"Go ahead."
"I think it's secret propaganda at work. I think Evacuation is being secretly sabotaged by talk that Doomsday is all a hoax."
Wales was utterly shocked. "Good God, man, who would do a thing like that? Who would want millions of people to stay on Earth and die on Doomsday?"
Fairlie looked at him. "It's a horrible thought, isn't it? But fanatics will sometimes do horrible things."
"Fanatics? You mean—"
Fairlie said, "We've been hearing rumors of a secret organization called the Brotherhood of Atonement. A group—we don't know how large, probably small in numbers—who seem to have been crazed by the coming of Doomsday. They believe that Nereus is a just vengeance coming on a sinful Earth, and that Earth's sins must be atoned by the deaths of many."
"They're preaching that doctrine openly?" Wales said, incredulous.
"Not at all. Rumors is all we've heard. But—you wondered who would want millions of people to stay on Earth till Doomsday. That's a possible answer."
It made, to Wales, a nightmare thought. Mad minds, unhinged by the approach of world's end, cunningly spreading doubt of the oncoming catastrophe, so that millions would doubt, and would stay—and would atone.