Read Online The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick - Free Book Online Page B

crossed it."
    "You must not do that," Elias said.
    Emmanuel said, "What do the bells mean? Bells ringing far off."
    "When you hear the distant bells it means that the Saoshyant is present."
    "The Saviour," Emmanuel said. "Who is the Saviour, Elias?"
    "It must be yourself," Elias said.
    "Sometimes I despair of remembering."
    He could still hear the bells, very far off, ringing slowly, blown, he knew, by the desert wind. It was the desert itself speaking to him. The desert, by means of the bells, was trying to remind him. To Elias he said, "Who am I?"
    "I can't say," Elias said.
    "But you know."
    Elias nodded.
    "You could make everything very simple," Emmanuel said, "by saying."
    "You must say it yourself," Elias said. "When the time comes you will know and you will say it."
    "I am—" the boy said hesitantly.
    Elias smiled.
----
    She had heard the voice issue forth from her own womb. For a time she felt afraid and then she felt sad; sometimes she cried, and still the nausea continued—it never let up. I don't recall reading about that in the Bible, she thought. Mary being afflicted with morning sickness. I'll probably get edema and stretch marks. I don't remember reading about that either.
    It would make a good graffito on some wall, she said to herself. THE VIRGIN MARY HAD STRETCH MARKS . She fixed herself a little meal of synthetic lamb and green beans; seated alone at her table she gazed out listlessly through the dome's port at the landscape. I really should clean up this place, she realized. Before Elias and Herb come back. In fact, I should make a list of what I have to do.
    Most of all, she thought, I have to understand this situation. He is already inside me. It has happened.
    I need another wig, she decided. For the trip. A better one. I think I'll try out a blond one that's longer. Goddam chemo, she thought. If the ailment doesn't kill you the therapy will. The remedy, she thought acidly, is worse than the malady. Look; I turned it around. God, I feel sick.
    And then, as she picked at her plate of cold, synthetic food, a strange idea came to her. What if this is a maneuver by the Clems? she said to herself. We invaded their planet; now they're fighting back. They figured out what our conception of God involves. They're simulating that conception!
    I wish mine was simulated, she ruminated.
    But to get back to the point, she said to herself. They read our minds or study our books—never mind how they did it—and they fake us out. So what I have inside me is a computer terminal or something, a glorified radio. I can see me going through Immigration. "Anything to declare, Miss?" "Only a radio." Well, she thought, where is this radio? I don't see any radio. Well, you have to look real hard. No, she thought; it's a matter for Customs, not Immigration. What is the declared value of this radio, Miss? That would be hard to say, she answered in her mind. You're not going to believe me but—it's one of a kind. You don't see radios like this every day.
    I should probably pray, she decided.
    "Yah," she said, "myself, I am weak and sick and afraid, and I really don't want to be involved in this." Contraband, she thought. I'm going to smuggle in contraband. "Lady, come with me. We're going to conduct a complete body search. The matron will be in here in a minute; just sit down and read a magazine." I'll tell them it's an outrage, she thought. "What a surprise!" Feigned amazement. "I have what inside me? You're kidding. No, I have no idea how it got there. Will wonders never cease."
    A strange lethargy came over her, a kind of hypnagogic state, even as she sat reflexively eating. The embryo inside her had begun to unfold a picture before her, a view by a mind totally different from hers.
    She realized, This is how they will view it. The powers of the world.
    What she saw, through their eyes, was a monster. The Christian-Islamic Church and the Scientific Legate—their fear did not resemble her fear; hers had to do with effort and