“But we _won_ it!” Ben said fiercely. “We were a great nation then! We could knock out half the world at the push of a button, and now--” Fallon chimed in, “And now we have a non-existent war where nobody gets killed except on paper, where the Asian Alliance no longer threatens our very existence--” “--and where scientists spend their valuable time and resources fiddling with solar power and free food and birth control when we could have freed the world and set our course for the stars.” Ben’s voice shook with the intensity of his emotion. “Kerry, what have we got?” Beyond the window, the curfew lights winked out. “If you’re right,” Kerry said thoughtfully, “We’ve got what men have been looking for since history began. We’ve got peace.” Ben Thrusher shook his head. “_Solitudinem faciunt: pacem appelant_,” he quoted with heavy bitterness. “They make a wilderness and call it peace!” IV Sunlight was streaming in through the window of Kerry’s private office. He stared at the sheet of paper which he’d just removed from his typewriter, and said--more to himself than to Lew Fallon--“Someone once said that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” “The hell you can’t!” Fallon’s voice was bitter. “It’s been done time and time again! Hoaxes, even clumsy and silly ones, have thrown whole states into panic until somebody in an ‘official’ position denied them. This time, there were no denials, that’s all. What do people believe? On a world as big as this one, by and large, they believe what they’re told.” Fallon leaned across Kerry’s desk. “Listen, I was a rookie in the Night Police. I never saw a Pharig, but it never occurred to me to doubt their existence. My training manuals told me how to fight them. I had a special gun to kill them. My whole job was to keep people off the streets to protect them against the Pharigs! If a crime was committed, and we failed to actually catch somebody in the act, everyone assumed that the Pharigs had done it. Humans weren’t supposed to be _capable_ of such things! I’m just learning what humans are capable of! A thousand--even five hundred--people could know and share the secret, and a whole world could be hoaxed!” Kerry handed Fallon his editorial. “If we can get this into print we can start people asking questions,” he said. He was remembering all he had heard from Ben, and from young Fallon after he had finally persuaded Ben to take a sedative and try to sleep. Kerry himself had not slept at all. During his years as head of the _Times-Telegram_ he had been content to print the news as he received it. He had been content to be just another dupe in the human herd! Now Ben Thrusher was giving his life so that the truth could come out. The fact could not be disputed. If Ben had given himself up for immediate medical attention, they might have been able to save him. By the ghosts of all newsmen, here was a crusade worth taking on!