The woman's reaction was strongest; she leaned forward, eyes suddenly feverish: "Do you believe as we do, then? Did you know you were guided, when—"
The scientist said wearily, "I have seen no visions, I have heard no voices. Still I do not feel responsible for what has come on the world through me. In the plenum of probabilities, what may be will be...."
"Doctor, beyond your universe of probabilities there must be a power that chooses among them." The young student spoke with the quiet conviction of a man in whom knowledge and faith are at peace. "We must accept that power—or the logic by which it chooses among the possible worlds—as good, the definition of good. You should see that—now, if never before." He quoted Goethe. "... denn nur im Elend erkennt man Gottes Hand und Finger, der gute Menschen zum Guten leitet."
Euge looked out through the rear of the truck, at the gray landscape rumbling away, and guessed that the journey's end was still fifteen minutes ahead; unless his knowledge of how the Dictator's mind worked failed him, the place would be near the wreckage of his one-time laboratory, leveled from the air on the naive theory that some devilish device there was broadcasting the seeds of plague....
Aching minutes that had to be soothed with words. Words—God, fate, hope, hereafter—are man's last support when everything else has given way. "So you accept the plague as good? I saw one of your propaganda sheets with the phrase 'Judgment Virus'. An apt name. But it does not judge as men do; it has its own peculiar standards, that virus I found." Euge's voice was level, colorless; he did not look at the others to hold their attention or to see if they were listening. "I will tell you what it is...."
2
Euge was busy in the microscope room, examining tissue from the last run of test animals, when the communicator buzzed and told him that the Dictator had arrived and wanted to see him at once.
He left the room by way of an airlock, in which—Dictatorial summons notwithstanding—he spent full five minutes under a spray of disinfectant chemicals and radiations; after the lock had cleared he stripped off the airtight armor he wore without touching any of its outer surfaces, and left the chamber quickly.
The Dictator's visit was a signal mark of Euge's importance, or at least that of his virus research; there was no doubt that Euge was highly thought of and trusted. His dossier was that of a man who extended his scientist's worship of "Truth" even into the very different field of human relations. The Diktatura could use such men.