The 27th Day by John Mantley

Author:John Mantley [Mantley, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

18

Ivan Godofsky lay on a bed in a pleasant room in the Kremlin. Since the Soviet officials had not yet made up their minds whether he was to be a villain or a hero, they had compromised by making him comfortable as far as his quarters were concerned, and keeping him in a state of virtual imprisonment. He had not slept in the twenty-four hours since he arose in Vladivostok prior to the Alien broadcast, and for the last fourteen he had undergone a merciless interrogation. Throughout the questioning, he thought he had managed to keep his story straight. He had concentrated, as in his interview with the Leader, on telling the truth down to the most trivial detail about what had happened, and had eliminated only the parts of the Alien’s speech dealing with the significance of the black box and his pact with the four foreigners. After fourteen hours, unable to glean anything further, they had permitted him to get some rest.

Despite the fact that his eyes were bloodshot with fatigue and his body leaden with weariness, he had found it impossible to sleep. His brain swung in endless gyrations around the pivot of his lie. So far, he had been able to make it stand, but how long could he continue? He knew that his questioning was not over, that at this very moment the interrogators were comparing their notes and impressions, fitting the incidents together, trying to find a flaw.

It seemed to Ivan that his greatest hope lay in the fact that the experience was so extraordinary. He sensed during the interview, that the interrogators, despite their air of confidence, were up against something for which they had no precedent. The answers they received to most of their questions were answers that strained the limits of the most versatile imagination. An insane idea kept occurring to him; perhaps the interview as he conceived it had not really taken place at all. Perhaps the whole thing had been an hallucination induced by the Aliens and he had not really left the earth. And yet, his possession of the black box and his physical contact with the other four people were concrete proofs that drove his mind into a mire of confusions and self-contradictions.

He wondered what would happen if the Leader’s scientists could not open the box. He was no longer capable, after so many hours of interrogation and lack of sleep, of feeling the immediate and paralyzing fear which had characterized his earlier state. His ragged nerves refused to accept further excitation and had defended themselves by driving his body into a state of numbed acceptance. He lay back on the bed and closed his eyes. The sensation was painful, almost as if the insides of his eyelids were coated with sand. An overwhelming lassitude crept over his limbs and he fell, finally, into an uneasy slumber.

In another part of the Kremlin, a violent scene was being enacted. The Great Leader was having a tantrum. His face

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