grotesque, an ape top-heavy with grey matter.”

“Quiet!” hissed Frances. Then to Roland. “He isn’t that way, really.”

The sophistry lapsed. Roland was grateful because it allowed him to concentrate on watching the smooth, graceful movement of Frances’ lithe body. There was an almost terrible casualness for people going to save the World.

“Aren’t you afraid of the Martians—out here in the open?” he asked.

Berti’s green switch sang. A four-legged quail fluttered up and hedge-hopped across a wild, brush-choked hollow, piping excitedly. “We know them. They’re—ah” he hesitated “—a kind of instinctual intelligence, somewhere above the survival value of the human intelligence. We’ve learned to cope with them on their own ground.”

“But how?” Roland was curious about how Frances had “gotten rid” of the Martian back in the cubicle. He was swinging his hand close to hers in the fond hope of grasping it sooner or later.

Frances kicked at a small piece of dislodged concrete. “Rolly, you’re so inquisitive. That would be awfully hard to explain in the short time we have. They’ve advanced far above human’s mere intelligence. And you learn to deal with that height. Or they get you. They’ve always had superiority of numbers, so they’ve been winning. That’s why we’ve got to destroy World Brain quickly before they finish us.”

“But, if World Brain is destroyed, and variable unpredictable government returns with human control, atomic energy returns with it, and humanity will try again. And probably destroy itself this time.” Roland hit his forehead with his flat hand. “It seems very involved.”

“Doesn’t it?” agreed Berti tightly. “But we’ll control atomic energy all right. If we can’t—let the termites have it.”

Roland thought of one other thing. “After World Brain’s out of commission, what about the Martians, then? First thing they’ll do will be to blow up Earth, regardless of their own desire to colonize.”

Berti looked narrowly at Frances. He grinned thinly. “I told you we should have taken less time with his logic and reason. He thinks too much.”

Frances laughed carelessly. “He’ll have to be smart when he goes into the heart of World Brain. You know that.”

Berti said, “Uh-huh. But if he’s 

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