooping up double handfuls of theunseasoned stuff, we fell to even before Kazu had gotten his ponderousspoon into position. Suddenly, Baker yelled at us.

  "Hold it!" He turned to Kazu who had a spoonful poised halfway to hismouth. "Kazu, don't eat. This rice is doped!"

  I took a mouthful of the rice. There was not much flavor--only a littlesalt which I guessed came from seawater. I explored the stuff with mytongue, and presently noticed a familiar taste. It took me a moment toplace it. Yes, that was it. Barbiturate. The stuff in sleeping pills.

  Kazu bent his great face over us. Baker briefly explained. Kazu appearedat first puzzled. He dropped the spoon into the dish and pushed it awayfrom him. His brow wrinkled, and he glanced down at the ground. Walkingto the edge, we saw that the group of priests were standing quietlyaround the engine, as though waiting for something. What they werewaiting for evidently struck Kazu and us at the same time. Kazu leanedtoward them and spoke in Japanese. His voice was angry. Baker tried totranslate.

  "He says, 'how dare you poison Buddha'--Look, they're running off--"

  The next second things happened too rapidly for translation or evenimmediate interpretation. Kazu spoke again, his voice rising to an earthshaking roar at the end. The little men below were scattering in alldirections, and the train started to back off down its track. SuddenlyKazu turned and picked up his hundred foot steel dish. He swept itacross the table and then down in a long curving arc. There was an earthshaking thud and where the running figures and the train had been wasnow only the upturned bottom of the immense dish. Priests and cars alikewere entombed in a thousand tons of hot rice!

  Kazu now turned to us. "Come," he said, "Yat is not safe, even forBuddha. Now we must leave here at once."

  He extended his hand towards us, and then, with another thought, turnedand strode to the leanto. In a moment he returned carrying theprojection room, with a tail of structural steel and electric cableshanging below. This he placed on the table and indicated that we were toenter. As soon as we were inside, Kazu clapped on the roof and picked upthe stout steel box. We clung to the frame supporting the projectors,while a mass of slides, film cans and other debris battered us withevery swooping motion. We could not see what was going on outside, butthe giant seemed to be picking up a number of things from the ground andfrom inside the leanto. Then he commenced a regular stride across thecrater floor. Now at last we got to a window, just in time to glimpsethe nearby cliff. On the rim, some hundreds of feet above I saw a groupof uniformed men clustered about some device. Then we were closer and Isaw that it was an antiaircraft gun, which they were trying to directat us. I think Kazu must have seen it at the same moment, for abruptlyhe scrambled up the steep hillside and pulverized gun, crew and thewhole crater rim with one tremendous blow of his fist.

  I got a brief aerial view of the whole island as Kazu balancedmomentarily on the rim, and then we were all thrown to the floor as hestumbled and slid down the hillside to the level country outside of thecrater.