They got me the other side of Blythe, in the middle of nowhere. A clear night in the desert, and headlights coming up from behind and then the big, black car crowding me off the flat road, into the sand.... And darkness. * * * * * Deering sighed and shook his head. "Corruption, Werig? Was it the corruption, or the girl?" "I've made my report," I said. "Don't worry about them. They've got enough to worry about without worrying about us." "Another war, it looks like," Deering said. "It could be the last one, you know. What was the girl--your wife like, Fred? Was she pretty?" "Beautiful," I said. "And the people--fear, is it fear?" "I don't know. Their vice is fear, but they have some virtues." Deering's voice was quiet. "Jars wanted me to ask you--about your wife. Where is she? Is she coming with you? It was forbidden." "I don't know where she is, she's not coming with me, and I know it was forbidden. But where is Jars? He has been avoiding me, hasn't he? Why?" "He has been pleading for you, before the assembly." Deering rose, and went to the window, to look out. "Who will win this war that's shaping up among the huddlers, Fred?" "I don't know. I'm not sure I give a damn." Deering continued to look out the window. "The gray nation, the mixed nation, this America; they have some promise of the light, have they not?" "Some." "But this black nation, this nation of robots, there is no chance of of light there?" "Not under their present leaders. If they should win the war the planet would be set back five hundred years." Deering shook his head, and turned to face me sadly. "It would be worse than that. If they should win this war shaping up, there would be no planet for them to rule." I stared at him, not believing, still so bound up in my trip I couldn't believe his words. _Love,--faith, fear, Jean_--were running through my mind. And Jean...? Deering answered everything for me. "We can't take the chance," he said. "We will abolish the planet. The assembly so decided this morning."