Read Online The Philip K. Dick Megapack by Philip K Dick - Free Book Online

regrouped. The leadys watched without emotion as the men marched slowly back toward the warehouse. Franks and Moss and Taylor led them across the ground, glancing alertly at the leadys as they walked.
    They entered the warehouse. D-class leadys were loading material and weapons on surface carts. Cranes and derricks were working busily everywhere. The work was done with efficiency, but without hurry or excitement.
    The men stopped, watching. Leadys operating the little carts moved past them, signaling silently to each other. Guns and parts were being hoisted by magnetic cranes and lowered gently onto waiting carts.
    “Come on,” Franks said.
    He turned toward the lip of the Tube. A row of D-class leadys was standing in front of it, immobile and silent. Franks stopped, moving back. He looked around. An A-class leady was coming toward him.
    “Tell them to get out of the way,” Franks said. He touched his gun. “You had better move them.”
    Time passed, an endless moment, without measure. The men stood, nervous and alert, watching the row of leadys in front of them.
    “As you wish,” the A-class leady said.
    It signaled and the D-class leadys moved into life. They stepped slowly aside.
    Moss breathed a sigh of relief.
    “I’m glad that’s over,” he said to Franks. “Look at them all. Why don’t they try to stop us? They must know what we’re going to do.”
    Franks laughed. “Stop us? You saw what happened when they tried to stop us before. They can’t; they’re only machines. We built them so they can’t lay hands on us, and they know that.”
    His voice trailed off.
    The men stared at the Tube entrance. Around them the leadys watched, silent and impassive, their metal faces expressionless.
    For a long time the men stood without moving. At last Taylor turned away.
    “Good God,” he said. He was numb, without feeling of any kind.
    The Tube was gone. It was sealed shut, fused over. Only a dull surface of cooling metal greeted them.
    The Tube had been closed.
    * * * *
    Franks turned, his face pale and vacant.
    The A-class leady shifted. “As you can see, the Tube has been shut. We were prepared for this. As soon as all of you were on the surface, the order was given. If you had gone back when we asked you, you would now be safely down below. We had to work quickly because it was such an immense operation.”
    “But why?” Moss demanded angrily.
    “Because it is unthinkable that you should be allowed to resume the war. With all the Tubes sealed, it will be many months before forces from below can reach the surface, let alone organize a military program. By that time the cycle will have entered its last stages. You will not be so perturbed to find your world intact.
    “We had hoped that you would be undersurface when the sealing occurred. Your presence here is a nuisance. When the Soviets broke through, we were able to accomplish their sealing without—”
    “The Soviets? They broke through?”
    “Several months ago, they came up unexpectedly to see why the war had not been won. We were forced to act with speed. At this moment they are desperately attempting to cut new Tubes to the surface, to resume the war. We have, however, been able to seal each new one as it appears.”
    The leady regarded the three men calmly.
    “We’re cut off,” Moss said, trembling. “We can’t get back. What’ll we do?”
    “How did you manage to seal the Tube so quickly?” Franks asked the leady. “We’ve been up here only two hours.”
    “Bombs are placed just above the first stage of each Tube for such emergencies. They are heat bombs. They fuse lead and rock.”
    Gripping the handle of his gun, Franks turned to Moss and Taylor.
    “What do you say? We can’t go back, but we can do a lot of damage, the fifteen of us. We have Bender guns. How about it?”
    He looked around. The soldiers had wandered away again, back toward the exit of the building. They were standing outside, looking at the valley and the sky. A