Clifford Simak - Project Pope

'But the cardinals can block it, can't they? asked Jill. 'I'm sure not many of them are for it. I know Theodosius isn't.

'I suppose they could, said Ecuyer, 'if they were willing to risk a full-scale rebellion. They could oppose it and probably make it stick, but that would leave Vatican in an uproar. That would be unacceptable. Vatican, you understand, must always be a place of perfect tranquility, reeking of sanctity. No matter what else they may do, the cardinals must hold fast to the odor of sanctity.

'If the theologians win, said Tennyson, 'and it looks now as if they will, that means the end of the Search Program, and without that….

'In face of that, said Ecuyer, 'your cardinals would take the long view. Always the long view. They'd accept a setback for the moment, then work through succeeding centuries to bring Vatican around again to their point of view. Time doesn't mean a damn thing to a robot. He has all the time there is.

'You must consider, said Tennyson, 'that the cardinals who look favorably on the Search Program may never get the Vatican turned around. Not in your lifetime, anyhow. You've got to win now or you, personally, lose forever.

'I know that, said Ecuyer. 'I've been thinking…. He turned to Jill and said, 'Jason told me something — not much, but something — just a while ago, about this thing called Whisperer and how he went to the equation world. Now I understand you have gone as well. That's where you were when we were looking for you.

'I thought it would be all right to tell him, Tennyson said to-Jill. 'Decker's gone now and we no longer have to consider Whisperer his secret.

'I suppose that's the way it is, said Jill. 'Probably there never was good reason for it to be his secret.

'I think he may have had many secrets, said Ecuyer. 'He was a very private man. Since Jason told me, however, I've been wondering.

'If you've been thinking Whisperer could take us to Heaven, said Jill, 'I don't think he could. He took Jason to the equation world because Jason had seen the cube. I'd not seen the cube, but Whisperer could take me because he knew the way, having been there once. Jason showed him the way and he remembered it.

'But he doesn't need coordinates.

'No, that's right. There were no coordinates for the equation world, but once he saw Jason's memory of it, he could go there. He must use something other than what we think of as coordinates. 'Then why not Heaven?

'Because he has to get into the mind of someone who has seen a cube of the place, said Tennyson.

'Into the mind — that's the way he does it? 'That's right.

'Then why couldn't he get into Mary's mind? Even if she is in a coma.

'Because in a coma she would retain no memories. Her mind's a blank. More than likely, even if she were alert and well, he couldn't get into her mind.

'You mean he can't-

'Look, Paul, as close as Whisperer was to Decker, he never could get into his mind.

'But he gets into yours and Jill's. What makes you so different?

'I don't know. I've puzzled over that. Most people can't even see Whisperer. You can't, I know. Whisperer tried to strike up an acquaintance with you. He showed himself to you and you didn't even see him.

'How do you know this?

'He told me. I have a hunch he tried a lot of people here in End of Nothing, with the same result. He never tried with the robots. They have a different kind of mind, he said, maybe a different kind of senses. He snooped around Vatican a great deal, trying to pick up information. He's gone on information. His task in life is to gain an understanding of the universe. He picked up some stuff from Vatican, but not a great deal. He worked hard for what he got.

'Vatican was aware of someone snooping, said Jill. 'Like a mouse nibbling at a ton of cheese. That's the way Theodosius put it. But they never could find what or who it was. It worried them a lot. Apparently they just caught the edges of it.

'So there's not any chance, said Ecuyer.

'I'm sure there's not, said Tennyson.

'Dead in the water, said Ecuyer. 'We just sit here and take it. Christ, when I think of all we had going for us. The entire universe out there and us picking away at it. Now it's all going to be thrown away because of an imbecilic search for a true religion.

Tennyson stirred uneasily in his chair. 'I wish I could be of some help. I think Jill must wish the same. I have a feeling I'm failing you.

'Not at all, said Ecuyer. 'This isn't your problem.

'But it is, said Tennyson. 'It's a human concern as well as a Vatican one. Maybe it concerns everyone. I don't know. All life would benefit if we could get some answers.

'We may be able to think of some way to go, said Jill. 'I don't think we should give up. I can talk to my own tame cardinal.

'A lot of good that will do, said Ecuyer. 'He'll pooh-pooh your concerns. He will say it'll all work out — don't worry about it, child; in the long run, it'll come out all right.

Tennyson rose to his feet. 'I should have a look at Mary.

'I'll go with you, said Ecuyer. He said to Jill, 'Would you like to come along?

Jill shuddered. 'No, I don't think I would. I'll whip something up for dinner. Paul, would you like to join us?

'No, thanks. I'd love to, but there are chores to do.

Outside he said to Tennyson, 'I didn't want to ask in front of her, but how about her face? What really happened?

'Someday, Tennyson promised, 'we'll tell you all about it.

'I wish I could tell you, Jill said to Tennyson, 'but my mind's all cluttered up. So much strange was happening. As I told you, I looked at that insane diagram with the squiggle to one side and I knew the diagram was me and the squiggle was a question mark. He was asking what I was and I was racking my brain about what I could tell him when Whisperer spoke inside my mind and said he would take over.

'So he did.

'Yes, and I was there with him. He was inside my mind and we were, really, Just one mind and I knew what was going on, but I had no idea what it was. Back, millennia ago, they had this device called a telegraph over which men talked to one another with clicks transmitted over wires; you could stand there and listen to all that clicking and not know what was going on because you did not know the code. Or listening to two aliens talking and hearing all the words, all the clatter and the jabber that they use as words, but completely lost because you know nothing of the language.

'You said telegraph. Were there clicks?

'Some clicks, I guess, and a lot of other things, a lot of other sounds, which I suppose that I was making, not knowing how or why I made them and a bunch of funny thoughts running through my brain, as if they were my thoughts, but they must have been Whisperer's, for they surely weren't mine. At times I would think that I was catching on to what was going on and then I'd lose the thread of it and would be lost again. Ordinarily such a situation would have bothered me; in another situation I might have gone insane wondering what kind of creature I had turned into. But it didn't bother me. It wasn't as if I was in a daze, for I wasn't. My mind was entirely clear, although considerably flabbergasted. At times it seemed to me I was something else entirely and, at other times, I seemed to be standing off to one side, simply looking on, standing outside myself and watching this other self doing all those strange things. All this time the equation person, with a number of others all grouped about him, was slowly running through a number of equations and some diagrams, very simple basic equations and diagrams, not long strings of equations and complicated diagrams, as if he were talking carefully to a child. Baby talk, like one talks to children. And I thought, why, he's as confused as I am. He doesn't know any more about what is going on than I do. For the clicks and grunts and treebles and all the other sounds I was making could not have seemed like a language to him, any more than his diagrams and equations looked like a language to me.