Chapter VI

“Monty, I don’t know what the devil to make of this crowd,” Loudons said, that evening, after the feast, when they had entered the helicopter and were preparing to retire.

“We’ve run into some weird communities--that lot down in New Mexico who live in the church and claim that they have a divine mission to redeem the world by prayer, fasting, and flagellation.

“Or those yogis in Los Angeles--”

“Or the Blackout Boys in Detroit!” Altamont interrupted. He had good reason to remember them.

“That’s understandable,” Loudons said, “after what their ancestors went through in the last war. And so are the others, in their own way.

“But this crowd here!” Loudons put down his cigar and began chewing on his mustache, a sure sign that he was more than puzzled: he was a very worried man.

Altamont respected his partner’s abilities in this area. However, he also knew that the best way to get his friend to work any problem was to have him do it in conversation.

“What has you stopped, Jim?”

“Number of things, Monty. They’re hard to explain because--” the sociologist shrugged, winced a little as the gesture pushed his leg down on the edge of his bunk--”well, let me just mention them.

“These people are the descendants of an old United States Army platoon, yet they have a fully-developed religion centered on a slain and resurrected god.

“Now, Monty, with all due respect to the old US Army, that just doesn’t make sense! Normally, it would take thousands of years for a slain-god religion to develop, and then only in a special situation, from the field-fertility magic of primitive agriculturists.

“Well, you saw those people’s fields from the air. Some members of that old platoon were men who knew the latest methods of scientific farming. They didn’t need naive fairy tales about the planting and germination of seed.”

“Sure this religion isn’t just a variant of Christianity?”

“Absolutely not!

“In the first place, these Sacred Books cannot be the Bible--you heard Tenant Jones say that they mentioned firearms that used cartridges. That means they can’t be older than 1860 at the earliest.

“And, in the second place, this slain god wasn’t crucified, or put to death by any form of execution: he perished, together with his enemy, in combat, and both god and devil were later resurrected.”

Loudons picked up his cigar again. “By the way, the Enemy is supposed to be the master-mind back of these cannibal savages in the woods and also in the ruins.”

“Did you get a look at these Sacred Books, or find out what they might be?”

Loudons shook his head disgustedly. “Every time I brought up the question, they evaded me. The Tenant sent the Reader out to bring in this old lady, Irene Klein--she was a perfect gold-mine of information about the history and traditions of the platoon, by the way--and then he sent the Reader out on some other errand, undoubtedly to pass the word around not to talk to us about their religion.”