THE SILENT WAR Read online

"You will be the priest of this shrine, this sepulcher. I will return to Earth and tell everyone about these wars."

  "Humphries and others will have you killed."

  "I am a famous artist, they dare not touch me." Then she laughed. "And I am too old to care if they do."

  "The scientists—do you think they may actually learn how to communicate with the aliens?"

  "Someday," Elverda said. "When our souls are pure enough to stand the shock of their presence."

  The human side of Dorn's face smiled at her. He extended his arm and she took it in her own, realizing that she had found her own salvation. Like two kindred souls, like comrades who had shared the sight of death, like mother and son they walked up the tunnel toward the waiting race of humanity.

  My son, if sinners entice you,

  Do not consent....

  Keep your feet from their path;

  For their feet run to evil,

  And they hasten to shed blood. ...

  But they lie in wait for their own blood;

  They ambush their own lives.

  So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence.

  It takes away the life of its possessors.

  —The Book of Proverbs

  Chapter 1, verses 10—19