Philip Farmer: The Other Log of Phileas Fogg

“Get Osbaldistone and Vandeleur back down here.”

“And what about…?”

“The others? They won’t know they’ve been left unguarded. They won’t open the door for fear they’ll get a ball in the head. I want everybody to be acquainted with this new situation. Moran can be told later; if they saw him coming back into the house, they might try to leave by the windows. Hurry!”

Fix went upstairs and quietly got Vandeleur and Osbaldistone away from their posts. On the way down from the second floor, he whispered the news to them. Vandeleur said nothing. The baronet went gray. “The last of the Old Ones is dead,” he murmured. “What do we do now?”

“Nemo says that the Eridaneans may be lying about that,” Fix said. “But I doubt it. They must have taken Nesse I; otherwise, how would they have even known that that is what we call the prime headquarters? But Nemo is the first chief now.”

Nemo affirmed everything that Fix had said. “But don’t feel that the Eridaneans have any advantage over us because they might still have an Old One to lead them. For all we know, they don’t have any either. Even if they do, what about it? The Old Ones were no more intelligent than we. In fact, their very alienness has handicapped us, in my opinion. It takes a genuine human being to know how to fight human beings, and now we Capelleans have one-myself-to lead them! Now we can conduct our war as we please and with a more realistic goal.”

Fix wondered what Nemo meant by more realistic. Was he intending to abandon the Grand Plan, to use the Race for private gain only, mainly his own private gain?

Osbaldistone said, “But what about the sharing of the Blood? There is no more Blood from the Stars to mingle in our veins at the puberty ceremonies.”

“So what?” Nemo said, glaring. “The Blood itself has no intrinsic value. Its only value is symbolic. From now on the blood of the human chief will be used in the ceremonies. Capelleanism is an ideal; its goal is the conquest of Earth for the good of the Earthlings. The Earthlings must be saved from themselves.”

“But the way things are going, the Eridaneans might win!”

“That’s close to treason,” Nemo said. “It is true that the end is near, since neither we nor the enemy probably number more than a hundred each, if that. But I have a plan. We’ll conduct a campaign such as the Old Ones were too inflexible, too unintelligent to conceive. We’ll concentrate, bring in our people, who are scattered all over the globe, reorganize, and launch a hunt which will not stop until we have run every Eridanean to the ground and killed him. And…”

“Only a hundred each!” Fix said.

Nemo looked as if he wished he had not said so much. Then he said, “Enough of the future. The present is what counts, and, for the present, we must retreat. The enemy has won this round, but it’ll be the last he’ll win.”

He took Passepartout’s watch from his coat pocket and snapped the lid on its back open.

“We’ll retreat, but only after Fogg and company have been eliminated,” he said. “Then we use the distorter to get to Nesse II. Vandeleur, you’re carrying the tape for…”

He stopped, his mouth hanging open. First, he paled. Then he became red.

“This isn’t the Frenchman’s watch!” he cried. “This doesn’t have any controls! It’s just a watch, that’s all, just a watch!”

Fix became numb.

Vandeleur said, “What do you mean?”

“I mean those swine have tricked us!” Nemo said. “That Fogg! He must have taken the distorter and given the Frenchman a watch to carry so we’d think… he… he… Fogg… has the watch with the distorter!”

Fix said, “Then we’re trapped! We can’t get out!”

“No, by all the furies!” Nemo said. “We’ll get it from Fogg!”

“Sir,” Fix said, “why don’t we just accept their terms and leave quietly?”

Fix, half-stunned, lay on the floor. He tried to rise, but, seeing that Nemo was about to hit him again, decided to stay where he was.

“Do you think for a moment they’d keep their word any more than we would ours?”

He turned away, and Fix thought it safe to get up. He was scared to speak up, but he felt that he must. Their salvation depended upon it.

“Sir,” he said, “if Fogg gave his word, we’d be safe. He wouldn’t go back on his word.”

Nemo swung back to face him. “What, an Eridanean’s word is good?”

“Eridanean or not, Fogg would not betray us because then he’d be betraying himself,” Fix said. “I know the man well.”

“Perhaps you know him too well!” Nemo said. “Perhaps he has seduced you into turning traitor?”

“Exactly my thinking,” Vandeleur said.

Fix trembled, but he said, “Not at all. But I do know that Fogg, whatever else he may be, is a true man. He would not break his oath, not even to us.”

“Not even to us! ” Nemo said. “Just what do you mean by that?”

He threw the watch against the fireplace so hard that the works burst out.

“Fix, I’ve had my doubts about you for a long time. There is only one way you can convince me you’re not a traitor; only one way you can keep from dying as a traitor.”

“Yes, sir,” Fix said. He tried to keep his face from twitching.

“We must have that distorter and have it quickly. There is no time for subtlety now; we must storm Fogg’s room. You will lead us into it.”

And so he would die, Fix thought. Fogg wouldn’t miss the first man who entered. Fix would be the sacrifice, and Nemo would, in effect, have executed him. And why? Because Nemo thought Fix to be a traitor.

“Well, Fix?” Nemo said.

“If that’s the way it has to be,” Fix said.

“That is the way it has to be.”

“Will you see that my family is taken care of?” Fix said.

“Take care of a traitor’s…?” Vandeleur said, but Nemo interrupted him with a, “Quiet!”

Fix said, “I am no traitor.”

Nemo’s voice became softer. “Vandeleur is too hotheaded. We’re all disturbed by this, but now is no time to get panicky. Yes, Fix, I promise you that if something should happen to you, your family will not have to suffer.”

And what did that mean? Fix thought. That they would be killed quickly?

“We’ll get the Frenchie first,” Nemo said. “Sir Hector, you’ll resume your post at Fogg’s door. It’s not likely that he’ll hear us attacking the Frenchie, but if he did he might deduce that there couldn’t be many of us at his door, and he might try to break out. Station yourself to one side, along the wall, so that if he does run out, you’ll get the first shot.”

Osbaldistone left. Nemo said, “Vandeleur, you’ll have a chance to avenge the wound the Frenchie gave you. You will lead the attack.”

“Excellent!” Vandeleur said. “But I’d like to carve his face before he dies.”

“We don’t have time for that,” Nemo said. “He must be killed immediately and as silently as possible.

“Now, whatever our losses, we must get into Fogg’s room and get it over with at once. That trail of blood indicates that the woman was badly wounded. She is either dead or too hurt to help Fogg, and a good thing, too, since she is an excellent shot. Fogg must be killed at once, otherwise he may open the distorter and so blow himself, and possibly all of us, to kingdom come. I don’t think he will do that except as a last resort, so it is up to us to see that he has no time for a last resort.

“I imagine that he has placed some furniture before the door as a barricade. We will remove the hinges of the door. At my signal, Vandeleur will shoot the door lock off. The door will be pulled away by Osbaldistone and myself. You, Fix, will take a running jump across the hall and dive over the barricade. Fogg will have his room dark, but we’ll turn off the lights in the hall beforehand so our eyes can be adjusted to a lack of light. This will also make it difficult for Fogg to see clearly. As you go over the barricade, Fix, fire once to draw his fire. Then worry about how you are going to land. We’ll see the flame from his revolver and know where to shoot then.”